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Consumer Price Outlook Bleak for New Year 



By Janies M. Shevis 

American consumers can expect to pay 
more for retail goods and services^ well into 
the new year as the result of steeper in- 
terest rates on home mortgages and ex- 
pected higher prices for food and trans- 
portation. 

Standing 12.7 percent above the year- 
earlier level, the government’s consumer 
price index for November seemed to pre- 
figure the probable course of inflation in 
at least the first part of 1981. Higher prices 
for food, housing, and transportation ac- 
counted for practically all of the month’s 
1 -percent increase in the CPI, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reported. 

“THE OUTLOOK over the next few 
months is for continual worsening of in- 
flation, with food prices continuing to rise 
sharply, housing further affected by high 


mortgage interest rates, and oil prices re- 
flecting the newest round of OPEC price 
changes,” observed Rudy Oswald, director 
of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Economic Re- 
search. 

“Inflation rates in the 12- to 13-percent 
range appear to be likely for quite a few 


more months to come,” Oswald said. 

Some forecasters see a slight slowdown 
in the price spiral possible by the end of 
1981, with the inflation rate dropping to 
10 or 11 percent. But variables in the in- 
flation mix, particularly energy prices and 
mortgage interest rates, make long-range 


projections difficult, they acknowledge. 

Several key factors that analysts ex- 
pect to start pumping up the CPI during 
the next few months began accelerating in 
November. Gasoline prices, which fell five- 
tenths of 1 percent in September and rose 
only three-tenths of 1 percent in October, 
jumped nine-tenths of 1 percent in No- 
vember. Beef prices rose eight-tenths of 1 
percent after declining six-tenths of 1 per- 
cent the month before. 

ALSO, MORTGAGE interest rates, 
which work their way into the CPI with a 
lag of a few months, rose faster during 
November than in the previous month. 
Mortgage rates were up 2.8 percent over 
the month, compared to a 1.9-percent in- 
crease in October, BLS reported. 

These special, volatile components 
(Continued on Page 8) 



$6,000 CHECK for the AFL-CIO’s Cambodian relief fund represents contribu- 
tions from union pilots on Trans World Airlines. Capt. John P. Gratz presents 
the check to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland on behalf of the TWA pilots. 
At right is ALPA President John J. O’Donnell, an AFL-CIO vice president. 

Senate Shift Reflected 
In Committee Lineups 


Regional Meetings 
Aim to Strengthen 
Labor’s Programs 


By David L, Perlman 

Senate committee lineups for the new 
97th Congress reflect the tilt to the right 
that resulted from the switch from a 
59-41 Democratic majority to 53-47 Re- 
publican control. 

Not all of the new Republican commit- 
tee chairmen are conservatives, but most 
are. And nearly all committees will have 
conservative majorities, including those 
headed by moderate-to-liberal Republicans. 

House committee lineups won’t be set 
before mid- January, after the new Con- 
gress has convened. But most House 
changes will be in personalities rather than 
politics, since Democrats will continue as 
the majority party in the House. 

Bargaining Order 
Slaps Runaway, 
Boycott Target 

A runaway Massachusetts plant, the 
target of an AFL-CIO-backed consumer 
boycott, has been slapped with a bargain- 
ing and backpay order by a National Labor 
Relations Board judge. 

Administrative Law Judge Sidney Bar- 
ban ruled that Marine Optical Co. of 
Massachusetts was guilty of unfair labor 
practices when it shifted its operations 
without warning in 1979, tossing aside its 
longtime bargaining relationship and ex- 
isting contract with the Electrical, Radio 
& Machine Workers. 

BARBAN FOUND that the firm vio- 
lated the National Labor Relations Act by 
failing to live up to the terms of its 1977- 
80 contract with lUE Optical Workers Lo- 
cal 408, unilaterally changing wages and 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Here’s a capsule summary of major 
Senate committee changes following party 
caucuses held in December: 

AGRICULTURE — Changes from 10 
Democrats, 8 Republicans to 9 Republi- 
cans, 8 Democrats: Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), 
with an ultra-conservative voting record of 
90 percent “wrong” votes by COPE stan- 
dards, will take over as chairman. The 
election defeats of both Herman E. Tal- 
madge (D-Ga.) and George McGovern 
(D-S.D.) make Walter Huddleston (D-Ky.) 
the ranking minority member. The com- 
mittee has jurisdiction over food stamps 
as well as farm policies. 

APPROPRIATIONS — Changes from 
1 7 Democrats, 1 1 Republicans to 1 5 Re- 
publicans, 14 Democrats. Mark O. Hat- 
field (R-Ore,), a moderate, replaces election 
victim Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.) 
as chairman. But seven of the eight new 
Republicans on the committee are clearly 
conservative. The ranking minority mem- 
ber is William Proxmire (D-Wis.). Funding 
for nearly all government programs must 
pass the committee’s scrutiny. 

ARMED SERVICES — From 10 
Democrats, 7 Republicans to 9 Republi- 
cans, 8 Democrats. Relatively little change 
as John Tower (R-Tex.) moves up to 
chairman and John C. Stennis (D-Miss.) 
steps down to ranking minority member. 

BANKING, HOUSING & URBAN 
AFFAIRS — From 9 Democrats, 6 Re- 
publicans to 8 Republicans, 7 Democrats. 
The new chairman is the very conservative 
Jake Garn (R-Utah), no friend of cities or 
public housing. Harrison A. Williams, Jr. 
(D-N.J.), has been designated the ranking 
minority member, and the committee is 
closely divided along liberal-conservative 
lines. 

BUDGET — From 12 Democrats, 8 
Republicans to 12 Republicans, 10 Demo- 
(Continued on Page 7) 


A series of seven regional conferences 
will be held by the AFL-CIO early in 
1981 to bring together federation leaders, 
officers of state and local central bodies 
and national and regional staff to discuss 
strengthening the federation’s structure 
and programs. 

“As we enter the AFL-CIO’s centennial 
year,” Federation President Lane Kirkland 
said in a letter announcing the confer- 
ences, “it is time once again to re-examine 
labor’s aspirations and challenges. It is 
time, too, to strengthen and nourish the 
local roots of our movement.” 

THE REGIONAL meetings, which be- 
gin in March, are an expansion of the 
area conferences formerly conducted by 
the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Ed- 
ucation. Kirkland said they “will concern 
all aspects of the AFL-CIO” and are de- 
signed “to produce a free flow of ideas, 
opinions and evaluations of labor pro- 
grams at all levels.” 

Kirkland, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue and heads of the federation’s 
staff departments will participate in each 
of the two-day conferences and meet with 
state and local central body officers and 
the federation’s regional and' COPE staff. 

ALSO TAKING part will be represen- 
tatives of the Coalition of Labor Union 
Women, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, 
Frontlash, the National Council of Senior 
Citizens and the Labor Council for Latin 
American Advancement. 


President-elect Reagan announced five 
more choices for Cabinet posts, bringing 
the Cabinet-selection process to its final 
stages. Only the Secretary of Education 
and the Special Trade Representative, a 
Cabinet-level post, are still to be named. 

Reagan designated James Burrow Ed- 
wards to head the Dept, of Energy, one 
of two departments that he has said should 
be abolished. The other is the Dept, of 
Education. 

EDWARDS SERVED as the first Re- 
publican governor in South Carolina’s 
history and returned to the private prac- 
tice of dentistry last year after his term 
expired. South Carolina law prohibits two 
successive terms as governor, but Edwards 
has been talked about as a gubernatorial 
candidate in 1982. He is considered a 
staunch conservative. 

Reagan also announced these Cabinet 
and Cabinet-level nominations, in addition 
to the selections made earlier and previ- 
ously reported in the AFL-CIO News: 

Secretary of the Interion James G. 
Watt, a former Interior Dept, official who 


“The new year brings both oppor- 
tunities and challenges,” Kirkland said. 
“We mean to take full advantage of the 
new possibilities by strengthening the struc- 
ture of the AFL-CIO and the two-way 
flow of ideas.” 

The schedule of conferences: 

Mar. 5-7, in Philadelphia to include 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia and 
the District of Columbia. 

Mar. 9-11, in Boston to include Massa- 
chusetts, New' York, New Jersey, Con- 
necticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine 
and New Hampshire. 

Mar. 19-21, in Chicago to include Illi- 
nois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana 
and Minnesota. 

Mar. 26-28, in San Francisco to include 
California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada. 
Hawaii and Alaska. 

Mar. 30-Apr. 1, in Denver to include 
Colorado, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, 
South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, 
North Dakota and Nebraska. 

Apr. 2-4, in Atlanta to include Georgia, 
Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi. 
North Carolina and South Carolina. 

June 4-6, in New Orleans to include 
Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, 
Kansas and Missouri. 

Additional details will be provided par- 
ticipants in advance of the meetings. 


now heads the Denver-based Mountain 
States Legal Foundation. The foundation, 
established with the financial backing of 
Joseph Coors, the right-wing brewery mag- 
nate, has mounted legal challenges to pre- 
vent potential oil lands from being de- 
clared wilderness areas and has fought 
Environmental Protection Agency efforts 
to enforce auto pollution standards for 
Colorado. He is 42 and has served as an 
aide to former Sen. Milward Simpson 
(R-Wyo.) and on the staff of a U.S. Cham- 
ber of Commerce panel on natural 
resources. 

Secretary of Agriculture: John R. 

Block, who since 1977 has been director 
of the Illinois Dept, of Agriculture. Block 
is a 1957 West Point graduate, but since 
1980 has been a successful working 
farmer who expanded his family farm 
from 300 to 3,000 acres. 

Secretary of Housing & Urban Devel- 
opment: Samuel Pierce, a highly success- 
ful black lawyer and board member of 
leading corporations. Pierce, whose law 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Reagan Nears Completion 
Of Cabinet Appointments 




Pag;e Two 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


Economic Ills, Election Top 


By Press Associates, Inc. 

The year 1980 opened with the death 
of George Meany, a dominant figure in 
the labor movement for a quarter-century, 
and came to a close with the election of 
Ronald Reagan, the most conservative 
candidate to seek the White House in 
modern times. 

In between, the American people were 
buffeted by persistent high-level inflation 
and a recession that pushed the jobless 
rate to 7.8 percent. At the same time, 
long-term problems aggravated by soaring 
energy costs and uncontrolled imports hit 
the auto and steel and auto-related indus- 
tries. 

Still, labor could count victories on the 
organizing and bargaining fronts even 
while it was adapting to new economic 
and political realities. 

The Steelworkers scored a major victory 
at the Newport News, Va., shipyard and 
the Clothing & Textile Workers won a 
contract at J. P. Stevens after a 17-year 
struggle. AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land established relations that could lead 
to the reaffiliation of th^ Auto Workers, 
Teamsters and Mine Workers. 

But as the year came to a close, labor’s 
eyes were on the incoming Reagan Ad- 
ministration, a U.S. Senate under Republi- 
can control and a House likely to be domi- 
nated by a conservative coalition. Protec- 
tive labor laws and social programs of the 
past half-century could well be at stake. 

It was an eventful year, summarized 
through these headlines from the files of 
Press Associates and the AFL-CIO News. 

JANUARY 

George Meany, a giant of the Ameri- 
can labor movement for a quarter-cen- 
tury, dies at the age of 85 . . . Tributes 
from leaders throughout the world hail 
Meany’s accomplishments . . . AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland says Meany’s 
legacy is the federation itself . . . Final 
farewell paid to Meany at funeral mass 
in capital . . . First economic reports of 
1980 spell trouble . . . Low-paid workers 
gain as minimum wage rises to $3.10 . . . 
60,000 OCAW refinery workers strike 
nation’s big oil companies . . . OSHA 
announces final policy to curb cancer in 
workplace . . .Carter warns Soviets that 
the United States will defend Persian 
Gulf . . . Labor leaders back U.S. boy- 
cott of Moscow Olympics . . . Pay ad- 
visory group recommends 7. 5-9. 5 percent 
wage hike range . . . Consumer prices 
soar 1.2 percent in December . . . The 
AFL-CIO Departments of Publications 
and Public Relations merge to form the 
Dept, of Information. 

People: Albert J. Zack, federation pub- 
lic relations director for 22 years, retires 
. . . Saul Miller, formerly publications 
director, is named director of the new 
Dept, of Information . . . Kenneth Young 
becomes executive assistant to Kirkland 
and Ray Denison succeeds Young as AFL- 
CIO legislative director . . . Deaths include 
retired labor educator George T. Guern- 
sey, former Clothing Workers Vice Presi- 
dent Louis Hollander and Fire Fighters 
Sec.-Treas. Emeritus George J. Richard- 
son. 

FEBRUARY 

Jobless rate hits 6.2 percent in January, 
highest rate in 18 months . . . Carter 
budget boosts defense, holds social pro- 
grams level . . . Carter economic report 
forecasts high unemployment, inflation . . . 
Energy coalition urges price controls to 
curb oil company ripoffs . . . Kirkland 
hails U.S. return to International Labor 
Organization . . . AFL-CIO Executive 
Council calls for government policies that 
lead to economic growth “rather than 
stagnation, recession and joblessness” . . . 
Council acts to open more AFL-CIO lead- 
ership posts to women, minorities, and 
backs talks on reaffiliation of UAW, 
Teamsters, Mine Workers . . . Consumer 
prices soar 1.4 percent for January, at 
annual rate of 18 percent. 

People: Frank Drozak elected president 
of AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept, to 
succeed Paul Hall . . . President Fred J. 
Kroll of the Railway & Airline Clerks is 
elected chairman of the Railway Labor 


Executives Association . . . Norman Hill 
succeeds Bayard Rustin as president of the 
A. Philip Randolph Institute . . . Leo Per- 
lis, AFL-CIO Community Services director 
since 1955, retires. 

MARCH 

AFL-CIO Executive Council sets plan 
to share successful organizing techniques 
with affiliates . . . Supreme Court upholds 
right of worker to refuse highly dangerous 
work . . . OSHA seeks record $786,190 
fine against Newport News Shipbuilding 
. . . Citing cost increases in energy, food, 
housing and medical care, Kirkland calls 
on Congress to forget balanced budget and 
focus on “real causes of inflation” . . . 
OCAW wins pact at Gulf after 11 -week 
industrywide strike . . . Housing starts fall 
6.3 percent in February to lowest level 
since 1975 . . . Worker buying power 
plunges 1.4 percent as inflation continues 
. . . Brown lung victims ask Congress for 
federal compensation standard . . . Steel- 
workers ratify pact with Newport News 
Shipbuilding, bringing 12-week strike to 
an end. 

People: The House votes to issue a 
medal to honor the late trade union and 
civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph . . . 
Francis A. Maile, political, education di- 
rector of the Rubber Workers, dies. 

APRIL 

Jobless rate for March hits 6.2 percent 
. . . AFL-CIO leads new coalition to fight 
budget cuts in social programs . . . Labor- 
backed study shows “unjustified” plant 
closings wipe out millions of jobs . . . 
Frances Perkins Labor Dept, headquarters 
dedicated . . . Barbers okay merger with 
UFCW . . . Housing starts plummet 22 
percent, factories slow; recession here. 
Carter confirms . . . Unions blast Schwei- 
ker bill to curb job safety inspections . . . 
Steelworkers win major gains for 290,000 
. . . Consumer prices so^r 1.4 percent; 
worker buying power down 7.9 percent. 

People: Senate confirms William A. 
Lubbers as general counsel of the National 
Labor Relations Board . . . Harry H. 
Poliak named special assistant on labor 
affairs to the Secretary of State . • • 
George L. O’Brien, retired president of 
the Railway Carmen, dies. 

MAY 

Jobless rate soars to 7 percent for 
April . . . Economic indicators plunge as 
recession signs spread . . . Supreme Court 
rebuffs Stevens, ACTWU gains access to 
workers . . . AFL-CIO reaffirms “National 
Accord” with Carter but scores Adminis- 
tration for budget cuts . . . EPA sets rules 
to control toxic wastes . . . Jewelry Work- 
ers merge with Service Employees . . . 
Kirkland tells lUD parley that manufac- 
turing base must be rebuilt . . . Fraser 
elected to Chrysler board; $1.5 billion in 
aid okayed . . . OSHA issues new rules 
giving workers access to employer files on 
worker health, toxic substances. 

People: Walter G. Davis named AFL- 
CIO Community Services director . . . 
Dorothy Shields succeeds Davis as educa- 
tion director . . . Frank F. Pollara, an 
assistant to Kirkland, retires, and Dale 
Good is appointed to Kirkland’s staff . . . 
George O. Fecteau, long-time president of 
the United Shoe Workers, dies. 

JUNE 

More workers — 675,000 — file for job- 
less aid in mid-May than in any week 
since government started keeping records 
. . . Nation’s productivity down for fifth 
straight quarter . . . Cost of necessities 
up 23.7 percent for first quarter ’80 . . . 
Contract settlements reached in longshore, 
aluminum, wood products . . . Unemploy- 
ment jumps to 7.8 percent for May . . . 
Congress okays “balanced” budget for 
fiscal ’8 1 ; recession seen forcing deficit . . . 
Basic steel layoffs near 28 percent: Steel- 
workers demand job growth plan . . . 
AFL-CIO urges public works program to 
create jobs . . . Truce between UFCW, 
Winn-Dixie signals end to boycott . . . 
Chrysler gets U.S. loan guarantee . . . 
AFL-CIO asks 13-week extension of job- 
less benefits . . . Congress okays synfuels 
legislation. 


People: Paul Hall, senior vice president 
of the AFL-CIO and long-time president 
of the Seafarers, dies . . . Service Em- 
ployees elect John J. Sweeney president 
to succeed retiring George Hardy and 
Richard W. Gordtz elected SEIU secre- 
tary-treasurer . . . Ernest C. Jones elected 
president of the Indiana AFL-CIO. 

JULY 

Supreme Court voids OSHA benzene 
rule . . . Auto parts supplier unions unite 
to urge import restraints . . . Carter ends 
limits on Japanese color TV imports de- 
spite labor protests . . . Carter announces 
aid plan for auto industry . . . Accepting 
Republican Party nomination, Reagan 
issues appeal to turn U.S. to conservatism 
. . . Second-quarter economic slide worst 
since ’74 recession . . . Unemployed visit 
Capitol Hill to urge jobs programs . . . 
Railroad unions ask Congress to keep 
retirement fund solvent . . . Coalition of 
26 unions strikes copper industry . . . 
motion picture and television industry 
struck by performers’ unions . . . Frank 
Drozak elected president of Seafarers. 

AUGUST 

Unemployment hangs at 7.8 percent in 
July . . . CWA bargainers reject AT&T 
offer; Musicians join actors in strike . . . 
ACTWU, J. P. Stevens hold talks . . . 
Machinists’ monitors find pro-business bias 
in TV news . . . Wages up 9.5 percent in 
major pacts in first half of ’80 . . . Ac- 
cepting Democratic Party nomination. 
Carter says nation must choose between 
two futures in November elections . . . 
CWA, IBEW win Bell pacts; major gains 
for 700,000 . . . BRAC, Rail Supervisors 
sign merger pact . . . U.S. labor expresses 
solidarity with striking Poles . . . CPI 
stays level in July for first time in 13 years. 

People: Three new members elected to 
the Executive Council are SEIU President 
John J. Sweeney, Vice President Joyce D. 
Miller of the Clothing & Textile Workers 
— the council’s first woman member — and 
President William Konyha of the Carpen- 
ters; William Sidell and George Hardy 
retire . . . lAFF elects John A. Gannon 
president as William H. McClennan retires; 
Martin E. Pierce elected secretary- 
treasurer . . . Senate confirms Don A. 
Zimmerman as NLRB member . . . Daniel 
J. Healey, AFL-CIO regional director, and 
Msgr. George G. Higgins of the U.S. 
Catholic Conference announce retirements. 

SEPTEMBER 

President Carter unveils “economic 
renewal” plan to create a million jobs in 
two years . . . House passes youth em- 
ployment act . . . AFL-CIO Executive 
Council calls for National Reindustrializa- 
tion Board to modernize U.S. economy 
. . . AFL-CIO General Board endorses 
Carter for re-election, pledges all-out ef- 
fort . . . Jobless rate dips to 7.6 percent 
for August . . . Postage stamp honoring 
Meany unveiled at White House . . . 
AFL-CIO creates Polish Workers Aid 
Fund . . . Carter okays 9.1 percent wage 
boost for federal workers . . . OSHA 
lists substances causing cancer in work- 
place. AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, 
asks Congress to fashion policy to counter- 
act plant closings . . . Communications 
Workers ratify Bell System pact . . . 
Barbers & Beauticians merge with Food & 
Commercial Workers. 

People: Anthony J. Lutty elected UFCW 
secretary- treasurer on retirement of Sam- 
uel J. Talarico . . . James Freeman 
appointed director of AFL-CIO Region I 
. . . Deaths include Patrick J. Gorman, a 
principal officer of the Meat Cutters for 
a half-century. 

OCTOBER 

Jobless rate edges down in September 
to 7.5 percent . . . Conservatives block 
extended jobless pay . . . Carter offers 
plan to revitalize steel industry . . . Carter 
signs multi-employer pension bill protect- 
ing 8 million workers . . . Supreme Court 
upholds federal jobless standards for state 
and local workers . . . UAW, AFL-CIO 
ask trade commission to curb auto im- 
ports . . . Carter signs rail deregulation 
and safety bills backed by rail unions . . . 


’80 Issues 

ACTWU breaks through at J. P. Stevens, 
wins 10-month pact after 17 year struggle. 

People: Moe Biller elected president of 
the Postal Workers over incumbent Emmet 
Andrews . . . Deaths include R. Wayne 
Williams, president emeritus of the Eleva- 
tor Constructors; Franklin J. Murphy, re- 
tired AFL-CIO regional director, and 
Harry H. Poliak, labor affairs adviser at 
the State Dept. 

NOVEMBER 

Organized labor pours its resources into 
1980 elections . . . Workers average 9.7 
percent in major pacts in 1980 . . . 
Screen Actors ratify TV pact . . . Reagan 
elected president, winning 51 percent of 
vote to Carter’s 41 percent, as voters show 
discontent over inflation and unemploy- 
ment . . . Republicans capture Senate for 
first time in 26 years, holding 53-47 edge 
. . . GOP wins net gain of 33 seats in 
House, but Democrats keep control . . . 
Trade Commission rejects unions’ petition 
for auto import curbs . . . Housing per- 
mits plunge as high interest rates threaten 
recovery . . . OSHA reissues walk-around 
pay rule . . . Coalition of Labor Union 
Women holds organizing parley . . . 
AFL-CIO urges Congress to reject sub- 
minimum wage . . . Air Line Pilots threat- 
en to suspend service over safety issues . . . 
Congressional staff study says nation needs 
11 million new jobs during 1980s. 

People: Lee M. White named coordi- 
nator of the federation’s centennial pro- 
gram . . . Kenneth Meiklejohn, AFL-CIO 
legislative representative, retires . . . 

Deaths include Hunter P. Wharton, presi- 
dent-emeritus of the Operating Engineers 
and a retired vice president of the AFL- 
CIO. 

DECEMBER 

Labor Sec. Marshall hits Reagan task 
force proposal to dismantle CETA jobs 
programs . . . CPI rises 1 percent in 
October pushed up by high interest 
rates . . . Labor hits proposals by presi- 
dential panel to raise retirement age to 68 
and tax social security . . . Jobless rate 
hangs at 7.5 percent for November . . . 
“Superfund” bill to clean up chemical 
waste dumps goes to Carter . . . Reagan 
chooses New Jersey contractor Raymond 
Donovan to head Labor Dept. . . . Quarter- 
century struggle ends as 480 Darlington 
workers and heirs accept $5 million settle- 
ment. 

People: John Leyden named executive 
director of the AFL-CIO Public Employee 
Dept, to succeed retiring John McCart . . . 
Susan Dunlop elected secretary-treasurer 
of the International Labor Press Associa- 
tion as Allen Zack steps aside. 

27 Million Lack 
Health Insurance 

During the first six months of 1977, 
some 27 million Americans, or about 
13 percent of the population, had no 
form of health insurance coverage, ac- 
cording to data released by the Dept, of 
Health & Human Services. 

Among age groups, people 18 to 24 
were most likely to be uninsured, with 
some 22 percent lacking protection. The 
age group most likely to have insurance 
coverage consisted of those over age 65 
for whom Medicare is available. 

The agency found wide differences in 
the likelihood of coverage among the 
races with over 18 percent of non- 
whites likely to be uninsured. 

The less educated were also least like- 
ly to have health insurance with nearly 
16 percent of those over 17, but with 
less than 12 years of education, lacking 
insurance compared to 12 percent of 
high school graduates and 8.9 percent 
of those with 13 or more years of 
education. 

Almost 18 percent of the population 
in largely rural areas did not enjoy 
health insurance protection, and cover- 
age by region of the country was lowest 
in the South and West. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


Page Three 



FOUR FREEDOMS AWARD of the Italian-American Labor Council was given 
to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at the council’s recent meeting in New 
York City. The award, for service to the ideals of democracy, is presented by 
E. Howard Molisani, president and executive director of the council and secre- 
tary-treasurer of the New York State AFL-CIO. 

Italian-American Labor Body 
Presents Award to Kirkland 


NLRB Order 
Hits Violations 
By Runaway 

(Continued from Page 1) 

working conditions, and refusing to bar- 
gain on a new agreement with the union. 

He ordered the company to negotiate 
with the union, revoke the unilateral 
changes, and reimburse the affected work- 
ers with interest for any loss of earnings 
or employment benefits they suffered. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council en- 
dorsed the lUE’s boycott of Marine Op- 
tical products at its meeting last May. 

Local 408 Business Manager Sebastian 
J. Rebaldo hailed the NLRB judge’s de- 
cision as a “tremendous victory,” but add- 
ed: “the battle isn’t over yet. We have a 
way to go.” 

lUE PRESIDENT David J. Fitzmau- 
rice joined in urging continued support of 
the boycott until a satisfactory settlement 
is reached with the firm. The company 
makes eyeglass frames under the names 
Bonjour, Givenchy, Voila, Vera, Aviance, 
Nefertite, Winks, Cotton Candy, and oth- 
ers. 

Marine Optical moved its operations to 
Brockton, Mass., from its Roslindale fa- 
cility, 17 miles away, over a two-month 
period in the fall of 1979 after its lease 
there expired and could not be renewed. 
Local 408, which had represented the 
Roslindale workers since 1954, filed 
charges while the move was taking place, 
and the Boston NLRB office issued a com- 
' plaint. 

The union sought negotiations of a new 
agreement to succeed the one that expired 
in February 1980, but the company refused 
saying it would not recognize the union 
at Brockton unless a majority wanted rep- 
resentation. Meanwhile, the firm made 
numerous changes in benefits and working 
conditions without consulting the union 
while the old contract was in effect. 

“THESE CHANGES were made with- 
out affording the union an opportunity to 
negotiate,” Barban said. He found that 
Local 408 clearly remained the workers’ 
bargaining agent while the shift in opera- 
tions occurred, citing an NLRB ruling in 
another case: 

“An existing and effective collective- 
bargaining relationship remains in effect 
following (the) relocation, provided opera- 
tions and equipment remain substantially 
the same at the new location, and a sub- 
stantial percentage of the employees at the 
old plant transfer to the new location.” 


The Labor Institute for Human Enrich- 
ment has announced a new information 
service to help increase the participation 
of working people in humanities pro- 
grams and seminars. 

LIFHE, created by the AFL-CIO Dept, 
for Professional Employees, will fund the 
project under a $140,000 contract with the 
National Endowment for the Humanities. 
The program will include a newsletter for 
the labor movement covering activities, 
seminars and other humanities resources 
in such areas as labor history, literature, 
philosophy, political science and contem- 
porary social issues. The first edition of the 
newsletter is planned for early 1981. 

SEMINARS WILL also be held for 
senior labor officials to explore current is- 
sues facing labor and society. Ways of in- 
creasing the role of labor in state humani- 
ties councils will be examined. 

The project will be headed by Harry 
Matthews, scholar in residence at LIFHE. 
Matthews previously served as director of 
public and congressional affairs for the 
Select Commission on Immigration and 
Refugee Policy and was associate professor 
of political science at Northern Arizona 
University. 

Matthews pointed out that a major ac- 
tivity of LIFHE’s program will be to work 


New York — AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland has received the Four Freedoms 
award of the Italian-American Labor 
Council, presented for service to the ad- 
vancement of the ideals of democracy. 

In accepting the award, Kirkland called 
it “the symbol of the devotion of the trade 
union movement to the aspirations ex- 
pressed in the Four Freedoms and a sym- 
bol of the dedication of Italian-American 
trade unionists to the principles of the 
labor movement, to democracy and to eco- 
nomic and social justice for all.” 

THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN Labor 
Council was founded in 1941 under the 
leadership of Luigi Antonini, former La- 
dies’ Garment Workers vice president, to 
encourage the participation of Italian- 
American workers in the labor movement 
and to help counteract fascist, totalitarian 
ideologies. E. Howard Molisani, is presi- 
dent and executive director of the council. 


closely with state federations of labor to 
increase their participation in state human- 
ities councils, including the nomination of 
union members to serve on the councils. 

Teachers’ President Albert Shanker, who 
heads both the department and the insti- 
tute, said the project will be a major step 
in expanding the availability of a wide 
variety of humanities programs to workers. 
Such activities are of interest to many 
union members, he pointed out, but until 
now basic information on where, when 
and how to participate has not been wide- 
ly available. 

“THIS PROJECT is by no means an 
end in itself,” Shanker stressed. “Labor 
has always been a strong advocate of ac- 
tivities that would enable more working 
people to enjoy the riches of the arts and 
humanities. This project repres.ents a con- 
tinuation of this effort, and we plan to 
mount an effort to secure — from within 
the labor movement and from educational 
and charitable foundations — support for 
longer-range undertakings in the humani- 
ties which will benefit workers, their fami- 
lies and the entire society.” 

Information on the program is available 
from the Labor Institute for Human En- 
richment, Inc., 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., 
Suite 509, Washington, D.C. 20006, tele- 
phone' 202/638-5020. 


“From the moment that fascism burst 
forth upon the world in Italy and Europe,” 
Kirkland told the council’s luncheon meet- 
ing, “the founders of this council valiantly 
warned the world of its dangers and fought 
staunchly to thwart it. Today you are still 
engaged in the continuing battle against 
the grip and reach of oppression whether 
it is found on the political right or among 
the false prophets of the left.” 

Kirkland stressed that the trade union 
movement resists totalitarianism whether 
in politics or in the economic exploitation 
of workers. He cited the development of 
the free labor movement in Poland as evi- 
dence of the desire of workers for truly 
representative unions. 

“FEW PEOPLE understand as fully as 
Italian-American trade unionists the real 
meaning of the Polish workers movement,” 
Kirkland said, “because few others know 
so well what it is to stand here where our 
rights are taken for granted and watch 
brothers and sisters in Europe confront 
such risks and odds in the contest for 
theirs — and what courage and moral 
strength the challenge of entrenched power 
requires.” 

The principles of trade unionism “are 
the most vital expression of the principles 
of democracy and human freedom,” Kirk- 
land declared. 


Leaders of two AFL-CIO unions ex- 
pressed disappointment at President Car- 
ter’s veto of legislation that would provide 
special death benefits to the families of 
federal workers in hazardous jobs killed in 
the line of duty. 

The measure would have increased the 
death benefit for federal fire fighters and 
protective officers from $5,000 to $50,000. 

THE EXISTING payment of $5,000 is 
“hardly enough to bury them,” said Presi- 
dent Kenneth T. Blaylock of the American 
Federation of Government Employees. 

President John A. Gannon of the Fire 
Fighters noted that this was Carter’s sec- 
ond veto of legislation that would have 
bettered conditions for federal fire fighters. 
The first came in 1978 when Carter re- 
jected a measure that would have reduced 
their 72-hour workweek to 56 hours. 

In a message to Carter, Gannon pointed 


Case Volume 
Of Mediation 
Agency Rises 

The Federal Mediation & Conciliation 
Service handled 20,414 contract negotia- 
tion cases during fiscal year 1979, a slight 
rise of eight-tenths of 1 percent from the 
previous year but still the second-highest 
number of the Seventies. 

The total, reported in the agency’s cur- 
rent annual report, trailed only the record 
23,450 cases in fiscal 1977. 

THE NUMBER of joint cases — those 
requiring the presence of a mediator work- 
ing with both parties during negotiations — 
jumped by 5.9 percent. Joint cases in- 
creased 6 percent in the private sector and 
5 percent in the public sector. Increases 
in these types of cases occurred in every 
sector of the economy except construction, 
where they were down 10.8 percent. 

Strike activity for the year was higher, 
FMCS reported, with walkouts occurring 
in 14.2 percent of the cases handled by 
the agency’s mediators, up from 13.4 per- 
cent the previous year and the highest 
percentage since 1975. 

Contract rejections occurred in 1 1 .9 
percent of FMCS-handled cases, the same 
percentage as in 1978 and the second- 
highest percentage in the 1970s. 

Again, as in previous years, the primary 
issue in joint meeting cases was wages. 
This was followed, in order of importance, 
by pensions, insurance, welfare, contract 
duration, holidays and vacations. 

OF ALL dispute cases handled by fed- 
eral mediators during the fiscal year, 84.9 
percent involved contract renewals, 9.4 
percent initial contracts, 4.3 percent re- 
openers, and 1.4 percent exceptional 
grievances. 

Contract renewals negotiated with 
FMCS assistance in 1979 were of some- 
what shorter duration than in previous 
years, with agreements of three years or 
more accounting for 61 percent of the 
total, down from 64.3 percent in the pre- 
vious year. Similarly, of initial contracts 
negotiated with FMCS’s help, 43 percent 
were for three years or longer, down from 
46.4 percent the previous year. 

Arthur Lebel Dies at 66, 
Retired Field Staffer 

Richmond, Me. — Arthur Lebel, a retired 
AFL-CIO field representative, died Dec. 
19 of cancer. He was 66. 

Lebel, a member of the Marine & Ship- 
building Workers since 1934, served as a 
union organizer during the 1940s and ’50s 
before joining the CIO staff in 1954. Fol- 
lowing merger, he served on the federa- 
tion’s organizing staff in the New England 
region. Lebel retired in 1975. 

Survivors include his wife Nellie and 
three children. 


out that federal fire fighters “work 32 
hours more per week than the average 
American worker while serving in the most 
hazardous occupation in America. Yet 
they are continually denied benefits that 
are now received by municipal fire fight- 
ers. 

Blaylock said Carter’s action displayed 
a continuing lack of concern for federal 
workers. 

NOTING THAT the death benefit mea- 
sure was overwhelmingly approved by 
Congress — by a 313-to-56 vote in the 
House and a voice vote in the Senate — 
Blaylock said Carter “had no valid reason 
for denying these workers’ families the 
same improved benefits given to the sur- 
vivors of other federal law enforcement 
officers.” 

Carter contended in his veto message 
that the legislation would have given cer- 
tain federal workers preferential treatment. 


Humanities Project Seeks 
Wider Worker Participation 


Federal Employees Hit Veto 
Of Improved Death Benefit 


Page Four 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


Looking Ahead 

TURN of the year — any year — is an occasion for self- 

analysis, for a review of accomplishments and shortcomings 
and an examination of what needs to be done to preserve one’s 
physical, mental and spiritual well-being. 

The AFL-CIO itself will shortly undertake such a review in a 
series of regional conferences reaching to organized labor’s local 
roots and exploring all aspects of the federation and its programs. 

OF COURSE there has never been a shortage of editorial 
writers, columnists and academicians willing to do the job for us. 

As AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland put it in a 1980 Federa- 
tionist magazine articl#s “Academic analysts and journalistic pulse- 
takers who have adopted the decline of the labor movement as 
their thesis are not exactly treading new ground. Since the found- 
ing in 1881 of the national trade union center which has evolved 
into the AFL-CIO, such observers have alternatively predicted 
either its imminent demise of its eventual withering away.” 

Small wonder, then, that labor prefers to make its own analysis. 
Meanwhile, Kirkland’s article offers a capsule prognosis: 

“I look for substantial' gains in union membership over the 
next decade,” he said, “for continued growth in fields in yvhich 
unions have been gaining members and for expansion in indus- 
tries and geographic areas in which progress has been slow. 

“THERE ARE MANY reasons for this, few of them readily 
reducible to statistical analysis, which is not the most useful tool 
for gauging the way people perceive their own needs, goals and 
common interests. ... 

“As often in the past, an unstable and deteriorating economy 
is a powerful incentive to union membership. Workers whose 
buying power is falling daily in the grip of inflation and whose 
jobs are jeopardized by growing unemployment awaken in such 
times from the inertia of the vanished status quo to the value of 
cost-of-living provisions, seniority in layoffs and job recall rights. 

“Government wage guidelines that call attention to normative 
increases that are achieyable only through collective bargaining 
make unorganized workers more conscious of being out in the 
cold. 

“THE AGING of the workforce and the changing role of 
women will also encourage union membership. While youngsters 
without responsibilities tend to change jobs or put up with inferior 
treatment, older workers with family and community ties are more 
inclined to try to improve the jobs they have. 

“As more women become responsible for others and the second 
incomes of working wives become more vital to family finances, 
they, too, can be expected to see that their progress depends on 
collective action. 



Backlash Feared 


Even Bankers Voice Concern J 
Over Interest Rate Eruption 


“All in all, the prophets of doom have badly misread both the 
present strength and the future prospects of trade unionism in 
America, and I think my view is shared by America’s business 
leaders. If unions were dead or dying, they would save their 
energy and money.” 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
AI H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
David V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 


Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. She vis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


5 Vol. XXVI Saturday, January 3, 1981 No. 1 s 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001-1185) is issued weekly at 815 
Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
the name of the AFL-CIO. 





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By Gus Tyler 

W HEN BANKS begin to complain about high 
interest rates, then you know that something 
must be wrong. We expect to hear groans from 
little folk trying to get a mortgage, from small 
businessmen trying to stay afloat, even from 
somewhat bigger businessmen who want to ex- 
pand. But we normally do not expect the lender 
of money to complain about how much he is 
charging for the loan. 

But, of late, banks are bitching. 

SAYS ALFRED Brittain 3rd, chairman of 
Bankers Trust: “I very truly believe we’re in the 
death throes of this present interest-rate convul- 
sion.” If we go on as we have, he warns, it “would 
have a very serious impact on the entire econ- 
omy.” 

Says Willard C. Butcher, president of Chase 
Manhattan: “For many people in business, the 
goal of prosperity has given way to tenuous eco- 
nomic survival.” 

Says Cengiz Israfil, vice president of Morgan 
Guaranty Trust: “The rapidity of the climb in 
interest rates is having a shock effect that the 
markets cannot ignore.” 


out — and the economy began to recover — and 
today when the prime rate is almost 18 percent 
could cost the government roughly $12 billion.” 
(With the actual rate having risen to 20 percent, 
the revised figure should read $16 billion.) 


HIGH INTEREST rates, however, add an- 
other hidden cost to government. They bring on 
unemployment — as their special way of “cooling 
the economy” to hold down buying power. Says 
Wright: “One point in unemployment cost the 
government $20 to $25 billion.” 

High interest rates are forcing the federal 
government to spend more than if should — to 
meet the service on debt and to carry the costs 
of unemployment. 


For the federal government to meet its bills 
it must spend more and, to do that, it must 
borrow more and must do so at the ever higher 
rate of interest. 


In an outburst of exasperation, Wright ex- 
ploded in a one-minute oration to the House: 
“What will it take for the Federal Reserve to 
realize that high interest rates are not the cure 
for inflation but the cause of inflation?” 


Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


IT’S GETTING to the banks because it’s get- 
ting to their clients. Many won’t borrow, and if 
everyone followed Polonius’ advice, “neither a 
borrower nor a lender be,” there would be no 
bankers. 

But, even worse, there are borrowers who 
can’t repay. They got a loan with every intention 
of meeting all charges on interest and principal. 
But with the need for ready cash that they can 
no longer afford, these well intentioned borrowers 
are going bankrupt and leaving the bank holding 
the bag — the empty bag. 

High interest rates, however, are not hurting 
people in the private sector alone — from buyer 
to builder to broker to banker; government is 
also hard hit. 

Says Jim Wright, majority whip of the Demo- 
crats in the House of Representatives: “Each 
percentage point in interest rates increases fed- 
eral spending by about $2 billion for debt service. 
So the rise between June when rates bottomed 


Bargaining Process 
Is Workers' Shield 

Collective bargaining is the logics mechan- 
ism for the orderly determination of wages and 
conditions. It is also an appropriate arena in 
which to make the case for federal workers in 
the face of undeserved and demoralizing criti-r^^ 
cisms. 

The integrity of the collective bargaining . 
process, with its proven successes, and the true"^'^ 
unity of purpose that working people share 
through their unions, will serve as our shield 
and banner over the next few months and years 
as we face a new Administration and Congress. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at 
installation of Letter Carriers' officers, 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


Page Five 



Saving 'Big Bucks' 


Federal Program Cuts Affect 
Quality of Life for Everyone 


C UTTING GOVERNMENT spending touches 
not just “them,” the poor, but all of us.* 

Consider for a minute what the federal gov- 
ernment buys with the $616 billion or so it will 
spend this year. About 23 percent goes for our 
common defense. Another 36 percent goes for 
social security, federal and other pensions, 
veterans’ benefits and related medical coverage — 
one or another of which almost all of us will 
receive. Interest payments to all holders of gov- 
ernment bonds and notes take another 11 per- 
cent. 

Only 1.3 percent of the federal budget goes to 
what most people mean by “welfare,” cash pay- 
ments to about 3 million needy families, and 
another 1.6 percent to food stamps for 20 million 
of the poor. 

IN FACT, welfare costs are now such a small 
part of the federal budget that it would almost be 
worth cutting them out entirely in order to be rid 
of this convenient scapegoat — were it not for the 
likely disastrous effect on the lives of some 7 
million children, effects we somehow doubt any- 
one would really relish. 

If big bucks are to be saved, it comes down 
to cutting out benefits for all of us — not just high- 
ways, dams, airport subsidies, agricultural and 
maritime supports, downtown renovations and so 
forth — but a lot of things that fall in the category 

ACTWU Wouldn^t Go Away 


of “social service.” These include programs to 
curb child abuse — a problem far from limited to 
the poor — and to track down fathers who skip 
out on their child support and alimony payments 
—most of these aren’t poor at all — and subsidized 
loans for the children of middle-class parents who 
forgot somehow to stash away the $10,000 a 
year it now can take for a college education. 

Even the Medicaid program for the needy 
spends the big bulk of its dollars not on caring for 
slum kids with runny noses, but on nursing homes 
and other institutional care, not just for the poor, 
but for people who find themselves outliving their 
resources and without relatives delighted to as- 
sume the cost and responsibility of their care. 

YES, THE COUNTRY can and should run its 
social programs better. But as OMB director- 
designate David Stockman has noted, waste- 
cutting “will hardly make a dent” in the budget 
problem. And reducing waste will take not only 
time but willingness to invest up-front money in 
better managerial controls. 

If the public has made a decision to cut public 
spending and investment, it should be quite clear 
about what this means: everyone will be giving 
up things that make the particular world we live 
in a kinder and more pleasant place. 

— Excerpted from an editorial in the Washing- 
ton Post, Dec. 22, 1980. 


Union Solidarity a Vital Factor 
In Victory of Stevens’ Workers 


W HAT FINALLY brought the victory (at J. P. 

Stevens)? What was the straw that at last 
broke the back of company resistance? 

Probably there was no last straw, no single 
tactic or event. Instead, it was the cumulative 
weight of a multi-pronged attack, and the steady, 
even progress made in the courts and before the 
NLRB; persistent organizing and growing strength 
among the workers; increasing success and visibil- 
ity for the boycott; increasing isolation of Stevens 
because of the corporate campaign. 

BUT ONE single event that does stand out 
came at the 1978 ACTWU convention. It had 
been 1 5 years since the first card was signed at a 
Stevens plant and two years since ACTWU was 
formed by the merger of the Clothing Workers 
and the Textile Workers. The union had launched 
a national boycott in the 1976 merger convention, 
but still had little to show in the way of progress 
at J. P. Stevens. Still, at that 1978 convention, the 
union launched a major step-up in organizing 
efforts. Undoubtedly, a clear message was passed 
to Stevens officials that the union would not be 
worn down and weakened. 


The 1,500 elected delegates of 1978 roared 
support of the beleaguered-Stevens workers and 
increased their dues by $2 a month to finance the 
union’s massive organizing efforts. In nearly two 
hours of open debate, ACTWU local union dele- 
gates from all over the United States and Canada 
declared they would devote the necessary re- 
sources, no matter how long it would take, to 
winning at J. P. Stevens and bringing union con- 
tracts, wages and benefits into the textile industry 
in the South. 

THE CONVENTION action showed dra- 
matically that the entire union was solidly united 
behind the Stevens workers. It wasn’t just a front 
office campaign or an organizers’ campaign. Roots 
of support extended deep and ACTWU would be 
in it for the duration. 

There’s no way to know for sure, but it seems 
likely the Stevens management knew then it would 
have to come to terms with the union eventually. 
ACTWU just wasn’t going to go away. 

— From Union at J. P. Stevens,** by Tom 

Herriman, in the current issue of the American 
Federationist, the AFL-CIO monthly magazine. 


Poultry Workers Fight for Union 


Mass Firings, Abuse of Rights 
Spur Drive at Perdue Plants 


M ass firings, dangerous working condi- 
tions and assaults on workers’ rights have 
firmed up the resolve to win union representa- 
tion at Perdue chicken plants, Jerry Gordon of 
the Food & Commercial Workers declared on 
Labor News Conference. 

■V ; ^ Gordon, assistant director of UFCW Region 4, 
said that Perdue’s attempts to subvert the drive 
to form a union have gone far beyond the bounds 
of fair and lawful activities and spell out a de- 
termination to eliminate the union from the 
poultry business. Gordon said that although 
much of the industry is non-union. Perdue has 
mounted a campaign of fear, oppression and 
reprisals not found among other poultry pro- 
ducers. 

“Perdue has declared war on the union,” Gor- 
don charged. He said the company’s owner, Frank 
Perdue, who personally promotes his chickens in 


nationwide radio and TV ads, is not just an open 
shop employer. Perdue is buying up union plants, 
closing them down to renovate and modernize, 
and reopening them with a non-union work 
force, Gordon said. 

He reported that more than 400 production 
workers were fired at one Perdue plant, and that 
penalties and discipline for asking to be “re- 
lieved from the line to go to the bathroom” are 
common. He said t^e union’s boycott has been 
announced in several major East Coast areas. 

GORDON SAID the 1.3-million-member 
UFCW is gearing up a major public education 
effort on Perdue’s oppressive employment prac- 
tices, the company’s serious health and safety 
law violations, and its refusal to clean up oper- 
ations that are charged with polluting air and 
water in several communities. 


By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he surgeon general’s report on the nation’s health 
reads like the popular line: there’s some good news and some 
bad news. 

First the good news. National lifestyles have changed over the 
past decade or so, with more people giving up smoking or cutting 
down on tobacco consumption. Also, more Americans are eating 
less of certain calorie- and cholesterol-rich foods like eggs, butter 
and cream, and getting more exercise. 

Now the bad news. One exception to the trend towards health- 
ier lifestyles is the rising number of teenage girls who smoke — 
up 51 percent in a ten-year period. 

More good news. Regardless of income, more people have 
access to medical care. The percent of U.S. population seeing a 
physician within twt> years increased in every age and color group, 
with the greatest rise among the poor. 

BUT THE BAD NEWS is that the poor still may not be getting 
the care they require to meet their health needs. Also, the poor 
get fewer preventive services and less dental care than the non- 
poor. 

Sec. Patricia Harris of the Health & Human Services Dept, 
summed up the findings this way: “This report not only shows 
how far we have come, but also makes clear how far we have yet 
to go to conquer disease and assure good health to all in the 
United States.” 

Here are some highlights: 

• Life expectancy at birth continued to rise, reaching a record 
73.3 years in 1978. 

• From 1970 to 1978, the death rate from heart disease — the 
nation’s number one killer — dropped by 18 percent, the same 
amount as it did in the 20 years between 1950 and 1970. 

• Deaths from stroke — the nation’s number three killer — 
decreased by a greater amount from 1970 to 1978 than it did in 
the 20 years from 1950 to 1970, 33 percent compared to 25 
percent. 

• Deaths from cancer — second only to heart disease in the 
number of lives lost — has continued to decline for people under 
age 45 and has recently begun to drop for those 45 to 49 years old. 

• The United States continues to have one of the highest rates 
of teenage fertility among industrial nations although the birth 
rates for this group are not as high as they were in the early 
1970s. Numerous health risks — to mother and child — are asso- 
ciated with early childbearing. 

• The infant mortality rate in the United States, which is 
higher than the rates in most advanced nations, was 13 deaths 
per 1,000 live births in 1979, a 47-percent drop since 1965. The 
change is attributed largely to improved survival of low birth- 
weight babies. Smoking is one cause of low birth-weight. Another 
is inadequate diet, especially in a teenage pregnancy. 

THE RISK FACTORS for heart disease and stroke — the na- 
tion’s other top killers — include smoking, high blood pressure, 
high serum cholesterol, diabetes, overweight and physical in- 
activity. 

Some factors can be manipulated to help prevent illness and 
promote good health. The report points out that “some kinds of 
preventive actions, such as stopping smoking, can be taken only 
by the individual at risk. . . . Still others, such as the control of 
toxic agents in the environment, demand the involvement of many 
sectors of society — private and government.” 

The direct and indirect costs of certain lifestyle and en- 
vironmental hazards include about $15.4 billion for alcohol 
abuse; $27.3 billion for cigarette smoking; $20.7 billion for work- 
related deaths and injuries, and $4.3 billion for air pollution. 

The report estimates that “if preventive actions were successful 
in cutting direct and indirect cost expenditures by only 10 per- 
cent, reductions would still equal billions of dollars.” 


THE RESOLVE to form a union at Perdue chicken plants has 
been firmed up by dangerous working conditions and assaults 
on workers’ rights, Jerry Gordon, center, assistant director of 
Food & Commercial Workers Region 4, declared on Labor 
News Conference. He was questioned by Martha Hamilton of 
the Washington Post and Patrick Gilbert of the Baltimore Even- 
ing Sun. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs interview is 
aired weekly on the Mutual network. 






Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


\ 


Coordinated Effort Sought 

Adult Education Report 
Stresses Worker Needs 



NEW HARDSHIPS for the nation’s lowest-paid workers are sure to flow from 
a scheme to set a cut-rate minimum wage for teenagers, AFL-CIO Research 
Director Rudy Oswald, center, warned. He was questioned on Labor News 
Conference by Rachelle Patterson of the Boston Globe and Drew Von Bergen 
of United Press International. The AFL-CIO produced program is broadcast 
weekly on Mutual radio. 

Submimmum Wage Proposal 
Called Misguided, Simplistic 


A cut-rate minimum wage for teenagers 
is a simplistic idea that would not create 
more jobs but would mean hardships for 
the lowest-paid adult workers, AFL-CIO 
Research Director Rudy Oswald warned. 

Oswald said that “transferring jobs from 

Garment W orker s 
Win Damage Pay 
For 90 Strikers 

Albany, N.Y. — Cotrell & Leonard, Inc., 
has signed a settlement with the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers to pay $40,000 in dam- 
ages to some 90 ILGWU members who 
had been striking the firm for more than 
a year. 

The company, which has been manufac- 
turing academic gowns and caps and re- 
ligious robes for the past century, also 
agreed to remedy all labor law violations 
and unfair labor practices it was charged 
with. 

In endorsing a national boycott of Co- 
trell & Leonard in August, the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council pointed out that the 
company had been cited by the National 
Labor Relations Board for more than 50 
violations of federal labor law. 

While welcoming the settlement as a 
victory for ILGWU Local 163, the union 
noted that Cotrell & Leonard had made 
arrangements to sell the firm to Beatrice 
Food Co., a Chicago-based conglomerate, 
for reasons unrelated to the dispute. 

After the takeover, Beatrice took steps 
to close the Albany manufacturing facility 
despite community efforts providing for 
financial aid to keep the plant open. 

The ILGWU local is now negotiating 
with the company to provide termination 
benefits for the displaced workers. 


one person to another at a lower wage 
rate” would produce “bigger profits for 
employers,” but would provide no incen- 
tive for them to put more people to work. 
He pointed out that while the jobless rate 
among teenagers is especially high, a far 
greater number of adults are on the un- 
employment rolls. 

He warned that singling out 18- and 19- 
year-olds for exception from the basic 
floor under wages because their unemploy- 
ment rate is high could open the door for 
similar exceptions for other groups with 
higher-than-average unemployment, such 
as women and elderly workers. Rates of 
pay, he asserted, should be based on the 
job that is done, not on age, sex, color or 
unemployment rates among particular 
groups. 

IN AN APPEARANCE on. Labor 
News Conference, Oswald noted that the 
law already provides for certification of 
full-time students to receive less than the 
minimum for all workers. Job-training 
and economic stimulus, he said, would be 
far more effective in cutting back unem- 
ployment, which is now at an historically 
high 7.5 percent. 

Oswald pointed out that improvements 
in the minimum wage have lagged sub- 
stantially behind the inflation rate, includ- 
ing the Jan. 1 increase to $3.35 an hour — 
an improvement of only 8.1 percent while 
inflation is running at 13 percent. 

Dystrophy Association 
Elects Gannon, O’Neal 

New York — Fire Fighters’ President 
John A. Gannon was elected a corporate 
board member of the Muscular Dystrophy 
Association at the association’s year-end 
board meeting here. 

Frederick O’Neal, president of the Act- 
ors & Artistes and an AFL-CIO vice presi- 
dent, was named secretary of MDA. 


By Susan Dunlop 

Formal education is not just for 
children anymore; adults need it too, the 
National Panel on Worker Education & 
Training Policy stresses in a report. The 
changing character of the workplace and 
the evolving needs of workers are creating 
a growing interest in practical work-related 
schooling for adults, the panel agrees. 

Labor, industry, government and the 
education community each have resources 
to contribute to improving the availability 
and quality of adult education, but this 
effort must be a cooperative one, the 
panel stresses. 

ITS REPORT, “Adult Learning and the 
American Worker,” is part of a 48-month 
project on worker education and training 
policies being conducted by the National 
Institute for Work & Learning with funds 
from the U.S. Dept, of Education. 

Panel members included representatives 
of labor, business, education and govern- 
ment. AFL-CIO Community Services Di- 
rector Walter G. Davis served on the 
panel along with Albert Shanker, presi- 
dent of the Teachers; J. C. Turner, presi- 
dent of the Operating Engineers; Douglas 
Fraser, President of the UAW; Jack 
Otero, vice president of the Railway & 
Airline Clerks, and Bayard Rustin, chair- 
man of the board of the A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Institute. 

The panel’s report concentrates on de- 
termining the need for formal adult edu- 
cation, examining its present structure and 
proposing some means of improving its 
future usefulness to working people. 

WHILE EDUCATION is traditionally 
associated with youth, the panel said 
adults need various forms of continuing 
education for many reasons. As the work 
place undergoes change — because of tech- 
nological developments, import displace- 
ment or the geographical migration of in- 
dustry, for example — workers need new 
and different skills. 

Changes in the economy, such as surg- 
ing inflation of consumer prices, mean 
that older workers may want to prolong 
their working lives and need to be pre- 
pared to extend their careers or even 
change them. Social changes such as the 
influx of women into the workforce are 
also creating major needs for adult educa- 
tion and training, the panel’s report notes. 

The report points out that other adult 
workers have vital needs for education and 
training — people who were denied normal 
education as young people, the growing 
force of immigrant workers, handicapped 
workers, and workers from severely un- 
derprivileged backgrounds. 

THE PANEL stresses that programs of 
adult education, or lifelong learning, must 
go beyond broad goals to include the spe- 
cific information, skills and experiences re- 
lated to work life and the functioning of 
the economy. 


It notes that existing educational institu- 
tions and facilities already offer adults a 
wide variety of opportunities to learn. One 
important trend has been the growth of 
adult education opportunities in public 
schools, community colleges and vocation- 
al and technical schools. Off-campus learn- 
ing centers, “open universities,” degree 
equivalency and academic credit programs, 
and other projects have offered a variety 
of “non-ft*aditional programs for non-tra- 
ditional students,” the report points out. 

Many educational opportunities are also 
available through unions, employers, com- 
munity-based organizations, the military, 
correspondence courses, home television 
instruction and agricultural extension ser- 
vices. 

ALTHOUGH THESE sources are di 
verse, so are the needs of the working 
population, the panel observes, and it 
stresses the need to build on and improve 
existing, familiar resources. 

It is important, the panel cautions, to 
watch the ways in which these institutions 
are meeting adult education needs to de- 
termine “the best fit between what people 
need and what they are being offered. 
Post-secondary education institutions often 
don’t listen to what working people have 
to say about what they want to study.” 

Adults who had the least education 
when they were young tend to take least 
advantage of adult education, the panel 
concluded, and it called for steps to insure 
that these individuals are not barred from 
continuing education in the future. 

THE PANEL also warns that the rush 
to serve adults, fed by the drop in en- 
rollments of young people, should not 
lead to a decline in standards or quality 
in adult education. 

Among the panel’s major conclusions is 
the importance of “forging links” between 
labor, business and the education com- 
munity to accomplish educational goals. 

It suggests that one area in which such 
cooperation can be useful is in the ex- 
pansion of tuition aid programs. Tuition 
aid is widely and increasingly available, 
the panel points out, citing as an example 
the estimated 200 collective bargaining 
agreements covering about 2 million work- 
ers that provide for tuition aid programs 
in cooperation with management. 

PARTICIPATION in such programs re- 
mains low, however, and the panel says 
cooperation among unions, employers and 
educators can help feed information on 
such programs to workers, get barriers to 
participation removed and see to it that 
the right kinds of courses are offered by 
the schools. 

This kind of cooperation is essential 
both to give labor and industry a better 
understanding of the capabilities of learn- 
ing institutions and to give educators a 
realistic appraisal of the kind of education 
workers want and the skill training em- 
ployers need in real work settings, the 
report concludes. 


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Labor Studies Center Lists Schedule for January 


Three labor studies programs are being offered by the George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies, Silver Spring, Md., during January for officers 
and staff members of AFL-CIO unions. Three unions, the AFL-CIO Industrial 
Union Dept, and the American Institute for Free Labor Development will also 
use the campus during the month. The schedule: 

Basic Skills for Union Leaders, Jan. 11-16 — “How-to” classes on improving 
reading and comprehension, clearer writing, effective speaking and parlia- 
mentary procedures. 

Advanced Arbitration, Jan. 11-16 — An institute on the successful handling 
of cases involving management rights, discipline and discharge, seniority and 
contract interpretation. 

Negotiating Techniques for Bargaining with State and Local Agencies, 

Jan. 18-23 — A program on bargaining principles, proper preparation, budget 
analysis and audits. 

Unions using the campus for their own leadership training during January 
are the Teachers, Jan. 5-9; Communications Workers, Jan. 4-23; Railway & 
Airline Clerks, Jan. 18-23. 


The lUD will conduct a conference on national industrial policy, Jan. 9-10. 

AIFLD will bring in 40 trade union leaders from Latin American countries 
Jan. 26 for six weeks of study. 

Candidates for Bachelor of Arts degrees will come to the campus Jan. 25-30 
for their semi-annual week in residence to prepare their courses of study for 
the next six months. 

The center’s staff will be involved in five off-campus programs during the 
month. An institute on current economic issues is scheduled Jan. 18-21 at the 
University of California, Berkeley. An AFL-CIO Pension Fund Investment 
Briefing is set for Atlanta, Jan. 26 and 27. Three training sessions for the 
Center’s National Project on Transit Technology & Innovation are scheduled 
at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Jan. 4-9; University of California, 
Berkeley, Jan. 11-16, and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Jan. 25-30. 

Information on these and other labor studies programs can be obtained from 
Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., director, George Meany Center, 10000 New Hampshire 
Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone 301/431-6400. 


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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


Paf?e Seven 


Key Senate Com m i ttees 

All Senate committees deal with legislation affecting various groups of union 
members. The committees below are among those having the biggest impact on 
labor's legislative programs. New committee members are identified by asterisks. 


■ S 


Labor & Human 
Resources 


Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), Chairman 
Robert T. Stafford (Vt.) 

Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (Conn.)* 
Dan Quayle (Ind.)* 

Paula Hawkins (Fla.)* 

Don Nickles (Okla.)* 

Gordon J. Humphrey (N.H.) 
Jeremiah Denton (Ala.)=^ 

John East (N.C.)* 

Democrats 

Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) 
Harrison A. Williams Jr. (N.J.) 
Jennings Randolph (W.Va.) 
Claiborne Pell (R.I.) 

Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.) 
Donald W. Riegle Jr. (Mich.) 
Howard M. Metzenbaum (Ohio) 






Finance 

Republicans 


Robert Dole (Kan.), Chairman 
Bob Packwood (Ore.) 

William V. Roth Jr. (Del.) 

John C. Danforth (Mo.) 

John H. Chafee (R.I.) 

John Heinz (Pa.) 

Malcolm Wallop (Wyo.) 

David Durenberger (Minn.) 
William L. Armstrong (Colo.)* 
Steven D. Symms (Idaho)* 
Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)* 

Democrats 

Russell B. Long (La.) 

Harry F. Byrd Jr. (Va.) 

Lloyd Bentsen (Texas) 

Spark M. Matsunaga (Hawaii) 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (N.Y.) 
Max Baucus (Mont.) 

David L. Boren (Okla.) 

Bill Bradley (N.J.) 

George J. Mitchell (Maine)* 


? Appropriations 

Republicans 

Mark O. Hatfield (Ore.), Chairman 
Ted Stevens (Alaska) 

Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (Conn.) 
James A. McClure (Idaho) 

Paul Laxalt (Nev.) 

Jake Garn (Utah) 

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (N.M.) 
Thad Cochran (Miss.)* 

Mark Andrews (N.D.)* 

James Abdnor (^D.)* 

Robert W. Kasten Jr. (Wis.)* 
Alfonse M. D’ Amato (N.Y.)* 
Mack Mattingly (Ga.)* 

Warren Rudman (N.H.)* 

Arlen Specter (Pa.)* 


Democrats 

William Proxmire (Wis.) 

John C. Stennis (Miss.) 

Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) 

Daniel K. Inouye (Hawaii) 
Ernest F. Hollings (S.C.) 
Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.) 
Lawton Chiles (Fla.) 

J. Bennett Johnston (La.) 
Walter “Dee” Huddleston (Ky.) 
Quentin N. Burdick (N.D.) 
Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) 

Jim Sasser (Tenn.) 

Dennis DeConcini (Ariz.) 

Dale Bumpers (Ark.) 


Budget 

Republicans 

Pete V. Domenici (N.M.), Chairman 
William L. Armstrong (Colo.) 

Nancy Landon Kassebaum (Kan.) 
Rudy Boschwitz (Minn.) 

Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) 

John Tower (Texas)* 

Mark Andrews (N.D.)* 

Steven D. Symms (Idaho)* 

Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)* 

Robert W. Kasten Jr. (Wis.)* 

Dan Quayle (Ind.)* 

Slade Gorton (Wash.)* 


Democrats 

Ernest F. Hollings (S.C.) 

Lawton Chiles (Fla.) 

Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) 

J. Bennett Johnston (La.) 

Jim Sasser (Tenn.) 

Gary Hart (Colo.) 

Howard W. Metzenbaum (Ohio) 
Donald W. Riegle Jr. (Mich.) 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (N.T.) 
J. James Exon (Neb.) 


Governmental Affairs 

Republicans 

William V. Roth Jr. (Del.), Chairman 
Charles H. Percy (111.) 

Ted Stevens (Alaska) 

Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (Md.) 

John C. Danforth (Mo.) 

William S. Cohen (Maine) 

David Durenberger (Minn.) 

Mack Mattingly (Ga.)* 

Warren Rudman (N.H.)* 


Democrats 

Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.) 
Henry M. Jackson (Wash.) 
Lawton Chiles (Fla.) 

Sam Nunn (Ga.) 

John Glenn (Ohio) 

Jim Sasser (Tenn.) 

David Pryor (Ark.) 

Carl Levin (Mich.) 



A GROVE OF TREES planted in Israel with funds raised by the Washington 
Area Friends of Histadrut (WAFH) honors the memory of Christopher Marshall, 
who died last year from cancer. His parents. Labor Sec. and Mrs. Ray Marshall, 
accept a memorial plaque presented on behalf of WAFH by Jacob dayman, 
president of the National Council of Senior Citizens. From left, WAFH Co- 
Chairperson Betty Miller, Marshall, Samuel S. Meer of the Jewish National 
Fund, Mrs. Marshall, dayman and WAFH Co-Chairperson Harry Conn. His- 
tadrut is adding to the 1,000-tree grove. 

New Senate Lineups Reflect 
Tilt from Election Results 


(Continued from Page 1) 

crats. Despite the virtual collapse of the 
intricate budget-setting timetable last year, 
this remains potentially one of the most 
important committees. The new lineup 
is Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) as chairman 
and Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), who suc- 
ceeded Sec. of State Edmund Muskie as 
chairman last year, becoming ranking mi- 
nority member. 

COMMERCE, SCIENCE & TRANS- 
PORTATION — From 10 Democrats, 7 
Republicans to 9 Republicans, 8 Demo- 
crats. A relatively amicable swap at the top 
makes Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) the new 
chairman and drops Howard W. Cannon 
(D-Nev.) to ranking minority member. But 
committee membership changes are likely 
to make the body less responsive to con- 
sumer concerns. 

ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES 

— From 1 1 Democrats, 7 Republicans to 
1 1 Republicans, 9 Democrats. At the top, 
James A. McClure (R-Ida.) becomes chair- 
man and Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) 
drops to ranking minority member. West- 
ern influence continues strong. 

ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC WORKS 

— From 8 Democrats, 6 Republicans to 
9 Republicans, 7 Democrats. In a politi- 
cally compatible switch, Robert T. Stafford 
(R-Vt.) moves up to chairman and Jen- 
nings Randolph (D-W.Va.) becomes rank- 
ing minority member. 

FINANCE — From 12 Democrats, 8 
Republicans to 11 Republicans, 9 Demo- 
crats. This important committee has been 
generally conservative even under Demo- 
cratic control and will become even more 


Prime Rate Fluctuations Cloud Economy 


SO. Its new chairman is Robert Dole (R- 
Kan.), and Russell B. Long (D-La.) drops 
to ranking minority member. 

FOREIGN RELATIONS — From 9 
Democrats, 6 Republicans to 9 Republi- 
cans, 8 Democrats. Little change is antici- 
pated as Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.) becomes 
chairman and Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) 
takes the ranking minority spot. ^ 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS— From 
9 Democrats, 8 Republicans to 9 Republi- 
cans, 8 Democrats. The Chairman will be 
William V. Roth (R-Del.), and Thomas 
F. Eagleton (D-Mo.) is the senior minority 
member. The changes are fewer than in 
most committees. 

JUDICIARY — From 10 Democrats, 7 
Republicans to 10 Republicans, 8 Demo- 
crats. A big switch here as Strom Thur- 
mond (R-S.C.), with an 88 percent 
“wrong” COPE record, becomes chairman. 
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (Del.), becomes rank- 
ing minority' member with Edward M. 
Kennedy (D-Mass.) electing to shift his 
seniority to the Labor & Human Re- 
sources Committee. Three of the four new 
Republican members are strong conserva- 
tives. 

LABOR & HUMAN RESOURCES — 

From 9 Democrats, 6 Republicans to 9 
Republicans, 7 Democrats. The big 
change, obviously, is the switch from the 
COPE 93 percent “right” record of Demo- 
crat Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (N.J.) to the 
7 percent “right” record of the new chair- 
man, Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Williams 
shifted his committee seniority to the 
Banking Committee and Kennedy becomes 
the ranking Democrat. Since all seven 
committee Democrats are liberals. Repub- 
lican moderates Robert T. Stafford (Vt.) 
and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (Conn.) will 
determine the committee’s direction. 


The outlook on interest rates remained 
murky in the face of continued strong 
business credit demand and surprising 
resilience in the overall economy. 

While most major banks kept their 
prime lending rate at a record 21.5 per- 
cent, three of the nation’s 20 largest banks 
lowered their prime rates to 20.5 percent. 
Whether the downward trend in this key 
lending rate continued was the subject of 
intense debate in money-market circles, 
however. 

BUSINESS-LOAN demand jumped $ 1 .5 
billion to a record $170.35 billion in the 
week ended Dec. 17, the Federal Reserve 
Board announced. And new numbers from 
the Commerce Dept, reflected a rebound- 
ing economy during the third quarter of 
the year, albeit one with strong inflationary 
pressures. 

In a revised report, the Commerce Dept, 
said the nation’s real gross national prod- 
uct climbed at an annual rate of 2.4 per- 


cent in the third quarter, far above the 
rate of nine-tenths of 1 percent that had 
been previously reported. Real GNP is the 
total value — adjusted for inflation — of all 
the goods and services produced by the 
nation. 

The July-September gain was attributed 
mainly to final sales, which rose at a 4.1 
percent annual rate. The high level of 
final sales meant that goods were not pil- 
ing up in warehouses, a sign of optimism 
since swollen inventories eventually lead 
to cutbacks in production. 

THE DEPARTMENT’S chief econo- 
mist, Courtenay M. Slater, reported, mean- 
while, that preliminary estimates indicated 
a fourth-quarter gain in real GNP of just 
under 4 percent. 

In other revised figures. Commerce said 
the sharp recessionary decline of the sec- 
ond quarter of 1980 was even worse than 
at first reported. Real GNP fell 9.9 percent 
in the April-June period, rather than 9.6 


percent as previously estimated. Also, the 
government put the first-quarter gain last 
year at 3.1 percent instead of 1.2 percent. 

In other economic reports: 

• F. W. Dodge, a McGraw-Hill Inc. 
subsidiary, reported that the value of con- 
struction contracts awarded in November 
reached $13.3 billion, a gain of 13 per- 
cent from the year-earlier period. Novem- 
ber’s jump in construction activity was at- 
tributed, however, to a temporary decline 
in interest rates last summer. Over the first 
1 1 months of the year, the value of new 
construction contracts was down 15 per- 
cent from the same period of 1979. 

• Machine-tool orders rose slightly in 
November from October to $331.7 
million, but lagged 23 percent behind a 
year earlier. High-interest rates are dis- 
couraging some smaller concerns from 
buying, the National Machine Tool Build- 
ers’ Association said. 


Among the lesser ranked Senate com- 
mittees, Rules & Administration will be 
headed by Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R- 
Md.), Veterans Affairs by Alan K. Simp- 
son (R-Wyo.), Ethics by Malcolm Wallop 
(R-Wyo.), Indian Affairs by William S. 
Cohen (R-Me.), Intelligence by Barry 
Goldwater (R-Ariz.), Small Business by 
Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (R-Conn.), and 
Aging by John Heinz (R-Pa.). 

Rozanne Weissman Named 
To CWA Public Affairs Posl 

Rozanne Weissman will join the Com- 
munications Workers staff Jan. 16 as pub- 
lice affairs director to succeed Lee M. 
White, who retired Sept. 30, CWA Presi- 
dent Glenn E. Watts announced. 

Weissman, media and community rela- 
tions coordinator for the National Educa- 
tion Association, has been on the NEA 
staff for the past 13 years. 


c 


Page Eight 


AFX-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 3, 1981 


No Relief in Sight 

Outlook Continues Bleak 
For Consumer Priees 


(Continued from Page 1) 

of the CPI are not expected to moderate 
in the next few months. If anything, many 
forecasters expect them to accelerate. Re- 
cent price increases by the Organization 
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) 
have not yet shown up at the gasoline 
pump. Interest rate increases will continue 
to work their way into the index even 
after short-term rates begin to peak. And 
the outlook for beef and other food prices 
is expected to worsen over the first half of 
1981. The Agriculture Dept, last week 
forecast that overall food prices would rise 
10 to 15 percent in 1981. 

MEANWHILE, workers’ purchasing 
power continues to trail rising prices. Real 
spendable earnings, or take-home pay 
stripped of the impact of inflation in- 
creased a slight two-tenths of 1 percent in 
November. But on a year-to-year basis 
they were down 5.1 percent. A typical 
nonfarm worker in private industry who 
had three dependents grossed $243.57 in 
current dollars in November. In constant, 
1967 dollars, however, this was the 

Reagan’s Cabinet 
Nears Completion 

(Continued from Page I) 
partners include noted labor relations 
mediator Theodore W. Kheel, served in 
the Labor Dept, during the Eisenhower 
Administration and as general counsel to 
the Treasury Dept, during the Nixon Ad- 
ministration. He was both a Phi Beta 
Kappa in his junior year and a star foot- 
ball halfback at Cornell University. 

Ambassador to the United Nations: 

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, political science pro- 
fessor at Georgetown University and resi- 
dent scholar at the American Enterprise 
Institute. She describes herself as “very 
much of a Democrat” but was an influen- 
tial foreign policy adviser to Reagan dur- 
ing the campaign. The post is not officially 
a part of the Cabinet, but like the trade 
post was so designated by President Carter 
and will continue to hold Cabinet status 
in the Reagan Administration. 


equivalent of just $94.92 — a drop of $4.11 
over the past 12 months. 

November’s increase in the CPI — 
the third consecutive monthly rise of 1 
percent — made it certain that when the 
December figure is announced the index 
will have climbed at a rate of more than 
10 percent for the second straight year. 
The CPI rose 13.3 percent in 1979. 

Food and beverage prices rose 1.1 per- 
cent in November, after climbing nine- 
tenths of 1 percent in October. Prices for 
eggs, beef, pork, fish and other seafood 
all moved substantially higher, BLS said. 
Poultry prices decreased by 2 percent after 
rising for four months. 

“The 1.5 percent increase in other foods 
at home was largely due to a 7.8 percent 
increase in sugar and artificial sweeteners 
and higher prices for soft drinks,” BLS 
said. Prices for fresh fruits and vegetables 
rose eight-tenths of 1 percent, following a 
3 percent decline in October. 

RISING SHELTER costs accounted for 
most of the 1 percent jump in the housing 
component of the CPI, reflecting the re- 
newed surge in mortgage interest rates, 
which are more than 15 percent in some 
localities. 

Transportation costs were up 1.5 per- 
cent over the month, following a rise of 
seven-tenths of 1 percent in October. Used 
car prices soared by 5.1 percent, the third 
consecutive large monthly increase in this 
category. New car prices increased five- 
tenths of 1 percent. 

After relatively modest increases in 
some recent months, the energy price pic- 
ture for November was mixed. Gasoline 
prices increased eight-tenths of 1 percent 
while natural gas and electricity charges 
fell 2 percent. But household fuel oil prices 
jumped 1.5 percent. 

BLS REPORTED that the average na- 
tionwide price of a gallon of regular, 
leaded gasoline was $1,188, unchanged 
from October. For unleaded gasoline, the 
average November price was $1.25. 

Apparel prices rose a slight one-tenth 
of 1 percent in November. Medical care 
costs increased seven-tenths of 1 percent. 


Steelworkers Gain Refund 
Of Dues to Company Union 


Newport News, Va. — Steelworkers em- 
ployed at the Newport News Shipbuilding 
& Dry Dock Co. have won reimbursement 
of dues the firm continued to deduct from 
their pay on behalf of a company union 
after the employees had revoked their 
dues-checkoff authorizations. 

The award by the National Labor Re- 
lations Board is another in a series of 
legal findings emanating from the Steel- 
workers’ Jan. 31, 1978, representation 
victory over the Peninsula Shipbuilding 
Association, the company union. 

IT TOOK the USWA more than two 
years to overcome legal maneuverings by 
the company and win representation rights 
as the exclusive bargaining agent for the 



shipyard’s 16,000 production and mainte- 
nance workers. 

Last July, NLRB Administrative Law 
Judge Joel A. Harmatz ordered the ship- 
yard and PSA to reimburse any workers 
from whose wages union dues were im- 
properly deducted and turned over to the 
company union. This remedy was upheld 
by the board in its ruling. The NLRB 
estimated that about 215 workers were 
owed approximately $88 each, or a total 
of about $20,000. 

Immediately following the representa- 
tion election, a number of PSA members 
who had authorized the shipyard to deduct 
dues from their wages and remit them to 
the company union informed the manage- 
ment that they wished to revoke their 
checkoff authorizations. 

PSA refused to honor the requests, how- 
ever, saying that revocation of such au- 
thorization could be effected only on 
forms furnished by the company union. 

PSA THREATENED the company with 
a suit for breach of contract if it honored 
the revocation requests. The company 
complied with PSA’s position and con- 
tinued to deduct the dues. The Steelwork- 
ers, which had helped the workers draft 
the checkoff revocation forms they used, 
subsequently filed unfair labor practice 
charges against both the shipyard and PSA. 

The NLRB judge found that the com- 
pany and the PSA were guilty of federal 
labor law violations in their actions re- 
stricting employees from exercising their 
right to revoke the dues checkoff. 



LITERARY WORKSHOP was one of the events at a conference in New York 
on the arts and humanities sponsored by District 1199, the hospital and health 
care affiliate of the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union. Shown here 
are 1199 Vice President Vivian Giola, writer and critic Alden Whitman, and 
E. L. Doctorow, the author of Ragtime, Loon Lake and other novels. 


Soccer Players Win Accord 
Setting Pay Floor, Benefits 


Player representatives of the North 
American Soccer League Players Associa- 
tion have approved a memorandum of 
agreement with team owners providing 
for minimum salaries, fringe benefits, and 
work rules. 


• Player fines will be limited to 2 per- 
cent of the monthly wage and all fine 
money will go to a “career counseling and 
continuing education” fund to which the 
NASL club owners will contribute an 
additional $42,000. 


Ed Garvey, who headed the union nego- 
tiators, said the parties now “must develop 
actual contract language before the memo- 
randum will become a collective bargain- 
ing agreement, but an arbitrator will re- 
solve any differences.” 

GARVEY ADDED that “management 
and the union are now governed by the 
memorandum,” thus ending a three-year 
effort by the union to obtain an agree- 
ment. 

About 500 players on the NASL’s 24 
teams are covered by the accord. Player 
representatives voted 20 to 1 to accept the 
agreement, which the owners previously 
had approved. A vote on the memorandum 
by dues-paying members of the NASLPA 
is now in progress. 

The NASLPA is a branch of the Feder- 
ation of Professional Athletes chartered by 
the AFL-CIOin 1979. 

Highlights of the agreement include: 

• Minimum salaries of $18,000 for 
rookies, $19,200 for second-year players 
and $22,800 for third-year players. 

• A guarantee of at least the minimum 
salary once a player has made the team. 
Players cut during the season will still 
collect the minimum pay for the remainder 
of the year. 

• An injured player will receive the 
minimum salary through the following 
year. If the injury ends his career, the 
player will receive an additional $25,000. 

• All disputes, except those involving 
on-field conduct, will be resolved by an 
impartial arbitrator. 


• All clubs will provide a program of j 
health, accident, and life insurance under - 
a jointly administered insurance trust. 
There will also be a post-career insurance ^ 
plan. 

• Players will have free choice of play- ! 

ing indoors or not. 9l 

In addition, foreign players now in the J 
United States on work permits will be 1 
protected, but there is a commitment by . j 
the two sides to develop a reserve league I 
of American players and to increase their * 
number on the field. In 1982 and 1983, j 
no fewer than four North American play- ' 
ers must be on the field. This compares j 
with two under the present arrangement. ' 

NASL Commissioner Phil Woosnam^l 
said the agreement will end the league’s ] 
immediate immigration problems and is- M 
sues related to the indoor season, “and we J 
can now proceed to develop a good work- ^ 
ing relationship between labor and man- J 
agement.” 

THE SIX CANADIAN clubs in the I 
league will sign the agreement with the J 
union separately and will honor its provi- J 
sions in all respects. Garvey said. 

The settlement caps a long struggle by 
the union to bring the players under a 
collective bargaining agreement. TheJ 
NASLPA began its campaign three years n 
ago and won representation rights for U.S. . 
teams by a wide margin, but the owners 
refused to bargain. The National Labor d 
Relations Board ordered the clubs to nego- ] 
tiate over a year ago, and a court ruling m 
backed up the agency. Talks began last 
fall at the end of the soccer season. d 


iiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim ^ 

Reluctant Bid to Strikers j 
Swells Firm ’s Dinner Tab ! 


Abingdon, Va. — Dinner for two. On the house. Westinghouse, that is. 




That’s what some 250 workers at the Westinghouse facility here have won as a ^1 
result of unfair labor practice charges filed by their union, the Electrical, Radio & 
Machine Workers. ^1 


The lUE went to the National Labor Relations Board after the company sent ^ 
thank-you notes — along with tickets for dinner at a local steak house— to about 
50 non-strikers who worked through the union’s seven-week walkout at the West- ^ 
inghouse plant last year. 

Since the strikers did not receive dinner tickets, lUE charged the firm with i 
discrimination on the basis of their union activity, and won. The settlement, part 
of an NLRB order backed up by an appellate court, requires the company to send ^ 
$20 checks to each of the 250 striking employees to remedy the “oversight.” 

Next time, maybe, Westinghouse will remember to invite everyone to dinner. 


m 


Labor Affirms Continuing Aid 
For El Salvador’s Land Reform 




- 




P^- 


\ 


SHOT TO DEATH while working to bring about a sweep- for Agrarian Transformation, and two representatives of the 
ing redistribution of land in El Salvador were Jose Rodolfo AFL-CIO’s American Institute for Free Labor Develop- 
Viera, left, a union leader and head of the country’s Institute ment, Michael P. Hammer, center, and Mark D. Pearlman. 




Voi. xx\a 


Saturday, January 10, 1981 No. 2 


Two Labor Board Seats 
Set for Reagan Choices 


President-elect Ronald Reagan will have 
an opportunity to appoint two new mem- 
bers of the National Labor Relations 
Board shortly after he assumes office this 
month. 

That prospect developed with John A. 
Penello’s announcement that he plans to 
resign from the NLRB, effective Jan. 14, 
seven months before his term would ex- 
pire. Besides a successor to Penello, 
Reagan will be able to name a replace- 
ment for John C. Truesdale, whose recess 
appointment by President Carter last sum- 
mer is good through the first session of 
the new Congress unless a replacement is 
chosen sooner. 

REAGAN MAY ALSO choose to desig- 
nate a new chairman of the board since 
the current chairman, John H. Fanning, 
is a Democrat. Howard Jenkins, Jr., now 
the lone Republican on the board, could 
be named chairman or Reagan could 
designate one of the two new members 
he is expected to name to that position. 
Don A. Zimmerman, a member since last 
August, is a registered independent. Both 
Penello and Truesdale are registered 
Democrats, but Penello has often dis- 
sented from board decisions that sup- 
ported union positions. 

While the political makeup of the board 
is not statutorily dictated, tradition has re- 
sulted in a split panel generally reflecting 
the party of the incumbent President. 

In his resignation announcement, 
Penello said he had submitted a brief 
letter to President Carter and a longer 
one to Reagan giving his reasons for leav- 
ing at this time. Penello, 71. an NLRB 
member since 1972 and a career employee 
since 1937, wrote Reagan that pay levels 
for top government officials are unfair. 

“EXECUTIVE LEVEL salaries have 
been essentially frozen for active govern- 
ment officials, while retired government 
officials have been receiving full cost-of- 
living increases twice a year,” Penello 
observed. 

“I have already stayed on active ser- 
vice more than a year beyond the point 


at which retirement would have been 
most financially advantageous to me, and 
I have sacrificed several cost-of-living in- 
creases as a result.” 

Penello added that he would have had 
to forgo another cost-of-living increase 
if he did not retire by Jan. 16. He said 
that he had stayed on this long and “made 
the sacrifice because I felt that the Presi- 
dent (Carter) would most likely choose 
as my successor someone whose views 
were philosophically incompatible with 
mine.” 

Penello’s NLRB service spans more 
than 43 years. He joined the agency in 
1937 as a field examiner in the agepcy’s 
Baltimore regional office, then served as 
regional director in its St. Louis, Min- 
neapolis, and Baltimore offices. He also 
held the post of associate general counsel 
in charge of field operations. 


Budget, Taxes 
Key Issues in 
97 th Congress 

The 97th Congress moved through its 
opening ceremonies according to a time- 
honored script, but put off consideration 
of any substantive legislation until after 
Jan. 20, when President-elect Ronald 
Reagan will take office. 

For the first time since the final days 
of the Hoover Administration, political 
control of Congress will be split. Republi- 
cans captured 53-47 control of the Senate 
in the November elections, while Demo- 
crats held control of the House with a 
reduced 243-192 majority. 

IN BOTH BODIES, conservatives made 
big gains, and the extent of the tilt to the 
right is likely to be measured early in the 
session when Congress faces big battles 
over budget priorities and tax changes. 

President Carter will submit to Con- 
gress on Jan. 15 — ^just five days before he 
leaves office — a proposed budget for the 
fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, 1981. By all 
accounts, it will be a tight bare-bones 
budget. The incoming Administration is 
expected to propose still further cuts. 

A first skirmish came on the opening 
day of Congress, when House Republicans 
sought, through an amendment to the 
rules, to limit federal outlays to percentage 
of the estimated gross national product for 
that year — starting at 22.5 percent for 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Murders Stir 
Wide Outcry, 
New Support 

By James M, Sheris 

The AFL-CIO will continue to provide 
technical aid to El Salvadoran unions 
seeking to better the lot of peasant-farm- 
ers through a massive land-redistribution 
program “so long as they need and desire 
our help,” Federation President Lane 
Kirkland pledged in the wake of the 
assassination of two American union ad- 
visers and the El Salvadoran union leader 
who headed the agrarian reform project. 

“We call upon the U.S. government to 
reiterate its support for the land-reform 
program for which our brave friends gave 
their lives, and the success of which would 
be their best memorial,” Kirkland said. 

THE VICTIMS were Michael P. Ham- 
mer, 42, of Potomac, Md., Mark D. 
Pearlman, 36, of Seattle — both representa- 
tives of the AFL-CIO’s American Institute 
for Free Labor Development — and Jose 
Rodolfo Viera, 43, the director of the El 
Salvadoran government’s Institute for 
Agrarian Transformation. They died in a 
hail of bullets in a hotel in San Salvador, 
El Salvador’s capital city. 

“These good men were in El Salvador to 
assist that nation’s peasant unions to par- 
ticipate in a land-reform program designed 
to improve the lives of hundreds of 
thousands of small farmers, and to lay the 
foundation for a stable, democratic so- 
ciety,’* Kirkland observed. 

He said the AFL-CIO was “outraged 
and saddened” by the killing of Hammer 
and Pearlman by terrorists, and equally 
grieved by the assassination of Viera, “our 
brother and friend.” who also directed the 
Salvadoran Communal Union, a peasant- 
farmer group organized with AIFLD’s 
help in 1966. 

“THE AFL-CIO calls upon the govern- 
ment of El Salvador to bring those respon- 
sible for these brutal murders to justice, 
and redouble its efforts to bring about 
agrarian reform for the benefit of El 
Salvador’s impoverished workers,” Kirk- 
land said. “Clear title must be granted to 
the 210,000 poor farmers who have been 
promised land. 

“The forces of extremism, the totali- 
tarian right and left, must not be per- 
mitted to destroy the prospects for demo- 
cratic reform, upon which depend the 
hopes of farmers and workers for a more 
peaceful and prosperous life.” 

The assassinations, which followed with- 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Senate Begins Hearings on Cabinet 


By David L. Perlman 

The start of Senate confirmation hear- 
ings on President-elect Ronald Reagan’s 
Cabinet choices gave the nation its first 
authentic glimpse of the Administration 
that will run the government for the next 
four years. 

Reagan completed his Cabinet selections 
with the appointment of Terrell Bell as 
Secretary of Education. Bell is state com- 
missioner of education in Utah and was 
strongly recommended by Sen. Orrin G. 
Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate 
Labor & Human Resources Committee, 
which will hold hearings on the nomina- 
tion. Bell was head of the Office of Edu- 
cation in the Ford Administration, when 
it was under the Dept, of Health. Educa- 
tion & Welfare. 

ONLY A FEW of the Cabinet confir- 
mation hearings had been completed when 
the AFL-CIO News went to press, but 
they pointed up some of the conflict be- 


tween campaign rhetoric and economic 
realities. 

Thus. Treasury Sec.-designate Donald 
T. Regan echoed the Republican conten- 
tion that federal spending is the chief cause 
of inflation and tax cuts for business the 
chief tool of economic recovery. 

But he conceded that the new Admin- 
istration’s programs are not likely to quick- 
ly turn the economy around. 

The best he could anticipate — “if every- 
thing goes well” — is a balanced budget in 
the fourth year of the Administration. 

Regan, who headed the big Merrill 
Lynch chain of stockbrokers, said he con- 
sidered business failures “just part of cap- 
italism” but didn’t rule out further assis- 
tance to the Chrysler Corp. The auto and 
housing industries are “underpinnings” of 
the economy, he said. 

Likewise. Defense Sec.-designate Caspar 
W. Weinberger agreed with the need to 
upgrade the nation's military strength, but 


balked at conservative suggestions for a 
firm commitment to a 5 percent annual 
increase in “real” spending for defense, 
after allowing for inflation. “I don’t believe 
in these fixed percentages,” he testified. 

FORMER PENNSYLVANIA Sen. 
Richard S. Schweiker, chosen to head the 
Dept, of Health & Human Services, warned 
that a later retirement age or a holddown 
on benefits may be necessary to keep the 
social security system solvent. 

He voiced opposition to using general 
tax revenue to supplement the payroll tax 
financing of the old age, disability and 
survivor insurance program. 

Schweiker said he couldn’t support a 
national health insurance program that 
would go beyond “catastrophic” and “fill- 
the-gaps” coverage. Anything more com- 
prehensive “just wouldn’t fit” the Admin- 
istration’s position, he said. 

(Continued on Page 2) 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 



A TRUE STORY is behind “Nine to Five,” a new comedy film about the plight 
of office clerical workers. Service Employees Local 925 in Boston grew out of 
an organization called “9 to 5” one of the earliest unions bom of the women’s 
movement. In a scene from the movie, stars Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane 
Fonda commiserate over unfair treatment at the office. 

Labor Backs Medicare Ban 
On Funds for Union-Busting 


Court Upholds 
NLRB Ruling 
On Stevens 

Richmond, Va. — A federal appellate 
court declared that J. P. Stevens & Co. 
“cannot avoid the shadow of its past” and 
upheld an order by the National Labor 
Relations Board that included a nation- 
wide remedy for unfair labor practices at 
its Rocky Mount, Va., plants during a 
union organizing campaign in 1976. 

Since the NLRB ruling, Stevens has 
reached agreement with the Clothing & 
Textile Workers (ACTWU) on a contract 
covering plants already organized by the 
union and those where workers subse- 
quently vote for union representation. 

ACTWU TERMED the agreement a 
“turning point” in its relations with the 
Stevens chain, which it had battled for 
nearly two decades. 

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, how- 
ever, rejected the textile chain’s conten- 
tion that its past opposition to unioniza- 
tion should not be a factor in the Rocky 
Mount unfair labor practices case. 

The court said the Stevens chain’s “heri- 
tage of intrasigence” justified remedies 
that included the reading and posting of 
notices at all its plants, union access to 
bulletin broads and the right of union 
representatives to speak to workers on 
company time after an election had been 
scheduled. The remedies, for a two-year 
period, were in addition to the specific 
actions required at Rocky Mount. . 

The appellate court said that the 
Stevens management can avoid being 
judged on its past record through “affirma- 
tive steps” demonstrating its change of 
policy “or a sustained period of time with- 
out serious violations.” 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Reagan’s choice for Secretary of the 
Interior, James G. Watt, has thus far 
proved the most controversial of the Cab- 
inet choices. 

WATT HAD headed the Moutain States 
Legal Foundation that was largely financed 
by Joseph Coors, the right-wing Colorado 
brewer, to counter the efforts of conserva- 
tion groups. Former Wisconsin Sen. Gay- 
lord Nelson testified on behalf of the 
Wilderness Society in opposition to Watt. 

At the Senate hearings. Watt defended 
his record and said he favored “a balance 
between the development and protection 
of our natural resources.” 

Agriculture Sec.-designate John R. Block 
said he favored maximum export of agri- 
cultural products, even if it boosted con- 
sumer prices at home, and opposed food 
embargoes except as “a last resort.” He 
said he thought the food stamp program 
could be cut but didn’t have any “specific 
plans” on how it could be done. 

TRANSPORTATION Sec.-designate An- 
drew Lindsay Lewis, Jr., said the decision 
on further aid for the nation’s ailing auto- 
mobile industry will be made by Reagan. 
But he doesn’t think the President-elect 
would “just stand by and watch something 
go belly up if there was something he 
could do about it.” 

Allan L. Swim Dies at 69, 
Publicity Director for CIO 

Daytona Beach, Fla. — Allan L. Swim, 
publicity director of the CIO during the 
1 940s and a retired Foreign Service officer, 
died of cancer Jan. 1 at Halifax Hospital 
here. 

Swim, who was 69, had been a member 
of the Newspaper Guild since 1937 and 
served as president pf the Memphis, Tenn,, 
local. He was publicity director of the CIO 
from 1946 until beginning his governrnent 
career in 1951. Swim was chief of publica- 
tions for the old U.S. Information Agen- 
cy from 1964 to 1969. He retired from 
government service in 1970. 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has 
urged the Health Care Financing Admin- 
istration to continue to prohibit the use 
of Medicare funds to finance union- 
busting programs of hospitals and nursing 
homes. 

The agency, part of the Dept, of 
Health & Human Services, had invited 
public comments on its policy regarding 
expenses related to union activities in 
determining Medicare reimbursements. 

CURRENT POLICY bars reimburse- 
ment for costs incurred to influence health 
care employees for or against union 
representation, but allows as a normal 


Lewis said he personally favors the 55- 
mile-an-hour speed limit but thinks the 
decision on whether to retain it should be 
left to the states. 

Commerce Sec.-designate Malcolm Bald- 
rige said he saw his role in the Reagan 
Cabinet as “aggressively” representing the 
views of businessmen. 

HE FAVORS “top to bottom” deregu- 
lation of business. Consumers should have 
protections, but it would be “inflationary” 
to live in a “no-risk society,” he testified. 

He told the Senate committee that his 
30 years of leadership of a multinational 
corporation gave him the background to 
be “a good Secretary of Commerce.” 

Confirmation hearings were scheduled 
or being held for the other Reagan Cabinet 
selections. The Senate Labor & Human 
Resources Committee scheduled hearings 
on Labor Sec.-designate Raymond J. Don- 
ovan for Jan. 12. Donovan, meanwhile, 
visited the AFL-CIO building for a get- 
acquainted meeting with AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland. 

REAGAN WAS expected to continue 
the post of special trade representative as 
a Cabinet-level office and then turn to the 
appointment of the key sub-Cabinet offi- 
cials — the deputies, assistant secretaries 
and agency heads who will in effect “run 
the government” for the next four years. 

The key White House appointments 
that in all recent administrations have 
been at least as important as Cabinet selec- 
tions do not require Senate confirmation. 
Most of the top staff positions have now 
been filled, but in some cases the division 
of duties has only been broadly indicated. 


New York — Registered nurses at two 
hospitals here have voted in separate elec- 
tions for representation by District 1199. 
the hospital and health care division of the 
Retail. Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. 

Over 580 nurses will be represented at 
Lenox Hill Hospital where the vote for the 
union was 243 to 223. The union won by 
a margin of 47-3 1 at Manhattan Eye, Ear 


business expense the cost of negotiating 
with a union chosen by employees. 

A number of hospitals, like other em- 
ployers, have hired management con- 
sultants and have mounted major cam- 
paigns to thwart union organizing cam- 
paigns. Unions that have been targets of 
such campaigns have charged that hos- 
pitals sometimes get federal funds to subsi- 
dize union-busting despite the govern- 
ment’s policy. 

The existing policy certainly should 
not be weakened, Kirkland insisted. He 
noted that Congress in 1974 affirmed the 
right of health care workers to union 
organization by eliminating the previous 
exemption of non-profit hospitals from 
the National Labor Relations Act. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that the 
government’s policy does not prohibit 
health care institutions from trying to 
prevent union organization by legal means. 

A provider of health care, as an 
employer, “is free to oppose employee 
organization within the limits set by the 
national labor laws,” Kirkland said. But 
no employer has the right to use federal 
subsidies for such a purpose, he stressed, 
just as a union seeking to organize the 
workers has no right to federal funding 
of its organizing campaign. 

By contrast. Kirkland noted, legitimate 
collective bargaining expenses are valid 
costs since federal law requires an em- 
ployer to negotiate in good faith with a 
union chosen by a majority of workers. 


Radio Union 
Merges With 
Deck Officers 

New York — Members of the American 
Radio Association have voted overwhelm- 
ingly to approve a “consolidation agree- 
ment” that joined their union to the Mas- 
ters, Mates & Pilots, the 100-year-old or- 
ganization of licensed deck officers. The 
MM&P, in turn, is an affiliate of the In- 
ternational Longshoremen’s Association. 

News of the ratification vote, fittingly, 
was transmitted to all U.S. merchant ships 
at sea through the ARA Free Press, the 
weekly radio news report the union pro- 
vides for its members alTd “all our ship- 
mates.” 

THE JAN. 5 transmittal carried a wel- 
come from the president of the expanded 
Masters-Mates union, Capt. Robert J. 
Lowen, and a report on the merger by 
ARA President William R. Steinberg, who 
now also is a vice president of the MM&P. 

In a mail referendum of the more than 
500 ARA members, 93 percent approved 
the consolidation agreement. The pact had 
already been approved by the MM&P, in 
a vote taken at the union’s convention last 
July. 

Steinberg will represent the new Com- 
munications & Electronics Group on the 
MM&P executive board and the ARA 
group will continue to negotiate and ad- 
minister its own contracts. 

His report to ARA members at sea 
stressed that “we shall continue to do all 
things that we formerly did. . . . The big 
difference is that we now do all these 
things as ARA-MM&P, part of a larger, 
united organization.” 

The MM&P executive board meeting 
that welcomed the ARA also formally in- 
stalled union officers elected and re-elected 
in a mail referendum conducted by the 
American Arbitration Association. 

LOWEN, WHO WAS elected president 
of the MM&P in 1978 after having served 
as secretary-treasurer, won re-election by 
a 3-1 margin over Charles A. Hemming. 
Others on his slate also won by big mar- 
gins or were unopposed. 

Allen C. Scott was re-elected executive 
vice president and Lloyd M. Martin was 
unopposed for secretary-treasurer. 

Five vice presidents were re-elected and 
Francis Elwood Kyser, former union 
agent in the Port of Mobile, Ala., was 
elected vice president for Gulf Ports to 
succeed Richard M. Casselberry, who re- 
tired. 


whose rights he defended with skill and 
wisdom in a thousand courtroom battles.” 

Kirkland said Abramson was admired 
and respected by his friends at the AFL- 
CIO and that “countless others who never 
knew his name are better off because he 
lived.” 

After graduating from St. John’s School 
of Law in New York, Abramson began 
his trade union career with the CIO’s Tex- 
tile Workers Organizing Committee in 
the mid- 1930s. He later was with the 
Clothing Workers, TWUA, Insurance 
Workers, Jewelry Workers and the Retail, 
Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. 

ABRAMSON SERVED as legal coun- 
sel for the New York-New Jersey district 
of the Electrical, Radio & Machine Work- 
ers in the 1950s. He was appointed gen- 
eral counsel of the lUE in 1965, serving 
until his retirement in 1971. During that 
period, he also was an adviser to the 13- 
union AFL-CIO Coordinated Bargaining 
Committee for General Electric and Wes- 
tinghouse workers. 

In addition to his wife, he is survived 
by two children and five grandchildren. 
Services were held Jan. 8 at Temple 
Sholom in Cedar Grove, N.J. 


Nurses at 2 Hospitals Choose District 1199 


Irving Abramson Dies at 75, 
Labor Activist for 4 Decades 


Essex Fells, N.J. — Irving Abramson, 
who served a number of AFL-CIO unions 
as an organizer, legal counsel and con- 
sultant over four decades dating back to 
the 1930s, died of leukemia Jan. 6 at his 
home here. He was 75. 

Abramson also had been president of the 
New Jersey CIO in the early 1940s and 
played a key role in the merger of the 
Clothing Workers and Textile Workers in 
1976 to form ACTWU. He also was on 
the legal team that won the long court 
battle for Darlington mill workers against 
Milliken Corp. 

IN A MESSAGE to his wife Miriam, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said 
Abramson’s life and work “were a blessing 
to all of the working men and women 


& Throat Hospital where 89 nurses will be 
in the bargaining unit. The union already 
represents service and maintenance em- 
ployees at both facilities. 

Major issues in both campaigns were 
understaffing, forced overtime, lack of 
grievance procedures, and the need for 
greater recognition of nurses’ professional 
skills. 


Senate Hearings Continue 
On Reagan Cabinet Picks 


AFL.CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 


Page Hirer 


Kirkland Mourns Victims, Pledges Aid 


Assassination of Unionists 
Stirs Widespread Outrage 



ASSASSINATED AGRARIAN CHIEF Jose Rodolfo Viera of El Salvador is 
shown as he conferred with AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue during 
his visit to federation headquarters following last November’s U.S. elections. 
Viera, who was also president of the Salvadoran Communal Union, directed 
the massive land-reform program aimed at stabilizing El Salvador by transfer- 
ring thousands of acres of farmland to the country’s restive poor. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

in weeks the slaying of Felipe Zaldivar, 
president of the major democratic urban 
labor center, “are further proof of the 
determination of the extremists to destroy 
democratic institutions,” Kirkland de- 
clared. 

Zaldivar headed the Federacion de 
Sindicatos de la Industria de la Construc- 
cion, Similares, Transporte y de Otras 
Actividades. He was gunned down in front 
of the organization’s headquarters building 
in San Salvador just as he was about to 
embark on a visit to the United States. 

In a letter to Kirkland, President Carter 
said that the land-reform work of Ham- 
mer, Pearlman, and Viera “has not only 
served the cause of social justice; it has 
also been an effective instrument to coun- 
ter the radical Marxism that would replace 
an old tyranny with a new one. 

“In their memory, we must all rededi- 
cate ourselves to put an end to the sense- 
less terrorism of both right and left, and 
to implement the agrarian reform.” 

Carter added that the sacrificial effort of 
Hammer and Pearlman in behalf of the El 
Salvadoran reform project was “a tribute 
to the courage and idealism of the AFL- 
CIO and of the free labor movement in 
this hemisphere.” 

AIFLD EXECUTIVE Director William 
C. Doherty, Jr., said he believed that Ham- 
mer and Pearlman were the first Ameri- 
can trade unionists killed in Latin Amer- 
ica — possibly in the world — while carry- 
ing out their official duties overseas. 

Their assassination came as “a com- 
plete and total shock,” he said, adding: 
“We don’t know who did the killing. It 
could have been people either from the 
extreme right or extreme left. Both have 
killed many thousands of people down 
there.” 

The slayings occurred a month after the 
U.S. government officially protested the 
murder of four American missionaries in 
El Salvador and temporarily withheld 
financial aid from that country, a Cen- 
tral American republic about the size of 
Massachusetts. The missionaries — three 
Roman Catholic nuns and a lay worker — 
were found shot to death southeast of the 
capital. Another American, a private se- 
curity adviser to the El Salvadoran police, 
was killed on Dec. 17. 

PRESSURE FROM poor farm workers 
and sharecroppers for land ownership has 
been a major source of political violence 
in El Salvador during the past year. The 
agrarian reform program, under which 
large plantations have been expropriated. 


with compensation, by the government and 
turned over to peasant-farmers, has been 
under attack from both left-wing, com- 
munist-inspired guerrilla forces intent on 
destabilizing the country and a relatively 
small number of large landholders who 
want to hang on to the status quo. More 
than 9,000 people died last year in the 
most ferocious campaign of violence El 
Salvador has seen in a half-century. 

The U.S. -backed junta, a coalition of 
civilian and military leaders that came into 
power in October 1979, has pledged a full 
investigation into the killings of Hammer, 
Pearlman, and Viera, but El Salvadoran 
police say they have no leads. President 
Jose Napoleon Duarte, the head of the 
junta, said, however, that “in my opinion, 
it was almost certainly an action by the 
extreme right.” 

JULIO ALFREDO Samayoa, El Salva- 
dor’s minister of labor and social security, 
condemned the killing of the three men, 
saying they were ‘^executed by extremists 
who oppose the process of agrarian trans- 
formation, which is being put into effect 
for the benefit of hundreds of thousands 
of campesinos (peasant-farmers).” 

Others also condemned the murders, in- 
cluding free trade union leaders around 
the world. Otto Kersten of the Interna- 
tional Confederation of Free Trade Unions 
in Brussels said in a wire to Kirkland that 
the ICFTU “learned with horror and in- 
dignation of the vile assassination of your 
representatives in El Salvador.” Nicholas 
Redondo and Manuel Simon, general sec- 
retary and international affairs secretary, 
respectively, of Spain’s Union General de 
Trabajadores, also expressed aversion over 
the deaths, and extended sympathies. 

Hammer had been with AIFLD for 17 
years. Jesse A. Friedman, assistant director 
of AIFLD, knew the Paris-bom agricul- 
tural adviser throughout his long and 
varied career with the institute, one of 
three arms through which the AFL-CIO 
maintains an active and extensive trade- 
union foreign service. 

Friedman said that Hammer started 
work at AIFLD on a part-time basis while 
a student at Georgetown University’s 
School of Foreign Service in Washington. 
He received a degree there in 1964, and 
later studied in Switzerland. He spoke five 
languages fluently. 

HAMMER SERVED with AIFLD in 
Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, 
Brazil, and elsewhere in Latin America 
as well as in El Salvador. AIFLD holds 
contracts with the U.S. Agency for Inter- 


national Development (AID), assisting 
trade unions in Central and South America 
and in the Caribbean area. Hammer was 
in El Salvador to help the ruling junta 
carry out the land-reform program, which 
it decreed last March. 

About two years ago. Hammer was put 
in charge of AIFLD’s Agrarian Union De- 
velopment Service in Washington. The 
agency provides technical assistance in es- 
tablishing credit cooperatives for peasant- 
farmers, organizing peasant unions, advis- 
ing workers on their legal rights, and on 
obtaining credit for the purchase of seed 
and harvesting equipment. 

Hammer had arrived in El Salvador on 
the morning of the day on which he and 
his companions were gunned down by 
two unidentified men at San Salvador’s 
Sheraton Hotel, where AID has an office. 

. He is survived by his wife, Magdalena; 
a 17-year-old son, Michael Jr.; his father, 
Edward Hammer of Switzerland; his moth- 
er, Lilly Gunther, who lives in New Jer- 
sey, and a brother, Frank, in Michigan. 

Pearlman joined AIFLD last May as a 
part-time consultant, and went immediately 
to El Salvador to work on new regulations 
for implementing the government’s land- 
redistribution program. He became a full- 
time staff member on Sept. 1. 

A graduate of the University of Wash- 
ington Law School, he had spent three 
years as president of the Navarro Ranch 
Association in California, facilitating the 
subdivision and development of the 2,000- 


acre ranch into parcels averaging 40 acres, 
before he went to El Salvador. His career 
also included a two-year stint in the Philip- 
pines as a Peace Corps volunteer sp>ecial- 
izing in agricultural extension work. 

He is survived by his mother, Mary 
Pearlman, and a sister, Ann Morton, both 
of Seattle. 

Viera, the target of at least four previ- 
ous assassination attempts, visited Wash- 
ington in mid-November, briefing mem- 
bers of President-elect Ronald Reagan’s 
transition team, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, and AIFLD 
officials on El Salvador’s deepening 
political crisis and expressing his concern 
over the implementation of the agrarian 
reform plan. 

Friedman said that Richard Oulahan, 
AIFLD’s country program director in El 
Salvador, quite possibly escaped assassina- 
tion by returning to the capital several 
hours late from a trip to nearby Honduras, 
missing the dinner that he was to have 
attended with his colleagues. Viera and 
Hammer died almost instantly. Pearlman 
died on the way to a hospital. 

Pearlman’s body was flown to Seattle 
for burial Jan. 8. Hammer was buried 
Jan. 9 at Arlington National Cemetery, 
just outside Washington in neighboring 
Virginia. An open memorial mass for 
Hammer is scheduled at Georgetown Uni- 
versity’s Dahlgren Chapel on Jan. 16 at 
1 1 a.m. Msgr. George C. Higgins will de- 
liver the eulogy. 


El Salvador's Land Reform Cultivated Hope 


El Salvador’s “Land to the Tiller” 
agrarian reform program in which Mi- 
chael Hammer, Mark Pearlman, and Jose 
Rodolfo Viera were so inextricably caught 
up and sacrificed their lives, offered that 
country’s peasant-farmers more than just 
a slice of land to call their own. 

The land-reform program held out a 
golden opportunity for the country’s most- 
ly poor inhabitants to latch onto freedom 
and a more prosperous life. Even more, 
the U.S.-backed program — the biggest 
non-communist land reform in Latin 
American history — was seen as a model 
for achieving some semblance of stability, 
pre-empting a Cuban-supported revolution 
that still threatens to throw El Salvador 
into chaos. 

CONCEPTUALLY, the reform pro- 
gram is quite simple and fair to all parties. 
Starting last March, the government ex- 
propriated the large sugar, cotton, and 
coffee plantations in the country and 
turned the land over to 60,000 farm fami- 
lies who had been cultivating it. A month 
later, 7,500 medium-sized holdings were 
transferred to 150,000 families of tenant 
farmers and sharecroppers. 


In return for the land, the former 
owners were to receive cash and bonds 
from the government which, in turn, 
would receive annual payments over 30 
years from the new, present landowners 
that would total the amount that the 
government paid the former owners. 

The program stalled, however, as leftist 
guerrillas and Marxist elements saw the 
land redistribution as a threat to their own 
support and did everything they could to 
disrupt it. Conservatives, including former 
landholders who resented the wholesale 
turnover of prime farmland to the 
peasantry, also opposed the plan — the 
cornerstone of the governing American- 
supported junta’s efforts to liberalize the 
social and economic structure of the 
country. 

Viera had been designated by the 
government to head the reform program, 
and the AFL-CIO’s American Institute 
for Free Labor Development, under a 
contract with the U.S. Agency for Inter- 
national Development (AID), provided 
the much needed technical assistance in 
carrying it out. As AID Director Douglas 
Bennet, Jr., put it, AIFLD’s mission was 


to support the agrarian reform program 
in every possible way. 

“If we could get land distributed to the 
farmers, there would be a much better 
chance of a moderate outcome to the 
tense political situation,” Bennet said in 
a Washington Post interview. “We were 
in the middle of an extremely difficult 
process tried many times in many different 
countries unsuccessfully. We had high 
hopes” for El Salvador. 

The task presented formidable obsta- 
cles. El Salvador’s campesinos (peasant- 
farmers), who make up nearly 40 percent 
of the country’s 5 million inhabitants, 
have lived for centuries as virtual serfs. 
The land-redistribution program offered 
them a chance to gain equity in the land 
they till, creating a stabilizing, middle- 
class constituency. 

AIFLD EXECUTIVE Director William 
C. Doherty, Jr., drew a parallel between 
the agrarian reform plan and the Home- 
stead Act, which in an earlier era helped 
set up family farms in the American Mid- 
west. 

The expropriated estates have been kept 


intact and farmed cooperatively by cam- 
pesinos who now own as much as 17 
acres each, Doherty observed. The hitch 
is, however, that many of the sharecroj>- 
pers have not received clear title to the 
property. Some former landowners this 
summer swooped down on the peasants 
and seized their crops because of the lack 
of titling. 

“That’s where the government was 
dragging its feet,” said Doherty, “and 
that’s where Hammer and Pearlman came 
in.” Hammer, described by colleagues as 
one of the foremost experts on agrarian 
affairs in Latin America, flew to San 
Salvador to see what he could do to in- 
sure the continuance of the land-reform 
project. Pearlman had been there seven 
months, running seminars for employees 
of Viera’s Institute for Agrarian Trans- 
formation on interpreting the junta’s 
March land-redistribution decree. 

There was an air of despair and 
disillusionment over the program which 
Hammer and Pearlman were attempting to 
disj>el when they were cut down by 
automatic-pistol fire. 



Page Four 


AFL^IO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 


^These G€M»d Hfen^ 

* 

T he AFL-CIO is outraged and saddened by the cold-blooded 
murders of American Institute for Free Labor Development 
representatives Michael Hammer and Mark Pearlman by extrem- 
ist forces in El Salvador. 

These good men were in El Salvador to assist that nation’s 
peasant unions to participate in a land-reform program designed 
to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of small farmers 
and to lay the foundation for a stable, democratic society. 

We are equally grieved by the assassination of our brother 
and friend Rodolfo Viera, president of the Union Comunal Sal- 
vadorena, the largest democratic peasant organization in the 
country. 

The AFL-CIO calls upon the government of El Salvador to 
bring those responsible for these brutal murders to justice, and 
to redouble its efforts to bring about agrarian reform for the 
benefit of El Salvador’s impoverished workers. Clear title must 
be granted to the 210,000 poor farmers who have been promised 
land. 

THE FORCES of extremism, the totalitarian right and left, 
must not be permitted to destroy the prospects for democratic 
reform, upon which depend the hopes of farmers and workers 
for a more peaceful and prosperous life. These brutal assassina- 
tions, coming within weeks of the similar cold-blooded killing 
of Felipe Zaldivar, president of the major democratic urban trade 
union center, are further proof of the determination of the ex- 
tremists to destroy democratic institutions. 

The AFL-CIO will continue its support to the rural and urban 
trade unions of El Salvador so long as they need and desire our 
help. We call upon the U.S. government to reiterate its support 
for the land-reform program for which our brave friends gave 
their lives, and the success of which would be their best memorial. 

We extend our deepest, heartfelt condolences to the families of 
Brothers Hammer, Pearlman and Viera. 

— Statement by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. 

The Only Fitting Memorial 

IT AND REFORM is the only sensible course for heading off a 
" brutal civil war, but it cannot succeed as long as the “death 
squads” are able to roam at will. The arrest of the land reformers’ 
assassins could alter the political climate in El Salvador. As a 
step in this direction, the FBI agents who have been allowed to 
investigate the recent murder of. American nuns might be in- 
structed to extend their inquiry. 

The land reform also needs to be pressed forward. About 
60,000 peasant families Have been established as clear owners of 
land expropriated, with compensation, from 300 estates. But land 
titles are still awaited by 150,000 former sharecroppers on 7,500 
other farms. 

Perseverance in the effort is the only fitting memorial to the 
many who have now died for it. 

— From an editorial in the New York Times, Jan. 6, 1981. 


1 " 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL'CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, January 10, 1981 No. 2 | 

S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001-1185) is issued weekly at 815 \ / S 

E Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 5 

= class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not s 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001-1185) is issued weekly at 815 
Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
__ accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
s one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
= the name of the AFL-CIO. 




Bane or Blessing 

Jobs-Productivity Crisis Looms " 
With Computerized Robots 


By Gus Tyler 

H e spoke with awesome authority. The audi- 
ence, made up mainly of business execu- 
tives, was tensely attentive, as he spoke of the 
need to educate the American people about the 
economy. 

“Sixty percent of those we interviewed,” he 
declared, “mistakenly believe that America leads 
the world in productivity.” 

I looked around the hall; heads were wagging 
in despair at this abysmal ignorance of the peo- 
ple. I 

“They have to be informed, educated, told the 
truth,” declaimed our speaker. 

The audience applauded. 

YET, TO TELL the truth, it is the would-be 
educator, not the people, who needs education. 
The fact is that America does lead the world in 
productivity, turning out more per person per 
hour than any other nation. 

The misinformation of the educator — who is 
responsible for a multimillion dollar campaign to 
“educate” the American people on economics — is 
but one of the bits of falsity presently circulating 
on the subject of productivity. 

The word is that other countries are catching 
up with or surpassing us. A simple non-fact! 

We are told that not enough money is going 
into fixed capital investment nowadays. The truth 
is that in 1979 we invested as much as at any 
time in the last 30 years. 

IT IS SUGGESTED that unions, by their re- 
straining presence, cause productivity to lag. The 
fact is that productivity is higher in union plants 
than in comparable non-union plants. 

All these explanations are being propagated on 
the assumption that something is wrong with our 
productive machine at precisely the moment when 
the problem we are about to face is precisely the 
opposite of the problem we are propounding. Be- 
fore 1 990 — within ten years — we will face a cri- 
sis: not too little, but too much, productivity. 

We are at the verge of a new era, as revolution- 
ary in its implications as the Industrial Revolution 
itself, the age of the robot moved by the micro- 
electronic computer. The robot will supply the 
physical substitute for humans, with its hands, 


feet, fingers, eyes, ears; the computer will supply 
the mental substitute for people with its vast 
memory banks, its speedy calculations, its ability 
to make decisions based on millions of permuta- 
tions and combinations researched in seconds. 

THIS REVOLUTION was foreshadowed by ^ 
the automation of the post World War II years. 
But the developments of those years were just an 
inkling of what is to ccwne. 

The computerized robot, the inhuman human, 
cannot be halted. He (she) is fated to dominate 
our economy: factory or store, oflBce or ware- - 
house, perhaps even teaching and transport. 

Like other discoveries and inventions of man — " 
like fire, for instance — the mechanical man can be ^ 
a blessing or a bane, depending how society uses 
the marvelous machine. _ s 

The danger is that when the magical being en- 
ters our lives we will be unprepared, in large part 
because we will be talking about how unproduc- ^ 
tive we are at a moment when each of us is too 
productive — or just permanently unemployed. 1 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns , 

Earthquake in Italy 
Left Trail of Disaster 

I have recently returned from a disheartening 
tour of the Italian earthquake area. 

The agony of Italian families, towns, orphans 
and widows was a stomach-wrenching scene. A 
disaster like the Italian earthquake, covering ^ 
some 10,000 square miles, is incomprehensible 
in its vastness and terrifying in its random un- 
predictability. 

While we have been able to send the Italians 
some earthquake relief aid, clearly our rich and 
sympathetic country is in a position to do even 
more. While the world owes the Italian people ^ 
a tremendous debt for their contributions to 
civilization, art and culture, our strong feelings ^ 
of sympathy and our desire to help now is clear- 
ly based on shared humanity. 

— Robert A. Georgine, president of the 
Building & Construction Trades Dept. 

imiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiHiiiiiiwitiiiiuiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiRmiiiiiiiiiH 



Only 3 Nations 'Free' 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHTNCTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 


Page FIt« 


Human Rights Urged as Focus 
,Of U.S. Policy Toward Africa 


r By Bayard Rustin 

I T IS 30 YEARS since Africa began to emerge 
from the shadows of European colonialism. 
The overwhelming majority of African states have 
had national independence for nearly two dec- 
ades. Enough time has passed for drawing up a 
balance sheet on Africa and the state of African 
democracy. 

A brief survey of the extent of human rights 
and freedoms on that large continent reveals a 
disturbing state of affairs. By the reckoning of 
Freedom House, a respected monitor of human 
rights throughout the world and an organization 
on whose board I serve, of the 46 nations in 
Africa, only three are assessed to be free. A total 
of 17 are judged by Freedom House as partly 
free, and 26 are rated “not free.” 

THE MOST RECENT annual report of Am- 
nesty International, a human rights organization 
which monitors the treatment of political prison- 
ers, is a virtual catalogue of tortures and atroci- 
ties in Africa. 

The world is well aware of the carnage com- 
mitted in the Central African Republic by the 
deposed tyrant and self-styled “emperor” Bokassa 
and in Uganda by deposed dictator Idi Amin. But 
the Amnesty report singles out many other Af- 
rican states for flagrant human rights violations. 
The Cuban-backed Leninist regime in Angola 
continues to ruthlessly suppress dissidents and to 
execute political opponents. 

Ethiopia, another Soviet and Cuban-backed 
regime, has had a succefssion of “Red Terror” 
campaigns against political opponents. These 
campaigns have involved, according to Amnesty 
International, “political arrests, mass killings, the 
exposure in public of the bodies of those sum- 
marily executed, and systematic torture.” Ac- 
cording to informed estimates, by early 1979, 
the Ethiopian regime held over 8,000 political 
prisoners. And, as a consequence of unrelenting 
warfare between Ethiopia and Somalia, 1 .3 mil- 
lion refugees have fled Ethiopia, creating a refu- 
gee problem rivaled only by Cambodia’s. 


SOUTH AFRICA, meanwhile, continues to 
imprison black political leaders, many of whom 
have died in police custody, and to make use of 
“banning orders” to ^xile democratic political op- 
ponents to isolated parts of that country. Addi- 
tionally, there appears to be little lessening of 
ithe racist policy of apartheid, although that policy 
Ms now opposed by significant portions of the 


white population as well as by blacks and other 
non-whites. 

In North Africa, the Tunisian government of 
Habib Bourguiba has been engaged in a relentless 
campaign of harassment and imprisonment 
against independent trade union leaders. 

The list of victims of African regimes of both 
the left and the right mounts daily. Yet the dis- 
cussion of the state of human rights in Africa re- 
ceives scant attention in the western press, and 
was ignored by President-elect Reagan in his 
campaign. 

MOREOVER, Reagan’s victory has been 
greeted with skepticism by many Africans. For 
this reason, the new Administration must act with 
regard to Africa in an intelligent and comprehen- 
sive manner. It is crucial that a Reagan Africa 
policy promote democratic and anti-racist princi- 
ples, while protecting America’s vital interests. 
And it is equally crucial that it be a policy which 
seeks to pressure governments into abolishing 
torture of political prisoners and prohibiting the 
execution of political opponents. 

The road toward such a policy lies in a strat- 
egy that is opposed to apartheid and which simul- 
taneously highlights and opposes the alarming 
escalation of the Soviet and Cuban presence on 
that continent. 

Such a policy would have the endorsement not 
only of many of Africa’s political leaders, but it 
would also enjoy the support of broad segments 
of African society. 

THE QUESTION of democracy and human 
rights in Africa, however, must not be left to gov- 
ernments alone. It is equally the responsibility of 
those who have struggled for civil rights in this 
country. I hesitate to issue the call for a new cam- 
paign. Such declarations, if unsupported by or- 
ganizational commitment, ring hollow and are 
.without lasting significance. 

However, the time is more than ripe for Ameri- 
can blacks and other civil rights advocates to 
begin a discussion of how to help those Africans 
who are committed to democratic ideals and so- 
cial justice. 

In the wake of the controversies surrounding 
the resignation of Andrew Young as United Na- 
tions Ambassador, a number of black leaders 
voiced the opinion that it was time for blacks to 
play a leading role in shaping American foreign 
policy. The question of African human rights and 
the presence of Cuban forces in Africa present 
the opportunity for playing such a leading role. 


Crimp on LoW'Income Housing 

Reagan’s Tight Money Pledge 
Dims Outlook for Construction 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

A DEBATE IS SHAPING UP that will illuminate America’s 
commitment to helping the poor and needy make their way 
out of poverty and build more self-reliant and self-respecting lives. 

Since the “war on poverty” began in 1964, federal income 
transfer and anli-poverty programs have helped 1 1 million people 
leave the poverty population and kept additional millions from 
falling below the poverty line, according to a recent report by a 
presidential advisory panel. 

UNFORTUNATELY, nearly 25 million Americans still live in 
poverty. According to AFL-CIO estimates, the poverty line for 
an urban family is about $8,729 a year as of November 1980. 

The National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity 
recently issued a report, “Critical Choices for the ’80s,” that ad- 
dressed the problems of unemployment, inflation, job creation and 
welfare reform. The report also discussed the fate of human needs 
programs aimed at alleviating these problems. 

Council Chairman Arthur Blaustein pointed out that from 1965 
through 1969, “real gains were made in our efforts to reduce 
poverty, but these trends were reversed dramatically in 1970. In 
1975 alone, there was an increase of 2.5 million poor, the largest 
single-year increase since 1959; and the 1974^75 recession in- 
creased the poverty population by 3 million people.” 

THE REPORT also cites a “frightening pattern” of recent 
shifts in the status of the poverty population that “bodes ill for 
the future.” Certain trends define the pattern of an increasing 
portion of the poverty population represented by women, youth and 
minorities who, the council stresses, are beyond the reach of most 
of the benefits of private sector growth. Among these trends are: 

• The “feminization of poverty.” Almost one of every three 
female-headed families is poor; ateut one in 18 families headed 
by a man is poor. At the present rate, the council says, “the 
poverty population would be composed solely of women and their 
children by about the year 2000.” 

• Growth in poverty among the very young. From 1969 to 
1978, the number of poor children under 18 rose nearly 250,000. 
Their rate of poverty rose by about 14 percent in that time. More 
than one in four Hispanic children and about two in five black 
children were poor in 1978. 

# Growing poverty among racial minorities. In 1967, the rate 
of poverty among black family heads was about 3.75 times that 
of whites. By 1977, it had reached four times that of the white 
population. 

• Geographical changes. The rate of poverty has risen in the 
North and West while falling in the South. The greatest increases 
in poverty rates were among central-city minorities. 

• The elderly are in trouble. They account for much of the 
decrease in official poverty rates during the 1970s — largely due to 
greater social security benefits — but most of the elderly who have 
‘moved out’ of poverty merely moved from a few hundred dollars 
below the poverty line to a few hundred dollars above it. 

THE COUNCIL’S evaluation of the unemployment situation 
revealed similar severe problems and troublesome trends. The 
group reviewed the social costs of recession, inflation and energy 
shortages that have characterized much of the 1970s. It found 
increasing numbers of the unemployed were not nearly as well 
protected by unemployment insurance and other income support 
programs as has been generally thought. 

In fact, the council noted that only about half of the jobless 
receive unemployment compensation, and large numbers of un- 
employed persons receive no food stamps or welfare benefits at all. 


T he incoming Reagan Administration is 
pledged to support the tight money and high 
interest rate policies that are putting a hard 
squeeze on housing and construction, AFL-CIO 
housing analyst Henry Schechter said on Labor 
News Conference. 


A series of such tight money policies since 
World War II has produced a “predictable, pain- 
ful course to high unemployment, loss of national 
product, income and savings that leaves the en- 
tire economy weaker,” Schechter declared. He 
said that coupling those policies with “drastic 
hold-backs of budgetary expenditures” and 


Measure of Quality! 



InireAeiib tf AH 


% 

UrForPnAkIs I 


adl 1 

% 

Unloii Strvicts ^ 


UNION Uin AND SERVICE TRABC 



across-the-board tax cuts will have a severe im- 
pact on low-income Americans. 

THIS IS the same course that the Thatcher 
government in Britain has been following with 
“abysmal failure” — continued high interest rates, 
increased unemployment and no curb on inflation, 
Schechter observed. 

Schechter, director of the federation’s Office of 
Housing & Monetary Policy, renewed the call for 
credit regulations to stem “escalating and wildly 
fluctuating interest rates.” He said that the brief 
use last spring of such authority under the Credit 
Control Act — the first use since the law was 
adopted in 1969 — brought “a dramatic reduction 
in interest rates over a few months,” cutting the 
prime rate from 20 percent to about 10 percent, 
and the mortgage rate from 1 6 percent to 1 1 per- 
cent. 

But the economic recovery stalled when the 
controls were lifted in July, Schechter pointed out, 
adding that “we’re now back where we were about 
this time last year.” 

Reporters questioning Schechter on the AFL- 
CIO produced public affairs program were Calvin 
Zon of Press Associates, Inc., and Alan E. Adams 
of Employment Relations Report. Labor News 
Conference is broadcast weekly on Mutual radio. 


IN RELEASING the council report, Blaustein said: “Those 
so-called new conservatives who have gained national recognition 
by attacking government efforts to help the poor should have the 
honesty to admit that any proposed cuts in the human services 
budget will undo the substantial progress of the past 15 years and 
tumble millions of Americans back below the poverty line.” 



TIGHT MONEY and high interest rate policies that are squeez- 
ing housing and construction are likely to continue with a 
vengeance under the Reagan Administration, Director Henry 
Schechter, center, of the AFL-CIO Office of Housing & Mone- 
tary Policy said on Labor News Conference. Questioning him 
were Alan Adams, left, of Employment Relations Report and 
Calvin 2^n of Press Associates, Inc. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 


Payback Differentials 

Rating Labels on Refrigerators 
Aid Buyers on Energy Savings 


By Esther Margolius 

I F YOU ARE refrigerator shopping, be pre- 
pared to check out the ESP rating of the 
model you select. Aiding you in your calculations 
— and you would be well advised to take pencil 
and paper or calculator — will be a black and gold 
energy guide label which is now government man- 
dated for all models manufactured since May 19, 
1980. 

ESP stands for “Energy Savings Payback.” 
When you decide to pay more initially for an 
energy efficient refrigerator, the low operating 
costs are expected to pay back the differential in 
price between the high efficiency and the stan- 
dard models. The payback period can be spread 
over five years, but is more likely to be realized 
within two or three years. 

For example, one Sears “high efficiency” re- 
frigerator/freezer with an annual operating cost 
of $45 projects an energy savings of $110 over 
five years. All estimates are based on a national 
average rate of 4.97 cents per kilowatt hour. The 
“high efficiency” model price is $50 higher than 
a comparable standard model. So at $22 a year 
energy savings, the payback differential would be 
returned in slightly over two years. 

THE GOVERNMENT energy guide labeling 
program applies to 13 major household appli- 
ances. It is mandated under the 1978 amendment 
to the Energy Act of 1975. 

This labeling is supposed to tell consumers 
how much it will cost to operate the appliance 
and how this cost compares to operating costs of 
all brands of the appliance of similar capacity. 

It should be noted that the differential in op- 
erating costs between standard and efficiency 
models would remain even if, as expected, utility 
rates continue to climb. And the Dept, of Energy 
is counting on the ESP factor to sell consumers 
on buying new efficient models and retiring old 
ones. 

Refrigerator buyers in the past generally have 
ignored operating cost information. For example, 
less costly to operate manual defrost models have 
been bypassed in favor of frost-free models. 

MANY TWO- WORKER families have selected 
large capacity side-by-side combinations. Such 
families favor prepared frozen foods and TV 
dinners, and usually select models which offer 
the most freezer capacity along with refrigerator 
storage together in one compact unit. 

Cost-wise, side by sides are the most expensive 
to buy and operate. However, space restrictions 
in apartments or small kitchens may be a primary 
consideration. Often, two separate units, one 
freezer and one refrigerator, offer both more 


storage and lower operating costs for the two 
than for the side by side. 

If future Dept, of Energy standards prevail, 
the continuance of the side by side may be in 
doubt. Also likely to be cut are the small four- 
to five-cubic-foot models, as well as single-door 
and less expensive standard models in the 10- to 
13-cubic-foot range. Such extras as icemakers 
and door ice and water dispensers may have to 
be dropped. 

CURRENT RESEARCH studies conducted by 
private and government researchers both in Can- 
ada and the United States recommend the double 
door, top freezer/bottom refrigerator combina- 
tion as the most efficient choice. And the overall 
size range selected by most manufacturers is the 
government standard from 16.5- to 18.4-cubic- 
feet models. 

Energy guide labels for high efficiency freezer 
top refrigerators show the operating cost range 
for the above capacity to be from $45 to $88 
annually. All models examined were frost-free. 
Retail sale prices ranged from a low of $422 to 
a high of $860. 

There can be confusion as to which energy 
label gives an accurate appraisal of savings. Be- 
cause many models also feature manufacturer’s 
labels claiming energy savings, consumers could 
be misled into believing such represented “high 
efficiency” models. 

BUYERS ALSO should understand what 
“power saver” switches mean. These switches 
turn off the heating element which helps to de- 
frost frost-free units. The elements are not essen- 
tial in cool dry weather as they would be in hot 
humid conditions. When there is little likelihood 
of frost build-up, they can be turned off. When 
off, operating costs can be cut up to 9 percent. 
Models which utilize heat from condensers in- 
stead of heaters for defrosting obviously would 
not feature such switches. Ask your dealer which 
type is involved. 

Another item to check out is whether the deal- 
er charges for delivery. We found most depart- 
ment stores and catalogue stores do, and such 
charges can add from $10 to $40 more to the 
advertised sale price. But there are many appli- 
ance stores, including discounters, who do not 
charge for delivery and this represents additional 
savings. 

Our research also found that the price differen- 
tial between a standard model and a high effi- 
ciency model could be as low as $30. Prices 
quoted for high Nefficiency refrigerators varied as 
much as $100 for the same models in different 
stores. So careful comparison shopping is ad- 
visable. 

Copyright 1981 by Esther Margolius 


Soup to Nonsense 

Split-Second or Eon— There’s 
No Easy Way to Measure Time 


By Jane Goodsell 

A MONTH: What the first day you give up 
smoking seems like. 

A slight delay: A maitre d’s computation of a 
45-minute wait for a reserved table. 

An instant: A dentist’s estimate of how long 
the drilling will hurt. 

Forever: What that instant feels like to the 
patient. 

One-90th of a second: The interval between 
the time the traffic light turns green, and the 
driver of the car behind you starts honking his 
horn. 

A JIFFY: A wife’s estimate of the time it will 
take her to get ready “so you might as well get 
the car out of the garage, Henry,” during which 
interval she changes her dress, recombs her hair, 
decides she needs more eye makeup, puts a 
pound of split peas on to soak, writes instruc- 


tions to the baby sitter and makes a phone call 
to her mother. 

An hour: A husband’s appraisal of the inter- 
lude between 5 o’clock and 5:15 which he spent 
driving around the block because his wife wasn’t 
waiting for him at the corner of 5th and Main 
as she was supposed to be. 

A couple of minutes: What, according to her, 
she couldn’t have been later than. 

A CENTURY: A child’s evaluation of the 
time gap between one Christmas and another. 

Barely time to turn around: An adult’s ap- 
praisal of the same time span. 

Only yesterday: When it seems to the mother 
of the bride that her daughter was a tiny gurgling 
baby in pink booties. 

A little while: A doctor’s receptionist’s evalua- 
tion of the time between a 10 o’clock appoint- 
ment and the 11:55 summons into the doctor’s 
presence. 



A SOUTH AFRICAN EDITOR, Percy Qoboza, enlists the sup- 
port of AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland for his colleagues in 
their dispute with the white management of a newspaper for 
black readers. Qoboza, who has been in the United States as 
an “editor-in-residence” with the Washington Star, left for 
Johannesburg with assurances of solidarity from Kirkland and 
from the Newspaper Guild. 


Agriculture Yearbook 

Fuel Conservation 
Tied to Home Usage 

By Goody L. Solomon 

T he tendency in January and February is to rein in family 
budgets to accommodate the incoming bills, and thrifty use of 
fuel looms ever more sensible. 

Enter with unexpectedly good timing, “Cutting Energy Costs,” 
the Yearbook of Agriculture. 

After last year’s venture into a colorful and controversial pub- 
lication for children (“What’s to Eat?”) the U.S. Dept, of Agri- 
culture has returned to its traditional format using black and white 
text and illustrations. The latest yearbook — the 81st, by the way — 
is also characteristically thorough. It offers energy saving tips for 
farmers, foresters, food manufacturers and consumers. “Every 
American should find something worthwhile in this volume,” says 
Agriculture Sec. Bob Bergland. 

INDEED, THE BOOK makes plain that food activities provide 
substantial opportunities for fuel conservation. The food system 
overall consumes 16.5 percent of the country’s total energy, with 
2.9 percent going for farm production, 4.8 percent for food pro- 
cessing and manufacture, 0.5 percent for wholesaling, 0.8 percent 
for retailing, 2.8 percent for out-of-home food storage and prepara- 
tion and 4.3 percent for in-home storage and preparation. 

The hard-covered, 408-page book, divided into four major 
sections, has 48 chapters on topics such as better ways to raise 
poultry, cheaper ways to move irrigation water, the do’s and don’t’s 
of home insulation, the energy-efficient home of the future, land- 
scaping to reduce year-round energy bills and tips for home 
appliances. 

To help conserve home use of fuel for food purchasing and 
cooking, here are some tidbits culled from the chapter by Fern 
Hunt, professor of home economics at Ohio State University: 

• Substituting some grains and field crops (soybeans, oats, 
wheat and corn) for high quality animal protein can help lower 
the national energy appetite since animals aren’t efficient in con- 
verting the plants they eat into body mass. 

• As an illustration of the high energy requirements of pro- 
cessing packaging and refrigeration, consider that to slaughter beef 
and pork takes roughly 910 and 1750 BTUs per pound of live 
weight. Making wieners, bologna, ham and such increases energy 
use by 7,000 BTUs per pound of processed meat — or up to 10 
times more. That may be partially offset, of course, when the 
processed meat needs no further heating or cooking before con- 
sumption. 

• When it comes to home cooking, which accounts” for 1.1 
percent of the national fuel bill, work habits make for big differ- 
ences. Writes Hunt: “Energy usage has been shown to vary by as 
much as 50 percent among women doing identical tasks with the 
same kitchen range.” 

How to be efficient? For one suggestion, the pot should be the 
same size as the stovetop burner; vessels too small or too large 
dissipate a lot of heat. For another, when cooking potatoes on 
an electric burner, use a covered saucepan; bring the wafer to a 
boil on a high setting; then transfer to a low-setting — not a medium 
low setting which will use double the amount of electricity for that 
particular job. When cooking with liquids, use very little of it and 
a utensil with a fitted cover; you not only save energy but also 
nutrients and flavor. 

Free copies of “Cutting Energy Costs” are available from U.S. 
senators and representatives who, together, receive 233,450 copies 
for distribution to constituents. Copies can also be purchased 
(price: $9.50) at government bookstores in major cities or by 
sending a check or money order to the Superintendent of Docu- 
ments, Washington, D.C. 20402. (PAI) 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 10, 1981 Page Seven 


Spurred by Union Efforts 

Schools Broaden Study 
Of Labor’s Role, History 



OFFICIAL PICTURE of the National Labor Relations Board shows, standing 
left to right, John C. Truesdale and Don A. Zimmerman, and, sitting left to 
right, Howard Jenkins, Jr., Chairman John H. Fanning, and John A. Penello. 
The photograph was released just before Penello announced plans to resign. 

HRDI Job Placement Total 
Mounts to 90,000 Since ’72 


By Susan Dunlop 

California students will be taking a 
closer look at the place of organized labor 
in American society, thanks to an updated 
economics curriculum adopted by the 
state’s board of education. 

In Maryland, a new law passed by the 
general assembly mandates the teaching 
of labor history in the state’s schools. 

And in Detroit and New York, teachers 
are being provided with lesson plans, class- 
room materials, guest speakers and other 
aids to help them teach labor studies. 

NATIONALLY, more than half a mil- 
lion members of the American Federation 
of Teachers are getting supplies of a color- 
ful new classroom aid, developed by the 
union, for teaching labor history. 

These are a sample of organized labor’s 
active national, state and local efforts to 
encourage positive teaching of labor 
studies in the nation’s school systems. 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Education is 
stepping up its own activities in this area 
in 1981 with programs already under way 
to provide leadership, technical help and 
resource materials to a variety of “labor- 
in-the-schools” programs around the coun- 
try. 

The department’s director, Dorothy 
Shields, emphasizes the federation’s inter- 
est in working with state and local leaders, 
with the Teachers’ union and with support 
groups to correct the “neglect” of fair, 
balanced treatment of the role of organized 
labor in society. 

“THE INDISPENSABLE key to a 
successful labor-in-the-schools program,” 
Shields stresses, “is the knowledge and 
motivation provided by officers and union 
members on the state and local level, and 
the AFL-CIO’s own efforts are deliber- 
ately flexible to help or to complement 
their work. 

Utility Workers 
Elect James Joy 
New President 

James Joy, Jr., 53, has been elected 
president of the Utility Workers by the 
union’s executive board to succeed Valen- 
tine P. Murphy. 

Murphy resigned the office he held since 
1979 to assume lighter duties. Joy will fill 
the unexpired four-year term of the presi- 
dency, and Murphy was elected by the 
board as national executive vice president. 

That post had been held by Joy since 
1975. He has also been business manager 
of the union’s Local 1-2 in New York City 
since 1971. 

Joy is a vice president of the New York 
State AFL-CIO and a member of the exec- 
utive council of the New York City AFL- 
CIO where he served as chairman of the 
community services committee. He has 
been chairman of the New York State 
Utility Labor Council and is a vice presi- 
dent of New York State United Way. 



JAMES JOY, JR. 


“We want to be as supportive as possi- 
ble in all areas in which we are working, 
and rather than hold up any one approach 
as the model, we are encouraging an array 
of unique efforts. 

In the California case, the state board 
of education’s curriculum development 
commission designed its new social science 
framework to include a positive approach 
to the role of trade unions and collective 
bargaining in modern society. The frame- 
work is a written guide used for teaching 
and for textbook selection at all grade 
levels. 

FORMER AFL-CIO Regional Director 
William L. Gilbert, a member of the state 
education board, was instrumental in hav- 
ing the improved curriculum adopted. 

The effort has already borne fruit in a 
new textbook on California history that 
contains a full chapter on the history of 
workers and their unions in the state. The 
text, approved for use by fourth-grade 
students, stresses the ways unions helped 
California workers achieve rights and a 
better standard of living. 

Organized labor is also participating in 
a curriculum review program in Maryland 
where the efforts of the State AFL-CIO 
and interested students led to passage of a 
state law calling for coverage of labor his- 
tory in the schools. 

THE AFL-CIO jointly sponsored an ed- 
ucation conference with the University of 
Maryland to introduce the subject to the 
state’s educators. 

The federation’s Dept, of Education is 
also working with Frontlash, the organiza- 
tion that encourages youth participation in 
labor issues. And a joint program is under 
way in Detroit schools to stimulate the 
interest of high school students in labor 
studies and to provide teachers with in- 
formation, materials and speakers on labor 
topics. 

The Teachers’ union has been active on 
the national and local level to encourage 
increased study of labor issues. In 1981, 
the AFT is publishing a special five-part 
photo essay series, “Working in America,” 
highlighting labor history. The series, 
which is appearing first in the union’s 
journal, the American Teacher, will be 
converted to a set of colorful posters 
available free to teachers for classroom 
use, primarily at the high school level. 

THE POSTERS will contain additional 
text, guides for teachers, and lists of books 
and resources for further study. The proj- 
ect’s chief goal, the union emphasizes, is to 
inspire as many teachers as possible to in- 
clude in their lessons materials on labor 
history and the role of organized labor in 
a democratic society. 

Local Teachers’ unions and individual 
members have also worked hard on cur- 
riculum development, AFT points out. 
Some locals, as part of their collective bar- 
gaining agreements, have negotiated com- 
mitments from school boards to locate 
texts that provide a balanced account of 
labor’s roles. 

The union’s New York City affiliate, the 
United Federation of Teachers, developed 
its own source book of materials on or- 
ganized labor so that it can be used by any 
teacher whether or not he or she has a 
personal background in labor. 

WHILE MANY labor-in-the-schools 
projects are directed at the elementary and 
secondary school levels, the AFL-CIO is 
also active in promoting improved curricu- 
lum development in colleges and universi- 
ties, Shields said. The federation is a mem- 
ber of several advisory councils on sec- 
ondary and higher education where part of 
the focus is on expanding labor studies. 

“It is only fair that young people come 
away from school with a full and honest 
picture of our history, our society, and 
our economy,” Shields said. “Organized 
labor has played a role in the development 
of each of those elements and continues to 
do so, and whether a young person is 
destined for a career as a worker or in 
management, he or she deserves to get the 
whole story.” 


Nearly 90,000 unemployed, under- 
employed or disadvantaged workers have 
been placed directly in jobs by the AFL- 
CIO Human Resources Development In- 
stitute since 1972, according to a report 
prepared for HRDI’s board of trustees. 

The report was presented to the board 
by HRDI Executive Director Michael Ar- 
nold who reviewed the institute’s activities 
and services during the board’s recent 
meeting. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland 
was elected chairman of the 19-member 
board. Alan Kistler, director of the federa- 
tion’s Dept, of Organization & Field Ser- 
vices, was re-elected president and AFL- 
CIO Comptroller William T. Collins was 
re-elected secretary-treasurer of the insti- 
tute, the federation’s employment and 
training arm. 

Arnold discussed HRDI’s programs over 
the past year, which, in addition to its job 
training and placement activities, included 
a broad range of services to labor organi- 
zations to help them participate in federal 
training and employment programs estab- 
lished under the Comprehensive Employ- 
ment & Training Act. 

Arnold stressed the importance of 
HRDI’s role in maintaining a voice for 
organized labor in the shaping of federal 
policy on employment and training and 
its efforts to encourage union participation 
in these programs. 

IN ADDITION to the training and 
placement achievements of HRDI’s 59 
area offices in 36 states, Puerto Rico and 
the District of Columbia, the institute is 
continuing seven special programs intend- 
ed to assist disadvantaged workers in se- 


Newark, N.J. — A U.S. District Court 
judge here refused to block implementa- 
tion of disputed work rules between the 
Longshoremen and several shipping asso- 
ciations over the handling of cargo con- 
tainers. 

In denying a request by the National 
Labor Relations Board’s general counsel 
for a temporary order restraining the ILA 
and five major shipping groups from put- 
ting the work rules in effect. Judge Her- 
bert J. Stern said: 

“THIS IS not the case of a union stand- 
ing with a gun to the employer’s head. 
Rather, the court is being asked to apply 
the pressure.” 

The action stems from a decision by 
the parties last month to begin implement- 
ing the rules, which have been a source of 
legal controversy for a decade. The un- 
ion’s contract provisions with the shippers 
require that stripping and stuffing of con- 


curing “a brighter economic future.” 

These programs include 26 Targeted 
Outreach programs to help women and 
minorities participate in apprenticeship 
programs, two construction and appren- 
ticeship-related programs for native Amer- 
icans, placement and service programs for 
handicapped workers and veterans, a dem- 
onstration program to provide summer 
jobs for young workers, and a Houston- 
based Apprenticeship Opportunity Center 
that offers apprenticeship information, 
placement and referral. 

Over the next five years, the report said, 
HRDI will continue to provide training, 
develop job opportunities, and provide job 
placement while increasing its services and 
technical assistance to the labor move- 
ment, community agencies, schools, em- 
ployers and CETA program operators. 

ARNOLD OUTLINED the institute’s 
five-year plan for expanding its services 
which will include preparation and dis- 
tribution of technical information to na- 
tional and international unions and state 
and local central bodies “to help them keep 
pace with the growing CETA system.” 

HRDI will expand its efforts to provide 
direct, local help to the labor movement 
and CETA officials “to assure labor’s total 
involvement in local programs,” and it will 
expand its training programs for labor offi- 
cials and CETA staff to demonstrate their 
common goals, the report said. 

In addition, HRDI will continue its 
training programs for its own staff to im- 
prove their ability to serve not only jobless 
and disadvantaged workers, but also union 
members who may be laid-off, disabled or 
in need of new skills. 


tainers within 50 miles of all Atlantic and 
Gulf Coast ports be performed by ILA 
members. 

NLRB General Counsel William A. 
Lubbers said that he sought the injunc- 
tion in response to unfair labor practice 
charges by consolidators and truckers. 
The board had held that the work rules 
violated the National Labor Relations 
Act, but last June the Supreme Court set 
aside the decision, remanding the proceed- 
ing to the board for further study. 

THE ILA AND the shippers agreed 
last month to begin enforcing the rules on 
Jan. 1. Under their agreement, the union 
is free to strike on 60 days’ notice if a 
court issues an injunction against the con- 
tainerization rules. 

The dispute involves the transportation 
of cargo in container vans, which can be 
sent by ship and loaded on a truck or 
train at the port. 


Judge Refuses to Prohibit 
ILA Cargo Container Rule 



Page Eight 


A^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, JANUARY 10, 1981 



Congressional Coalition Study 

Job-Linked Investments 
Urged on Pension Funds 



MULTI-MEDIA MATERIALS developed for a tribute to the memory of George 
Meany as “a great humanitarian” are presented by William Aramony, national 
executive of the United Way, to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and Com- 
munity Services Director W^ter G. Davis, right. The salute to Meany was shown 
last winter at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting a month after his death. 
Meany was chosen for the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society award. 

Budget, Rules Votes Mark 
Opening of 97th Congress 


A new study released by the Northeast- 
Midwest Congressional Coalition shows 
that pension funds are usually invested 
without regard for the interests of the 
workers who contribute, accelerating the 
loss of jobs in regions already hit hard by 
plant closings and high unemployment. 

“In effect,” the study says, “workers 
may be assisting in their own future un- 
employment and loss of pension rights.” 

PENSION FUNDS are the ^eatest sin- 
gle source of investment capital in the 
United States, with assets worth 27 per- 
cent of the gross national product. 

The Northeast-Midwest Congressional 
Coalition is a bipartisan organization of 
213 members of Congress from 18 
Northern states. The study, “Pension 
Power for Economic Development,” was 
prepared at the coalition’s request by the 
Northeast-Midwest Institute, an indepen- 
dent research group based in Washington. 

Sen. John H. Chafee <R-R.L), incom- 
ing chairman of the Senate Finance sub- 
committee on saving, pension and invest- 
ment policy, said he will hold hearings 
in 1981 to investigate how pension funds 
are invested. 

“THE WORKERS in our part of the 

High Prime Rate 
Seen Continuing 
Inflation Squeeze 

One major New York bank. Chemical, 
lowered its prime lending rate to 19.5 per- 
cent from 20.5 percent, but other big 
banks held to the 20.5 percent level that 
became the industry standard for all prac- 
tical purposes a week earlier. 

With the cost of money holding at such 
a high level — the prime tends to influence 
all other short-term rates — the immediate 
outlook was for continued inflationary 
pressures on the nation’s economy. 

Meanwhile, a government barometer of 
future economic activity showed surpris- 
ing strength remains in the economy. The 
Commerce Dept.’s index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators for November rose a 
healthy 1.2 percent, the sixth consecutive 
monthly rise. Eight of the 10 indicators 
available for November beamed positive 
signals, the strongest coming from new 
contracts for plant and equipment — up 
16.7 percent in real terms. 

The November rise in the indicators 
compared with an October increase of 
seven-tenths of 1 percent, originally re- 
ported as an increase of nine-tenths of 1 
percent. 


country who participate in pension plans 
could receive substantial long-term bene- 
fits, including greater job security, if more 
of their pension funds were directed to 
local investments,” he said. Chaffee is co- 
chairman of the Northeast-Midwest Senate 
Coalition. 

The 500,000 pension plans in the United 
States own enough stock to control the 
1,000 largest corporations in America, the 
study says. 

The Labor Dept, predicts that the 
wealth of all pension funds — which the 
AFL-CIO estimates exceed $600 billion — 
could grow to $3 trillion by 1995. 

This vast economic power, the study 
says, could be targeted to communities 
where investments are needed to create 
jobs. But the opposite is happening. Pen- 
sion fund managers, seeking the highest 
possible rate of return, are strongly biased 
against firms in the economically troubled 
Northeast and Midwest, accelerating the 
drain of investment capital from areas of 
high unemployment. 

ACCORDING TO the study, state and 
local pension funds for public employees 
often neglect the communities where most 
of their members are employed. Of the 
top 15 public pension plans in the North- 
east-Midwest region, managing a total of 
$69 billion, only three have any policy 
to promote investments in their state. 

For example, only 10 percent of the $3 
billion controlled by the Ohio Public Em- 
ployees Retirement System is invested in 
the state. Another plan, the fund for public 
school teachers in Chicago, manages $758 
million but invests 84 percent of its assets 
outside the city. 

Pension fund managers, the report says, 
almost always invest in large corporations 
and neglect the small businesses that 
create most of the new jobs in the United 
States. Between 1960 and 1976, small 
firms provided 66 percent pf new employ- 
ment, including virtually all of the new 
jobs in the Northeast 

Rep. Robert Edgar (D-Pa.), chairman 
of the congressional coalition, said that 
pension plans should seek a high rate of 
return but not at the expense of the work- 
ers who contribute to the funds. “We can 
no longer tolerate a pattern of pension 
investments that diverts capital from areas 
of high unemployment,” he said. “The 
irony of these investments is that they 
force workers to finance their own un- 
employment, leading to the loss of their 
pension rights.” 

The study recommends changes in fed- 
eral policy, but concludes that most of the 
realistic opportunities to target investments 
can be found in the funds controlled by 
state and local governments. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

fiscal 1982 and dropping each year to a 
ceiling of 20 percent in fiscal 1985. 

REP. JIM JONES (D-C^la.), the new 
chairman of the House Budget Commit- 
tee, had proposed such a formula last 
year. He termed the GOP proposal put 
forth on the opening day “a partisan 
exercise” to embarrass the Democrats and 
urged its rejection. The concept of a spend- 
ing limit formula has to be further “re- 
fined” before it can be made “workable,” 
he told the House. 

The key vote was on a procedural issue, 
and only three Democrats broke ranks to 
vote with the Republican bloc. 

All other opening day votes followed 
party lines, with the Democratic majority 
in the House rejecting Republican attempts 
to gain more representation on the tax- 
writing Ways & Means Committee. 

PARTY RATIOS on most House com- 
mittees were changed to reflect Republican 
election gains, but the Democratic leader- 
ship insisted on a 23-12 ratio on Ways & 
Means, a 33-22 majority on the Appro- 
priations Committee and continued 11-5 
control of the Rules Committee, which 
clears legislation for the House floor. 

In other traditional party-line voting, 
Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. (D-Mass.) was re- 
elected Speaker of the House, and the 
Senate chose Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) 
to the largely honorary post of president 
pro tempore, which normally goes to the 


most senior senator of the majority party. 
O’Neill is second in fhe line of succes- 
sion to the presidency after Vice President 
Bush, and Thurmond is now next in line. 

The big Senate change, however, was 
the switch that made Howard H. Baker, 
Jr. (R-Tenn.) the majority leader, with 
strong control over the scheduling and 
pace of legislation, while Robert C. Byrd 
(D-W.Va.) dropped to minority leader. 

HOUSE AND SENATE members met 
in a brief ceremonial session on Jan. 6 
to hear Vice President Walter F. Mondale, 
in his constitutional role as presiding 
officer of the Senate, announce the count 
of electoral ballots from each state. 

There have been occasional “faithless 
electors” in the past, but this year there 
were no surprises. The count of 489 elec- 
toral votes for the Reagan-Bush ticket and 
89 for the Democratic incumbents mir- 
rored the November election verdict. 

Oswald New President 
Of Research Association 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald is the new president of the Industrial 
Relations Research Association, succeed- 
ing Jack Barbash, professor of economics 
at the University of Wisconsin, Jan. 1. 

The 4,600-member IRRA recently elect- 
ed Richard Prosten, research director of 
the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, to 
a three-year term on the association’s ex- 
ecutive board. 


Other components of the index that 
were favorable were stock prices, vendor 
performance, building permits, the change 
in sensitive raw materials prices, and 
change in total liquid assets. Money supply 
in 1972 dollars and new orders in 1972 
dollars made negative contributions to the 
November index. 


18/01/1 



Booklet Focuses on Pension 


The AFL-CIO has published a new 
booklet, “Investment of Union Pension 
Funds,” designed to help workers gain a 
larger voice in influencing investment 
decisions. 

In the foreword to the publication, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland points 
out that pension funds, with current 
assets exceeding $600 billion, are the 
largest source of external capital for 
American corporations. 

HE NOTES that since only a few plans 
are jointly administered, “most investment 
decisions are made unilaterally without 
workers or their representatives having any 
voice.” 

“The primary purpose of pension funds 
is, with prudent investments, to secure re- 
tirement benefits for workers,” Kirkland 
observes. “Without jeopardizing this pri- 
mary objective, pension funds should in- 
vest to improve the life and conditions of 
working men and women. Unions should 
be in a position to influence the invest- 
ment of pension funds to better serve the 
interests of workers. ... 

“The AFL-CIO will work for the imple- 


mentation of this program in terms of its 
own members and all American workers 
in the national interest for a strong ex- 
panding economy,” Kirkland stresses. 

FEDERATION VICE President John 
H. Lyons, chairman of the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council’s committee on pension 
fund investments, notes in the introduc- 
tion that pension funds too often are in- 
vested in companies that are anti-union, 
export workers’ jobs, ignore safety and 
health protections or otherwise opposed 
workers’ goals. 

Along with the statement and recom- 
mendations adopted by the council at its 
August 1980 meeting, the report contains 
the text of a detailed study that grew out 
of pension resolutions adopted at the past 
two AFL-CIO conventions. The study 
explores pension fund operations and in- 
vestment practices in the United States 
and several other industrialized countries. 
It was prepared for the committee by the 
economic consulting firm of Ruttenberg, 
Friedman, Kilgallon, Gutchess & Asso- 
ciates. 

Four basic objectives outlined in the 


Investment 

council’s report stress the need to: 

• Increase employment through re- 
vitalization of major industries 

• Spur development of worker housing 
and health centers. 

• Improve the ability of workers to 
exercise their rights as shareholders. 

• Exclude from union pension nivest- 
ment portfolios companies whose policies 
are hostile to workers’ rights. 

ONE SECTION of the study distills the 
views of top officials of 28 international 
unions as well as those of experts in 
pension policy and management. 

Serving with Lyons on the Executive 
Council committee are AFL-CIO Vice 
Presidents Murray H. Finley, David J. 
Fitzmaurice, Angelo Fosco, John J. 
O’Donnell, Charles H. Pillard arid William 
W. Winpisinger. Retired Vice President 
George Hardy and the late Paul Hall also 
took part in developing the report. 

Copies of the report are available for 
$2 each from the AFL-CIO Pamphlet 
Division. 



Budget Skimps Nation’s Needs 



A UNION’S FACES are the focus of a new 28-minute color programs, collective bargaining and grievance processing, as 
documentary film produced by the Steelworkers to show well as in many community service activities. The film is 
labor democracy in action. The production features union available on a free loan basis from the USWA headquarters 
members such as those shown here involved in job safety in Pittsburgh. (Story, Page 7.) 


Industrial Revival Tied 
To Coordinated Plans 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland re- 
newed labor’s call for a massive reindus- 
trialization program for the United States 
— to be fueled by carefully targeted in- 
centives rather than indiscriminate tax cuts 
for business. 

Two million manufacturing jobs have 
been wiped out during a decade of erosion 
of the nation’s industrial base, Kirkland 
said. Yet there' is still no “coherent na- 
tional policy” designed to reverse “this 
ominous trend.” 

Kirkland and other participants in a 
two-day conference sponsored by the AFL- 
CIO Industrial Union Dept, challenged the 
“supply-side” economic theory that pros- 
perity and industrial rebirth will stem from 

Year-End Tally 
Puts Jobless Rate 
At 7.4 Percent 

At the end of 1 980, 7,785,000 Ameri- 
cans were unemployed — 1.5 million more 
than in December 1 979, the Bureau of La- 
bor Statistics reported. Adult men ac- 
counted for two-thirds of the increase. 

The December jobless rate of 7.4 per- 
cent was one-tenth of 1 percent below the 
November level. In December 1979, the 
unemployment rate was 6 percent. 

The total labor force, 105 million, was 
down 218,000 in December from the pre- 
vious month, and total employment was 
down 57,000 to 97.2 million while un- 
employment was down 161,000. Thus, the 
slight improvement in the unemployment 
situation was due mainly to a drop in the 
labor force. 

Unemployment for the year averaged 
7.1 percent, about one out of every 14 
American workers, compared with the 5.8 

(Continued on Page 7) 


investment funds generated by across-the- 
board income and business tax cuts. 

THIS TAX CUT prescription, Kirkland 
noted, is coupled with insistence on a re- 
duced role for government. The fate of 
. industries and regions that are experiencing 
economic difficulties would be determined 
by a supposedly competitive marketplace. 

The trade union movement -sharply dis- 
sents from such reasoning, Kirkland 
stressed. 

“We just don't believe that you can 
write off major industries in this country 
without paying for it dearly in the future,” 
he said. 

“Nor do we believe that whole cities 
and regions of America can be allowed to 
decay, while other regions prosper like 
Arab sheikdoms, without serious social 
and economic consequences.” 

AMERICA NEEDS a diversified indus- 
trial base, Kirkland insisted, and that re- 
quires a coordinated national policy shaped 
with the involvement of labor, industry 
and the public. Such targeted economic 
planning, he said, is “a common thread” of 
nations with the most impressive industrial 
growth. 

Kirkland challenged the conservative 
contention that burdensome taxes have 
caused a long-term slowdown in U.S. eco- 
nomic growth. 

In fact, he retorted, U.S. taxes are pro- 
portionately less than in most countries 
with higher growth rates. 

Untargeted tax cuts, such as proposed 
changes in depreciation writeoffs, can be 
counter-productive as well as wasteful, 
Kirkland warned. One “perverse” outcome 
of such a step could “accelerate the move- 
ment of industries and jobs away from 
older regions of the nation.” 

TAX INCENTIVES must be designed 
to achieve specific objectives that fit into 

(Continued on Page 7) 


AFL-CIO Urges 
Congress to Act 
On Auto Crisis 

The AFL-CIO asked the new 97th Con- 
gress to move swiftly on legislation to 
assist the import-battered automobile in- 
dustry and broaden trade adjustment as- 
sistance for workers. 

Both measures passed the House in the 
last Congress but died with adjournment. 
They should be revived as part of a “pack- 
age of remedies,” AFL-CIO Research Di- 
rector Rudy Oswald urged at Senate hear- 
ings. 

THE HEARINGS, by a Senate Finance 
subcommittee, stem from a promise made 
last December after an end-of-the-session 
filibuster threat kept the Senate from act- 
ing on a House-passed resolution author- 
izing negotiations with Japan for a tempo- 
rary limit on automobiles exported to the 
United States. 


By James M. Shevis 

The nation and its labor movement bade 
sad farewell to Michael P. Hammer and 
Mark D. Pearlman, and resolved to con- 
tinue their struggle to improve the welfare 
of El Salvador’s impoverished campesinos. 

“We will not forget this sacrifice. We 
will not abandon their work,” Secretary of 
State Edmund S. Muskie told mourners at 
a funeral mass for Hammer at Fort Myer, 
Va., just outside Washington. Hammer, 
an Air Force veteran, was buried with full 
military honors at Arlington National 
Cemetery, less than a mile from the State 
Dept, and AFL-CIO headquarters with 
which he worked. 

Hammer, 42, and Pearlman, 36, were 
staff representatives of the American Insti- 
tute for Free Labor Development, an in- 


Disappointed 
At Cuts, Caps, 
Kirkland Says 

By David L. Perlman 

President Carter has submitted to Con- 
gress a federal budget that the AFL-CIO 
said fails to meet “the federal government’s 
obligation to strengthen the economy and 
to protect those citizens who need protec- 
tion the most.” 

The budget was drawn up on the grim 
assumption that unemployment and high 
inflation will continue to plague the na- 
tion’s economy. But AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland said labor “is disappointed” 
that it proposes a retreat from programs 
to deal with these problems. 

“RATHER THAN cutting back such 
programs as extended unemployment com- 
pensation benefits, cost-of-living adjust- 
ments for retirees and pay increases for 
federal workers,” Kirkland said, “the pro- 
posed budget should have made the case 
for equity, fairness and full employment.” 

Its fastest-growing component is interest 
payments, he noted, which have soared 43 
percent in two years. 

Except for defense spending, where there 
has been substantial bipartisan support for 
an increase, most government programs 
not involving payments required by law 
would be held below present levels after 
allowance for inflation. 

In fact, to hold the deficit to the $27.5 
billion projected for the fiscal year starting 
Oct. 1, 1981, Congress will have to pass 
legislation that would have the effect of 
reducing future cost-of-living adjustments 
for retirees and food stamp recipients and 
rewrite other laws involving payments to 
the needy and jobless. 

THE BUDGET would move swiftly 
into surplus with any substantial reduction 
of unemployment or inflation, Kirkland 
noted. Thus, “if unemployment were one 
million less in 1982, the proposed budget 
would be in balance.” 

But the budget assumption is that the 
unemployment rate will climb from De- 
cember’s 7.4 percent to 7.7 percent in the 
final quarter of this year, and that the 
inflation rate will be relatively unchanged. 

Carter’s budget message recommended 
against the type of stimulus programs that 
have spurred economic growth during past 
recoveries from recessions. The inflationary 
dangers are too great, he said. 

The proposed budget calls for outlays 
of $739 billion, a real increase of about 1 
percent after inflation adjustment. The pro- 
jected deficit would be about half the esti- 
mated deficit for the current fiscal year. 

DEFENSE SPENDING outlays would 
rise more than 4 percent in constant dol- 
lars — to $184.4 billion, and the projection 
for future years is for annual increases of 
5 percent. 


ternational arm of the AFL-CIO. The two 
were gunned down, along with the head 
of El Salvador’s agrarian-reform program, 
as they sat in a hotel cafe in San Salvador, 


**The just man, though he die early, shall 
be at rest. . . 

— Old Testament reading, 
at Michael Hammer’s funeral 


the capital of that Central-American coun- 
try. 

AIFLD’s executive director, William C. 
Doherty, Jr., announced the posting of a 
$50,000 reward offer for information lead- 
ing to the arrest and final conviction of the 
murderers of the two Americans and Jose 

(Continued on Page 3) 


(Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 7) 

Labor, Nation Join Tribute 
To Slain AIFLD Workers 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 


Prices in ’80 
11.7% Above 
Year Earlier 



MUSICIANS PICKET Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles motion picture and film producers is in its 25th week. The 
in support of their strike over the issue of reuse payments for Musicians are seeking a fairer share of payments from the 
filmed programs on television. The AFM strike against the industry. Negotiations were continuing. 


Labor Urges Congress to Act Flight Attendants 

On Trade Aid, Auto Talks Wta Key Gate in 

Braniff Contract 


(Continued from Page 1) 

When the measure was sidetracked de- 
spite a test vote that showed it would 
easily have passed, Sen. John C. Danforth 
(R-Mo.) promised that the trade subcom- 
mittee he would head in the new Congress 
would hold hearings before Inauguration 
Day. And Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.), the 
new chairman of the full Finance Commit- 
tee, said he would try to clear any legisla- 
tion the panel approved for Senate floor 
action by mid-February. 

Both Oswald and Industrial Union Dept. 
President Howard D. Samuel stressed the 
extent to which a cutback in auto produc- 

Public Broadcast 
Stations Pressed 
On Programming 

The AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional 
Employees has urged that public broad- 
casting be required to use the money it 
receives from tax revenues to “support 
innovative types of programming which 
are unlikely to be underwritten by corpo- 
rate sponsors.” 

The DPE board, meeting under the 
chairmanship of Dept. President A1 
Shanker, also recommended that officers 
and members of AFL-CIO unions be ac- 
tively encouraged to join the governing 
and advisory boards of public broadcasting 
stations “so that the views of labor will be 
considered in the formation of policies for 
those stations.” 

The board, which meets quarterly, also 
received a report on various projects ad- 
ministered by the Labor Institute for 
Human Enrichment, Inc., a non-profit 
foundation created by the department. The 
institute now spends $1 million a year on 
programs linking working people and their 
families to arts activities, adult education 
and professional training. 

IN ADDITION, the department adopted 
a statement on immigration policy pro- 
posing reforms in the existing system of 
admitting non-immigrant aliens into the 
United States for professional and techni- 
cal employment. Too often, the statement 
said, such aliens are admitted for work that 
could be performed by American workers. 
The department’s proposals are being pre- 
sented to the Select Commission on Immi- 
gration & Refugee Policy, which is 
beginning to draft its recommendations to 
the President and Congress. 

Several board members, who recently 
visited Europe under department auspices, 
described how unions in Sweden, England 
and West Germany are coping with the 
effect of rapid technological change on 
employment and the workplace. The trip 
was co-funded by the German Marshall 
Fund of the United States. DPE Director 
Jack Golodner said the department plans 
a major conference next year on interna- 
tional experiences with technological 
change. 


tion ripples through the entire U.S. econ- 
omy. 

IN ADDITION to the auto workers on 
the assembly lines, Samuel noted, auto- 
related job losses have hit hundreds of 
thousands of workers “who produce the 
steel, rubber, fabrics, wiring, electrical 
equipment, glass, aluminum and other ma- 
terials and components that go into fin- 
ished automobiles and trucks.” 

The lost jobs mean less tax revenues, 
Oswald added, along with higher unem- 
ployment compensation outlays and even- 
tually greater welfare costs. “The impact 
also spreads to the rest of the community,” 
he said. Thus, Michigan had to furlough 
1 ,800 state employees because of a severe 
revenue drop “directly related to the auto 
crisis.” 

The union witnesses pointed to both 
import restrictions and domestic content 
requirements imposed by much of the 
world to benefit their domestic auto ‘ in- 
dustries. 

But the United States has “virtually no 
tariff on cars,” Oswald noted, and U.S. 
auto producers are expanding operations 
abroad rather than in the United States 
to comply with requirements imposed by 
other nations. 

Samuel welcomed a new interpretation 
by the Justice Dept, that the President 
does in fact have the constitutional author- 
ity to enter into negotiations with a foreign 
government to seek import restraints, ap- 
parently reversing the department’s earlier 
concern that this might violate antitrust 
laws unless Congress^ specifically allowed 
it. And he noted the apparent support ex- 
pressed by Commerce Sec.-designate Mal- 
colm Baldrige earlier this month. 

SUPPORT FOR negotiations with Ja- 
pan also came from outgoing Transporta- 
tion Sec. Neil Goldschmidt, who on Jan. 
14 released a study by his department 
concluding that continued inroads by for- 
eign cars in the U.S. market will mean 
the loss of an additional 500,000 manufac- 
turing jobs over the next 10 years. 

Oswald told the Senate panel that the 
AFL-CIO considers the adjustment as- 
sistance program a necessary part of over- 
all trade policy but not as the answer to 
import problems. 

The best step, he stressed, is to prevent 
the loss of jobs in the first place. 

But because jobs have been lost and are 
being lost, Oswald said, the adjustment 
assistance program must be made more 
adequate and more equitable. A key griev- 
ance has been the failure of the current 
program to cover job losses among work- 
ers who make components or who pro- 
vide related services. 

OSWALD URGED revival of legisla- 
tion the House passed in the last Congress 
in “an attempt to correct some obvious 
injustices in the law.” 

The legislation is needed and should 
be quickly enacted, he urged. And Con- 
gress should further “direct the President 
to negotiate immediate import quotas for 
the importation of automobiles and of auto 
parts.” 


The Flight Attendants ratified a new 
two-year agreement with Braniff Interna- 
tional providing for a wage increase of 
about 25 percent over the duration of the 
contract. 

The pact provides for three salary hikes 
over the next two years as well as two 
cost-of-livirig adjustments. Differential pay 
for extra duties such as night and galley 
work also is included. Pay for special 
qualifications, such as speaking a foreign 
language, is increased substantially. 

The new contract also provides for 
extra pay on holidays, a trend established 
by the union with United Air Lines. The 
agreement also provides for company-paid 
personal time off. 

The pact, reached 23 days before ex- 
piration of the old agreement, improves 
the retirement outlook for the 2,900 Bran- 
iff flight attendants affected by its terms. 
The contract maintains the existing savings 
plan, in which both flight attendants and 
the company contribute, and establishes a 
company-paid, defined benefit plan. Braniff 
thus becomes the first major carrier in the 
industry with two retirement plans to 
which the company contributes and which 
are not offset by the other. 

Another provision in the contract binds 
any successor or merged company to the 
agreement. AFA President Linda A. Pu- 
chala pointed out: “With many changes 
occurring within Braniff, as well as the 
possibility of a merger with Eastern Air- 
lines, the flight attendants can be assured 
their rights will be completely protected.” 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has issued a new cotton dust 
respirator policy that requires workers to 
wear respirators only for as much time 
each workday as is necessary to keep 
their exposure within federal limits. 

The new policy replaces an earlier 
respirator provision in OSHA’s cotton dust 
standard, which was vacated after a 75- 
day administrative stay that ended Dec. 15. 

OSHA SAID the stay became necessary 
after widespread misunderstanding de- 
veloped in the textile industry on how 
the respirator regulation should be imple- 
mented. Agency officials said many work- 
ers were being burdened with unnecessary 
respirator wear while others were not 
being fully protected against the cotton 
dust hazard — the debilitating brown lung 
disease and related respiratory illnesses. 

The new respirator policy resulted from 
a series of meetings involving officials of 
OSHA and the National Institute of Oc- 
cupational Safety & Health as well as un- 
ion and industry representatives. 

After issuing the new policy, OSHA 
extended the stay an additional 30 days to 
allow workers and employers in the textile 
industry to become familiar with the poli- 


Wholesale prices rose six-tenths of 1 
percent in December, the same as in No- 
vember, pushing the government’s pro- 
ducer price index for finished goods up 
11.7 percent from a year earlier. 

The over-the-year change was slightly 
less than the 12.6 percent rise posted in 
1979, Commissioner Janet L. Norwood of 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics told the 
congressional Joint Economic Committee, 
because the rates of price increase for fin- 
ished energy goods and consumer foods 
decelerated. However, she noted that non- 
energy items increased more in 1980 than 
in the previous year. 

ENERGY PRICES rose 1.6 percent last 
month, with gasoline prices up 1.5 percent, 
and heating oil up 1.9 percent, BLS re- 
ported, the second month in a row that 
they have increased by more than 1 per- 
cent. Some economists have predicted that 
rising energy prices will be the key infla- 
tionary problem this year, and Norwood 
told the congressional panel: 

“The fact that energy prices have accel- 
erated significantly in recent months, after 
several months of moderation, bears watch- 
ing. Although these prices are not now 
increasing at the levels registered late last 
year and early in 1980, the magnitude and 
duration of changes in energy prices in the 
coming months will be an important fac- 
tor in the inflationary climate for 1981.” 

The rather moderate December rise in 
wholesale prices was assisted by a decline 
of four-tenths of 1 percent in food prices, 
including an 18.5-percent plunge in sugar 
prices. Prices for meat, poultry, and fish 
also dropped — by amounts ranging from 
6.8 percent for pork to one-tenth of 1 per- 
cent for beef and veal — and fresh fruit 
prices dropped 4 percent. 

But there were large increases for fresh 
and dried vegetables, up 4.7 percent; eggs, 
up 2.6 percent, and milled rice, up 4 per- 
cent. 

THE INCREASE in food prices that the 
Agriculture Dept, has predicted has not 
yet begun to show up in the producer 
price index. The department expects food 
prices to rise about 1 percent a month this 
year. 

Food prices declined in December at all 
three stages of processing — finished, inter- 
mediate, and crude. But prices for non- 
food finished items rose nine-tenths of 1 
percent, after rising seven-tenths of 1 per- 
cent the month before. 


cy’s provisions by the end of January. 

IN EXPLAINING the provision. As- 
sistant Labor Sec. Eula Bingham noted 
that workers may only have to wear 
respirators part-time during an eight-hour 
shift depending on the volume of cotton 
dust in the workplace atmosphere. 

Respirator use will be required until 
Mar. 27, 1984, when employers must 
have fully effective engineering and work 
practice controls in place. 

Bingham, who heads OSHA, said that 
respirators “are not the solution to the dan- 
gers posed by cotton dust.” But until em- 
ployers meet the workplace air quality pro- 
visions through the installation of engi- 
neering controls, “respirators currently 
offer the best alternative protection,” she 
said. 

THE FEDERAL cotton dust standard 
provides for graduated exposure limits in 
various segments of the cotton processing 
and textile industry. Over an eight-hour 
workday, it limits exposure to 200 micro- 
grams of lint-free respirable cotton dust 
per cubic meter of air in yarn manufac- 
turing processes; 500 micrograms in non- 
textile industries, and 750 micrograms for 
slashing and weaving. 


OSHA Issues Revised PoKcy 
On Cotton Dust Respirators 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C„ JANUARY 17, 1981 


Pa^c Tbrc« 



Nation, Labor Mourn Slain AIFLD Workers 


for Michael Hammer of Potomac, Md. At a memorial service at AFL-CIO 
headquarters for Mark Pearlman of Seattle, officials included AIFLD Executive- 
Director William C. Doherty, Jr., seated next to Labor Sec. Ray Marshall, and 
Federation President Lane Kirkland. Muskie declared renewed U.S. support for 
AIFLD’s land-reform efforts in El Salvador in remarks at the Hammer service. 


FINAL HONORS for two representatives of the AFL-CIO’s American Institute 
for Free Labor Development murdered in El Salvador drew hundreds of their 
friends, colleagues, and sympathizers at separate services for them. At left. Vice 
President Walter Mondale and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie were among 
those who crowded into Memorial Chapel at Fort Myer, Va. for a funeral mass 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Rodolfo Viera, 43, director of the El Sal- 
vadoran government’s Institute for Agrar- 
ian Transformation. 

Viera, who also headed the Salvadoran 
Communal Union, a peasant-farmer group 
organized with AIFLD’s help, sought to 
carry out a sweeping land-reform project 
designed to give stability to El Salvador 
by turning over farmland to the country’s 
landless poor. 

At the funeral mass for Hammer, Sec- 
retary of State Muskie observed that 
“Mike gave his life for his country and 
the service of the. American labor move- 
ment. He was making solidarity a reality 
by helping workers in other countries build 
stronger institutions and better lives. Our 
government supported his work, and we 
commit ourselves to it once again in his 
memory.” 

AT A MEMORIAL service for Pearl- 
man at AFL-CIO headquarters, AIFLD’s 


State prevailing wage laws do not inflate 
the cost of public construction, a study by 
the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights 
concludes. 

The study examines the costs of new 
school construction in states with and with- 
out prevailing wage laws. 

Some 39 states currently have “little 
Davis-Bacon” laws in force that require 
workers on state-funded construction 
projects be paid no less than locally pre- 
vailing wage rates. The state laws are 
patterned after the Davis-Bacon Act that 
provides payment of prevailing wages on 
federally funded construction. 

THE STUDY used separate construc- 
tion cost data for elementary and sec- 
ondary schools, ranking the 48 contiguous 
states in order of cost per classroom of 
new secondary school buildings. These 
costs were adjusted for inflation and the 
averages for each state were also adjusted 
by a state price index to compensate for 
the general effects of interstate price 
differences. 

Of the 20 states with the lowest per 
classroom average costs, ten have fully 
applicable prevailing wage laws. Of the 20 
states with the highest costs, nine have 
wage laws which only partially cover or are 
not all applicable to school construction. 
The study used additional statistical tech- 
niques to analyze school cost factors. 

THESE FACTORS included the gen- 
eral level of costs and prices in each state, 
the degree of urbanization in each state, 
climate and the presence or absence of a 
state prevailing wage law. 

The additional analysis confirmed that 
the factor of prevailing wage laws had no 
significant effect on costs, but that the 
first three factors were statistically signifi- 
cant. 

This finding refutes a previous study 


Doherty declared that the three murdered 
men had not died in vain. 

“Despite all the problems in El Salvador, 
there are today thousands of campesinos 
(peasant-farmers) living just a little bit 
better” because of the efforts of Hammer, 
Pearlman, and Viera to help them get their 
own plots of land, Doherty observed. 

“When they get clear title to the land — 
as surely they will in the near future — this 
will be a fitting memorial” for the three, 
he said. As AIFLD’s representatives. Ham- 
mer and Pearlman advised the El Salva- 
doran government on new regulations to 
implement its land-reform program, par- 
ticularly the thorny legal problems in- 
volved in conveying titles to the peasants. 

Pearlman, whose family requested that 
he be buried in his home city of Seattle, 
was an “amiable, affable, dedicated, and 
brilliant young man,” who could have 
chosen the life of a comfortable lawyer in 
California, where he worked before going 


prepared under the auspices of the Asso- 
cited Builders & Contractors, an organiza- 
tions of non-union contractors. 

President Robert A. Georgine of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept, said 4n a preface to the report that 
“state prevailing wage laws continue to 
perform important functions in protecting 
the interests of workers, contractors and 
taxpayers. . . . They ensure that the eco- 
nomic power of the government is not 
used to undermine the labor standards of 
the local community.” 

Georgine, who also is president of the 
center, pointed out that contractors benefit 
from prevailing wage laws which help 
eliminate cut-throat competition based on 
substandard wages. 

Copies of the study are available from 
the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, 815 
Sixteenth St., N.W., Room 603, Washing- 
ton, D.C. 20006, at $2.50 each. 


The Supreme Court has agreed to 
examine whether an employer’s decision 
to close a supposedly unprofitable opera- 
tion is a mandatory subject for collective 
bargaining. 

The court said it will consider a new 
standard announced by the 2nd Circuit 
Court of Appeals last July. The appeals 
court held that the bargaining duty extends 
to a company’s decision to close part of its 
operations if such bargaining “could rea- 
sonably be exp^ted to modify or reverse” 
management’s decision to close. 

THE CASE involves the First National 
Maintenance Corp., a Brooklyn, N.Y., 
company that supplies housekeeping and 
maintenance services and workers to nurs- 
ing homes, and District 1199, the health 


to El Salvador, Doherty said. Instead, he 
opted for a life of involvement in behalf 
of the poor, the AIFLD official said. 

Turning to Rabbi Morton Kanter, who 
officiated at the service, Doherty declared: 
“Mark was a man, a real man. I believe, 
rabbi, in Yiddish you have an expression 
that summarizes such a person. He was a 
mensch.” 

TRIBUTES TO Pearlman and Hammer 
poured in to AFL-CIO headquarters from 
trade unionists around the world. Histad- 
rut’s Sec. Gen. Yerucham Meshel’s mes- 
sage was typical. “We are deeply shocked 
by the brutal, senseless assassination of 
your two good people,” the Israeli labor 
leader wired. “We know how committed 
Hammer and Pearlman were to promoting 
development and reform in Latin Amer- 
ica.” 

Attending the service for Pearlman were 
AFL-CIO President Kirkland, Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, Labor Sec. Ray 
Marshall, Sec.-Gen. Alejandro Orfila of 
the Organization of American States, U.S. 
Ambassador to El Salvador Robert E. 
White, and representatives of the interna- 
tional labor and diplomatic community. 

More than 300 friends, relatives, and 
sympathizers crowded into Fort Myer’s 
Memorial Chapel, just across the Potomac 
River from the Lincoln Memorial, for the 
funeral mass that preceded Hammer’s 
burial. 

IN A EULOGY delivered in both Eng- 
lish and Spanish, Rev. John M. McCor- 
mick described Hammer as “a martyr who 
died for the cause of the poor and the 
oppressed.” A close friend of the Hammer 
family, the homilist added: 

“He gave his blood because he loved 
people, and that is why the reforms he 
brought about avoided all extremisms. His 
land reforms were truly moderate and 
democratic. He loved the simple, humble 
campesinos of Latin and Central America 
and especially, in the more recent years 
of his life, of El Salvador.” 

Hammer, bom in Paris of German 
parents, spent his early youth in Ecuador. 
He served four years in the U.S. Air Force 
after becoming a naturalized American 
citizen, and for a time was stationed in 


care division of the Retail, Wholesale & 
Dept. Store Union. 

When First National closed its un- 
profitable operations at the Greenpark 
Care Center nursing home in 1977, the 
union charged that it had not been notified 
of the layoffs. District 1199 had been cer- 
tified as bargaining agent only two months 
before the July 31 closing 

THE ONLY conversation with a union 
representative over the decision was on 
July 28, when a union officer called the 
company, and asked it to “stay on” at 
Greenpark. The employer said that there 
was “nothing to discuss.” 

The National Labor Relations Board 
ruled in favor of the union, and ordered 
the company to reinstate 35 affected work- 


Spain, where he met his wife, Magdalena. 
A graduate of Georgetown University’s 
School of Foreign Service, he spoke five 
languages and had spent much of his 17- 
year AIFLD career in Latin America pro- 
moting land reform. 

Archbishop James A. Hickey of the 
Washington archdiocese officiated at the 
Hammer funeral service, assisted by eight 
concelebrants, including Msgr. George C. 
Higgins. 

Representatives of the Carter and in- 
coming Reagan Administrations joined 
Kirkland, Donahue, other Executive Coun- 
cil members, and representatives of the 
international labor and diplomatic worlds 
in paying homage to Hammer. 

Vice President Walter Mondale; Pat 
Derian, assistant Secretary of State for 
Human Rights & Humanitarian Affairs; 
William G. Bowdler, assistant Secretary of 
State for Inter-American Affairs, and Am- 
bassador White represented the Carter Ad- 
ministration. 

Representing the new Administration 
were Georgetown Prof. Jeane J. Kirkpat- 
rick, Reagan’s nominee as ambassador to 
the United Nations, and Richard V. Allen, 
foreign policy adviser to President-elect 
Reagan. 

THE LARGE delegation of internation- 
al labor leaders included Frank G. Wal- 
cott, president of the Barbados Workers 
Union; Helcio Maghenzani of Brazil, In- 
ter-American representative of the Postal, 
Telephone & Telegraph International; Jose 
Vargas, president of the Venezuelan Con- 
federation of Workers; Sec.-Gen. Dean 
Butcher of the Panamanian Confederation 
of Workers, and Juan Jose Del Pino, gen- 
eral secretary of the Inter-American Re- 
gional Organization of Workers. 

Also attending were OAS Sec.-Gen. Or- 
fila; Henry Geyelin, president of the Coun- 
cil of the Americas, and Peter Grace, pres- 
ident of Grace Co., and chairman of 
AIFLD’s board of trustees. 

A memorial mass for Hammer was held 
Jan. 15 at Georgetown University’s Dahl- 
gren Chapel. Timothy S. Healy, S.J., pres- 
ident of the university, was the principal 
celebrant. 


ers. It also ordered the employer to bargain 
about the decision to close, and if no 
agreement to resume operations is reached, 
to bargain over the effects of the closing 
and establish preferential hiring for the 
terminated employees at other operations. 
It also granted back pay for the discharged 
workers. 

When First National appealed, the 2nd 
Circuit Court affirmed the NLRB order. 
Over the objections of the NLRB, the 
Supreme Court now has agreed to hear 
the case. 

In affirming the NLRB order, the ap- 
peals court ruled that the closing was a 
mandatory subject of bargaining, affecting 
the employees’ terms and conditions of 
employment. 


Study Refutes Cost Criticism 
Of Prevailing Wage Laws 


Court to Review Bargaining on Closing Case 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 


Essence of Democracy 

A ll AMERICANS can take pride in the inauguration of Ron- 
. aid Reagan as the 40th President of the United States, in- 
cluding the nearly 35 million who cast their ballots for Jimmy 
Carter last November. 

The invariably moving ceremony at the Capitol symbolizes 
the essence of democracy — the peaceful transfer of power follow- 
ing a free election. 

Some of the trappings of democracy have been borrowed by 
countries where political succession is handed down by a small 
clique and political changes come from the barrel of a gun. But 
the people in those countries know the difference. It is not just for 
its material prosperity that the United States has been a beacon 
for the oppressed people of the world. 

IN OUR INAUGURAL ceremony, participation by the legis- 
lative and judicial branches of our government reminds us that 
power is shared through the checks and balances so carefully 
drawn up by the nation’s founders. But while a president may 
not always be able to get a bill through Congress and may have 
to bow to a court order, his actions can touch off world-shaking 
events. 

It is this awesome responsibility that will pass from President 
Carter to President Reagan at noon on the 20th of January. 

May he bear it well, in the best traditions of his predecessors 
as President of the United States. 

. And whether it be in the next presidential election or in some 
subsequent election, a new Administration will take office and 
the reins of government will again be handed over. 

As President Ford said four years ago in a graceful final mes- 
sage to Congress, “The people have spoken; they have chosen 
a new President and a new Congress to work their will.” And to 
his successor, he wished “the very best in all that is good for our 
country.” 

A First Priority 

I F THE economic assumptions of the budget submitted by Presi- 
dent Carter hold up, it is grim news for America’s workers and 
for the millions of young people who will be entering the workforce 
m the years to come. 

The unemployment rate, now 7.4 percent, is projected to climb 
to 7.7 percent by the final quarter of this year and to average 7.5 
percent for the whole of 1982. Not until the end of 1986 would 
the jobless rate even dip below 6 percent. 

These are projections, but they do not have to take place and 
should not be allowed to come about. 

AS THE BUDGET itself explains: “The economy and the 
budget are interrelated. . . . Both budget outlays and the tax 
structure have substantial effects on national output, employment 
and inflation.” 

The unemployment rate can and must be brought down. That 
should be a first priority for a new Administration and a new 
Congress. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of^ Labor and 


Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 


Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


s Vol. XXVI Saturday, January 17, 1981 No. 3 E 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 000I-II85) is issued weekly at 815 
Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
the name of the AFL-CIO. 








‘It’s Your Turn!’ 






On Commerce Dept 's Goofs 

Poor*Mouthing Corporations 
Shift Burden to Taxpayers 


By Gus Tyler 

I N THEIR continuing campaign to have their 
taxes reduced, American corporations have 
been pleading poverty. They cite the low level 
of investment in factories and equipment as proof 
that American business is not sufficiently affluent 
to do its job as the nation’s employer and in- 
novator. 

To make their case, corporate advocates have 
regularly quoted the figures issued by the Com- 
merce Dept.’s Bureau of Economic Analysis in 
publications referring to “Expenditures for New 
Plant and Equipment.” 

It now appears that these highly authoritative 
‘facts” are not facts at all. They are only part of 
the truth that, standing by itself, becomes a total 
untruth. For instance: 

IN 1972, the bureau declared that $88.4 bil- 
lion had been spent for investment in plant and 
equipment. It now turns out that a more accurate 
reading shows that, for the same year, the invest- 
ment figure should read $120.2 billion, an error 
of 36 percent. 

The source of the new information is — ^believe 
it or not — the Bureau of Economic Analysis 
itself. It is now updating its data — not by uncov- 
ering new facts but by a reinterpretation of old 
facts. 

But 1972 was not the only year of error. Every 
year since has followed the pattern. The only 
difference between 1972 and 1977 (the last year 
on which we have statistics) is that as time went 
by the error got bigger. 

In 1972, the error was 36 percent; in 1973, 
38 percent; in 1974, 40 percent; in 1975, 40 per- 
cent; in 1976, 42 percent; and in 1977, a whop- 
ping 46 percent. 

ALL THE ERRORS are one-sided: they all 
understate the sums put into plant and equip- 
ment. The reason is that through all those years 
there were certain categories of investment in 
businesses that just were not included. 

About one-third of the sum omitted from the 
calculations was money that went into commer- 
cial real estate, so that if a company bought land 
on which to build a factory, the purchase of the 
land was not included as an investment. 

The other two-thirds of the error, however. 


was the omission of investments that went very 
clearly both for factories and for equipment. 
These plants and machinery were bought by 
banks and then leased to companies, with neither 
the banks nor the companies reporting them as 
investments in production. 

The banks did not include these investments 
as “investments” because they were merely rent- 
ing them to others — ^like a car rental company. 
The corporations did not report these investments 
as “investments” because the companies were 
merely leasing from the banks. And so between 
the two of them, neither recorded any investment 
although, as a simple matter of fact, more than 
$100 billion a year was being invested in plant 
and equipment through the joint efforts of these 
financiers and their “renters,” 

Based on these original errors, corporations 
have been able to persuade Congress that they 
deserve tax breaks — which they have been get- 
ting over the years in ever greater chunks. And 
as a result of that, you — the individual tax- 
payer — have been paying more in taxes. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

Human Rights Battle 
Seen 'Far From Over' 

The struggle for human rights overrides all 
differences of color, nation or language. 

Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst 
for human dignity, and who suffer for the sake 
of justice are the patriots of this cause. 

The battle for human rights — at home and 
abroad — ^is far from over. 

If we are to serve as a beacon for human 
rights, we must continue to perfect here at 
home the rights and values which we espouse 
around the world: A decent education for our 
children, adequate care for all Americans, an 
end to discrimination against minorities and 
women, a job for all those able to work, and 
freedom from injustice. 

I intend to work as a citizen, as I have 
worked as President, for the values this nation 
was founded to secure. 

— From President Cartels farewell address to 
the American people, Jan. 14, 1981. 







r 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 


Page Five 


Attacking Joblessness, Inflation 


Full Employment Goals Keyed 
To Effective Economic Policy 


The following is excerpted from testimony by 
AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald to the 
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban 
Affairs, Jan, 8', 1981. 

T he AFL-CIO is deeply concerned about the 
effect of current economic conditions on 
workers and their families who are among the 
chief victims of unemployment and inflation. 

The unemployment situation is serious — and it 
is likely to get worse. Approximately 8 million 
people are unemployed by the official count. An- 
other 1 million “discouraged workers” have 
stopped looking for work and therefore don’t 
appear in the official unemployment count. And 
another 4 million workers are on part-time sched- 
ules because of the recession. 

The U.S. economy began to deteriorate seri- 
ously a year ago in January of 1980. However, 
since the recession of 1973-75, unemployment 
never got below 5.7 percent — compared to un- 
employment rates of less than 5 percent prior to 
the recession and of less than 4 percent in the 
1960s. Since January a year ago unemployment 
has gone up by 1.3 percentage points, represent- 
ing an additional 1.5 million workers without 
jobs. 

For the full year 1981, many economists are 
forecasting an unemployment rate of 8-8.5 per- 
cent — and such an average means that unemploy- 
ment will be even higher in the course of the 
year, perhaps up to 9 percent or even higher 
during 1981. 

^ WORSE YET, the total number of people hit 
by unemployment in the course of a year .is sub- 
stantially higher — ^in contrast to the number un- 
employed in one particular month. Since 1959, 
the total number of workers experiencing unem- 
ployment during a year has been 2.7 to 4.2 times 
the number who are unemployed at any given 
monthly survey date. 

With more unemployment and with shorter 
hours for those who have jobs, with little more 
than three-fourths of the nation’s industrial ca- 
pacity in use, America is wasting huge amounts 
of its human and natural resources, and America 
is losing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of 
unproduced goods and services. 

Inflation continues to wash away a substantial 
part of the buying power of workers’ paychecks. 
Workers and their families have suffered dramat- 
ically during this current inflation. The buying 
power of each hour’s work has deteriorated. 

Today, the average American worker is worse 
off than a year ago, and nearly 10 percent worse 
off than two years ago. This loss in consumer 
buying power and the resulting slowdown in 
consumer buying adds further downward pressure 
on the economy. 

Inflation is not the result of excess demand. 
Food, energy, medical care, housing and interest 
rates are the key sources of our persistent infla- 


tion. They account for 60 percent of the average 
family’s spending. And these are areas where 
labor costs have little or no impact on prices. 

Over the 12-month November period, the con- 
sumer price index rose 12.7 percent with a 21 
percent increase in gasoline prices. Food and 
beverage prices were up 12.6 percent, reflecting 
a poor crop year and large export sales. And 
housing was up 13.7 percent, reflecting a short 
supply and rising interest rates. 

Unfortunately, the outlook over the next few 
months is for continual worsening of inflation, 
with food prices continuing to rise sharply, hous- 
ing further affected by high mortgage interest 
rates, and oil prices reflecting the newest round 
of OPEC price changes. 

THE AMERICAN ECONOMY has too often 
been weakened over the past quarter of a cen- 
tury by excessive, repeated, and misguided reli- 
ance upon tight money and high interest rates to 
combat inflation. These restrictive monetary poli- 
cies have been followed again and again by de- 
clines in homebuilding and by economic slow- 
down or recessions in 1959-60, 1969-70, 1973-74 
and most recently 1980. 

The Federal Reserve policy bears a large part 
of responsibility for these policies, but Congress 
and the Executive Branch have also failed to 
define clearly and to speak out forcefully on the 
monetary policies of the nation’s central bank. 
And the tragic result of these restrictive monetary 
policies has been more and longer unemployment 
for America’s working people and the loss of 
hundreds of billion of dollars in GNP. 

The best way to deal with unemployment in a 
non-inflationary way is by targeted job stimula- 
tion programs, rather than by general tax cuts or 
tax incentives. Each dollar of federal funds used 
on direct government employment programs has 
two-to-four times more job-creating potential 
than a dollar of tax cuts, and direct job creation 
programs can be directed to the areas and the 
individuals where the need is greatest. 

The AFL-CIO opposes tax cuts which would 
waste needed revenue by rewarding those sectors 
of the economy not suffering from high unem- 
ployment and tax cuts which could stimulate 
speculative excesses and imbalances that contrib- 
ute to inflation problems. 

The AFL-CIO believes a totally new reindus- 
trialization program would provide the new direc- 
tion for effective governmental relations with the 
private sector. 

The AFL-CIO has recommended economic 
policies that would directly attack the basic causes 
of inflation. Full employment would minimize the 
loss of national product, income and savings. 

Instead of resorting to tight money-high inter- 
est rates policies leading to high unemployment, 
selective credit regulation should be used at ap- 
propriate times to hold down interest rates. 


Key Strike Issue 

Performers Share Revenues 
In Landmark Film- TV Contract 


C OMPENSATION for on-the-air performances 
that are resold for the pay television and 
home video market is a landmark gain in the 
new three-year contract between the unions rep- 
resenting the performers and the TV industry. 

Executive Sec. i>anford Wolff of the Television 
& Radio Artists said that resolution of the issue 
was critical to settlement in the recent negotia- 
tions because new technology has opened the 
breakthrough to pay television and home video. 
He pointed out that the new contract also assures 
that performers will be fairly paid for perfor- 
mances produced on discs and cassettes for use 
on home playback equipment. 

Agreement on those points, Wolff said, was the 
key to ending the three-month strike by AFTRA 
and the Screen Actors Guild which h^ delayed 
production of 1980-81 prime time programs. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 


interview Labor News Conference, Wolff said 
that without the new guarantees, performers 
“would find themselves in competition with them- 
selves,” and that “repeated use of material would 
stultify new employment.” 

WOLFF said that the new contract, which also 
produced substantial improvements in health, 
dental and other areas, is well within the financial 
range of the broadcasting industry. He noted that 
entertainment is not as heavily affected as produc- 
tion and service industries by the sluggish economy 
because of the stiff competition for audiences. 

Unemployment is almost “a way of life” among 
. performers, he said, and only a little more than 
half of the 100,000 members of SAG and 
AFTRA are able to make their entire living as 
professional performers, without other jobs to 
supplement their incomes. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he ability to imprint tens of thousands of electronic com- 
ponents and complex circuits on chips of silicon the size of a 
cornflake has been quietly ushering in a second industrial revo- 
lution. 

The microelectronic revolution — comparable to the invention 
of the wheel and the steam engine — carries the potential for both 
great progress and great peril. On the one hand, it offers the 
promise of higher productivity, cheaper and better products, and 
more leisure time. On the other hand,* it threatens to create 
large-scale, permanent unemployment, degradation of skills and 
new work hazards. 

WORKING PEOPLE and their unions, along with government, 
will be faced increasingly with choices regarding how the new 
technology is used — whether for private profit and competitive 
advantage or to benefit society as a whole. 

Whatever direction it takes, microelectronics are here to stay, 
as noted by two recently published studies — one sponsored by 
the International Labor Organization and the other by World- 
watch, a private research organization. 

The new technology began with the birth of the transistor in 
1947, followed by the transistorized computer, or semiconductor, 
in 1959. It came of age with the development of the silicon 
integrated circuit computer in 1964. 

Only in the past five years, however, has the technology really 
begun to take off — its pervasiveness transforming electronics “into 
a convergence industry, playing a role similar to that of the machine 
tool in the 19th Century,” writes J. Rada, author of the 109-page 
ILO study. 

Both studies predict that microelectronics will eliminate more 
jobs than it creates during the 1980s. Some jobs will be created 
in the industries that manufacture and program computers and 
other electronic goods, but jobs are likely to disappear in indus- 
tries subject to computer-based automation. 

Jobs also will be lost in firms that switch from the manufacture 
of mechanical goods to products based on electronics because 
electronic goods have fewer moving parts to produce and assem- 
ble. Colin Norman, author of the 63-page Worldwatch study, 
notes that 46,000 jobs were lost in the mid-70s as consumers 
began buying electronic timepieces made in the United States 
and Japan. 

Workers in offices and service occupations will be the most 
“profoundly affected in the short run,” warns Rada. 

IN THE EARLY 1980s, states Rada, “office automation will 
start to accelerate and is likely to cause major labor displacement. 
The workers displaced will be mainly women, at a time of in- 
creasing female and general white-collar militancy.” He adds that 
“the question of job satisfaction will be crucial precisely when 
automation of the office becomes possible.” 

In the long run, Rada predicts “jobless growth.” He suggests 
various remedies including reducing the workweek, early retire- 
ment, or even “a more radical work-sharing scheme” in which 
the usual sequence of education, work and retirement could be 
alternated or combined. Other remedies include creating public 
employment in social services, health and education. 

Norman puts top priority on “a need for advance warning, 
consultation and retraining of displaced workers when the new 
technologies are introduced.” 

He concludes that “a combination of revitalized employment 
policies, greater industrial democracy and new ways of distribut- 
ing both the hours of work and the fruits of technological change 
are essential if the benefits of the microelectronic revolution are 
to be equitably shared.” 



KEY GAINS for the Television & Radio Artists and the Screen 
Actors Guild in their new pact with the television industry is the 
first-ever compensation for performances that are resold for the 
pay television and home video market. Executive Sec. Sanford 
Wolff, center, of AFTRA, said on Labor News Conference. 
Questioning him were Doug Harbrecht, left, of the Pittsburgh 
Press and Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. The AFL- 
CIO produced network interview is aired weekly over the 
Mutual radio network. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 



PLAQUE HONORING Labor Sec. Ray Marshall is presented to the out-going 
Administration official by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at a reception at 
AFL-CIO headquarters. Mrs. Marshall is at right. 


Curbs Proposed on Noise, 
Chemical, Electrical Hazards 


At AFL-CIO Reception 

Ray Marshall Praised 
As Ally of Workers 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has announced a series of rules 
and proposals upgrading worker protec- 
tions on noise, electrical hazards and toxic 
chemicals. 

OSHA’s new hearing conservation pro- 
gram was issued as an amendment to the 
old 1974 noise standard that limited work- 
er exposure to 90 decibels, but which was 
seldom enforced. 

The new program calls for hearing pro- 
tectors, exposure monitoring, audiometric 
testing and training of some 5.2 million 
workers who are exposed to occupational 
noise levels exceeding 85 decibels. Con- 
struction and agriculture workers will not 
be covered by the program. 

UNIONS HAVE been pressing for an 
improved standard to reduce noise levels 
to 85 decibels — and lower with the installa- 
tion of engineering controls — since the 
mid-1960s. 

AFL-CIO Occupational Safety Director 
George H. R. Taylor noted that the hear- 
ing conservation program is a step toward 
labor’s goals, but termed it “only a partial 
solution to the problem.” He said an ef- 
fective and enforceable standard is still 
needed. 


• Deleting provisions of the NEC that 
do not apply to worker protections. 

• Incorporating all other revelant NEC 
provisions into the OSHA standard. 

Both the hearing conservation program 
and the electrical hazards regulation are 
scheduled to take effect in mid-April. 

OSHA’s PROPOSED toxic labeling 
standard would provide precise chemical 
identification and warnings on hazardous 
substances found in some 328,000 manu- 
facturing facilities that employ more than 
20 million workers. 

“Workers have the right to know what 
substances they work with on the job, and 
today, many of them don’t,” Bingham said 
in announcing the proposal. 

She noted that nearly 60 percent of the 
recorded occupational illnesses are traced 
to chemical exposure in manufacturing 
where a large segment of the workforce is 
employed. 

The proposal would require manufac- 
turers and importers of chemicals to eval- 
uate their products to determine if they 
meet criteria for 17 physical and health 
hazards. If they are found hazardous, they 
must be appropriately labeled. 


Organized labor honored out-going La- 
bor Sec. Ray Marshall for his efforts on 
behalf of America’s workers and wished 
him well as he prepared to leave the 
government. 

“Ray Marshall has been a man who has 
stood with us on every basic and impor- 
tant objective of the trade-union move- 
ment,” Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land said at a reception for the Secretary 
of Labor at AFL-CIO headquarters. 

“He’s fought with us. He’s been our 
friend and our co-worker, come fair 
weather or foul. And we in the trade 
union movement have a tradition that we 
do not forget our friends.” 

Several hundred friends of Marshall in 
both government and the labor movement 
listened as he thanked them for their 
support during the past four years. He 
said that he intends to continue to “work 
for the things that we fought for” during 
the Carter Administration, whose labor 
record he called the best of any adminis- 
tration since Franklin Roosevelt’s New 
Deal. 

Vice President Walter Mondale, who 
also addressed the gathering, said that 
“the measure of a government that cares 
and responds to the needs of working 
men and women will be the record left by 
Ray Marshall.” 

Marshall, who plans to rejoin the Uni- 
versity of Texas faculty in September, 
received a plaque from the federation 
acknowledging the “lasting debt” of Amer- 
ican workers to the nation’s 16th Secre- 
tary of Labor. 

Marshall was an economics professor at 
the University of Texas from 1962 until 
he joined the Carter Administration in 
1977. Between Jan. 20 and the time he 
resumes teaching, he plans to remain in 
Washington as a consultant to labor and 
union-supported research groups. 

At a farewell news conference with re- 
porters at the Labor Dept., Marshall sum- 
marized the Carter Administration’s labor 
record, and talked about his expectations 
for the incoming Reagan Administration. 

“My greatest accomplishment was in 
selecting an outstanding personal staff and 
making good subcabinet appointments,” he 
said. About half of his subcabinet appoint- 


ments went to Labor Dept, careerists, he 
said. 

“My major disappointments were our 
failure to get legislation to control illegal 
immigration, to reform the National Labor 
Relations Act and the welfare system, and 
to improve our youth programs.” 

An early problem facing his successor. 
Labor Sec.-designate Raymond J. Dono- 
van, will be the economy, Marshall said. 

“That’s going to be the toughest one. 
He’ll have to become actively involved in 
the nation’s economic problems as soon 
as he can. Inflation and unemployment 
are the most important, immediate prob- 
lems,” he said. 

Marshall said that his biggest fears over 
the next four years focus on the President- 
elect’s plans for massive tax cuts, intro- 
duction of a subminimum wage for youths, 
and efforts to weaken enforcement of 
some basic labor programs such as the 
Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law and the 
Occupational Safety & Health Act. 

“The attitude I’m taking on all this is 
wait and see,” Marshall said. “I learned 
long ago not to pay attention to what 
people say but what they do.” 

On charges that some federal job ex- 
pansion efforts such as the Comprehensive 
Employment & Training Act are “failed 
programs,” Marshall registered strong dis- 
agreement. 

CETA is “a complex system and it 
ought to be allowed to continue to evolve,” 
he said. “I’m absolutely convinced that 
CETA is a good investment for the 
country.” 

Film Made Available 
On Youth Job Projects 

A film on successful youth employment 
projects is available free from the Labor 
Institute for Human Enrichment of the 
AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional Em- 
ployees. 

The production, which was underwritten 
by the National Football League Players 
Association, an affiliate of the Professional 
Athletes, shows how cooperative efforts 
between communities, schools and govern- 
ment have helped young workers complete 
schooling, gain job skills and find work. 


Even so, Taylor said that employer 
groups will likely file court challenges in 
an attempt to block implementation of the 
hearing conservation program. 

Assistant Labor Sec. Eula Bingham, 
OSHA’s out-going chief administrator, 
said the program will substantially reduce 
hearing impairment caused by excessive 
workplace noise. 

She said the program will provide addi- 
tional benefits by improving workplace 
safety, lowering absenteeism, reducing 
medical costs and workers’ compensation 
claims, as well as bringing a possible re- 
duction in cardiovascular illness. 

BINGHAM STRESSED that the costs 
of the program would be fully justified by 
the “range of health, safety and financial 
benefits, and the magnitude of their im- 
pact on the quality of life for U.S. work- 
ers.” 

An OSHA study concluded that the cost 
of compliance would amount to about 
$53 per year for each of the 5 million 
workers covered by the program. 

OSHA estimates that 2.9 million U.S. 
production workers are exposed to noise 
levels in the 90-decibel range and about 
2.3 million are exposed above the 85- 
decibel level. 

The federal safety agency said the final 
workplace standard covering electrical 
hazards is designed to “greatly simplify 
compliance by employers without reducing 
employee protection.” 

It calls for: 

• Substituting detailed specification re- 
quirements of the National Electrical 
Code (NEC) with more general perform- 
ance language. 


Oil Union-Paperworker Merger Explored 


The executive boards of the Oil, Chemi- 
cal & Atomic Workers and the Paperwork- 
ers are holding separate special meetings 
during January to discuss a proposed 
merger. 

The OCAW board, which met Jan. 12- 
1 3 in Denver, agreed to submit the merger 
plans to a special convention of the un- 
ion’s membership expected to be held in 
April. 

The executive board of the UPIU will 
meet Jan. 29-30 to consider the proposals, 
which, if approved by the board, will also 
be submitted to the membership at a spe- 
cial convention. 

NAACP Service Award 
Presented to Pollard 

New York — Director William E. Pol- 
lard of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Civil Rights 
was given the NAACP’s Outstanding Ser- 
vice Award. 

Pollard, a member of the NAACP board 
of directors since 1972, was honored for 
his service to the association, including for- 
mation of a national ad hoc labor commit- 
tee to raise funds for the organization. He 
was also active in the NAACP 1980 voter 
registration campaign. 

Milwaukee OPEIU Local 
Wins Key Wage Gains 

Milwaukee — More than 1,200 members 
of Office & Professional Employees Local 
9 employed by Blue Cross/ Blue Shield 


Labor News 
In Brief 

United here have ratified a three-year 
agreement prividing substantial wage gains. 

The contract covering clerical and cus- 
tomer service employees, computer opera- 
tors and senior trainers guarantees an 11 
percent across-the-board increase retro- 
active to November 1980, 11 percent in 
1981 and 10 percent in 1982, as well as 
3 -percent boosts every six months. 

Mandatory overtime was abolished, and 
other contract gains included improved 
leave provisions, additional paid vacation 
and vision care benefits. ^ 

Training Oasses Open 
For Dock Workers 

New York — A new program to upgrade 
the skills of long-term unemployed long- 
shoremen and ease the shortage of opera- 
tors of specialized pierside equipment has 
been started here by the Longshoremen 
and the New York Shipping Association. 
The jointly sponsored program is part of 
the ILA-NYSA collective bargaining agree- 
ment. 

Some 30 ILA workers began classes in 
early January to learn to operate three 
types of special machinery widely used at 
container ship terminals to shift and handle 


large units of freight. The program is ex- 
pected to affect a total of 560 union dock- 
workers in the port who are generally un- 
employed and are covered by a full-year 
guaranteed annual income provision under 
the contract. 

The training program, the first of its kind 
here, is also expected to ease a portwide 
shortage of qualified drivers of pierside 
machinery. Previously, most training for 
drivers and other waterfront workers was 
done exclusively by stevedoring companies 
at their own facilities. 

Memphis Union Revived 
At Nylon Net Plant 

Memphis, Tenn. — ^The Furniture Work- 
ers won representation rights for some 300 
employees of the Nylon Net Co., a firm 
that had forced out another union a couple 
of years earlier. 

“These workers — almost 90 percent of 
them women — ^have come back into the 
trade-union family,” UFWA President 
Carl Scarbrough observed. The Clothing 
& Textile Workers, which at one time had 
represented the workers, gave its blessing 
to UFWA in the campaign, Scarbrough 
said. 

“It took a lot of courage for the people 
to withstand some of the vicious propa- 
ganda the company used,” he said. “The 
company’s tactics didn’t work because 
these people remember what it was like 
to have union representation, and they’re 
eager to gain those rights again.” 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 


Page Seven 


Kirkland ‘Disappointed’ 

Carter Budget Proposal 
Termed Short of Needs 



First Apprentice Standards 
Developed for Stage Actors 


(Continued from Page 1) 

“There will be advocates for higher de- 
fense levels,” Carter acknowledged, “but 
after careful review I do not believe, that 
higher spending would add significantly to 
our national security.” 

Carter’s most controversial domestic 
proposals involve changing the method of 
calculating cost-of-living adjustments for 
social security, government retirement and 
food stamp benefits. 

He asked Congress to direct that the 
cost-of-living escalator for these programs 
be linked to an “alternative” consumer 
price index that downgrades the cost of 
housing and thus would show a lower rate 
of increase during periods when home- 
buying costs are soaring. 

Further, federal retirees would receive 
only one cost-of-living adjustment a year, 
down from the twice-a-year adjustment 
now required by law. Congress last year 
rejected a proposal to change to a single 
adjustment. 

The budget also proposes that Congress 
change the “trigger” for extended unem- 
ployment compensation during periods of 
high unemployment. The Administration 
last year sought to accomplish the change 
by administrative action, but a federal 
court upheld a challenge brought by the 
AFL-CIO and the UAW. The court agreed 

Kirkland Ties 
Industrial Aid 
To Target Plans 

(Continued from Page 1) 

an overall reindustrialization policy. Kirk- 
land urged. “Investment credits should 
only be available for increases in invest- 
ment levels, and tax subsidies should be 
clearly targeted to needed industrial sec- 
tors and regions.” 

Kirkland stressed the importance of a 
National Reindustrialization Board, with 
labor, business and government representa- 
tion, which would both set national goals 
and direct the activities of a financing 
agency empowered to make and guarantee 
loans. Also, “private pension funds should 
be permitted and encouraged” to partici- 
pate in such financing arrangements “to 
support and expand industrial employ- 
ment.” 

In contrast to targeted tax policies, 
Kirkland warned, “the only assured result 
of across-the-board tax cuts is that cor- 
porate cash flows will increase. Instead of 
undertaking greater rates of investment 
here in the United States, businesses may 
raise dividends, invest abroad or purchase 
other companies.” 


(Continued from Page 1) 
percent average of the preceding year. 

Not counted in the jobless rate calcula- 
tions is the number of so-called “discour- 
aged workers” who take themselves out of 
the work force because they feel there are 
no jobs for them. Their number jumped 
to 1.1 million in the fourth quarter of 
1980, up 100,000 from the previous quar- 
ter and nearly 300,000 over the year. A 
large proportion of these discouraged 
workers are women and teenagers, BLS 
said. 

THE GOVERNMENT also revised its 
seasonal adjustment factors for 1980, plac- 
ing the year’s peak jobless rate at 7.6 per- 
cent, rather than a previously reported 
7.8 percent in July. The 7.6 percent rate 
first occurred in May, and reappeared in 
July and October. 

Since May, the unemployment rate has 
fluctuated between 7.6 and 7.4 percent. 


that the change usurped the legislative 
function. 

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, who have 
been regularly shortchanged on the “com- 
parability” salary increases they are sup- 
posed to get each year, would be doubly 
hit by the budget proposal. First, the 
President asked that the comparability 
formula be rewritten to take into account 
“total compensation,” including fringe 
benefits. Such a revision, he said, would 
reduce the comparability adjustment from 
a projected 13.5 percent to 8.6 percent for 
civilian employees. But in addition, he pro- 
posed that the increase be further cut back 
to 5.5 percent. 

On taxes. Carter cautioned against 
“large inflationary individual income tax 
cuts.” But he repeated earlier proposals 
for more generous depreciation allowances 
and investment credits for business, an in- 
come tax credit to offset the higher social 
security payroll taxes that took effect this 
year, and a “working spouse” tax deduc- 
tion to lessen the so-called “marriage pen- 
alty.” 

However, business tax cuts would be 
retroactive to Jan. 1, 1981 while the indi-, 
vidual tax cuts would not take effect until 
next year. 

OBVIOUSLY, the key tax and budget 
decisions will be made by Congress and 
will inevitably differ from the specifics pro- 
posed by both the outgoing Carter Admin- 
istration and the new Reagan Administra- 
tion. 

But the Carter budget, with its volumi- 
nous documentations and special analyses, 
will be the basic working document for 
congressional committees and the Con- 
gressional Budget Office. 

It includes projections of the cost of 
government if present federal services and 
programs were continued unchanged. This 
is known as the “current services budget.” 
And from that, it estimates the changes that 
would result from proposed legislation or 
from administrative action. 

But all its figures are based on economic 
assumptions which the budget-writers 
readily concede “are subject to substantial 
margins of error.” 

THE UNCERTAINTY of economic 
projections has rendered virtually meaning- 
less congressional attempts to mandate a 
balanced budget. Thus, last spring with 
Democrats and Republicans vying for 
credit. Congress adopted what was loudly 
proclaimed as a balanced budget for the 
current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 
1980. 

The latest projection is that the fiscal 
year will end with a deficit of over $55 
billion — and the final tally in all probabil- 
ity will be at least several billion dollars 
different from even this late estimate. 


“Overall, job gains in the latter half of 
1980 have nearly recouped losses earlier 
in the year,” BLS said in its December 
report, “although employment was still 
sharply down in manufacturing and con- 
struction.” 

THERE WAS little change in the job- 
less rates for major demographic groups 
in December. The rate for adult men fell 
to 6.2 percent from 6.4 percent the month 
before. For adult women, unemployment 
rose from 6.7 to 6.8 percent. For blacks, 
the rate remained unchanged at 14 per- 
cent. For black teenagers, however, job- 
lessness went up from 36.6 percent to 37.5 
percent. 

While manufacturing employment in- 
creased by 65,000 in December, factory 
employment was still 780,000 short of its 
June 1979 high. Construction employment 
rose by 30,000 last month but was 250,000 
below its January 1980 peak. 


The first-ever apprenticeship standards 
for an occupation in the arts and enter- 
tainment industry have been developed by 
the National Joint Apprenticeship & 
Training Committee for Stage Actors. 

The standards are the product of a joint 
effort of the JACT under a Comprehen- 
sive Employment & Training Act contract 
and the Labor Institute for Human Enrich- 
ment (LIFHE), the employment and train- 
ing arm of the AFL-CIO Dept, for Pro- 
fessional Employees. The committee in- 
cludes representatives of labor and man- 
agement in the entertainment industry. 

With the development of the new stan- 
dard, stage acting has become the first oc- 
cupation in the entertainment field to be 
federally certified as apprenticeable, DPE 
Executive Director Jack Golodner pointed 
out. 

THE APPRENTICESHIP standards 
“are designed to meet the needs of the 
entry-level professional, that is, the man 
or woman who has already received some 
training at the student or amateur level 
and who is now taking his or her first step 
in a professional work environment,” 
Golodner said. 

Labor Sec. Ray Marshall called the new 
j'tandards a “breakthrough for apprentice- 
ship and a model for other occupations in 
the performing arts, or in any industry, 
where training is a vital job requirement.” 

Committee members formally presented 
the standards to Marshall after registering 
them with the Bureau of Apprenticeship & 
Training. 

The standards include guidelines for 
selection, qualifications. and responsibilities 
of apprentices; terms of apprenticeship; 
apprenticeship agreements; wages, hours 
and conditions of work; work processes 
and schedules; orientation to collective 
bargaining agreements; supervision and 
evaluation of apprentices; and other 
processes and requirements governing 
apprenticeship. 

At the presentation ceremony, Frederick 
O’Neal, president of the Actors & Artistes 
and an AFL-CIO vice president, and 
Actors’ Equity Executive Sec. Willard 
Swire praised the apprenticeship standards 
as a means of providing young actors a 
chance to receive adequate training. 
Actors’ Equity is now working on putting 
the standards into active use, Swire empha- 
sized. 

LIFHE Apprenticeship Coordinator 
Patricia Porter pointed out that the insti- 
tute is working to develop and register 
standards for other occupations in the 
arts, entertainment and the media. 

STANDARDS have already been sub- 
mitted to the Bureau of Apprenticeship & 
Training for the occupations of motion 


picture screen cartoonist and television 
graphics designer. Other committees will 
work on standards for optical effects 
camera operators and layout specialists, 
wardrobe supervisors and script supervi- 
sors. 

The members of the Stage Actor JATC 
include Actors’ Equity President Theodore 
Bikel, Swire, and Equity members Ruby 
Dee, Burt Reynolds, Jean Stapleton and 
Eli Wallach; Donald Grody, assistant di- 
rector of the National Football League 
Players Association, and former executive 
secretary of Actors’ Equity; Lloyd 
Richards, dean, and Earl Gister, associate 
dean of the Yale School of Drama; 
Michael Price, executive director. Good- 
speed Opera House; William Putch, presi- 
dent, Council of Resident Theaters; and 
W. Duncan Ross, drama division chairman 
of the University of Southern California. 

Steelworker Film 
Gives Picture of 
Union in Action 

A new Steelworkers film about union 
democracy in action had its premiere at 
a special showing at the Motion Picture 
Association of America in Washington, 
D.C. 

The 28-minute color film, titled “The 
Faces of a Union,” shows collective bar- 
gaining, job safety committees, grievance 
processing, labor education programs and 
political action activities. 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride 
said the film is intended “to reflect a rea- 
listic view of how working people, through 
their union, have improved their standard 
of living and solved workplace problems.” 

It shows also, he said, some of the diffi- 
cult problems faced by union members 
and their communities that call on the 
combined efforts of labor, government and 
industry for solution. 

Newsreel footage introduces the union’s 
early organizing history. The film features 
Steelworkers on their jobs or involved in 
community and union activities in both the 
United States and Canada. 

The film was jointly produced with 
Washington-based MFZA films in four 
weeks of on-location shooting at plants, 
union halls, a job health clinic, mines, and 
union education centers. 

“The Faces of a Union” is available on 
a free loan basis to local unions, secondary 
schools and local television stations from 
the USWA Public Relations Dept., Five 
Gateway Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222. 


Jobless Rate 7.4 Percent 
For Final Month of 1 980 


Page Eight 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 17, 1981 


Senate Panel Screens 
Donovan’s Nomination 
As Secretary of Labor 



AT CONFIRMATION HEARING on his selection as Secretary of Labor, 
Raymond J. Donovan answers questions from members of the Senate Labor & 
Human Resources Committee. Donovan, a New Jersey construction contractor, 
said his goal is to “build bridges” between workers and management. 

Perdue Brand Poultry Added 
To AFL-ClO’s ‘Unfair’ Listing 


Raymond J. Donovan told a Senate con- 
firmation hearing that he would seek to 
“build bridges” between workers and man- 
agement as Secretary of Labor in the 
Reagan Cabinet. 

Donovan outlined his views on a num- 
ber of labor-related issues in response to 
questions by senators. But most of the 
questioning centered on his role as a top 
executive of a New Jersey construction 
company that had been mentioned — but 
never charged — in the course of a probe 
of political corruption in Newark. 

The Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee put off an immediate vote on 
Donovan’s nomination. But Senate leaders 
were still hoping to complete action on 
Cabinet confirmations within a few days 
of the presidential inauguration. 

During an all-day committee hearing on 
his nomination, Donovan promised “even- 
handed” administration of the laws Con- 
gress has enacted and “sensitivity” to the 
needs of the people affected by Labor 
Dept, programs. These range from job 
training for the disadvantaged to work- 
place safety and health inspections. 

IN RESPONSE to questions, Donovan 
told the Senate committee that he has seen 
conflicting reports on the desirability of a 
youth subminimum wage and still has “an 
open mind” on the issue. 

He would not object to a youth submin- 
imum, he said, “if it could be proved to my 
satisfaction” that a lower youth wage 
would open up new job opportunities for 
young people “without affecting existing 
wage earners.” 

On “right-to-work” laws that ban union 
shop agreements, Donovan said he agrees 
with Reagan that the decision should be 
left to the states — as it now is under Sec- 
tion 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act. 

DONOVAN VOICED a strong personal 
commitment to job safety and equal em- 
ployment opportunity but complained of 
what he termed “overregulation” of busi- 
ness and an “adversarial” approach by 
the Occupational Safety & Health Admin- 
istration. 


He said he favors policies to achieve 
“full employment through economic 
growth” and opposes the concept of allow- 
ing unemployment to rise in order to curb 
inflation. “I don’t agree with that at all,” 
he testified. 

Most of the Senate hearing focused on 
the business operations of the Schiavone 
Construction Co. of Secaucus, N.J., which 
Donovan helped build from small begin- 
nings to a still-expanding company with 
$700 million in outstanding contracts. 

Donovan is executive vice president and 
one of the two principal stockholders of 
the firm, and questioning centered on his 
knowledge of a $13,000 company check 
that was deposited in 1967 in a bank ac- 
count described in a Newark political cor- 
ruption trial as a device to “launder” po- 
litical payoffs. 

Donovan told the committee that the 
check was a routine payment for dumping 
rights and that an exhaustive examinatipn 
of the company books at the time by both 
the U.S. attorney’s office and the Internal 
Revenue Service found no wrongdoing and 
no taxes due. 

SENATORS ALSO raised questions 
stemming from a continuing grand jury 
investigation of the business agent of a 
New York City Teamsters local, Harry 
Gross. The Justice Dept, reported than an 
official of the Schiavone firm had testified 
that the business agent’s chauffeur had 
been put on the payroll during a con- 
struction job “as a price for labor peace.” 

Donovan said he had no prior knowl- 
edge of the episode. He said a Teamsters 
agreement with the regional contractors’ 
association gives the union the right to 
name anyone it chooses as a working shift 
foreman. 

Donovan was formally presented to the 
committee by his home-state senator, Har- 
rison A. Williams, Jr. (D-N.J.), who was 
chairman of the committee until the Re- 
publicans gained control of the Senate in 
this Congress. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R- 
Utah) is the new chairman, and Sen. Ed- 
ward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is the ranking 
minority member. 


Perdue poultry products have been 
placed on the AFL-CIO unfair list, and 
union consumers are being asked not to 
buy the non-union company’s roasters, 
broilers, chicken parts or Cornish game 
hens. Perdue is the third largest poultry 
processor in the United States. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
added the company to the unfair list at 
the request of Food & Commercial Work- 
ers President William E. Wynn, and has 
instructed the AFL-CIO Union Label & 
Service Trades Dept, to notify federation 
affiliates, state and local central labor coun- 
cils and other labor organizations of the 
action. 

Wynn, in a letter requesting the sanc- 
tion against Perdue, said the UFCW will 
seek the< endorsement of the AFL-CIO 
Ejcecutive Council for a nationwide boy- 
cott next month. 

The UFCW launched its boycott of 


Perdue products in September 1980 fol- 
lowing an effort by UFCW Local 117 to 
organize the 1,700 production and mainte- 
nance workers at Perdue’s Accomac, Va. 
processing plant. An unfair labor practice 
strike is now in its sixth month at the 
plant. 

During the organizing campaign, 
UFCW supporters agreed to honor a 
picket line set up by the unaffiliated Team- 
sters in an attempt to organize the Perdue 
drivers. Fifty-seven UFCW members were 
“permanently replaced” by the company 
in retaliation, forcing the UFCW to file 
unfair labor practice charges. 

The National Labor Relations Board 
has issued a complaint based on the 
UFCW’s charges, and hearings will begin 
in April. The election remains blocked 
until the charges are resolved. 

Wynn pointed out that the larger issue 
in the UFCW boycott is Perdue’s “aggres- 
sive anti-union philosophy which has trans- 
lated into a situation where not one of its 
6,000 employees works under a union 
contract.” 


Wage Test Raised for Exempted Employees 


A long-delayed increase in the wage 
test required for exemption of executives 
and professionals from overtime pay re- 
quirements of the wage-hour law has been 
announced by the Labor Dept. 

Rudy Oswald, director of the AFL-CIO 
Department of Economic Research, de- 
scribed the new salary tests as a wholly 
inadequate updating of figures that were 
obsolete years ago. “While the new rates 
are better than no change, the new pro- 
posals fail to reflect the general increases 
in wages since 1975, the last time that the 
Labor Dept, had updated the regulations. 

“The rates made effective in 1981 re- 
flect the proposals made by the Labor 


IS/Ll/l 




Dept, three years ago, and the stepup 
scheduled for 1983 will not keep even 
those meager rates current with the Ad- 
ministration’s own projection of inflation. 
The whole purpose of the salary tests is to 
assure that those who receive overtime 
exemptions are bona fide executives, ad- 
ministrative and professional employees. 
These new rates do not adequately provide 
such a safeguard.” 

The first step, effective Feb. 13, will re- 
quire that persons whose duties are pfi- 
marily executive or administrative must 
be paid at least $225 a week if they are 
not paid the time and one-half overtime 
rates required by the Fair Labor Standards 
Act. 

The present salary test, unchanged 
since 1975, is only $155 a week. 

A SECOND STEP in the wage test will 
be effective two years later, on Feb. 13, 
1983. As of that date, the executive wage 
test will move to $250. 

Professional employees must meet a 
higher wage test for exemption from over- 
time pay requirements. The existing pay 
requirement, also dating from 1975, is 
$170 a week. That will rise to $250 on 
Feb. 13 and to $280 in 1983. 

A third category is termed the “upset 
test.” That is the level at which the test for 
exemption from the Fair Labor Standards 
Act becomes less stringent in terms of du- 
ties and a higher salary level becomes sup- 
portive evidence for an exemption. 

The old level of $250 will rise to $320 
in the first step and to $345 in 1983. The 
same levels also apply for exemption of 
persons employed in the motion picture 
producing industry. 


Back in 1978, the Labor Dept, had 
proposed raising the executive and pro- 
fessional cutoffs to the same levels now 
scheduled to take effect next month — and 
to increase the “upset test” to $350, higher 
than is now proposed. All three figures 
were substantially less than the AFL-CIO 
had urged at hearings on the proposals. 

The increase, however, never was put 
into effect. It was criticized as potentially 
inflationary by the Council on Wage & 
Price Stability, which then was trying to 
enforce guidelines to hold down wages. 

In practical terms, the only “executives” 
likely to be affected at the still low cutoff 
levels are supervisory employees of tra- 
ditionally low-paying fast food outlets and 
comparable operations. 

A spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce labeled the Labor Dept, action, 
which was cleared by President Carter, a 
“midnight raid” and said the chamber 
might seek a court order to block it. 

The Labor Dept, said the new rates are 
fully justified by changes in the average 
salaries paid in white collar occupations 
and would have only a minimal effect on 
payrolls. 

NO EMPLOYER has to raise the pay 
of any executive or professional employee 
as a result of the change in the exempt 
salary levels. But an otherwise exempt 
employee making less than the cutoff fig- 
ure would have to be paid time-and-one- 
half for hours over 40 a week. 

The cutoff test remains lower for em- 
ployees in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands 
and American Samoa but comparable two- 
step increases are provided in those juris- 
dictions also. 


Perdue’s anti-union tactics have included 
buying plants where union contracts are 
in force, closing them for “modernization,” 
and reopening them under non-union con- 
ditions, according to Jerry Gordon, assis- 
tant drector of UFCW Region 4, who is 
coordinating the boycott for the union. 

“Perdue is out to destroy the union in 
the poultry processing industry,” Gordon 
said, pointing out that Perdue’s harsh em- 
ployment policies and record of citations 
for unsafe working conditions underscore 
the need for a union. 

In the Accomac plant alone, Gordon 
said. Perdue fired more than 400 workers 
over a two-year period, and was cited for 
numerous health and safety law violations. 

iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiliiiliiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Thurmond to Press 
Labor Antitrust Law 

Unions have become “too powerful” 
and should be brought under antitrust 
laws, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair- 
man Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) said at a 
seminar for business executives. 

Early in the century, courts had held 
that unions could be sued under the 
antitrust act on the reasoning that in- 
sistence on uniform wage scales and 
strikes were a form of conspiracy in re- 
straint of trade. 

Congress lifted that threat when it en- 
acted the Clayton Act in 1914, which 
specified that “the labor of a human 
being is not a commodity or article of 
commerce” under antitrust laws. 



Economists 
Scrap Goal on 
Jobs, Inflation 


The Carter Administration’s final Eco- 
nomic Report to Congress virtually aban- 
doned the unemployment and inflation 
goals of the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full 
Employment & Balanced Growth Act, in- 
sisting that they are unattainable within 
the time-frame set forth in the act. 

“It will not be simultaneously possible 
to achieve 4 percent unemployment and 
3 percent inflation in the time envisioned 
in the Humphrey-Hawkins Act or in last 
year’s report,” the annual report of the 
President’s Council of Economic Advisers 
maintained. 

“ATTEMPTS TO reach either goal on 
the act’s timetable would frustrate prog- 
ress toward the other goal, and could 
substantially impair the prospects for im- 
proved economic performance,” the CEA 
report argued. 

In effect, the outgoing Administration 
eliminated the schedule for reaching the 
Humphrey-Hawkins goals of 4 percent 
joblessness and 3 percent inflation by 1983. 
In last year’s Economic Report, Carter’s 
advisers pushed back the inflation goal to 
1988 and the unemployment goal to 1985. 
CEA Chairman Charles L. Schultze said 
he did not envision achieving those goals 
in “the foreseeable future.” 

Instead, the Carter CEA forecast an un- 
employment rate of between 7.5 and 7.75 
percent at year-end 1981, adding that “it 
is likely to be above this range in the early 
part of 1981.” During 1982, the unem- 
ployment rate is projected to decline 
steadily, ending the year in the range of 
7.25 to 7.5 percent. Joblessness stood at 
7.4 percent last month. 

A FIVE-YEAR projection in the report 
sees unemployment gradually declining to 
5.9 percent by 1986. Beyond that, the 
outgoing CEA offered no predictions. 

As for inflation, Carter’s advisers said 
the government’s consumer price index, 
which rose 12.6 percent in 1980, likely 
will increase at about last year’s pace. By 
1986, they said, the rise in the CPI will 
moderate to less than half that rate, or 
6 percent. 

“Given public concern with inflation, 
both fiscal and monetary policy are ex- 
pected to be a restraining influence on 
economic activity in 1981 and beyond,” 
the CEA report observed. “However, there 
is both need and room for a prudently 
designed tax cut which would be phased in 
gradually over the next two years.” 

THE CARTER unemployment and in- 
flation projections assume that real eco- 
nomic growth will increase at a sluggish 
rate of about 1.75 percent over the four 
quarters of 1981, with virtually all of it 
coming in the last half of the year. For 
1982, they foresee a rise of 3.5 percent in 
real gross national product — the value of 
the nation’s total output of goods and 
services — ^but this is predicated on tax 
cuts that would provide significant eco- 
nomic stimulus. Between 1983 and 1986, 

(Continued on Page 8) 




Saturday, January 24, 1981 


No. 4 


Total ’80 Output Drops, 
3rd Setback iu Decade 



PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION of power,. American style, is symbolized by 
this inauguration handshake. Nancy Reagan looks on as the new President gets 
the best wishes of his predecessor. 

Reagan’s Conservatism 
Keys Inaugural Theme 


By David L. Perlman 

President Reagan’s “first priorities” will 
be to shrink the federal government and 
cut taxes. But he cautioned in his inaugural 
address against expecting quick results in 
curbing inflation and expanding employ- 
ment. 

“Progress may be slow — measured in 
inches and feet, not miles,” the new Pres- 
ident said. 

Reagan followed tradition by using his 
inauguration to set broad themes for his 


House Committee Lineups 
Reflect GOP Election Gain 


Election returns and retirements have 
shuffled the membership of House com- 
mittees in the new Congress although, 
with continued Democratic control, most 
chairmen are holdovers. 

Democrats retain majorities above their 
party ratio in the House in some key com- 
mittees. But in other committees, the party 
division reflects Republican election gains 
and in some cases gives the conservative 
coalition effective control. 

Here’s the new lineup: 

AGRICULTURE— Changes from 27 
Democrats, 15 Republicans to 24 Demo- 
crats, 18 Republicans, and becomes more 
conservative as Kika de la Garza (Tex.) re- 
places Thomas S. Foley (Wash.) as chair- 
man. Foley remains on the committee, 
whose jurisdiction includes the food stamp 


program. But he had to give up his chair- 
manship to take the post of party whip, 
or assistant majority leader. Republican 
William C. Wampler (Va.) continues as 
ranking minority member. 

APPROPRIATIONS— Changes from a 
36-18 to a 33-22 Democratic majority. 
The holdover chairman is conservative 
Jamie L. Whitten (Miss.), and liberal Re- 
publican Silvio O. Conte (Mass.) remains 
senior minority member. 

ARMED SERVICES— Party ratio still 
to be decided. Melvin Price (111.) remains 
chairman and William L. Dickinson (Ala.) 
becomes the senior Republican. 

BANKING, FINANCE & URBAN 
AFFAIRS — The Democratic majority is 

(Continued on Page 6) 


Administration, and it will be weeks, per- 
haps months, before these are transformed 
into detailed legislative and budget pro- 
posals to Congress. 

“Government is not the solution to our 
problems. Government is the problem,” 
Reagan said just minutes after taking oyer 
the helm. 

The nation’s economic ills, Reagan sug- 
gested, stem from a “punitive tax burden'” 
that penalizes successful achievement.” 

ON THE PRINCIPLES OF less govern- 
ment and less taxes, “there will be no com- 
promise,” Reagan insisted. 

The Reagan Administration is still in 
the early stages of formation. 

The President has named his key White 
House staff and his Cabinet choices. But it 
will be weeks yet before the scores of sub- 
Cabinet posts and the hundreds of other 
top positions open to a new Administration 
are filled. 

Reagan’s early choices are an amalgam 
of traditional Republican mainstreamers, 
such as dominated the last Republican 
Administration under Gerald Ford, and 
conservative ideologues long suspicious of 
government. 

IRONICALLY, the two votes cast 
against confirmation of Defense Sec. Cas- 
par W. Weinberger, a close personal asso- 
ciate of Reagan as well as a veteran of the 
Nixon and Ford Cabinets, came from two 
of the most conservative members of the 
Senate — North Carolina Republicans Jesse 
A. Helms and John P. East. 

Sec. of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr., 
(Continued on Page 8) 


4th Quarter 
Rise Fails to 
Recoup Loss 

By James M. Shevis 

A strong fourth-quarter finish failed to 
make up ground lost to the recession 
earlier in the year, with the result that the 
nation’s economy in 1980 suffered its third 
setback of the past decade. 

For 1980 as a whole, real gross national 
product (GNP) declined one-tenth of 1 
percent, the Commerce Dept. said. The 
downturn followed four years of economic 
growth. 

RUDY OSWALD, director of the AFL- 
CIO’s Dept, of Economic Research, com- 
pared the economic ups and downs of the 
past 10 years with the record of the 1960s, 
which “showed strong growth” through 
most of the period. 

“The repeated recessions of the last dec- 
ade contributed to lower productivity and 
resultant higher inflation,” Oswald ob- 
served. “The downturn in the 1980 eco- 
nomy reduced the nation’s output far 
below its potential. Fewer goods and ser- 
vices were produced despite a growing 
labor force that was looking for work. 

“As a result, unemployment rose from 
5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 1979 
to 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 
1980.” 

OSWALD SAID the growth and vitality 
of the economy last year were “choked 
off” by the highest interest rates of the 
century. A record prime rate, topping 20 
percent for the first time ever, had par- 
ticularly deleterious effects on the housing 
and manufacturing sectors of the economy, 
he noted. 

Preliminary Commerce Dept figures 
(Continued on Page 8) 

Labor Presses 
Job Programs 
In ’ 80 s ‘Agenda’ 

A 45-member presidential commission 
agreed that balanced economic growth 
should top the nation’s “Agenda for the 
Eighties,” but differed in emphasis on how 
to achieve it. 

Labor, civil rights and consumer rep- 
resentatives were among the signers of a 
supplementary statement urging policies to 
promote full employment and generally 
supporting a more direct role for govern- 
ment in dealing with the nation’s problems. 

LEON B. SCHACHTER, the retired 
vice president of the Food & Commercial 
Workers who represented AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland on the commission, 
signed the separate statement. The other 
signers were Communications Workers 
President Glenn E. Watts; Addie L. Wyatt, 
vice president of the UFCW and executive 
vice president of the Coalition of Labor 

(Continued on Page 6) 



Pajre Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 




For 1981 


Rirtrove! 






SKY SAFETY is the goal of an intensive public education effort launched by 
the Air Line Pilots, ALP A President John J. O’Donnell announced at a 
meeting in Atlanta. Operation USA (Unity for Safe Airtravel) will alert the 
public to air safety problems which the union says could be remedied by 
requiring the Federal Aviation Administration to exercise a greater safety role. 

Pilots Sound Public Alert 
On ‘Erosion’ of Air Safety 


Atlanta — campaign to alert the public 
to an “erosion in the U.S. air safety sys- 
tem” was kicked off by the Air Line Pilots 
at a special meeting here that drew more 
than 200 pilots from 29 airlines. 

The program, dubbed Operation USA 
(Unity for Safe Airtravel), was launched 
to focus public attention on the responsibil- 
ity of the Federal Aviation Administration 
for air passenger safety. ALP A, which 
represents 33,000 pilots, has been critical 
of the FAA’s record on safety issues, 
charging that the agency “has allowed its 
role of promoting air commerce to com- 
promise its role of ensuring the highest 
practicable level of air safety.” 

The goals of the campaign are to re- 
quire the FAA to open up the aircraft 
certification process to participation by 
qualified third parties, including profes- 
sional pilots. Currently, the process is 
“closed,” and only the FAA and the 
manufacturer participate, the union said. 

Another goal is reduction of the num- 
ber of near mid-air collisions, which could 
be accomplished by requiring the FAA to 
revamp existing and future air traffic con- 
trol systems. The ALPA is also urging 
development of an independent on-board 
collision avoidance system. 

AN FAA EFFORT to increase the 
number of hours a pilot can be required 
to fly without rest should be halted, the 
union said, and the agency’s safety im- 
provement programs should be directed 
to constructive measures and away from 
a “witch hunt” against pilots. 

Some proposed FAA rule changes 
would provide for stiff er fines (up to 
$25 000) or possible prison terms for 
violations of federal aviation regulations, 
ALPA pointed out. 

Operation USA is also calling for 

Returning Hostages 
Welcomed by AFGE 

The American Federation of Govern- 
ment Employees sent a warm “welcome 
back” message to the former hostages re- 
turning from captivity in Iran. 

“In this time of joy and celebration,” 
AFGE President Kenneth T. Blaylock 
said, “it is proper to reflect upon the 
terrific injustice each of them suffered at 
the hands of their captors. Whether it was 
one day or 444, it was wrong for one 
group of humans to unjustly deprive others 
of their freedom. ^ 

“As the union representing 750,000 men 
and women who work for government, in- 
cluding several of these courageous freed 
hostages, we offer a hearty welcome home 
from your co-workers.” 


Union Conventions 
Scheduled by Affiliates 

Below is a list of conventions scheduled for 1981 by AFL-CIO national and 


speedy release of a $4 billion surplus in 
the federal airport and airway trust fund 
which could be used to improve airport 
safety facilities. 

Fifteen major U.S. cities have been 
targeted for activities in the union’s cam- 
paign, spearheaded by pilot volunteers. 
Radio time for spots urging the public to 
call ALPA for information on air safety 
has been purchased in Washington, D.C., 
and ALPA President John J. O’Donnell 
has scheduled a tour of the remaining 
cities to officially launch the campaign. 

IN ADDITION to alerting the public to 
safety issues. Operation USA’s goal is “to 
persuade President Reagan to improve the 
performance procedures and standards set 
down by the FAA,” O’Donnell said. 

The union’s executive board at its 
November 1980 meeting called for a series 
of protests to underscore the safety issue 
which could include a “nationwide suspen- 
sion of services as an act of public pro- 
test.” 

A work stoppage would not be intended 
to inconvenience the public or employers, 
O’Connell said, but to “bring attention to 
our conviction that the pjresent erosion of 
the air safety system will escalate in the 
near future unless the FAA acts now to 
correct its deficiencies.” 

ALPA, AS WELL as the Flight Engi- 
neers, has called the FAA’s current certi- 
fication process for new generation air- 
craft “flawed,” charging that the agency 
has been swayed by manufacturer pressure 
to relax certain safety standards. 

The union points out that the issue of 
crew complement — whether an aircraft re- 
quires a three-person or a two-person 
cockpit crew for maximum safety — has 
not been properly addressed by the FAA. 
One aircraft, the McDonnell-Douglas 
Super 80, has already been certificated 
with a two-person cockpit, and similar 
approval of two new Boeing aircraft is 
expected soon. 

THE PILOTS’ union disagrees with the 
contention of the manufacturers that ad- 
vances in aircraft technology permit them 
to be flown safely by two crew members. 
The ALPA points out that advances in 
automation actually increase the pilots’ 
complex workload. A third crew member 
adds “an additional margin of safety” by 
reducing workload, providing a back-up 
and checking service and additional ac- 
tion in an emergency. 

An independent, scientific study is 
needed to resolve the issue which has 
been a recurring one in the airline indus- 
try for 35 years, the ALPA said, arguing 
that the FAA has not performed such 
studies, but has relied on the manufac- 
turers’ own claims of safety. 


international affiliates and state central bodies. Changes and additions will be 
reported. 

■i 

DATE 

ORGANIZATION 

PLACE 


Mar. 23-25 

Louisiana 

Baton Rouge 

- ® 

May 18-22 

Plate Printers & Die Stampers 

Washington 

^ A - 

May 19-26 

Novelty Production Workers 

Miami Beach, Fla. 


May 27-29 

Arizona 

Flagstaff 


June 

Actors & Artistes 

New York 

June 1 

Firemen & Oilers 

Bal Harbour, Fla. 

' J 

June 1-5 

Clothing & Textile Workers 

Detroit 

- 

June 1-5 

Insurance Workers 

Miami Beach 

vl-- 

June 2-5 

Pennsylvania 

Philadelphia 

-I 

June 8-10 

Idaho 

Burley 

^■ \ ^ ■ 

June 14 

Grain Millers 

Palm Springs, Calif. 


June 15 

Flint Glass Workers 

Hollywood, Fla. 


June 21-26 

Hotel & Restaurant Employees 

Chicago 


June 22-25 

Musicians 

Salt Lake City 


June 22-26 

Pattern Makers League 

Las Vegas, Nev. 

' 

June 29- July 3 

Newspaper Guild 

Memphis, Tenn. 

1 

July 6-10 

Communications Workers 

Boston 


July 6-10 

Teachers 

Denver 


July 19-23 

Elevator Constructors 

Seattle 

' 1 

July 20-23 

Police Associations 

Chicago 


July 20-24 

Aluminum Workers 

Columbus, Ohio 

' r i i 

July 22-25 

Texas 

Austin 


Aug. 10 

Carpenters 

' Chicago 


Aug. 10 

Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers 

Miami Beach ;c:. 

Jh 

Aug. 10-14 

Plumbers & Pipe Fitters 

Las Vegas ^ . . 

'5 -a 

Aug. 13-15 

Nevada 

Reno ; ^ 


Aug. 19-21 

Utah 

Salt Lake City hr- 

' 1 

Aug. 20-22 

Montana 

Billings 

fx/ll 

Aug. 24 

Boilermakers 

Chicago 


Aug. 24-28 

Allied Industrial Workers 

Dearborn, Mich. 

.. -'Ti 

Aug. 24-28 

Iron Workers 

Miami 

Aug. 24-28 

Typographical Union 

Montreal 


Aug. 24-29 

Glass Bottle Blowers 

Bal Harbour, Fla. 

■ : i 

Aug. 31 -Sept. 1 

Seafarers 

Washington 

i 

Sept. 

Wyoming 

Casper 

■ . i 

Sept. 7-11 

British Trades Union Congress 

Blackpool 


Sept. 10-12 

North Dakota 

Jamestown 


Sept. 13-16 

Minnesota 

St. Paul 

- 1 

Sept. 14 

Graphic Arts International Union 

Honolulu 

. * ! 

Sept. 14 

Laborers 

Hollywood, Fla. 

-1 

Sept. 14-17 

Florida 

Miami Beach 

" '1 

Sept. 14-18 

Oregon 

Springfield 


Sept. 16-18 

Iowa 

Waterloo 

* 

Sept. 16-18 

Connecticut 

New Haven 


Sept. 20-25 

Woodworkers 

St. Louis 

^.‘ 1 - 

Sept. 21-23 

Tennessee 

Nashville 

.3 i| 

Sept. 21-24 

Illinois 

Chicago 


Sept. 26-27 

Washington 

Everett ; 


S“pt. 28-30 

Nebraska 

Omaha ^ 


Sept. 28-Oct. 2 

Amalgamated Transit Union 

Hollywood, Fla. 


Sept. 28-Oct. 2 

Transport Workers 

San Francisco 


Oct. 4 

Rubber Workers 

Bal Harbour, Fla. 


Oct. 5-9 

Bricklayers 

Toronto 


Oct. 5-9 

Telegraph Workers 

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. 

■ 'Si 

Oct. 7-9 ■ 

Colorado 

Colorado Springs 


Oct. 11-15 

Massachusetts 

Boston 

i' 

Oct. 14-16 

Kansas 

Topeka 

■*. "T* ‘ 

Oct. 20-21 

West Virginia 

Charleston 

• n 

Oct. 21-23 

Georgia 

Savannah 


Oct. 31 -Nov. 2 

New Mexico 

Albuquerque 

- 1 

Nov. 1-4 

South Carolina 

Myrtle Beach 

1* 

Nov. 9-10 

Food & Beverage Trades Dept. 

New York 

' -1 

Nov. 9-10 

Metal Trades Dept. 

New York 

' '1 

Nov. 9-13 

Flight Engineers 

Rio de Janeiro 

" 1 ' 

Nov. 12 

Professional Employees Dept. 

New York 


Nov. 12-13 

Maritime Trades Dept. 

New York 


Nov. 12-13 

Union Label & Service Trades Dept. 

New York 

" 1 

Nov. 12-14 

Labor Press Association 

New York 

-^ 1 ' 

Women Pace Rise in ‘Moonlighting’ 

:1- 


The number of “moonlighters” — work- 
ers holding two or more jobs— rose 
slightly between May 1979 and May 1980 
to 4,759,000, the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics reported. A year earlier, the number 
was 4,724,000. 

The multiple job holding or moonlight- 
ing rate, which measures multiple job- 
holders as a percent of all employed work- 
ers, was 4.9 percent, the same as in May 
1979. 

The proportion of all working women 
who moonlighted, however, rose from 3.5 
to 3.8 percent while that of men dropped 
from 5.9 to 5.8 percent over the year, 
BLS said. Seven years ago, the rate was 


6.6 percent for men, 2.7 percent for wom- 
en, and 5.1 percent overall. 

By occupation, workers in professional 
and technical jobs and farmers were the 
most likely to hold second jobs. Their 
moonlighting rates averaged 8 percent and 
6.4 percent, respectively, in 1980, BLS 
said. On the other hand, factory operatives 
and clerical workers were the least likely 
to hold second jobs, with moonlighting 
rates of 2.7 and 3.8 percent. 

The total number of workers employed 
more than 40 hours a week, whether in 
one job or more^ than one job, fell from 
25.7 million to 23.2 million in the year 
ended in May 1980, BLS said. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 


Paffc Three 


Steelworkers 
Open Talks in 

Can Industry 



ASSOCIATED PRESS employees in major cities have been AP’s headquarters in New York, where the board of di- 
walking informational picket lines to protest the news agen- rectors was meeting. The Guild has filed unfair labor practice 
cy’s stonewalling tactics in bargaining with the Newspaper charges stemming from the bargaining impasse. The Guild- 
Guild. More than 100 staffers joined this protest outside AP contract expired Dec. 3 1 . 

Drozak Asks Measures to Rescue 
U.S, Shipbuilding, Merchant Fleet 


Costa Mesa, Calif. — ^The Steelworkers 
opened negotiations with the container in- 
dustry on new agreements to replace cur- 
rent contracts covering nearly 40,000 
workers that expire on Feb. 15. 

Following a two-day, joint “sound-off” 
session with industry representatives here, 
union negotiators met separately with bar- 
gainers from each of the four major com- 
panies in the industry, American Can, 
Continental Can, National Can, and 
Crown Cork & Seal. 

THE FOUR companies employ a total 
of some 20,000 USWA members. In addi- 
tion to the four major firms, the union 
holds contracts with several smaller pro- 
ducers and “captive” can operations owned 
by food, beer, and other product manu- 
facturers which make their own containers. 

About 200 officers of USWA locals 
across the country attended the sound-off 
session. Robert Petris, director of the un- 
ion’s District 38 in Los Angeles, is chair- 
man of the USWA container .industry 
conference and chairman of the union’s 
bargaining committee at Continental Can. 

Petris said the union hopes to gain an 
agreement similar to the one it reached 
last year with the aluminum industry. He 
said the union seeks a substantial wage in- 
crease, continuation tind improvement of 
its current cost-of-living clause, and im- 
proved benefits and health coverage for 
retirees. He pointed out that the industry 
has lost some 10,000 jobs in recent years. 

Current contracts with the four major 
can companies provided a 40-cent hourly 
wage increase in March 1977, and addi- 
tional hourly raises of 10 cents on Nov. 1, 
1977, 10 to 19.6 cents on Mar. 1, 1978, 
10 cents on Sept. 1, 1978, 10 to 22 cents 
on Mar. 1. 1979, and 34 to 43.6 cents on 
Mar. 1, 1980. 

THE UNION seeks to improve the COL 
formula to provide for a one-cent hourly 
increase for every .28 of a point rise in the 
government’s consumer price index. The 
current formula calls for a one-cent in- 
crease for every rise of three-tenths of a 
point in the index. 

The container industry talks are the 
last in the union’s series of four major 
industry conference negotiations which 
began with the major steel companies last 
spring, followed by negotiations with the 
aluminum industry. The nonferrous bar- 
gaining talks with the copper industry 
ended late last November. 


More workers than ever have college 
degrees, and the number of college gradu- 
ates in the workforce has nearly doubled 
since 1970, according to data released by 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The Labor Dept.’s statistical arm found 
in a March 1980 survey that nearly 17 
million workers aged 25 to 64 had com- 
pleted four or more years of college and 
some 13.4 million had attended at least 
one year of college, a total of about 30.3 
million workers with education beyond 
high school. 

A DECADE AGO, 8.7 million workers 
had finished four years of college, and 7.2 
million had attended some college for a 
total of about 16 million. 

BLS pointed out that the figures cor- 
respond to the passage of the post-World 
War II “baby boom” generation through 
school and into the workforce. Men and 
women in the 25-34 year age bracket ac- 
counted for 44 percent of the total num- 
ber of workers who have completed four 
or more years of college and 45 percent 
of all workers with at least one year of 
college. 

Among college graduates, the BLS said, 
about three-fourths of both men and wom- 
en workers are concentrated in two broad 


The United States is in danger of los- 
ing its vital shipbuilding capacity and its 
status as a world maritime power unless 
government policies are quickly changed, 
AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept. Presi- 
dent Frank Drozak warned. 

Drozak, who is president of the Sea- 
farers, called for a reversal of “the 20- 
year decline in the American merchant 
marine and shipbuilding industry” in a 
statement issued following a meeting of 
the Ad Hoc Maritime Committee of the 
AFL-CIO. 

“THE MARITIME industry does not 
need new subsidies, loans, grants or bail- 
outs,” Drozak said. “It only needs govern- 
ment policies that recognize its importance 
to all American citizens no matter how 
far from water they may live.” 

The committee, chaired by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland, includes the 
Steelworkers; Marine Engineers; Long- 
shoremen; the Oil, Chemical & Atomic 
Workers; the Masters, Mates & Pilots; the 
Radio Officers, and the National Maritime 
Union. It is calling for the adoption of five 


occupational groups, professional/ technical 
and managerial. Of workers with one to 
three years of college, 37 percent of the 
men and 32 percent of the women were 
in those job categories. 

Of those who attended only one to three 
years of college, 21 percent of the men 
were craft workers and 44 percent of the 
women were clerical workers. Some 31 
percent of male high school graduates with 
no college were craft workers and 46 per- 
cent of the women in that category were 
clustered in clerical jobs. 

THE BLS FIGURES show that unem- 
ployment rates varied in relation to a 
worker’s years of schooling, with only 2 
percent of college graduates out of work 
in March 1980 compared to 4.9 percent of 
workers with one to three years of college 
and 6.5 percent of workers with only high 
school diplomas. 

White college graduates had an unem- 
ployment rate of 1.9 percent in March 
1980 compared to 4.1 percent for black 
graduates and 3.4 percent for Hispanic 
graduates. The rate for blacks with one to 
three years of college jumped to 10.2 per- 
cent in the same period compared to a 
jobless rate of 4.3 percent for whites and 
5.9 percent for Hispanics in the same edu- 
cational category. 


new government policies: 

• Revitalization of the dry bulk U.S.- 
flag fleet and consideration of the U.S. 
merchant marine in all programs promot- 
ing the export of American coal. A strong 
fleet is essential to carry not only coal 
but also strategic materials, the committee 
said, pointing out that of 71 raw materials 
considered vital to defense and U.S. indus- 
try, only a small percentage is shipped 
under U.S. flags. 

• Greater use by the U.S. Navy of the 
merchant marine fleet for routine auxiliary 
functions, and transfer of operation and 
construction of auxiliary support vessels 
to the private sector. 

• Revision of tax incentives and regu- 
latory practices that encourage the build- 
ing of new vessels in foreign shipyards 
rather than in the United States. 

• Negotiation of bilateral trade agree- 
ments, particularly with developing coun- 
tries, that include guarantees of an equi- 
table share of U.S. international cargoes 
for U.S.-flag ships. 

• Ratification by the United States of 
the UN Conference on Trade & Develop- 
ment’s proposed code of conduct for liner 
services with formulas that would reserve 
for U.S. ships 40 percent of all liner car- 
goes shipped from or destined for the 
United States. 

“UNLESS THESE policies are adopt- 
ed now, there will be no more yards 
building comihercial ships in the United 
States,” Drozak warned. “Even today 
fewer than two dozen major shipyards 


Los Angeles — The Musicians reached 
an agreement with motion picture and 
television producers on a new three-year 
contract to end a 27-week strike by some 
5,000 AFM members who score and pro- 
vide the music for productions. 

Although details of the agreement 
were not released pending a ratification 
vote, AMF President Victor W. Fuen- 
tealba reported that the contract provides 
for substantial wage increases and other 
improvements. 

It also makes provisions for future 
negotiations on the use of original produc- 
tion music for the home video market. A 
major issue in the dispute that led to the 
strike, which began last Aug. 1, was over 
compensation for various forms of pay 
television, as well as payments for reruns 
of TV shows and motion pictures. 


remain to be saved from extinction.” 

He pointed to the recent closing of the 
Sun Ship Yard in Chester, Pa., as evidence 
of the “frightening situation” threatening 
U.S. marine capability. Several thousand 
workers are expected to lose their jobs, 
Drozak said, when the yard stops con- 
struction of new ships. 

Drozak urged the new Administration 
to follow up on a campaign commitment 
to a revitalization of an effective U.S. 
merchant marine made by Ronald Reagan 
in a speech at the same shipyard. 

WITHOUT NEW policies, “there soon 
could be no U.S. merchant marine to 
carry grain to foreign buyers and to trans- 
port strategic materials to our defense and 
manufacturing plants,” Drozak cautioned. 
“If a war were to break out, the United 
States would be unable to send men and 
equipment in numbers sufficient to fight. 
Hundreds of thousands of Americans 
would be in unemployment lines. The end 
of American shipbuilding capability and 
U.S.-flag shipping would be catastrophic 
to our economy and our defense,” he 
emphasized. 

Drozak pointed out that similar recom- 
mendations for bolstering the U.S. mer- 
chant fleet were agreed upon by more 
than 100 representatives of the maritime 
industry, labor and government at a sym- 
posium sponsored earlier this month in 
the U.S. Virgin Islands by the Center for 
Ocean Law & Policy of the University of 
Virginia. Drozak was on a panel discuss- 
ing government action and maritime 
policy. 


The ratification vote, which will be con- 
ducted by mail, is expected to take sev- 
eral weeks to complete. 

The tentative agreement between the 
AFM and the Association of Motion Pic- 
ture & Television Producers was reached 
Jan. 14 with the assistance of the Federal 
Mediation & Conciliation Service. 

Fuentealba said the AFM was “pleased 
with the resolution of the strike and grati- 
fied by the terms of the agreement.” He 
added that the determination and unity of 
striking members “has been rewarded with 
a settlement which will benefit all musi- 
cians.” 

During the strike, producers used 
dubbed-in music from previous television 
snows or had recordings for motion pic- 
tures done overseas. 


College-Educated Workers 
Nearly Double in 10 Years 


Musicians Gain Settlement 
With Film, TV Producers 


Page Four 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 


A Proud Workforce 

T N AN ESTABLISHMENT as vast as the United States govem- 

ment. President Reagan’s appointees will surely find some of 
the waste and inefficiency he has committed his Administration to 
eradicate. 

Where it is found, it should be eliminated. The problem is not 
unique to government. A diligent search almost certainly would 
uncover pockets of sloth in General Motors, IBM and most other 
large corporations. 

But the President and his appointees will also find a large reser- 
voir of conscientious men and women performing useful work and 
doing so with pride. 

THEY MAY BE found driving trucks or inspecting mines, 
checking tax returns or feeding data into computers, directing air 
traffic or cleaning hospital wards, answering telephones and repro- 
ducing reports. 

Government employees were taken hostage in Iran, and other 
government employees worked day and night to achieve their 
freedom. 

And yes, some are also engaged in the enormously complex 
task of drawing up regulations that are fair and workable so as to 
better protect the health, safety and rights of their fellow Ameri- 
cans. 

Like workers everywhere, they will respond to leadership and 
example — and justly resent undeserved abuse. 

End of an Ordeal 

T he deep emotion that President Carter showed in his 
warm welcome to the men and women finally freed from cap- 
tivity in Iran was shared by his fellow Americans. 

The American people were united in outrage when the U.S. 
embassy was seized and diplomatic hostages taken in violation of 
international tenets that have been observed almost since the dawn 
of history. 

We seethed at the indignities to which the hostages were sub- 
jected and we rejoiced, as if for our own kin, at their release. 

IN THE DELICATE around-the-clock negotiations that occu- 
pied the final day^ of his Administration, President Carter demon- 
strated that the awesome responsibility of the presidency is borne 
for the full four years, and cannot be put aside even when the 
view from the Oval Office shows the preparations for the inaugural 
of a successor. 

And President Reagan took the proper step in asking Mr. Car- 
ter to represent him and all of the American people in a personal 
welcome to the liberated Americans. 

The ordeal to which the Americans taken hostage were sub- 
jected was all the more reprehensible because it was not merely 
indignities at the hands of an inflamed, unreasoning mob. 

As the AFL-CIO Executive Council noted in a resolution 
adopted last year, the hostages were “victims of Iran’s policy of 
oflBcial terrorism — a policy aimed at the humiliation and black- 
mail of the United States.” 


ssiiiiiminiiiimiimiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


s VoL XXVI Saturday, January 24, 1981 No. 4 = 

= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001 -1 185) is issued weekly at 815 t S S 

= Sixteenth St„ N.W., Washington, D C. 20006. $2 a year. Second = 

= class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not = 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001 -1 185) is issued weekly at 815 
Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
= the name of the AFL-CIO. 



Welcome Back to Freedom 



A Political Message 

State Lines Prove No Barrier 
To Airborne Pollution of Lakes 


By Gus Tyler 

T he lakes and ponds of New York’s 
Adirondack Mountains are so acid that fish 
can no longer live in them. By count, 219 such 
bodies of water have been so polluted; an addi- 
tional 256 are rapidly reaching the same point of 
poisoning. 

The problem is environmental, of course; but 
it is actually more political than technical. 

The political message is that no state in these 
United States is' an island unto itself; it is part of 
the continent, inhabited by 49 other states, whose 
behavior affects all of us. For instance: 

THE ACID IN these lakes and ponds does not 
come from the negligence of the New Yorkers 
who surround the area. The poison comes from 
faraway states, like Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michi- 
gan, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia. 
These states burn coal to generate power and do 
so with little regard to sulfur dioxide and other 
dangerous emissions. 

Winds, rain and snow carry these pollutants 
eastward, doing heavy damage when they hit 
heights above 2,000 feet. The poisons are not 
only deposited directly on the ponds and lakes, 
once some of the finest trout fishing spots in the 
world, but are dumped on soil through which the 
contaminants leach into the waterways. 

There is no way that New York can cope with 
this matter short of calling for federal interven- 
tion and for tight enforcement of tough standards. 
By itself, the Empire State is helpless. 

NO DOUBT, New York’s call for Uncle Sam 
to step in can be interpreted as a call for “more” 
rather than “less” government. Such an act would 
surely be denounced by those who want to get 
the government out of our lives. But what alter- 
native does New York — or any other state affect- 
ed by a neighbor’s behavior — have, but to call 
upon Uncle Sam to come to the aid of an en- 
dangered niece or nephew? 

The case of the poisoned water is, in a very 
real way, symbolic of the relationship between 
the states and Washington. Over the years, they — 
or some of their inhabitants — have turned to the 
capital for action because the state could not or 
would not move on its own. 

A constitutional amendment to extend the suf- 
frage to women in the country was needed be- 


cause the separate states would have taken for- 
ever-and-a-day (if ever) to give every woman in 
this country the right to vote. 

A CIVIL RIGHTS act was needed in 1964 
because, if the matter of rights for minorities 
were left to the states, there would still be mil- 
lions in this country who would be denied what 
was rightfully theirs. 

Many years ago it became painfully apparent 
that any state that introduced progressive social 
legislation — like workmen’s compensation, unem- 
ployment insurance or social security — ^would be 
penalized for doing so. To finance such systems 
required taxation. If a neighboring (or distant) 
state did not go in for such sensible and humane 
measures, it could attract business by offering 
lower tax rates. Hence, the meaner the state was 
the greater its success in drawing away business 
from the states with a social conscience. 

PRECISELY because the states had not moved 
in these areas, partly for fear that to be generous 
would be foolhardy, the federal government had 
to take the initiative to establish unemployment 
insurance and social security. 

History has proven over and over again that 
in socio-economic matters, as in containing the 
effects of acid rain, a state can not do what’s right 
just by itself. In many such matters, we must act 
as a united states. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


LET'S BUY 
WHAT WE 
MAKE! 



Union Label and Service Trades Department. AFL-CIO 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 


Pafc Five 


Kirkland Presses Tripartite Action 

General Tax Cuts No Remedy 
For Erosion of Industrial Base 


From an address by AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland at an Industrial Union Dept, confer- 
ence, Jan, 9, 1981, at the George Meany Center 
for Labor Studies, 

D uring the Seventies, the American econ- 
omy experienced extended periods of high 
unemployment, massive layoffs, and plant clos- 
ings. The growth of the economy slowed, inflation 
increased, and our balance of payments wors- 
ened. These events would have been bad enough 
if they were purely cylical in nature, with the 
economy rebounding after a downturn. Underly- 
ing these problems, however, was a much more 
serious and enduring problem. The industrial base 
of the American economy was in fact eroding. 

During the Seventies, the American share of 
the world market for manufactured goods de- 
clined 23 percent, while our share of our own 
domestic market also declined. As a result of this 
deindustrialization, at least 2 million industrial 
jobs have been lost. In the face of this ominous 
trend, there has been no coherent national policy 
to reverse it. 

We just don’t believe that you can write off 
major industries in this country without paying 
for it dearly in the future. Nor do we believe that 
whole cities and regions of America can be al- 
lowed to decay, while other regions prosper like 
Arab sheikdoms, without serious social and eco- 
nomic consequences. It’s the height of arrogance 
to talk in abstract, theoretical terms about letting 
certain industries disappear and then putting 
everyone else to work making micro-chips. 

IT’S IMPORTANT that America be a diversi- 
fied industrial nation, not one that just depends 
upon one or two industries or is dependent upon 
services. I do not believe that our standards of 
living will be improved if we allow basic indus- 
tries to erode. 

Nor would the world be better off if each 
country simply specialized in the production of 
one product. In the first place, no other country 
has accepted that idea. 

On the contrary, the countries that we point 
to as having outperformed us economically have 
taken precisely the opposite course of action. 
They have generally approached their economic 
problems with a coherent industrial policy, in 
which government, labor and business all play 
key roles. Industries that are considered impor- 
tant to the nation’s growth aren’t allowed to 
atrophy in order to demonstrate a country’s faith 
in the principles of free-market economics. And 
new industries are often given government assis- 
tance where the market would prevent them from 
getting started. 

Instead of blindly adhering to economic pre- 
scriptions based upon an industrial structure that 
existed 200 years ago, we should adopt similar 


procedures to stem the erosion and begin the 
revitalization of American industry. 

Conservatives argue that all we have to do to 
achieve growth rates comparable to our foreign 
competitors is to cut taxes in a general fashion. 
They argue that taxes are so burdensome here 
in the U.S. that the incentive to save and invest 
has diminished, thereby causing a long-term 
slowdown in economic growth. But this notion 
just doesn’t square with reality. As a proportion 
of gross domestic product, taxes in the U.S. are 
29 percent; in France they’re 39 percent; in Ger- 
many they are 37 percent. Yet these countries 
have achieved higher rates of growth. If there is 
a relationship between taxes and growth, this 
would indicate that it is positive, rather than nega- 
tive as the supply-siders would like us to believe. 

Thus, the idea that we have grown more slow- 
ly than other industrial nations because of exces- 
sive taxes just isn’t true. A general tax cut is not 
the answer to our problems. 

THE TRACK RECORD of general business 
tax cuts demonstrates they are generally ineffec- 
tive in stimulating investment or productivity. 
During the 1970s there were several huge busi- 
ness tax cuts, including liberalized depreciation 
allowances, an increased investment credit, re- 
duced corporate tax rates, and reduced taxation 
on capital gains. Yet investment as a proportion of 
GNP remained substantially constant over this 
period. 

The only assured result of across-the-board 
tax cuts is that corporate cash flows will increase. 
Instead of undertaking greater rates of investment 
here in the U.S., businesses may raise dividends, 
invest abroad or purchase other companies. 

Tax policy — if it’s to be a tool for reindustriali- 
zation — must be structured in terms of precise 
and planned goals. It must be flexible and selec- 
tive, not across-the-board. 

Rather than just providing for general across- 
the-board cuts in depreciation, a new targeted 
program should be developed. Such a program 
could be initiated as part of an overall reindus- 
trialization policy. 

The need for a tripartite National Reindustrial- 
ization Board — including representatives of labor, 
business, and the government — ^has not dimin- 
ished. The amount and type of any tax incentive 
or accelerated depreciation allowance granted to 
any company would be determined on a case-by- 
case basis with some type of certificate of neces- 
sity. Investment credits should only be available 
for increases in investment levels, and tax sub- 
sidies should be clearly targeted to needed indus- 
trial sectors and regions. 

The need for a massive effort to reindustrialize 
the American economy remains one of our most 
important priorities. 


97th Congress 

Labor’s Legislative Program 
Stresses Action to Create Jobs 


M easures to put Americans back to work 
and restore the vitality of the nation’s pro- 
ductive capacity will be the major thrust of or- 
ganized labor in the 97th Congress, AFL-CIO 
Legislative Director Ray Denison said on Labor 
News Conference. 

“There is a constituency for those programs,” 
Denison stressed. He listed specific action to re- 
shape international trade policies, bolster the U.S. 
auto industry and make a meaningful start on a 
synthetic fuels program as the keys to a successful 
session for the new Congress. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview, Denison said the labor movement will 
also put strong emphasis on defending vital work- 
er protections against dangerous cuts and poor 
administration. He said the “considerable conser- 
vative shift” in Congress and the new Adminis- 
tration has put workers, the economy and the 
entire society in a “much more precarious pos- 
ture.” He warned of a danger in the potential for 
“regressive legislation and conservative programs 


that will hurt American workers across the 
board.” 

Denison said the AFL-CIO hopes that a “har- 
monious relationship” will prevail at the depart- 
ment and agency level of the federal government, 
where the day-to-day operations of programs put 
on the books by Congress are carried out. “The 
administration of programs is the area where 
good laws can fail,” he added. 

DENISON ACKNOWLEDGED that ultra- 
conservatives are putting substantial pressure on 
Congress and that a drive against the labor move- 
ment, as an institution, could develop. But, he 
said, the hope is that “moderate forces will pre- 
vail,” for there is “no percentage to be gained if 
warfare on the Hill pits the American labor move- 
ment against hard-nosed, right-wing zealots.” 

Far more important, he asserted, is a sustained 
effort to move toward a full-employment economy 
that is built on a stable base. That, he said, will 
be the key battleground for the labor movement. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

after the NOVEMBER elections, a young congressman 
named David Stockman went out to California and presented 
a 23-page scenario to Ronald Reagan. In highly emotional lan- 
guage, Stockman warned Reagan that his Administration faces an 
“economic Dunkirk” in its first two years. 

Apparently mindful of the traditional mid-term swing against 
the party in the White House, Stockman said Reagan must act 
boldly and swiftly or else risk a demoralized GOP and lose a 
“golden opportunity” for conservative change and political re- 
alignment by November 1982. 

To “dominate” the Washington agenda, Stockman advised, 
Reagan should declare “a national economic emergency” and 
enter “fevered consultation” with leaders of Congress on his eco- 
nomic program. 

Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed. 

TREASURY SEC.-DESIGNATE Donald Regan told the Sen- 
ate Finance Committee that “we must have a sense of urgency — 
not a sense of emergency.” Former Federal Reserve Chairman 
Arthur Burns also threw cold water on Stockman’s idea, saying 
it would only “frighten people.” 

Now that Stockman has become Reagan’s budget chief, it is 
perhaps worth looking at his cast of mind towards federal pro- 
grams. 

In his memo to Reagan, he described the federal budget as “an 
automatic ‘coast-to-coast soup line’ that dispenses remedial aid 
with almost reckless abandon, converting the traditional notion of 
automatic stabilizers into multitudinous outlay spasms throughout 
the budget.” 

ONE ISSUE that bothers Stockman is what he calls the “ticking 
regulatory time-bomb.” During the 1970s, as he sees it. Congress 
approved a dozen sweeping environmental, energy and safety laws 
practically devoid of policy standards and sound criteria. 

Then the “McGovemite no-growth activists assumed control of 
most of the relevant sub-Cabinet policy posts during the Carter 
Administration.” These people spent the past four years “tooling 
up” to implement “a mind-boggling outpouring” of rules. 

Rising to his rhetorical climax, Stockman said this decade-long 
process is now at the point where “it will sweep through the in- 
dustrial economy with near gale force, preempting multi-billions 
in investment capital, driving up operating costs, and siphoning 
off management and technical personnel in an incredible morass 
of new controls and compliance procedures.” 

TO EASE OR LIFT the cost of regulations on industry. Stock- 
man would act administratively to defer, revise or rescind existing 
and pending regulations. 

Since only about one-fourth of the federal budget is “control- 
lable,” Stockman advised Reagan to focus on the “entitlement” 
programs that make up most of the remaining 75 percent: 

“Current expenditures for food stamps, cash assistance, Medi- 
caid, disability, heating assistance, housing assistance, WIC (child 
nutrition), school lunches, and unemployment compensation 
amount to $100 billion. A carefully tailored package to reduce 
eligibility, overlap and abuse should be developed for these areas 
— with potential savings of $10-20 billion.” 

The basic trouble with Stockman’s approach is that it adds up 
costs and ignores benefits. 

ON THE BENEFITS side, for example, Douglas Costle, former 
administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, points out 
that an investment of $200,000 at the Life Sciences plant in 
Hopewell, Va., would have made it safe to produce Kepone. Fail- 
ure to make it safe led to contamination of workers and the James 
River. Judgments against Life Sciences total $12 million and EPA 
estimates it would cost $8 billion to clean up the James, if it can 
ever be done. 



JOBS FOR THE UNEMPLOYED in a stable economy will be 
the focus of organized labor’s efforts in the 97th Congress, 
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison, center, said on 
Labor News Conference. He was questioned by Warren Brown, 
left, of the Washington Post and Neil MacNeil of Time Maga- 
zine. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs interview is broad- 
cast weekly over the Mutual radio network. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 



UNION^S CONCERN for victims of earthquakes in Italy is expressed in a check 
for $5,000 presented by Transport Workers President William G. Lindner, left, 
and Sec.-Treas. Roosevelt Watts to the New York State AFL-CIO’s eathquake 
relief fund. The contribution is accepted by E. Howard Molisani, at right, sec- 
retary-treasurer of the state federation. 

House Committee Lineups 
Reflect GOP Election Gain 


Indiana Cited for Laxity 

OSHA Acts on Backlog 
Of Safety, Health Issues 


(Continued from Page 1) 

reduced from 27-15 to 26-19. Fernand J. 
St. Germain (R.I.) is the new chairman, 
succeeding Henry S. Reuss (Wis.), who 
chose to head the Joint Economic Com- 
mittee. J. William Stanton remains senior 
Republican. 

BUDGET — Changes from 17-8 to 18- 
12 Democratic and takes a conservative 
tilt with Jim Jones (Okla.) becoming chair- 
man while Delbert L. Latta (Ohio) stays as 
senior Republican. 

EDUCATION & LABOR — Chances 
from 23-13 to 19-14 Democratic. Carl D. 
Perkins (Ky.) remains chairman and John 
M. Ashbrook (Ohio) stays the ranking Re- 
publican. 

ENERGY & COMMERCE — Goes 
from 27-15 to 24-18 Democratic. John D. 
Dingell (Mich.) moves up to chairman and 
James T. Broyhill (N.C.) becomes the 
senior Republican. 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS — Changes from 

22- 12 to 20-15 Democratic. Clement J. 
Zablocki (Wis.) is again chairman and Wil- 
liam S. Broomfield (Mich.) remains the 
ranking Republican. 

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONSk-The 

Democratic margin shifts from 25-14 to 

23- 17. Jack Brooks (Tex.) continues as 
chairman and Frank Horton (N.Y.) as 
senior Republican. 

INTERIOR & INSULAR AFFAIRS— 

Party ratio still to be decided. Morris K. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Union Women; President Dorothy I. 
Height of the National Council of Negro 
Women; NAACP Executive Director Ben- 
jamin L. Hooks, and Consumers Union 
Executive Director Rhoda H. Karpatkin. 

Their statement cited the need for public 
investment to support balanced economic 
growth. 

“Selective, targeted stimulus programs 
— employment and training programs, in- 
vestment incentives and credit regulations 
— are more efficient in promoting economic 
growth, in raising productivity, and in 
fighting inflation,” they said. Further, such 
policies “are more fair in terms of income 
distribution than general across-the-board 
tax cuts or restrictive fiscal .and monetary 
policies,” the statement declared. 

COMMISSION CHAIRMAN William 
J. McGill, president-emeritus of Columbia 
University, expressed satisfaction that such 
a diverse group had reached a general 
consensus on a large number of important 
issues during its 13-month exploration. 

One of the controversial conclusions of 
the McGill commission was that the 
nation should accept the fact that produc- 


Udall (Ariz.) remains chairman; Manuel 
Lujan, Jr. (N.M.) becomes senior Repub- 
lican. 

JUDICIARY — Party ratio still to be 
decided. Peter W. Rodino, Jr. (N.J.) is 
again chairman, with Robert McClbry (111.) 
ranking Republican. 

MERCHANT MARINE & FISHERIES 

— ^The party lineup shifts from 25-14 to 
21-15 Democratic. The new chairman is 
Mario Biaggi (N.Y.) and Gene Snyder 
(Ky.) is listed as ranking Republican. 

POST OFFICE & CIVIL SERVICE— 

The Democratic majority is trimmed from 
16-9 to 15-11. William D. Ford (Mich.) 
becomes chairman and Edward J. Der- 
winski (111.) stays the senior Republican. 

PUBLIC WORKS & TRANSPORTA- 
TION — Changes from 31-17 to 25-19 
Democratic. James J. Howard (N.J.) be- 
comes chairman and Don H. Clausen 
(Calif.) is the new ranking Republican. 

RULES — Stays 11-5 Democratic, with 
Richard Bolling (Mo.) continuing as 
chairman and James H. Quillen (Tenn.) 
as senior Republican. 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY — Goes 
from 27-15 to 23-17. Don Fuqua (Fla.) 
remains chairman and Larry Winn, Jr. 
(Kan.) becomes senior Republican. 

WAYS & MEANS — Charges from 24- 
12 to 23-12 Democratic. The new chair- 
man is Dan Rostenkowski (111.), and 
Barber B. Conable, Jr. (N.Y.) remains 
ranking Republican. 


tion and employment are shifting from the 
older cities of the Northeast to the Sunbelt. 
Rather than seeking to stem the tide, the 
commission said, “we should try to help 
people bear their often painful burdens 
and, as quickly as possible, facilitate transi- 
tion to new locations and jobs.” 

THE SIGNERS of the supplementary 
statement, however, contended that “it is 
essential to maintain and revitalize Amer- 
ica’s urban areas as centers for economic, 
social and cultural activity.” 

The supplementary report was made 
public by the AFL-CIO and was included 
in an appendix to the commission’s report. 
These were some of the other points it 
made: 

• An agenda for the Eighties should 
include a continuing examination of eco- 
nomic concentration and the effects of 
corporate power on employment, prices, 
income distribution and the U.S. role in 
the world. 

• U.S. trade policy should “contribute 
to a health and diversified economy.” 

• The commission properly urged fed- 
eralizing of the welfare system and a mini- 
mum security income for all Americans. 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has moved to lift the charter 
on Indiana’s job safety and health plan, 
which the state has operated for the past 
six years. 

Citing a “consistent pattern of poor per- 
formance in critical program areas,” 
OSHA filed a formal complaint in the 
Federal Register — one in a series of steps 
to have certification of the Indiana plan 
withdrawn. 

THE INDIANA PLAN has been under 
fire for several years from workers and 
unions on charges that workplace hazards 
were either totally ignored or glossed over. 

In 1977, the AFL-CIO, along with the 
state federation, the Steelworkers and 
other affiliates, petitioned OSHA for the 
withdrawal of the Indiana plan. 

The action against the Indiana plan was 
among a flurry of labor-backed measures 
by outgoing OSHA officials who left office 
Jan. 20. Other actions included: 

, • A final “walk-around” rule requiring 
employers to pay workers who accompany 
OSHA compliance officers on workplace 
inspections. 

# Proposed safety and health regula- 
tions designed to improve protections for 
some 680,000 workers involved in onshore 
marine cargo-handling. 

• Scheduling of hearings and extending 
the comment period on a proposed con- 
veyor safety standard to reduce hazards. 

THESE AND several other measures 
issued during the past month are likely to 
get close scrutiny from the incoming 
OSHA officials to be appointed by the 
Reagan Administration. 

In filing its complaint against the Indi- 
ana plan, OSHA charged that the state 


New York — Actors’ Equity members 
are voting on proposals that would raise 
dues for professional stage actors for the 
first time since 1973. Action to submit 
alternative plans for a dues increase to 
the membership was approved at the 
Equity’s national membership meeting 
here Jan. 9. 

Willard Swire, the union’s executive sec- 
retary, said the need for a dues increase 
grew out of a “fiscal crisis” brought on 
by a “serious financial deficit.” 

WHILE tHE UNION’S membership 
has increased since 1973 from 15,000 


The signers urged that the minimum pay- 
ment be raised to the poverty level by the 
end of the decade and that food stamp 
assistance be continued until that is done, 
instead of being ended. 

• On health care, the signers agreed 
with the commission’s conclusion that the 
delivery of health care is “woefully inade- 
quate,” but balked at the inadequate 
remedies proposed. These included insur- 
ance for catastrophic insurance and “con- 
sumer choice” health insurance plans that 
the supplementary statement said would 
make the problem worse. Instead, it called 
for a comprehensive national health care 
system. 

APART FROM its specific recommen- 
dations, the commission report included 
demographic projections for a “Portrait of 
America in the Eighties.” 

It projected “a gradual aging of the 
American population, starting slowly in 
the Eighties and reaching a peak in the 
early decades of the new century. 

But it also foresees “a baby boom echo” 
that will result in a 36 percent increase in 
the number of pre-schoolers during the 
Eighties. 


failed to employ enough qualified indus- 
trial hygienists, resulting in an inadequate 
health enforcement program. 

OSHA also cited Indiana for overlook- 
ing serious workplace hazards, proposing 
unduly light penalties for violations, and 
for not upgrading workers’ rights in line 
with changes in the federal program. 

THE 1970 JOB safety law stipulates 
that state plans must be “at least as effec- 
tive” as the federal occupational safety 
and health program if they are to govern 
within the state instead of the federal pro- 
gram. State plans that are certified by 
OSHA receive 50 percent federal funding. 

The walk-around pay rule was originally 
issued by OSHA in 1978, but an appeals 
court vacated the regulation last Novem- 
ber after it was challenged by employers. 
The agency reissued the rule after carry- 
ing out administration procedures cited by 
the court. In addition to full earnings, 
the rule requires that the worker receive 
all other benefits and rights during the 
walk-around period. 

In announcing the marine cargo- 
handling safety proposal, outgoing Assis- 
tant Labor Sec. Eula Bingham pointed out 
that the injury rate is far greater for 
marine terminal workers than in many 
other private sector industries. 

HEARINGS ON the conveyor safety 
standard will be held in Washington, May 
5-7, and followed by regional hearings in 
Chicago, May 12-14, ans Los Angeles, 
May 19-21. 

OSHA said that in 1976 alone, 16,720 
lost-time injuries were related to con- 
veyors. The agency estimated that the cost 
of these injuries, including compensation 
claims, legal fees, lost income and other 
charges, amounted to $235 million. 


to 27,000 and employment of Equity 
actors was 13,000 in 1980 compared to 
only 9,000 in 1973, and the union’s operat- 
ing income needed to pay fixed expenses 
as well as provide expanded services has 
not kept pace, Swire told the delegates. 

Two dues proposals have been sub- 
mitted for a vote of ballots mailed Jan. 23 
which must be returned by Feb. 27. Plan 
A, developed by a committee of the un- 
ion’s executive council, has the unanimous 
recommendation of the council. Plan B, a 
revision of the union’s existing dues 
structure, also appears on the ballot as an 
alternative, but does not carry a recom- 
mendation. 

The new proposal provides for basic 
dues of $1 per week, payable annually by 
all Equity members. In addition, a 2 per- 
cent charge will be levied on an actor’s 
earnings payable to Equity while the 
member is working. “Working dues” will 
be paid by checkoff. 

TO EASE THE dues burden on actors 
who are not employed. Plan A provides 
that members who earn less than $5,000 
will receive a credit of one-half percent 
of their Equity income in the following 
year. 

Actors who earn more than $100,000 
a year under Equity contracts will re- 
ceive a rebate of any dues collected in 
excess of $2,000 in that year. 

Plan B, a revision of the current dues 
system, would provide for collection of 
dues based on a sliding scale tied to in- 
come. Dues would be paid directly by the 
member. 

The current system is based on 10 cate- 
gories of Equity income ranping from 
none to $25,000 or more a year. The new 
plan would establish 16 categories from 
no income to over $50,000 per year. Dues 
at the low end of the scale would be in- 
creased from $42 to $52 per year, and at 
the top from $400 to $1,000. 


Labor Stresses Job Needs in ’ 80 s ‘Agenda’ 


Equity Members W eigh Plan 
To Shore Up Dues Structure 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 


Page Seven 


Seniors Press for National Health Plan 


A strong resolution calling for a com- 
prehensive national health plan was 
adopted by delegates to a conference on 
health security, as a preliminary to the 
1981 White House Conference on Aging. 

The mini-conference on national health 
security, held in Washington, D. C., to 
prepare recommendations for the White 
House meeting, was sponsored jointly by 
the National Council of Senior Citizens 
and the American Association of Retired 
Persons/ National Retired Teachers Asso- 
ciation. 

CO-SPONSORS included the AFL-CIO, 
the Auto Workers, the National Center on 
Black Aged, the Gray Panthers, the Na- 
tional Council on Aging and the Asocia- 
cion Nacional Pro Personas Mayores. 

No specific legislation was endorsed by 
the 350 delegates to the one-day confer- 
ence, which focused on the health care 
problems of the elderly. The delegates 
adopted a broad resolution, introduced by 
NCSC President Jacob dayman, former 
president of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union 
Dept. 

The resolution called for universal cov- 


These are some of the House committees 
having the biggest impact on labofs legis- 
lative program. The membership of several 
other important committees had not yet 
been designated when the AFL-CIO News 
went to press. New committee members 
are identified by asterisks. 

Education & Labor 

Democrats 

Carl D. Perkins (Ky.), Chairman 
Augustus F. Hawkins (Calif.) 

William D. Ford (Mich.) 

Phillip Burton (Calif.) 

Joseph M. Gaydos (Pa.) 

William (Bill) Clay (Mo.) 

Mario Biaggi (N.Y.) 

Ike F. Andrews (N.C.) 

Paul Simon (111.) 

George Miller (Calif.) 

Austin J. Murphy (Pa.) 

Theodore S. Weiss (N.Y.) 

Baltasar Corrada (Puerto Rico) 

Dale E. Kildee (Mich.) 

Peter A. Peyser (N.Y.) 

Pat Williams (Mont.) 

William R. Ratchford (Conn.) 

Ray Kogovsek (Colo.) 

Harold Washington (111.)* 

Republicans 

John M. Ashbrook (Ohio) 

JohnN. Erlenbom (111.) 

James M. Jeffords (Vt.) 

William F. Goodling (Penn.) 

E. Thomas Coleman (Mo.) 

Kenneth B. Kramer (Colo.) 

Arlen I. Erdahl (Minn.) 

Thomas E. Petri (Wis.) 

Millicent Fenwick (N.J.)* 

Marge Roukema (N.J.) * 

Larry DeNardis (Conn.)* 

.Larry E. Craig (Ida.) * 

Eugene Johnston (N.C.) * 

Vacancy 

Ways & Means 

Democrats 

Dan Rostenkowski (111.), Chairman 
Sam Gibbons (Fla.) 

J.J. Pickle (Tex.) 

Charles B. Rangel. (N.Y.) 

William R. Cotter (Conn.) 

Fortney H. Stark (Calif.) 

James R. Jones (Okla.) 

Andrew Jacobs, Jr. (Ind.) 

Harold E. Ford (Tenn.) 

Ken Holland (S.C.) 

William M. Brodhead (Mich.) 

Ed Jenkins (Ga.) 

Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) 

Thomas J. Downey (N.Y.) 

Cecil Heftel (Hawaii) 

Wyche Fowler, Jr. (Ga.) 

Frank J. Guarini (N.J.) 

James M. Shannon (Mass.) 

Marty Russo (111.) 


erage of individuals of all ages and income 
levels without deductibles, cost-sharing or 
co-payment requirements. 

FULL COVERAGE should be provided 
for both acute and preventive care by hos- 
pitals and doctors, the resolution said. 
This should include social and medical 
services, health maintenance and long-term 
care, as well as other services not now 
covered by Medicare such as preventive 
physical and mental health services, drugs 
and medication, dental treatment, eye 
care, foot care and long-term care. 

Strict health care cost controls are es- 
sential along with minimum standards of 
quality, the resolution urged. 

Coverage of treatment at health mainte- 
nance organizations should be provided 
as well as other “alternative methods” of 
health care in addition to treatment by 
private physicians, the delegates agreed. 

The resolution called for assumption of 
underwriting risks for health care plans 
by the federal government rather than the 
private sector and opposed an income test 
for plan participants. 

Bert Seidman, AFL-CIO social security 


Donald J. Pease (Ohio)* 

Kent Hance (Tex.) * 

Robert T. Matsui (Calif.)* 
Vacancy 

Republicans 

Barber B. Conable, Jr. (N.Y.) 
John J. Duncan (Tenn.) 

Bill Archer (Tex.) 

Guy Vander Jagt (Mich.) 

Philip M. Crane (111.) 

Bill Frenzel (Minn.) 

James G. Martin (N.C.) 

L. A. (Skip) Bafalis (Fla.) 
Richard T. Schulze (Penn.) 

Willis D. Gradison, Jr. (Ohio) 
John H. Rousselot (Calif.) 

W. Henson Moore (La.) 

Rules 

Democrats 

Richard Bolling (Mo.), Chairman 
Claude Pepper (Fla.) 

Gillis W. Long (La.) 

Joe Moakley (Mass.) 

Shirley Chisholm (N.Y.) 

Leo C. Zeferetti (N.Y.) 

Butler Derrick (S.C.) 

Anthony C. Beilenson (Calif.) 
Martin Frost (Tex.) 

David E. Bonior (Mich.)* 

Tony P. Hall (Ohio) * 

Republicans 

James H. Quillen (Tenn.) 

Delbert L. Latta (Ohio) 

Trent Lott (Miss.) 

Gene Taylor (Mo.) 

John J. Rhodes (Ariz.)* 

Budget 

Democrats 

Jim Jones (Okla.), Chairman 
Jim Wright (Tex.) 

David R. Obey (Wis.) 

Paul Simon (111.) 

Norman Y. Mineta (Calif.) 

Jim Mattox (Tex.) 

Stephen J. Solarz (N.Y.) 

Timothy E. Wirth (Colo.) 

Leon Panetta (Calif.) 

Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) 

Bill Nelson (Fla.) 

Les Aspin (Wis.)* 

Brian Donnelly (Mass.) * 

Beryl Anthony (Ark.)* 

Phil Gramm (Tex.) * 

William Hefner (N.C.)* 

Adam Benjamin (Ind.)* 

Tom Downey (N.Y.) * 

Republicans 

Delbert L. Latta (Ohio) 

Ralph S. Regula (Ohio) 

E. G. Shuster (Pa.) 


director, told the conference the federa- 
tion believes the enactment of a compre- 
hensive national health insurance program 
is essential to guarantee the individual’s 
basic right of access to quality health care. 

Comprehensive national health insur- 
ance could reduce administrative costs 
well below what is now being spent for 
Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance 
and encourace effective hospital cost con- 
tainment without adversely affecting the 
wages of low-paid hospital workers, Seid- 
man said. 

The director of the labor-supported 
Committee for National Health Insurance, 
Mel Glasser, discussed proposals expected 
to become before the new Congress for a 
“catastrophic” health insurance program. 

SUCH BILLS, Glasser observed, seem 
to “define ‘catastrophic’ in terms of the 
guy who makes $50,000. not the guy who 
makes $10,000.” One bill before the Sen- 
ate Finance Committee, he noted, called 
for consumers to pay the first $18,000 in 
costs “and then the insurance would pick 
up the rest of the charges so you wouldn’t 
go broke.” 


Bill Frenzel (Minn.) 

Eldon D. Rudd (Ariz.) 

Paul S. Trible, Jr. (Va.)* 

Ed Bethune (Ark.)* 

Lynn M. Martin (111.) * 

Albert Lee Smith (Ala.)* 

Eugene Johnston (N.C.) * 

Bobbi Fiedler (Calif.) * 

Vacancy 

Appropriations 

Democrats 

Jamie L. Whitten (Miss.), Chairman 
Edward P. Boland (Mass.) 

William H. Natcher (Ky.) 

Neal Smith (Iowa) 

Joseph P. Addabbo (N.Y.) 

Clarence D. Long (Md.) 

Sidney R. Yates (111.) 

David R. Obey (Wis.) 

Edward R. Roybal (Calif.) 

Louis Stokes (Ohio) 

Tom Bevill (Ala.) 

Bill Chappell, Jr. (Fla.) 

Bill Alexander (Ark.) 

John P. Murtha (Pa.) 

BobTraxler (Mich.) 

Joseph D. Early (Mass.) 

Charles Wilson (Tex.) 

Lindy Boggs (La.) 

Adam Benjamin, Jr. (Ind.) 

Norman D. Dicks (Wash.) 

Matt McHugh (N.Y.) 

Bo Ginn (Ga.) 

William Lehman (Fla.) 

Jack Hightower (Tex.) 

Martin Sabo (Minn.) 

Julian C. Dixon (Calif.) 

Vic Fazio (Calif.) 

William Hefner (N.C.) 

Les AuCoin (Ore).* 

Daniel Akaka (Hawaii)* 

Wes Watkins (Okla.)* 

William H. Gray (Pa.)* 

Bernard Dwyer (N.J.) * 

Republicans 

Silvio Conte (Mass.) 

Joseph M. McDade (Pa.) 

Jack Edwards (Ala.) 

John T. Myers (Ind.) 

J. Kenneth Robinson (Va.) 

Clarence E. Miller (Ohio) 

Lawrence Coughlin (Pa.) 

C. W. (Bill) Young (Fla.) 

Jack Kemp (N.Y.) 

Ralph S. Regula (Ohio) 

Clair W. Burgener (Calif.) 

George M. O’Brien (111.) 

Virginia Smith (Neb.) 

Eldon D. Rudd (Ariz.) 

Carl D. Pursell (Mich.) 

Mickey Edwards (Okla.)* 

Robert L. Livingston (La.) * 

S. William Green (N.Y.)* 

Tom Loeffler (Tex.) * 

Jerry Lewis (Calif.)* 

Carroll Campbell, Jr. (S.C.)* 

John E. Porter (111.)* 


Although that proposal was revised, the 
fact that such plans emphasizing high 
deductibles and low quality controls are 
seriously introduced underscores the need 
for continued action by retirees, workers 
and consumer organizations for universal 
health security coverage “for every man, 
woman and child in the United States,” 
Glasser stressed. 

Will Duncan, executive assistant to the 
director of the A. Philip Randolph Insti- 
tute, challenged the “myth about hospital 
costs” that blames unions and hospital 
workers for inflation in fees. 

“HOSPITAL WORKERS still lag be- 
hind in wages compared to workers in 
other fields,” Duncan pointed out. He laid 
the blame for high health care costs on 
opposition to national health insurance 
organized by the medical industry lobbies 
as well as “duplication, inefficiency and 
unnecessary hospitalization and surgery” 
permitted by the medical profession. 

“No social issue should have' higher 
priority than the enactment of a national 
health plan,” Duncan urged. 

Other speakers at the conference in- 
cluded Esther Peterson, former special 
assistant to the President for consumer 
affairs; Nelson H. Cruikshank, former 
White House counsellor on aging and past 
president of the NCSC; Dr. Victor E. 
Sidel, chairman of the Dept, of Social 
Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Med- 
icine; Donald F. Riley, deputy director, 
National Council on Aging; Dr. John 
Hollomon, former staff adviser to the 
House Ways & Means health subcom- 
mittee; Tish Sommers, president. Older 
Women’s League educational fund: Cyril 
F. Brickfield, executive director, AARP; 
and Jerome Waldie, executive director, 
White House Conference on Aging. 

30,000 in SEIU 
Win Pay Boosts, 
Security Gains 

New York — A new three-year contract 
providing substantial wage and job security 
benefits to 30,000 workers in this city’s 
commercial buildings has been concluded 
between Local 32B-32J of the Service Em- 
ployees and the Realty Advisory Board on 
Labor Relations. 

Announcing the agreement, which avert- 
ed a citywide strike. Local President John 
J. Sweeney, who also heads the SEIU, 
characterized negotiations as one of the 
most difficult in the union’s 46-year history. 

THE CONTRACT covers maintenance 
workers, security guards, porters, elevator 
starters and operators, and others. 

Highlights include wage increases of $26 
a week effective Jan. 1, 1981, an additional 
$27 per week increase beginning Jan. 1, 

1982, and a further increase of $28 a 
week starting Jan. 1, 1983. An additional 
$2-a-week differential in each year of the 
contract is provided for certain job classi- 
fications. 

Among benefit improvements are an in- 
crease in the maximum pension to $300 a 
month and a cost-of-living increase for 
retired members, an improved dental pro- 
gram, an increase in life insurance to 
$8,000, a maintenance drug plan, and in- 
creased contributions to the union’s train- 
ing and safety fund through which scholar- 
ships, job training and safety protection 
are provided. 

Cost-of-living clauses providing adjust- 
ments effective Jan. 1, 1982, and Jan. 1, 

1983, based on increases in the consumer 
price index, are also included. 

SWEENEY SAID the union had won 
precedent-setting safeguards for employees 
who fill in for absent workers and against 
reduction in force, both of which have 
been trouble areas for the union’s mem- 
bers in recent years. 

“We are happy to have secured this con- 
tract without a strike because we have 
always been deeply concerned about the 
inconvenience suffered by New Yorkers 
and the hardship experienced by our mem- 
bers and their families when there is a 
work stoppage,” he said. 


Rosters of Key House Committees 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 24, 1981 


Humphrey-Hawkins Abandoned 

Economic Report Drops 
Full Employment Goal 



DEFENSE OF AN EFFECTIVE cotton dust standard, under attack by em- 
ployer groups, brought labor safety specialists and lawyers to the Supreme Court 
for oral arguments. From left, are George Perkel of the Mt. Sinai School of 
Medicine, Attorneys Jeremiah A. Collins, Robert E. Weinberg and George H. 
Cohen, AFL-CIO Safety Director George H. R. Taylor and Safety Director Eric 
Frumin of the Clothing & Textile Workers. Cohen delivered the oral arguments 
on behalf of the AFL-CIO, Industrial Union Dept, and ACTWU. 

Total Output Drops in 1980 
Despite 4th-Quarter Surge 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the Carter projections assume a real an- 
nual GNP increase of 3.7 percent. 

As one way of reaching the Humphrey- 
Hawkins inflation and unemployment goals, 
the Carter Administration suggested a tax- 
based incomes policy that would provide 
rewards for complying with voluntary wage 
and price guidelines. 

“Broadly, we have concluded that an 
approach which provided a tax reduction 
to workers in firms whose average pay in- 
crease did not exceed some standard, set 
as part of a voluntary incomes policy, 
would be feasible and effective in helping 
to lower inflation,” the President said in 
a message accompanying the CEA report. 
He insisted however, that such a policy 
should be considered only as a supplement 
to fiscal and monetary restraints. He added 
that it ought to be carried out only on a 
temporary basis. 

“AFTER SEVERAL years, such a pro- 
gram might cease to be effective, and 
could induce significant distortions into 
wage relationships throughout the eco- 
nomy,” Carter observed. 

The President expressed strong reserva- 
tions about a tax cut at this time. 

“I do not believe that we should now 
commit budgetary resources to large-scale 
personal tax cuts, which will stimulate 
consumption far more than investment, 
and thereby foreclose the possibility of 
meeting the nation’s critical investment re- 
quirements,” he said. 

Separately, in his final State of the 
Union message to Congress, Carter said 
“the persistent inflationary pressures that 
beset our economy today dictate a re- 
strained fiscal policy.” Accordingly, he 
said. Congress should postpone until Jan. 
1 , 1 982, the personal tax reductions he had 
earlier proposed to take effect on Jan. 1 
of this year. 

THERE WAS NO immediate reaction 
to the Carter Economic Report from the 
new Reagan Administration. During the 
election campaign, Reagan’s repeated call 
for a sharp .reduction in. income taxes 
became the mainstay of his economic 
policy. 


Rep. David Stockman (R-Mich.), 
Reagan’s nominee as director of the Office 
of Management & Budget, seemed to ques- 
tion the Carter Administration’s modest 
economic recovery projections for this 
year and next, however, saying that its 
forecast was too optimistic. 

In his State of the Union message. 
Carter asked Congress to enact several 
domestic legislative proposals that he had 
earlier recommended. These included bills 
to establish a national health insurance 
program, overhaul the welfare system, im- 
prove medical care for children, and in- 
crease training and education programs for 
jobless youths. 

AMONG HIS achievements over the 
past four years, the outgoing President 
listed an 11 percent rise in employment, 
or almost 9 million new jobs added to the 
nation’s economy. 

“Not only were jobs provided for a 
sharply rising population reaching working 
age, but job opportunities were opened up 
by the millions for new second earners, 
principally women,” he said. “Neither 
Europe nor Japan came even close to the 
job performance of the American eco- 
nomy,” Carter observed. 

He cited these other gains: 

• The National Accord with the AFL- 
CIO, giving workers a voice in the formu- 
lation of economic and domestic policies. 

• An increase in the minimum wage 
over a four-year period from $2.30 to 
$3.35 an hour. 

• Substantial reforms of the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Administration to 
help reduce unnecessary burdens on busi- 
ness and to focus on major job hazards. 

• Defeat of attempts to weaken the 
Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law. 

• Enactment of the Mine Safety & 
Health Act, which brought about im- 
proved working conditions for the nation’s 
500,000 miners. 

Carter also said that “clear progress” 
had been made in restoring confidence in 
the government’s integrity, in moving to- 
ward a comprehensive national energy 
policy, and in pursuit of human rights 
around the world. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

showed that “real” GNP increased at an 
annual rate of 5 percent during the final 
three months of 1980. Neither that nor the 
2.4 percent rise of the third quarter was 
enough, however, to offset the record 9.9 
percent plunge in the second quarter. The 
economy gained at a 3.1 percent rate in 
the first quarter of the year. 

GNP is the dollar value of all goods and 
services produced in the country. Before 
adjustment for inflation, but after adjust- 
ment for seasonal change, GNP during the 
October-December period stood at $2,741 
trillion, up from the third quarter’s $2,637 
trillion. After adjustment for inflation since 
1972, “real” GNP rose to $1,490 trillion, 
up from the third quarter’s $1,472 trillion. 

WHILE THE fourth-quarter real GNP 
gain was the economy’s strongest showing 
in two years, most analysts expect a slow- 
down in activity during the first part of 
1981. 


In its 1981 Economic Report to Con- 
gress, former President Carter’s Council of 
Economic Advisers gave this growth fore- 
cast: “Overall, it is likely that real GNP 
will be essentially flat in the first half of 
the year, with a distinct possibility of one 
quarter of actual decline. 

“After midyear, the pace of activity 
should pick up, although by historical 
standards growth will remain modest for a 
period of recovery.” 

THE CARTER prognostications will be 
affected, however, by the new Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s economic moves, including 
planned tax reductions and government 
spending cuts. These would influence out- 
put and determine the direction of unem- 
ployment, now at 7.4 percent. Reagan is 
expected to enunciate his economic policy 
in the next few weeks. 

The GNP figures showed that growth in 
the fourth quarter was due principally to 
continued high spending by consumers and 
private businesses. 


Reagan Hews to Conservative Approach 


(Continued from Page 1) 

initially considered a controversial Cabinet 
choice, was confirmed by a bipartisan 93-6 
majority. 

The new President hewed close to the 
mainstream in his reaffirmation of “support 
and firm commitment” to America’s tra- 
ditional allies. And he cautioned “potential 
adversaries” that Americans will “nego- 
tiate” for peace and even “sacrifice” for 
peace. But “we will not surrender for it — 
now or ever,” he declared. 


Reagan spoke of “equal opportunities 
for all Americans with no barriers born of 
bigotry or discrimination,” of putting “all 
Americans back to work” and of a “new 
beginning” in which no groups would have 
to make a disproportionate sacrifice and 


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“all must share in the bounty of a re- 
vived economy.” 

In one of his first actions as President, 
Reagan requested the resignations of Car- 
ter appointees still in office and formally 
ousted the inspectors general of the vari- 
ous departments — a move that required 
notification to Congress. The posts were 
set up as a watchdog over fraud and waste 
in government programs. A White House 
spokesman said the inspectors would be 
replaced by “a Reagan team.” 

He also directed a virtually total freeze 
on new government civilian hiring, tighten- 
ing a partial freeze that had been imposed 
by former President Carter. 

David A. Stockman, who will head the 
Office of Management & Budget, said the 
new Administration will seek to hold up 
all new federal regulations “we legally and 
technically can,” for further review. 

BY THE FIRST DAY of the Reagan 
Administration, all but one of the Presi- 
dent’s Cabinet appointees had been cleared 
by Senate committees and either had been 
confirmed or were expected to be con- 
firmed by large margins. 

The Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee put off a scheduled vote on 
confirmation of Raymond J. Donovan as 
Secretary of Labor to allow completion 
of an FBI check on his activities as an 
executive of a New Jersey construction 
company. 

But Committee Chairman Orrin G. 
Hatch (R-Utah) said the FBI had not 
found any substantiation for allegations 
made against Donovan, and he anticipated 
early approval of the nomination. 


AS WAS THE case four years ago, 
when Democrat Jimmy Carter succeeded 
Republican Gerald Ford, the transition 
was accomplished with a minimum of 
abrasiveness. And President Reagan opened 
his inaugural address with his personal 
thanks to Carter for his “gracious coopera- 
tion in the transition process.” 

There was, of course, a unique element 
in this transition resulting from the round- 
the-clock negotiations that led to the free- 
dom of America’s hostages in Iran just 
moments after the inauguration. It was 
thus as the personal emissary of the new 
President that Jimmy Carter flew to greet 
the returnees whose freedom he was instru- 
mental in achieving. 

Labor Mourns Celler 
As Civil Rights Ally 

Brooklyn, N.Y. — ^Former Congressman 
Emanuel Celler, who worked for the pas- 
sage of numerous labor-backed measures 
while representing his home Brooklyn dis- 
trict in the House for 50 years, died of 
pneumonia Jan. 15. He was 92. 

In a message to his daughter, Mrs. Jane 
Wertheimer, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland noted that “the American labor 
movement stood with your father as he 
guided enactment of civil rights laws that 
breached the barriers to fulfilling the na- 
tion’s commitment to liberty and justice 
for all. We admired his passionate defense 
of our economic system against those who 
would monopolize various sectors of that 
system.” 


Tight inventories explain much of the 
difference between the third- and fourth- 
quarter growth rates. 

Final sales, adjusted for inflation since 
1972, rose 3.7 percent in the fourth quar- 
ter, roughly the same as the 4.1 percent 
rate of gain in the third quarter. But more 
of those sales came out of inventories in 
the third period. In the October-December 
quarter, businesses had to increase produc- 
tion to meet demand. 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT purchases, 
which decreased in the third quarter, rose 
a modest $2 billion in the final quarter. 
Business fixed investment increased $3.9 
billion in constant 1972 dollars. Net ex- 
ports, adjusted for inflation, declined by 
$4.7 billion after rising in the third quar- 
ter. 

The over-the-year decline in real GNP 
was the first drop in economic growth 
since 1975, when the measure fell by 1.1 
percent. In 1976, the economy grew 5.4 
percent; in 1977 by 5.5 percent; in 1978 
by 4.8 percent, and in 1979 by 3.2 per- 
cent. 

Inflation worsened during the fourth 
quarter, the GNP data showed. As mea- 
sured by a GNP price measure, a broadly 
based index known as the “deflator,” in- 
flation was at an annual rate of 11.2 per- 
cent in the October-December period, up 
from less than 10 percent in the previous 
three quarters. 

Possibly a result of rising inflation, 
Americans managed to save less of their 
earnings in the last quarter of 1980. The 
Commerce Dept, said the U.S. personal 
savings rate drojpped to 5.6 percent of dis- 
posable income during the fourth quarter. 
The rate was 6.1 percent in the third 
quarter, 6.2 percent in the second, and 4.9 
percent in the first quarter. 



Modest Gains Recorded in State Legislatures 


By Susan Dunlop 



VoL XXVI 


Saturday, January 31, 1981 No. 5 


Labor scored modest gains in most of 
the 44 state legislatures that met last year, 
suffered a few setbacks, and successfully 
resisted a number of attempts to roll back 
past achievements. 

State legislatures and comparable bodies 
in the District of Columbia and Puerto 
Rico acted on rninimum wages, collective 
bargaining, labor standards and workers’ 
compensation laws, among others. 

A LABOR DEPT, survey and reports 
from AFL-CIO state central bodies also 
note legislative interest in such matters as 
sex harassment on the job, restrictions on 
the use of “lie detectors” to screen employ- 
ees, and proposals to bar state contracts to 
companies that violate national labor law. 
But in many cases, the legislative action 
did not go beyond committee hearings. 


Union-supported efforts to get ratifica- 
tion of the Equal Rights Amendment to 
the Constitution failed in Illinois and Vir- 
ginia, leaving the tally still three short of 
the 38 states needed. 

Minimum wage rates were increased in 
five jurisdictions in 1980 — California, the 


District of Columbia, Oklahoma, Virginia 
and West Virginia, the Labor Dept. said. 
The actual number of increases was great- 
er since 21 jurisdictions raised their mini- 
mums based on prior action. 

Fifteen states now have a minimum 
wage of $3.10 an hour, and 13 will match 


the federal minimum increase of $3.35 
an hour which took effect Jan. 1, 1981. 
Only Alaska, Connecticut, and certain in- 
dustries in the District of Columbia post 
minimums higher than the federal rate, 
the Labor Dept, reported. 

New protections were adopted in Ne- 
braska and Wisconsin to sharply curtail 
the use of so-called “lie detectors” or 
similar “truth test” equipment in hiring. 

THE NEBRASKA law requires licens- 
ing of polygraph operators and forbids 
use of the tests as a mandatory condition 
of employment, except in the case of law 
enforcement officers. 

The Wisconsin statute requires written 
consent to the tests following notice that 
submission to the examination is voluntary. 

Both laws expressly forbid asking ques- 
(Continued on Page 7) 


1980 Buying Power Down 4.8^ 



TRADE UNIONISTS and staff members of the AFL-CIO headquarters (inset), helped mark the welcome. The return- 
and Washington-based unions were among the nearly half- ees were also greeted by a giant American flag, the size of 
million persons welcoming the 52 liberated Americans who two football fields, that 100 volunteer Iron Workers spread 
had been held hostage in Iran. Buildings decked with yellow out at Andrews Air Force Base before the motorcade of 
ribbons, like the massive one strung up at the AFL-CIO buses brought them to the nation’s capital. 


Kirkland Pledges Drive 
To Fund Key Programs 


^80 Settlements 
Boost Pay 9.5% 
In First Year 

Major contract settlements in 1980 pro- 
vided union workers with wage increases 
averaging 9.5 percent in the first year, up 
from 7.4 percent in 1979, the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics reported. 

Averaged over the life of the contracts, 
the pay boosts came to 7.1 percent a year, 
again higher than the 6 percent average 
for settlements negotiated in 1979. 

The figures do not include estimates of 
potential wage increases under cost-of- 
living clauses. As in the past, 1980 settle- 
ments which contained COL provisions 
tended to be smaller than for contracts 
without such clauses. 

FIRST-YEAR increases in agreements 
without COL clauses averaged 11.8 per- 
cent, up from 9.1 percent in 1979. This 
compares with 8 percent for contracts 
with COL adjustments, up from 6.2 per- 
cent in 1979. 

Averaged over the life of the contracts, 
the annual rates in 1980 were 5 percent 
for pacts with COL clauses and 10.4 per- 
cent for those without; the comparable 
rates of increase in 1979 were 4.6 and 8 
percent. 

The report for 1980 covered 3,720,000 
workers in 793 private bargaining units of 
1,000 workers or more — the Labor Dept.’s 
definition of a major agreement. About 61 
percent of the workers covered by these 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Blacks and other minorities that suffer 
disproportionately from poverty and dis- 
crimination would also be the chief victim 
of federal budget slashes, AFL-CIO Pres- 
ident Lane Kirkland charged. 

Kirkland told the executive board of the 
A. Philip Randolph Institute that the 
labor and civil rights coalition which 
worked together for social justice must 
now do battle to assure adequate funding 
for programs to carry out these goals. 

A COMMITMENT to equality goes be- 
yond the basic civil rights statutes, Kirk- 
land stressed. 

Thus, aid to education, maternal health 
and child nutrition programs are needed 
“because those who are behind at the start 
of life frequently never catch up,” he said. 

Kirkland noted also that “a greater per- 
centage of those who cannot afford decent 
housing are black or brown,” health dis- 
parities exist and “minority Americans are 
standing in unemployment lines at twice 
the rate of white Americans.” 

MANY OF THOSE who now demand 
“a reduced federal role” have themselves 
prospered from various forms of govern- 
ment subsidies, Kirkland said. And attacks 
on government programs as “wasteful” or 
“inefficient,” he said, ignore the much 
greater inefficiency of unemployment. 

Kirkland made the distinction between 
accepting gracefully a political defeat and 


acquiescing in a rollback of past gains. 

Both the trade union movement and the 
black community sought a different elec- 
tion outcome, Kirkland noted. “Yet we all 
accept the result in good spirit, as a 
testament of our system and to the ulti- 
(Continued on Page 6) 


Tokyo — Frank discussions and good- 
faith negotiations over trade policies are 
needed to lessen friction between the 
United States and Japan, AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland said. 

Such talks, he suggested in a speech to 
the Japan Institute of Labor, should in- 
volve unions and management in the 
private sectors as well as the two govern- 
ments. The institute is a prestigious re- 
search group established by the Japanese 
government to foster a better understand- 
ing of industrial relations. 

KIRKLAND VOICED U S. labor’s deep 
concern over the future of automobile 
production and other import-damaged in- 
dustries. 

A healthy auto industry is “vital” to the 
American economy, Kirkland stressed. 


Real Wages 
Cut Deeply 
By Inflation 

By James M. Shevis 

Inflation raged through the economy at 
a double-digit rate in 1980 for the second 
straight year, causing workers’ purchasing 
power to plummet 4.8 percent, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reported. 

The 12.5 percent jump in the govern- 
ment’s consumer price index last year was 
an improvement over 1979’s rate of 13.4 
percent, but was still the second-worst 
inflation rate for the nation since 1946. 
Not since 1918-19 had the inflation rate 
exceeded 10 percent for two years in a 
row. 

THE HUGE RISE in consumer prices, 
coupled with higher taxes, combined to 
bring about the reduction in workers’ real 
spendable pay, or purchasing power. Real 
spendable earnings are take-home pay ad- 
justed for the impact of inflation. The 
4.8 percent drop last year compared with 
a 5.3 decline in 1979. 

The average earnings of all non-super- 
visory workers in private, non-farm jobs 
were $246.03 a week in current dollars 
at the end of 1980, up $17.91 from the 
December 1979 average. Adjusted for in- 
flation, and expressed in terms of 1967 
dollars, however, the average worker’s real 
weekly pay was $94.85 — a decrease of 
$4.03 from a year earlier. 

While inflation and recession eroded 
weekly earnings by $4.03, higher taxes — 
both social security and income taxes on 
the higher weekly pay — reduced earnings 
by 38 cents a week, assuming the tax 
burden borne by a worker with three se- 
pendents. 


noting that more than one million jobs in 
all parts of the United States were lost as 
a result of auto imports, higher interest 
rates and the general economic recession. 
While imports were not the only cause of 
the auto-related job losses, they were “a 
principal cause” that cannot be ignored, 
he said. 

Kirkland cited the many ways in which 
other industrial nations assure a viable 
automobile industry, including require- 
ments that automobiles sold in the country 
include a high degree of “domestic con- 
tent” — parts manufactured within the 
country. 

THE AFL-CIO supports the position of 
the Auto Workers for such a domestic con- 
tent requirement in the United States, 

(Continued on Page 7) 


(Continued on Page 6) 

Talks with Japan Proposed 
To Resolve Trade Issues 





Page Two 


I 

I AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 




Donahue Cites ‘Fast Response’ 

Adjustment to Change 
Marks Labor Policies 


and the use of the federation’s field staff. 

The AFL-CIO’s role in organizing, he 
pointed out, is to “serve as the resource 
and active partner” for the organizing ef- 
forts of affiliates. He predicted that co- 
operative organizing activities will pose a 
greater challenge to union-busters. 

THE ROLE OF the AFL-CIO’s state 
and local central bodies also is being re- 
examined and strengthened, Donahue told 
the lawyers’ conference. He noted that a 
spring series of regional conferences will 
air the ideas and needs of the central bodies 
and seek to expand and strengthen their 
efforts in building grass roots support for 
labor’s legislative agenda. 

Donahue said the trade union move- 
ment will also be forging closer ties with 
other organizations with allied interests, 
including community-based groups. 

In 1980, he noted, the AFL-CIO was 
the central organizing force behind the 
Budget Coalition of more than 150 orga- 
nizations opposed to the concept of bal- 
ancing the federal budget by cutting pro- 
grams that help “the weakest in our 
society.” 

“THIS COALITION will ‘humanize’ the 
battle over the federal budget,” Donahue 
said. “We will translate the percentages 
into people, the dollars into jobs, the num- 
bers into human terms.” 

On labor’s political activity, Donahue 
reported that the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council will begin discussions on “the 
ways and means by which those unions 
which have been active in national political 
party affairs can cooperate more closely 
and achieve a higher degree of agreement 
on party leadership, party rules and pos- 
sibly, in the future, on primary candidates.” 

Other trends in labor, Donahue said, 
include a growing interest in mergers as 
a way of strengthening and improving un- 
ions’ services to their members. He noted 
that the labor movement is also beginning 
to use the latest developments in com- 
munications technology, particularly in its 
political activity. 

In international affairs, the strengthen- 
ing of ties with labor organizations around 
the world is a major objective of the AFL- 
CIO and many of its affiliates, Donahue 
stressed, noting that such cooperation is 
“absolutely necessary for a labor move- 
ment moving in the world of multinational 
corporations.” 

“The password of the American labor 
movement is change,” Donahue concluded, 
“and individually and collectively each of 
these actions will strengthen the ability of 
the labor movement to respond to what- 
ever ‘trends’ develop from this or future 
administrations.” 


Senatobia, Miss. — After five years of 
organizing campaigns, workers at W. A. 
Krueger Co.’s publishing plant here voted 
for representation by the Graphic Arts 
International Union. 

The 115 to 102 vote “reflects some 
change in attitudes in the South,” GAIU 
Local 527 President Anthony L. Moore 
said. He pointed out that the organizing 
victory was all the more significant in a 
state with a so-called right-to-work law. 

When the Senatobia campaign began in 
1976, the city had an ordinance requiring 
union organizers to pay a $1,000 license 
fee and be local residents for at least six 
months. The statute was scrapped after 
the union challenged its constitutionality 
in court. 


SEX BIAS SETTLEMENT that the Electrical, Radio & 
Machine Workers won from General Electric Co. is reviewed 
by members and officers of lUE Local 623 in Pittsburgh. 
The settlement, which ends a nine-year battle at a Pittsburgh 


GE repair plant, provides $176,250 in back pay as well as 
retroactive seniority and pension credits for 18 women work- 
ers. Local 623 President Sam Lawrence, seated second from 
left, is joined by shop stewards and some of the beneficiaries. 


Graphic Arts Union Wins 
5- Year Organizing Drive 


Employers, it was agreed, should at- 


SOCIAL AND HUMAN IMPACT on white-collar workers resulting from tech- 
nological changes in working conditions was explored at a 10-day conference 
at the International Labor Organization in Geneva. U.S. worker delegates in- 
cluded Thomas G.j Whaley, left, executive vice president of the Food & Com- 
mercial Workers, Director Jack Golodner of the AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional 
Employees and UFCW International Affairs Director Gerard O’Keefe, who 
served the delegation as an adviser. 

ILO Group Maps Program 
To Ease Technology’s Impact 


Geneva — A blueprint for national and 
international action to moderate the impact 
on white-collar workers from the introduc- 
tion of new technology at their work places 
was charted at a 10-day conference of the 
International Labor Organization. 

More than 200 trade union, employer 
and government delegates attended the 26- 
nation session of the ILO’s committee on 
salaried employees and professional work- 
ers. 

THOMAS G. WHALEY, executive vice 
president of the Food & Commercial 
Workers, said he was “very pleased” be- 
cause the problems of white-collar work- 
ers, including those of special concern to 
women, were the “subject of nearly two 
full weeks of discussion in an international 
forum.” 

Jack Golodner, director of the AFL- 
CIO Dept, for Professional Employees, 
stressed in reviewing the session’s work 
that it had been “vitally important for 
workers and their representatives from all 
over the world to have had the opportunity 
to meet and discuss their problems to- 
gether.” 

The two AFL-CIO delegates were re- 
inforced by Gerard O’Keefe, international 
affairs director of the UFCW, as an ad- 
viser. Whaley served as a conference vice 
chairman and sat on the steering com- 
mittee. 

IN THE AGREED conclusions, which 
will go to the ILO governing body for 
follow-up action, the employer and gov- 
ernment delegates joined the trade union- 
ists in urging that no decision to introduce 
technological changes be taken without 
having considered their “social and human” 
impact on the workers. 

Workers and their representatives, should 
have a voice in any contemplated structural 
or technological changes affecting working 
conditions so as to “mitigate any harmful 
^'^'^ffects” for them, the conference recom- 
mended. 


tempt to provide job security for their 
workers by helping them gain the skills 
needed to fill the new jobs resulting from 
technological innovations. 

AMONG THE conclusions were a 
series of measures aimed at avoiding such 
job hazards as eye strain or excessive 
fatigue resulting from the use of visual 
display units, electronic cash registers and 
the like. 

On the special problems of women, the 
conference said concerted action is needed 
to guarantee equal employment opportu- 
nities by such measures as barring any 
suggestion of sex in job advertisements. 

“Broad-based” vocational training pro- 
grams should be provided for women to 
equip them with the skills needed to adapt 
to technological change, one conclusion 
urged. 

“INCREASED opportunities” for ad- 
vanced training was likewise recommended 
as a way to raise the proportionately lower 
number of women now holding managerial 
level jobs. 

Whaley expressed disappointment at the 
weakness of a conclusion calling for an 
unspecified “variety of measures” to pro- 
vide husband and wife “with a choice for 
an equal sharing of responsibilities and to 
make it possible for both men and women 
to reconcile family and work life.” 

Workers proposals for more concrete 
recommendations were diluted at the in- 
sistance of employer and government 
delegates in tough negotiations over the 
issues. 


New York — The labor movement has 
watched administrations come and go for 
100 years and has survived because of its 
confidence in its ideas and its ability to 
adjust quickly to change, AFL-CIO Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said at a 
meeting of lawyers here. 

It is too early to develop strategies for 
dealing with the new Administration, Don- 
ahue told the labor law section of the 
New York State Bar Association, since 
little has been heard yet from those who 
speak in an offical capacity. 

“WE ARE NOT afraid of adjusting tac- 
tics or assuming new strategies,” Donahue 
said. “We have supported administrations; 
we have opposed administrations. We have 
remained an independent, free trade union 
movement. We have faced worse line-ups 
in Congress, and we have endured.” 

He said organized labor movement has 
served its members well through the years 
because of “the rapidity with which trade 
union ideas percolate up from the lowest 
rungs as a result of our democratic struc- 
ture.” The trade union movement’s “fast 
response” to new ideas has outstripped 
that of other institutions, he observed. 

Because change is constant and normal 
in the labor movement, it is sometimes 
overlooked, and many changes are going 
on now that will define the trends in labor 
“come what may from the Administra- 
tion,” Donahue emphasized. 

HE CITED the increasing role of 
women workers in union leadership and 
policy-making as one major trend. 

“As significant as the election of Joyce 
Miller to the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
is, it has tended to obscure the fact that 
throughout the labor movement from shop 
committees to local unions to international 
unions women are assuming leadership 
positions; women are becoming organizers; 
women are aggressively asserting the in- 
terests and needs of women workers,” Don- 
ahue said. 

Miller, a vice president of the Clothing 
Workers, was elected to the Executive 
Council at its August 1980 meeting. 

THE LABOR movement also is devot- 
ing more of its resources to help women 
workers achieve contractual, legislative 
and legal gains, Donahue said. And, he 
stressed, whether or not the new Admin- 
istration assumes an activist role in wiping 
out economic and physical discrimination 
in the workplace or ignores the issue, “one 
fact is clear: it will not go away.” 

On the organizing front, Donahue said 
the AFL-CIO has improved its structure 
to help workers who want to join or form 
unions through the establishment of a na- 
tional organizing coordinating committee 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, JANUARY 31, 1981 


Paje Thre** 


Unions Back OSH A Standard 


Court Asked to Affirm 
Controls on Cotton Dust 


By John R, Oravec 

The Supreme Court was urged by orga- 
nized labor to keep intact key provisions 
of the federal cotton dust standard to help 
protect more than 200,000 textile industry 
workers against disability from brown lung 
disease. 

Employer groups are pressing the court 
to invalidate sections of the OSHA regu- 
lation to avoid installation of engineering 
controls that would greatly reduce worker 
exposure to cotton dust. 

BUT THE prime issue in the cotton 
dust case is whether the law requires the 
Occupational Safety & Health Administra- 
tion to conduct a cost-benefit analysis in 
the development of any standards. 

The industry contends that the cost of 
installing cotton dust engineering controls 
by Mar. 27, 1984, would outweigh the 
safeguards for workers. Employers insist 
that the same protections can be achieved 
through the use of respirators, which al- 
ready are required. 

OSHA issued the cotton dust standard 
in 1978, and a federal appeals court up- 
held it last year in rejecting an industry 
challenge. The American Textile Manu- 
facturers Institute and the National Cotton 
Council appealed the decision to the Su- 
preme Court. 

THE AFL-CIO, the Industrial Union 
Dept, and the Clothing & Textile Workers 
are intervenors on the side of OSHA. 


Humanities Seminars 
Offered for Unionists 

Union officers and staff members arc 
eligible to attend six seminars being spon- 
sored in 1981 by the National Endowment 
for the Humanities. 

, Five of the month-long programs, open 
to labor officials along with members of 
other professions, will focus on conflicts 
between individual values and professional 
responsibilities, competing rights claims in 
contemporary society and American pop- 
ular culture. A sixth program, open only 
to union officers and staff. 

The tuition-free seminars are limited to 
12-15 persons. A job safety law. Congress 
did not intend to require OSHA to per- 
form a cost-benefit analysis before issuing 
a standard. 

Information on dates and locations and 
application forms are available from the 
Professions Program, Div. of Fellowships 
& Seminars, MS-101, National Endowment 
for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 


In delivering oral arguments before the 
court on behalf of labor. Attorney George 
H. Cohen said that in enacting the 1970 

Cohen stressed that the wording of the 
law is clear in directing OSHA to develop 
standards that are as “effective as pos- 
sible,” and that it was the intent of Con- 
gress not to compromise the health pro- 
tections of workers with a cost-benefit 
assessment. 

OSHA ESTIMATES that it will cost 
industry $550 million to comply with the 
standard, which provides for separate ex- 
posure limits in various segments of the 
cotton processing and textile industry. Em- 
ployers claim compliance costs would run 
five times more than OSHA’s estimate. 

Over an eight-hour workday, the stan- 
dard limits exposure to 200 micrograms 
of respirable cotton dust per cubic meter 
of air in yarn manufacturing, 500 micro- 
grams in textile production, and 750 mic- 
rograms in slashing and weaving. 

Labor’s brief points out that employers 
are not challenging the technological feasi- 
bility of the engineering controls, and since 
large segments of the industry are already 
in compliance with permissible exposure 
levels, the cost impact of the regulation is 
eased. 

ACCORDING TO an industry survey, 
about 75 percent of the spinning opera- 
tions are at or below the 200-microgram 
limit and 88 percent of the weaving opera- 
tions are at or below the 750-microgram 
level. 

In arguing the case for industry. At- 
torney Robert H. Bork contended that the 
standard is “extraordinarily severe and 
costly.” 

But Cohen noted that a section of the 
job safety law provides for economic as- 
sistance for small businesses that lack the 
capital to meet full compliance. 

Justice Dept. Attorney Kenneth Geller 
strongly disputed industry’s attempt to 
characterize byssinosis, or brown lung, as 
“no more dangerous than a common cold.” 

GELLER NOTED that OSHA issued 
the standard because of evidence that 
worker exposure to high levels of cotton 
dust poses “a substantial health risk.” Un- 
der higher exposure levels, 26 percent of 
workers risk contracting brown lung, but 
that risk would be cut in half by the new 
standard, he said. 

ACTWU Executive Vice President Sol 
Stetin branded industry’s attempt to block 
the standard as “heartless.” He said some 
150,000 workers are afflicted by brown 
lung disease — “including 35,000 who are 
totally and permanently disabled.” 



NATIONAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE drew 1,300 representatives of the 
State, County & Municipal Employees to Washington for three days of discus- 
sions on a wide range of economic and political issues. Here, AFSCME Presi- 
dent Jerry Wurf delivers the keynote address. 

Ruben Levin Dies at 78, 
Dean of Labor Journalists 


Ruben Levin, 78, editor and manager 
of Labor newspaper, died Jan. 29 of con- 
gestive heart failure at Bethesda Suburban 
Hospital, just outside Washington. He had 
been in failing health for several months. 

Levin, whose newspaper career spanned 
over half a century, was regarded by his 
colleagues in the labor press as the dean 
of labor union editors. He served his own 
publication. Labor, for more than 42 years. 
He received many awards and honors over 
the years, including the Eugene V. Debs 
award in 1975. 

IN A MESSAGE of condolence to Mrs. 
Levin, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said 
that Levin “personified America’s labor 
press.” They noted that he had been “a 
friend, guide and teacher to scores of 
young journalists.” 

Kirkland and Donahue observed that 
Levin’s contribution to the trade union 
movement went “far beyond journalism.” 

“In a thousand battles for human rights 
and justice,” they said, “he was a front- 
line activist whose example and leadership 
many times made the difference between 
defeat and victory.” 

Levin, who was born in Poland Aug. 2, 
1902, came to the United States as a boy 
of two. His family settled first in Manito- 
woc. Wis., then moved to Milwaukee. 

IN 1924, as a student at the University 
of Wisconsin in Madison, he worked part- 
time as a reporter on the Capitol Times, 
then a crusading daily in the La Follette 
Progressive tradition. He later worked for 


Conservative Heads Key Senate Panel 


One of the most conservative of the new 
Republican senators, Don Nickles of 
Oklahoma, has been named chairman of 
a Senate Labor & Human Resources sub- 
committee that has jurisdiction over legis- 
lation most directly affecting the trade 
union movement. 

Nickles will head the Subcommittee on 
Labor, which will have a 6-4 ratio in favor 
of the Republicans. 

AT 32, Nickles is the youngest senator. 
He is a machinery company executive 
whose only previous political office was a 
single term in the Oklahoma legislature. A 
Congressional Quarterly magazine profile 
credits his election to active support from 
the Moral Majority organization and terms 
him “at the conservative end of a con- 
servative group of Republican new- 
comers.” 

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chair- 
man of the full committee, will also serve 
on the panel. The other subcommittee 
Republicans will be John P. East (N.C.), 
another freshman right-winger; two-term 
moderate Robert T. Stafford (Vt.); fresh- 
man Dan Quayle (Ind.), who was a main- 
stream Republican in the House, and 
Paula Hawkins (Fla.), also a first-timer, 
who has called for abolition of the Occu- 


pational Safety & Health Administration 
but also campaigned as a consumer 
watchdog. 

The subcommittee Democrats, all 
multi-term veterans, are Harrison A. 
Williams, Jr. (N.J.), Edward M. Kennedy 
(Mass.), Jennings Randolph (W.Va.) and 
Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Mich.), 

Republicans have a 9-7 majority on the 
full committee, with moderates Stafford 
and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (Conn.) as the 
potential swing votes. The Labor subcom- 
mittee is the only one on which the GOP 
has more than a one-vote edge. 

Stafford heads the Education subcom- 
mittee, with Claiborne Pell (R.I.) as the 
ranking Democrat. Quayle is chairman 
of the Employment & Productivity sub- 
committee, with Howard M. Metzenbaum 
(Ohio) as senior Democrat. 

Another freshman, Jeremiah Denton 
(Ala.) will head the Subcommittee on 
Aging, Family & Human Services, with 
Sen. Thomas Eagleton (Mo.) as ranking 
Democrat. Hawkins will head the Investi- 
gation & General Oversight subcommittee, 
with Kennedy for the minority; Weicker 
will chair the Handicapped subcommittee 
with Randolph as senior Democrat, and 
the Subcommittee on Alcoholism will be 


headed by Gordon J. Humphrey (N.H.), 
with Riegle as senior Democrat. 

The House, meanwhile, completed the 
assignment of members to committees and 
rejected — by a straight party vote — a new 
Reoublican attempt to obtain greater rep- 
resentation on the Ways & Means Com- 
mittee. 

This is the most important committee 
in terms of the Reagan Administration*^ 
tax proposals and other major ingredients 
of its economic program. With that clearly 
is mind, the Democratic leadership set the 
party ratio at 23-12, just barely under the 
24-12 majority in the last Congress despite 
Republican election gains. 

IN EFFECT, the heavy Democratic tilt 
offsets the likelihood that several conserva- 
tive Democrats on the committee will vote 
with the Republican minority on contro- 
versial issues. 

House Minority Leader Robert H. Mi- 
chel (111.) protested that the 23-12 ratio 
“makts a mockery of representative gov- 
ernment” since Republicans make up 44 
percent of the House. 

But the GOP attempt to add two Re- 
publican seats to the committee was de- 
feated on a straight party vote. 


three Milwaukee daily newspapers, then 
spent the next three years as a “boomer” 
news reporter working for 1 1 other papers, 
including the Winnipeg Tribune in Canada 
and the European edition of the New York 
Herald Tribune in Paris. 

Levin joined Labor, a national news- 
paper published by 14 major unions in the 
railway, airline, and related transport 
fields, in 1938 to start a distinguished 
career in the labor movement. Editor and 
manager of the paper since 1953, he 
helped build it into the largest labor publi- 
cation of its kind. He received a score of 
awards, including a special recognition 
from the International Labor Press Asso- 
ciation. 

PRESIDENT FRED J. Kroll of the 
Railway & Airline Clerks, who chairs the 
Railway Labor Executives Association, 
said that under Levin’s editorship, Labor 
was “unswerving in its loyalty to the best 
interests of the railroad brotherhoods and 
our democratic form of government.” 

Levin also helped to found Labor Press 
Associates, a cooperative news service for 
union publications, the forerunner of to- 
day’s Press Associates, Inc. 

In 1956, he received the Sidney Hillman 
Foundation Award for a series of articles 
on the emasculation of federal regulator)' 
agencies. In 1965, the University of Wis- 
consin’s School of Journalism honored him 
for “distinguished service to the profession 
of journalism.” 

LEVIN WAS a regular contributor to a 
number of magazines. He was a member 
of the Newspaper Guild, and a member 
and past president of the Association of 
Railroad Editors. 

Survivors include his wife Bertha of 
Chevy Chase, Md., two children, David of 
Hong Kong and Jonathan of Richmond, 
Va., and two grandchildren. The family 
suggests that expressions of sympathy be in 
the form of contributions to Temple Sinai, 
3100 Military Road, N.W., Washington, 
D.C., or to a charity of choice. Services 
were scheduled to be held at Temple Sinai 
at 1 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 2. 



RUBEN LEVIN 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 


The Budget Target 


‘Get Ready to Charge!’ 


A COMMITMENT TO equality requires more than statutes. 

It requires the opportunity for each individual to enjoy the 
full measure of that equality. 

That philosophy and the federal programs enacted to carry it 
out are under attack. The battleground this year — as it was last 
year — is the federal budget, because that document defines the 
relationship of government to its citizens who are most in need of 
help to reach the ladder, much less to climb it. 

The federal budget has always been a target of convenience for 
opponents of social progress. It provides an opportunity for indirect 
attack, for denying the fullest measure of equality to all Americans 
without opposing equality per se. That way, a supposedly color- 
blind system — in this case, so-called free market economics — sup- 
plants the more repugnant selection system based on skin color. 

WE ARE NOT deceived. A greater percentage of those who 
cannot afford decent housing are black or brown; minority Amer- 
icans are standing in unemployment lines at twice the rate of white 
Americans; there is a wide disparity in all measures of health be- 
tween blacks and whites. 

Economic discrimination, whether we like it or not, has racial 
overtones because of past failures. And to ignore those factors is to 
perpetuate the discrimination. 

It is one thing to open the doors of opportunity to all, and quite 
another to open the doors to only those who can afford the price 
of admission. 

THAT IS WHY the labor movement and the A. Philip Randolph 
Institute, in fidelity to our commitment to equality and social 
justice, must join the battle over the federal budget to assure ade- 
quate funding for those programs that provide opportunity and 
protection for those who have neither. 

And we know full well from whence come the arguments for a 
reduced federal role in providing opportunity and protection. 

It comes from quarters and groups that have themselves pros- 
pered in many ways from the role and largess of government 
and from circumstances held in place by government. 

There is a certain measure of hypocrisy in the contention of 
those who, in opposing federal programs essential to a fair chance 
in life for the weak and underprivileged, say “look how well we 
have done on our own, so others should not rely on the federal 
government to help them get ahead.” 


TO THOSE WHO claim such programs are “wasteful” and 
“inefficient,” we must affirm their real value, not just to the human 
beings affected but to our human society at large, and underscore 
the clear fact that unemployment is the most inefficient of all. 

In short, our job did not end with the election. We do not intend 
to slumber through the next two or four years, hoping to awake 
to the dawn of a new day. Our job is just beginning, and we draw 
both strength and hope from our shared experiences — both suc- 
cessful and incomplete — of the past. 

— From AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland's remarks to the 
board of the A, Philip Randolph Institute, Washington, D,C,, Jan, 
22, 1981. 







Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


1 Director of Information: Saul Miller s 

S Managing Editor: John M. Barry “ S 

= Assistant Editors: E 

i Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec | 

= David L. Perlman James M. Shevis s 

I AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. i 

i Washington, D.C. 20006 = 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

1 VoL XXVI Saturday, January 31, 1981 No. 5 = 


ft — 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001-1185) is issued weekly at 815 
= Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
= class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
= accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
= one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
= the name of the AFL-CIO. 

iSMiiuMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin^^^ 




Perversion of Purpose 

Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds 
Underwriting Private Profits 


By Gus Tyler 

A STRATEGY to help towns and cities with 
their finances is being perverted into a scheme 
to enrich industrial and commercial corporations 
at the expense of the federal Treasury. What 
looked like a pretty good idea is turning into a 
very bad practice. 

Many years ago. Congress passed a law allow- 
ing local governments to issue tax-free bonds. The 
concept was cozy: 

Towns and cities saved money because the in- 
terest charges on the municipal bonds were low. 
Despite the low interest rate, investors grabbed 
them up because the income from interest was 
tax-free. 

UNCLE SAM was the loser — but he didn’t 
mind. Washington lost income it would otherwise 
have derived from the return to investors in these 
bonds. But Papa on the Potomac didn’t mind 
because he was helping out his family of local 
governments across the land. In effect, the Capital 
was subsidizing towns and cities that needed the 
help badly. 

The only serious objection to this strategy was 
the argument that these municipal bonds were 
bought up almost exclusively by people in the 
upper-income brackets, people in the 50-percent 
or over tax brackets. Consequently, an investor 
drawing his income solely from such bonds could 
have an income of $1 million a year, yet pay not 
a single cent in taxes to the federal government. 

But that objection is trivial compared with a 
current practice that uses the tax-free device not 
to help out the “public” sector but to give away 
scarce federal dollars to enrich “private” com- 
panies. 

Originally, these were called “industrial devel- 
opment” bonds, issued to companies that were 
setting up factories. The rationale was that the 
tax-free bond would encourage the firm to locate 
plants in a given area. 

ONCE IMPLANTED the seed began to grow. 
Now tax-free bonds are being issued for “com- 
mercial development,” for such operations as bars 
and grills, hamburger stands, bowling alleys, mass- 
mailing outfits, dentists’ offices, bank branches, 
and for hundreds of other ventures intended to 
produce profits to private entrepreneurs. 


Originally, Congress limited the size of the 
enterprise to $5 million; then it extended the limits 
to $10 million. But the limits are limitless for a 
national corporation that gets tax-free bonds to 
set up a local subsidiary, as McDonald’s did in 
Elmore County, Ala., for instance. 

IN 1979, the total for these tax-free bonds for 
private companies ran to $7 billion; this was twice 
the sum for such bonds the previous year. 

Again, Uncle wSam is the loser — as he has been 
all along on the municipal bonds. But there is a 
difference. In the past, Uncle was subsidizing 
his family of local governments to make it neces- 
sary for them to levy higher taxes on their citizens: 
Uncle was acting in the “public” interest. But 
now, on the rapid increase. Uncle Sam is subsidiz- 
ing “private” enterprises at a time when the Rea- 
gan Administration is talking about cutting taxes 
and balancing the budget. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


fllliiililllilllllliilllllllllllllllllllillllililllililllillllllllilililllllllillllllllillllllllllllll^ 

^Change' a Password 
Of Labor Movement 

Throughout its history, the labor movement 
has consistently served its members well be- 
cause of the rapidity with which trade union 
ideas percolate up from the lowest rungs as a 
result of our democratic structure. In its poli- 
cies and programs, the labor movement has 
always been a “fast response” organization, 
far outstripping government and those who 
occupy ivory towers in drawing on new ideas. 

Because the trade union movement will al- 
ways retain this feature of democracy and 
willingly entertains suggestions and resolutions 
developed as part of this process, we wiU never 
be hidebound in ideas. 

The password of the American labor move- 
ment is “change.” Change in the labor move- 
ment is the only trend we perceive as lasting 
longer than a fad; after all, it has lasted 100 
years and is headed for another 100. 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
to the labor law section of the New York State 
Bar Association, Jan. 23, 1981, New York City, 


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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 


Page Five 


How to Buy 

Legal or Not, Gambling Odds 
Virtually Impossible to Beat 


By Esther Margolius 

G ambling not only has become a major form 
of recreation for many Americans but a 
source of revenue for many states. New York 
recently started its own numbers game, challeng- 
ing the illegal numbers racket. 

Some national surveys now claim that over 80 
percent of the public approves of gambling, and 
some even consider gambling as a right. For ex- 
ample, recently a Newark, N.J., citizens group 
petitioned City Hall not to close down a numbers 
operation in their area. They claimed to do so 
was interference with a business enterprise of 
minorities. Yet numbers remain an illegal form 
of gambling known to be under the control of 
crime syndicates. 

There was a time when gambling and so much 
money openly credited to gambling receipts would 
evoke a public outcry. But today, voices are muted 
as state after state looks for new sources of reve- 
nue. Currently, 15 states sponsor lotteries, and 
one or another form of gambling is legal in 44 
states and the territory of Puerto Rico. 

CASINO REVENUES alone tell of incredibly 
high gross wins. For example, the June gross 
take in New Jersey, as reported by the state’s 
Casino Control Commission, was $51.1 million. 
This represented receipts from only three casinos 
in one city. 

What the news stories gloss over, however, is 
that without players to lose, there would not be 
any receipts. Despite the implications that “high 
rollers” contribute heavily to a casino’s take, the 
realities are that the biggest supporters of casino 
gambling are the “little spenders” who come, usu- 
ally as bus riders, on one-day excursions. 

In fact, so essential are the “day-trippers” to 
Atlantic City casinos that all now vie with each 
other to arrange for charter travel tours. And a 
soon-to-open casino, the Golden Nugget, is pres- 
ently working on plans to set up its own bus 
company. The number of day-trippers was ex- 
pected to exceed 3 million by the end of 1980. 

SLOT MACHINES account for close to half 
of the casinos’ gross take. Forty-three to 53 per- 
cent of the June gross were attributed to slot ma- 
chines. In dollar terniis, this means that the $15 
bus excursion riders in June alone lost between 
$22M million and $27.3 million. 

Yet, according to calculations made by noted 
gambling authority John Scarne, gross win or 
gross receipts tell only part of the story. In 
Scarne’s recently published book, “Guide to Ca- 
sino Gambling,” he asserts that gross revenues in 
Nevada casinos represented but a njere 4 percent 
of the total “betting handle.” He describes “bet- 


ting handle” as the total amount of monies han- 
dled — bet, won, replayed and lost. 

Although Nevada claims a bigger payout than 
Atlantic City, applying Scarne’s figure of 4 per- 
cent to the $51.5 million Atlantic City gross 
would project a “betting handle” of almost $1.3 
billion. 

In Scarne’s Guide, he states: “Craps is the 
most widely played game of chance played in the 
United States today. More money is won or lost 
at craps legally and illegally each day than any 
other form of gambling with the exception of 
sports and horse betting.” 

He also writes: “There are more than 40 mil- 
lion craps players in America, 5 million of whom 
are women, and most of them will accept any 
sucker bet offered them by craps hustlers. 

“A CRAPS hustler is half gambler and half 
cheat. The consistent right bettor, or ‘chump,’ 
must lose in the long run, because the odds are 
stacked against him. Thousands of craps hustlers 
in the country work in industrial plants and hustle 
craps games at noon. I knew one hustler who won 
$20,000 in numbers from his fellow workers dur- 
ing one year of lunch hour craps shootings.” 

Blackjack, or 21, is the most widely played 
casino game in the world. When a player fully 
understands the dealer’s advantage, he should be 
able to keep that advantage to 5.9 percent and 
perhaps reduce it to 3 percent, according to 
Scarne. 

In betting through off-track bookies, the odds 
against you are even greater since bookies limit 
the payoff. They may pay, at the most, 20 to 1 
on a winner even though the odds at the track 
are much greater, even 100 to 1. 

On OTB, Scarne says, “my OTB survey re- 
vealed that the OTB made thousands of new horse 
bettors in New York and adjoining states. And 
many of these new horse bettors have left the OTB 
shops and are now betting with illegal horse 
bookies who, in time of need, will give them credit 
and a better percentage break by not having to 
pay OTB’s additional 5 percent tax.” 

THE KEY FACT to remember is that in any 
professionally operated gambling, legal or illegal, 
it is impossible to beat the odds. Even if you tem- 
porarily enjoy a run of luck, eventually you must 
lose. In all professional gambling games, the odds 
are tilted against you so that you never have an 
even chance. In fact, the smaller the bets, and 
the poorer the gambler, the worse the odds. 

It is claimed that legalization of gambling can 
produce revenue for schools and hospitals. If this 
happens, it actually will be a tax upon the poor 
even more regressive than the sales tax. 


After 4- Year Advance 

Conservative Tilt Dims Outlook 
For Federal Job Safety Efforts 


A fter four years of steady progress, 

. federal programs to protect the safety and 
health of workers face new problems from a more 
conservative White House and Congress, AFL- 
CIO Occupational Safety & Health Director 
George H. R. Taylor said. 

Taylor credited the leadership of Labor Sec. 
Ray Marshall and Assistant Labor Sec. Eula 
Bingham with converting OSHA from a “quiet 
and largely non-producing” program to an “active 
and effective rdvocate” of on-the-job health and 
safety. 

He cited two major accomplishments: the right 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


of workers to know the hazards of toxic substances 
they work with and the effect of those substances 
on their health, and creation of the New Direc- 
tions Training & Education Program, which has 
enabled unions, colleges and employers to develop 
efforts to deal with hazards in the workplace. 

QUESTIONED BY reporters on the network 
radio interview Labor News Conference, Taylor 
said that as a direct result of aggressive leadership, 
“workers began to feel that this (OSHA) is their 
program.” 

Taylor said that while it is too soon to pinpoint 
the exact problems that OSHA is likely to en- 
counter in the next four years, progress will be 
more difficult than in recent years. He noted that 
congressional support fell off in the last Congress, 
largely as a reaction to “a continuous avalanche 
of letters from business interests alleging real or 
fancied harms.” 

Reporters questioning Taylor were Jean White 
of Press Associates, Inc., and Doug Harbrecht 
of the Pittsburgh Press. Labor News Conference 
is a public service production of the AFL-CIO 
and is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he life experiences of older workers have been under- 
going marked changes over the past quarter century, a phe- 
nomenon little noticed in the popular press. 

A study on older workers recently released by the Dept, of 
Health & Human Services shows a sharp drop in labor force 
participation by men 65 and older and a strong growth in job- 
seeking by pre-elderly women, those in the 55-64 bracket. 

Social security improvements have figured importantly in en- 
abling people to live decent lives and even to consider retiring 
earlier. Private pensions, disability insurance programs and higher 
earnings also enable many to retire early. 

But health problems still force many to retire early and keep 
others from seeking work. 

Following are some highlights from the government’s report on 
“The Older Worker.” 

TRENDS IN labor force participation for men and women over 
the last several decades are decidedly different. Elderly men have 
withdrawn steadily from the labor force during this period. Only 
20 percent of men 65 years old and older were in the labor force 
in 1979, compared to 46 percent in 1950. 

Pre-elderly men — those 55-64 years of age — have also de- 
creased their level of participation in the labor force, although 
most of this decrease occurred during the 1960s and particularly 
in the 1970s. Their participation rate fluctuated between 87 per- 
cent and 89 percent during the 1950s, declined slowly to 83 per- 
cent during the 1960s, and fell more rapidly to 73 percent during 
the 1970s. 

Pre-elderly women, on the other hand, have been participating 
in the labor force at an increasing rate. Their rate rose from 27 
percent in 1950 to 43 percent in 1969, and leveled off around the 
41 percent mark since 1975. In 1979, it stood at 42 percent. The 
labor force participation of elderly women has been low and fairly 
constant during this period, dropping to 8 percent in 1974. 

THE DECISION to retire is a complex one. It can be influenced 
by many factors, including involuntary ones such as compulsory 
retirement policies, plant closings, or work force lay-offs, and 
voluntary reasons such as dissatisfaction with job, poor health, 
family or personal reasons, or a simple desire to stop working. 

The proportion of workers who reitired before reaching the age 
of 65 has risen considerably since 1962, the first full year of opera- 
tion of the early retirement provisions for both sexes under the 
amendments of the Social Security Act. Evidence from several 
studies indicates that health problems represent a major factor in 
the retirement decision. 

The vast majority of older persons who are not in the labor 
force do not indicate a desire to work. About 30 percent cited poor 
health and another 28 percent did not think they could get a job 
for a variety of personal or job-market factors. 

THE FUTURE employment picture for older workers is difficult 
to predict. In the aggregate, the older population will certainly be 
more numerous, particularly after the turn of the century when the 
“baby boom” generation reaches the upper ages. Persons entering 
the ranks of the older population in future years will be better 
educated and will have worked at higher-paying occupations in 
industries that were not even born when today’s elderly were in 
their working years. Older workers today have opted for early 
retirement, and this trend may well continue. 

Opposed to these trends will be such forces as the lack of 
younger workers to adequately support the social security system, 
as well as smaller family networks to provide emotional and eco- 
nomic support to retired persons, if the low birth rates of the last 
few years continue. The scarcity and high price of non-renewable 
energy sources may continue to drive the cost of living up at the 
expense of many older persons who do not work and must rely on 
relatively fixed income. These factors and others may force more 
older people to stay in the labor force longer. 



FOUR YEARS of progress in federal programs to protect the 
safety and health of workers could be stalled by new barriers in 
the more conservative White House and Congress, AFL-CIO 
Occupational Safety & Health Director George H. R. Taylor 
said on Labor News Conference. Reporters questioning him 
were Jean White of Press Associates, Inc. and Doug Harbrecht 
of the Pittsburgh Press. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 


‘There! Isn’t That Better?’ 





‘Catch-Up’ Pay Boosts Top 
Rail Union Contract Goals 


Consumer Prices Up 12,5% 


Real Wages Fall 4,8 fo 
In 1 980 Inflation Surge 


The nation’s railroad workers are seek- 
ing substantial >yage increases to help 
make up for buying power lost to infla- 
tion over the past three years. 

Not all of the 13 unions that will be 
bargaining with the major railroads in the 
current round of negotiations have sub- 
mitted their goals. Of the five that have, 
however, there are certain areas of gen- 
eral agreement. These include the need 
for inflation “catch-up” wage increases, 
full cost-of-living adjustments, and im- 
provements in health and welfare benefits. 

UNIONS THAT have already served 
collective bargaining notices on the rail- 
roads include the Maintenance of Way 
Employees, Machinists, Signalmen, Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks, and the Poiler- 
makers-Blacksmiths. The United Transpor- 
tation Union is expected to file its notice 
on Feb. 2, and the others within 10 days. 
The 13 unions together represent more 
than 430,000 workers. 

The size of the wage increases sought 
varies from union to union. The Mainte- 
nance of Way Employees are asking for 
boosts totaling 60 percent over a three- 
year period. The Signalmen are seeking 
retroactive pay plus pay increases totaling 
46 percent. Other unions are less specific 
on the percentage increase. 

The five unions that have served notices 
also have called for a “roll-in” of previ- 
ously gained cost-of-living adjustments; 
that is, they want COL increases under 
their former three-year agreement made 
part of their base pay. For the Boiler- 
makers-Blacksmiths, for instance, this 
would amount to 58 cents an hour. 

THE UNIONS also are proposing full 
cost-of-living adjustments, rather than the 
“capped” increases in their old pacts. And 
they want to improve the formulas under 
which the increases are calculated. The 
Maintenance of Way Employees, for ex- 
ample, are asking for a COL clause pro- 
viding for a cent an hour for each increase 
of two-tenths of a point in the govern- 
ment’s consumer price index. Declines in 

James S. Umber Dies at 77, 
Headed Montana AFL-CIO 

Helena, Mont. — James S. Umber, presi- 
dent emeritus of the Montana AFL-CIO 
and retired executive secretary of the state 
labor federation, died Jan. 20. He was 77. 

Umber also served for a number of 
years as president of the Missoula local of 
the Carpenters. 


the CPI would not affect basic pay rates. 

Union negotiators are also in agreement 
on the need for across-the-board improve- 
ments in health and welfare benefits. 
These would involve life insurance, acci- 
dental death and dismemberment cover- 
age, and dental care. The unions also want 
establishment of a vision-care program. 

Other bargaining goals include liberal- 
ized vacations and holidays, paid personal 
leaves, overtime changes, increases in 
differential pay for shifts starting at irregu- 
lar times, and stronger job security. 

RAIL CONTRACTS, which are gov- 
erned by the Railway Labor Act, do not 
have specific expiration dates. Instead, the 
pacts may be opened for amendment from 
time to time. In the current round of 
negotiations, changes in wages and work 
rules would become effective on Apr. 1 . 

The employers are represented by the 
National Railway Labor Conference, 
which has withheld comment on the new 
union notices until all 13 unions have sub- 
mitted their proposals. The other unions 
involved in the bargaining are the Dis- 
patchers, Locomotive Engineers, Carmen, 
Firemen-Oilers, Yardmasters, Sheet Metal 
Workers, and the International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

mate power of the people.” The democratic 
system assures “another chance,” he said. 

BUT “OUR JOB did not end with the 
election,” he stressed. “We do hot intend 
to slumber through the next two or four 
years, hoping to awaken to the dawn of a 
new day.” 

The A. Philip Randolph Institute board 
meeting in Washington took place when 
Polish workers were striking and demon- 
strating in support of their newly-won 
trade union movement. Solidarity. Kirk- 
land linked their struggle to these words of 
A. Philip Randolph, the black trade union 
leader whose life was a crusade for equal 
rights: 

“Freedom is never granted; it is won. 
Justice is never given; it is exacted. Free- 
dom and justice must be struggled for by 
the oppressed of all lands and races, and 
the struggle must be continuous — for free- 
dom is never a final fact but a continuing 
evolving process.” 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Summarizing the annual changes in the 
consumer price index, BLS said that last 
year’s increase, like that in 1979, was 
due primarily to large advances for hous- 
ing and transportation costs. These ac- 
counted for almost three-fourths of the 
1980 CPI price rise. Food and beverage 
prices rose about the same as in 1979; 
“most other major categories of consumer 
spending registered price increases mod- 
erately larger than in 1979,” BLS said. 

DECEMBER’S CPI increase alone was 
1.1 percent, slightly above the 1 percent 
rise in each of the preceding three months. 
Increases in the cost of housing, transpor- 
tation, food, and beverages accounted for 
over 90 percent of the month’s total CPI 
increase, BLS said. The rise left the in- 
dex at a level of 258.4, which means that 
goods and services that cost $10 in 1967 
cost $25.84 at the end of 1980. 

Of last year’s total 12.5 percent jump, 
1.5 percent points resulted from higher 
mortgage-interest costs, nearly one-tenth 
of the entire index, BLS said. Increases 
in energy prices, which rose about half 
again as fast as the overall index, were 
responsible for another 1.7 percentage 
points. 

The immediate outlook is for still higher 
living costs. Rudy Oswald, director of the 
AFL-CIO’s Dept, of Economic Research, 
observed: “Food and energy price in- 
creases can be expected to accelerate in 
January, reflecting weather damage to 
Florida citrus crops, recent OPEC (Or- 
ganization of Petroleum Exporting Coun- 
tries) actions, and the schedule of energy 
decontrol in the United States.” 

THE DECEMBER CPI advance was 
the largest jump since March. Housing 
costs were up 4.4 percent as mortgage- 
interest rates rose 4.1 percent. House 
prices declined one-tenth of 1 percent. 
Food prices increased 1 percent, follow- 
ing an increase of 1.1 percent in Novem- 


State and local government collective 
bargaining agreements concluded in the 
first half of 1980 provided average adjust- 
ments of 7 percent in the first year and 
7.2 percent a year when measured over 
the life of the pacts, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported. 

In a survey of contracts covering 5,000 
or more workers each, BLS found that — 
as in the private sector — settlements with 


The board meeting, attended by more 
than 100 union and civil rights leaders, 
reviewed 1980 activities of the Randolph 
Institute and explored proposed new 
projects. 

Institute President Norman Hill said 
preliminary reports indicate the voter edu- 
cation and participation* campaign was 
responsible for getting over 700,000 black 
voters to the polls. 

HE ALSO reported on the institute’s job 
safety and health program and its Front- 
lash-linked activities in predominantly 
black colleges in the South. The institute’s 
intern program. Hill said, has trained and 
placed black union members with interna- 
tional union staffs and AFL-CIO central 
bodies. 

Hill told the group that despite the elec- 
tion outcome, “there is still a constituency 
for social progress in the United States, 
and those politicians who retreat from 
progressive positions do so at their political 
peril.” 


ber. Energy prices jumped by 1.8 per- 
cent, following a 1.1 percent decline the 
month before. 

Aside from home financing, other hous- 
ing costs increased more rapidly in De- 
cember than in November. The cost of 
maintenance and repairs jumped 1.3 per- 
cent, after posting an increase of only 
half that rate the previous month. The 
cost of house furnishings, unchanged in 
November, edged up three-tenths in 
December. 

Higher gasoline prices helped push up 
transportation costs by 1.2 percent, fol- 
lowing a 1.5 percent rise in November. 
In addition to gas, higher prices for used 
cars and automobile finance charges ac- 
counted for most of the transportation 
increase. Used car prices rose 3.3 percent, 
the fifth consecutive large monthly in- 
crease.' 

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION charges 
went up 1.1 percent for the month as 
charges for airline fares rose 1.7 percent 
and inter-city train fares jumped 5.7 per- 
cent. Over the year, BLS said, the cost 
of public transportation increased 25.6 
percent. 

Among food items, higher costs for 
meats, poultry, fish, and eggs contributed 
most to the over-the-month rise. Prices 
for these items advanced 1.2 percent in 
December. The cost of dairy products 
rose nine-tenths of 1 percent, the same as 
in November. Fresh vegetable prices went 
up 4 percent, while prices for cereals and 
bakery products, fresh milk, sugar and 
artificial sweeteners also registered sub- 
stantial increases. 

Medical care costs were up five-tenths 
of 1 percent for the month as charges for 
physicians’ fees and hospital rooms rose 
eight-tenths of 1 percent and seven-tenths 
of 1 percent, respectively. Prices for ap- 
parel and personal upkeep registered 
moderate increases. The cost of dining out 
was up 1 percent over the month. Enter- 
tainment costs declined. 


cost-of-living clauses tended to be smaller 
than those without such clauses. First- 
year negotiated wage increases in agree- 
ments with COL provisions averaged 7.3 
percent, while those without such clauses 
averaged 6.9 percent. 

“WHEN NEGOTIATED wage adjust- 
ments were averaged over the life of the 
agreements, the annual wage rate changes 
for those agreements were 6.7 percent 
for settlements with COL clauses, and 
7.5 percent for those without COL 
clauses,” BLS said. Agreements with COL 
clauses had an average duration of 27 
months, while those without such clauses 
averaged 23.9 months. 

The survey covered 1,008,000 workers 
in 83 state and local government bargain- 
ing units. New settlements were reached 
in 16 of these units. Deferred wage 
changes were received in eight others un- 
der agreements negotiated prior to 1980, 
and COL adjustments were made under 
two contracts. 

FIFTEEN OF THE new settlements, 
covering 150,000 workers, provided for 
fixed wage increases. One agreement, 
reached by the Chicago Transit Authority, 
provided no fixed wage increase but con- 
tinued quarterly COL adjustments. 

No COL clauses were introduced in 
settlements reached during the first six 
months of 1980. One unit, the Alaska 
State Employees Association, dropped a 
COL clause in an agreement effective Jan. 
1, 1980. 

About 52 percent of the workers cov- 
ered by the public employee contracts in 
the survey were in the Northeast, 20 per- 
cent in the South, 11 percent in the north 
central region, and 8 percent in the West. 


Kirkland Vows Budget Drive 
To Preserve Key Programs 


Wage Gains Average 7 . 2 % 

In ’80 Public Employee Pacts 






AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 


Page Seven 


Modest Gains Tallied in Legislatures 




■ 1 ■ ;_ 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tions on labor union activities, as well as 
political beliefs and sexual activity. 

The following is a summary of other 
legislative action affecting workers in a 
cross-section of states: 

CALIFORNIA — Strong efforts by the 
State AFL-CIO raised the workers’ com- 
pensation ceiling for temporary and per- 
manent total disability from $154 to $175 
a week and increased the death benefit for 
the surviving spouse from $50,000 to 
$75,000. Improvements were also made in 
the delivery of disability payments. 

A $2.6 million state fund will assist 
victims of asbestosis, and other legislation 
require employers to notify workers of any 
exposure to toxic substances. 

Dues check-off was authorized for cer-^ 
tain employees of California schools and 
community colleges, including deductions 
for agency shop fees. 

Exploitation of workers in the state’s 
large garment industry will be curbed by 
a law requiring employers to register with 
the state labor commissioner and keep 
adequate records of employees’ names, 
addresses, hours, production rates and 
wages. 

CONNECTICUT— State labor officials 
are concerned about passage of a so-called 
“workfare” bill which could lead to re- 
placement of municipal workers with wel- 
fare recipients forced to take specific jobs 
to maintain benefits. The state’s sales tax, 
the highest in the nation, was increased 
from 7 to 7.5 percent, worsening what 
the State AFL-CIO terms an already in- 
equitable tax burden on workers. 

Improvements in the workers’ compen- 
sation law increased the dependency al- 
lowance from $5 to $10 per dependent and 
eliminated the 15-year maximum benefit 
period for dependents. Children will now 
receive benefits up to age 1 8, or 22 if they 
are full-time students. 

The time allowed for filing an occupa- 
tional illness claim was extended to three 
years from the beginning of the disability 
or detection of the disease, rather than 
from the time it was contracted. 

FLORIDA — An increase from $95 to 
$105 in maximum weekly unemployment 
compensation benefits was called a major 
victory for workers in a recessionary 
period by the State AFL-CIO. Potentially 
damaging bills were successfully defeated 
which would have jeopardized jobless pay- 
ments to seasonal workers and allowed em- 
ployers to cut their wages. 


Substantial increases were won in the 
state budget to maintain a labor studies 
program in the state university system 
and to launch a program that will give 
workers an opportunity to pursue college 
degrees while working full time. 

Measures to make technical improve- 
ments in the workers’ compensation sys- 
tem were labor-supported, along with 
benefit improvements for retirees from 
public jobs. 

ILLINOIS — Amendments to the unem- 
ployment insurance law include an increase 
in the minimum weekly benefit, raising it 
from $15 to 15 percent of the state’s 
average weekly wage, or about $42. An- 
other improvement permits a jobless work- 
er to earn up to $62.50 a week in take- 
home pay before those earnings are offset 
against unemployment benefits. 

Adoption of a compromise workers’ 
compensation bill preserves major im- 
provements made in the statute in 1975, 
beating back fierce employer lobbying to 
slash the program. 

Although ERA failed in the Illinois 
legislature, the state did enact a human 
rights bill that will consolidate state agen- 
cies with rights enforcement power and 
strengthen protections of the Fair Employ- 
ment Practices Act. 

A bill to require payment of prevailing 
wages on all state service contracts also 
was passed, and a series of punitive public 
employee proposals was warded off. 

KENTUCKY — Attempts to destroy the 
state’s prevailing wage legislation were de- 
of 80 percent of a worker’s spendable in- 
renewed pressure on the issue. 

Workers’ compensation legislation in- 
cluded stronger information requirements 
for insurers that will make it easier to 
contest rate increases. 

Less acceptable to labor was a bill set-, 
ting new maximum and minimum benefits 
for total disability which could serve to 
reduce or curtail some benefits for both 
total disability and permanent partial dis- 
ability. 

A bill to add “misconduct” to the rea- 
sons a fired employee could be denied 
jobless benefits was also passed over labor’s 
opposition. 

LOUISIANA— The State AFL-CIO 
fought hard against a grab-bag of anti- 
labor legislation proposed by the state’s 
new governor, the first Republican in the 
Louisiana statehouse in more than 100 
years. Bills were blocked that would have 
seriously cut both unemployment and 


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iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmimiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiimiimimmiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiii 

February Schedule Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

Organizing, arbitration and newswriting and editing are the subjects of three 
programs offered by the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, 
Md., during February. The schedule: 

Organizing Techniques, Feb. 1-6 — A review of the essentials in a successful 
organizing campaign: programming in-plant committees, developing winning 
issues, making house calls, and responding to employer attacks. Labor Board 
procedures are explained. 

Nevrswrifing & Editing, Feb. 1-6 — A workshop for union editors to sharpen 
their skills in newswriting, headline writing, makeup and editing for greater 
readability and credibility. This workshop is co-sponsored by the International 
Labor Press Association. 

Arbitration: Preparation & Presentation, Feb. 22-27 — An opportunity to pre- 
pare a grievance case for hearing, present a mock case before a professional 
arbitrator, hear his comments and suggestions, and review the action on video- 
tape. Methods of picking arbitrators and the law of arbitration are covered. 

Unions using the campus for their own leadership training during February 
are the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers, Feb. 8-12; Flight Attendants, 
Feb. 8-13; Office & Professional Employees, Feb. 15-18; United Transportation . 
Union, Feb. 22-Mar. 6; Communications Workers, Feb. 22-Mar. 13. 

The American Institute for Free Labor Development will have 40 Latin 
American trade union lenders on campus all month except for a field trip in 
the week of Feb. 15-20. The Asian American Free Labor Institute is sponsoring 
a program for 10 visiting trade unionists from Jordan, Feb. 2-6. 

The National Coalition for Black Voter Participation will meet in the campus 
auditorium Feb. 13. 

More information on these and other labor studies programs can be obtained 
from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive director, George Meany Center, 10000 
New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone: 301/431-6400. 

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workers’ compensation, repealed the 
state’s prevailing wage law, outlawed 
strikes by public employees, reduced re- 
tirement benefits of state employees and 
turned back gains in wages and working 
conditions for teachers. 

Labor support led to the passage of 
four bills that actually increased workers’ 
compensation benefits, including burial 
benefits, survivors’ benefits, and benefit 
computation for payments related to occu- 
pational disease. It was also made illegal 
for an employer to refuse to hire workers 
because they had previously filed 8 com- 
pensation claims. 

MARYLAND — The workers’ compen- 
sation law was amended to include cover- 
age of workers in public assistance work 
programs, and the time limit for notifying 
an employer of an occupational disease 
was extended from 30 days to one year 
after the worker’s discovery of the disease. 
In addition, the minimum benefit for a 
temporary total disability was raised from 
$25 to $50 per week, or equal to the em- 
ployee’s weekly wage if less than $50. 

MICHIGAN — Labor posted a major 
gain in improvements in unemployment 
compensation with weekly benefits in- 
creased to 70 percent of a worker’s after- 
tax earnings, up to a maximum of 58 per- 
cent of the average weekly wage in the 
state, or $182. A significant feature of the 
law, the State AFL-CIO stressed, is the 
provision for indexing maximum benefits 
to provide annual increases. 

Workers* compensation was also favor- 
ably reformed, capping a long struggle by 
Michigan labor. Effective in January 1982 
benefits will go to a maximum of 90 per- 
cent of the average weekly wage, or $282 
per week, compared to $210 a week under 
the current system. Cost-of-living increases 
will be provided to those already receiving 
compensation, and most minimum benefit 
levels will be eliminated through payment 
of 80 percent of a worker’s spendable in- 
come, up to the maximum. 

MINNESOTA — A revision in the Public 
Employment Labor Relations Act expands 
the right of Minnesota teachers to strike 
in the absence of an agreement or arbitra- 
tion award. Except for provisions affecting 
employees designated as “essential,” such 
as police and fire fighters, the new law 
also expands strike rights for all state and 
local government employees. 

A workers’ compensation intervention 
fund was created to finance participation 
in rate increase hearings by major em- 
ployer and worker groups such as the State 
AFL-CIO. 

Minnesota labor was also successful in 
its support of a constitutional amendment 
to place certain campaign spending limits 
on candidates in state elections who accept 
public financing. 

MISSISSIPPI — A wage increase of $950 
a year was passed for the state’s school 
teachers, along with legislation designed 
to make it easier for local school districts 
to establish kindergartens. 

Labor continued its support for equali- 
zation of property taxes in the state’s 82 
counties, participating“in action to defend 
the bill against legal challenges that now 
await a ruling by the state supreme court. 

Another bill tightens controls on the 
use of polygraph tests by employers. 

NEW JERSEY— One of the State AFL- 
CIO’s most successful legislative efforts 
won substantial improvement in workers’ 
compensation legislation. The new law 
provides for increases of some 500 to 700 
percent in compensation awards for serious 
and catastrophic injuries, as well as higher 
benefits for permanent partial disability 
based on 70 percent of an employee’s 
weekly earnings at the time of the injury, 
up to a maximum of 75 percent of the 
state’s average weekly wage for covered 
employees. 

Agency shop agreements with unions 
were made a negotiable item in collective 
bargaining laws covering public employees. 
The agreement could require non-union 
workers to pay a monthly fee to the union 
equivalent to 85 percent of union dues. 

Public employees also won rights to dues 
check-off as well as payroll deduction of 
voluntary contributions to be allocated to 
union welfare, political action, charity, 


legal defense and educational funds. 

OKLAHOMA — Labor supported the 
successful effort to ban the use of prison 
inmates as strikebreakers. 

VIRGINIA— A bill backed by the Na- 
tional Right to Work Committee which 
would have required employers to post no- 
tices of employees’ rights under the state’s 
so-called right-to-work law was beaten 
back by strong lobbying from Virginia 
unions. 

Unemployment compensation laws were 
amended to increase employer contribu- 
tions from 3.2 percent to 4.5 percent. 
Other legislation will require employers 
with records of heavy layoffs to increase 
their contributions to the state unemploy- 
ment trust fund. 

WASHINGTON— Despite a 49-49 divi- 
sion between Republicans and Democrats 
of seats in the state legislature, significant 
improvements were scored in labor-related 
legislation. 

Lump sum money awards for perma- 
nent partial disability under workers’ com- 
pensation were doubled, and fully disabled 
workers were given supplements to their 
fixed workers’ compensation pensions, a 
measure particularly beneficial to older 
disabled workers. 

Legislation to correct inequities in the 
offset provisions of the social security law 
means improved benefits for retirees. An- 
other measure corrects language in the 
unemployment compensation statute that 
had been used to deny benefits to workers 
who voluntarily quit jobs that were ex- 
cessively far from their homes. 

WEST VIRGINIA— Low income work- 
ers will get a break from the increase in 
the state minimum wage from $2.20 to 
$2.75 an hour, and from the decrease 
from 42 to 40 hours worked before com- 
pulsory overtime must be paid. 

Labor support helped defeat a bill that 
would have denied unemployment com- 
pensation benefits to any worker who vol- 
untarily quit his or her job. Present law 
requires a penalty of six weeks disqualifi- 
cation from benefits. The state federation 
is supporting a speedy review of the state’s 
overall jobless benefits program in the face 
of a rapidly deteriorating fund. 

Labor successfully warded off the sec- 
ond attempt in two years to pass “right 
to work” legislation and helped scuttle 
several punitive measures aimed at public 
employees. 

Kirkland Urges 
Talks with Japan 
On Trade Issues 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Kirkland said, and for negotiations to set 
import quotas on automobiles and auto 
parts. 

There are no “simple solutions” to com- 
plex trade problems, he acknowledged. 
But the AFL-CIO hopes that discussions 
and negotiations “can significantly reduce 
those areas of disagreement and friction” 
while widening the areas of accord, he said. 

Kirkland spoke of the AFL-CIO’s pro- 
gram for the “reindustrialization” of Amer- 
ica, and suggested that Japan has shown 
an example of utilizing government assis- 
tance to fund programs to develop new 
technologies. 

He also spoke of free unions as “essen- 
tial” to democratic societies. 

“Democracy and free trade unions 
strengthen and reinforce each other,” he 
said. “What weakens one, weakens the 
other.” 

He told the Japanese research group 
that in an era of oil shortages and price- 
gouging, “the control of energy prices and 
energy company profits is a legitimate 
responsibility of government.” 

As the AFL-CIO sees it, Kirkland said, 
“breaking the OPEC stranglehold on the 
U.S. economy requires the federal govern- 
ment to determine the amount of oil to be 
imported, negotiate its price and allocate 
it in a manner which meets the needs . . . 
of all segments of America society.” 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JANUARY 31, 1981 



COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS are signed by officials of the Teachers, the 
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Red Cross to promote 
the ARC’S national voluntary blood donor system. The signatories are, from 
left. Dr. Lewellys Barker, ARC vice president for blood services; AFT Sec.- 
Treas. Robert G. Porter, IBEW President Charles H. Pillard, and David G. 
Oliver, AFL-CIO Community Services representative with the AFC. Witnessing . 
the signing were AFL-CIO Community Services Director Walter G. Davis, left, 
Philip McKeaney of the AFT, and Everett Lehmann of the IBEW. 

Revised Davis-Bacon Rules 
Retain ‘30-Percent’ Standard 


Major Pacts 
Boost Wages 
9.5 Percent 

(Continued from Page 1) 
agreements were protected by COL claus- 
es, slightly higher than the 58 percent for 
all major contracts negotiated in 1979. 

The construction and telephone indus- 
tries accounted for 40 percent of the 
workers involved in last year’s bargain- 
ing — 21 percent and 19 percent, respec- 
tively. Other large segments of workers 
were in primary metals, transportation 
equipment, retail food stores, public utili- 
ties, electrical and electronic equipment, 
and machinery industries. 

Other highlights of the BLS report: 

• In key contracts, those covering 5,000 
workers or more, combined wage and 
fringe-benefit increases in 1980 averaged 

10.4 percent in the first year and 7 per- 
cent annually over the life of the agree- 
ment. Corresponding averages in 1979 
were 9 percent and 6.6 percent, respec- 
tively. 

• 1980 settlements covering some 770,- 
000 construction workers provided first- 
year average wage increases of 13.6 per- 
cent, up from 8.8 percent in the previous 
year. Over the life of the agreements, the 
annual rate of increase was 12 percent. 

• In manufacturing, the average wage 
gain was 7.3 percent for the first year and 

5.4 percent annually over the life of the 
agreements. The figures compare with 6.9 
percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, in 
1979. 

.# In non-manufacturing industries, the 
average first-year wage increase was 11 
percent, compared to 8 percent in 1979. 
Over the life of the contracts, the annual 
rate of increase was 8.3 percent, compared 
to 6.8 percent in the previous year. 

• The average duration of agreements 
negotiated last year was 32.8 months, 
slightly lower than the 33.4 months when 
the same parties previously bargained. For 
settlements containing COL provisions, 
contract duration averaged 35.4 months 
compared with 28.9 months for those 
without COL clauses. 


A revised set of Davis-Bacon regula- 
tions is scheduled to take effect Feb. 17, 
only slightly changed from a draft pro- 
posed by the Labor Dept, more than a 
year ago. 

The changes are largely designed to im- 
prove enforcement of prevailing wage 
standards on federally-funded construction 
projects and to provide more accurate 
and up-to-date wage determinations. 

PRESIDENT ROBERT A. Georgine of 
the AFL-CIO Building & Construction 
Trades Dept, said the new regulations 
“generally” would improve the prevailing 
wage program. But the open-shop Asso- 
ciated Builders & Contractors protested 
the “ nth-hour issuance” of the regula- 
tions shortly before the change of admin- 
istration. The employer group said it 


would seek “to get these regulations 
rescinded.” President Reagan subsequently 
announced a 60-day holdup of all pending 
regulation changes to allow review by his 
Administration. 

The Labor Dept, had several times ex- 
tended the deadline for interested groups 
to comment on the regulations, which were 
first published in the Federal Register in 
December of 1979. The department said 
it rejected requests for further postpone- 
ments and public hearings because it ap- 
peared that all viewpoints had been ade- 
quately expressed in the 246 written com- 
ments submitted by interested groups and 
individuals. 

The new regulations incorporate the 
“30-percent rule” that open-shop contrac- 
tors have long sought to eliminate. . 


Decontrol to 
Kick Off Oil 
Price Surge 

President Reagan’s executive order lift- 
ing all remaining controls on oil will touch 
off a new round of increases in gasoline 
and fuel oil costs. Administration officials 
concede. 

But the President and Energy Sec. James 
Edwards argue that the higher prices will 
spur energy conservation and the addi- 
tional windfall profits to the oil companies 
will provide further incentive for new drill- 
ing and production. 

IDENTICAL arguments had been made 
by former President Carter when he began 
the phaseout of controls nearly two years 
ago — a step the AFL-CIO opposed and 
sought unsuccessfully to reverse. 

The decontrol “cannot be justified on 
economic, social or equity grounds,” the 
AFL-CIO declared when the process be- 
gan. It would worsen inflation and feed re- 
cession, labor warned. 

By the time of the AFL-CIO convention 
in December 1979, the warning had been 
largely borne out. Decontrol does not 
“contribute one iota to resolving the 
energy crisis,” a convention resolution 
affirmed, nor increase supplies. 

Further, the “gluttony” of the oil com- 
panies for ever-bigger profits “has injured 
the American people,” the convention said. 

CONGRESS subsequently passed a 
windfall profits tax to soak up some of 
the enormous added revenue the oil com- 
pasies were receiving, although the tax 
rate was less than the Carter Administra- 
tion and the AFL-CIO had urged. Iron- 
ically, the added tax that will result from 
Reagan’s decontrol decision will ease his 
budget problems. 

But the oil industry will be left with 
substantial additional after-tax profits, and 
it enthusiastically hailed the decontrol or- 
der, which Reagan had promised during 
his presidential campaign. 

A Standard Oil of* California executive 
told the Associated Press that his company 
was “ecstatic” over the decontrol order. 


Donovan Nomination Gains 
Senate Committee Support 


The Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee recommended confirmation of 
Raymond J. Donovan as Secretary of La- 
bor, paving the way for an early vote by 
the full Senate and completion of action 
on President Reagan’s Cabinet appointees. 

The comrnittee vote was 11-0 to recom- 
mend confirmation, but five of the seven 
Democrats abstained after declaring they 
were not yet prepared to make “a final 
judgment” on the nomination. 

COMMITTEE ACTION had been held 
up pending completion of an intensive FBI 
investigation of allegations that Donovan 
and the New Jersey construction company 
with which he was associated had links 
with figures in organized crime. 

The most serious charges had been made 
by an FBI informant whose criminal rec- 


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ord included a murder conviction. But the 
FBI said 1 ,400 hours of investigative work 
by 62 agents had failed to uncover any 
evidence supporting the allegations. 

All nine Republicans supported confir- 
mation, as did Democrats Jennings Ran- 
dolph (W. Va.) and former Committee 
Chairman Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (N.J.). 

Democrats who abstained were Edward 
M. Kennedy (Mass.), Claiborne Pell (R.I.), 
Thomas Eagleton (Mo.), Donald Riegle 
(Mich.) and Howard Metzenbaum (Ohio). 

IN ADDITION to confirming heads of 
the other government departments, the 
Senate also approved the nomination of 
David Stockman, a former Michigan 
congressman, as director of the Office of 
Management & Budget; Jeane J. Kirk- 
patrick, Georgetown University professor 
and foreign policy expert, as Ambassador 
to the United Nations; William E. Brock 
III, a former Tennessee senator and most 
recently Republican national, chairman, as 
U.S. Trade Representative, and William 
J. Casey, a former chairman of the Se- 
curities & Exchange Commission, as direc- 
tor of the Central Intelligence Agency. 

Ralph C. Smith Retires 
From United Way Labor Post 

Atlanta — Ralph C. Smith, AFL-CIO 
Community Services regional director for 
the labor participation department at the 
United Way southeastern regional office 
since 1967, retired Dec. 31. 

Smith served as executive secretary of 
Rubber Workers Local 5 in Akron, Ohio, 
during the late 1950s and early ‘60s. He 
later represented the Akron AFL-CIO on 
the staff of the Summit County, Ohio, 
United Way. 


THE EXISTING policy, which will be 
continued, is that the prevailing area rate 
will be the pay scale received by the largest 
number of workers in the job classifica- 
tion, provided they make up at least 30 
percent of the workers in that classifica- 
tion. Non-union contractors complained 
that this often results in union wage 
scales becoming prevailing wage rates 
when using an average wage would have 
resulted in a lower pay line. 

But another employer group, the Asso- 
ciated General Contractors, acknowledged 
that the regulations included some changes 
sought by employers. Thus, distinctions 
between types of construction and loca- 
tions of work will avoid “importing” 
higher city rates to rural job sites, the 
ACG said. But the organization said it 
will still challenge the regulations when 
the new Administration is in place. 


WHILE THE actual pricing decisions 
will be made by the oil companies in the 
days ahead, the state Energy Office in 
Connecticut estimated that lifting controls 
now instead of next September will cost 
the average family in the state an extra 
$32 for heating oil and $42 for gasoline 

Energy Sec. James B. Edwards said he 
thought agsoline prices would rise only 
3 to 5 cents a gallon as a result of decon- 
trol. but other estimates were more than 
double that. 

The Congressional Budget Office said 
the decontrol may add as much as 1 per- 
cent to the consumer price index for 1981. 

Oil price controls were first imposed 
under the Nixon Administration, and as 3 
result of the Carter phaseout, only 1 5 per- 
cent of U.S. oil production was under price 
contsols when Reagan issued his order. 


Truesdale Quits NLRB Post 
To Create Second Vacancy 


A second member of the National Labor 
Relations Board, John C. Truesdale, has 
resigned, leaving the federal agency with 
two vacancies to be filled by President 
Ronald Reagan. 

Truesdale, a Democrat, had been serv- 
ing a recess appointment by former Presi- 
dent Carter since late last year. Confirma- 
tion by the Senate had been delayed by 
Republican leaders in the hope that an 
incoming GOP Administration could fill 
the seat with its own choice. 

IN A LETTER to Reagan, Truesdale 
noted that his nomination had been with- 
drawn by the President, and said that, “in 
the circumstances, it seems appropriate 
to offer my resignation at this time to clear 
the way for you to make your own nomi- 
nation at an early date.” 

Earlier in January, another Democrat, 
John A. Penello, announced his retire- 


ment from the board to take advantage of 
federal pension provisions. 

Reagan’s withdrawal of Truesdale’s 
nomination, and those of 30 others by the 
Carter Administration, came in a notice 
received by the Senate on Jan. 21. Trues- 
dale’s resignation leaves the NLRB with 
three members — Chairman John H. 
Fanning, a Democrat; Howard Jenkins, 
Jr., a Republican, and Don A. Zimmer- 
man, an independent. 

Truesdale was immediately chosen by 
the remaining three NLRB members to re- 
turn to his former position as executive 
secretary of the board, a post he held 
from 1972 to 1977 before he was named 
a member to fill the unexpired term of 
Peter C. Walther, a Republican. 

The executive secretary’s position had 
been vacant, with Robert Volger serving 
in an acting capacity. 




Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, February 7, 1981 No. 6 



CENTENNIAL SEMINAR kicking off the celebration of labor’s 100th anniver- 
sary brought editors and Washington news bureau chiefs to the George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies to hear AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue and former Labor Secretaries John Dunlop and Ray 
Marshall, as well as a panel of Executive Council members, discuss American 
labor’s current positions and its future. Vice President John Lyons (at podium) 
is shown with Donahue and Vice Presidents Albert Shanker, Sol Chaikin and 
Glenn Watts at the final session. A major goal of the centennial program is to win 
greater public understanding of labor’s aims and achievements as well as the 
challenges facing it in the future. 

Budget Policies Urged 
To Reduce Joblessness 


Budget and monetary policies should be 
geared to prevent increases in unemploy- 
ment and the loss of billions of dollars in 
potential output, income, and savings, the 
AFL-CIO told Congress. 

Testifying before the Senate Appropria- 
tions Committee, Rudy Oswald, director 
of the federation’s Dept, of Economic 
Research, said that adoption of policies 
that lessen unemployment and loss of reve- 
nue and help to increase the nation’s pro- 
ductive capital can help to break the stag- 

Donovan Takes 
Office as New 
Labor Secretary 

Raymond C. Donovan took office as the 
nation’s 17th Secretary of Labor, follow- 
ing his confirmation by the Senate on an 
80-17 rollcall. 

He was sworn in by Vice President 
George Bush at a White House ceremony 
that completed the installation of the 
Reagan Cabinet. But the new Administra- 
tion is still in its skeletal phase, with scores 
of presidential appointments yet to be 
made. 

DONOVAN’S confirmation is expected 
to be followed quickly by the announce- 
ment of nominees for other top depart- 
ment posts — the undersecretary and as- 
sistant secretaries. The new team will have 
to deal in the weeks ahead with budget 
cuts proposed by the White House and 
by the President’s Office of Management 
& Budget, and with decisions on important 
and controversial regulations promulgated 
by the Carter Administration that have 
been pulled back for review. 

Senate action on Donovan’s nomination 
was put off to allow completion of a 
lengthy FBI investigati6n of allegations 
linking Donovan and the New Jersey con- 
struction firm with which he was associ- 
ated to illegal payoffs and links with or- 
ganized crime figures. 

(Continued on Page 6) 


flation pattern of simultaneous inflation 
and recession that currently grips the 
United States. 

“Without expansionary monetary and 
fiscal policies, the economy will go through 
another downturn involving more unem- 
ployment,” he warned. 

OSWALD TOLD the panel, chaired by 
Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.), that a high- 
employment budget would help to balance 
the budget. “Full employment would mini- 
mize the loss of national product, income 
and savings and turn the federal budget 
deficit into surplus,” he said. The Senate 
committee held hearings on the relation- 
ship between the economic outlook and 
the budget. 

Oswald noted that the unemployment 
situation in the United States is already 
serious — and likely to get worse. Since 
January 1980, joblessness rose 1.3 per- 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Regulation Freeze 
Ties Up Measures 
On Safety, Wages 


By David L. Perlman 

President Reagan’s 60-day freeze of 
pending government regulations has put in 
limbo a group of labor-supported measures 
affecting the safety, health and wages of 
America’s workers. 

Along with scores of other pending gov- 
ernment actions, many clearly non-contro- 
versial, they have been labeled by the Rea- 
gan White House as “midnight regula- 
tions” of, the outgoing Carter Administra- 
tion and pulled back for review. 

THEY WILL BE scrutinized for cost- 
effectiveness and, the White House 
stressed, in terms of the Administration 
goal of “lessening rather than increasing 
the regulatory burden.” 

In fact, regulations are the means by 
which the Executive Branch of govern- 
ment administers the laws passed by Con- 
gress, which only rarely are self-enforcing. 
In at least some cases, suspending regula- 
tions amounts to suspension of the law on 
which they are based. 

Thus, the regulatory freeze will hold up 
— at least until Mar. 30 — ^the implementa- 
tion of “walkaround pay” rights for work- 
er representatives during workplace in- 
spections by the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration. 

It will allow Indiana to continue to 
operate a state job safety and health pro- 
gram that the AFL-CIO has repreatedly 
criticized as grossly inferior to the federal 
program it replaced. OSHA had begun 
administrative action to suspend certifi- 
cation of the Indiana program because . 
of the state’s “consistent pattern of poor 
performance.” 

ALSO HELD UP by the government- 
wide regulatory freeze are changes in 
Davis-Bacon Act procedures for setting 
prevailing wage rates on federally-funded 
construction. It includes some changes 
sought by employers. But an open-shop 
contractors’ association complained it 
didn’t go far enough to meet their objec- 


tions and has urged the Reagan Adminis- 
tration to rescind it. 

The freeze means at least a further de- 
lay in an already years-delayed action by 
the Labor Dept, to raise the wage test for 
exemption from overtime pay require- 
ments of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

A WHITE HOUSE LIST of regulations 
termed “candidates for postponement” — 
pending checks to determine if some are 
mandated by law and therefore cannot be 
postponed — range from food stamp 
changes to housing loans to asbestos detec- 
tion and control program^. 

The Dept, of Housing & Urban Devel- 
opment has pulled back rules for the Solar 
Energy & Conservation Bank that Con- 
gress authorized last year and rules to im- 
prove Fair Housing Act enforcement. 

Regulations with scheduled effective 
dates beyond Mar. 30 also must pass the 
screening process even though they are not 
formally under the freeze. These include 
a long-range hearing conservation pro- 
gram to protect more than 5 million work- 
ers who are regularly exposed to high 
levels of noise. It was scheduled to take 
effect in mid-April. 

REAGAN ALSO prohibited issuance of 
any new final regulations — with limited 
exceptions — by any agency. This holdup 
would presumably cover OSHA’s proposed 
toxic labeling standard which would pro- 
vide precise chemical identification and 
warnings on hazardous substances. 

The White House charged that many of 
the regulations issued during the last 
month of the Carter Administration would 
impose “substantial new burdens on the 
economy.” 

The freeze period, it said, would permit 
a review of the pending regulations “to 
assure that they are cost-effective and 
necessary.” It would also allow time for 
a task force headed by Vice President 
Bush “to reassess the need for regulations 
that have been under development.” 


Kirkland Spurs Strong Role 
For Labor on World Scene 


Tokyo — The world’s free trade union 
movement has a duty to involve itself 
much more deeply in national and interna- 
tional decision-making, and to concern it- 
self with corporate behavior, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland told the 17th 
annual convention of the Japanese Con- 
federation of Labor (DOMEI) here. 


It’s GOP’s Turn to Squirm 
As House Ups Debt Ceiling 


The shoe was on the other foot, and it 
hurt. It was the turn of congressional Re- 
publicans to put politics aside and vote to 
increase the federal debt ceiling. 

Democrats in the House and Senate 
suggested that it was time that their Re- 
publican colleagues faced up to the fact 
that the debt limit must be raised periodi- 
cally to keep government checks from 
bouncing and to allow the United States 
to meet its legal obligations. 

LAST YEAR, all 154 House Republi- 
cans voted against raising the debt limit. 
It earned them a big plus as fiscally re- 
sponsible from conservative political action 
groups that give out money and endorse- 
ments, while Democrats who supported 
the measure were branded as “big spend- 
ers.” 

In fact, even when Republican Gerald 
Ford was in the White House, most Re- 
publicans voted against his debt limit re- 


quests and Democrats had to supply the 
votes to keep the government solvent. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN personally 
came to Capitol Hill to ask both Demo- 
cratic and Republican leaders to support 
raising the debt limit to nearly one trillion 
dollars — ironically the first legislative re- 
quest he had made to Congress. 

He was accompanied by the director of 
his Office of Management & Budget, David 
A. Stockman, a former Republican con- 
gressman from Michigan who had always 
voted against debt limit bills. 

The House Ways & Means Committee 
voted unanimously to approve the rise in 
the debt limit, but Democrats served notice 
that they didn’t intend to let the Republi- 
cans have a free ride by providing the 
votes to pass the bill — at least not until 
most Republicans had voted for it. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


“Until enforceable international stan- 
dards are developed, our unions must do 
all we can to see that companies based in 
our own countries behave decently and ob- 
serve the laws of other countries in which 
they do business,” Kirkland told the 1,500 
delegates. 

“We have a duty not only to insist that 
our employers and our governments pro- 
tect and advance human rights, but to 
throw our own energies and resources into 
the battle wherever we can be of help. It is 
our job to assist in the creation and devel- 
opment of free trade unions among the 
\vorkers of all countries in which help is 
needed,” he added. 

ABOVE ALL, Kirkland said, free trade 
unions must persuade their respective gov- 
ernments to work together to seek work- 
able, joint solutions to their mutual prob- 
lems. Some steps toward that end, he 
noted, have been taken by the Trade Union 
Advisory Committee to the Organization 
for Economic Cooperation & Development 
(OECD), on which the labor movements of 
the United States, Japan, and western 
Europe are represented. But the OECD 
itself had failed to come to grips with the 
most pressing issues facing the world’s big 
industrial countries, Kirkland warned. 

At last summer’s OECD summit meet- 
ing in Venice, and at previous summit 
meetings, the issue of mass unemployment 
was disregarded in favor of continuing the 
“bankrupt policy” of fighting inflation with 
tight monetary policies and high interest, 
Kirkland charged. 

(Continued on Page 2) 




Paf[e Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 



AMERICAN LABOR delegation to the recent convention 
of the Japanese Confederation of Labor (DOMEI) in Tokyo 
gets together with host officials for talks of mutual interest. 
In the back row, left to right, are DOMEI Assistant Gen. 
Sec. Masao Uenishi; James Ellenberger, AFL-CIO Dept, of 
International Affairs representative; DOMEI Gen. Sec. 
Yoshikazu Tanaka; DOMEI International Rep. Hajime 
Inoue, and Director Masao Aihara of the DOMEI Interna- 


tional Affairs Bureau. In the front, left to right, are AFL- 
CIO Vice President William Wynn, DOMEI President 
Tadanobu Usami, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, and 
Executive Director Morris Paladino of the Asian American 
Free Labor Institute. Other U.S. representatives at the meet- 
ing were AFL-CIO Vice President Joyce Miller, President 
Victor Bussie of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, and President 
William Marshall of the Michigan AFL-CIO. 


Senior Citizens Alert Needy 
To Energy Cost Subsidies 


Budget Policies 
Urged to Curb 
Unemployment 

(Continued from Page 1) 
centage points, representing about 1.5 mil- 
lion workers without jobs. For the full 
year 1981, many economists are forecast- 
ing an unemployment rate of 8 to 8.5 
percent. 

Putting people to work under specific 
job programs could alleviate certain infla- 
tionary pressures on the economy, Oswald 
said. Yet, he noted the fiscal 1981 and 
1982 budget “practically phase out” local 
public works support and anti-recession 
fiscal assistance, and greatly reduce tem- 
porary employment assistance. Such poli- 
cies contribute to the decline of large 
urban centers, he added. 

“THE COUNTRY cannot long remain 
prosperous if the economic and population 
centers of major regions of the country 
are to become reservoirs of unemployment 
and subsequent social unrest,” Oswald 
warned. He said reindustrialization pro- 
grams, from a national as well as a local 
economic perspective, are essential. 

It would be anti-inflationary to have 
people employed in useful public projects 
such as mass transit construction, repair 
and replacements of bridges, streets and 
highways, and the provision of low-income 
housing, Oswald observed. 

“No one program alone will be enough 
to solve the inflation and unemployment 
problems,” he said, “but job-creation pro- 
grams are often more effective job genera- 
tors and more deflationary than tax cuts.” 

Oswald said that any tax cuts should 
be directed to mitigate the effects of infla- 
tLon on those who suffer the most, the 
lower and middle income taxpayers. Busi- 
ness tax cuts should be directed through 
the reindustrialization program, he urged. 

THE NATION’S soaring inflation rate 
is not basically the result of budget deficits 
or excess demand but rather the result of 
rising costs for the necessities of life — 
food, energy, medical care, and housing, 
Oswald pointed out. 

“They account for 60 percent of the 
average family’s spending. And these are 
areas where labor costs have little impact 
on prices,” he said. 

“Even if the budget were in balance, it 
would not resolve the energy and food 
shocks to the price level.” 

FLORENCE LONG 

Miss Florence A. Long, a retired AFL- 
CIO employee, died in Alexandria, Va., 
Jan. 15, 1981. Miss Long, 90, retired Jan. 
1, 1966, after 24 years of service with the 
CIO and AFL-CIO Accounting Dept. 


Low-income families and the elderly are 
the target of a nationwide energy assis- 
tance information campaign launched by 
the National Council of Senior Citizens 
with the help of a federal grant. 

NCSC’s “Project EnergyCare” will use 
a network of volunteers to alert the needy 
to the aid available under the $1 .85-billion 
federal low-income energy assistance pro- 
gram as well as other state and local aid 
to help them pay high home heating bills. 
The NCSC’s project is funded by a grant 
from the Community Service*'* Adminis- 
tration of the U.S. Health & Human Ser- 
vices Dept. 

NCSC’s CAMPAIGN will include a 
national and local radio and television ad- 
vertisings schedule, newspaper articles and 
editorials, a speakers’ bureau and flyers 
and information kits to be given directly 
to people eligible for the program. 

The week of Feb. 22-28 has been desig- 
nated “EnergyCare Week” by NCSC, 
which plans to mobilize thousands of 
volunteers during the week to distribute 
information about the aid program. 

The council will work directly with lo- 
cal “EnergyCare” sponsors in some 70 
cities. These sponsors, including commu- 
nity action agencies, church groups, nu- 
trition programs, legal services offices and 
other groups, will coordinate the informa- 
tion programs locally. NCSC members, 
trade unionists, and other interested orga- 
nizations and individuals are being asked 
to contact their local EnergyCare spon- 
sors to volunteer for the program. The 
council will release its final sponsor list 
shortly, and local public service advertis- 
ing will also identify local sponsors. 

THOSE INTERESTED in volunteering 
for the information program should con- 
tact local sponsors before beginning any 
outreach activity, NCSC EnergyCare di- 
rector Michael Sandifer said. 

“The local sponsor will be able to give 
volunteers all the essential information on 
energy assistance programs,” Sandifer 
pointed out, “as well as proper application 
procedures for obtaining aid.” 

The federal assistance program will 
grant up to $750 to eligible persons who 
formally apply for aid. A few states are 
expected to mail small assistance checks 
automatically to recipients of supplemen- 
tal security income and aid to families 
with dependent children. Those receiving 
aid, however, may be eligible for addi- 
tional benefits, if they apply. 

INCOME eligibility levels will vary 
from region to region, and the basic stan- 
dard will be based on incomes falling 


below the Bureau of Labor Statistics low- 
er living standard or on 125 percent of 
the official poverty level, whichever would 
grant eligibility to the largest number of 
an area’s needy citizens. 

The amount of assistance granted will 
be based on factors including income, 
size of household and the amount of total 
budget spent on heating. Priority will be 
given to households that include elderly 
or handicapped people. 

In addition to cash assistance, the pro- 
gram will provide funds for such needs 
as blankets and space heaters in the event 
of life-threatening emergencies. 

THE NCSC POINTS OUT that other 
sources of aid will be publicized in addi- 
tion to the federal program, including 
state energy assistance funds and state and 
federal weatherization programs. 

Information on the campaign is avail- 
able from the National Council of Senior 
Citizens, 1511 K St., N.W., Washington, 
D.C. 20005. Tel. 202/347-8800. 


A series of articles on police brutality 
toward prisoners resulting in at least one 
prisoner’s death — and the attendant cover- 
up by responsible authorities — won the 
Newspaper Guild’s annual Heywood Broun 
award for two reporters on the Mansfield 
(Ohio) News Journal. They are Barb 
Brucker and Jim Underwood. 

The award — $1,000 for the reporters 
and a citation for the newspaper — was 
presented to Brucker and Underwood and 
News Journal Editor K. Robert May at a 
luncheon on the opening day of the Guild’s 
international executive board meeting. 

THE MANSFIELD team’s entry was 
selected from among a record 156 sub- 
mitted in the annual Broun Award com- 
petition. There were no honorable mention 
awards. The judges explained that to award 
any would have produced too long a list 
because of the high quality of so many of 
the entries. 

The Brucker-Underwood series, the 
judges said, “represented the finest tradi- 
tion of Heywood Broun,” the columnist 
who was the Guild’s founding president. 

“More than two years after the fact, 
these two reporters began an investigation 
of the death of a black prisoner in a local 
jail,” the judges said, continuing: 


Kirkland Cites 
International 
Role of Labor 

(Continued from Page 1) 

“WE ARE convinced that these matters 
must be brought forward for public debate 
and discussion and that all of our national 
labor centers should bring our views and 
recommendations home to all of our gov- 
ernments as forcefully as possible,” Kirk- 
land declared. 

Accompanying him on his convention 
visit were AFL-CIO Vice Presidents Joyce 
Miller and William Wynn, State AFL-CIO 
Presidents William Marshall of Michigan 
and Victor Bussie of Louisiana, and James 
Ellenberger of the federation’s Dept, of 
International Affairs. 

About 35 international labor leaders 
attended the annual DOMEI meeting dur- 
ing the last week of January. They in- 
cluded President P. P. Narayanan and 
Sec. -Gen. Otto Kersten of the Interna- 
tional Confederation of Free Trade Un- 
ions, and representatives of labor unions in 
the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, 
the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tur- 
key, and Israel. It was Kirkland’s first visit 
to Japan since 1941, when he arrived as a 
crew member of a U.S.-flag cargo vessel. 

DOMEI AND THE AFL-CIO have 
held annual consultations for a number of 
years, probing U.S.-Japan economic ties 
with an eye toward greater cooperation. 
The two organizations have sought also 
to promote increased mutual understand- 
ing between Japanese and American labor 
unions, and to avoid trade frictions be- 
tween the two countries. 

The AFL-CIO delegation conferred 
with top-ranking officials of Japanese labor, 
business, and governmental groups. In 
addition, Kirkland and Wynn joined U.S. 
Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield at a 
luncheon attended by the presidents of all 
four Japanese national trade union centers, 
DOMEI, Sohyo (General Council of Trade 
Unions of Japan) Churitsu Roren (Nation- 
al Liaison Council of Neutral Labor 
Unions) and Shin Sanbetsu (National Fede- 
ration of Industrial Organizations.) 

Kirkland and others also conferred with 
Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, 
Foreign Minister Masayoshi Itoh, Labor 
Minister Masayuki Fujio, and met with 
President Bunpei Ohtsuki of the Japan 
Federation of Employers Association 
(Nikkeiren) and the leaders of the Japan 
Seamen’s Union, the Japan Union of Com- 
mercial Workers, and Zenkindomei (Metal 
Machinery Workers.) . 


“The prisoner obviously was not a ‘lead- 
ing citizen,’ and had had previous brushes 
with the law. Yet the reporters did not let 
his background deter them from a thorough 
probe into his death. 

“THE SERIES uncovered a pattern of 
alleged beating by the police department. 
It led to the dismissal of the two policemen 
accused in the original incident and the 
adoption of new procedures by the city, a 
federal grand jury investigation and per- 
haps the defusing of a potential dangerous 
situation of racial tension in the commu- 
nity.” 

The Broun award has been given each 
of the last 40 years for work that is in the 
spirit of Broun’s own work in the ’20s and 
’30s. That spirit was distinguished by an 
unceasing devotion to the public interest 
and an abiding concern for the underdog. 

Judges of this year’s award entries were 
Bill Kovach, chief of the New York Times 
Washington bureau; Benjamin F. Holman, 
acting dean of the University of Mary- 
land’s college of journalism and a former 
reporter in Chicago, New York and Wash- 
ington, and Richard W. Daw, editor-in- 
chief of the National Catholic News Ser- 
vice and a former reporter, editor and 
bureau chief with Associated Press. 


Two Ohio Reporters Cited 
For Guild’s Broun Award 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 


Panre Three 




Supreme Court Case 


Wide Equal Pay Rights 
Backed in Labor Brief 


The AFL-CIO has asked the Supreme 
Court to rule that Title VII, the equal em- 
ployment opportunity section, of the 1964 
Civil Rights Act gave women wider pro- 
tection against pay discrimination than 
they already had under the Equal Pay 
Act of 1963. 

At issue is whether pay differentials can 
be challenged in court as illegal sex dis- 
crimination if they do not involve unequal 
pay for substantially equal work in the 
same establishment — the test imposed for 
claims under the Equal Pay Act. 

AlN AFL-CIO BRIEF, joined by the 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers 
(lUE) and a group of unaffiliated unions, 
contends that the Civil Rights Act pro- 
vides recourse for all forms of discrimi- 
natory pay practices based on sex, as it 
does for discrimination based on race, 
color, religion or national origin. 

The case that reached the Supreme 
Court stems from a charge brought by 
matrons at a county jail in Oregon who 
had been paid less than male employees 
with different job titles but many similar 
duties. 

A federal district judge ruled against 

Mine Safety Act 
Programs Slash 
Job Injury Rate 

Fatalities and injuries decreased sub- 
stantially during fiscal year 1980 at 57 
non-coal mines and mills participating in 
a federal accident reduction program, the 
Mine Safety & Health Administration re- 
ported. 

MSHA said that preliminary data for 
fiscal 1980 show that accidents at par- 
ticipating operations resulted in 1,985 
lost- workday injuries, a drop of 32 per- 
cent from the 2,920 in fiscal 1979. 

Since the Program in Accident Reduc- 
tion (PAR) was put into operation in 1976, 
MSHA said there has been a consistent 
reduction in injuries over the years. During 
that span, the number of participating 
metal and nonmetal mines and mills has 
increased from 33 to 57. 

Under the program, MSHA assigns 
inspectors to mines and mills having un- 
usually high accident rates to work closely 
with management and unions on efforts to 
improve safety. 

MSHA said the rate for lost-workday 
accidents at PAR mines and mills dropped 
30 percent in fiscal 1980 to 10.8 per 
200,000 worker-hours from a rate of 15.4 
the year before. It credited cooperation of 
labor, management and inspectors for the 
progress. 


them, holding that their claim did not 
meet the test imposed in the Equal Pay 
Act and therefore could not be grounds 
for a Title VII suit under the Civil Rights 
Act. He interpreted an amendment to Title 
VII that the Senate adopted during the 
civil rights debate as compelling such a 
conclusion. 

BUT A 2-1 majority of a 9th Circuit 
U.S. Court of Appeals panel took a broad- 
er view. It agreed that the suit brought by 
the prison matrons did not meet the Equal 
Pay Act criteria. But it held that this did 
not preclude an opportunity to prove to 
the satisfaction of a court that pay differ- 
entials were in fact the result of sex dis- 
crimination. 

The so-called Bennett Amendment, in- 
troduced by a former senator from Utah, 
specified that pay differences between men 
and women would not be unlawful under 
Title yil if “authorized” by the Equal Pay 
Act. 

The AFL-CIO brief rejects the conten- 
tion that the Bennett amendment ruled out 
any relief for pay discrimination not fall- 
ing under the Equal Pay Act. The intent 
of Congress, the AFL-CIO argued, was 
“to incorporate into Title VII the equal 
work requirement of the Equal Pay Act 
in cases involving claims for equal pay 
based solely on comparison of job duties.” 

A similar issue arose in another case, in 
which a different appellate court also up- 
held the union position. 

The Electrical, Radio & Machine Work- 
ers (lUE) brought that case on behalf of 
women workers at a Westinghouse lamp 
factory where, the union contends, a lower 
wage structure for women was the out- 
growth of a blatant double standard of 
job evaluation that has never been rectified. 

In that case, a 3rd Circuit appellate 
decision held, the standard of proof of 
illegal discrimination would be the same 
as if the case had involved charges of 
racial rather than sex discrimination. 

AS IN THE case that the Supreme 
Court has accepted for review — ^known as 
the “Gunther case” from the name of one 
of the prison matrons who brought the 
suit — the issue involved is not whether 
women workers were victims of illegal pay 
discrimination. It is whether they should 
have an opportunity to prove in court that 
they were discriminated against even if the 
circumstances didn’t fall within the narrow 
confines of the Equal Pay Act. 

In its brief to the Supreme Court, the 
AFL-CIO said the appellate court conclu- 
sion that the women who brought the suit 
are entitled to their day in court “should 
be affirmed.” 

The unaffiliated unions that joined in 
the brief were the Auto Workers, National 
Treasury Employees and the National Fed- 
eration of Federal Employees. 


PRELIMINARY figures from the Bu- 
reau of Labor Statistics indicate that as of 
Jan. 9 there were approximately 30,000 
fewer employees on the payroll in the 
paper industry than a year and a half ago, 
Glenn said. 


“Our experience tells us that the vast 
majority of those laid-off workers will 
never return to the paper industry,” he 
said. “For this reason, we believe that em- 
ployers have an obligation to negotiate 
with our union not only when they are 
closing a plant, but also when they are 
consolidating departments and are laying 
off workers with little or no expectation of 
their returning to the bargaining unit.” 


COLLEGE DEGREES were awarded by Antioch University to three union 
officials who earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Labor Studies through a coop- 
erative program between the university and the George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies. William E. Berry, Jr., left, confers degrees on William C. Goetz, Carpen- 
ters; Marvin E. Oursler, Operating Engineers, and Arthur J. Jones, Clothing & 
Textile Workers. 


^ THIS AMERICAN FLAG, the length of two football fields 
and the equivalent in height of a 21 -story building, greeted 
the former hostages when their plane touched down at 
Andrews Air Force Base, Md. for the start of an enthusias- 


tic welcome to the nation’s capital. Members of two Iron 
Workers’ locals made up most of this volunteer crew shown 
positioning the flag by the runway. Other building trades 
and American Legion members helped out on the project. 


Three more officials of AFL-CIO unions 
have been awarded degrees of Bachelor 
of Arts in Labor Studies by Antioch Uni- 
versity. The ceremony took place Jan. 28 
at the George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies, Silver Spring, Md., before more 
than 60 participants in the center’s ex- 
ternal degree program. 

The program, offered by Antioch in 
cooperation with the Meany Center, per- 
mits students to study independently at 
home while continuing their regular work. 
Some college credits are allowed for com- 
petencies gained through experience in the 
labor movement. 

SINCE THE college degree program 
began seven years ago, 24 union officials 
have earned B.A. degrees. More than 100 
others are now enrolled in the program, 
which is open to officers and staff members 
of AFL-CIO unions. 

The January graduates were William C. 
Goetz, 33, of Lexington, Ky; an organizer 
for the Carpenters; Arthur C. Jones, 40, 
of Cheektowaga, N.Y., secretary-treasurer 
of the local joint board of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers, and Marvin E. Oursler, 
29, of Camp Springs, Md., business repre- 
sentative of Operating Engineers Local 77. 

The three graduates had been working 
in the program from two to five years, 
during which they spent a week every six 
months on campus at the studies center, 
meeting with counsellors and attending 
classes. These classes introduced them to 


courses of study they pursued during the 
next six months. All three brought to the 
program some previously-earned college 
credits. 

William E. Berry, Jr., director of Anti- 
och University in Maryland, presented the 
diplomas, Kenneth Young, executive assis- 
tant to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
spoke at the commencement, and Russell 
Allen, the center’s deputy director, pre- 
sided. 

Pay Issue Tops 
Paperworkers’ 
Contract Agenda 

Atlanta — Substantial wage increases to 
meet the higher cost of living and adequate 
pension benefits will be the two most im- 
portant issues in bargaining with the paper 
industry this year, Paperworkers President 
Wayne E. Glenn said here. 

In an address at an employee relations 
conference sponsored jointly by the Fibre 
Box Association and the American Paper 
Institute, Glenn said that the single, over- 
riding issue is the need for wage increases 
“sufficient to prevent erosion of our mem- 
bers’ standard of living.” 

THE DECLINE of purchasing power 
over the past two years has left UPIU 
members poorest in their ability to provide 
for the necessities of living — shelter, fuel, 
food, and medical care, Glenn said. 

“Single-digit percentage wage increases 
cannot adequately meet the needs of our 
members in the face of double-digit infla- 
tion,” he added. 

Also on the bargaining agenda, Glenn 
said, will be a cost-of-living clause, im- 
proved occupational safety and health, and 
advance notice of an employer’s intention 
to close a plant or lay off a substantial por- 
tion of the workforce. 


Studies Center Degree Plan 
Graduates 3 More Unionists 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 


An International Dntj 

W E IN THE LABOR movement have long been aware of the 
extent to which all human affairs are interlinked and all 
human beings are interdependent. We did not need to be told that 
on this crowded planet there are no longer any purely internal af- 
fairs. 

The present energy crisis should make it clear to even the most 
obtuse national policymaker that economics is, in fact, part and 
parcel of foreign policy and that there will be no solution for any 
country, however rich or fortunate, unless all of our countries have 
a share in it. 

At the same time, it should be clear that decisions made in the 
financial capitals of the world have at least as great a worldwide 
impact as those made in political capitals, and that those decisions 
need to be guided by concern for human beings, rather than 
merely for corporate advantage. 

DAILY LIFE all around the globe has been transformed. Pro- 
duction and trade patterns have been disrupted and reshaped by 
the rise of multinational corporations and state-operated trans- 
national enterprises. Producer-consumer relationships and em- 
ployer-employee relationships have befen changed in ways that no 
country and no national labor movement can cope with alone. 

All of the economic problems that were once confined within 
the borders of individual countries have become international 
problems. Recession, inflation, unemployment, food shortages, en- 
ergy shortages, trade barriers and dislocations have become inter- 
national problems that the international trade union movement can 
and must help to solve. 

In such a world there is no more effective force for stability 
and progress than the free trade union movement. We can per- 
form no greater service than to strengthen that movement in every 
way we can. We must work togetjier, share our knowledge and 
resources and bring our combined weight to bear on the problems 
that beset us all. We must, above all, persuade our governments to 
work together to seek workable, joint solutions to our mutual 
problems. 

THE LABOR MOVEMENT has a duty to involve itself much 
more deeply in national and international decision-making and to 
concern itself with corporate behavior, as well. 

Until enforceable international standards are developed, our 
unions must do all we can to see that companies based in our 
own countries behave decently and observe the laws of other 
countries in which they do business. 

We have a duty not only to insist that our employers and our 
governments protect and advance human rights, but to throw our 
own energies and resources into the battle wherever we can be 
of help. It is our job to assist in the creation and development of 
free' trade unions among the workers of all countries in which 
help is needed. 

Trade unionism and the hopeful, self-respecting spirit it fosters 
are essential if the peoples of developing countries are to succeed 
in creating a just, stable and democratic society. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at DOMEI convention, 
Tokyo, Jan. 29, 1981. 


i 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John j. Sweeney 


3 Director of Information: Saul Miller E 

5 Managing Editor: John M. Barry S 

S Assistant Editors: S 

1 Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec | 

1 David L. Perlman James M. She vis 1 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 .Sixteenth St., N.W, E 

5 Washington, D.C. 20006 1 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

I Vol. XXVI Saturday, February 7, 1981 No. 6 | 

1 The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 0001-1185) is issued weekly at 815 
= Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second 
= class postage paid at Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not 
= accept paid advertising in any of its official publications. No 
= one is authorized to solicit advertising for any publications in 
S the name of the AFL-CIO. _ 

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Parting Shot 


Carter’s Economic Advisers 
Leave Trickle-Down' Advice 


By Gus Tyler 

O N JAN. 17, a mere three days before a new 
President was to be inaugurated, the Council 
of Economic Advisers, appointed by the outgoing 
President, made its report to Congress. That re- 
port was unnecessary — in more than one way. 

The council is appointed by a sitting President 
to make regular reports to Congress on the eco- 
nomic state of the nation on the assumption that 
the chief executive will listen, pay heed, make 
recommendations to the legislature on economic 
policy, especially on how to maintain full employ- 
ment. For the advisers of an ex-President to give 
advice to a new President, especially one of an 
opposing party, seems useless. 

FOR THIS SORT of foolishness, no one is to 
blame except the law. The council is mandated to 
make its report. Perhaps, it would be best to re- 
write the legislation so that the council is under 
no obligation to go through this ridiculous ritual. 

Having no alternative but to make a report, 
this council might have distinguished itself by 
making a statement that would have been as his- 
trionic in its impact as it would be historic in its 
worth. The council might have said that it was 
appointed four years ago to cope with stagflation, 
that it had plans to do so, that it abandoned those 
plans early, that it proceeded to do almost exactly 
what its predecessors had done, that it failed — as 
Nixon and Ford had failed — to solve the problem, 
that matters went from bad to worse. 

It could then have done the unexpected by say- 
ing: “We made a big mistake; go thou and do 
otherwise.” 

But that is not what the council said. It did 
just the opposite. It called upon the new President 
and Congress to continue in the ways of the 
1970s — to do as Nixon, Ford, and this present 
council have been doing. 

THE ADVICE IS summed up in one paragraph 
that, after it is translated from fashionable econo- 
mese into straight English, tells the whole story. 

“Tax measures focused on increasing supply 
can make a significant contribution,” it says. But 
plainly, that means tax measures that will give in- 
vestors more money to invest in what are sup- 
posed to be “supply” producing undertakings. 

“In the process of learning some needed lessons 


in supply-side economics, however, the nation 
cannot afford to forget its hard-learned lessons 
about the need for demand-side restraint.” Put 
plainly, that means policies not simply to hold 
down government spending, but also to hold down 
overall demand by curbing consumer dollars. 

WHEN WE PUT these two thoughts together 
about expanding the supply side and curbing the 
demand side we end up with a simplistic solution: 
give more of the nation’s income to investors and 
give less of the nation’s income to consumers. 

That kind of advice seems unnecessary to give 
to the incoming Administration. To redistribute 
the nation’s wealth from those who have a little 
to those who have much has been almost standard 
Republican policy for about a century. Reagan 
really doesn’t need a “Democratic” Council of 
Economic Advisers to teach him the “drip-down” 
theory of economics. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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The Inspiration of 
Polish Workers 

It is hypocritical, two-faced political expedi- ' 
ency to praise the workers of Poland for seek- 
ing the right aU workers should have and, in the 
next breath, condemn American workers for 
also seeking the same rights. 

If it is right for Polish workers-r-and it most 
definitely is right — ^then it is also right for 
American workers. 

We draw inspiration from the Polish work- 
ers. We offer them all the support we can mus- 
ter through contributions to the AFL-CIO’s 
Polish Workers Fund. 

They have raised our consciousness as trade 
unionists and our hopes for the future. We 
thank them for doing more than their share to 
make ours a better movement and this a better 
world. TheyVe raised the consciousness of the 
world about the never-ending striving of people 
for freedom and dignity. 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue at Greater Washington AFL-CIO dinner, 
Jan. 31, 1981. 

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Pafie Five 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C.,. FEBRUARY 7, 1981 


Test of Philosophies in Store 

Appeal of Black Conservatives 
Rings Hollow to Workers, Poor 


By Norman Hill 

TN MID-DECEMBER, newspapers devoted 

front-page coverage to a conference of blacks 
in San Francisco. However, what made the con- 
ference noteworthy was not its size — there were 
about 100 participants — nor the range of organi- 
zations which were represented — ^few of the par- 
ticipants could be said to represent significant 
black constituencies. What was special about the 
meeting, what made it news, was the fact that it 
was a gathering of black conservatives. 

Of equal importance was the fact that the con- 
ference was sponsored by a conservative founda- 
tion which Ronald Reagan helped found in the 
early 1970s. In 1980 Ronald Reagan failed to 
attract a significant portion of the black vote. The 
overwhelming majority of black community and 
political leaders endorsed President Carter in his 
unsuccessful bid for re-election. Yet despite little 
black enthusiasm for Ronald Reagan, a number 
of black intellectuals and professionals have be- 
gun to embrace Reagan’s conservative economic 
positions. 

TO SOME EXTENT there is evidence to sug- 
gest that there is a small constituency for con- 
servative political ideas in the black community. 
However, despite the growth of a black upper- 
middle class of professionals and businessmen 
who might be drawn to the conservative siren 
song of tax cuts, the overwhelming majority of 
blacks are workers and the poor. For them the 
appeal of black conservatism will ring hollow, and 
for this reason one can confidently predict that 
blacks will continue to be a solid voting block 
which backs pro-labor candidates who support 
policies dedicated to a more equitable distribution 
of wealth. 

Nonetheless, the two-day conference in San 
Francisco indicates that a debate will have to be- 
gin for the first time within the black community 
on political options. This debate, in my view, will 
be a healthy one insofar as it helps sharpen the 
arguments of black liberals and moderates. 

Who, then, are the black conservatives and 
what do they stand for? The two leading pro- 
nonents of black conservatism are Prof. Thomas 
Sowell, an economist from the Hoover Institution, 
and Prof. Walter Williams of Temple University 
in Philadelphia. Both are strong opponents of or- 
ganized labor, which they claim limits opportuni- 
ties for blacks. Their view, however, flies in the 
face of the evidence that organized labor, more 
than any other institution in American life, has 
opened its doors to increased black participation. 
Indeed, today, over 30 percent of black workers 

'Heavily Weighted' Treatment 


are union members. Rather than adopting a pol- 
icy of exclusion, the labor movement has sought 
better working conditions for all its workers, ir- 
respective of race. And, most importantly, unions 
effectively represent their members, who on the 
average receive $2,000 per year more than non- 
union workers and have better health and retire- 
ment benefits. 

A SECOND FAVORITE target of Sowell and 
Williams is the minimum wage. They argue that 
the minimum wage is responsible |or the inordi- 
nately high rate of black teenage unemployment 
and propose that it be eliminated entirely. At the 
least, they feel, a sub-minimum wage should be 
established for teenagers. Their prescription for 
black teenage unemployment would be worse than 
the disease it is meant to cure. For a teenage sub- 
minimum wage would displace unskilled adult 
workers, a large proportion of whom are blacks 
with family obligations. 

Under conditions of full employment, where 
every adult is guaranteed a job, the implementa- 
tion of the youth sub-minimum wage would be 
of less serious consequence. Under conditions 
where unemployment stands at nearly 8 percent 
nation-wide and with figures several percentage 
points higher among blacks, the implementation 
of a youth sub-minimum wage would produce 
disastrous consequences for adult black unskilled 
workers. 

Yet despite the fact that the views of Sowell 
and Williams are not in the interests of most 
blacks, the black conservatives cannot be dis- 
missed as mere oddities. They are reflective of the 
sense of frustration with the state of the economy 
most blacks have felt in the last decade. In this 
way they mirror the dissatisfaction which moved 
many Americans to vote for Ronald Reagan. 

IF THE CONSERVATIVE policies which 
Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell espouse are 
implemented by the new Administration, blacks 
and all working Americans will be able to judge 
the merits of the conservative approach. If history 
is to serve as any guide, these policies will be 
found wanting and will be repudiated in future 
elections. 

And within the black community, those who 
have consistently favored progressive social pro- 
grams and who have actively participated in the 
labor movement should welcome the opportunity 
to challenge the views of the black conservatives. 
Complacency can hardly be characterized as indi- 
cative of leadership. And the coming Reagan 
years give little reason for us to be complacent. 


Television Medium Falls Short 
In Portraying Workers, Unions 


T he television medium, the main 

source of news and information for most 
Americans, is not meeting its responsibility in its 
portrayal of workers and the world of work. Presi- 
dent William W. Winpisinger of the Machinists 
declared in a network radio interview. 

Reporting on the results of a 14-month project 
in which 1,500 Machinists monitored prime time 
programming on the three major TV networks, 
Winpisinger said that “unions are virtually invis- 
ible” in dramatic and entertainment programs. 
Even when plot situations have union aspects, he 
said, “the role of the union in improving life on 
the job — ^working conditions, wages and hours — is 
almost never illustrated.” 

He said the “inability or unwillingness of tele- 
vision to deal with work in America on a real-life 
basis” is having a “very adverse effect on employ- 
ment or career selection among young people,” 
who are “turned off to industrial employment.” 

Questioned by reporters on the AFL-CIO pub- 
lic affairs program. Labor News Conference, Win- 
pisinger stressed that “pitifully little effort is de- 
voted to helping viewers understand what union 
members do — the hard, tough, dirty jobs they do 


every day of their lives to provide the comforts 
that society enjoys.” He said network executives 
have been largely unresponsive to the union’s 
efforts to get a “fair shake” for workers and union 
activity. 

WINPISINGER SAID that television news, 
according to the monitors, is as unbalanced as en- 
tertainment programs. He said the monitors found 
the treatment of news stories “heavily weighted on 
the corporate side of the equation,” with the best 
performance five to one and the worst seven to 
one, “heavy on the corporate side.” 

The Machinists’ union is using the survey data 
to follow up with personal visits to local television 
outlets to encourage closer compliance with the 
fairness, equal time and other provisions of broad- 
casting legislation, Winpisinger noted. If that ap- 
proach is rejected, he said, the union is prepared 
to make specific appearances in license renewal 
proceedings. 

Reporters questioning Winpisinger were Philip 
Shabecoff of the New York Times and Frank 
Swoboda of the Washington Post. Labor News 
Conference is aired weekly by Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

A MERICA’S WORKFORCE today is increasingly female. Most 
women have or seek full-time, not part-time jobs. The ma- 
jority work out of economic necessity, and are concentrated in 
lower-paying jobs. 

A top goal of the labor movement during the 1980s is to reach 
these women, to address their concerns and, most of all, to con- 
vince them the labor movement has something important to offer. 

Some ideas emerged at a recent conference on organizing wom- 
en. A highlight of the meeting was a panel presentation by union 
organizers who discussed strategies and techniques used in recent 
campaigns involving mainly female workforces. 

PAT SCARCELLI of Food & Commercial Workers Local 1357 
described an effort to organize more than 1 00 women employed at 
the Burlington coat factory in Delaware County outside Phila- 
delphia. The workforce was dominated by women working part- 
time and by high school students, she noted. It was the men in the 
plant, janitors, who first contacted the union. 

Scarcelli described her approach to the women: “Instead of talk- 
ing about unions, I talked about theni as people.” She asked, 
“How can you be a role model for your children if you’re only 
earning $3.10 an hour?” 

THE WORD GOT around that there was this woman “talking 
about self-worth,” and more and more women were drawn to the 
union cause. Scarcelli said, “I made them believe in themselves.” 

Ernestine Weaver of the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers 
discussed an organizing campaign at a Sunbeam plant in the right- 
to-work state of Arkansas. The workforce numbered about 450 
employees and was 90 percent female. 

Organizers focused on the families and not just the employees. 
They tried to educate the community about unions, and they con- 
sidered the attitudes and responsibilities of the women workers. 

Weaver dropped into church services of various denominations 
every Sunday. Respecting the mores of the community, she served 
only non-alcoholic beverages at union meetings. Also, meetings 
were limited to one hour and were scheduled at times to accom- 
modate family obligations such as caring for children and prepar- 
ing the evening meal. 

THE ORGANIZERS worked to educate the community about 
the goals and accomplishments of labor unions, including labor’s 
role in such efforts as winning and improving a federal minimum 
wage law that benefits all workers. Weaver said. 

Karen O’Rourke, national representative of the Federation of 
Nurses & Health Professionals, an affiliate of the Teachers, pointed 
out that in the health care industry, 80 percent of the workers are 
unorganized and 90 percent are women. 

Among the difficulties facing organizers is the need to hold 
many union meetings due to shift work and the isolation of work- 
ers who are assigned to separate patient units and may work many 
years in the same facility without knowing another co-worker, 
O’Rourke said. 

One method used to introduce people to the labor movement 
was for the union to demonstrate its concern for workplace issues. 
O’Rourke said the union sponsored a seminar on burn trauma. 
Organizers also worked at building a community coalition of allies 
among senior citizens, state senators and women’s groups, she said. 

THE UNION WAS up against a number of management con- 
sulting firms including the notorious Modern Management Meth- 
ods, O’Rourke noted. Employers spent more than $1 million at six 
facilities during a period of 1 8 months to defeat the union. Salaries 
rose by 18 to 24 percent, she said. Of the victories, one of the five 
hospitals is negotiating and the others are refusing to bargain, 
O’Rourke added. 



THE FAILURE of American television to accurately portray 
the role of workers and their unions in news and entertainment 
programs was documented in a 14-month survey project of 
prime-time programming. Machinists President William W. 
Winpisinger, center, said on Labor News Conference. The AFL- 
CIO vice president was questioned by Philip Shabecoff, left, 
of the New York Times and Frank Swoboda of the Washington 
Post. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs interview is aired 
weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 



VITAL PROGRAMS such as social security, unemployment the federation’s headquarters in Washington. The committee 
compensation, welfare and food stamps were discussed by is headed by AFL-CIO Vice President Sol C. Chaikin, 
the AFL-CIO Social Security Committee at its meeting at president of the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 


Flood of Illegal Aliens Tied 
To Profits for Employers 


Employers will continue to hire and 
exploit illegal aliens as long as they profit 
from doing so and aren’t penalized when 
they are caught, the General Accounting 
Office warned in a report to Congress. 

The GAO reported that the flow of 
“undocumented workers” into the United 
States is increasing and “in a time of high 
unemployment, more American citizens 
are being displaced from the workforce.” 

EFFORTS TO DEAL with the prob- 
lem have had only “limited success,” the 
report noted. It said the Labor Dept. 

Rail Unions Hit 
Benefits Denial 
On Rock Island 

Railway union leaders reacted sharply 
to the refusal of Supreme Court Justice 
John P. Stevens to lift an injunction 
against an employee benefits program for 
laid-off workers of the bankrupt Rock 
Island Railroad. 

Chairman Fred J. Kroll of the Railway 
Labor Executives Association said the 
workers are being denied “the kind of 
economic protection which has been tradi- 
tional in our industry when railroads ter- 
minate their operations.” 

THE LINE went out of existence early 
in 1980 as a result of long-time misman- 
agement and laid off some 8,000 operating 
and non-operating employees. In Anril, 
Congress passed legislation to provide 
benefits similar to those made available 
to laid-off employees of the bankrupt Mil- 
waukee Road up to a total of $75 million. 

The Rock Island’s trustee held that the 
congressional enactment was unconstitu- 
tional and obtained an injunction barring 
its implementation. The workers’ union 
representatives appealed and the case went 
to Justice Stevens last fall. 

Stevens refused to overturn the federal 
district court’s decision to issue the in- 
junction, saying that if the funds were 
given to the former workers there would 
be no way to recover them if the law were 
later declared unconstitutional. 

Congress late last year rewrote the 
statute in line with Stevens’s positions to 
permit distribution of the funds. At the 
same time, the trustee of the Rock Island 
was given authority to use the federal 
government for recovery of the $75 mil- 
lion if it later proved necessary. 

AGAIN, HOWEVER, the Rock Island 
trustee refused to distribute the congres- 
sionally approved funds, and the unions 
appealed again. The Court of Appeals, in 
a tied decision, did not overrule, and the 
case went to Justice Stevens who, without 
explanation, again refused to rule on it. 

The unions are seeking reconsideration 
of the case from other members of the 
Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Kroll noted, 
after nearly 10 months the bankruptcy 
trustee and his lawyer are each receiving 
nearly $200,000 a year while the former 
Rock Island employees have not received 
a cent of the severance money. 


“lacks the necessary enforcement tools to 
deter, employers from hiring nonagricul- 
tural undocumented workers, and employ- 
ers making a practice of hiring such work- 
ers remain virtually free from punish- 
ment.” 

The Labor Dept, could do a more 
effective job of wage-hour enforcement 
targeted to areas where there is extensive 
hiring of illegal aliens, the GAO sug- 
gested. But it conceded that even the most 
vigorous enforcement of existing law 
would not “significantly” reduce the flow 
of undocumented workers into the United 
States. 

THE GAO, ah independent agency that 
is an arm of Congress rather than the 
Executive Branch of government, strongly 
suggested the need for legislation impos- 
ing sanctions against establishments that 
knowlingly hire illegal aliens — along lines 
urged by former President Carter nearly 
three years ago. But it said consideration 
of statutory sanctions should be held up 
pending completion of the study and rec- 
ommendations of the Select Commission 
on Immigration & Refugee Policy. The 
commission is expected to submit its re- 
port by March. 

The GAO recommended a number of 
administrative improvements and proposed 
a change in the Fair Labor Standards Act 
to close a loophole that allows employers 
to pocket much of the money they have 
saved by shortchanging undocumented 
workers. 

WHEN A WAGE-HOUR investigation 
uncovers violations of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act, employers are required to 
pay the workers the amounts owed them. 
But if a former worker can’t be located — 
which is often the case with undocu- 
mented — the employer gets to keep the 
money. 

The GAO proposed that back wages 
due any employees who cannot be located 
— ^whether or not they are in the United 
States legally — be deposited in the U.S. 
Treasury. 

“Such legislative action would create 
some deterrent to employers who may pay 
undocumented workers less than the Fair 
Labor Standards Act requires because of 
their transitory status in the hope of re- 
taining any back wages the Labor Dept, 
determines are due,” the GAO said. 

BUT IT stressed that improved enforce- 
ment of the wage-hour law will not of 
itself make a visible dent in the illegal 
immigration problem. 

“Many undocumented workers earn at 
or above prevailing minimum wage rates,” 
the GAO noted, “and those who receive 
less tend to refrain from complaining.” 

Steelworkers Win 
Mississippi Election 

New Albany, Miss. — A majority of the 
145 employees of Mesker Steel Co. here 
voted to be represented by the Steelwork- 
ers in a National Labor Relations Board 
election. 

The USWA election victory capped a 
four-month organizing campaign coordi- 
nated by the AFL-CIO Industrial Union 
Dept, with the support of local labor 
organizations. 


Donovan Takes 
Office as New 
Labor Secretary 

(Continued from Page 1) 

The FBI conducted what the chairman 
of the Labor & Human Resources Com- 
mittee, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), 
termed “the most thorough and exhaustive 
background investigation ever conducted 
on a Cabinet nominee.” He quoted the 
supervisor of the investigations as reporting 
that it developed “no information which 
would reflect unfavorably upon Mr. Dono- 
van in any manner.” 

Donovan’s nomination was supported 
by all Senate Republicans and a majority 
of Democrats. The 17 opposing votes in- 
cluded the five Democrats on the Labor 
Committee, who voted “present” on the 
committee’s favorable recommendation. 

Donovan, 50, earned a degree at a Cath- 
olic seminary, and since 1959 has been 
one of the two top officials of the Schia- 
vonne Construction Co. in New Jersey. 

His duties with the firm have included 
negotiating with building trades unions 
representing the company’s employees. 

At Senate hearings, Donovan said he 
hoped to “build bridges” between manage- 
ment and labor. 

He supported Reagan’s bid for the 1976 
Republican presidential nomination, raised 
funds for his campaign, and directed Rea- 
gan’s successful campaign in New Jersey 
in both the primary and general elections 
last year. 


Index Points 
To Slowdown 
Of Economy 

A drop in a key government barometer 
of future economic activity indicated an- 
other slowdown may lie ahead for the 
nation. 

After six consecutive months of in- 
crease, the Commerce Dept.’s index of 
leading economic indicators declined eight- 
tenths of 1 percent in December. While 
a single month’s change in the index is 
inconclusive as far as detecting a trend, 
the drop seemed to bear out the views of 
analysts who have held that the runup of 
interest rates in the past few months is 
cutting into business expansion. 

Felix Tamm, the department’s econo- 
mist in charge of the index, said the De- 
cember decline “confirms what we’ve been 
worried about. Interest rates have been 
going up, and that’s causing huge in- 
creases in business costs. That should be 
viewed with great concern.” 

SEVEN OF the index’s 10 indicators de- 
clined in December, including orders to 
factories for new goods, contracts for new 
plant and equipment, and issuance of 
building permits, which represents future 
construction. Factory layoffs held steady, 
as did the average workweek of manu- 
facturing workers, at 40.2 hours. 

Other components that contributed to 
the decline were the money supply in 1972 
dollars, stock prices, the change in sensi- 
tive crude materials prices, and the change 
in total liquid assets. 

Meanwhile, the government announced 
that sales of new one-family houses 
dropped 25 percent in 1980, with the 
downward trend continuing through De- 
cember. The median sale price, $64,000 
for the year, was up only 3 percent from 
the 1979 median of $62,900. But by De- 
cember, the average price had risen to 
$67,900. 

The government also released a report 
showing a drop in American business pro- 
ductivity for the third year in a row. For 
1980 as a whole, productivity in private 
business fell three-tenths of 1 percent, 
following declines of two-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in 1978 and four- tenths of 1 percent 
in 1979. 

Productivity, an important measure of 
the economy’s efficiency, measures the out- 
put per hour of the nation’s work force. 


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Workshop Sessions Slated 
For Regional Conferences 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland announced further details for the federa- 
tion’s seven regional conferences beginning in March and said he had found the 
union response to the conferences “encouraging.” 

In a letter to all affiliates, Kirkland said the regional conferences will consist 
of six workshops on the first full day of the schedule, with eight others offered 
on the closing morning. 

THE CONFERENCE will open with a dinner and address by Kirkland and 
close with a “summing up” session by him and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. 
Those are the only two, plenary sessions of the conferences and will be the only 
two open to the press, Kirkland said. 

The full-day schedule calls for one workshop to be presented by Kirkland 
and Donahue, two by COPE and the other three by the AFL-CIO legal, legisla- 
tive and organizing departments. All other AFL-CIO departments will be repre- 
sented on the closing morning, with each session offered twice. All of the sessions 
will be 50 minutes, Kirkland said, with maximum time allowed for discussion. 

In announcing the conferences, Kirkland described them as “a time to re- 
examine labor’s aspirations and challenges, a time to strengthen and nourish the 
local roots of our movement.” Kirkland termed that particularly appropriate for 
the AFL-CIO during its centennial year. 

IN HIS LETTER outlining the conference format, Kirkland thanked the presi- 
dents of affiliated unions and of state and local central bodies for the response in 
registration for the conferences and urged all who had not done so to pre-register 
by mail so the workshops can be organized at the optimum size to facilitate 
discussion. 

“We are determined to conduct the regional conferences with a maximum of 
two-way communication and a minimum of speech-making,” Kirkland said. 

The schedule for the seven conferences is Mar. 5-6-7 in Philadelphia, Mar. 
9-10-11 in Boston, Mar. 19-20-21 in Chicago, Mar. 26-27-28 inlSan Francisco, 
Mar. 30-31-Apr. 1 in Denver, Apr. 2-3-4 in Atlanta and June 4-5-6 in New 
Orleans. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 


Pa(ce Seven 


Family Budget Costs Outstrip Wages 


Where the Family Budget Goes 


(Intermediate Level, Autumn 1979) 

Transportation $1,851-i 


pCIothIng 

$1,235 



Medical 

Care 

$1,176 


Total 
Budget: 
$20,517 

* Includes “Other Consumption” (reading, recreation, education, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) 
$1,021; Personal Care $433; and “Other Items” (gifts, contributions, life insurance, job 
expenses) $877. 

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Urban Family Budgets, Autumn 1979. 


The income needed for a typical family 
of four to maintain a moderate standard 
of living in the United States — $442 a 
week — is far more than the average 
worker takes home, AFL-CIO Economist 
Anne Draper points out in the current 
issue of the American Federationist. 

Draper’s article, “Crisis in the Family 
Budget, 1981,” reviews the Labor Dept.’s 
“urban family budgets” compiled annually 
to show how much income an urban fam- 
ily of four needs to keep up a lower, 
intermediate or higher standard of living. 

THE MOST recent calculations done 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 
Autumn 1979 show national averages of 
$20,517 needed for the intermediate bud- 
get, $12,585 for the lower and $30,217 
for the higher. 

But by late 1980, Draper points out, 
the continued rapid rise in consumer 
prices had driven budget costs even high- 
er. New official figures have not been 
released, but the AFL-CIO estimates that 
the intermediate budget would have risen 
to about $23,000 by September 1980, the 
lower to about $14,000 and the higher to 
about $34,500. 

Yet an average wage-earner family of 
four, dependent on a single paycheck, 
would have an annual income of only 
$12,464 or $239.69 a week at September 
1980 weekly earnings level. Draper notes. 
Thus, even the lower standard of living 
described by the government is beyond 
such a family’s reach. 

THE SQUEEZE has been tightest over 
the three years from Autumn 1977 to 
September 1980, she points out, since the 
increase in the costs of the urban family 
budgets would be more than the increase 
in the entire preceding five years. 

The budgets are compiled by BLS for 
24 metropolitan areas and Anchorage, 
Alaska. Averages for non-metropolitan 
areas are given on a regional basis, and 
the agency compiles a national average 
using all the figures. 

The budget costs are calculated specifi- 
cally for an urban family of four consist- 
ing of a 38-year-old husband employed 
full time, a wife who does not work out- 
side the home, a 13 -year-old son and an 
8-year-old daughter. The budgets cover 
necessary outlays for living expenses and 
holding a job as well as social security 
payments and income taxes. 

AMONG THEIR uses, the budgets are 
reference points in certain types of legis- 
lation dealing with eligibility for various 
benefits and, Draper notes, they are use- 
ful in collective bargaining. The inter- 
mediate budget, the key figure for wage 
earners, represents the costs of maintain- 
ing an urban family of four at a “modest” 
American standard of living. 

The budgets are based on a list of goods 
and services, and their quantities, that a 
family buys to meet its needs. Although 
the “budget family” was chosen as being 


fairly representative, there are obviously 
many other types of families. Draper ob- 
serves, and, while the intermediate budget 
is called “moderate,” it is neither bare- 
bones subsistence nor luxury. It is not 
intended to describe the buying habits of 
any particular income class. 

Instead, Draper explains, it is a com- 
posite of items, such as food, clothing, 
personal care and shelter, selected on the 
basis of scientific standards defining neces- 
sities for family functioning such as food 
purchases; on surveys showing trends in 
basic living arrangements such as home- 
ownership or rental and automobile own- 
ership; and on survey findings that de- 
scribe quantities of items families consider 
essential for minimum satisfaction of their 
wants and needs, such as home furnishings 
and clothing. 

AT THE intermediate level. Draper’s 
article explains, about 75 percent of the 
“budget families” are considered to be 
homeowners, and virtually all own an 
automobile typically described as being 
two years old when purchased and kept 
for four years. 

The family eats on a “moderate-cost 
family food plan” established by the Agri- 
culture Dept, which allows for somewhat 
varied and nutritionally adequate meals, 
including some higher-priced cuts of meat, 
some convenience foods and some meals 
away from home. 

The “budget family,” Draper observes, 
is also described in terms of appliances it 
typically owns or buys, clothing purchases, 
medical expenses, personal entertainment 
costs and other typical budget items. 

THE LOWER and higher budgets are 
put together from lists that are variants 
of the intermediate budget, although the 
contents of the three lists are similar. 
Generally, the BLS calculates the lower 
budget based on the assumption that the 
“budget family” buys cheaper alternatives 
or items at lower prices, thus getting 
poorer quality. The higher budget family 
is assumed to make more expensive selec- 
tions where alternatives are available, or 
to pay above-average prices for items of 
better quality. 

For the intermediate budget in the fall 
of 1979, the “net” budget after income 
and social security taxes was $16,230. 
Food costs took up 31 percent of this and 
housing costs accounted for another 28 
percent, for a total of some 59 percent of 
spendable income. 

Transportation and clothing were the 
next largest components, taking up some 
19 percent of spendable income. The re- 
maining 22 percent was divided among 
personal care (2.7 percent), medical care 
(7.2 percent) and a number of other costs. 

AT THE LOWER budget level, food 
was even more important, even though 
costs for this budget are figured on a 
scaled-down cheaper diet. Out of the total 
after-tax budget of $10,773, food costs 


were $3,911 or 36 percent. Housing costs 
were much lower than the intermediate 
budget, accounting for about 22 percent. 

In the remainder of the lower budget, 
the most important component was medi- 
cal care. Draper points out that although 
the dollar amount spent was similar to 
that for the intermediate budget, it re- 
quired a larger percentage (11 percent) of 
spendable income. 

Higher-budget families spend some 31 
percent of their after-tax income on hous- 
ing, the article notes, and while their bud- 
gets assign some $6,360 to food costs, this 
is only 28 percent of the family outlay. 

IN HIGHER-BUDGET families, larger 
percentages of income are available to 
spend on items such as recreation and 
personal care, and even though medical 
costs are more expensive than the other 
two budgets, they account for only 5.4 
percent of the higher budget. 

Tax payments, including income and 
social security, are an important portion 
of the budgets compiled by the BLS, 
Draper notes. They are calculated sepa- 
rately to show what a family’s total in- 
come must be to have enough left over 


to cover necessary living expenses. Sales 
and property taxes are not calculated 
separately, Draper observes, but are in- 
cluded in the prices of items bought and 
in home ownership costs. 

The article also points out that since 
1967, when all three family budgets were 
first priced, costs have more than doubled 
— up 126 percent for the intermediate, 
113 percent for the lower and 132 percent 
for the higher budget. Nearly one-third 
of this increase took place between Au- 
tumn 1977 and Autumn 1979. In the 
period from 1978 to 1979 alone, the in- 
termediate budget rose by 10.2 percent, 
the lower by 9 percent and the higher by 
10.6 percent. 

TRANSPORTATION costs showed the 
largest percentage increase in all three 
budgets, up about 13 percent, primarily 
in response to a 51 -percent increase in 
the cost of gasoline. 

Food, housing and medical care costs 
were in the 9 to 10 percent increase range, 
and social security and income taxes were 
up 12.5 percent in the intermediate bud- 
get, 9.6 percent in the lower and 13.8 
percent in the higher budgets. 


Loan Options Allowed for Pension Investments 


A Labor Dept, decision clearing the 
way for multiemployer pension plans to 
make loans to participants and benefi- 
ciaries at reduced interest rates was wel- 
comed as “a giant step forward” to spur 
home construction and create jobs for 
union building trades craftsmen. 

Describing the action as a “green light 
to do really good things with pension 
money,” President Robert A. Georgine of 
the AFL-CIO Building & Construction 
Trades Dept, said at a press conference 
that “we believe this approach provides 
the flexibility necessary to implement a 
reasonable and realistic loan program.” 

THE LABOR DEPT.’s ruling is in re- 
sponse to a July 1980 request by the Na- 
tional Coordinating Committee for Multi- 
employer Plans which Georgine also 
heads. 

In seeking approval of the program, the 
Coordinating Committee maintained that 
residential mortgage loans can be made 
at below the going interest rate without 
violating the provisions of the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). 

The Labor Dept, concurred, but with 
the understanding that both the program 


and the loans meet the “prudent” invest- 
ment standard of the 1974 law and that 
a “reasonable rate of interest” be charged 
for the mortgage loans. 

Ian D. Lanoff, administrator of pension 
programs, said in a letter to Georgine 
that the Labor Dept, doesn’t view the 
prevailing loan interest rate as a rigid 
number, but rather as a composite of the 
rates charged by various lenders. 

THESE LOWER rates may be consid- 
ered a “reasonable rate of interest” under 
certain circumstances, Lanoff agreed. The 
circumstances are that the loan involve 
no greater risk than some other invest- 
ments and that they be prudent for the 
overall good of the plan so as not to pro- 
vide a lesser return than some other in- 
vestments. 

Georgine pointed out that the thrust of 
a recent series of BCTD seminars was the 
development of programs to provide maxi- 
mum benefits for participants and bene- 
ficiaries. 

“Year after year, the professional in- 
vestment managers who control the assets 
in our plans have pursued traditional 
investment policies that provide miserable 


returns,” Georgine observed. 

AT THE SAME TIME, he said, they 
“undercut not only the social objectives 
of participants and beneficiaries, but their 
well-being as well.” 

Trustees of the collectively bargained 
pension plans have an obligation to make 
sound investments that promote the un- 
ionized sector of the economy and their 
particular unionized industry while pro- 
viding the best return to participants and 
beneficiaries, Georgine said. 

This approach, he stressed, “can also 
provide additional jobs, which in turn 
generate additional contributions to the 
plan and provide participants with addi- 
tional opportunities to accumulate service 
credits for vesting and benefit accrual 
purposes.” 

GEORGINE estimated that BCTD af- 
filiates are participants in plans holding 
$50 billion of the $80-$90 billion total 
assets in multiemployer pension plants. 

The percentage of pension funds that 
will be invested in mortgages will depend 
on the portfolios of individual pension 
plans, he said. 

“It is not our place to set a rate for 


the plans. The amounts are judgments of 
the trustees to make.” 

Georgine reported that the National 
Association of Home Builders and mort- 
gage bankers have already expressed sup- 
port of the low-interest loan program. And 
he said he doubts employers will have any 
objection to the ruling since the program 
will obviously increase business in their 
area. 

IN A RELATED development, the La- 
bor Dept, has granted a class exemption 
under ERISA permitting employee bene- 
fit plans to invest in real estate mortgage 
pools. 

A mortgage pool is an investment fund 
composed of first mortgages or deeds of 
trust on single-family residential property 
which are held by a trustee independent 
of the pool sponsor. The sponsor of the 
pool sells certificates representing shares 
in the fund. 

The Labor Dept, said that the exemp- 
tion, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 1975, 
will provide greater freedom and flexi- 
bility for pension plans to buy, sell and 
exchange mortgage pool investment fund 
certificates. 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 7, 1981 


Cutoff Triggered 


215,000 Jobless Lopped 
From Extended Benefits 


A gradual drop in the insured unem- 
ployment rate has triggered-off the na- 
tional extended unemployment benefits 
program which provides up to 13 weeks 
of additional payments to persons still job- 
less after having used up the maximum 
26 weeks of state benefits. 

The immediate effect is a cutoff of pay- 
ments to some 215,000 persons in 25 

Debt Limit Vote 
Agonizing Test 
For Republicans 

(Continued from Page 1) 

On the showdown, the Republicans 
came to heel and voted 150-36 for the 
debt limit increase. They were joined by a 
154-68 majority of Democrats. 

IN THE SENATE, which was to take 
up the bill later, Democratic Leader Rob- 
ert C. Byrd (W.Va.) also warned bluntly 
that Reagan can count on Democratic 
votes only if he can muster support from 
a majority of his own party. 

Sen. Alan Cranston (Calif.) said Demo- 
crats were fed up with “totally demagogic, 
irresponsible” attacks on their past votes 
for raising the debt limit. And Sen. Ernest 
Rollings (D-S.C.) recalled that the two 
North Carolina Republican senators, Jesse 
Helms and John P. East, ran campaign 
ads using a debt ceiling vote to help de- 
feat Democrat Robert Morgan. 

On the forthcoming debt ceiling bill. 
Rollings said, “Fll withhold my vote until 
Jesse Helms votes for it.” 

Senate Republican Leader Howard 
Baker (Tenn.) said he thought most Re- 
publicans would come around and support 
the bill. But he asked understanding. It’s 
“a wrenching experience” for many of 
them, he explained. 

Davis Named to Panel 
On Alcohol Abuse 

Walter G. Davis, AFL-CIO Community 
Services director, has been named to the 
national advisory council of the National 
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol- 
ism of the U.S. Health & Human Services 
Dept. The appointment, made by former 
HHS Sec. Patricia Harris, was announced 
Feb. 2. 

The 12-member council, established un- 
der the Public Health Service Act, reviews 
programs of the alcohol abuse institute. 


states and the District of Columbia who 
have been receiving extended benefits. 

BUT A LARGER group of 475,000 
jobless persons will continue to receive 
extended benefits because the insured un- 
employment rate (lUR) in their states is 
high enough to qualify under the separate 
state trigger. 

The national program ended because 
the lUR dropped below the 4.5 percent 
trigger point. The lUR is the percentage 
of unemployment among persons covered 
by unemployment insurance. It is always 
lower than the overall unemployment rate 
because it does not count persons who 
are seeking jobs for the first time, re- 
entering the labor force after an absence, 
or who had been employed in jobs not 
covered by unemployment insurance. 

The lUR has been dipping gradually 
since the end of September, when it was 
4.96 percent. The trigger-off resulted from 
a 4.49 percent lUR for the week that 
ended Jan. 3 and the cutoff of benefits 
became effective Jan. 24. 

IF THE lUR again moves up to 4.5 
percent or higher, the program will 
trigger-on again nationally and will remain 
in effect for at least a 13-week period. 
Persons who have been cut off from bene- 
fits and are still unemployed would have 
their eligibility restored. However, the 
insured unemployment rate for the week 
that ended Jan. 10 showed a continued 
drop to 4.45 percent. 

State programs are touched off by a 
different trigger — either an lUR of 5 per- 
cent or, alternatively, an lUR of 4 per- 
cent that is also at least 20 percent higher 
than the state’s average for the previous 
two years. 

Under the state trigger, extended bene- 
fit programs remain in effect in Puerto 
Rico and these 25 states: 

ALABAMA, ALASKA, Arkansas, Cali- 
fornia, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, 
Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, 
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, 
Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. 

Congress last year imposed more strin- 
gent standards for extended benefits than 
are required for regular state benefits, in- 
cluding the obligation to take jobs at 
lower pay outside a worker’s normal field. 
Other changes imposed a one-week wait- 
ing period for the few states that do not 
require this for regular state benefits and 
denied extended benefits, even after a state- 
imposed waiting period, to persons fired 
from their job for misconduct. 



LABOR PROBLEMS IN ASIA and other parts of the world were discussed at a 
planning conference of the AFL-CIO’s Asian American Free Labor Institute at 
the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. The meeting was chaired by AAFLI 
Director Morris Paladino, center, who was joined on the panel by Charles D. 
Gray, AAFLI deputy director; AFL-CIO International Affairs Director Ernest 
Lee; Dale Good, assistant to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland; and Robert 
Wholey, AAFLI deputy for administration and field administration. 

Rights Commitment Stressed 
In Salute to UN Ambassador 


By James M. Shevis 

The AFL-CIO remains firmly committed 
to human rights as an integral and govern- 
ing principle of United States foreign 
policy, and “strongly asserts that the future 
of human rights depends on democratic 
institutions,” Federation President Lane 
Kirkland declared at a luncheon honoring 
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the new U.S. Am- 
bassador to the United Nations. 

Kirkland joined some 150 other leaders 
from the labor, business, professional, and 
academic communities in paying tribute 
to the Georgetown University government 
professor. Sponsored by the Coalition for 
a Democratic Majority, which she helped 
to found, the luncheon honored Kirk- 
patrick “for helping us understand how 
much a strong America means to the ad- 
vance of international human rights.” 

KIRKLAND congratulated the new UN 
ambassador on her selection to represent 
the United States before the world body, 
and noted that she has been “a good friend 
of the AFL-CIO as well as of what Sen. 
Moynihan has called the ‘liberty party,’ ” 
that is, that band of liberty-seeking indi- 
viduals that knows no national boundaries. 

“Your appointment shines especially 
bright, and we wish you all the best,” 
Kirkland said. 

In her remarks, which followed testi- 
monials by several other speakers, Kirk- 


Real Pay Down Sharply in Public Sector 


A study of wage movements among 
state and local public workers over a five- 
year j^eriod, 1974-79, shows a steady loss 
in buying power due primarily to double- 
digit inflation. 

Published by the AFL-CIO Public Em- 
ployee Dept., the analysis points out that 
total average annual earnings for state 
employees over the five years increased 


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38.7 percent. But over the same period 
inflation, as measured by the federal gov- 
ernment’s consumer price index, surged 
47.5 percent. 

FOR OTHER public sector workers, the 
loss in purchasing power was even greater. 
County employees, for instance, saw their 
yearly earnings rise an average of only 
35.3 percent. Municipal workers’ earnings 
during the five years rose 34.7 percent. 
For township employees and school dis- 
trict employees, the average five-year rise 
was 35.5 and 35.8 percent, respectively. 
The survey is based on figures supplied by 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

While both private and public sector 
workers are being victimized by today’s 
soaring inflation, public sector state and 
local workers have had to shoulder much 
more than their share of these wage set- 
backs, PED Executive Director John 
Leyden observed. 

Updates of wage movements in nego- 
tiated settlements show that the trend of 
lost buying power among state and local 
workers is increasing rapidly, Leyden said. 

DURING THE first half of 1980, he 
noted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics re- 
ported that state and local government col- 


lective bargaining agreements provided ^ 
average first-year wage increase of 7 per- 
cent. In the same period, Leyden pointed 
out, the annualized rate of inflation 
reached 14.7 percent. 

“The actual rate of decline in real wages 
during the first half of 1980 was a deva- 
stating 6.7 percent,” he said. 

“If the wage pattern continues through- 
out 1980 — 7 percent first-year wage in- 
creases — and with an inflation rate that 
occurred during 1980 of 12.5 percent, this 
projects to a loss in real wages and buying 
power for the state and local public sector 
workers of 4.9 percent.” 

LEYDEN SAID that “the losses sug- 
gest that some tough collective bargaining 
will have to take place in the public sector 
in order to achieve an element of justice 
and equity for these workers.” 

The PED analysis, by economist Rick 
Galleher and Mike Ingrao of the AFL- 
CIO COPE staff, provides a detailed break- 
out of earnings changes by state for both 
state and local employees. The study also 
includes a comparison of wage movements 
in the public sector with those in the pri- 
vate sector. Copies are available of both, 
and may be obtained from Galleher at the 
PED Research Dept, in Washington. 


Patrick noted that she has been “in total 
solidarity” with the AFL-CIO and “I ex- 
pect to work side by side” with the fed- 
eration in the future. “I’ve always in- 
sisted on the centrality of human rights in 
U.S. foreign policy,” said Kirkpatrick. 

GUESTS INCLUDED Senators Heniy 
M. Jackson (D-Wash.), Daniel P. Moyni- 
han (D-N.Y.), and Edward Zorinsky (D- 
Neb.); British Ambassador Nicholas Hen- 
derson; Israeli Ambassador Ephraim 
Evron; retired Adm. Elmo Zumwalt; 
Washington attorney Max Kampelman, the 
co-chairman of the official U.S. delegation 
to the Madrid review conference of the 
Helsinki agreement; CDM chairman and 
political analyst Ben J. Wattenberg, and 
Cuban freedom fighter Huber Matos, re- 
leased over a year ago after a 20-year 
sentence in Castro’s jails. 

Sen. ' Jackson pledged his cooperation 
with the new ambassador, observing that 
her appointment is a happy occasion, since 
it gives “one of our members who is join- 
ing the new Administration” a chance “to 
carry on the battle from the inside.” 

The CDM will have to “watchdog the 
Republican foreign and defense team,” 
Jackson warned. “And we have to redouble 
our efforts to bring the Democratic Party 
into the 1980s, prepared again to govern 
the country.” 

MATOS, WHO now lives in Florida as 
president of the Congress for an Indepen- 
dent and Democratic Cuba, said through 
an interpreter that the CDM and Kirk- 
patrick helped obtain his freedom froip 
prison. Freedom-loving Cubans welcomed 
her nomination to the UN, he said, adding 
that she “unites in herself the qualities of 
a fighter for human rights and a strong will 
against communist expansion.” With her 
in the UN, “we feel represented, too,” he 
said. 

The CDM, which has been out front in 
the struggle for human rights since its for- 
mation in the early 1970s, has called for 
an even-handed, consistent U.S. foreign 
policy. As Jackson put it, “we have held 
that something is wrong with a policy on 
human rights that finds it convenient to 
criticize the petty dictatorships, with which 
the world unhappily abounds, but incon- 
venient to speak out about the Soviet sys- 
tem that inspires repression around the 
world.” 

Welles Appointed Chief 
Of NLRB Law Judges 

Melvin J. Welles, 62, a career attorney 
with the National Labor Relation Board 
since 1946, was named the agency’s chief 
administrative law judge. 

Welles succeeds Arthur Leff, who re- 
tired. An associate chief the last two years 
and an administrative law judge since 
1970, Welles will head a corps of more 
than 100 judges in his new post. 




Cost of Basic Needs Soars 14^ 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, February 14, 1981 


No. 7 





TRADE UNION DELEGATION from El Salvador brought 
AFL-CIO President Kirkland a first-hand report on the tur- 
moil in the Central American country. From left, Richard 
Oulahan, an American Institute for Free Labor Development 
representative in El Salvador; Francisco Zaldana, general 
secretary of the Federation of Construction & General Work- 


ers; Salvador Carrazo, general secretary of the Construction 
Workers’ Union; Juan A. Argueta, secretary of conflicts for 
the construction workers federation; Kirkland, and AIFLD 
Executive Director William C. Doherty, Jr. Zaldana also 
heads the ORIT-ICFTU affiliate in El Salvador, succeeding 
Felipe Zaldivar who was assassinated last November. 


Vigorous Fight Pledged 
To Keep OSHA Strong 


The AFL-CIO considers the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Act an “indis- 
pensable” worker protection and will vig- 
orously oppose any attempt to weaken it, 
Legislative Director Ray Denison said. 

Denison’s strong defense of OSHA came 
in response tp a query from Rep. Mario 
Biaggi (D-N.Y.), who is soliciting union 
views of the effectiveness of OSHA and on 
legislation that would permanently exempt 
establishments with 10 or fewer workers 

Reagan Names 
Florida Builder 
To Head OSHA 

President Reagan has nominated a 
Florida construction contractor, Thorne 
G. Auchter, as assistant secretary of labor 
and head of the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration. 

Reagan also moved to fill two other key 
Labor Dept, posts by naming Albert Angri- 
sani as assistant secretary for employment 
and training and T. Timothy Ryan, Jr. as 
Labor Dept, solicitor. 

Auchter, 35, is executive vice president 
of the Auchter Co., a Jacksonville, Fla., 
construction firm which has contracts with 
Florida building trades unions. His re- 
sponsibilities in the business have included 
both labor relations and safety and health 
issues. He is a director of the Associated 
General Contractors in Jacksonville. 

DURING THE 1980 presidential cam- 
paign, Auchter served as director of spe- 
cial events for the Reagan campaign in 
Florida. In 1972, he was a member of an 
industry commission that made recom- 
mendations on the state’s safety and health 
legislation, and he has served briefly as a 
legislative coordinator for the state senate 
rules committee. He is a graduate of Jack- 
sonville University. 

Angrisani, 31, has been executive vice 
president of the Chase Manhattan Bank 
(Continued on Page 7) 


in supposedly less-hazardous industries 
from OSHA safety inspections in the ab- 
sence of a “reasonable complaint” or seri- 
ous accident. A similar restriction is cur- 
rently in effect through an appropriations 
bill rider. 

AS TO OSHA’S enforcement, Denison 
said it has been vastly improved over the 
past four years because it has been ad- 
ministered “by a Labor Dept, that believed 
in the law and tried to make it work.” 

For the first time, he said, workers and 
their unions have been consulted on the 
administration and enforcement of the 
law. Further, OSHA helped fund-programs 
to train union members “in assessing and 
dealing with job hazards,” and they in turn 
have trained others. 

Long-delayed health and safety stan- 
dards have been issued, Denison noted, 
hazardous areas have been identified, and 
serious injuries have been reduced in tar- 
geted areas. 

Denison stressed the AFL-CIO’s belief 
that the so-called small business exemption 
is mere camouflage for “an all-out attack” 
on the job safety law. 

The original intent of Congress, Denison 
wrote, was to protect all workers from oc- 
cupational hazards, “not merely some 
categories defined by occupation, or the 
number of employees in a workplace, or 
on an arbitrary determination that some 
workplaces are more hazardous than 
others.” 

DENISON NOTED that America’s un- 
ions were united in opposition to the bill in- 
troduced in the last Congress by former 
Sen. Richard S. Schweiker (R-Pa.), now 
Secretary of Health & Human Services in 
the Reagan Cabinet, to exempt establish- 
ments with acceptable safety records, re- 
gardless of size. 

Forty-one percent of workplace deaths 
came in those supposedly safe establish- 
ments, Denison pointed out. 

“OSHA’s existence and strong imple- 
mentation has meant the difference be- 
tween life and death to thousands of 
American working men and women,” he 
stressed. “We want to keep the law intact.” 


House Liberals 
At Helm of Key 
Labor Panels 

Congressmen with strong records of sup- 
port for labor’s goals will continue to head 
key subcommittees of the House Educa^ 
tion & Labor Committee despite elecflon 
shakeups. 

Rep. Phillip Burton (D-Calif.) will be the 
new chairman of the Labor-Management 
Relations subcommittee, replacing Frank 
Thompson, Jr. (D-N.J.), who lost his bid 
for re-election. 

Thompson, a champion of worker 
causes, had a 94 percent “right” voting 
record by COPE standards. Burton’s career 
voting record is an identical 94 percent. 

TO TAKE THE chairmanship, Burton 
had to give up his chairmanship of the In- 
terior Committee’s Subcommittee on Na- 
tional Parks. 

He said he agreed to do so because “the 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Raymond Donovan’s first official act 
as secretary of labor was to follow through 
on President Reagan’s announced freeze 
of pending regulations by pulling back 
worker protections on occupational safety, 
overtime pay and prevailing wages. 

The OSHA proposal, on the labeling 
of toxic substances, was withdrawn, while 
others were either delayed or “postponed 
indefinitely.” Donovan also announced 
that the new standard for on-job noise 
levels, scheduled to take effect Mar. 30, 
will be “closely scrutinized.” 

IN ALL, Donovan acted on 19 regu- 
lations, with the others delayed for either 
60 or 90 days. All of them were items on 
a list of 101 federal regulations the Cham- 
ber of Commerce presented to a Reagan 
transition team, calling them “costly and 
burdensome” and urging that they be 
changed or repealed 

The first proposals on which Donovan 


’80 Increase 
Tops Overall 
Inflation Rate 

Prices of the basic necessities of life — 
energy, food, shelter, and medical care — 
outstripped the cost of other goods and 
items that Americans typically buy in 
1980, and the outlook this year is for 
more of the same. 

These are the conclusions of two studies 
of price movements in various sectors of 
the economy, one by the AFL-CIO’s Dept, 
of Economic Research, the second by ffie 
foundation-funded National Center for 
Economic Alternatives. 

THE AFL-aO ANALYSIS showed 
that prices of the combined group of 
necessities rose 14 percent over the twelve 
months of 1980, while prices of all other 
non-necessity items went up 9.9 percent. 
Inflation for the year, as measured by the 
government’s consumer price index, post- 
ed a 12.5 percent rate. 

A similar study, by the Washington- 
based National Center for Economic Al- 
ternatives, paralleled the federation’s find- 
ings. Both analyses used data furnished 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Energy prices were the fastest-rising of 
any sector in 1980, surging 17.9 percent, 
the AFL-CIO study found. Shelter costs 
were next, rising 1 5.4 percent. Food prices 
were up 10.7 percent, and medical care 
10.3 percent. Other items increased at an 
average of less than 10 percent. 

“SINCE 1973, prices of the necessities 
have persistently risen more than the con- 
sumer price index as a whole, except for 
1976,” the federation study pointed out. 
“Since 1976, however, prices have been 
rising at an accelerating rate, paced by 
food and shelter — and since 1979 by 
startling increases in energy prices. 

“Since 1976, the rise in necessity prices 
has been well ahead of the rest of the 
index.” 

With oil and food prices expected to 
rise sharply this year and interest rates 
showing no signs of abating, prices of 
everyday items are likely to continue to 
rise faster than other prices in 1981. The 
necessities — food, housing, energy, and 
health care — comprise roughly two-thirds 
of the household budget of the average 
American family. 

ECONOMISTS AT the National Center 
warned that President Reagan’s budget- 
cutting strategies are not likely to affect 
price movements in the four key sectors, 
and that other government policies are 
likely to make the 1981 inflation picture 
worse. 

“Recent decontrol of crude oil prices, 
(Continued on Page 8) 


acted were scheduled to go into effect 
Feb. 17 under regulations published by 
the Carter Administration. 

The toxic labeling provision was five 
years in the making and represented what 
the AFL-CIO has termed a compromise 
from the best efforts of labor, business, 
academic and scientific experts. The AFL- 
CIO had proposed a more thorough label- 
ing system. 

THE PROVISIONS for labeling toxic 
substances were designed to cover hazard- 
ous chemicals used in some 328,000 man- 
ufacturing facilities employing more than 
20 million workers. OSHA’s administrator 
at the time, Eula Bingham, pointed out 
that a NIOSH study found that only 10 
percent of trade name products are labeled 
when they come on the job, yet such sub- 
stances account for 70 percent of worker 
exposure to hazardous materials. 

Donovan said the killing of that pro- 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Donovan Follows Through 
On Freeze of Regulations 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 



LABOR’S INVOLVEMENT in efforts to end discrimination CIO Civil Rights Committee. The committee, headed by 
on the job, increase voter participation, improve education Federation Vice President Frederick O’Neal, also reviewed 
opportunities and address economic concerns of minority staff reports from the Dept, of Civil Rights and discussed 
workers were explored at semi-annual meeting of the AFL- programs for the coming year. 

Conservative Budget-Cutting Drive 
Bypasses True Causes of Inf lation 


Federal budget deficits are the result of 
inflation, not the cause of it, and infla- 
tion will not be cured simply by balancing 
the' budget or turning the economy over 
to unregulated “market forces,” AFL-CIO 
Research Director Rudy Oswald declares 
in the current issue of the American Fed- 
erationist. 

Oswald’s article, “Rebuilding the Na- 
tional Economy,” cautions that it is un- 
realistic to make national economic policy 
decisions based on “a well-orchestrated 
right-wing campaign” that preaches indis- 
criminate slashing of federal budgets at 
the expense of the poor and jobless and 
ignores the true causes of inflation — 
spiraling energy prices and interest rates 
and the rising costs of food, medical care 
and housing. 

INFLATION MUST be dealt with in 
terms of the specific problems that cause 
the inflationary push, Oswald stresses, and 
balancing the federal budget is only one 
of numerous factors that must be consid- 
ered if the nation is going to achieve full 
employment and balanced growth. 

A better program, he suggests is the 
rejection of inflationary tight-money, high- 
interest-rate policies and of unjustified 
budget cuts that ignore human needs. In- 
stead, the AFL-CIO has urged detailed, 
targeted programs to control both infla- 
tion and recession, stabilize prices and 
create jobs. 

The article in the federation’s monthly 
magazine points out that high unemploy- 
ment itself jolts the federal budget, with 
each percentage point of unemployment 
costing the federal treasury $25 to $30 
billion in lost tax revenues and related 
social costs such as unemployment com- 
pensation. 

“IF UNEMPLOYMENT were one mil- 
lion less in 1982,” Oswald observes, “the 
proposed federal budget would be in 
balance.” 


The AFL-CIO has asked the Supreme 
Court to uphold the position taken by 
two lower courts and rule that Actors’ 
Equity has valid trade union grounds for 
requiring its members to deal only with 
“franchised” theatrical agents who are 
licensed by the union. 

The licensing system is intended to pro- 
tect Equity members from exploitation and 
prevent undercutting of salary standards. 

IT SETS STANDARD percentage fees 
for agents and includes a provision that 
the commission taken by the agent cannot 
reduce the net salary to the actor below 
the Equity minimum. 

At issue in the case is whether this sys- 
tem violates federal antitrust laws, as a 
group of dissident agents has charged. 

Both U.S. District Judge Constance 
Baker Motley in New York and a panel 


The overall unemployment rate does not 
reflect discouraged or part-time workers, 
he notes, nor does it highlight the even 
bleaker picture for black and minority 
workers. 

While the jobless rate for white work- 
ers was 6.5 percent in October 1980, it 
was 14 percent for blacks and other 
minorities, and among black teenagers, one 
out of three was unable to find work. 

The job opportunities of black youth 
will not be improved by a sub-minimum 
wage for teenagers or increased subsidies 
for business, Oswald says. Such measures 
are likely to cause transfer of some jobs 
from adult workers to teenagers, he notes, 
but will not create more employment. 

RATHER THAN trying to beat infla- 
tion by postponing full employment, it is 
time to adopt the policies and programs 
of the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Em- 
ployment & Balanced Growth Act, the 
article maintains. 

Among its provisions, the law calls for 
federal programs to encourage growth and 
create jobs through the development of 
energy resources, attention to the needs 
of urban areas, a national agricultural pol- 
icy, improved health care and housing, 
establishment of fair trade policies and 
encouragement of exports, and others. 
Thus balancing the federal budget is but 
one of considerations, Oswald explains. 

The law also calls for the development 
of a variety of specific countercyclical em- 
ployment programs to aid the jobless and 
reduce high levels of unemployment, 
Oswald emphasizes. 

“THE FEDERAL budget,” he stresses, 
“should be a tool used to accomplish eco- 
nomic and social goals, not an end unto 
itself.” 

With unemployment “at a crisis level” 
and likely to remain high for several years, 
Oswald says, “it is time to put serious and 


of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 
supported Actors’ Equity in the case. 

The AFL-CIO brief stressed that the 
conduct being challenged is the unilateral 
action by a union of disciplining members 
who use agents not in compliance with 
franchise standards and therefore is not 
conduct coming under the antitrust laws. 

FURTHER, JUST as collective bargain- 
ing agreements between Equity and pro- 
ducers prevent wage undercutting by set- 
ting a minimum pay scale, so a standard 
fee for agents prevents actors from com- 
peting with each other for the services of 
agents by paying bigger commissions. 

The appellate court conclusion that “the 
union cannot eliminate wage competition 
among its members without regulation of 
the fees of agents” is valid and should be 
affirmed, the AFL-CIO urged. 


realistic efforts into achieving the full 
employment goals of the Humphrey- 
Hawkins Act.” 

The article notes that organized labor 
stands ready to cooperate with government 
and business to develop a positive “rein- 
dustrialization” program to remedy major 
economic problems, including targeted in- 
vestment that would bring together financ- 
ing from private and public funds 

CAPITAL formation, Oswald says, is an 
integral part of a reindustrialization pro- 
gram, and should be encouraged in the 
ways suggested by Humphrey-Hawkins 
rather than a one-dimensional tax solution. 

The United States’s position as a diversi- 
fied industrial nation should be strength- 
ened, fair trade policies developed to main- 
tain its economic base and independence, 
and decaying cities and regions revitalized 
as part of a reindustrialization program, 
Oswald says. In addition deficiencies 
such as deteriorating transportation facili- 
ties and obsolete plants and equipment 
must be remedied and alternative energy 
sources developed, he stresses. 

“That task calls not for the blunt instru- 
ment of macro-economic monetary and 
fiscal policy, but for carefully tailored and 
targeted micro-economic programs, struc- 
tures and actions,” Oswald observes, add- 
ing that it is unrealistic to think that such 
a task can be accomplished “by simply 
deregulating, detaxing, and unleashing pri- 
vate enterprise.” 

AFL-CIO RECOMMENDATIONS, Os- 
wald says, urge pinpointed job stimulus 
programs, rather than general tax cuts or 
tax incentives. Such programs, Oswald ex- 
plains, should include, but not be limited 
to, public works programs, energy and 
trasportation development and housing 
programs that could provide quick relief 
to those directly injured by loss of jobs 
while improving the nation’s public facili- 
ties. 

Tax cuts that waste needed revenue by 
rewarding those sectors of the economy 
not suffering from hi^h unemployment, 
and tax cuts that stimulate speculative 
excesses and inflationary imbalances are 
opposed by the AFL-CIO, the article 
stresses. 

Lowered interest rates and selective 
credit programs would be more effective in 
enhancing productivity and industrial in- 
vestment than gimmicks such as deprecia- 
tion speed-ups, Oswald emphasizes. 

AT THE SAME time, he says, the gov- 
ernment should take over the function of 
all oil import purchases and reinstitute 
regulation of gas and oil prices. Food pro- 
duction should be increased with food ex- 
ports managed by the government, and a 
national health insurance system should be 
enacted to assure vital health services for 
all and control costs. 

Such programs are advocated by the 
AFL-CIO, Oswald emphasizes, as selective 
approaches that directly address the prob- 
lems of both inflation and recession in the 
most equitable way. Solving the nation’s 
economic problems, he says, will require 
the “full cooperation and concerted ef- 
forts” of business, labor and government. 


Bill Proposes 
Quota on Cars 
From Japan 

A bill that would impose a three-year 
quota on Japanese auto imports has been 
introduced in the Senate by the Republican 
chairman and the senior Democrat on the 
Senate Finance subcommittee that has 
jurisdiction over trade issues. 

Subcommittee Chairman John C. Dan- 
fofth (R-Mo.) and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen 
(D-Tex.) proposed to set the import quota 
at 1.6 million cars a year. That’s the 
average number imported in 1978 and 
1979, but 300,000 fewer than Japan sent 
to the United States last year. 

THE BILL WOULD not, however, set 
a quota on importation of auto parts as 
the AFL-CIO had urged. 

Danforth said import relief is needed 
to give the U.S. auto industry the breath- 
ing spell it needs to retool and get back 
on its feet. He pointed to the industry’s 
high unemployment, heavy losses by 
major U.S. auto producers, and a more 
than twofold rise in auto imports from 
Japan since 1976. 

While the United States has been an 
open market for Japan, he said, it has 
faced trade barriers against U.S.-made ve- 
hicles in most parts of the world, includ- 
ing Japan. 

The new U.S. trade representative, 
former Republican National Chairman 
Bill Brock, issued a cautiously worded 
statement on the Danforth-Bentsen pro- 
posal. 

HE TERMED introduction of the legis- 
lation “understandable in light of the cur- 
rent distress in our automotive industry.” 
The two senators have “performed a useful 
service in beginning a national debate” 
on the issue. 

But Brock went on to say that imports 
are not the only cause of the auto industry 
crisis and other aspects including “tax and 
regulatory policy . . . require equal and 
urgent attention.” 

The sponsoring senators said the legis- 
lation they are proposing has strong bi- 
partisan support in Congress. 

Danforth said he expects it to pass over- 
whelmingly if the Reagan Administration 
is not able to negotiate voluntary trade re- 
straints on Japanese auto imports in the 
next few months. 

,Dono van Blocks 
Key Regulations 
On Safety, Wages 

(Continued from Page 1) 

vision would “permit a more complete 
analysis of a number of issues, including 
overlap with other regulatory programs 
and the preparation of a new proposal.” 

The pay provision affects the wage level 
above which workers classified as “ex- 
ecutive, administrative and professional” 
can be exempted from the provisions of 
the Fair Labor Standards Act on overtime 
pay. 

The current exemption point is only 
$155 a week, or slightly above the FLSA 
minimum wage. 

THE PROVISION Donovan postponed 
indefinitely would have raised that level to 
$225 a week now and to $250 in 1983. 
Donovan said the change would “aggra- 
vate already intolerable levels of unem- 
ployment and inflation and exacerbate 
business costs.” 

The third standard — this one delayed 
until Apr. 17 — called for the payment of 
prevailing wage rates to service workers 
who work for firms with federal contracts 
in research, timber sales and data process- 
ing. 

Other standards delayed — some until 
Apr. 29 — cover eligibility for federal pro- 
tections against discrimination and other 
new provisions on the rights of veterans, 
the handicapped, pregnant workers and 
protection against sexual harassment. 


High Court Urged to Uphold 
Equity’s Agent Licensing Plan 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


Paite Three 


With AFTRAf Extras 

Screen Actors Endorse 
Plan for Merger Talks 



OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT award of the Screen Actors Guild was 
presented to one of the union’s founders, veteran actor Leon Ames, at the SAG 
annual membership meeting in Hollywood. SAG President William Schallert, 
left, and Vice President Larry Keith, center, congratulate Ames who is past 
president of the union and served 34 years on its board. 

Metal Trades Cite Dangers 
Posed by Shrinking U.S. Fleet 


Hollywood, Calif. — Members of the 
Screen Actors Guild gave an enthusiastic 
endorsement to a scenario calling for 
closer ties with the American Federation 
of Television & Radio Artists and an 
eventual merger of SAG, AFTRA and the 
Screen Extras Guild. 

Executive Sec. Charles L. Migden told 
more than 800 SAG members at the un- 
ion’s annual meeting that solidarity forged 
on the picket line during a 12- week strike 
by both unions last year could cement 
unity after several false starts in the past. 

THE PLAN HE outlined, approved 
unanimously by the SAG’s 85-member 
board of directors, looks to a first phase 
in which contract proposals would be 
made by a joint SAG-AFTRA board and 
the membership of both unions would vote 
together on authorizing a strike or ratify- 
ing a contract. AFTRA leaders have also 
urged such a move and a constitutional 
amendment authorizing joint action will be 
submitted to the AFTRA convention in 
July. 

The SAG board directed President 
William Schallert to meet with AFTRA 
President Bill Hillman to set up a Joint 
National Coordinating Committee that 
would make recommendations for resolv- 
ing differences to the governing boards of 
the two unions. 

“I can no longer accept the possibility 
of one of our two unions voting to strike 
and the other not,’’ Migden said. “I can 
no longer accept the possibility of one un- 
ion terminating a strike and not the other 
... of one union accepting a contract and 
not the other.” 

AFTRA PRESIDENT Hillman, speak- 
ing later that week in San Francisco to 
AFTRA’s Conference of Local Unions, 
said he personally favors merger but there 
remain problems of meshing the two or- 
ganizations that must still be resolved. 

New Handbook Issued 
On Building Trades Pay 

The Labor Dept, has issued its second 
handbook of union pay scales and fringe 
benefits in the construction industry, 
which summarizes about 5,000 collective 
bargaining agreements in 800 U.S. cities. 

The second edition of the Handbook 
of Wages and Benefits for Construction 
Unions is based on data compiled by the 
department’s Construction Industry Stabili- 
zation Committee. It contains contract in- 
formation for 33 construction crafts in- 
cluding wages in effect on Jan. 1, 1981, 
health and welfare benefits, pension, vaca- 
tion and other fringe benefit data. 

Copies are available from the Office of 
Construction Industry Services, U.S. Dept, 
of Labor, Room N5655, Washington, D.C. 
20216. 

NLRB Ruling 

Striking workers at Sanderson Farms* 
Laurel, Miss., plant were justified in their 
action against the firm by management’s 
unfair practices, a National Labor Rela- 
tions Board administrative law judge ruled. 

Judge James M. Fitzpatrick also found 
that, by adopting an inflexible position and 
engaging in “surface bargaining,” the com- 
pany prolonged the February 1979 strike 
by Chemical Workers Local 882. He or- 
dered the company to engage in good- 
faith bargaining and to reinstate the 
strikers on their application to return to 
work. 

BASIC ISSUES in the dispute included 
working conditions, work rules, wages, and 
sexual harassment. Most of the workers at 
the poultry processing facility are women. 

When the union sought to renew its 
contract with the firm two years ago, 
company negotiators took on a hardened 
attitude, flatly rejecting any extension, and 


Both he and AFTRA Executive Sec. 
Sanford Wolff expressed optimism that 
differences can be worked out and urged 
the local leaders to stimulate discussions 
among their membership as a prelude to 
“the important decisions that will be re- 
quired of us in the near future.” 

Wolff noted that the two unions nego- 
tiate many of their contracts jointly and 
AFTRA has invited the SAG “to join with 
us as interested observers” in negotiations 
involving home box office and cable tele- 
vision. 

At the SAG membership meeting, 
Migden said he hoped merger could be 
complete before the next motion picture 
and television negotiations in mid-1983. 

THE SAG BOARD also voted to ini- 
tiate renewed discussions of merger with 
the Screen Extras Guild “as expeditiously 
as possible.” 

The three unions are all part of the As- 
sociated Actors & Artistes of America, and 
many members hold cards in more than 
one performers’ union. 

A highlight of the SAG annual meet- 
ing was the presentation by Schallert of 
the union’s “outstanding achievement” 
award to veteran actor and union activist 
Leon Ames. 

AMES, WHOSE screen acting career 
dates back to 1932, was one of the found- 
ers of SAG and holds membership card 
15. He served on the union’s board for 
34 years and was president in 1957-58. 

The SAG board, in addition to acting 
on merger proposals, took “carrot and 
stick” approaches to equal opportunity is- 
sues. 

It reaffirmed the union’s support for 
affirmative action programs, voted to 
award citations honoring producers for 
positive affirmative action achievements, 
and called for establishment of a national 
holiday honoring the memory of the Rev. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The board also voted to institute na- 
tionally a program based on what its New 
York branch calls the “pass system.” 

THIS IS A special number that mem- 
bers may call if sexually harassed in con- 
nection with a job. A confidential report 
form is then filled out by SAG, and the 
union’s staff determines if legal action is 
appropriate. Even if not, the report is 
kept on file to determine if there is a 
pattern of behavior for a particular em- 
ployer. If so, further action can be con- 
sidered. 

The board approved branch status for 
San Diego and Houston, which entitles 
those units to elect representatives to the 
board. It also agreed to add a vice presi- 
dent so that both San Francisco and 
Florida can hold permanent seats. They 
currently share one position and alternate 
terms. 


indicated certain major provisions would 
cease to apply. 

“Resort to economic pressure by either 
or both parties in support of bargaining 
demands is not in itself conduct indicative 
of bad faith,” Fitzpatrick observed. “But 
here the company, in the process of hard- 
ening its position, also kept shifting its 
position, apparently to avoid terms to 
which the union might agree. This shift- 
ing of position was conduct evidencing a 
desire to avoid agreement. 

“WHILE IT IS true that progressively 
shifting to harder positions is consistent 
with hard bargaining, it is also consistent 
with an ultimate purpose of not reaching 
agreement, and getting rid of the union.” 

Several months after the strike began, 
the company withdrew recognition of the 
union and unilaterally granted a wage 
increase to workers who stayed at their 
jobs in spite of the continuing strike. 

ICWU President Frank D. Martino 


America’s “shocking and largely un- 
recognized” shortage of seagoing vessels 
of all kinds and sizes represents the gravest 
weakness in U.S. military security and a 
continuing drain on the nation’s economy, 
the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Dept, warned 
Congress. 

In letters to every representative and 
senator, MTD President Paul J. Burnsky 
said the U.S. Navy began 1981 with 446 
ships in active service, up seven from last 
year, but less than half the 926 it had in 
1969. 

TWO YEARS AGO, the Navy said that 
it would need about 800 ships in the mid- 
1980s, Burnsky observed. Thirty ships a 
year is the most that can be built if 22 of 
the country’s 25 qualified shipyards work 
on nothing else, he added. 

“At best, starting today, the Navy’s goal 
for the mid-1980s could not be met until 
the early 1990s,” he said. 

“The shortages are greater yet in the 
merchant marine,” Burnsky pointed out. 
“Thirty years ago, nearly 4,000 American- 
flag vessels carried 60 percent of the 
nation’s export-import cargo. Today, fewer 
than 600 carry 4 percent of it. Only 30 
of these ships are dry bulk carriers, and 
all but two of them are 18 or more years 
old.” 

BURNSKY MAINTAINED that over- 
coming these shortages, both military and 
civilian, is infinitely more vital to U.S. 
national defense than the outcome of the 
debates over the MX missile system, the 


hailed the decision as “a monument” to 
the workers’ perseverance, adding that 
“poor, simple workers are entitled to 
equity within the collective bargaining 
process.” He criticized the firm’s use of 
a highly paid “labor consultant,” and 
noted that the strike of nearly two years 
has cost ICWU members considerable 
wage losses. 

MARTINO SAID he has attempted to 
contact the company’s owner, Joe Sander- 
son, to meet with the union bargaining 
committee to resume negotiations, as di- 
rected by the NLRB judge. 

“We urge Joe Sanderson to repudiate 
the so-called advice of his ‘labor consul- 
tants,’ and deal with his employees on 
terms which recognize their dignity as 
human beings,” Martino said. “Mean- 
while, we call upon our striking members 
in Laurel to hold their heads high. Their 
faith and belief in what is right is vin- 
dicated.” 


B-1 bomber, the neutron bomb, and other 
weapons now being contemplated. 

“We are confident that if this picture 
could be reviewed by the Congress and 
the American people, they would be virtu- 
ally unanimous in demanding a Navy and 
a merchant fleet capable of meeting any 
rational challenge to the security and pros- 
perity of the nation,” he said. 

The MTD, whose 23 affiliated unions 
include among their 5 million members 
most of the country’s shipyard workers, 
has no list of sure-fire remedies to the 
problem, Burnsky said, but two measures 
have obvious priority: 

• An acceleration and broadening of 
the present Navy construction program, 
with emphasis on mobile, adaptable con- 
ventional forces. 

• Establishing and guaranteeing funds 
for a long-range merchant marine con- 
struction program. 

“Together, these could halt the erosion 
of the shipbuilding industry’s industrial 
base, and stem its loss of manpower,” 
Burnsky said. 

CWA Wins Vote 
At Plant Owned 
By Japanese Firm 

San Diego — Employees of the Japanese- 
owned Sanyo & E. E. Corp. chose the 
Communications Workers as their bargain- 
ing representative in a National Labor 
Relations Board election, overcoming in- 
tense management efforts to keep the un- 
ion out. 

The election victory at the refrigerator 
manufacturing plant came on a vote of 
294 to 245, CWA District Vice President 
W. C. Demers reported. 

Officials of the plant hired a union- 
busting consulting firm in an effort to turn 
back the organizing drive. But the CWA, 
with the cooperation of the Japanese 
Productive Center in Los Angeles, re- 
sponded by producing an educational film 
showing business leaders in Japan describ- 
ing the benefits of unionization. 

Although virtually every major corpora- 
tion in Japan is unionized, Japanese firms 
that have set up operations in the United 
States have at times conducted aggressive 
campaigns to prevent their workers from 
gaining union representation. 

In seeking CWA representation, work- 
ers at the Sanyo plant cited efforts to 
correct low wages, lack of job security 
and seniority rights and unsafe working 
conditions. 


Hits Struck Poultry Firm 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


A Clearly Defined Role 

»^HIS YEAR is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the 
^ national trade union center which evolved ovei; the years into 
the present AFL-CIO. 

This celebration gives us an opportunity to rededicate ourselves 
to the basic, fundamental purpose of our labor movement-r-the 
protection and promotion of the human rights, freedom, dignity 
and welfare of working people. 

The existence of free, democratic labor unions is a fundamental 
and essential component of a free, democratic society. Where 
workers do not have the right to organize and bargain with their 
employers through institutions and leaders of their own choosing, 
there is no democracy. That is why the AFL-CIO continues to 
support the creation and development of free trade unions among 
the workers of all countries, wherever our help is needed and 
wherever that help is requested. 

DEMOCRACY NEEDS free trade unions, and free trade un- 
ions can flourish and perform their proper role only in a demo- 
cratic society. Democracy and free trade unions strengthen and 
reinforce each other. What weakens one, weakens the other and 
what strengthens one, strengthens the other. 

In the United States there is a revival of anti-union attacks from 
right-wing forces which seek to turn back the clock on the achieve- 
ments and improvements in labor-management relations developed 
over the 45 years since our basic labor law was enacted. 

These attacks on unions will not succeed in weakening our 
determination to effectively represent the working people of Amer- 
ica at the bargaining table, on the shop floor and in the halls of 
the national and the state legislatures. 

These attacks will not stop the growth and progress of the 
American labor movement. There will be substantial gains in 
union membership in the 1980s — continued growth in sectors in 
which unions have been gaining members, and expansion in indus- 
tries and geographic areas where progress has been slow. 


WORKERS, whose buying power is falling daily because of 
inflation and whose jobs are threatened by growing unemployment, 
are more likely to seek the income protection and the job protec- 
tion provided by union membership and by union contracts. 

The aging of the workforce and the changing role of women 
will also encourage union membership. Older workers with family 
and community ties are more inclined to look to collective action 
to try to improve the jobs they have. As more women are heading 
households or are assuming a larger share of the breadwinner’s 
role, women workers also can be expected to want the job security 
and improved wages that depend on collective action through labor 
unions. 

In spite of the sniping of the right wing, the need for a labor 
movement in America has never been greater and our role never 
more clearly defined. Through collective bargaining, we seek to 
improve the lives and conditions of our members; through political 
education, we seek to protect those who are unorganized from 
economic or political exploitation. 

— From an address by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to 
Japan Institute of Labor, Tokyo, Jan, 27, 1981, 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


E John H. Lyons 
1 Frederick O’Neal 
E A1 H. Chesser 
E Albert Shanker 
1 Edward T. Hanley 
1 William H.McClennan 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
= Alvin E. Heaps 
I FredJ. Kroll 
E Wayne E. Glenn 
1 William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason e 

S. Frank Raftery = 

Murray H. Finley = 

Sol C. Chaikin s 

Charles H. Pillard = 

Lloyd McBride s 

Emmet Andrews = 

William H. Wynn s 

John DeConcini E 

Dan V. Maroney s 

John J. Sweeney s 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 


Managing Editor: John M. Barry 


Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


s Vol. XXVI Saturday, February 14, 1981 No. 7 = 


E The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
E for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wasn- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
E Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
S Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. 



^lillllllllllilllillllillilllllllillllllllllilililiniilllllllllllliillllllllilllilllllllllllillliillllllllliililllllililillllillllilllllllhn 





Message to U.S. Firms 

Import Surge Can Be Checked 
By Heeding Consumer Gripes s j 


By Gus Tyler 

OUSINESS PEOPLE should not be unhappy 
" with the consumer movement. They should 
encourage it. In the long run, active consumerism 
is in the best interest of business itself. 

The proposition sounds perverse. Yet, it was 
seriously advanced at this year’s annual meeting 
of the American Marketing Association by Rob- 
ert R. Reich, director of the Federal Trade Com- 
mission’s office of policy planning. 

In a forthright statement, Reich maintained 
that consumers have a lot to teach companies 
that produce products. “Consumer complaints,” 
he says, “are one of the most important market- 
ing assets available. They can serve as early warn- 
ing devices — signalling that brand loyalty may be 
in danger unless certain changes are made. Busi- 
ness should actively solicit complaints, using them 
as part of their marketing strategy, putting toll 
free numbers on packages and labels, and in- 
structing consumers to call in immediately with 
any problems they have.” 

ONE OF THE REASONS that American com- 
panies are losing out to foreign competitors in the 
American market is the insensitivity of too many 
U.S. companies to the needs and reactions of 
consumers. 

The American shopper gets fed up with “prod- 
ucts that are unsafe, defective, shoddy, that fail 
to live up to their advertising claims, or manufac- 
turers who neglect to disclose important informa- 
tion to purchasers.” The consumer buys an “im- 
port,” not necessarily for lower price, but for 
higher quality. 

While cheap labor, international trade arrange- 
ments, and other factors undoubtedly influence 
the flow of imports into the United States, there 
is no doubt that, in some product areas, Ameri- 
can producers have been losing out because they 
insult the intelligence of the American consumer. 


broken piece. Then the whole machine would 
go — and there would be more profit in a new sale 
for replacement. 

This sorry scheme worked, until some Ameri- 
can consumers discovered that they could buy 
the same product from an overseas producer with 
a measure of certainty that it would last. So they 
switched. 

SUPERIOR QUALITY control is, obviously, 
not the sole way that overseas producers have 
penetrated the American market deeply. Many 
“imports” are dumped here below the price in 
the country of origin; many are subsidized; many 
are made with incredibly exploited labor. But, 
some are winning because they are better. 

The moral of Reich’s story is one that Ameri- 
can companies can only ignore at their own 
peril: if the manufacturers don’t give a damn 
about consumers, they cannot expect consumers 
to give a damn about them. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

Federal Protection— 

A Species in Danger 

We wiU stand with you to see that protec- 
tion for the consumer, protection in the work- 
place, protection for the environment do not 
go the way of the dodo bird on the pretext of 
“getting government off the backs of American 
business.” 

All Americans are eager to slay the inflation- 
ary dragon, but the burdens of that battle 
should not fall most heavily on those least able 
to bear them. 

The current movement against government 
regulation has very much the look of a desire 
by the strong to regain prerogatives over the 
weak. 


- 



c ■ '■ 

















FOR MANY YEARS, American producers in- 
dulged in the policy of “planned obsolescence.” 
The idea was to plan the predictable breakdown 
of the commodity — ^usually a fairly heavy piece 
of equipment like a kitchen appliance or an auto- 
mobile. The plot to calculate the collapse seemed 
to make sense. 

First, a part would go — and the manufacturer 
could make profit by selling and installing the 


Individual regulations can and should be 
subject to criticism. But this all-out attack on 
the concept of health and safety regulation 
must be resisted if we are to continue to be a 
decent people living in a decent society. 

— William H. Wynn, president of the Food 
& Commercial Workers, at the Consumer As- 
sembly, Washington, D.C,, Feb. 6, 1981, 


-M. 



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AFI^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


Page Five 


Myth vs. Reality 

Decontrol More Likely to Spur 
Oil Profits Than Exploration 


The following is excerpted from an article in 
the New York ±imes, Jan. 11, 1981, by Joel R. 
Jacobson, commissioner of New Jersey*s Dept, of 
Energy. Jacobson headed the, New Jersey Indus- 
trial Union Council prior to the merger of the 
State AFL-CIO in 1961. 

W ITHIN THE LAST DECADE, Americans 
have experienced major shortages of gaso- 
line in 1974 and 1979 and in natural gas in 1977. 
The specter of closed factories and long lines at 
gasoline stations still lingers in our memories and 
haunts our future. 

The major domestic oil companies have charged 
that government price controls and supply alloca- 
tions have caused the shortages and that the ulti- 
mate solution is to “get the government off the 
back of the oil industry.” 

Let’s compare the myth with reality. 

The Myth: Government interference with the 
free market has precipitated the energy shortages. 

The Reality: There is validity to the argument 
that a free industry operating in a free market is 
more efficient. A vital corollary ignored by the 
vocal free marketeers is that a controlled industry 
in a free market almost always is an economic 
disaster. Even its most lusty defenders will con- 
cede that the oil industry — ^both foreign and do- 
mestic — is anything but free. * 

WITH ACCESS to crude oil severely limited, 
with market areas and shares defined with clinical 
precision, with growth rates, distribution patterns 
and prices established in tandem and with admis- 
sion to this cozy cousins club denied to outsiders, 
the oil industry meets the freshman economics 
classroom description of a cartel, monopoly and/ 
or oligopoly. 

Against this backdrop of a smooth partnership, 
an examination of statistical data reported by the 
American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Dept, 
of Energy reveals that it was the combined 
manipulation of the market by the domestic ma- 
jors that caused the gasoline shortages, not 
government regulations. 

The oil industry attributed the ^shortage to the 
disruption of oil imports from Iran. The blunt fact 
is that many majors were hardly affected at all. 
Mobil, Texaco and Shell imports from Iran were 
an infinitesimal percentage of their total domestic 
refinery capacity. The total nationwide shortfall 
from Iran amounted to 5 percent of normal im- 
ports. 

THE MYTH: The current levels of earnings 
and cash-flow of America’s major oil companies 
are insufficient to finance expanded exploration 
and production. 

The Reality: An analysis of reports filed with 
the Securities & Exchange Commission offers 
a ringing refutation of this myth. For example: 

The combined net earnings of the five largest 


domestic oil companies (Exxon, Mobil, Socal, 
Gulf and Texaco) amounted to $6.6 billion in 
1978 and $1 1.2 billion in 1979, an increase of 70 
percent. Last year will be the most lucrative year 
in the industry’s history. In the first nine months 
of 1980, the combined earnings of $12 billion al- 
ready had exceeded the record-high, entire-year 
earnings of 1979. 

The Myth: Decontrols, higher prices and greater 
profits will create an “incentive” for the oil com- 
panies to drill for new resources. 

The Reality: The Mobil Oil Corp.’s higher 
profits stimulated its “incentive” to drill, to probe, 
to dig, to explore until it struck Montgomery- 
Ward, which it promptly purchased and has since 
magnanimously presented with an “interest-free 
loan” of $200 million. 

EXXON HAS purchased a manufacturer of 
electric engines, Atlantic Richfield has bought a 
London newspaper, Tenneco has acquired an al- 
mond orchard, Texaco has expanded into a veteri- 
nary chemicals operation and the Sun Oil Co. 
now owns a grocery chain and a manufacturer of 
fever thermometers. 

The Myth: The new oil industry “incentive” 
created by decontrols, higher prices and greater 
profits will increase exploration for, and the pro- 
duction of, new resources. 

The Reality: Within the last 10 years, the price 
of crude oil has increased 1,600 percent, but the 
number of exploratory wells drilled increased by 
only 10 percent. While the number of wells ex- 
plored within the last three years has remained 
constant, the drilling activity has only now begun 
to regain the levels of more than a decade ago. 

While the domestic majors boast that they are 
spending more money today than before, the lion’s 
share has been allocated for the purchase of, and/ 
or production at, oil fields with known reserves, 
rather than exploring for new resources. 

IN 1979, the five largest domestic oil companies 
spent only half of their available cash-flow of $19 
billion on production, with the remaining portion 
used to pay $2.7 billion in dividends, $1.9 billion 
to buy other companies, $2.8 billion for retained 
earnings and $1.5 billion for other disbursements. 

Despite the record-breaking profits, higher re- 
tained earnings, startling inventory profits, ex- 
panded dividend payments and massive diversifi- 
cation expenditures, the domestic oil majors have 
spent a declining share of their cash-flow on ex- 
ploratory drilling. 

One gnawing question remains: If the major 
American companies are reluctant to search for 
new sources of domestic oil and natural gas at 
their current record-high level of riches, why 
should the rest of us believe that decontrols, higher 
prices and still greater profits will provide any new 
“incentive” to drill for more? 


Counterproductive Move 

Reagan Job Freeze Lengthens 
Backlog at Federal Agencies 


‘C' EDERAL AGENCIES, already operating 
shorthanded, will fall even further behind 
their workload under the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s job freeze without substantially cutting pay- 
roll costs. President Kenneth T. Blaylock of the 
Government Employees predicted. 

He stressed that the Reagan freeze order will 
only worsen the problems that resulted from 
President Carter’s directive a year ago that agen- 
cies could fill only one of every two vacancies 
that occurred. He added that the action will prove 
to be little more than a “counterproductive sym- 
bolic gesture” to fulfill a campaign pledge. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Blaylock said 
AFGE strongly believes that the retroactivity 
aspect of the freeze won’t stand up and is pre- 
pared to bring court challenges in cases where 
people already on the job are harmed by the back- 
dating. He said that there is also serious doubt 
in the legal community that Reagan’s attempt to 
make the freeze apply to a period before he took 


office will withstand a court test. 

Blaylock turned aside the contention that there 
are far more federal workers than are needed to 
do the job. “In reality,” he declared, “there are 
fewer federal workers on the rolls today than 
there were in 1961.” He said that the real prob- 
lem is the “imbalance” in the federal workforce 
that has grown since the mid-Sixties, with a 
“dramatic shift” of workers into statistical and 
reporting jobs. 

THE PROBLEM of a short workforce is severe 
in field positions “where there is direct contact 
between federal workers and citizens.” 

Blaylock said that as a result of the year-long 
Carter hiring freeze, many branch offices have 
been forced to schedule heavy overtime for reg- 
ular employees and have added a large number of 
students and other part-time workers. He said that 
these conditions have produced a higher rate of 
errors, longer delays and much of the “dissatisfac- 
tion with government.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

C HAIRMAN-DESIGNATE Murray Weidenbaum of the Presi- 
dent’s Council of Economic Advisers has had an obsession 
with “cost-benefit” analysis for the past decade, especially while 
he headed the business-financed Center for the Study of American 
Business at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Weidenbaum became a hero to business because his “cost- 
benefit” approach almost always finds the cost of government reg- 
ulations outweighing the benefits. 

The Weidenbaum cost-benefit approach was devastated in hear- 
ings before a House subcommittee last year. 

SUBCOMMITTEE Chairman Bob Eckhardt (D-Tex.) reported 
the panel found the cost-benefit approach “far too primitive” at 
this stage. The panel said it should be used only if its shortcom- 
ings are recognized and only in the context of full and open rule- 
making. 

Not only was the cost-benefit approach reborn with the selection 
of Weidenbaum as President Reagan’s chief economic adviser, but 
the President himself relied on Weidenbaum’s dubious data in his 
“economic calamity” speech of Feb. 5. 

The subcommittee report observed that the most widely publi- 
cized “number” in the cost-benefit analysis proposals is Weiden- 
baum’s estimate that the aggregate costs of issuing and complying 
with federal regulations totaled $121 billion in Fiscal 1979 or 
about $500 per capita. 

Reagan used this in his TV speech, saying “it is estimated” that 
regulations add $100 billion to the cost of the goods and services 
we buy and “another $20 billion is spent by government handling 
the paperwork created by those regulations.” 

THE ECKHARDT PANEL examined Weidenbaum’s study and 
found it “meaningless.” In adding up regulatory costs, Weiden- 
baum neglected to show whether the benefits of regulations ex- 
ceeded their costs. 

In calculating costs, Weidenbaum “mixes apples and oranges,” 
the report noted. He includes old-line cartel regulatory agencies 
such as the Interstate Commerce Commission with newer social 
regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, 
Occupational Safety & Health Administration and others. 

Weidenbaum arrived at his cost totals by comparing the esti- 
mated cost of regulation with the budget of an agency. He then 
developed a multiplier of 20 — the cost to the private sector being 
20 times that of the budget. 

Even here, his method was questioned. Weidenbaum used fig- 
ures for 1976 showing a cost of $25 billion imposed by paperwork 
required by government for IRS forms. Census forms, and forms 
needed for government contracts, subsidies and loans, as well as 
for EPA, OSHA and other programs. 

BUT CRITICS of Weidenbaum’s methods cited a General Ac- 
counting Office report estimating the paperwork burden for federal 
programs monitored by GAO and the Office of Management & 
Budget at $1 billion and the total cost of federal paperwork at $5 
billion. This would mean the real cost is only one-fifth of what 
Weidenbaum claimed and it also would force a drastic cut in his 
multiplier of 20. 

In addition, the critics note that of the $1 billion monitored 
by GAO and OMB, the job health, safety and environmental regu- 
lation portion is under 10 percent or “less than one-half of 1 per- 
cent of Weidenbaum’s figure” for the burden of paperwork. 

Another factor contaminating cost-benefit studies is that the 
regulated industry usually is the source of the cost data. In the 
famous case of OSHA’s vinyl chloride regulation, the industry 
protested it would cost $90 billion and 2.2 million jobs. As it 
turned out, the total cost of compliance came to $300 million, no 
jobs were lost and operating costs declined as industry devised 
emission controls. 



GOVERNMENT JOB FREEZE ordered by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration will throw shorthanded federal agencies even further 
behind their workload without cutting payroll costs. President 
Kenneth T. Blaylock, center, of the Government Employees 
warned on Labor News Conference. Reporters questioning the 
AFL-CIO vice president were Philip Shandler, left, of the Wash- 
ington Star and Jerome Cahill of the New York Daily News. 
The public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


How to Buy 

Creditors Must Refund Gains 
On Sale of Repossessed Cars 


By Esther Margolius 

B ert ZIPHER poured his hard-earned money 
into his 1978 Chrysler. Unfortunately, his 
money ran out and Bert fell behind on his pay- 
ments to Chrysler Credit Corp. As his car was 
being towed away, repossessed by the finance 
company, Bert figured that was the last he would 
ever see of his car. And it was. 

But he didn’t know that he was entitled to any 
profits realized by the auto company after the 
resale of the car and after repossession charges 
had been deducted. 

Over the past three years, the Federal Trade 
Commission has charged that the finance com- 
panies owned by the big three auto manufacturers 
have failed to disclose to consumers that they 
are entitled to the profits left over from the resale 
of their cars. 

Chrysler has become the latest of the major 
auto makers to adopt accounting procedures 
which, it is hoped, will protect the rights of 
future credit consumers if their cars or trucks 
are repossessed. This consent agreement is the 
third worked out by the FTC since 1976, when 
parallel cases were started against General Motors 
and Ford and their credit subsidiaries. Ford set- 
tled in April 1979 and General Motors in July 
1980. 

REFUNDS AVERAGING $200 each are to 
be paid by Chrysler-owned dealerships to those 
whose Chrysler cars and trucks have been re- 
possessed since 1974, according to the FTC. 

Future defaulting customers must be made 
aware of their rights to receive surpluses and to 
redeem or buy back their vehicles. From now 
on, car dealers must get the best possible resale 
price and pay any resulting surplus, less ex- 
penses, within 45 days after resale. 

Many installment contracts have what is called 
an “acceleration clause” which says the finance 
company can make a delinquent debtor pay the 
entire balance oj: lose the car or other purchase. 
This provision is not only unfair; it’s actually in 
conflict with the laws of some states. 

The Uniform Commercial Code states clearly 
that repossessed vehicles must be sold in a “com- 
mercial reasonable manner,” credit union authori- 
ties point out. 


State laws covering the repossession of property 
may vary, so it is suggested you check with your 
state’s attorney general’s office to find out the 
procedure for redeeming your car. 

In New York, a delinquent debtor may redeem 
his car by paying only the past due installments 
and repossession expenses. In addition, a finance 
company that repossesses or accepts a voluntary 
surrender of a car must, within 24 hours, deliver 
or mail to the debtor a notice of his right to re- 
deem the vehicle and the dollar amount needed. 

Chrysler Credit Corp., according to FTC rec- 
ords, repossesses some 12,000 to 16,000 cars 
and trucks annually. Higher car prices and surg- 
ing inflation are sure to drive the repossession 
percentages to the auto manufacturers even 
higher. 

To many people, a car is an economic neces- 
sity, therefore the threat of repossession can have 
tremendous repercussions. If your car is taken 
away from you, it may still be possible to redeem 
it, acting quickly enough. 

GET IN TOUCH with the finance company 
and find out what the terms are for redemption 
of the car, and how much time you have to act. 
If you do not receive notice from the finance 
company at the time of repossession, or other- 
wise receive no satisfaction from dealing with 
them, it is suggested that you get in touch with 
the state attorney general’s office, the FTC or 
your local department of consumer affairs. 

When closing any deal with a finance company, 
whether it is for a new automobile, a major ap- 
pliance, a home improvement loan or whatever, 
take the time to read the contract carefully. Un- 
derstanding the terms of the contract, your re- 
sponsibility, and the ramifications for defaulting, 
may save you some grief. 

Ask for an explanation of your rights as a con- 
sumer in the event of defaulting, and get a copy 
of those rights in print. Be careful that you do 
not sign a waiver to those rights. 

It may be small solace to Mr. Zipher or any- 
body else in that uncomfortable position, but a 
check for the resale profits on a repossessed car 
may come in handy one day. Perhaps when he has 
to make a down payment on a new one. 

(Copyright 1981 by Esther Margolius) 


Soup to Nonsense 

Simple Revamping of Calendar 
Can Ease February’s Misery 


By Jane GoodseU 

W ITH HEMLINES on the rise again and a 
new administration in the White House, it’s 
high time to make some changes in the calendar. 
Do you realize that the one we’re using now, in 
the last quarter of the 20th Century, was dreamed 
up by the early Romans in the time of Julius 
Caesar? This makes no sense. For one thing, the 
climate in Italy bears no resemblance to the 
weather in, say, Minnesota and Vermont where 
February is not just another month but a calamity. 

I can’t understand why we’ve put up with that 
calendar down through the centuries. We aren’t 
still using Roman numerals and running around 
in togas. Why then are we living our lives accord- 
ing to a system that made sense to Julius Caesar 
who, inci(ientally, wasn’t all that sensible. If he’d 
used his head, he’d have stayed at home on the 
Ides of March as he was warned to do. 

AS A FIRST STEP, I suggest switching the 
start of the year to the first of September. Cer- 
tainly there could be no more unsuitable time to 
begin a new year than the first of January. Who 
feels like taking on anything new by the time 
that lackluster, anti-climactic month rolls around? 
Having exhausted our energies and our bank 
accounts getting through the holidays, we are in 
some doubt about whether there actually is a life 
after Christmas, and we are in no mood for fresh 
starts and firm resolves. 

September is the right and proper time for the 
start of a new year. Heralding as it does the end 
of summer and the beginning of school, it is a 


season of renewal. There is a tang in the air and 
a quickening of tempo that makes a brighter 
future seem quite possible. 

THE BEST SOLUTION to February would 
be to eliminate it entirely, but if that’s not pos- 
sible it should be moved to some more conveni- 
ent time of year. Say, for instance, in between 
June and July. 

On top of having miserable weather, February 
is ruinously expensive. Its fuel bills alone are 
exorbitant, not to mention the staggering costs 
of antibiotics, fever thermometers, cough syrups, 
snow shovels, tow trucks, boots, mittens and 
cords of firewood. It is outrageous that this ter- 
ribly costly month should come right on the heels 
of January bills, and only a few weeks before 
income taxes are due. 

A COUPLE OF other suggestions: Right after 
the blustery month of March would be a nice time 
for the hot, lazy month of August. This, in turn, 
would leave open an interval between July and 
September when refreshing April showers would 
be a welcome and needed change. 

These suggestions are only a beginning, and a 
study committee could surely come up with some 
other ideas. I suppose these adjustments will 
have to be worked out to jibe with the phases of 
the moon and the equinoxes, but I shouldn’t 
think that would be an insurmountable problem. 
The way I look at it, if they can monkey around 
with George Washington’s birthday, they can 
surely do something about the winter solstice, 
right? 



MARCH OF DIMES poster child Thomas Roselius teams up 
with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and Vice President 
Thomas W. Gleason to help promote the Feb. 13-16 March of 
Dimes fund-raising telethon. Kirkland and Gleason, along with 
Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan, are national honorary co-chair- 
men for labor of the annual telethon. 


Beyond Plant Gates 

Job Health Hazards 
Shared by Families 

By Dr. PhiUip L. Polakoff 

H OW BIG is the problem of job-related diseases? In a report to 
Congress last year, the Labor Dept, estimated that nearly two 
million workers are severely or partially disabled because of ill- 
nesses connected with their jobs. 

Approximately 700,000 of these workers suffer long-term total 
disability. Another 1.2 million are partially disabled and tempo- 
rarily out of the labor force, or limited in the kind or amount of 
work they can perform. 

The Labor Dept, based its estimate on information obtained 
from an interview survey of disabled individuals between the ages 
of 20 and 65. Besides not counting workers over the age of 65, 
the survey also does not include persons who may have died from 
occupational diseases. Occupational cancer deaths, therefore, are 
omitted from the data. 

FOR THESE REASONS, the estimate of nearly two million 
workers whose health is being impaired by their jobs would ap- 
pear to be conservative. There is another side to this problem that 
magnifies its severity. Occupational hazards pose threats to health 
that extend beyond the workplace itself. 

For example, workers sometimes expose their families to health 
risks by carrying toxic substances home on their clothing. Studies 
have shown that children of workers involved with lead dust have 
higher levels of lead in their blood than normal. 

Even worse than lead poisoning is the threat to life from ex- 
posure to asbestos dust brought home from work. There are docu- 
mented cases of death from cancer among women who washed 
their husbands’ dusty clothes, and even among children who 
played with their fathers after work. 

THE LONG REACH of occupational diseases even extends to 
future generations. The National Institute for Occupational Safety 
& Health (NIOSH) has estimated that of the 16 million working 
women of child-bearing age about one million are exposed to 
substances that could harm their unborn children. 

And reproductive hazards are not limited to women. Substances 
such as lead and the pesticide DBCP can cause sterility and impo- 
tence in men. Both sexes are susceptible to genetic damage that 
can show up as birth defects in their children. 

Wives of workers exposed to lead, vinyl chloride and anesthetic 
gases used in hospital operating rooms often have higher than aver- 
age rates of miscarriages and birth defects among their children. 

There is still another factor that further enlarges the problem 
of work and health. Factories that are hazardous places to work, 
also can pollute the entire community. 

IN ADDITION TO the ill effects on individuals caused by 
DBCP, the pesticide also has been found contaminating drinking 
water supplies in a number of communities. 

Likewise, the chemical kepone represented a hazard for the 
general population of a sizable area along the James River in 
Virginia as well as for the people who manufactured it. 

In fairness, it must be said that health problems that originate 
outside the workplace can contribute to occupational illnesses and 
injuries. We bring to our jobs our own genetic makeup; our eating, 
drinking and smoking habits; our personal family problems, and 
our particular way of looking at and reacting to health and sickness. 

One example of this interrelationship between occupational and 
non-occupational factors is the dramatic increases in the risk of 
lung cancer among asbestos workers who smoke. 

Job-related disease is a personal tragedy for workers and their 
families. But when we multiply these individual calamities by 
the nearly two million estimated victims, the problem widens to 
national scope. The quality of life in America then becomes the 
issue. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


Page Seven 



PROGRAMS TO SPUR increased participation of women in their unions and to 
help women staff members advance their position within the labor movement 
were explored at recent Washington conferences. More than 50 representatives 
from 30 unions took part in seminars conducted by the Coalition of Labor Union 
Women, left. Thirty-five women staffers of international unions also participated 
in a three-day conference for affiliates of the AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional 
Employees, right. Key conference speakers included, seated from left, Ellen Wer- 



nick, DPE Women’s Project coordinator; DPE Executive Director Jack Golod- 
ner; AFL-CIO Vice President Joyce Miller, who also is president of CLUW and 
a vice president of Clothing & Textile Workers. Standing from left are Gloria 
Johnson, director of education and women’s activities for the Electrical, Radio & 
Machine Workers; Regina Canuso, research assistant for DPE’s Women’s Project, 
and President Rodney A. Bower of the Professional & Technical Engineers. 
Workshops and discussions of women’s issues highlighted both conferences. 


Court Ruling Slaps Stance 
Of Struck Glassware Firm 


Denver — A federal court has upheld a 
ruling that the Bartlett-Collins Co. illegal- 
ly refused to bargain in good faith with 
the Flint Glass Workers by insisting that 
all negotiations be recorded by a court 
stenographer. 

Workers at the company were forced 
to strike in late 1974 after repeated at- 
tempts to bargain failed, and in 1977 the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council endorsed the 

Reagan Names 
Florida Builder 
To Head OSHA 

(Continued from Page 1) 
in New York since 1978 and has held 
various posts with the bank since 1972. He 
has been a councilman and council presi- 
dent of the borough of Bernardsville, N.J., 
and served on a committee concerned with 
the revitalization of rail mass transporta- 
tion in the Northeast. 

Angrisani holds degrees from Washing- 
ton and Lee University, Fairleigh Dickin- 
son University and New York University. 

RYAN, 35, who will be the depart- 
ment’s chief legal officer, has worked since 
1978 in the area of labor and employment 
relations for Pierson, Ball & Dowd, a 
Washington law firm that has conducted 
anti-union seminars for management offi- 
cials and has been identified with union- 
busting efforts in organizing campaigns. He 
has been a National Labor Relations Board 
attorney and has taught at the Georgetown 
University Law Center. 


(Continued from Page 1) 
new political climate in Washington makes 
it imperative for me to focus my primary 
efforts on the rights of the American 
worker.” 

Burton pledged to work for the goals of 
“a decent wage, fair collective bargaining, 
adequate pension benefits, and a safe and 
healthful workplace.” 

The Labor Standards subcommittee also 
lost a chairman in the election, Edward P. 
Beard (D-R.I.), who had an 88 percent 
“right” COPE voting score. His successor, 
George Miller (D-Calif.), is in the same 
ballpark with an 85 percent “right” voting 
record. 

OTHER SUBCOMMITTEE chairman- 
ship changes are in two of the education 
panels. Rep. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) switched 
to head the Postsecondary Education sub- 
committee and Rep. Austin J. Murphy 
(D-Pa.) replaces him as chairman of the 
Select Education subcommittee. 


Flint Glass Workers’ nationwide boycott 
of Bartlett-Collins products. 

The decision by the U.S. Court of Ap- 
peals for the 10th Circuit upheld the 1977 
finding by the National Labor Relations 
Board that the stand of the Sapulpa, Okla. 
glassware manufacturer constituted an un- 
fair labor practice. 

THE NLRB AND the court agreed with 
the union’s position that the presence of 
a court reporter was not a mandatory 
subject of bargaining and there is “no sig- 
nificant relationship” between stenograph- 
ic recording of the meetings and the terms 
and conditions of employment. 

The Flint Glass Workers were certified 
as the bargaining agent for Bartlett-Collins 
employees in 1974, but have been unable 
to reach an agreement with the company 
despite an earlier NLRB order instruct- 
ing the company to bargain after finding 
it guilty of other unfair labor practices. 

Following that decision, the company 
told the union that it would not engage in 
bargaining unless a court reporter was 
present at all further meetings. 

THE UNION rejected this demand, de- 
claring that it would create “a courtroom 
atmosphere” that could chill negotiations 
and frank discussion, and create “feelings 
of discomfort, tension and reluctance to 
state their views” among members of the 
bargaining committee. 

Although the union suggested that an 
electronic recording of the meeting would 
be acceptable, Bartlett-Collins refused and 
insisted that the presence of the court re- 
porter was necessary before any further 
bargaining could take place, prompting 
the union to file the new charges. 


The other chairmanships are unchanged. 
Rep. Carl D. Perkins (D-Ky.), who heads 
the full committee, remains also as chair- 
man of the Elementary, Secondary & Vo- 
cational Education subcommittee. 

REP. AUGUSTUS F. Hawkins (D- 
Calif.) continues as chairman of the Em- 
ployment Opportunities subcommittee. The 
Health & Safety subcommittee remains 
under Rep. Joseph M. Gaydos (D-Pa.), and 
Rep. Ike Andrews (D-N.C.) continues to 
head the Human Resources subcommittee. 

The Republicans were still in the process 
of choosing ranking minority members for 
the various subcommittees. Each party 
completed its roster of committee members 
by filling a vacancy. The new Democrat is 
Dennis Eckart (D-Ohio), who was elected 
last November to the seat held by Charles 
Vanik, who retired after more than 25 
years in Congress. Republicans named a 
conservative first-termer, Wendell Bailey 
of Missouri, to the GOP vacancy. 


illllllllllllllilllllllllillllllllllllllllllillllilllllllllllllllllllilll^ 

5th Graders Raise 
Funds for Cambodia 

San Francisco — Fifth-graders at San 
Fernando Valley Elementary School, 
who were touched by the plight of other 
youngsters halfway around the world, 
raised $106.17 for the AFL-CIO Cam- 
bodia Crisis Campaign. 

The 28 students in Mrs. Virginia 
Krussow’s class earned the money by 
selling minature Christmas trees they 
had made from pine cones. It was part 
of a three-week project in which they 
dipped the cones in plaster and deco- 
rated them with tissue paper. 

Mrs. Krussow suggested the fund- 
raising project to the students after read- 
ing about the federation’s Cambodia 
campaign in the weekly Los Angeles 
United Teacher newspaper. 

Illillllllillllillllllllllllllillllillllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli^ 

Panel to Probe 
New Allegations 
Against Donovan 

New allegations against Labor Sec. Ray- 
mond J. Donovan will be examined “in a 
thoroughly bipartisan manner” by the staff 
of the Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee, Chairman Orrin G. Hatch 
(R-Utah) said. 

Hatch declined the request of five com- 
mittee Democrats that the committee ask 
the FBI to reopen its investigation of re- 
ports linking Donovan and the New Jersey 
construction company, with which he was 
associated, of ties to organized crime fig- 
ures. But he said that any “substantive” 
findings by the committee staff would be 
passed on to federal law enforcement agen- 
cies. 

DONOVAN, WHO was confirmed for 
the Cabinet post by an 80-17 vote after 
an extensive FBI investigation found no 
evidence to support similar allegations, 
termed the new accusations “false, un- 
founded and unsubstantiated.” 

The letter to Hatch, signed by Senators 
Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), Claiborne 
Pell (R.I.), Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.), 
Howard Metzenbaum (Ohio) and Donald 
W. Riegle, Jr. (Mich.), cited previously 
undisclosed information that Donovan had 
testified as a witness in a 1973 trial of 
New Jersey public officials in relation to 
purchase of top soil from what may have 
been public property. Neither Donovan 
nor the Schiavone Construction Co. were 
defendants in the case. 

The five committee members also cited 
what they termed “serious inaccuracies” in 
an FBI report that it was unable to con- 
firm allegations of an association between 
a reputed crime figure and Donovan’s 
firm. They said a reporter for a New Jer- 
sey newspaper, the Bergen Record, had 
uncovered links that added credence to the 
allegation. 


Prevailing Wage 
Law Upheld by 
Missouri Court 

Jefferson City, Mo. — Missouri’s highest 
court has upheld the state’s “little Davis- 
Bacon Act,” which requires payment of 
prevailing wages on public construction 
projects. 

The state Supreme Court unanimously 
rejected a legal challenge by the city of 
Kennett, in the southeast part of the 
state, which protested wage determinations 
involving a water and sewer project and 
a street resurfacing project. The city had 
questioned both the procedure for setting 
prevailing wages and the constitutionality 
of the “arbitrary” classification of projects 
as either “building construction” or 
“heavy construction.” 

IN DISMISSING the challenge, the 
Missouri Supreme Court said the city had 
not made a case for questioning the law’s 
constitutionality, and the record showed 
that the city had ample opportunity to 
challenge the preliminary wage determina- 
tions by introducing evidence and question- 
ing witnesses. 

The State Building & Construction 
Trades Council, which entered the case 
at the request of the Eastern Missouri 
Laborers’ District Council, welcomed the 
ruling as “a victory for all construction 
workers.” 

But State Council President E. J. 
Cantrell noted that one of the seven 
justices, in a concurring opinion, suggested 
the desirability of changing the law. 
Cantrell said such comments make it clear 
that the building trades affiliates “will have 
to be ever-vigilant” against attempts to 
weaken labor standards in the state legis- 
lature. 

A recent national newsletter of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept, noted that bills to repeal the pre- 
vailing wage laws have already been intro- 
duced in a number of legislatures that have 
begun their 1981 sessions, and a labor- 
opposed repeal bill was given quick com- 
mittee approval in the Colorado House of 
Representatives. 

Revised Guide Issued 
For Union Meetings 

A revised and updated edition of the 
64-page booklet, “How to Run a Union 
Meeting,” is available from the AFL-CIO 
as a guide to help local union leaders con- 
duct orderly sessions and boost member- 
ship interest, participation and attendance. 

The handbook outlines duties of officers 
and parliamentary rules, and provides sug- 
gestions on planning meetings and improv- 
ing agendas. 

Copies of the pamphlet. Publication 
No. 81, are available at 20 cents each 
from the AFL-CIO Pamphlet Division, 
815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 
20006. The charge for additional copies 
is $15 per 100. 


Key Labor Panels in House 
Retain Liberal Leadership 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 14, 1981 


^Rocky Road Ahead’ 

Wynn Warns of Threat 
To Consumer Progress 

By Janies M. Shevis 


‘He Says Not to Worry . . 



Building Trades to Press 
Quick Solution of Disputes 


AFL-CIO Vice President William H. 
Wynn warned consumer leaders from 
around the country that implementation of 
the conservative economic policies of the 
Reagan Administration will mean “a rocky 
road ahead” for both labor and consum- 
ers. He called for strengthened ties be- 
tween the two groups. 

Noting the long tradition of cooperation 
between the labor and consumer move- 
ments, Wynn said that while “we have 
written a record in which both labor and 
consumers can, and should, take great 
pride. ... I fear much of the progress for 
which we fought so long and so hard is in 
danger of being sacrificed on the altar of 
supply-side economics.” 

WYNN, WHO is president of the Food 
& Commercial Workers, told some 300 
delegates to the annual Consumer Assem- 
bly of the Consumer Federation of Amer- 
ica that he was concerned over the right- 
ward swing of the political pendulum in 
Congress. 

“Neither labor nor consumer groups can 
match the money which special interests 
and their political action committees can 
pour into lobbying efforts and elective 
politics. Surely we have learned that by 
now,” he said. “Surely we now know that 
if we do not hang together, we will most 
assuredly hang separately. Let us join to- 
gether to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 

Wynn expressed concern over reports 
that the Reagan Administration plans to 
cut back the nation’s food stamp program, 
restrict student loans, and reduce other 
“people” programs in the fiscal 1982 bud- 
get. Oil has been decontrolled ahead of 
schedule, and this can only pump up the 
price of gasoline and home heating oil, 
he noted. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

new tax cuts, and military spending in- 
creases will intensify inflation in general,” 
said the center’s directors. Gar Alperovitz 
and Jeff Faux. “Interest rates are back up 
and show no signs of coming down to 
mid- 1980 levels, and the Agriculture Dept, 
is predicting food inflation in the 15-per- 
cent range for the coming year. 

“Budget-cutting will alter none of this. 
In the absence of carefully targeted strate- 
gies to moderate prices in the specific sec- 
tors, there is no way to avoid an inflation 
calamity.” 

MEANWHILE, there is little apparent- 
ly that the average family can do to shield 
itself from the steady rise in prices in the 
key sectors. As Alperovitz and Faux put 
it, “When heating oil and food bills go up, 
they must be paid as they cOme due.” 

The food, energy, medical care, housing 
and interest rates sectors are areas where 


Addressing another sectoral cause of 
inflation. Director Henry B. Schechter 
of the AFL-CIO Office of Housing & 
Monetary Policy warned that the Federal 
Reserve Board’s determination to maintain 
a tight-money, high interest rate policy 
practically assures a significant decline in 
housing construction in 1981. 

“WHILE THE Federal Reserve policy is 
intended to fight inflation, it will be self- 
defeating,” Schechter warned, adding that 
credit policies that restrict housing con- 
struction fuel inflation in the rest of the 
economy. 

Schechter reiterated the federation’s call 
for reactivation of the 1969 Credit Con- 
trol Act to regulate credit. Used for the 
first time early last year, the measure’s 
credit control mechanisms helped bring 
the prime rate down from 20 percent to 
1 1 percent over a four-month period, and 
aided in the housing pickup that followed, 
he observed. Since then, interest rates have 
again climbed and housing is about to 
decline, he pointed out. 

‘TF IT BECAME an announced, estab- 
lished policy that the previously mentioned 
credit control powers would be employed 
from time to time to dampen future eco- 
nomic overheating,” Schechter said, “there 
would be more acceptance of measures to 
counteract the prolongation and intensi- 
fication of the recession.” 

Schechter, who participated in a panel 
discussion led by Sen. James Sasser (D- 
Tenn.) on the current economic crisis, en- 
dorsed the senator’s proposal for a re- 
structuring of the Federal Reserve Board. 

He expressed doubt, however, as to 
whether a proposed dual interest rate pol- 
icy would be workable, since investors 
would shift most of their funds into loans 
that would bear the higher interest rate. 


labor costs have little or no impact on 
prices, the AFL-CIO study noted. 

“Wage-push does not explain current 
inflation,” it observed. “Wage increases for 
the average worker have been eroded 
over the past two years, particularly by 
inflation and secondarily by taxes. Real 
earnings are down substantially from a 
year earlier, and well below the level of 
two years ago.” 

The National Center’s study showed 
that the rise in prices of necessities was 
at an even steeper rate in the final quarter 
of 1980 than for the year as a whole. 
Seasonally adjusted prices in the four key 
sectors rose at a combined 15.2 percent 
annual rate, almost 75 percent higher than 
the 8.7 percent inflation rate for other 
items. 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Building trades un- 
ions will seek to resolve a greater share of 
their jurisdictional disputes through direct 
on-the-spot or union-to-union settlements, 
reserving the more formal disputes settle- 
ment procedures for those issues that can- 
not be more simply resolved. 

The 15 union presidents who make up 
the governing body of the AFL-CIO Build- 
ing & Construction Trades Dept., agreed 
to continue to explore pragmatic approach- 
es that would lead to earlier-stage settle- 
ments. 

BCTD PRESIDENT Robert A. Georg- 
ine said the consensus was that the pres- 
ent impartial board for the settlement of 
jurisdictional disputes serves an essential 
function, but that agreements worked out 
directly by the parties closest to the situa- 
tion are generally preferable. 

Former Labor Sec. Ray Marshall, in his 
professional role as an economist, dis- 
cussed with the building trades presidents 
the outlook for the economy as he sees it. 
Marshall expressed concern that a “supply- 
side” economic strategy will push up the 
already high level of unemployment. 

Another speaker during the three-day 
meeting was California’s Director of Hous- 
ing & Community Development, I. Donald 
Terner, who described the state’s experi- 
mental “equity sharing” program to assist 
first-time, moderate income homebuyers 
who otherwise would be unable to afford 
a home. 


The demonstration project allows the 
state to purchase a “share” of the 
home, up to 49 percent of its cost, thus 
reducing the mortgage burden and down 
payment. When the home is eventually 
resold, the state claims its share of the 
proceeds, including any profits from ap- 
preciation of value. 

THE DEMONSTRATION project, 
helped by a federal grant as well as state 
funds, is now limited to families below the 
median income level who are facing dis- 
placement from rental units because of 
condominium conversions. 

Terner told the building trades leaders 
that he hopes for private-sector funding 
to expand the program to reach a larger 
number of “frustrated home buyers.” 

The BCTD governing body also heard 
a report on another type of co-venture be- 
tween government and the private sector. 

THE DEPARTMENT gave its endorse- 
ment and urged its affiliates to support the 
Building Arts Museum which Congress 
has authorized to be established in one of 
the historic structures of the nation’s capi- 
tal, the former Pension Building. 

Georgine is vice president of the board 
which is planning the project, and Brick- 
layers President John T. Joyce is one of 
the directors. 

The museum will spotlight the history 
and development of architecture and build- 
ing construction. 


7.4% Jobless Rate Sends ^Mixed Signals ’ 


Cost of Necessities Exceeds 
1980 Overall Inflation Rate 


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The nation’s jobless rate remained un- 
changed in January at 7.4 percent, but 
there were disturbing trends that stood 
out against the apparent statistical stability. 

For one thing, a sharp 1.2-percentage 
point increase in teenage unemployment 
brought the rate for that category to 19 
percent for the month. The last time teen- 
age joblessness was that high was in 
December 1976 near the end of a major 
recession. 

ALSO, JOBLESSNESS among Hispanic 
workers rose sharply, from 9.8 to 11.1 
percent over the month. Unemployment 
among blacks, however, fell to 12.9 per- 
cent from 14 percent in December. And 
the rate for black teenagers was down one 
percentage point to 36.5 percent. 

In addition, the monthly figures issued 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 
the average duration of unemployment in- 
creased by almost a week to 14.4 weeks 
in January, the highest level in three and 


a half years, reflecting a substantial in- 
crease in those unemployed for six months 
or more. The median jobless period, 
which is little affected by movements in 
long-term unemployment, was about un- 
changed at 7.4 weeks. 

The overall jobless rate has remained 
in the narrow range of 7.4 to 7.6 percent 
since last May. The January rate was the 
second consecutive month at that level. In 
all, 7,847,000 Americans were out of 
work last month — 62,000 more than in 
December, but not enough to change the 
rate. 

BLS COMMISSIONER Janet L. Nor- 
wood testified at a congressional Joint 
Economic Committee hearing that the 
January statistics “provide mixed signals 
on the economy.” 

“When adjusted for seasonal move- 
ments, both the payroll and the house- 
hold surveys showed some evidence of 
strength,” she said. “Employment increased 


and the factory workweek continued to 
rise.” 

Total employment, as measured by the 
household survey, rose 410,000 over the 
month to 97.7 million. Nonfarm payroll 
employment, as measured by the govern- 
ment’s monthly survey of establishments, 
increased by 375,000 to 91.5 million. 
Meanwhile, the size of the labor force 
swelled by 475,000 to 105.5 million, the 
first sizable increase since July. 

“MOST OF THE over-the-month gain 
occurred among adult women, whose labor 
force participation rate was at an all-time 
high of 51.8 percent,” BLS said. Over the 
year, the labor force advanced by 1.5 
million, a slower pace than in recent years, 
the report said. 

# Average weekly hours in manufacturing 
rose sharply to 40.4, the highest level 
since early 1979, BLS said. This measure 
has been rising steadily since last summer. 


Council Calls Reagan Plan 
lUnfeir/High-Risk Gamble’ 








VoL XXVI 


Saturday, February 21, 1981 


No, 8 




Steelworkers 
Score Gains 
In Can Pacts 


Costa Mesa, Calif. — ^The Steelworkers 
approved new three-year contracts with 
the nation’s major can companies that will 
provide substantial wage and benefit im- 
provements for some 20,000 workers. 

Members of the union’s Container In- 
dustry Conference ratified the settlements 
three days before the old contracts were 
to expire. The terms closely track the gains 
negotiated by the USWA last year in the 
basic steel, aluminum, and copper indus- 
tries, the union said. 

THE AGREEMENT, which is expected 
to set the pattern for about 20,000 other 
workers at smaller metal container firms, 
is with Continental Can Co., American 
Can Co., National Can Corp., and Crown 
Cork & Seal Co., Inc. The four companies 
bargained jointly with the union. 

The new contracts provide general wage 
increases of 25 cents an hour in the first 
year of the agreement, 20 cents an hour 
the second year, and 15 cents in the final 
year. In addition, the increment between 
wage classifications will increase 2.5 cents 
over the term of the agreement, for an 
average wage improvement of 27.5 cents 
an hour. 

The parties agreed to retain the same 
cost-of-living formula as in the old con- 
tracts. The formula automatically triggers 
a one-cent hourly wage adjustment for 
every three-tenths of a point increase in 
the government’s consumer price index. 
The 23-cent hourly adjustment due Feb. 
15 on the basis of price rises over the 
past three months was “rolled in” to work- 
ers’ base pay. 

MONTHLY PENSION benefits will be 
raised $1 for each year of service in the 

(Continued on Page 6) 








LABOR’S PROGRAM to combat the nation’s nagging unemployment and infla- 
tion problems was the central topic at opening sessions of the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council’s winter meeting in Bal Harbour, Fla. Joining Federation President Lane 
Kirkland in the discussions are Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, left, and Vice 
Presidents Lloyd McBride, Jerry Wurf and Sol C. Chaikin. 

Job Creation Measures 
Key Labor’s Alternative 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The AFL-CIO ad- 
vanced its own comprehensive program to 
counter unemployment and inflation — the 
twin economic ills that plague the Amer- 
ican economy. 

Federation President Laiie Kirkland 
termed the comprehensive Executive Coun- 
cil statement on the national economy “a 
positive, constructive and affirmative pro- 
gram” — in effect, the trade union move- 
ment’s alternative to the Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s economic proposals. 

IT CALLED FOR a social security tax 
credit — a rebate equal to 20 percent of the 
employee’s share of the payroll tax and 5 
percent of the employer contribution. This 


Support for Aid to Poland 
Tied to Free Union Rights 


would be healthier for the national econ- 
omy and better for America’s workers 
than the Kemp-Roth proposal for an 
across-the-board tax cut, the Executive 
Council said. 

It urged that business tax reductions be 
targeted to stimulate investments that will 
create jobs and help revive recession- 
battered industries and communities. But 
tax revenues that are needed to sustain 
“basic income-support programs for the 
unemployed, the poor and the elderly” 
should not be sacrificed to give bigger 
windfalls to hugely profitable oil compa- 
nies or to enable conglomerates to “invest” 
in new corporate takeovers, the council 
stressed. 

The policy statement called for balanc- 
ing the budget by bringing down unem- 
ployment. It urged that inflation be brought 
down by specific steps to moderate energy 
price increases, by credit controls and by 
government measures that would make 
housing more affordable. 


Cites Lack 
Of Equity in 
Budget Cuts 

By David L. Perlman 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — President Reagan’s 
economic program is unfair and unwork- 
able, the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
said, and labor will join with other con- 
cerned Americans to press alternatives that 
will meet the nation’s needs “with true 
equality of sacrifice.” 

There is no such equity in the Presi- 
dent’s proposals to Congress, the Execu- 
tive Council charged. 

REAGAN’S TAX, budget, monetary 
and regulatory proposals would require 
“more sacrifice from those who have lit- 
tle,” the council said. And those who are 
already wealthy — both individuals and 
corporations — would be the only “sure 
winners” in a hazardous “high-risk gam- 
ble with the future of America.”. 

The council stressed labor’s agreement 
with the goals of bringing down inflation, 
increasing employment, strengthening U.S. 
industries and making the federal govern- 
ment more efficient. 

But it sharply disputed Reagan’s pro- 
posed remedies and readily accepted his 
challenge that those who disagree with 
his program should come up with an alter- 
native. 

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL did so, 
in a detailed economic policy statement 
proposing tax relief to those most squeezed 
by inflation, business incentives targeted 
to creating new jobs, and government pro- 
grams designed to shore up America’s in- 
dustrial base. (Story, this page.) 

Reagan’s program, the council pro- 
tested, would “substitute unrestrained mar- 
ket power for social responsibility and 
human concerns.” 

HIS PROPOSED budget cuts, which 
the council termed “the centerpiece of his 
program” include a slash of $17.5 billion 
from assistance to the jobless and the poor. 

“For nearly 50 years, this country' has 
built a network of social programs to im- 
prove the lot of the disadvantaged, pro- 
vide support in times of adversity and 
(Continued on Page 3) 

New Price Burst 
To Follow Lifting 
Natural Gas Lid 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Decontrol of natural 
gas prices would fuel a new burst of infla- 
tion that would prove even more costly 
to consumers than President Reagan’s deci- 
sion to end oil price controls, the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council warned. 


Bal Harbour, Fla.— The AFL-CIO is 
prepared to support an extension of Amer- 
ican credits to Poland, but only if such 
aid is conditioned on the continued sur- 
vival of that country’s new free trade 
union movement. 

“Only then can we be assured that the 
Polish workers, through their free unions, 
will be in a position to defend their gains 
and to struggle for . a fair share of the 
benefits of Western aid,” the Executive 
Council said in a statement here. 

POLAND’S DEBT to the West already 
amounts to more than $20 billion, the 
largest of any of the East bloc countries. 
In the past, to insure repayment, the inter- 
national banking community has pressured 
the Polish government into policies of 
austerity, which have been borne by the 


workers in the form of higher prices and 
longer work weeks. 

“The extension of credits or reschedul- 
ing of Poland’s debt could intensify the 
exploitation of Polish workers, and threat- 
en their hard-won gains,” the council state- 
ment observed. 

IT SAID the reason that the Polish econ- 
omy is on the verge of bankruptcy is mis- 
management by the Polish government and 
the inefficiencies inherent in the Soviet- 
imposed economic system. Yet, the com- 
munist government cites Poland’s econom- 
ic troubles to counter the demands of the 
Polish free trade union coalition. Solidar- 
ity, for a 40-hour week, better wages, and 
lower prices, the AFL-CIO pointed out. 

In a salute to “the brave men and 
(Continued on Page 3) 


ESPECIALLY, it stressed, inflation 
should be fought by reducing rather than 
pushing up the “high interest rates that 
choke the economy.” 

The council reiterated labor’s call for 
a reindustrialization program that would 
reverse the erosion of goods-producing 
industries and the transportation system 
necessary to sustain them. It urged the 
formal joining of government, business 
and labor in a Reindustrialization Board 
that would include the mechanism for in- 
vesting both public and private funds in 
the most needed areas. 

Other ingredients of its prescription for 
reducing unemployment and rebuilding the 
economy include: 

• Public sector jobs for both adult 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Natural gas prices flared up this winter 
even with price controls limiting the 
amount of increase. But the council cau- 
tioned that the Administration’s plan to do 
away with all controls on natural gas prices 
by the end of September — more than three 
years ahead of schedule — would more than 
double home heating costs. 

THE CUMULATIVE effect of prema- 
ture decontrol of fuel prices amounts to a 
consumer price rise of $3,500 for every 
family, the council said. 

Decontrol would also inflict “severe 
hardships” on moderate-income families, 
the AFL-CIO statement noted. But it 
would further enlarge the profits of energy 
companies, which already far exceed the 
profits of other industries. 

(Continued on Page 2) 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


Gas Decontrol 
Seen Fueling 
Price Surge 



EXECUTIVE COUNCIL drafted a wide range of state- that have a direct impact on America’s workers, their fami- 
ments at its mid-winter meeting, addressing national issues lies, the poor and the elderly. 


Alternative Program Proposed 
To Revitalize Economy, Spur Jobs 


(Continued from Page 1) 

workers and youth to provide new job 
skills and open up employment opportu- 
nities. 

• A review of existing investment tax 
credits and other special tax breaks for 
business to plug the loss of billions of 
dollars in needed revenues and to channel 
business incentives into needed areas. Tax 
benefits of state and local industrial devel- 
opment bonds should be curtailed and in- 
tegrated into the reindustrialization goals. 

OVERALL, the council said, “direct, 
targeted jobs programs tailored to the 
specific needs of unemployed workers” are 
many times more effective in creating jobs 
than generalized tax cuts. 

To restore buying power, the council 
said, tax benefits should be concentrated 
on middle-income and low-income wage 
earners, “those who have suffered the 
most from high inflation.” 

The 20-percent rebate on social se- 
curity tax deductions, the statement noted, 
“would more than offset the recent in- 
creases in social security taxes on workers 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The most valid test 
of a nation’s respect for human rights is 
the presence or absence of free institutions, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said at 
a news conference here. 

Kirkland was asked his opinion of the 
Reagan Administration’s human rights 
policy. 

THAT WON’T be determined by rhe- 
toric, he responded, but “by the extent to 
which they are prepared to engage in the 
promotion and support of free institutions 
within the societies that exist around the 
world.” 

Public Sector Unions 
Post Membership Gains 

Public employee union membership con- 
tinues to grow with nearly half the na- 
tion’s full-time state and local government 
employees represented by unions or em- 
ployee associations in 1979, according to 
a report released by the U.S. Commerce 
Dept. 

Of some 10.2 million full-time state and 
local government workers, 4.9 million or 
48 percent were members of labor organi- 
zations in 1979, an increase of 2 percent 
over the previous year, the department’s 
Bureau of the Census reported. Workers 
were covered by a total of 32,528 collec- 
tive bargaining agreements during the 
year. 

About a third of all full-time state and 
local workers, are teachers, and some 65 
percent of them belong to unions or em- 
ployee associations. 


and have no adverse effect on the financial 
stability of the social security trust fund.” 
And the employer 5 percent credit would 
help especially “employers in labor-inten- 
sive industries,” the council pointed out. 

Urging continued income support pro- 
grams, the statement noted that for those 
without jobs buying power is dependent 
on such programs as unemployment as- 
sistance, trade adjustment assistance and 
food stamps. 

“THE PROBLEMS of the poor in our 
society must be solved, not aggravated,” 
the council said. 

The anti-inflation recommendations in- 
cluded measures to hold down energy 
costs ranging from weatherization pro- 
grams for public buildings and low-income 
housing to a government agency to pur- 
chase and distribute all oil imports. 

The council also asked continued con- 
trols on natural gas prices and standby oil 
price controls. 

It urged steps to expand the supply of 
low-income and middle-income housing, 
including below-market interest rates on 


There aren’t many countries that are 
fully democratic in the American ideal, he 
said, and progress is not necessarily 
achieved by replacing one leader with an- 
other “while leaving the fundamental na- 
ture of a society unchanged.” 

The AFL-CIO’s approach to advancing 
human rights is to advance the develop- 
ment of free institutions within societies, 
Kirkland said, adding: “That’s the role 
that we are trying to play in our inter- 
national activities.” The name of the head 
of government “doesn’t matter,” he ob- 
served. 

Free institutions, Kirkland made clear, 
include both trade unions and the press. 

ALONG THESE lines, he said the 
AFL-CIO hopes for a stronger response 
from the new Administration than the 
Carter Administration made to a “press- 
control doctrine” being considered by 
UNESCO, the United Nations Educa- 
tional, Scientific & Cultural Organization. 

If carried out, Kirkland said, it would 
put the endorsement of an international 
organization on a press-control doctrine 
that would eliminate any role for a free 
press over much of the world. 

Kirkland noted that the AFL-CIO had 
urged the previous Administration to serve 
a bold notice that the United States would 
“cease all support” of UNESCO if it 
adopted such a position. 

The labor movement wasn’t satisfied 
with the Carter Administration’s response 
he said, and would welcome such a stand 
by the current Administration. 


mortgages. And it called for discourage- 
ment of conversion of rental housing to 
condominiums in localities where housing 
is short. 

THE COUNCIL also proposed that 
foreign sales of U.S. grain be handled by 
a federal board, as is done in Canada. 
Other proposals included health care re- 
forms to hold down costs as well as im- 
prove services. 

Kirkland stressed at a news conference 
that labor’s program is not a partisan chal- 
lenge to the Reagan Administration. 

“We wish the new Administration suc- 
cess,” he said. “We have a stake in their 
success as citizens. We want to cooperate 
to the maximum extent possible.” 

But the labor movement has a program 
that it believes “would be effective in 
turning this economy around and reviving 
our industrial base,” he said. 

IT IS IN everybody’s interests, Kirk- 
land suggested, that the issues of economic 
policy be debated fully and that alterna- 
tives be presented. Then, “out of that 
traditional democratic process, we would 
hope that progress would emerge,” he 
said. 

He cited the political fact of life that 
“fiscal conservatism is dominant” today, 
in Congress as well as in the Administra- 
tion. But if cuts are made, he said, there 
is a difference between “ratcheting every- 
thing down a bit, on an equitable basis,” 
and the unacceptable alternative of “killing 
vital programs.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The AFL-CIO 
pressed Congress to stop the erosion of the 
federal minimum wage and reject any 
attempt to legislate a subminimum youth 
wage. 

An Executive Council resolution en- 
dorsed the concept of indexing the mini- 
mum wage by keeping it at a constant per- 
centage of average hourly earnings in 
manufacturing. 

CONGRESS rejected the index concept 
in its 1977 amendments to the Fair Labor 
Standards Act. Instead, it opted for four 
annual step-ups that brought the wage 
floor to $3.35 an hour in the final step, 
which took effect at the start of this year. 

Despite the series of increases, the coun- 
cil noted, the minimum wage has dropped 
from 50 percent of hourly earnings in 
manufacturing in 1967 to 43 percent cur- 
rently. A wage floor of $3.72 an hour 
would have been needed last December to 
maintain purchasing power. 

Lowering the minimum wage for youth 
would be an incentive for employers to 
replace older workers who have family 
obligations in order to hire teenagers at 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The AFL-CIO statement scoffed at the 
suggestion that decontrol will spur oil and 
gas companies to new exploration and pro- 
duction. More likely, “the new profits from 
decontrol would enable the oil and gas 
companies to continue buying competitive 
energy sources.” 

ALREADY, the council said, oil prices 
“are no longer based on production costs, 
but are dictated to the United States by the 
OPEC cartel.” Decontrol of natural gas 
would amount to allowing OPEC to dictate 
that price as well, the AFL-CIO charged. 

The council resolution said it would be 
“false economy for the United States to 
contract abroad for the equipment to de- 
velop synthetic fuels when that equipment 
is available here.” 

To develop the technology this country 
needs for the future, the council urged, 
“the principle of ‘Buy American’ must be 
a major part of the synthetic fuels pro- 
gram.” 

ADOPTION OF the council statement 
here was followed in Washington by AFL- 
CIO testimony along the same lines before 
a House Energy subcommittee. Associate 
Legislative Director Howard Marlowe 
warned the panel that if controls on natural 
gas are allowed to expire next September, 
the government will be powerless in efforts 
to halt price gouging and profiteering dur- 
ing shortages. 

Marlowe estimated that Reagan’s deci- 
sion to lift controls on oil will cost Amer- 
icans about $12 billion in 1981. 

“Decontrol of oil prices has allowed oil 
companies to raise gasoline prices 8-10 
cents over the last two weeks — consider- 
ably more than the 3-5 cents predicted by 
the Administration,” he noted. 

Additional increases in wholesale prices 
have already been announced by some oil 
companies, Marlowe said, and “there is no 
reason to expect that prices will not rise 
even further as a result of decontrol.” 

DATA FROM various U.S. petroleum 
firms show that oil can be produced at 
prices far below the world market level, 
he noted. 

“In a statement in 1979, Mobil said the 
cost of producing crude oil was $6.87 a 
barrel, including $1.52 of direct produc- 
tion cost; $4 for exploration, development, 
lease and royalty costs, and $1.35 for taxes. 
At that time, U.S. crude sold for an aver- 
age of $8.33 a barrel. With decontrol, it 
can now be priced at the world market 
price of about $39 per barrel,” Marlowe 
reported. 


lower pay, the council statement charged. 

THE AFL-CIO urged job programs for 
younger workers, but noted that 70 per- 
cent of the workers paid the minimum 
wage are adults, and a large portion of 
them are women who are the heads of 
households. 

A fact sheet accompanying the resolu- 
tion challenged the assertion that a sub- 
minimum wage would enable employers 
to “train” younger workers. 

“How much training is required to turn 
a hamburger?” the minimum wage docu- 
ment asked. It noted that the McDonald’s 
chain “is now a larger employer than U.S. 
Steel.” 

Employers even now are able to em- 
ploy students at less than the minimum 
wage and, under the Targeted Jobs Credit 
program, can get a large tax credit for 
hiring economically disadvantaged youths. 
But older workers should not be “shoved 
to the end of the line of jobseekers,” the 
council insisted. 

The Executive Council statement also 
urged “adequate funding for aggressive 
enforcement of wage and hour laws.” 


Free Unions, Press Basic 
To Liberty, Kirkland Says 


Congress Pressed to Halt 
Erosion of Minimum Wage 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


Paf* Tbrar 


Council Scores Reagan Economic Plan 


(Continued from Page 1) 

strengthen the American economy,” the 
AFL-CIO council stressed. “To destroy or 
weaken these programs is to weaken 
America.” 

Another $24 billion in proposed budget 
cuts would come from programs needed 
for economic recovery. If Congress goes 
along with the President’s cuts, the coun- 
cil said, more than one million jobs will 
be sacrificed. In program terms, the cuts 
would set back goals for energy security, 
transportation improvements, environmen- 
tal safeguards and urban development. 

A related council statement firmly re- 
jected the contention that budget limita- 
tions compel a choice between social pro- 
grams and the national defense. 

IN THE LAST Congress, the AFL-CIO 
opposed proposals for a percentage cut in 
the defense budget and the “transfer” of 
those funds to social programs. 

“With equal vigor,” the Executive Coun- 
cil said, it opposes the Reagan Adminis- 
tration view that social programs must be 
reduced to allow funds for military needs. 

The Constitution mandates the govern- 
ment to “provide for the common defense” 
and to “promote the general welfare,” not 
either-or, the council stressed. 

REAGAN’S proposed cuts would come 
on top of the already heavily trimmed 
budget proposals made by the Carter Ad- 
ministration shortly before it left office. 
That Carter budget proposal skimped on 
the nation’s needs, the AFL-CIO charged 
at the time. But the Reagan budget takes 
a meat ax to many labor-supported pro- 
grams. 

Food stamp eligibility would be slashed, 


and low-income families whose children 
get free school lunches would have to pay 
for them through a reduced food stamp 
allotment. Child nutrition programs would 
be cut nearly $1.7 billion. 

A broad range of federal aid to educa- 
tion programs would be reduced. But as 
Reagan expressed it in his televised mes- 
sage to Congress, less federal money will 
mean less federal “control” over state and 
local school systems. 

LIKEWISE, a reduction of $85 million 
in federal assistance to the arts and hu- 
manities is explained by Reagan as a rein- 
forcement of the tradition of “voluntary 
contributions” by Americans to support 
cultural activities. 

Proposed cuts in funds authorized for 
synthetic fuels programs will cost the econ- 
omy $4.2 billion in plant construction next 
year and 69,000 jobs, according to an 
analysis by the AFL-CIO Dept, of Eco- 
nomic Research. Solar energy programs 
would also be reduced. 

Social security disability payments would 
be further cut, and other benefit reduc- 
tions that Congress refused to enact when 
they had been proposed by the Carter Ad- 
ministration are included in the Reagan 
budget. 

MEDICAID WOULD be reduced, all 
Public Health Service hospitals would be 
closed, subsidized housing reduced, and 
Amtrak funding sharply cut back. 

More than 340,000 persons in CETA 
job and training programs with state and 
local governments would lose their jobs, 
and two youth job programs would be 
ended. 

Trade adjustment benefits, which unions 


have urged be expanded to include work- 
ers in supplier industries hurt by imports, 
would be drastically curtailed. 

Severe postal cuts would raise rates 
sharply while curtailing service and em- 
ployment. The already battered pay com- 
parability system for federal workers 
would be further gutted. 

THE AFL-CIO Executive Council 
statement sharply questioned the Presi- 
dent’s claim that his proposed pullbacks 
and revisions of government regulations 
will make American industry more com- 
petitive and productive. In attacking mea- 
sures enacted to protect health, safety, 
the environment and consumers, “he ig- 
nores the contributions these laws have 
made to a higher quality of life,” the 
council declared. 

It agreed with Reagan’s description of 
the current high interest rates as “absurd,” 
but noted that they are largely the result 
of the tight-money policy Reagan has 
advocated. 

Labor’s alternative to a tight-money 
squeeze is selective credit controls “that 
would direct capital to productive invest- 
ments while curbing speculation,” the 
statement said. 

THE COUNCIL challenged as mislead- 
ing the President’s statement that the 
across-the-board tax cut he proposed 
amounts to “an equal reduction in every- 
one’s tax rates.” 

A family earning $10,000 a year would 
get a $52 tax break; the family earning 
$100,000 would get $1,840. It contrasted 
this with the AFL-CIO’s proposal for a 
20-percent tax credit on the social security 
payroll tax paid by workers. 


Fully 60 percent of Reagan’s proposed 
individual tax cut would go to the top 20 
percent of taxpayers, the council noted. 
And more than 1 1 percent would go to a 
mere 1 percent of taxpayers. 

AT A NEWS conference, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland voiced deep con- 
cern that Reagan’s economic program with 
its “euphoric promise” that budget slashes 
and tax cuts combine to spell prosperity — is 
based on “exceedingly dubious economic 
theories that have not been adequately 
tested.” 

The risk of a grim economic downturn 
— as occurred in Britain under the similar 
doctrinaire approach of the Conservative 
Party government — should give Congress 
pause, Kirkland suggested. 

Few economists give credence to the so- 
called Laffer Curve that is the theory 
behind the Kemp-Roth tax cut bill, Kirk- 
land noted. And the monetary advice that 
economist Milton Friedman has handed 
out in his role as a consultant to govern- 
ments in various countries has generally 
been followed by a new wave of inflation, 
he said. 

AS TO THE social consequences of the 
Reagan Administration’s proposals, Kirk- 
land suggested that its authors have “short 
memories” and don’t remember the grim 
conditions that led to their enactment, in- 
cluding the despair of the poor, burning 
inner cities and “long, hot summers.” 

He said the AFL-CIO has already in- 
itiated a revival of the budget coalition that 
was formed last year by labor, church, 
civil rights, senior citizen and community 
groups with a common concern for de- 
fending needed social programs. 


Support for Aid to Poland 
Tied to Free Union Rights 



CLEAR CHANNELS of communication should be open between the leader- 
ship of the Senate and organized labor. Senate Majority Leader Howard H. 
Baker (R-Tenn.) told the AFL-CIO Executive Council. Baker became majority 
leader in January, when Republicans took control of the Senate. 

Republican Officials Promise 
Attention to Labor’s Views 


(Continued from Page 1) 

women of Solidarity,” the council pledged 
full support of their cause in whatever 
ways they deem useful. Already, it noted, 
more than $200,000 has been raised by 
the AFL-CIO since the federation’s Gen- 
eral Board established a Polish Workers 
Aid Fund last September. This money is 
being used, in accordance with Solidarity’s 
wishes, to buy much needed office equip- 
ment and supplies. 

“This fund, built from contributions 
from every level of our trade union move- 
ment, demonstrates the strong solidarity of 
American workers with the struggle of 
their Polish brothers and sisters,” the 
council said. 

At a news conference, AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland strongly rejected a 
suggestion that American labor’s assistance 
to the Polish free trade union movement 
could be interpreted as “provocative.” The 

Two More Unions Join 
TV Monitoring Project 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Members of the Op- 
erating Engineers and the Bakery, Con- 
fectionery & Tobacco Workers will join 
the Machinists in monitoring television 
news and entertainment shows in April on 
their portrayal of workers and unions. 

Operating Engineers President J. C. Tur- 
ner and BCT President John DeConcini 
announced at a joint news conference here 
that their members would participate in 
the Union Television Monitoring Project 
originated by the Machinists in 1980. Par- 
ticipants in the project systematically 
monitor national network news and enter- 
tainment programs and local news broad- 
casts to determine whether workers and 
their organizations are dealt with fairly. 

Operating Engineers in San Francisco 
and Cleveland and BCT members in 
Richmond, Va., will join in the latest 
round of monitoring. The Machinists’ 1980 
project found that workers were rarely 
represented in TV programming, that 
newscasts were frequently biased against 
unions and that job categories in most TV 
shows are out of proportion to reality. 


AFL-CIO does not consider it provocative 
“to assist a brother union in its formative 
stages to exercise the rights of free associa- 
tion guaranteed by solemn international 
conventions,” he said. 

AND SINCE the Polish government has 
borrowed large sums from the West, Kirk- 
land observed, “it seems passing strange 
that grants of assistance from West- 
ern trade unions — exceedingly modest in 
amount for very basic needs and supplies 
— should be condemned while living off of 
the largess or the loans of Western capi- 
talists is perfectly okay.” 

The council statement pointed out that 
despite its pledges, the Polish government 
continues to obstruct Solidarity’s growth. 
It still has not lived up to its side of the 
21 -point agreement with the union coali- 
tion signed last August in Gdansk. Media 
censorship has not been eliminated; Soli- 
darity has been denied means to publish 
a weekly magazine; provincial chapters of 
Solidarity have been harassed by authori- 
ties; the government has refused to pub- 
lish trade union legislation, and members 
of KOR — the Social Self-Defense Com- 
mittee allied with Solidarity — are being 
persecuted. 

“These actions can only fuel worker un- 
rest,” the council said. “The Polish Com- 
munist Party appears intent either on pro- 
voking a confrontation or on undermining 
Solidarity’s position.” 

ADDING TO the tension, the Soviet 
Union and its Warsaw Pact allies have con- 
ducted a relentless campaign of intimida- 
tion aimed at frightening the Polish work- 
ers, the AFL-CIO charged. It noted that 
some 20 Soviet divisions have massed 
along the Polish border while the Soviet 
propaganda apparatus fires verbal threats, 
attacks on Solidarity’s leadership, and de- 
nunciations of “subversive, anti-socialist 
forces” in the Polish unions. 

As for the “massive and slanderous pro- 
paganda attack” that the USSR and its 
satellites have launched in recent months 
against the AFL-CIO because of its assis- 
tance to the Polish workers, the council 
declared: “We will be no more intimidated 
by these predictable tactics than the Pol- 
ish workers have been.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Labor’s views will 
be listened to in the Reagan Administra- 
tion and in the Republican-controlled 
Senate, two guests at the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council meeting promised. 

Bill Brock, who holds the Cabinet-level 
post of U.S. special trade representative, 
told reporters that he will need the help 
of the nation’s union leaders in dealing 
with complex trade negotiations and issues 
because “they know the problems.” 

AND SENATE Majority Leader 
Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) said he came to 
the Executive Council meeting “to explore 
future areas of cooperation and make sure 
that this group understands we wish to 
have a clear channel of communication.” 

Baker termed his meeting with the 
council “very positive” and said he saw a 
chance for labor and Senate Republicans 
to “narrow our differences” over labor law 
reform. It was a Republican filibuster that 
blocked passage of labor law reform in 
1978. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
said Baker personally has always given 


“thoughtful consideration” to labor’s views. 

“I don’t automatically reject the no- 
tion of progress in the next couple of 
years,” Kirkland commented. “I think 
there may be areas where we can reach 
some understanding, some agreement. And 
we’re certainly open-minded and pre- 
pared to explore those possible areas to 
the fullest extent.” 

HE NOTED that there are no ideologi- 
cal or partisan lineups on a number of 
issues important to the nation. 

On trade, Kirkland said the council’s 
meeting with Brock was basically “an 
exploratory session.” But on at least one 
issue, “I think we were in full agreement, 
at least on the nature of the problem.” 

Kirkland said Brock and the AFL-CIO 
are in accord on the potential for a large- 
scale export trade in U.S. coal. 

The need, Kirkland stressed, is to re- 
move “the barriers and impediments” 
which include “wholly inadequate” port 
and rail facilities, and “an adequate role 
for the American merchant marine in the 
transport of that cargo.” 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO IVEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


The Sagging Wage Floor 

C ONTINUED INFLATION has wiped out the purchasing 
power provided minimum wage workers by the 1977 amend- 
ments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

The current minimum wage of $3.35 an hour, which went into 
effect on Jan. 1, 1981, as the fourth and final step of the 1977 
increases, was outdated by inflation before it reached the work- 
ers’ paychecks. A minimum wage of $3.72 an hour would have 
been required in December 1980 in order to yield the same pur- 
chasing power as the $1.40 an hour minimum wage had in 1967. 

Today’s minimum wage is continuing to fall in purchasing 
power and threatens its five million recipients with becoming more 
dependent upon supplemental government support, such as food 
stamps and welfare assistance. The historic role of the federal 
minimum wage has been to set a floor under the level of wages 
an employer must pay so that he is not subsidized by tax-supported 
federal aid and community programs. 

IF CONGRESS had accepted the 1977 proposals to index the 
minimum wage to average hourly earnings in manufacturing, mini- 
mum wage workers would be keeping pace with all other workers. 
The 1967 minimum wage of $1.40 an hour equaled 50 percent of 
gross average hourly earnings in manufacturing; the $3.35 mini- 
mum wage only equals about 43 percent of that standard. 


The erosion of the buying power of the minimum wage makes 
a strong case for indexing it for the future. 

A two-tier minimum wage or a subminimum wage for youth 
would encourage employers to fire older minimum wage workers 
with family obligations in order to hire younger workers at less 
pay. Minimum wage workers desperately need increased buying 
power to support themselves and their families, not a revolving 
door to the unemployment line. 

While the teenage unemployment rate is disastrously high and 
demands effective programs to provide jobs for younger workers, 
we adamantly reject the contention that those jobs must come ^t 
the expense of older workers. Four of every five unemployed 
workers are not teenagers, yet older workers would be shoved to 
the end of the line of jobseekers so that employers could pay a 
lower wage to teenagers. 


SEVENTY PERCENT of the workers who are paid the mini- 
mum wage are adults, and two-thirds of them are women, many 
of whom are heads of households. Clearly, their jobs would be 
jeopardized by a subminimum wage for teenagers. 

The creation of age discrimination within the minimum wage 
structure could lead to further erosion of the wage floor based on 
race or sex with the specious justification that their higher unem- 
ployment rates require discriminatory wages. The federal govern- 
ment must not promote wage discrimination on any grounds, for 
any purpose. 

— From a statement by AFLrCIO Executive Council on the 
Fair Labor Standards Act adopted Feb. 16, 1981, in Bal Harbour, 
Fla. 




mm 

& 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


E Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry E 

= Assistant Editors: E 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec E 

E David L. Perlman James M. Shevis s 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. e 

= Washington, D.C. 20006 = 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

I VoL XXVI Saturday, February 21, 1981 No. 8 | 

1 The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 00I-II85) is issued weekly except ~~ 

S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W,, Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
5 Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
5 to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
S AFL-CIO. = 

iiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiimmniiimiil 




Billions Spent Annually 


Corporations Stick Consumers 
With Costs of Take-Over Wars 


By Gus Tyler 

M cDermott INC. wanted to take over Pull- 
man Inc. The latter fought back and finally 
won, making an amicable deal with Wheelabrator- 
Frye Inc. 

That sort of thing has, of course, been going on 
with many companies in this age of the conglom- 
erate grab. But now, it seems, a vast expensive di- 
mension has been added to the corporate combat: 
the fees for professionals. 

In the one small instance noted above, the cost 
for lawyers, accountants, investment bankers and 
public relations experts came to more than $17 
million. That bill was run up in a brief four 
months. 

THE COMMENT of the chairman of Wheela- 
brator was simple: “That’s obscene.” 

“Actually, it’s worse than “obscene,” if we think 
about it. “Obscenity” is a moral notion that — 
repulsive as it may be — costs nothing as a rule. 
But this “obscenity” is very costly — not to the 
three great corporations who were the gory gladia- 
tors in the event, but to you and me. 

First of all, these millions of dollars are pure 
waste. They produce nothing. They are the costs 
of a war — a war among corporate giants. They are 
no more productive than the weapons and ammu- 
nition in any war. 

Second, you and I will ultimately have to pay 
for this waste. As far as the corporations are con- 
cerned, the costs of this combat are part of op- 
erating expenses. They add to the cost of produc- 
tion of whatever commodity or whatever service 
these outfits put on the market. As costs go up, so 
do prices for the consumers. So you and I ulti- 
mately subsidize this totally nonproductive 
struggle. 

OBVIOUSLY, such an expensive expenditure 
must be inflationary. It adds to costs without pro- 
ducing anything that any consumer wants. 

Third, this bit of extravagance once more makes 
it clear that when businessmen have oodles of 
capital on hand, they do not necessarily use that 
wealth to “invest” in production — to increase 
supply and to create jobs. As likely as not, they 
will use their riches to engage in wars to extend 
their empires without allocating even a penny to 
putting up a new facility, turning out another item, 
or employing another soul. 


The $17 million spent on professionals, on 
mercenaries to do combat in the corporate con- 
flict, is but a tiny piece of the total sum involved 
in this useless undertaking. The company was 4 
bought for the sum of $646 million. " ' 

What great good thing did this $646 million ' ^ 
bring to you and me? v 

FROM THE CORPORATE view, somebody is . 
happy: the Wheelabrator people must be happy 
with their extended empire; the Pullman people 
must be happy because the price was right. But 
from the view of the people — the worker looking * 
for a job or the consumer looking for lower 
prices — the takeover brought more tears than ^ ^ 
cheer. 

The case of Pullman is not unique. We men- " ^ 
tion it because it got front page treatment in the " 

Wall Street Journal. Pullman is just one of many, 
suggesting that billions are spent every year in >? ^ 
hiring armies of mercenaries for corporate empire * 
building — all of it at our expense. ^ * 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns j 

iiiiiiiiimiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiliiiiiitiiiiiiiiiin 

Polish Workers / ’ 

Saluted, Supported 

The historic achievement of the Polish work- ^ 

ers in creating and sustaining the first free and " ^ ^ 
independent trade union movement in the com- 
munist world has excited the deep admiration - - 
of free trade unionists everywhere. 

Since its birth in the strike of last August, 
Solidarity’s membership has rapidly grown to 
ten million — three times the membership of the 
Polish Communist Party. With the collapse of * " 
the old official ^^unions,” abandoned by the 
workers. Solidarity now incontestably repre- ^ 
sents the workers of Poland. This triumph is a > 
tribute to the courage, skill and discipline of 
Lech Walesa and the Solidarity leadership, and "" ^ 
the valiant working people of Poland. 

The AFL-CIO salutes the brave men and 
women of Solidarity, and pledges full support 
of their cause in whatever ways they deem use- 
ful. ^ 

— AFL-CIO Executive Council Feb. 17, 1981. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


Page Five 


Costly High Interest Rates 

Misguided Monetary Policies 
Worsen Inflationary Burden 


Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
on high interest rate policies adopted Feb. 16, 
1981, in Bal Harbour, Fla. 

IGH INTEREST rates, resulting from the 
monetary policies of the Federal Reserve 
Board, are counterproductive as weapons in the 
fight against inflation. They are inflicting both 
long- and short-term damage to the economy with- 
out reducing the inflationary forces of energy, 
food, housing and medical care. Rather, one of 
the leading sources of inflation is the high interest 
rates that add to the cost of everything. 

High interest rates cause particular hardship for 
small businesses, homebuyers and consumers who, 
unlike multinational corporations and banks, do 
not have the ability to shop for credit around the 
world. 

HIGH INTEREST rates and tight money cause 
the following economic damage: 

• They increase unemployment, reduce gov- 
ernment revenue and increase the cost of social 
programs. 

• Interest payments on the federal debt, the 
fastest rising item in the federal budget, contribute 
to the deficit and divert funds needed for other 
vital programs. 

• Exorbitant interest rates have created a de- 
pression in the housing industry. In housing, high 
interest rates contribute a triple-dose of inflation- 
ary pressure: through a housing shortage that 
drives up prices and rents; through higher pur- 
chase prices reflecting the added cost of interest 
on the construction loans, and through higher 
monthly payments and rents for the life of the 
mortgage. 

• Needed investment in modernization of 
American industry is short-changed as businesses 
are confronted by 19 percent prime interest rates. 
Productivity improvements are postponed, per- 
petuating higher unit costs and impairing the abil- 
ity of American industry to compete. Particularly 
hard hit have been the steel, automobile and re- 
lated industries. 

• High interest rates contribute to higher food 
prices and the sharp increase in farm bankruptcies. 

• Tight money encourages capital investment 
in high-yield but high-risk ventures unrelated to 
the needs of the economy, including: financing 
company takeovers; apartment conversions to 
condominiums which yield capital gains rather 
than new housing; financing of gambling casinos 
and luxury resorts, and speculation in commodi- 
ties, such as the attempt by the Hunt brothers to 
corner the silver market. 

AS AN ANTI-INFLATION policy, high inter- 
est rates and tight money can neither reduce the 
inflationary impetus resulting from worldwide 
food demands brought on by drought and in- 
creased population, nor reduce the energy prices 
dictated by the OPEC cartel. 

The Federal Reserve’s policies are wasting 

20- Year Outlook 


America’s capital and human resources, prolong- 
ing the recession and aggravating inflation. These 
policies must be changed and the financial struc- 
ture of the United States adapted to overcome 
impediments to stable economic growth. In a 
democratic society, credit policy must not be the 
exclusive domain of the central bank and its 
banking constituency. 

Credit management measures must be used to 
allocate available capital resources. Japan, France, 
West Germany and Holland have made effective 
use of credit management techniques to achieve 
better economic growth. The U.S. experience is 
limited to the spring of 1980 when, for the first 
time, the Credit Control Act of 1969 was invoked. 

While there were unfair retroactive changes of 
outstanding credit arrangements and preemption 
of some state consumer credit safeguards, the re- 
strictions on total bank credit extensions helped 
bring the prime rate down from 20 to 11 percent 
in four months. 

UNFORTUNATELY, as the economy began 
its temporary recovery, the credit management 
measures were rescinded and there was a return 
to the overall tight money policy. 

It is imperative that the United States turn away 
from the disastrous reliance on tight money and 
high interest rates. Specifically, the AFL-CIO 
urges the following immediate actions: 

1 . Channel credit to high-priority areas. 

2. Curtail the use of credit by speculators. 

3. Limit the extension of credit for overseas 
ventures. 

4. Make the Federal Reserve Board more rep- 
resentative of American society. 

5. Encourage use of pension funds for home 
mortgage loans. 

Achieving these goals will require: 

• Making the Credit Control Act of 1969 
permanent in order to channel available credit to 
high-priority areas and to discourage excessive 
speculation. The Act should be amended to pre- 
vent lender abuses in consumer credit and to re- 
quire the Federal Reserve Board to promptly re- 
port to Congress on its credit control activities. 

• Giving the President authority to restrict 
U.S. capital investment abroad and curb the ex- 
tension of credit to foreign ventures whenever it 
is deemed necessary to increase investment in 
domestic plant and equipment. 

• Amending the Federal Reserve Act to en- 
large the Board of Governors to 1 1 members and 
broaden its representation to include industry, 
labor, agriculture and consumers. The Federal 
Reserve Board should then assume the duties of 
the Open Market Committee. 

• Encouraging the investment of pension 
funds in long-term, fixed payment mortgages, with 
appropriate insurance against loss, in order to 
help more families purchase housing. 



Safety Role of Pilots Essential 
In Coming Surge of Air Traffic 


M aintaining air safety in future decades 
hinges on effective input from the nation’s 
professional pilots. President John J. O’Donnell 
of the Air Line Pilots declared on Labor News 
Conference. 

Pointing out that air traffic volume is expected 
to double in the next 20 years, O’Donnell urged 
that new models of aircraft for commercial pas- 
senger and freight service undergo more compre- 
hensive, realistic and objective evaluation than the 
current “backroom” certification process con- 
ducted by the Federal Aviation Administration 
and the manufacturers. 

He said that “full-mission simulations,” a pro- 
cedure urged by the union but rejected by the 
FAA, are the only sure way to determine how 
many qualified pilots are needed in the cockpit 
crews of the larger and more sophisticated air- 
craft that will be flying in a more crowded air 
space. 


Safety is a top priority for the pilots who will 
be flying those aircraft, and they should be part 
of the process that determines how the planes 
can be most safely operated, O’Donnell declared. 

HE SAID the union’s national campaign to 
alert both pilots and the public to the issues in- 
volved in air safety, dubbed “Operation USA,” is 
now well under way in 16 major U.S. cities. He 
said the union’s goal is to persuade the Reagan 
Administration to “create a commission to do fair 
and effective evaluation” of the crew-size issue. 

Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis has since as- 
sured the ALPA executive board that the Admin- 
istration will appoint a three-member panel of 
impartial experts within the next two weeks to 
investigate the crew-size issue. 

“Let professional pilots make our points to a 
fair and objective body and we will live with the 
results,” O’Donnell asserted. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

I N A NATION blessed with abundant resources and highly pro- 
ductive farms and factories, perhaps nowhere is the sad fact 
of poverty in the midst of plenty more starkly illustrated than in 
rural America. Some facts: 

• The rural areas, with nearly a third of the nation’s popula- 
tion, account for almost half of the officially recognized poor; 
about two-thirds of the population receive inadequate medical 
services, and about half are poorly housed. As many as 10 million 
rural Americans live in homes with no indoor plumbing. 

• Rural black workers earn only half as much as the national 
average for all workers. 

# About half of the rural Hispanic families headed by women 
live in poverty. 

• About 60 percent of all Native American families on reser- 
vations live in substandard or overcrowded housing. 

Numbers, however, tell only part of the story about being poor 
or powerless in a rural America still nostalgically romanticized as 
a place of rustic charm or looked upon as a recreational play- 
ground void of real inhabitants. 

BUT IF YOU WORK for the Zenith Corp. in Watsontown, Pa., 
being powerless means watching helplessly as the plant is closed 
and your job is moved to Taiwan. In Kodak, Ky., it means seeing 
your home bulldozed away to get the coal beneath the surface. In 
Madera, Calif., if you’re a farmworker, it means living with the 
daily fear that your family may be poisoned by the careless use of 
pesticides. 

Problems such as these have resulted largely from public poli- 
cies designed to support narrow economic interests engaged in the 
exploitation of rural resources and people. Tax laws, government 
subsidies, research and so-called development programs have been 
tailored to these corporate interests. 

ON THE OTHER SIDE of the coin, public policy has been one 
of systematic neglect of the needs of rural people despite their dis- 
proportionate share of social and economic problems. Public in- 
vestment in housing, health care, education, transportation, job- 
creation and job training programs has been minimal. For exam- 
ple, since the 1930s, less than 20 percent of the nation’s major 
housing support funds went to rural areas. 

In another instance, one of President Carter’s first acts after 
taking office in 1977 was to launch an emergency program to 
pump $4 billion into municipal public works. But the Administra- 
tion casually excluded from eligibflity all towns with populations 
under 50,000. 

It was this state of affairs which brought to Washington more 
than a thousand persons from throughout the nation for the fifth 
national conference sponsored by Rural America, which has been 
laboring since 1975 to organize communities and to give rural 
issues a national focus. 

DURING THE three-day conference in early February, delgates 
from over a hundred rural organizations and coalitions met in 
workshops on a wide range of issues — production and marketing 
co-ops, community control through land trusts, community de- 
velopment block grants, federal programs for economic develop- 
ment, the use of rural dumping grounds for hazardous wastes — to 
name a few. 

To increase their level of organization and political influence, 
the delegates launched a National Alliance for Rur^l Action 
(NARA), which will strive to become “a visible national move- 
ment” beginning at the level of grass roots coalitions. NARA 
leaders said plans include setting up an independent political action 
committee in addition to seeking alliances with progressive forces^ 
in urban areas. These would include labor, minorities .and women. 

The recognition at the Rural America conference that stronger 
bonds must be forged with natural allies is p^rt of a welcome 
trend among progressive interests, including organized labor, en- 
vironmentalists, consumers and minorities. 



A FULL ROLE in commercial airline safety must be played by 
the professionals who fly the aircraft. President John J. O’Don- 
nell of the Air Line Pilots said on Labor News Conference. He 
was questioned by Martha Hamilton of the Washington Post and 
Drew Von Bergen, right, of the United Press International. The 
program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


J*age Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 



UNION LABEL AND SHOP CARD promotion at the Dept.’s board meeting in Florida. Seated at the head of the 
AFL-CIO Union Industries Show scheduled for Baltimore table are Department President John E. Mara and Sec.- 
in May w^s on the agenda of the AFL-CIO Union Label Treas. Earl D. McDavid. 


U.S. Urged to Condition Aid 
To El Salvador on Reforms 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Any future U.S. as- 
sistance to strife-ridden El Salvador should 
be conditioned on reciprocal action by 
that country’s government to bring do- 
mestic violence under control and institute 
democratic reforms that improve the con- 
ditions of workers, the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council said. 

“The years of oppression that have 
helped create a revolutionary situation in 
El Salvador will not be corrected by more 
repression or continued failures to im- 
prove living and working conditions,” the 

Council Supports 
Efforts of Cuban 
Freedom Group 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The objectives of 
Cuba Independent and Democratic (CID) 
were endorsed by the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council at its winter meeting here. 

CID was founded at a congress held in 
October 1980 in Caracas, Venezuela, with 
the aim of working for establishment in 
Cuba of “a society consecrated to freedom 
and human dignity, totally democratic and 
sovereign, socially balanced and just,” the 
council noted. 

It cited particularly the CID’s found- 
ing principles calling for guarantees of a 
free trade union movement in Cuba. 

Huber Matos, who was held prisoner in 
Cuba for 20 years for his opposition to 
increasing communist domination of the 
Castro regime, is general secretary of CID. 
Matos addressed the delegates to the 1979 
AFL-CIO convention some three weeks 
after his release from Cuban jails. 

“The AFL-CIO endorses the objectives 
of CID,” the council’s statement said, “and 
wishes it well in its efforts to free the 
Cuban people from the Castro tyranny.” 
Castro has permitted Cuba to serve as a 
base for the Soviet Union in Latin Amer- 
ica, the council said, and has sent troops 
to Africa to aid other Soviet-supported 
regimes while attempting to thwart demo- 
cratic governments elsewhere in the Carib- 
bean and Latin America. 

Steelworkers Win 

(Continued from Page 1) 

first and second years of the agreement 
and by $2 in the third year. The monthly 
supplement for early and disability retirees 
was raised from $300 to $360. 

Increases for workers who are already 
retired range from 8 to 70 percent of 
their pensions. Those who retired before 
1964 will receive a boost of 70 percent, 
or an additional $140 to $145 a month. 
The industry has an unusually high ratio 
of retired workers to active employees. 

Other improvements include increases 
in the weekly sickness and accident in- 
surance in three annual steps by amounts 


Executive Council observed in a statement 
at its winter meeting. 

IT CALLED for immediate consultation 
and dialogue between the government of 
El Salvador and private democratic or- 
ganizations, including free rural and urban 
trade unions, on plans to guarantee free 
elections monitored by the Organization of 
American States as soon as possible. 

The AFL-CIO renewed its support of 
democratic land reform to improve the 
lives of hundreds of thousands of Salva- 
doran campesinos, a cause for which two 
representatives of the American Institute 
for Free Labor Development gave their 
lives last month. The two, Michael Ham- 
mer and Mark Pearlman, were assassinated 
with the president of the country’s largest 
democratic framers’ organization, Jose Ro- 
dolfo Viera, by unknown gunmen. 

“Bullets cannot kill the dreams they 
shared with the farmers of El Salvador for 
their own land,” the council said. “More 
than six weeks have passed since the as- 
sassinations. As yet, the government of El 
Salvador has not brought to justice those 
who are responsible for the murders. 

“THIS INACTION only encourages the 
senseless violence of both communist and 
reactionary terrorist groups, which has re- 
sulted in the wanton slaying of many other 
innocent victims.” 

The land reform program has the full 
support of the democratic urban and ag- 
rarian trade union organizations in El 
Salvador, and is a major step toward 
satisfying the aspirations and needs of the 
peasants, the council observed. 

It noted also that the country’s interim 
government has begun the titling process 
giving land to individual peasants and 
peasant cooperatives, with compensation 
to the old owners, thus making the long- 
overdue land reform a reality. 

EXPRESSING condolences to the fami- 
lies of “our slain brothers” who died for 
the land-reform project, the council said 
the labor movement has a special obligation 
to Hammer’s family and noted that the 
AIFLD has established a scholarship fund 
to assure the education of his 17-year-old 
son, Michael, Jr. It invited AFL-CIO 
affiiliates and others to contribute to the 
fund. 

Container Pacts 

ranging from $59 to $71 a week, expanded 
health insurance benefits as well as a score 
of other changes in contract language deal- 
ing with such matters as safety and health, 
grievance procedure, arbitration, and bene- 
fits to spouses and survivors. 

The union succeeded in establishing a 
program for “Justice and Dignity on the 
Job,” which prohibits a company from 
removing an employee from active work 
pending the final resolution of any griev- 
ance challenging his or her discharge or 
suspension. Such a worker will remain on 
the payroll until the grievance is settled 
or decided in arbitration. 


U.S. Relief Asked 
For Refugees of 
Somali Conflict 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — The U.S. govern- 
ment should step up its emergency relief 
assistance to some 1.5 million refugees 
from war and drought in the African na- 
tion of Somalia, the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council urged. 

The federation will help publicize the 
need for aid, particularly vaccines and 
medical supplies, and will ask its affiliates 
to give financial assistance to private or- 
ganizations working on Somali relief, the 
council pledged. 

The council applauded the efforts of the 
Teachers and the Graphic Arts Interna- 
tional Union to focus attention on the need 
for medical care and supplies, food, cloth- 
ing and shelter for the refugees. 

United Nations estimates are that more 
than 90 percent of the refugees in Somalia 
are women or children under 15, the coun- 
cil pointed out. The more than 300,000 
children under six suffer the highest mor- 
tality rate, primarily from measles and 
diarrhea. 

Despite its limited resources, the govern- 
ment of Somalia has allocated some assis- 
tance to the refugees, the council noted, 
but because the country is a net importer 
of food, the provision of any food to the 
refugees creates shortages among the rest 
of Somalia’s population. 


Tight Money 
Seen Fanning 
Inflation Fire 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — The high interest 
rates imposed by the tight-money policies 
of the Federal Reserve Board are “coun- 
ter-productive” in the battle against in- 
flation, the AFL-CIO declared. 

Interest rates “add to the cost of every- 
thing,” the Executive Council noted. But 
the high rates “cause particular hardship 
for small businesses, homebuyers and con- 
sumers who, unlike multinational corpora- 
tions and banks, do not have the ability to 
shop for credit around the world.” 

HIGH INTEREST rates and tight 
money leave the real causes of current 
inflation virtually unscathed, the AFL-CIO 
said. But they do “increase unemployment, 
reduce government revenue and increase 
the cost of social programs.” 

Further, “exorbitant interest rates have 
created a depression in the housing indus- 
try, made needed investment in moderni- 
zation of American industry too costly 
and sent capital scurrying to high-risk, 
high-profit speculative ventures,” the coun- 
cil pointed out. 

On top of that, the statement noted, 
interest payments on the federal debt have 
been “the fastest rising items in the federal 
budget,” adding to deficits. 

“As an anti-inflation policy, high interest 
rates and tight money can neither reduce 
the inflationary impetus resulting from 
worldwide food demands brought on by 
drought and increased population nor re- 
duce the energy prices dictated by the 
OPEC cartel,” the council observed. 

CALLING FOR a turnabout in policy, 
the AFL-CIO statement urged: ’ 

• Strengthening and making permanent 
the Credit Control Act “in order to chan- 
nel available credit to high-priority areas 
and to discourage excessive speculation.” 

• Giving the President authority to 
restrict U.S. capital investment abroad and 
curb extension of credit to foreign ven- 
tures whenever it is deemed necessary to 
increase investment in domestic plant and 
equipment. 

• Amending the Federal Reserve Act 
to enlarge the Board of Governors to in- 
clude representatives from industry, labor, 
agriculture and consumers. 

• Encouraging investment of pension 
funds in long-term, fixed payment mort- 
gages to help more families purchase 
housing. 


Trickle-Down Scheme Cited 
In ‘Urban Enterprise Zones’ 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The “urban jobs 
and enterprise zone” proposal is little more 
than a localized version of “trickle-down” 
economics and would not correct prob- 
lems of decay and high unemployment in 
the cities, the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil declared. 

The measure, . introduced in the last 
Congress by Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), 
“is based exclusively on the simplistic but 
false notion that local economic problems 
will disappear if government would spend 
less, tax less, and protect less,” the council 
statement said. 

THE PROPOSAL is really a tax pack- 
age, the council observed. It would cut 
local real estate taxes, regardless of the 
tax base or public service needs. Social 
security contributions wo^d be reduced, 
the capital gains loophole widened, busi- 
ness depreciation write-offs speeded up, 
and corporate tax rates slashed. 

“There is no requirement that the busi- 
ness recipients of such special tax largess 
add to their workforce or increase invest- 
ment levels,” the statement pointed out. 
“And there is no provision to compensate 
localities for lost property tax revenue. 
Existing firms in zone areas may well reap 
a windfall for what they were already 
doing. Landlords are not required to pass 
property tax reductions on to tenants. 


“Because the plan lacks a mechanism to 
deny benefits to firms that move from 
other areas into ‘enterprise zones’ merely 
to exploit the tax breaks, the result could 
be shifting unemployment from one area 
to another rather than a net increase in 
jobs.” 

A KEY PROVISION in the measure 
would permit a 90-percent reduction in 
employer and employee social security 
taxes for workers in the “zone” under the 
age of 21 and a 50 percent reduction for 
all other workers. This would endanger 
the social insurance principles of the social 
security system and undercut its financing, 
the council warned. 

“It would constitute a clear inducement 
for employers to fire parents to hire their 
children and add another form of dis- 
crimination based on age,” it added. 

THE AFL-CIO has supported selec- 
tively targeted policies for particular areas, 
industries, and people — including tax con- 
cessions, the council noted. 

“But we are convinced that any tax re- 
ductions must take place within the frame- 
work of a coordinated national economic 
revitalization program involving all sec- 
tors of the economy and using the govern- 
ment’s full range of economic tools — train- 
ing, public facilities, and direct loans or 
grants,” it said. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


Page Seven 





Imports Batter Economy 

New Trade Policy Urged 
To Stem Industrial Skid 



PREVAILING WAGE protections for workers on federally funded construction 
projects were a major topic at the executive board meeting of the AFL-CIO 
Building & Construction Trades Dept. This discussion between formal sessions 
of the board drew Asbestos Workers President Andrew T. Haas, left, BCTD 
President Robert A. Georgine, and Plasterers’ President Joseph T. Power. 

Program Mapped to Assist 
Black South African Unions 


Bal Harbour, Fla, — U.S. foreign trade 
and investment policies must put greater 
stress on American interests because the 
worsening impact of imports is compound- 
ing the nation’s domestic economic prob- 
lems, the Executive Council declared. 

The council called for a series of reme- 
dies, including immediate import relief for 
the U.S. auto industry and parts sup- 
pliers, renegotiation of improved market- 
ing agreements on textiles and apparel, 
extension of import restraints on shoes and 
steel, promotion of U.S. exports and wider 
use of American-flag shipping, as well as 
improved adjustment assistance for work- 
ers who lose their jobs to imports. 

WHILE AMERICAN exports confront 
new barriers abroad, an increase in im- 
ports is encouraged by easy access to U.S. 
markets, the council’s statement observed. 

“This is leading to heightened awareness 
of the major role international trade is 
playing in the continued erosion of Amer- 
ica’s industrial base,” the council said. 

“The United States must remain a ma- 
jor maritime, agricultural and manufac- 
turing nation, and it needs a foreign trade 
policy that will insure — not undercut — 
that goal.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
warned at a press conference that the 
United States — taking into account the 
state of its economy — could not absorb 
the collapse of one or two major corpora- 
tions in its basic industrial base. 

Blaylock Elected 
To Head Public 
Employee Dept. 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^William H. McClen- 
nan retired as president of the AFL-CIO 
Public Employee Dept., which he had 
headed since its founding in 1974, and 
Kenneth Blaylock was elected to fill out 
his term. 

Blaylock is president of the Government 
Employees and has been treasurer of the 
department. McClennan is president-emer- 
itus of the Fire Fighters. 

In other action, the department’s execu- 
tive board named Teachers President Al- 
bert Shanker to succeed Blaylock as trea- 
surer and designated Service Employees 
President John Sweeney chairman of the 
department’s newly formed organizing 
committee. The department now has 35 
affiliates representing some 2 million fed- 
eral, local and state government workers. 

The terms of Blaylock and Shanker will 
run until the department convention next 
June. 

The executive board also adopted a res- 
olution supporting the boycott of Perdue 
poultry and released a new booklet on job 
safety and health issues in the public sector. 


“THE BIG American market depends 
in the last analysis on employment and on 
jobs and on incomes,” Kirkland asserted. 
“If those jobs collapse and those sources 
of employment collapse, the market’s go- 
ing to collapse,” he said in warning that 
the impact will be felt worldwide. 

“The consequencies and the shock waves 
will not be confined to the shores of the 
United States,” he said. “It will wash over 
to Japan, as it did during the Thirties, and 
there will not be any market for Japanese 
products, or German products, or Swiss 
products, or anybody’s products.” 

The council adopted its statement on 
foreign trade and investment after con- 
ferring with President Reagan’s special 
trade representative. Bill Brock. 

BROCK TOLD reporters that “it would 
be difficult to support legislated quotas” 
on imports, but suggested that relief for 
struggling American industries might be 
achieved through the negotiation of mar- 
keting agreements. 

The council statement noted that the 
most severe impact from imports is being 
felt by America’s basic industries — autos 
and auto parts, steel, textiles, shoes, elec- 
tronics and new-technology products. 

It also cited developing problems for 
U.S. industries, such as banking, transpor- 
tation, insurance, communications and en- 
gineering that seek to expand abroad, but 
are often stymied by foreign laws and 
practices. 

“ON THE OTHER hand,” the state- 
ment observed, “the relatively open U.S. 
investment market encourages foreign in- 
vestors in real estate, building and con- 
struction, banking and retail stores to ex- 
pand here.” 

The council called for swift passage of 
the Danforth-Bentsen bill in the Senate 
that would impose a three-year quota on 
Japanese auto imports and urged that re- 
lief be extended to auto parts manufac- 
turers. 

In another area, the statement called for 
repeal of the Generalized System of Pref- 
erences under which zero-tariff status is 
given to hundreds of products imported 
from so-called developing countries. 

“At a bare minimum,” the council said, 
“Congress and the Administration should 
remove import-sensitive products from the 
list, guarantee that only the neediest coun- 
tries receive benefits, and exclude commu- 
nist countries.” 

ADDRESSING the growing problem of 
import-caused job losses, the council called 
for improvements in trade adjustment as- 
sistance to insure that all affected workers 
receive prompt aid. 

“Legislation should ease the overly 
stringent requirements for proving injury 
and provide relief for those who make 
parts or components or provide services. 
Benefits should not be contingent on ex- 
haustion of unemployment benefits, and 
training and relocation support should be 
expanded.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The AFL-CIO 
pledged renewed support for the develop- 
ment of free trade unions in South Africa. 

The federation’s Executive Council 
spelled out a specific program of financial 
and technical aid to help black workers 
in South Africa organize functioning trade 
unions as a means of improving their so- 
cial and economic conditions. 

TRADE UNION activity, the council 
emphasized, must be keyed to the need for 
basic changes that will lead to increased 
participation by blacks in the country’s 
government and elimination of the official 
policy of racial segregation and discrimi- 
nation known as apartheid. 

The program endorsed by the council 
calls for establishment of a central office 
to coordinate all U.S. labor activities in 
support of trade unions in South Africa. 
The new unit will be set up within the 
African-American Labor Center, an aux- 
iliary organization of the AFL-CIO. It will 
work in cooperation with other interna- 
tional labor bodies and trade secretariats. 

The council also called for creation of 
a special fund to aid unions in South Af- 
rica which will include a legal defense 
fund. The federation also pledged to help 
to publicize South African labor develop- 
ments in the United States. 

Specific programs will be developed to 

Council Scores 
Bid to Undercut 
Wage Standards 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Prevailing wage 
laws such as the Davis-Bacon Act and 
the Service Contract Act “must not be 
weakened at the federal or state level 
through legislative or administrative ac- 
tions,” the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
affirmed. 

Conservative and business organizations 
have masqueraded their attack on federal 
and state prevailing wage laws as a battle 
against inflation, the council noted. But 
“undercutting community wage standards 
and weakening working conditions” won’t 
dent the inflation rate, the council said. 
The only impact will be harm to both 
workers and their communities, it warned. 

“Prevailing wage laws are based upon 
community wage scales and are established 
to discourage employers from importing 
cheap labor from outside the community,” 
the council noted. In fact, it pointed out, 
“the majority of wage determinations are 
below those negotiated by unions for their 
members.” 

Where union scales are the prevailing 
wage in a locality, anti-union groups have 
charged that the wage structure freezes 
minorities out of construction jobs. The 
truth is, the council said, that “union ap- 
prenticeship programs have a far better 
record in recruiting and training minorities 
than non-union apprenticeship programs.” 


provide training and direct assistance in 
organizing, collective bargaining, and lead- 
ership and membership training, the coun- 
cil said. These programs will include train- 
ing and study programs in both the United 
States and South Africa, help in gathering 
and using collective bargaining informa- 
tion, assignment of an AALC representa- 
tive to South Africa and other U.S. trade 
unionists to special short-term projects in 
the country. 

CERTAIN schools and institutions in 
South Africa will be urged and helped to 
devise educational programs and skill- 
training activities, the council said, with 
emphasis on selective scholarship aid for 
black workers. 

No specific dollar amounts have been 
set for the new program, AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland said at a news con- 
ference during the council’s meeting. He 
pointed out that it is still unclear what the 
total needs of the program will be and 
what barriers may be raised by South Af- 
rican authorities to the increase in trade 
union activities. 

In its statement outlining the program, 
the council noted that it is not enough for 
the government of South Africa to simply 
say it is moving toward recognition of 
black trade unions. “The basic unqualified 
trade union rights of every worker in 
South Africa irrespective of race must 
be accepted,” the council said, emphasiz- 
ing that “any attempts to tamper with 
these rights, either by diluting or qualify- 
ing them,” would be unacceptable. 

THE COUNCIL noted that support of 
trade union rights for black South Africans 
is part of the AFL-CIO’s “long-standing 
commitment to social change.” Such rights, 
the council observed, “are an integral part 
of the basic freedoms which have been 
denied to blacks in South Africa.” 

The AFL-CIO’s program in South Afri- 
ca will focus first on the development of 
strong, united black trade unions to help 
ease the “tremendous disparity” between 
black and white workers, the council said. 

When black workers have established a 
labor movement with trained leadership 
“that can fully represent its members and 
bargain freely for them,” the federation 
will be able to work with the South Afri- 
can labor movement “as an entity,” it said. 

Drive Opens to Fund 
Paul Hall Studies Chair 

National business, labor, and govern- 
ment officials have opened a drive to fund 
a permanent program in marine transpor- 
tation studies at the University of Southern 
California in memory of the late Sea- 
farers’ president, Paul Hall. 

Heading the drive as co-chairmen arc 
Frank Drozak, who succeeded Hall as 
SIU president, and Herbert Brand, chair- 
man of the Transportation Institute board 
of trustees. Hall, an AFL-CIO vice presi- 
dent, died last June. 



NEW PRESIDENT of the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept., President Kenneth 
Blaylock of the American Federation of Government Employees, receives the 
gavel from his predecessor, William H. McClennan, president-emeritus of the 
Fire Fighters who had headed the PED since its founding in 1974. 


Pag« Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 21, 1981 


Broad Program Outlined 


U.S. Shipping Revival 
Linked to Coal Exports 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^Increased coal ex- 
ports could be the catalyst for a shipping 
and shipbuilding revival that would spur 
the entire U.S. economy, AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland told the executive 
board of the Maritime Trades Dept. 

Kirkland said the department is on the 
right course in stressing the potential for 
increasing coal exports from the United 
States to an energy-hungry world. 

THE DEPARTMENT’S 43 affiliated 
unions joined in calling for a national 
commitment to improve inland waterways 
for cheaper and more efficient transport 
of coal, a construction program to build 
up the depleted and antiquated bulk cargo 
fleet, and bilateral agreements with coal- 
purchasing nations to assure that an equi- 
table share of coal exports is carried on 
American-flag vessels. 

“There was never a better time for 
America to revitalize her shipping and 
shipbuilding industries,” Kirkland said. 

Such a program, he stressed, would en- 
hance the national security and stimulate 
the entire economy. “It would mean 
enhanced profits, as well as paychecks.” 

He promised the MTD leaders that “in 
the months ahead, as you try to impress 
those facts on the new Administration and 
the new Congress, the AFL-CIO will be 
at your side all the way.” 

THE TWO-DAY board meeting was the 
occasion for the reaffiliation of the Long- 
shoremen. The ILA was one of the de- 
partment’s founding unions in 1946, but 
withdrew over jurisdictional and policy 
differences in 1967. 

MTD President Frank Drozak, who is 
also president of the Seafarers, welcomed 
the ILA’s reaffiliation as strengthening 
labor’s campaign for “a strong and healthy 
maritime industry.” 

The board meeting also marked the first 
occasion for Rep. Walter B. Jones (D- 
N.C.) to meet with the board in his new 

Don Shasteen Named 
To Labor Dept. Post 

Don Shasteen has been appointed dep- 
uty Under Secretary of Labor for legisla- 
tion and intergovernmental relations. His 
appointment was announced by President 
Reagan and Labor Sec. Raymond J. 
Donovan. 

A former newsman, Shasteen was the 
Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate 
in Nebraska in 1978. He was an assistant 
to Sen. Carl T. Curtis (R-Neb.) from 1966 
to 1978 and to Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey 
(R-N.H.) in 1979-80. 


role as chairman of the House Merchant 
Marine & Fisheries Committee. 

Jones made clear that he shares labor’s 
concern at the wide gap between promise 
and performance in carrying out the goals 
of the Merchant Marine Act. That law, 
he stressed, terms it necessary “that the 
United States shall have a merchant ma- 
rine sufficient to carry its domestic water- 
borne commerce and a substantial portion 
of the water-borne export and import for- 
eign commerce . . . owned by U.S. citi- 
zens, built in the United States and 
manned by citizen crews.” 

ANOTHER congressional ally, Rep. 
Leo C. Zeferetti <D-N.Y.), backed the de- 
partment’s goal of an equitable share of 
coal exports to be carried in U.S. vessels. 
He voiced concern at the fact that the few 
U.S. bulk carriers average 30 years old 
and transport only 2 percent of dry bulk 
cargo. 

More than two dozen resolutions and 
policy statements were adopted by the 
board, some dealing with specific mari- 
time concerns such as strong support for 
negotiation of bilateral shipping agree- 
ments with this country’s trading partners, 
and others covering a broad scope of labor 
movement concerns — from opposition to 
a subminimum youth wage to support for 
the boycott of Perdue poultry products. 

The more than 200 delegates and guests 
gave affectionate ovations to Rose Hall, 
widow of longtime MTD president Paul 
Hall, during presentations of plaques and 
scrolls from the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil and from the department. Mrs. Hall 
was also made an honorary member of the 
board. 

PAUL BURNSKY, president of the 
Metal Trades Dept., which represents a 
large share of the nation’s shipyard work- 
ers, stressed in remarks to the board that 
a merchant fleet under the U.S. flag is 
essential to the nation’s security. 

Scoring the so-called “flags of conveni- 
ence” that carry most of the commerce to 
and from the United States, Bumsky said 
“there are no countries anywhere to which 
we can entrust control of the U.S. mer- 
chant fleet.” And, he added, “on the high 
seas and in the shipyards, what is good for 
Exxon is not good for the security of the 
United States.” 

Other speakers included AFL-CIO de- 
partment heads dealing with legislation, 
political education, research, education and 
field services. Former Maritime Adminis- 
trator Andrew Gibson addressed the board 
in his role as president of Delta Steamship 
Lines. 



SPECIAL RESOLUTION honoring the service and dedication to the labor 
movement of Paul Hall, late president of the Seafarers and the AFL-CIO Mari- 
time Trades Dept., is presented to Hall’s widow, Rose, during the department’s 
executive board meeting in Florida. Joining AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
in the presentation are MTD Vice President Stephen J. Leslie, left, and MTD 
President Frank Drozak. 

Spurting Fuel Prices Pace 
New Rise in Wholesale Index 


Wholesale prices, which nearly doubled 
their rate of increase in January, could go 
even higher in coming months because of 
President Reagan’s recent decontrol of 
U.S. crude-oil prices. 

About 40 percent of last month’s over- 
all increase of nine-tenths of 1 percent in 
the government’s producer price index re- 
sulted from higher prices for gasoline, 
home-heating oil, and natural gas, the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics said in releasing 
its monthly report on wholesale price 
movements. 

CRUDE OIL price increases recently 
imposed by the Organization of Petroleum 
Exporting Countries were reflected in the 
January data, but the figures did not in- 
clude the effects of Reagan’s Jan. 28 de- 
cision to decontrol domestic oil prices. 
These will begin to show up in next 
month’s statistics. 

Addin? to the prospects for continued 
high inflation is the effect of the cold 
weather in Florida. While this has not 
been a factor in the index in recent 
months, prices of oranges, orange juice, 
and other fruits and vegetables grown in 
Florida have already begun to rise, and 
are likely to add inflationary pressure to 
producer price levels before long. 

The January increase in wholesale 
prices was the largest monthly rise since 
last August, when prices at the producer 
level rose 1.2 percent. Producer prices 
rose five-tenths of 1 percent in December 


Task Force to Study Airline Crew Issue 


The Air Line Pilots air safety public 
information campaign has spurred the 
Reagan Administration to appoint a task 
force to investigate the controversial issue 
of cockpit crew complement in new jet 
aircraft. In response, the union has called 
off a nationwide “suspension of service” 
it had scheduled for Mar. 2 to dramatize 
the safety issue. 

Plans to appoint the Presidential task 


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force were announced by Transportation 
Sec. Drew Lewis following a meeting with 
ALP A President John J. O’Donnell and 
the union’s executive board. Getting a task 
force formed to study the crew comple- 
ment issue was a major objective of 
ALPA’s Operation USA (Unity for Safe 
Airtravel) publicity effort launched in 
January. 

MEMBERS OF the panel will be in- 
dependent experts who will determine 
whether or not newly designed high tech- 
nology jet aircraft should be flown by 
two or three crew members for maximum 
safety. Appointments to the three-member 
task force will be made in two weeks, and 
a report will be issued in 120 days, Lewis 
said. 

The ALPA has challenged manufac- 
turers’ claims that the new aircraft, such 
as the recently certified McDonnell Doug- 
las Super 80, are so advanced that they 
can be flown by a crew of two rather 
than three as is now standard practice in 
the industry. The new technology will 
actually increase the pilots’ workload, the 
ALPA contends, and a third crew mem- 
ber is needed for a full margin of safety. 

Lewis also assured the union’s board 
that other safety and regulatory questions 
raised by the Operation USA campaign 


will be handled by the incoming adminis- 
trator of the Federal Aviation Administra- 
tion who will be instructed to “pay par- 
ticular attention” to such issues as im- 
provements in air traffic control systems 
and airport safety facilities. 

The ALPA board praised this “respon- 
siveness” to the concerns of airline pilots 
and said the government’s actions would 
make a strike “unnecessary at this time.” 

The union, which represents 33,000 
pilots, has been critical of the FAA’s han- 
dling of the aircraft certification process 
of new model jets, charging that it has 
been a closed procedure between the 
agency and the aircraft manufacturers. 
The agency has been swayed by company 
pressure to accept certain relaxed safety 
standards, such as cockpits designed for 
only two crew members, without adequate 
testing, the union contends. 

THE PILOTS also are concerned that 
proposed rule changes sought by the FAA 
could create hazards by increasing the 
number of hours a pilot can be required 
to fly without rest. In addition, the union 
opposes FAA proposals to increase fines 
or possible prison terms for violation of 
aviation regulations, and the pilots object 
to an agency proposal to have access to 
cockpit voice recordings of all flights. 


and seven-tenths of 1 percent in both 
October and November. 

WHOLESALE energy prices increased 
2.7 percent over the month, almost twice 
as fast as in December. Gasoline sold to 
dealers was up 2.5 percent and home- 
heating oil rose 5.7 percent. From October 
through January, finished energy prices 
climbed at an annual rate of 26.2 percent, 
far more than the 4.5 percent annual rate 
of increase for the six months ended in 
October, BLS observed. 

Energy prices at the crude and inter- 
mediate stages also rose sharply in Janu- 
ary — 2.2 and 2.8 percent, respectively. 
The crude energy component has risen 
at an accelerating rate in the past few 
months. It went up 1.2 percent in Novem- 
ber and 1.7 percent in December. 

The major bright spot in the January 
wholesale figures was the stability in food 
prices. Prices for finished consumer foods 
were unchanged after climbing six-tenths 
of 1 percent in the preceding month. 

THE ONLY substantial food price in- 
creases were for milled rice, fish, and soft 
drinks. Prices of such finished food items 
as fresh fruits, eggs, processed poultry, 
pork, and roasted coffee all fell by 2.5 per- 
cent or more. Yet many analysts, includ- 
ing government officials, expect food 
prices to climb by as much as 15 percent 
at the consumer level for the year as a 
whole. 

Capital equipment prices rose 1 percent 
in January, about the same as in Decem- 
ber. Prices for durable goods were un- 
changed for the second month in a row, 
but prices for nondurables jumped 1 .7 per- 
cent after rising eight-tenths of 1 percent 
in December. 

Prices for intermediate goods — items 
such as flour and fabric which require 
further processing — ^were up 1.2 percent, 
matching December’s rise. Prices of crude 
goods fell 1 percent due mainly to declines 
for foodstuffs and nonfood materials other 
than energy. 

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Polish Labor Cited 
For 1st Meany Award 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Solidarity, the 
free trade union federation of Poland, 
has been selected as the first recipient 
of the AFL-CIO’s George Meany Inter- 
national Human Rights Award, which 
the Executive Council established last 
year. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
said the award to Solidarity was rec- 
ommended by the council’s international 
affairs committee and will be presented 
during this centennial year of the Amer- 
ican labor movement ^^at an appropriate 
time and manner to be worked out 
later.” 

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Council Vows Firm Stand 
To Protect Key Programs 

Approach to Reagan 



Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, February 28, 1981 No. 9 



FORMER HOSTAGE Kathryn L. Koob came to the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil to thank the labor movement for its support of No Greater Love, an organi- 
zation that assisted the families of the hostages during the 444 days of captivity 
as it has helped veterans and their families over the years. The yellow table- 
cloth she presented to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland was signed by all 52 
former hostages. Koob, who was an International Communication Agency em- 
ployee in Tehran, is a former member of the American Federation of Teachers 
and AFT President Albert Shanker, right, joins in welcoming her. 


Employer Role Blamed 
For Illegal Alien Flood 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The United States 
should combine a “compassionate” immi- 
gration policy with strong measures to 
stem the flood of illegal immigrants and 
crack down on employers who profit by 
exploiting them, the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council said. 

Millions of illegal aliens constitute a 
large “sub-class, ’ without rights, prey to 
unscrupulous employers and subject to the 
constant fear of discovery,” the council 
noted. “Minorities, women and unem- 
ployed workers who are legal aliens or citi- 
zens see their own opportunities for a 
better life threatened by a frightened and 
docile illegal workforce.” 

THE COUNCIL statement expressed 
general agreement with the preliminary 
recommendations of the Select Commis- 
sion on Immigration & Refugee Policy, 
which will submit its final report in the 
near future. 

But the AFL-CIO stressed that labor re- 
jects apy “inference” that might be drawn 
from the report “that the primary goal of 
immigration policy should be fostering 
economic growth through the use of low- 
skilled and low-paid immigrants.” 

It welcomed, however, recommenda- 
tions for sanctions against employers who 
regularly harbor illegal aliens and frequent- 
ly flout wage-hour laws and other worker 
protections. 

THE PROBLEM is serious enough “to 
warrant development of a more secure 
identification mechanism to enable employ- 


ers to readily determine the legal status of 
job applicants,” the AFL-CIO said. But 
“there must also be stringent, effective en- 
forcement of civil rights laws to protect 
workers against employer discrimination.” 

The Executive Council also heard a re- 
port on immigration issues and labor’s con- 
cerns from J. F. Otero, a vice president of 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Will Focus on Issues 

By David L. Perlman 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — The AFL-CIO considers a strong government role essential 
to get the nation back on the road to full employment, and labor isn’t prepared to 
leave worker health, safety and wage protections to the vagaries of the marketplace. 

Key resolutions adopted by the AFL-CIO Executive Council during six days of 
meetings reflected those basic principles — and the issue-oriented approach that the 
AFL-CIO is bringing into the Reagan years. 

Conflict with the new Administration won’t be sought out. Nor will it be avoided 
when principle is at stake, the council made clear. 

Thus, the council protested the social security cutbacks proposed by the Presi- 
dent as “a breach of faith” with America’s workers and pledged that the AFL-CIO 
will “vigorously oppose” their adoption. 

Oil Industry’s 
Profits Register 
30 % Gain in 1980 

The major American oil firms boosted 
their profits 30 percent in 1980 — a year 
of recession for other industries — after 
racking up record profit gains in 1979. 

This was done despite the windfall 
profits tax, which was in effect for almost 
all of 1980, and in the face of reduced 
heating oil and gasoline consumption. 

THE FINDINGS are from a special 
Democratic Study Group report on oil 
company profits. The income information 
was gathered by the Congressional Re- 
search Service from data supplied by the 
oil companies themselves. CRS is the re- 
search arm of the Library of Congress. 
Other highlights of the report: 

• Oil company profits accounted for 
40 percent of all profits earned by U.S. 
industrial firms in 1980, up from their 18 
percent share just two years earlier. 

• Profits of the nation’s 20 largest oil 
companies have risen 404 percent since 
1972, or 188 percent when adjusted for 
inflation. 

• Oil companies have considerably 
more money available for their use than 
profit figures indicate. In most years, the 
actual cash available was twice as much 
as net profits. 

The study reports that profits of the 
20 top firms last year were in excess of 
$29 billion, or $7 billion more than in 
1979. The increase is especially impressive 
in light of the fact that 1979 was itself a 
spectacularly profitable year for oil com- 
panies, and that the crude oil windfall 

(Continued on Page 6) 


EARLIER, THE Executive Council had 
sharply questioned President Reagan’s eco- 
nomic package, contending that it de- 
mands heavy sacrifices from those with the 
least and rewards the wealthy. 

But other important policy statements 
covered areas that are not necessarily 
sources of conflict, including foreign policy 
positions and domestic issues on which Ad- 
ministration policy is still being formulated. 

In the sensitive area of immigration 
policy and the problem of illegal aliens, 
the council urged a crackdown on employ- 
ers who hire and exploit illegal aliens as 
the first step in stemming a flood that is 
depressing wages and job opportunities 
for those at the bottom rung of the job 
ladder. The Reagan Administration has not 
yet taken a position in this area. 

TWO CABINET members and the Sen- 
ate majority leader brought assurances to 
the Executive Council that labor’s voice 
will be listened to and its views taken into 
consideration. 

But AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
made clear at a news conference that he 
did not agree with the assessment of labor 
Sec. Ray Donovan that labor leaders rec- 
ognize that the President has an election 
mandate to put his economic program into 
effect. 

“Do you agree with that?” Kirkland was 
asked. 

“No, I don’t,” he replied. “I doubt very 
much whether the working people of the 
state of Michigan thought they were voting 
for severe cutbacks in unemployment com- 
pensation, or severe cutbacks in trade ad- 
justment assistance. I doubt very much if 
people with children in the public schools 
thought they were voting for cutbacks in 
federal aid to education.” 

Kirkland said council members found 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Real Earnings Continue Slump 


Welcome declines in grocery prices — 
the first in nearly a year — held down the 
rise in the nation’s inflation rate last month 
but still kept working Americans from 
breaking even, the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics reported. 

Workers’ buying power, expressed as 
“real spendable earnings,” fell one-tenth 
of 1 percent in January, and was down 4 
percent over the year, BLS said. Real 
spendable earnings are take-home pay ad- 
justed for the impact of inflation since 
1967. 

LAST MONTH’S drop in purchasing 
power was due to an eight-tenths of 1 per- 
cent increase in consumer prices, a jump 
that lifted the government’s consumer 
price index 1 1 .7 percent above its year- 
earlier level. The January rise compared 
with increases of about 1 percent in each 
of the preceding four months. 

Despite the drop in the inflation rate. 


Chairman Murray Weidenbaum of the 
President’s Council of Economic Advisers 
was not optimistic. The five-tenths of 1 
percent decline in food and beverage 
prices was heavily outweighed by a sharp 
rise in energy costs, leaving the country 
“still in a double-digit inflationary en- 
vironment,” he said. 

The average earnings of all non- 
supervisory workers in private, non-farm 
jobs in January were $249.21 a week in 
current dollars, or $21.01 higher than a 
year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, and 
expressed in terms of 1967 dollars, how- 
ever, the average worker’s “real” weekly 
pay was only $95.19 — a decrease of $2.25 
from a year earlier. 

SLOWING FOOD and housing costs 
accounted for nearly all of the overall im- 
provement in the January price picture. 
The drop in grocery-store prices was the 
first since February 1980. Prices of meats. 


poultry, fish, eggs, and fresh fruits and 
vegetables all contributed to the decline. 

The sharpest price drops were for cured 
pork items and eggs. Shank portion hams 
went down 6.5 cents a pound and grade 
A eggs were 8.8 cents lower than in 
December. Bacon was down 6 cents a 
pound; the price of a pound of ground 
chuck was down a penny, and porter- 
house steak was off 2.8 cents. The largest 
drop for any item was a 20.1 -cent decline 
in the price of instant coffee. White sugar 
was down 2.7 cents a pound. 

On the other hand, higher prices were 
posted for cereals and bakery products, 
and dairy product prices rose substantially. 
Fresh tomatoes were up 13 cents. 

ABOUT 40 PERCENT of the seven- 
tenths of 1 percent rise in housing costs 
was due to higher shelter costs. Home 
financing rose 1.3 percent as an increase 
(Continued on Page 7) 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 



EXECUTIVE COUNCIL members pose for their “class McClennan, Joyce D. Miller, John J. Sweeney, Lloyd Mc- 
photo” during the midwinter meeting. In front row, from Bride, Alvin E. Heaps, William W. Winpisinger and Fred 
left, Martin J. Ward, S. Frank Raftery, Frederick O’Neal, J. Kroll. In back row. Emmet Andrews, John DeConcini, 
Peter Bommarito, Thomas R. Donahue, Lane Kirkland, John Angelo Fosco, William Konyha, David J. Fitzmaurice, Albert 
H. Lyons, Thomas W. Gleason, Jerry Wurf and A1 H. Ches- Shanker, Sol C. Chaikin, Murray H. Finley, Wayne E. 
ser. In second row, Robert F. Goss, J. C. Turner, William Glenn, John J. O’Donnell, Dan V. Maroney and Kenneth 
H. Wynn, Glenn E. Watts, Charles H. Pillard, William H. T. Blaylock. Not in the picture is Edward T. Hanley. 


United Way Local Chapters 
Urged to Uphold Union Rights 


llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllillililllllllllillllllllllllll^ 

Danny Thomas Picked 
For Top Labor Award 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Danny Thomas, 
the entertainer who has almost single- 
handedly raised funds to establish and 
maintain St. Jude’s Children’s Research 
Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., has been 
chosen to receive the 1981 Murray- 
Green-Meany Award, the AFL-CIO’s 
highest honor. 

The selection of Thomas was recom- 
mended by the Community Services 
Committee and unanimously approved 
by the AFL-CIO Council. 

iiiiiiiiiiiimniiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiin 

Employer Profits 
Blamed for Tide 
Of Illegal Aliens 

(Continued from Page 1) 

the Railway & Airline Clerks and a public 
member of the Select Commission on Im- 
migration & Refugee Policy. Otero is also 
the author of a major article in the Feb- 
ruary issue of the AFL-CIO American 
Federationist, entitled “Immigration Pol- 
icy: Drifting Toward Disaster.” 

THE COUNCIL urged additional fund- 
ing and upgrading of the Immigration & 
Naturalization Service and cautioned 
against making INS employees as a group 
scapegoats for management failures in the 
agency. 

It welcomed the select commission’s re- 
jection of proposals for a large-scale bra- 
cero or guest- worker program. And the 
council agreed with the concept of coop- 
eration by government, employers and un- 
ions to end the dependence of any industry 
on an annual influx of temporary workers 
from other countries. 

“Any new immigration policy should 
foster reunification of . families and offer 
haven for refugees from persecution, while 
adhering to the principle of concern for 
the welfare of American workers,” the 
council said. “The United States is, and 
must remain, a pluralistic society.” 

THE STATEMENT stressed that the 
AFL-CIO also shares the select commis- 
sion’s view that the United States “cannot 
and should not be expected to accommo- 
date the more than 15 million refugees 
now scattered throughout the world. An 
international problem demands interna- 
tional responsibility,” and the United States 
should join with other nations in seeking 
solutions, the Executive Council said. 

In Congress, the AFL-CIO will partici- 
pate in the effort “to shape a new immi- 
gration policy that is compassionate and 
fair,” the statement said. 


* Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council praised the leadership of 
the United Way of America for its con- 
tinuing^policy of respecting the right of its 
employees to join unions. The council 
called on the United Way to have its affil- 
iates and voluntary agencies that receive 
United Way funding adopt similar for- 
mal understandings on the rights of their 
workers. 

THE UNITED WAY policy was for- 
malized in 1979 in a memorandum of un- 
derstanding with the AFL-CIO which, in 
part, spelled out the agency’s support of 
the rights of its workers to organize and 
bargain and urged the use of union prod- 
ucts- and union labor in its activities. 

While this policy has been “faithfully 
adhered to” by the United Way’s national 
and regional staff, the council expressed 
concern that the principles “have not al- 
ways been honored at the local levels.” 

Union-busting law firms have been hired 
by some local United Way agencies to keep 
unions out, the council said, and workers 
in those agencies have encountered “stiff 
resistance” to their attempts to organize. 

The Executive Council praised the ef- 
forts of the federation’s Dept, of Commu- 
nity Services as well as local AFL-CIO 
councils in resolving these disputes. 

The most troublesome area has been in 
local agencies funded by local United Way 
organizations, the council emphasized. It 
recommended that the 1979 understanding 
“be applied to all agency applications for 
United Way funding” as a condition for 
receiving funds. 

About 50 percent of United Way’s 
‘annual budget of $1.6 billion comes from 


American workers. In addition to substan- 
tial contributions, American workers “have 
proven a commitment” to community ser- 
vice by volunteering time and effort to 
agencies that offer needed health, welfare 
and recreation services, the council noted. 

Stressing the AFL-CIO’s “deep commit- 
ment to extending a helping hand to all 
citizens in need,” the council said that 
“labor support for the mission of the 
United Way and its affiliates carries with it 
a concern that actions not be taken by the 
United Way or its affiliates contrary to the 
well-being of organized labor.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The AFL-CIO re- 
newed its commitment to wiping out dis- 
crimination in the workplace and pledged 
an intensified effort to achieve equal em- 
ployment opportunity in all sectors of the 
economy. 

Labor will work both for enforcement 
of the equal employment rights guaranteed 
by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and 
for development and voluntary affirmative 
action programs, the Executive Council 
said. 

THE FEDERATION said it will: 

• Oppose efforts to weaken the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission. 

• Expand the compilation . and dissem- 
ination through the AFL-CIO Dept, of 


Fight Pledged 
Against Move 
To Gut OSHA 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — America’s workers 
need the protections of the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act, and the trade union 
movement will resist any attempt to weak- 
en the law or its enforcement, the -AFL- 
CIO declared. 

The federation’s Executive Council ex- 
pressed concern that the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s holdup of job safety and health 
regulations will be interpreted by foes of 
OSHA as “a green light to launch renewed 
legislative attacks on the law.” 

OSHA HAS proven its effectiveness, the 
council stressed. In its first 10 years of 
operation, it reduced serious workplace in- 
juries by 15 percent and cut fatalities 10 
percent. Its accomplishments have been 
especially noteworthy “in the most haz- 
ardous industries, where OSHA enforce- 
ment activity has been most intensive,” 
the council said. 

Right-wing groups that lash out at “big 
government” have tried to make OSHA a 
symbol of excessive government regula- 
tion, but workers view it as “more than a 
symbol,” the Executive Council noted. It 
is an essential safeguard. 

“This lifeline must not be cut by ad- 
ministrative or legislative pruning shears, 
nor evaluated solely by dollars and cents 
calculations that inadequately measure the 
value of life and. health,” the council in- 
sisted. 

IT REITERATED labor’s opposition to 
exclusion of small enterprises from OSHA 
enforcement. 

“All workers need the protection of 
OSHA,” the council said. “Injury and ill- 
ness do not respect smaller employers any 
more than larger ones.” 

The labor movement is concerned about 
both safety and health on the job, the 
council said. Labor’s goal, it stressed, is 
the same as that which is written into the 
law, “a safe and healthful workplace for 
every American worker.” 


Civil Rights of information about pro- 
■grams by affiliates to expand equal job 
opportunities, affirmative action and “par- 
ticipation of minorities and women in their 
unions and their communities.” 

• Continue to support apprenticeship 
outreach programs. 

• Work for continued funding under 
Title III of the Comprehensive Employ- 
ment & Training Act to continue national 
union and community-based job programs 
such as those conducted by a number of 
affiliates and by the AFL-CIO’s Human 
Resources Development Institute, the Na- 
tional Urban League’s Labor Education 
Advancement Program, the Recruitment 
& Training Program and the Opportunities 
Industrialization Centers. 

• Continue labor’s close alliance with 
the civil rights movement, through the 
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, on 
legislative measures to insure equal oppor- 
tunity. 

• Maintain AFL-CIO support for ac- 
tivities of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, 
the Labor Council for Latin American 
Advancement and the Coalition of Labor 
Union Women in order “to encourage 
greater participation by women and mi- 
norities in the labor movement and in the 
community.” 

• Strengthen coalitions with - such 
groups as the NAACP, the National Ur- 
ban League and the Southern Regional 
Council “in progressive programs to elim- 
inate segregation in education, housing, 
jobs and voting.” 

The council urged affiliates to work 
with the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Commit- 
tee “in carrying out an aggressive program 
to eliminate discrimination in the work- 
place and to enhance the civil rights of all 
Americans.” 



EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SESSION is addressed by Heinz Oskar Vetter, presi- 
dent of the DGB, the trade union federation of the Federal Republic of Germany. 
From left: AFL-CIO Vice President Murray H. Finley, DGB International Af- 
fairs Director Erwin Kristoffersen, Vetter, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
DGB Vice President Alois Pfeiffer, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, 
and Vice President Lloyd McBride. 


Labor Renews Commitment 
To Equal Job Opportunity 



AFI^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


Page Three 


Council Vows Fight for Key Programs 


Issue-Oriented Approach 
Adopted for Reagan Years 



AT NEWS CONFERENCE following an Executive Council session, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland answers questions on actions the council took covering 
economic issues, foreign affairs and labor’s political role. 


Economic Woes Compounded 
By Jobless Benefit Cutbacks 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Donovan’s assertion at a new conference 
that many of them had spoken up for the 
President’s program “rather puzzling” 
since nothing of the sort happened. “Not 
while I was there, and I didn’t leave the 
room,” Kirkland assured reporters. 

The council statements also covered a 
broad array of foreign policy issues. 

In one, the AFL-CIO urged that the 
United States withdraw from UNESCO if 
that UN body should give its support to a 
doctrine that would limit freedom of the 
press by imposing standards of govern- 
ment-determined “responsibility” for jour- 
nalists who would be allowed to report 
news from developing nations. 

EARLIER THE council had urged that 
extension of American credits to Poland 
be conditioned on continued survival of 
that country’s free trade union movement. 

In El Salvador, the council said, U.S. 
assistance should require in return effec- 
tive action to. bring domestic violence 
under control and institute democratic 
reforms. 

The council voted financial and techni- 
cal assistance to help black workers in 
South Africa organize functioning trade 
unions. It asked emergency relief for refu- 
gees from war and drought in Somalia, 
and it endorsed the goals of a Cuban free- 
dom group headed by Huber Matos. 

On trade issues, the Executive Council 
stressed the need to maintain the U.S. in- 
dustrial base against rising imports. 

IT REITERATED, strongly, the AFL- 
CIO’s conviction that the government has 
an obligation to provide both for the na- 
tion’s defense and the general welfare, as 
the Constitution mandates, not one or the 
other. 

One day of the council meeting was set 
aside for a session of the COPE Admin- 
istrative Committee, which includes all 
council members as well as COPE groups. 

In addition to an election analysis by 
COPE Director A1 Barkan, the group also 
heard a report on checkoff procedures for 
voluntary contributions to COPE from a 
council subcommittee headed by Vice 
President J. C. Turner, and an evaluation 
of reapportionment and congressional re- 
districting issues from David Wells, an 
authority in’ the area who was “loaned” 
to COPE by the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 

KIRKLAND TOLD a news conference 
that the council is exploring means of in- 
creasing union influence in the selection 
of candidates in both political parties and 
the possibility of pre-convention consensus 
among unions on support of a candidate. 

The council unanimously agreed to set 
up a committee to make recommendations 
on these issues. Kirkland will serve as 
chairman and the members are Vice Presi- 
dents John H. Lyons, Jerry Wurf, S. Frank 
Raftery, Murray H. Finley, Albert Shank- 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The United States 
should withdraw from UNESCO if that 
international body endorses restrictions on 
freedom of the press, the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council said. 

.UNESCO, the initials of the United 
Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural 
Organization, has been flirting with ap- 
proval of governmental control of access 
to news and the dissemination of news 
under the guise of enhancing coverage of 
the developing nations of the Third World 
and “protecting” journalists. 

The council noted that last October a 
UNESCO conference barely stopped short 
of supporting “licensing” of journalists 
whose coverage of news meets a govern- 
ment test of “responsibility.” 


er, Glenn E. Watts, Sol C. Chaikin, J. C. 
Turner, Lloyd McBride, William W. Win- 
pisinger, William H. Wynn, Fred J. Kroll 
and John J. Sweeney. 

THE COUNCIL placed New York Air, 
the cut-rate Washington-New York-Boston 
air service that the Pilots branded a “run- 
away shop,” on the AFL-CIO’s “unfair 
list.” It also voted formal endorsement of 
the boycott of Perdue poultry products by 
the Food & Commercial Workers. 

Entertainer Danny Thomas, the moving 
spirit behind St. Jude’s Children’s Research 
Hospital, was chosen to receive this year’s 
Murray-Green-Meany Award. The United 
Way of America was praised for its own 
policy upholding the right of its employees 
to join unions, but the council expressed 
concern that these principles “have not 
always been honored at the local levels.” 

The council also set up a committee to 
develop procedures to encourage voluntary 
union mergers. 

VICE PRESIDENT Lloyd McBride pre- 
sented a committee report on coopera- 
tive organizing activities under way and 
being planned. The George Meany Memo- 
rial Committee reported on previously an- 
nounced plans for establishing an archives 
at the George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies. Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
formally announced the dissolution of the 
federation’s Railway Employes’ Dept. 

The council sent back to an impartial 
umpire a dispute over representation rights 
for a group of state employees whose pre- 
viously unaffiliated association had acted 
to join one of three AFL-CIO unions that 
were parties to the case. The umpire had 
declined to rule on the legitimacy of the 
affiliation because it is before the courts. 

Such an approach, the Executive Coun- 
cil held, “encourages litigation over bar- 
gaining rights” and thus is contrary to the 
intent of Article XX of the AFL-CIO Con- 
stitution that disputes be resolved through 
internal processes. The umpire was asked 
to determine the affiliation issue in accord 
with previous Executive Council policy 
and to decide other issues “to the extent 
necessary.” 

THE EXECUTIVE Council approved 
contributions to the Labor Council for 
Latin American Advancement, National 
Council of Senior Citizens, Coalition of 
Labor Union Women, Committee for Na- 
tional Health Insurance, Leadership Con- 
ference on Civil Rights, National Urban 
League LEAP program. National Urban 
Coalition, National Council of Negro 
Women, Southern Regional Council, Coa- 
lition to Protect Social Security, National 
Assembly of Voluntary Health & Social 
Welfare Organizations, and the Consumer 
Federation of America. 

The council will hold its next meeting in 
Baltimore on May 7 and 8, in conjunction 
with the Union-Industries Show which will 
be held there. 


The most recent attempt to promote the 
authoritarian “responsibility” doctrine was 
thwarted while the council was in session, 
when Western protests forced the expan- 
sion of a UNESCO conference of non- 
governmental journalist groups to include 
organizations opposed to press restrictions. 

THE ORIGINAL invitation list by the 
UNESCO secretariat was limited to sup- 
porters of the responsibility doctrine. 

“The United States must not be a party 
to any international support of policies 
that flout our own constitutional liberties,” 
the Executive Council insisted. “Our gov- 
ernment should serve firm notice that the 
United States will withdraw from 
UNESCO if that body endorses restric- 
tions on press freedom.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The nation’s reces- 
sion-battered economy could be in critical 
trouble if Congress continues to weaken 
the unemployment insurance program, the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council warned. 

With joblessness at near-record levels, 
the cushion of unemployment compensa- 
tion is as necessary to the economy as to 
the families of millions of unemployed 
workers, the council stressed. 

ITS STATEMENT contrasted the rec- 
ommendations for federal minimum stan- 
dards of benefits that were made last year 
by the National Commission on Unem- 
ployment Compensation with the regres- 
sive legislation that Congress ended up 
adopting. 

The last Congress weakened “suitability” 
of work standards and said the long-term 
unemployed must be willing to take almost 

Mediation Role 
Vital in Settling 
Internal Disputes 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Most disputes be- 
tween AFL-CIO affiliates continue to be 
resolved through mediation — the first step 
in the federation’s Internal Disputes Plan. 

A report to the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council noted that 56.7 percent of the 
2,091 cases dealt with since the plan was 
initiated in 1962 were settled with the 
assistance of a mediator drawn from a 
panel of union officials. 

'Cases not resolved at that level are • 
assigned to one of the federation’s three 
impartial umpires, with a further appeal 
to the Executive Council allowed only on 
the recommendation of a council subcom- 
mittee. 

DURING 1980, 50 cases were settled 
in mediation with 25 pending at the end 
of the report period. Umpires issued rul- 
ings in 46 cases, with eight pending. Exe- 
cutive Council subcommittees sustained 
14 determinations that were appealed, 
referred four to the Executive Council, 
and four others were withdrawn. Twelve 
appeals were pending. The council set 
aside or modified four determinations by 
umpires. 

In the 18 years of the program, 15 
affiliates have been found to have failed 
to comply with final decisions, but in 13 
cases compliance was later achieved and 
the affiliates’ rights under Article XX of 
the AFL-CIO Constitution were restored. 

Two organizations are now under sanc- 
tions — the International Typographical 
Union and the Graphic Arts International 
Union. 


any type of work paying the minimum 
wage. It imposed a mandatory waiting pe- 
riod for benefits, barred extended benefits 
to a worker who “voluntarily” leaves a 
job or is fired for “misconduct,” and cut 
jobless benefits by 50 percent of any pen- 
sion or social security benefit. 

A host of other cutback measures are 
likely to be considered in this Congress, 
the council noted, including elimination of 
the national “trigger” that puts the ex- 
tended benefits program into effect in 
every state when the insured unemploy- 
ment rate is high. 

ALSO, the council said, one “budget- 
balancing” proposal would “juggle unem- 
ployment figures by treating the long-term 
unemployed as if they didn’t exist.” The 
effect would be to end the extended bene- 
fit program in 18 of the 26 states where 
it now exists. 

The council also protested an Adminis- 
tration proposal that it said would compel 
jobless workers, “regardless of their skills 
or experience,” to take minimum wage 
jobs after three months or lose their un- 
employment insurance. 

Congress should reject any further cut- 
backs in unemployment insurance, the 
AFL-CIO urged. “Instead of cutting down 
on the program, both its financing and its 
basic protection should be strengthened.” 

LABOR SEC. Raymond Donovan ex- 
panded on the Administration proposal 
in testimony before the House Ways & 
Means Committee. He argued that unem- 
ployment benefits to workers should be cut 
off if they refuse to accept job offers in a 
different occupation at or above minimum 
wage after 13 weeks of joblessness. 

Donovan noted that the current system 
commonly allows workers to receive bene- 
fits for up to six months if they cannot find 
a job in their old occupation. 

This “does not make sense,” he con- 
tended. He said “workers must be chal- 
lenged to adjust their lives and their ca- 
reers to meet changing conditions.” 

Donovan said that the Administration 
was proposing that, beginning in October 
1982, workers be allowed to draw their 
first 13 weeks of unemployment compen- 
sation while searching for a job in their 
customary occupation at prevailing rates. 

“AFTER THIS initial period, workers 
whose prospects of returning to their old 
line of work are not good would be denied 
benefits if they refused written offers of 
work which would pay wages at least as 
high as the minimum wage or their current 
UI (unemployment insurance) benefits, 
whichever is higher,” he said. 

Donovan estimated that the annual sav- 
ings to the government would be $285 mil- 
lion if the Administration’s proposal were 
adopted. 


UNESCO’s Threat to Press 
Prompts Call for U.S., Pullout 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


The Jobless Aid Cushion 

U NEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE is essential to the millions 
of American workers and their families who are out of work. 
With the persistence of the second highest unemployment levels 
since the Depression, an effective and sound unemployment in- 
surance system is critical to the economy. 

But efforts are continuing to deny benefits to large numbers of 
workers and to reduce the duration of payments for many others. 
The only result can be added pressure on welfare programs and a 
serious deterioration in the skills of workers by forcing them to 
accept inappropriate, unskilled jobs. 

The AFL-CIO has long advocated establishment of federal min- 
imum benefit standards that would assure all workers an adequate 
replacement of their lost wages if they are out of work and seek- 
ing suitable work commensurate with their experience and skills. 

THE NATIONAL COMMISSION on Unemployment Compen- 
sation, composed of labor, management and public representa- 
tives, recommended federal minimum benefit standards last year. 
Even though the recommendations were not up to the levels ad- 
vocated by the AFL-CIO, Congress ignored the proposals and 
instead enacted harsh provisions that virtually force states to 
slash existing unemployment insurance protections. 

Still other backward steps are being advocated by the Admin- 
istration and Sen. David Boren (D-Okla.) and others, including 
sharp curtailment of the benefits paid to those workers unem- 
ployed the longest during periods of severe economic recession. 
By eliminating the national “trigger,” under which up to 13 addi- 
tional weeks of benefits are paid to long-term jobless workers who 
exhaust their * benefits when insured unemployment reaches 4.5 
percent, long-term jobless workers and their families would be de- 
nied benefits unless their state was suffering calamitous unem- 
ployment. 

So-called budget-balancing proposals are being advanced to 
juggle unemployment figures by treating the long-term unemployed 
as if they didn’t exist. It is ludicrous to suggest that the severe 
problems faced by those who have been without work for months 
can be solved by pretending they aren’t there. Under these pro- 
posals, extended benefits now actually paid in 26 states would be 
withdrawn m all but eight states. 

EN ADDITION, the Administration has proposed that all job- 
less workers, regardless of their skills or experience, be forced to 
take minimum wage jobs after three months or lose their unem- 
ployment insurance. 

Unemployment insurance cushions jobless workers and their 
families suffering a severe reduction in living standards and helps 
preserve the skilled workforce needed when economic conditions 
improve. Instead of cutting down on the program, both its financ- 
ing and its basic protection should be strengthened, including 
federal minimum benefit standards. 

We urge the Congress to reject further cutbacks in unemploy- 
ment insurance and to restore those protections which have been 
an important part of this program. 

— From AFL-CIO Executive Council statement adopted Feb, 
20, 1981, at Bal Harbour, Fla. 


•Ullllillllllllliillllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllilllllllllllllllillllllllilllllllllllllllllllllillllllll^^ 







Official Weekly Publication 
. of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


= Director of Information: Saul Miller E 

S Managing Editor: John M. Barry = 

S Assistant Editors: S 

S Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 1 

E David L. Perlman James M. Shevis E 

1 AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. = 

= Washington, D.C. 20006 . S 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

I Vol. XXVI Saturday, February 28, 1981 No. 9 | 


lADnODDCCCK' E 


S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
ss for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
s ington, D.C, 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
S tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. _ 

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‘And We Raise You. . .’ 



Opening Wedge . / 


Subminimum Pay for Youth 
Would Undermine All Wages 


By Gus Tyler 

T he proposal to reduce the minimum 
wage of youth is the thin edge of a wedge 
that will ultimately cut the wages of women, 
minorities, and especially young blacks. Whatever 
arguments are presently being put forward to set 
a subminimum wage for young people apply with 
equal vigor to females, blacks, Hispanics and 
double for minority youngsters. 

The faddish argument for enacting a youth sub- 
minimum runs this way: teenage unemployment 
is high because employers do not think that 
youngsters deserve the going minimum; but, if the 
floor were lowered for youth, more of them would 
be hired. 

NOW LET’S SEE how this argument applies to 
others: 

Many employers will not hire women because, 
says management, they are less dependable and 
experienced than men. Their work life is inter- 
rupted by childbearing and rearing. They are often 
unable to report to work because of illness at 
home among other members of the family. In 
short, the woman’s nurturing role in the house dis- 
rupts her worklife. 

But, continue such employers, if the minimum 
were lowered for women, management would hire 
more females. 

The same argument is used about blacks and 
Hispanics. Because many of them have grown 
up in disadvantaged environments, if is pointed 
out, they bring less education and other work 
skills or habits to their job. Hence, employers are 
reluctant to hire these minorities if they can get 
others from a more advantaged background. 

BUT, AGAIN, if employers could hire minori- 
ties for less (a lower minimum) the management 
would employ more blacks and Hispanics. 

The same argument applies with double force 
to black youth whose jobless rate is at least 
double that of white youth. Lowering the mini- 
mum for all youngsters would not solv^ the black 
problem. Black youth would still suffer a higher 
jobless rate because of their skin color. So, to en- 
able them to compete with white youth, there 
would have to be a sub-subminimum wage for 
black youth. 

,By this logic, a clear majority of the present 


labor force would be exempt from the standard 
minimum wage and dumped into some category of 
subminimum. Women make up about 40 percent ^ 

of the labor force; when youth and minorities are 
added, the total is well over 50 percent. 

Will such a system of lowered wages provide ' " ■ 

jobs for more women, youth, and minorities? The " 
answer is, yes — ^for a white. Lower-paid minori- ^ ^ - 
ties will displace higher-paid whites; lower-paid - 
women will displace higher-paid men; sons and 
daughters will displace fathers and mothers. - . 

THE NUMBER OF jobless in the country will - 
not be reduced. Higher-paid workers will be out " 
of jobs that will be filled by lower-paid workers. - 

But it won’t stop there. Shortly, overall unem- 
ployment will increase. As the total wage drops, - " 
total buying power will fall — weakening the mar- 
ket for goods and services and workers. " ; ^ 

In the long run, the drop in the demand for all v ^ 
labor will hit everyone, regardless of race, age, 
or sex. 


Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 




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A usterity Must Be 
Applied with Equity 

When we entered into a National Accord 
with the Carter Administration, we said we 
were prepared to accept a period of austerity 
so long as austerity was equitably distributed, 
and so long as no one would be exempted ex- 
cept those at the bottom of the ladder who had 
no more notches in their belt, who never knew 
anything in their lives but austerity. 

I still believe those are sound principles. 

There is a difference between ratcheting 
everything down a bit, on an equitable basis, 
and abolishing or crippling vital programs. That 
is a far different approach than to treat every- 
body alike. 

If anybody is going to get an extra dose of 
austerity, it should be the ones that have the 
most fat on their bones and the most unused 
notches on their belts. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at 
press conference during AFL-CIO Executive 
Council meeting, Bal Harbour, Fla. 

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T 

V 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


Page Five 


'High-Risk Gamble’ 


Reagan’s Economic Program 
Fails Test of Fairness, Equity 






and short-sighted. He pledged to “fulfill the obli- 
gations that spring from our national conscience,” 
but, in fact, his call for $17.5 billion in budget 
reductions in social programs would cut the mea- 
ger incomes of the jobless and the poor. , 

For nearly 50 years, this country has built a 
network of social programs to improve the lot of 
the disadvantaged, provide support in times of 
adversity and strengthen the American economy. 
To destroy or weaken these programs is to weak- 
en Amercia. 

The President, in seeking additional budget 
cuts, would slash an additional $24 billion by 
reducing social investments necessary to expand 
the economy. Not only would those cuts have an 
immediate cost of more than 1 million jobs, but 
they endanger the nation’s long-range needs for 
energy security, transportation improvements, en- 
vironmental safeguards and urban development. 

The President relies entirely on the theory that 
the tax cuts he proposes will result in private 
financing for these necessary investments. There 
is little basis for this hope. Public employees will 
bear an additional unfair burden. 

By contrast, the AFL-CIO would attack the 
budget deficit by reducing unemployment and 
cutting interest rates. A reduction in unemploy- 
ment of 1 percent would cut $30 billion from 
that deficit. 

Regulatory Policy 

THE PRESIDENT contends that the laws pro- 
tecting health, safety, and the environment and 
consumers passed in the last decade have caused 
“higher prices, higher unemployment and lower 
productivity growth.” He ignores the contributions 
these laws have made to a higher quality of life. 

In the name of business efficiency, he would 
let the marketplace determine if, when and how 
workers, buyers and natural resources are to be 
protected. Past experience demonstrates that the 
market undervalues the need for these protections. 

In addition, the regulatory analyses the Presi- 
dent initiated will increase red tape by making 
legal proceedings longer, more complicated and 
more expensive. While he calls for assessing costs 
and benefits, he provides no method for valuing 
health and safety or accurately projecting costs. 
Finally, by increasing the powers of the Office of 
Management & Budget, the government’s ability 
to enforce protective laws as Congress intended is 
undermined. 

:ic :fc )]c :ic :ic 

THE PRESIDENT’S program is a high-risk 
gamble with the future of America. Workers and 
The poor take the lion’s share of the risk. The 
only sure winners are the wealthy, whether they 
are individuals or corporations. 

It is a gamble that has not paid off in the past 
and one the nation cannot afford to take. We will, 
therefore, join with other concerned citizens to 
advance an economic program that will meet the 
nation’s needs fairly and equitably and with true 
equality of sacrifice. 


By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he old patterns of segregated roles for men and women 
in work and family life have changed dramatically over the 
past two decades as women, especially married mothers, have 
entered the labor force in huge numbers. 

More than half the children in the United States under 1 8 years 
of age have mothers who are working or seeking work. The na- 
tion’s most prevalent family type is now the two-parent, two- 
wage-earner family. Add the many single-parent families in which 
the sole parent — usually a woman — works and the “typical” 
American family in the 1980s is one with working parents. 

While a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, “work- 
ing families” long have been the norm in many European nations, 
according to Sheila Kamerman, associate professor at Columbia 
University’s School of Social Work. 

KAMERMAN’S STUDY comparing the “working family” in 
the United States and five European nations was recently published 
in the Labor Dept.’s Monthly Labor Review. 

She chose five nations with similar levels of industrialization 
and certain characteristics: half the adult women or more are in 
the labor force; women with school-age children are expected to 
work, and a similar pattern is emerging for those with pre-school 
children; and the government has focused attention on working 
parents with children under age three, when the tension between 
work and family life is most severe. The nations studied were 
Hungary, West Germany, East Germany, France and Sweden. 

The author found that in the United States, 56 percent of work- 
ing mothers have school-age children, 48 percent have children 
aged three to six years and 35 percent have children under age 
three. Comparable statistics for France are 48 percent, 44 percent 
and 43 percent. In West Germany, the figures are 41 percent, 34 
percent and 32 percent, and in Sweden, 78 percent, 64 percent 
and 58 percent. 

EUROPEAN NATIONS tend to approach the concerns of 
working parents through what is increasingly being referred to as 
a “family benefit system,” Kamerman wrote. She stressed that the 
Europeans have a long history of acknowledging that children are 
a major resource and that the entire society should share in the 
costs of rearing them. 

Cash benefits are provided to families with children as part of 
a country’s social security system, but in a way distinguishable from 
traditional social insurance and assistance, she noted. 

Family allowances began first in France in the 1930s; in Sweden 
and several other countries in the 1940s. A total of 67 countries, 
including all the developed countries except the United States, pro- 
vide such a supplement to adults who ’are rearing children. 

In most European nations, maternity benefits feature a guarantee 
of a right to leave work with the assurance of full job protection, 
seniority and pension entitlement. Paid leaves following childbirth 
range from three months to three years. In most countries, six 
months leave is typical. 

FURTHER, all European countries permit additional unpaid 
but job-protected leaves of somewhere between six months and 
two years. No such guarantee of job protection or paid or unpaid 
leave is assured through government policy in the United States. 

Kamerman called employment and labor market policies “a 
cornerstone of social policy” in industrialized countries. “Work 
remains the primary role for all adults and a central ethic” in 
European countries and in the United States, she noted. 

Kamerman’s analysis revealed that in many respects the govern- 
ments of European nations show a greater appreciation of this 
fact. She also cited a tendency to develop family or child care 
“packages” that go far beyond any single policy strategy. 



The following statement on the President's eco- 
nomic proposals was adopted by the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council Feb. 19, 1981, Bal Harbour, 
Fla. 

T he AFL-CIO AGREES with the proposition 
that inflation must be reduced; the number of 
jobs increased and the unemployed put back to 
work; productivity improved; industrial strength 
restored, and federal programs made more effec- 
tive and efficient. 

But we cannot agree that the measures the 
President outlined will achieve those goals or 
that they meet the essential tests of fairness and 
equity. 

His proposals require more sacrifice from those 
who have little, to give more to those who already 
have much. They substitute unrestrained market 
power for social responsibility and human con- 
cerns. They shortchange sound economic growth 
by cutting back programs to achieve energy inde- 
pendence, rebuild the nation’s transportation sys- 
tem, revitalize urban areas and safeguard the en- 
vironment. 

The President placed on us and others who 
cannot agree with him the responsibility of offer- 
ing an alternative. The AFL-CIO has spelled out 
such a program that meets the nation’s economic 
needs with fairness and equity. 

Tax Policy 

AMERICANS NEED a change in the tax laws 
to alleviate the effects of inflation. At the same 
time, targeted business tax cuts are needed to re- 
vive the industrial base of the economy. 

The President proposes to give 60 percent of 
his individual tax cut to the top 20 percent of the 
taxpayers, and over 1 1 percent to one percent of 
the taxpayers. The family earning $10,000 a year 
would get a $52 tax break in the first year. The 
family earning $30,000 would get a $382 tax re- 
duction. But the family earning $100,000 would 
get a minimum of $1,840. 

By contrast, the AFL-CIO has proposed a re- 
fundable individual tax cut of 20 percent of 
social security taxes. The family with a $10,000 
income would receive a tax benefit of $134. The 
family earning $30,000 would get $395. At $100,- 
000, the tax cut is an identical $395. Under our 
proposal, 60 percent of the individual tax cut 
would go to 80 percent of the taxpayers. 

Highly profitable businesses would benefit the 
most under the President’s depreciation tax pro- 
posals. Struggling companies and newly devel- 
oping industries would benefit little, if at all. 
The President’s unrestricted depreciation proposal 
could encourage industrial migration from areas 
of already high unemployment. 

By contrast, the AFL-CIO has proposed a busi- 
ness tax cut designed to stimulate investment 
where it is needed the most. In addition, we have 
proposed a tax cut of 5 percent of social security 
taxes to directly reduce every covered employer’s 
payroll costs. 

Monetary Policy 

THE ‘‘ABSURD” interest rates of 20 percent, 
mentioned by the President, are largely a result 
of the same tight-money policy he said he sup- 
ports. Use of that policy to combat inflation has 
repeatedly led to economic downturns, not the 
prosperity promised by the President. Another 
byproduct of high interest rates has been large 
increases in annual interest payments on the fed- 
eral debt, expected to grow by more than $15 
billion in the current year. 

By contrast, che AFL-CIO recommends that 
selective credit regulations be reimposed. They 
would direct capital to productive investments 
while curbing speculation. Other advanced West- 
ern industrial countries have used selective credit 
regulation effectively. The brief U.S. experience 
with limited credit controls in the spring of 1980 
helped bring the prime rate down from 20 to 11 
percent in four months, while mortgage interest 
rates came down from 16 to 11 percent. 

Budgetary Policy 

THE PRESIDENT’S proposed budget cuts, the 
centerpiece of his program, are both inequitable 


LABOR’S POLITICAL program was assessed at this 
meeting of the COPE Administrative Committee, which 
includes Executive Council members and various COPE 
groups. It heard a report on reapportionment and redis- 


tricting decisions state legislatures will be making this 
year and a discussion of means of achieving consensus 
and strengthening labor’s influence in the selection of 
presidential candidates. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


Oil Industry 
Profits Jump 

30% for 1980 

^ (Continued from Page 1 ) 

profits tax was in effect for the 10 months 
of 1980, the DSG said. 

“Over half of the top 20 oil companies 
reported net profits of more than $1 bil- 
lion in 1980,” the DSG said. “Oil profits 
have risen so high that oil companies are 
on the verge of overwhelming the Ameri- 
can industrial economy.” 

MOBIL SCORED the highest percent- 
age increase in profits last year, a gain of 
63 percent on earnings of $3.2 billion. 
Standard of Ohio registered a 53 percent 
rise on profits of $1.8 billion. Exxon, the 
world’s largest firm, amassed $5.6 billion 
in profits, a 32-percent increase from 1979. 

Other big winners and their profits rise 
over 1979 were Texaco, up 27 percent; 
Standard of California, up 35 percent; 
Standard of Indiana, up 27 percent; Shell, 
up 36 percent, and Phillips, up 20 percent. 

The 30-percent increase in the profits of 
these top 20 firms compared with a 70 
percent increase in 1979 over 1978. Last 
year’s lesser rate of increase was due to a 
slower rate of world oil price rises, an in- 
crease in worldwide oil stocks compared to 
1979’s low levels, and lower consumption. 

NEVERTHELESS, the DSG pointed 
out, the 1979-80 profits growth was sur- 
passed only by the dramatic gains in 1979 
and during the 1973 Arab oil embargo. 

The windfall profits tax was enacted 
by Congress specifically to recapture some 
of the profits oil companies could expect 
after former President Carter ordered de- 
control to begin in June 1979. 

President Reagan’s Jan. 28 order to re- 
move all remaining price controls from 
domestic oil will add still more billions to 
oil profits during 1981, the DSG observed. 
It predicted that gross revenues of the 
top 20 firms will increase $12 billion. 

Committee Established 
To Encourage Mergers 

Bal Harbour, Fla.— The AFL-CIO 
Executive Council voted to establish a 
special committee to develop procedures 
and mechanisms to encourage voluntary 
consolidation and mergers of affiliated 
unions. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland ap- 
pointed Vice President Murray H. Finley 
as chairman. The other members are Vice 
Presidents Jerry Wurf, Kenneth T. Blay- 
lock, William H. Wyrfn, John DeConcini, 
Fred J. Kroll and Charles H. Pillard. 


‘Care to Try Our New Line?’ 

^ 



- 

jmiS. 


Continued Safeguards Urged 
In Gene Formation Studies 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Guidelines set by 
the National Institutes of Health for re- 
search involving recombinant DNA mole- 
cules should remain in effect “until all 
questions of safety and risk have been 
answered,” the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil said. 

DNA is the chemical component of 
genes and has made possible research into 
the nature of life. Now, the resolution 
noted, “this research is moving beyond 
the laboratory and is being actively 
pursued by industry.” 

The resolution noted that regulations, 
besides being mandatory, would have 
stronger requirements for monitoring and 
for medical examinations of workers. 
While “guidelines can be changed easily, 
regulations could not be weakened until a 
full public review was undertaken.” 

THE RESOLUTION, which takes note 
of both the hopeful developments and un- 
certain hazards of DNA research, had 
been introduced at the last AFL-CIO 
convention and referred to the Executive 
Council for further study. 

Schedule for March Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

Institutes on advanced organizing techniques and issues for women workers 
highlight the March calendar at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. 
Seven AFL-CIO affiliates will use the Silver Spring, Md., campus for their 
own training programs during the month as will the American Institute for 
Free Labor Development. The March schedule: 

Advanced Organizing Techniques, Mar. 8-27 — A three-week institute on 
organizing for experienced staff members co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO Dept, 
of Organization & Field Services. 

Issues for Women Workers, Mar. 8-13 — The center’s annual program to 
provide a thorough understanding of current issues important to women and 
to help participants increase their skills in union work. . 

The unions using the campus for their own training programs are the United 
Transportation Union, Mar. 1-6; Communications Workers, Man 1-13; Oper- 
ating Engineers, Mar. 1-6; Service Employees, Mar. 15-20; State, County & 
Municipal Employees, Mar. 22-27; Railway & Airline Clerks, Mar. 22-27, 
and Flight Attendants, Mar. 30 to Apr. 2. 

The AIFLD will bring two groups to the campus during the month — 25 
industrial workers from Bermuda for a bargaining seminar Mar. 8-14 and 40 
Spanish-speaking trade unionists from Latin America for six weeks of courses 
on organizing techniques and trade union leadership, starting Mar. 15. 

One off-campus program is scheduled, an institute for Building Trades busi- 
ness agents,^. Mar. 1-6, at the University of Oregon at Eugene. 

Further information on these and other labor studies programs may be 
obtained from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., director, George Meany Center, 10000 
New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. 

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A committee set up to consider referred 
resolutions recommended its adoption, 
and the Executive Council concurred. 

The resolution noted that the National 
Institutes of Health Guidelines are volun- 
tary, concerned mostly with laboratory 
practices, and stressed the need for bind- 
ing regulations to cover production facili- 
ties, especially in view of industry attempts 
to weaken guidelines. 

Laboratory guidelines had been origin- 
ally recommended by the scientific com- 
munity to lower risks of escape of poten- 
tially harmful organisms. 

Therefore, the AFL-CIO will both op- 
pose weakening the research guidelines at 
this time and support efforts by OSHA 
and other regulatory agencies to establish 
workplace safeguards. 

Another matter referred by the AFL- 
- CIO convention dealt with the “Buy 
American” policy as applied to mass tran- 
sit legislation. 

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL ap- 
proved the following rewording of the 
referred paragraph from the mass transit 
resolution: 

“The present ‘Buy American’ provisions 
of the Urban Mass Transit Act should be 
vigorously enforced. Domestic content re- 
quirements should be gradually raised to 
assure a viable domestic industry produc- 
ing transit buses and rail cars, along with 
related supplies and equipment. Interna- 
tional trade agreements on government 
procurement specifically exempt the Dept, 
of Transportation and the states from 
coverage. The U.S. should support 
domestic preference for transit equip- 
ment.” 

The council also sent three referred 
resolutions to its reactivated Committee on 
Public Relations and one resolution to the 
Committee on Safety & Occupational 
Health. 


New York Air 
Service Lands 
On Unfair List 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — New York Air, the 
new cut-rate Washington-New York-Bos- 
ton air service, has been placed on the 
AFL-CIO Unfair List by the federation’s 
Executive Council. Union members and 
union pension fund trustees will be alerted 
to the action, the council declared. 

The council acted at the request of the 
Air Line Pilots who have branded the non- 
union airline a “runaway shop,” set up by 
Texas International Airlines as a way of 
getting out from under its obligations un- 
der its union contracts. 

NEW YORK AIR, which went into op- 
eration in late December, is offering for 
sale some 1.5 million shares of common 
stock, the council pointed out. It warned 
pension fund trustees that the operation 
fits the definition of a company “inimical 
to workers’ interests” and “unworthy” of 
union support through pension fund in- 
vestments. 

The Air Line Pilots and its affiliate, the 
Flight Attendants, have charged that New 
York Air is “one and the same” with Texas 
International which transferred millions of 
dollars of its revenues^ to a holding com- 
pany in order to set up New York Air as 
a separate entity. 

IN DECEMBER the airline unions were 
joined by the Machinists and the unaffili- 
ated Teamsters in informational picketing 
at Washington’s National and New York’s 
LaGuardia airports to protest start-up of 
the service with non-union crews. 

New York Air employs non-union work- 
ers at wages and working conditions far 
below industry standards, the council’s 
statement charged, pointing out that skilled 
and experienced union employees of Texas 
International have been laid off while 
workers with less experience have been 
taken on at New York Air. 

Council Scores 
Union-Busting 
Cost Tass-On’ 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — Health insurance 
premiums should be used to finance 
patient care, not union-busting, the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council insisted. 

The health care industry is passing on 
the costs of its anti-union activities 
through higher hospital bills and higher 
insurance premiums, the council noted. 
Thus, consumers end up paying for man- 
agement consultants who specialize in 
thwarting organizing and collective bar- 
gaining in the health care field. 

The council noted that the pass-on of 
such costs is prohibited in federal medical 
care programs because the expenses of 
fighting unions are not related to patient 
care. * 

“The same standard should also apply 
to private insurance programs, including 
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans as well 
as private union-negotiated health plans,” 
the council declared. 

It urged affiliates “to guard against such 
misuses of health insurance funds.” State 
and local central bodies were urged “to 
ask state insurance commissioners to 
adopt rules similar to the federal standard 
for private health insurers.” 


Watts Heads Council’s PR Panel 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council has reactivated its Stand- 
ing Committee on Public Relations, and a 
number of ad hoc committees that have 
been established in recent years will be- 
come its subcommittees. 

Its chairman will be Vice President 
Glenn E. Watts, who is president of the 
Communications Workers. The ad hoc 
groups that have been incorporated in the 
reactivated committee include the Satellite 
and Cable Television Committee, the Tele- 
communications Policy Committee and a 
panel that has been exploring means of 
improving the public relations aspects of 


union organizing campaigns. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said 
at a news conference that he will also ask 
the new committee to incorporate the 
media monitoring project initiated by the 
Machinists. 

Executive Council members appointed 
to the committee are AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue and Vice Presidents 
S. Frank Raftery, Albert Shanker, Wil- 
liam W. Winpisinger, Frederick O’Neal, 
Charles H. Pillard, John DeConcini, Lloyd 
McBride, Jerry Wurf, Sol C. Chaikin, 
William Konyha, John J. Sweeney, Wil- 
liam H. Wynn and J. C. Turner. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


Page Seven 


Wrong Solution 

Social Security Cuts 
Hit as Breach of Faith 



PRIVATE FUNDING for arts and humanities projects that added thousands 
of jobs and $700 million to the economy in 1980 will dry up or slow to a trickle 
if President Reagan’s plan to slash federal cultural endowments gets congres- 
sional approval, President Theodore Bikel of Actors’ Equity said on Labor News 
Conference. He was questioned by Ruth Dean of the Washington Star and 
Michael Posner of Reuters, right. 

Budget Slash for Arts Seen 
Drying Up Private Funds 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Cutbacks in social 
security benefits would break faith with 
America’s workers and are the wrong 
solution to the system’s greatly exagger- 
ated funding problems, the AFL-CIO 
said. 

The Executive Council served notice 
that labor will “vigorously oppose” bene- 
fit slashes called for ia President Reagan’s 
budget proposals. Some of the cutbacks 
were considered and rejected by the pre- 
vious Congress after a “Save Our^ecurity” 
coalition launched a campaign against 
them. 

THE ADMINISTRATION’S budget 
would compel further restrictions on 
eligibility for disability insurance and 
world reduce payments to some bene- 
ficiaries. 

It would eliminate for future retirees 
the $122-a-month minimum for those 
who have worked under social security 
long enough to qualify for benefits. And 
it would phase out the provision in present 
law that allows surviving children to draw 

Price Rise Slows 
But Real Wages 
Continue Slump 

(Continued from Page I) 

of 1.9 percent in mortgage interest rates 
was partially offset by a decline in house 
prices. Home rents rose six-tenths of 1 
percent, and household maintenance and 
repair costs fell slightly. 

Fuel and utility charges soared 2.1 
percent over the month and accounted 
for about half of the January rise in the 
CPI’s housing component. Fuel oil prices 
accelerated 7.6 percent, and charges for 
natural gas and electricity rose 1 percent. 

A large part of the January rise in trans- 
portation costs was due to a 3.8-percent 
jump in gasoline prices, BLS said. This 
was the largest monthly increase in gaso- 
line costs since the very sharp advances 
recorded in the first quarter of 1980. 

USED CAR prices rose 1.2 percent, 
foljowing substantially larger increases in 
each of the five preceding months. Airline 
fares rose again in January to a point 
nearly one-third above their year-earlier 
levels. 

The cost of medical care was up 1.3 
percent as fees by physicians, dentists, and 
hospitals showed substantial increases. 
Entertainment charges rose nine-tenths of 
1 percent as price increases were recorded 
for a wide range of goods and services, 
including newspapers, magazines, pet sup- 
plies, and entertainment services. 


benefits beyond the age of 18 if they are 
full-time students under 22 years of age. 

“These social security protections are 
vital to active workers and their families,” 
the council said. “Erosion of them would 
be most harmful to widows, the disabled, 
the young and the poor.” 

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL stressed 
that the financial problems of the social 
security system are largely caused by 
unemployment and inflation. It reiterated 
the AFL-CIO’s position that a degree of 
general revenue financing should be in- 
jected into all social security programs — 
old age, survivors, disability and hospital 
insurance — “to provide relief for low and 
middle-income workers from the sched- 
uled increases in the payroll tax, and to 
shore up the financing of the system.” 

While urging across-the-board infusions 
of government funds into a program now 
dependent on the payroll tax on workers 
and their employers, the council said no 
single component of social security — such 
as disability insurance or Medicare — 
should be totally financed from general 
revenues. 

“It is important" that social security 
programs retain the contributory principle 
that guarantees benefits as an earned 
right,” the council said. “Without con- 
tributory features, income and means tests 
could be imposed that would transform 
social insurance programs into welfare 
programs.” 

COMMENTING on other proposals to 
reduce social security outlays, the Execu- 
tive Council said: 

• Social security beneficiaries should 
continue to receive their full cost-of-living 
increases. 

• The eligibility age for social security 
benefits should not be raised. “Raising the 
age of eligibility would be tantamount to 
an across-the-board benefit reduction for 
millions of workers, particularly those 
who are forced into early retirement for 
reasons of poor health or unemployment.” 

• The formula for determining the 
benefits workers receive when they retire 
should not be changed so as to reduce 
benefit payments. 

“WORKERS MUST not be denied the 
benefits they have worked for and paid 
for during their working lives,” the coun- 
cil stressed. “The government must keep 
its word,” and changing the terms “would 
constitute a breach of faith that would 
undermine public confidence in social 
security.” 

The council also reiterated the AFL- 
CIO’s opposition to mandatory social 
security coverage of public employees 
unless there are specific safeguards deal- 
ing with existing public sector retirement 
programs to assure that workers will not 
be shortchanged. 


President Reagan’s plan to slash cultural 
endowments will dry up private sector 
funding for arts and humanities projects 
that have matched the federal “seed 
monies” by ratios as high as four to one. 
President Theodore Bikel of Actors’ 
Equity warned in a network radio inter- 
view. 

Bikel stressed that the federal initiative 
provided by the National Arts & Humani- 
ties Act of 1965 stimulated private indi- 
viduals, foundations and industries to con- 
tribute heavily to non-proflt orchestras, 
theaters, dance companies, museums and 
other cultural activities. 

THESE “brought to life” thousands of 
jobs and added more than $700 million 
to the national economy last year alone, 
he noted. Bikel said that while the private 
contributions are “very, very well-inten- 
tioned,” they are likely to “slow to a 
trickle” without the prodding of the fed- 
eral initiative. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — The AFL-CIO Food 
& Beverage Trades Dept, added three wom- 
en to a previously all-male executive board, 
moved to strengthen the department’s net- 
work of local councils, and authorized an 
expanded “corporate program” to focus a 
national spotlight on firms that go in for 
union-busting. 

Enlargement of the 12-member board is 
a follow-through on a resolution adopted 
at the last department convention which 


News Conference, Bikel, who is a member 
of the National Council on the Arts, said 
the proposed cultural cutback would be 
a severe blow to the employment prospects 
of actors, sculptors, writers, historians and 
other professionals. He said that without 
the chance to practice their professions, 
these people will be forced into the 
crowded job market where more than 8 
million 'workers are unable to find jobs. 

If the cuts urged by the Administra- 
tion’s budget-framers are approved by 
Congress, the advance of cultural arts in 
the United States will be “set back a 
decade or more,” he declared. 

Bikel also scored the plan to curtail 
funding for the Corporation for Public 
Broadcasting, which is the foundation for 
the non-commercial radio and television 
programming that now serves virtually 
every community. He predicted that the 
cutback would draw more imported broad- 
casting products into the United States 
and cause serious harm to the domestic 
film and broadcast industries. 


urged consideration of steps to give greater 
leadership representation to women, who 
make up an estimated 40 percent of work- 
ers in the food and beverage trades. 

ALL OF THE new board members. 
President Robert F. Harbrant noted, have 
held increasingly responsible union offices 
and have been active in Coalition of Labor 
Union Women and other union and wom- 
en’s groups. The new board members are: 

Lenore Miller, secretary-treasurer of the 
Retail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union; 
Rhonda L. Allgaier, who has been or- 
ganizer, business agent and now secretary- 
treasurer of a Hotel & Restaurant Em- 
ployees local in Seattle, Wash., and Rose- 
mary Trump, vice president of the Service 
Employees and president of a Pittsburgh 
local. 

THE DEPARTMENT’S board approved 
a program of full-time coordinators for 
about 10 to 15 of its local and state coun- 
cils. Their activities would include assis- 
tance on boycotts, such as that aimed at 
Perdue poultry, health and safety programs 
and strengthening of local councils. 

To pinpoint corporate responsibility for 
union-busting managements, the depart- 
ment named Jeffrey Fiedler, who has been 
working with the Food & Allied Service 
Trades Council in the Washington, D.C., 
metropolitan area to direct the program 
with an expanded staff. 

Resolutions adopted by the department 
included a statement urging adoption of 
federal safety and health standards for 
grain elevators and processing facilities, 
where concentrations of grain dust have 
caused death-dealing explosions. 



NEW STRATEGIES for representing the interests of H. Wynn of the Food & Commercial Workers, center right, 
workers in its field are planned by the executive board of the outlines a plan to focus national attention on anti-union 
AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades Dept. President William firms. Department President Robert F. Harbrant is at right. 


3 Women Elected to Board 
Of Food & Beverage Dept. 



t’age Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 28, 1981 


Defining the Work Ethic 

Gompers, Alger Offered 
Sharply Different Views 



LABOR SEC. RAY DONOVAN spoke to the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
about the evolving Reagan Administration program and responded to questions 
from council members. From left: Vice Presidents Emmet Andrews and Murray 
Finley, Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, Donovan and President Lane Kirkland. 

Inflation Rate Averages 12.9% 
In 1980 for Industrial Nations 


Samuel Gompers, the 19th-Century 
founder and first president of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, was a contempo- 
rary of Horatio Alger, the hugely suc- 
cessful dime novelist who spun fanciful 
rags-to-riches tales about the American 
dream. 

But though the two sprang from a simi- 
lar matrix, their views on achieving eco-^ 
nomic independence sharply diverged. 
And as labor celebrates its centennial — the 
1881 founding of the forerunner of the 
AFL — Stuart B. Kaufman suggests in an 
American Federationist article that there 
is much to be learned from how Gompers 
redefined the “work ethic” in an America 
of Alger-type dreams and myths. 

ALGER GROUND out the same story 
with little variation more than a hundred 
times — the poor young man making it by 
a combination of intelligence, aggressive- 
ness, and inner moral spirit. For his part, 
Gompers harrimered away at the theme 
that for most workers there was no escape 
from the working class. 

“This was an idea difficult for many 
craftsmen to accept then, just as it is 

Reagan Appoints 
Panel to Explore 
Air Crew Issue 

President Reagan has named members 
of the impartial task force sought by the 
Air Line Pilots to resolve the issue of the 
cockpit crew size for new jet passenger 
aircraft. 

The panel will be chaired by former 
Federal Aviation Administrator John Mc- 
Lucas and will include Fred J. Drinkwater 
III, a former Marine pilot, and Air Force 
Lt. Gen. Howard W. Leaf. 

The ALPA called off a work stoppage it 
had planned for Mar. 2 to dramatize the 
safety issue after a meeting with Trans- 
portation Sec. Drew Lewis in which the 
Administration agreed to the task force. 

The panel is scheduled to report in 120 
days on whether the new technologically 
advanced jets can be safely flown by only 
two crew members as the industry asserts 
or whether three are needed for maximum 
safety as the pilots maintain. 

ALPA President John J. O’Donnell, in 
a letter to the Washington Post, stressed 
that the crew complement issue has never 
had “a full, fair, unbiased examination by 
technically qualified persons” to settle the 
question which the pilots consider a safety 
issue. The ALPA will abide by the panel’s 
decision, O’Donnell pledged. 

LEWIS SAID the panel would deter- 
mine cockpit crew size for the proposed 
Boeing 757 and 767 jets and would review 
the decision last summer by the FAA cer-r 
tifying the McDonnell Douglas Super 80 
as safe to be flown with a two-person crew. 


today for many teachers and other so- 
called professionals of the white-collar 
world,” observes Kaufman, a University 
of Maryland history professor, who is 
also editor of The Samuel Gompers 
Papers. 

“We cannot look to rise into inde- 
pendence individually, Gompers argued; 
we can only achieve it in the workplace 
collectively.” Kaufman’s article in the cur- 
rent issue of the federation’s monthly 
magazine is taken from a paper he de- 
livered recently at an AFL-CIO centen- 
nial seminar at the George Meany Center 
for Labor Studies. 

KAUFMAN NOTES that the American 
labor movement as we know it today got 
its start in the midst of a society that was 
frantically and passionately insisting that 
there was room at the top for everyone 
with the gumption, the pluck, to pull them- 
selves up by their own bootstraps. Yet, in 
the impersonal, commercialized and indus- 
trializing economy of that period, self- 
esteem in the workplace was eluding most 
workers. 

What Gompers did in the face of all 
this was to embody in a new organiza- 
tion, the AFL, a reformulation of the 
work ethic and a rededication to it, Kauf- 
man observes. 

“WE ARE, he said, permanently mem- 
bers of the working class. We must de- 
vise ways to have a say in all decisions 
affecting our work lives because only then 
can we workers perform what is needed 
of us with dignity and self-esteem,” 
Kaufman writes of Gompers’s message. 

To this end, Gompers joined other 
skilled workers in organizing the country’s 
labor force into unions aimed at preserv- 
ing control of Americans’ work lives. A 
study of the CIO in the 1930s shows that 
much of the motivation to organize and 
much of the field leadership also came 
from the craft elite among the mass pro- 
duction workers, Kaufman observes. 

“They were the ones most likely to feel 
they were making a substantial contribu- 
tion to the production process and to be 
proportinately more aware that they were 
powerless individually to maintain a con- 
trol and discretion over their work lives 
consistent with dignity and self-esteem.”' 

IN BOTH ALGER and Gompers, the 
author notes, “we find a reborn faith in 
the ability of the individual spirit at work 
to survive and find dignity. Alger reiterated 
the scenario that was familiar to the 19th- 
Century American who rose, in his words, 
“by a series of upward steps, partly due 
to good fortune, but largely to his own 
determination to improve, and energy. . . . 

“Samuel Gompers gave us a new 
scenario, a collective one for the people 
. . . left behind.” 


Paris — Inflation in the free world’s in- 
dustrialized nations surged by an average 
12.9 percent last year, and will remain 
stubbornly high again in 1981, the Orga- 
nization for Economic Cooperation & De- 
velopment (OECD) said here. 

“The rise in OECD consumer prices of 
almost 13 percent in calendar year 1980 
was three points higher than in 1979 and 
only half a point below the record rise 
experienced in 1974,” said the OECD, a 
24-nation organization that analyzes eco- 
nomic trends among its members. 

A COMPARISON of 1980 inflation 
figures showed the United States average 
of 13.5 percent was third highest among 
the Big Seven countries, after Britain’s 1 8- 
percent and Italy’s 21.2-percent rates. The 
U.S. rate represents the annual average 
of the year’s 12 monthly increases in the 
consumer price index, and compares with 
an annual average rise of 11.5 percent in 
1979. 

The highest inflation rates recorded 
among all OECD countries were Turkey, 
94.3 percent; Iceland, 57.5 percent; 
Greece, 24.9 percent, and Ireland, 18.2 
percent. West Germany’s 5.5 percent was 
the lowest of any of the 24 countries. 

About three-fourths of the 1980 in- 
crease in prices was caused by a 26 per- 
cent boost in energy prices, the OECD 
said. Most OECD nations experienced a 
significant deterioration in price perfor- 
mance last year. 

Inflation rates among other Big Seven 


countries were: Japan, 8 percent com- 
pared with 3.6 percent in 1979; West 
Germany, 5.5 percent compared with 4.1 
percent the year before; France, 13.3 per- 
cent compared with 10.8 percent, and 
Canada, 10.1 percent compared with 9.1 
percent. 

Britain’s 18-percent jump in consumer 
prices compared with 13.4 • percent in 
1979, and Italy’s 21.2 percent compared 
with 14.8 percent. 

Nation’s Security Tied 
To Fleet Upgrading 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — A shipbuilding ca- 
pacity that can meet the nation’s needs for 
an American-flag merchant fleet and naval 
vessds to maintain the United States as a 
sea power are “fundamental” to the na- 
tion’s security, the AFL-CIO Metal Trades 
Dept. said. 

The department’s executive board joined 
with the Maritime Trades Dept, in a series 
of position papers affirming the importance 
of sea power and shipbuilding. 

Another resolution urged the United 
States to negotiate bilateral agreements with 
its trading partners dealing with the trans- 
portation of cargo between the two nations. 

“The United States is the world’s largest 
trading nation,” the resolution noted. “De- 
spite this fact, American-owned ships op- 
erating under the American flag carry only 
a little over 4 percent of the total foreign 
commerce.” 


Council Endorses Perdue Poultry Boycott 


Aircraft manufacturers contend that a 
cockpit crew of two rather than three can 
save the industry an estimated $1 billion 
in labor costs. Increased workload in the 
new jets as well as increasingly crowded 
air space will tax both pilots and air traffic 
controllers, the ALPA pointed out. 


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Bal Harbour, Fla. — The Pood & Com- 
mercial Workers’ boycott of Perdue poul- 
try products was endorsed by the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council with an appeal to 
union members and their families not to 
buy Perdue products “until the company 
ceases its unfair and illegal anti-union 
behavior.” 

The boycott was launched last Septem- 
ber after Perdue fired 57 union supporters 
during an attempt by UFCW Local 117 
to organize the company’s Accomac, Va., 
processing plant. 

THE DISCHARGES led to an unfair 
labor practice strike now in its seventh 
month. In January, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland added Perdue to the federa- 
tion’s unfair list at the request of UFCW 
President William E. Wynn. 

In its own endorsement of the boycoP, 
the council scored Perdue for a policy of 
“ruthless anti-union tactics” which have 
suppressed “every effort of its 6,000 em- 
ployees to exercise their rights to union 
representation.” 

The council charged Perdue with “a 
campaign to destroy trade unionism in the 


American poultry industry.” The endorse- 
ment pledges the federation’s active sup- 
port of the UFCW’s campaign to persuade 
consumers to shun Perdue products. 

AMONG ITS union-busting tacitcs, Per- 
due has bought several plants where union 
contracts were in force, closed them for 
“modernization” and reopened them with 
non-union workers, the council noted. 

In its 1,700-worker Accomac plant 
alone, the council said, more than 400 
workers have been fired for union activity 
in the last two years. 

Among those discharged were union 
supporters who participated in the Septem- 
ber organizing campaign. In the course of 
the campaign, UFCW supporters agreed to 
honor a picket line set up by the unaffili- 
ated Teamsters in an attempt to win rep- 
resentation for Perdue drivers. The 57 
UFCW supporters were “permanently re- 
placed” by the company in retaliation, the 
union said. The action forced the UFCW 
to file unfair labor practice charges and 
led to the strike and the boycott. 

The National Labor Relations Board has 
issued a complaint based on the charges 


and will begin hearings in April. In the 
meantime, the UFCW’s pending election, 
which had been scheduled for Oct. 2, 
1980, remains blocked until the charges 
are resolved. 

THE AFL-CIO Union Label & Service 
Trades Dept, was called on by the council 
to promote the boycott and alert the labor 
press. Plans for a national campaign to 
urge union consumers not to buy Perdue’s 
roasters, broilers, chicken parts and Cor- 
nish game hens are being set now. Depart- 
ment Sec.-Treas. Earl D. McDavid said. 

Perdue is the third largest processor in 
the country, McDavid pointed out. He said 
the company’s six plants in Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina 
process some three million chickens a 
week. Most of the company’s $300 million 
in annual sales is in the Northeast, includ- 
ing the lucrative New England, New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, 
D.C., markets. 

McDavid noted that Perdue products 
have befen seen in other markets including 
those in the Far West, pointing up the need 
for a wide publicity effort. 


Kirkland, Coalition Assail 
Drastic Slash in Programs 



BUDGET COALITION of 157 cooperating organizations is announced by AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland, who is flanked by other members of the coalition 
steering committee. Its goal is to prevent the destruction of still-needed govern- 
ment programs and to seek a fair distribution of any spending cuts. 



Labor, Industry Leaders 
Form New Joint Panel 


By James M. Shevis 

Key leaders of organized labor and 
American business announced the forma- 
tion of a reconstituted Labor-Management 
Group outside the government to seek so- 
lutions to the major economic problems 
facing the country. 

“The United States faces a period in its 
history when non-inflationary economic 
growth and full employment are essential 
to the maintenance of a free and healthy 
society,” the group said in a statement of 
purpose at a Washington press conference. 

"AMERICAN LABOR and business see 
these as necessary mutual goals to provide 
our society with new and expanded job 
opportunities, increased living standards, 

^Right-to- Work ’ 
Bills Rejected in 
Idaho^ Montana 

Labor handed “right-to-work” propo- 
nents two sound defeats when active lob- 
bying by union members persuaded the 
Idaho and Montana legislatures to reject 
anti-union measures. 

The Idaho state senate voted 20 to 15 
to table indefinitely a “right-to-work” bill 
sent to it by the state’s lower house. A 
two-thirds majority of the senate would 
be needed to revive the legislation, action 
that is considered unlikely before the legis- 
latures adjourns in April.. 

IN MONTANA, a bill designed to crip- 
ple public employee unions, which the 
State AFL-CIO branded a “first step to a 
state ‘right-to-work’ law” was killed by a 
vote of 17-0 in the legislature’s House 
Labor & Industry Committee. 

In both states grass-roots campaigns 
(Continued on Page 8) 


international competitiveness in an inter- 
dependent world, and the capacity to meet 
social commitments.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland will 
serve as chairman of the labor group and 
Clifton C. Garvin, Jr., chairman of the 
Exxon Corp., will head the management 
group. The joint panel will meet on a 
voluntary basis to seek a consensus ap- 
proach toward economic policy. 

Former Labor Sec. John T. Dunlop, 
who will serve as coordinator of the unit, 
observed that every major Western coun- 
try has a forum in which labor and man- 
agement leaders come together in an at- 
tempt to reach a meeting of the minds on 
major economic matters. 

"IT SEEMS to me that the spirit of the 
times and the practice of other countries 
dictate such a forum here,” said Dunlop, 
a Harvard University professor. The com- 
mittee will deal principally with issues that 
are affected by public policy. 

In the statement of purpose, which 
amounts to a formal charter under which 
the panel will operate, the two sides agreed 
that “the legitimacy of our respective in- 
stitutions is demonstrated in the process of 
free collective bargaining,” and added: 

“We believe that both the democratic 
right of employees to determine the issue 
of representation and the process of collec- 
tive bargaining must not be threatened by 
occasions of excessive behavior by employ- 
ers or unions.” 

THE GROUP intends to “explore a wide 
range of issues with particular emphasis on 
revitalizing the nation’s economic base, 
rebuilding the private and public infra- 
structure on which our productive capacity 
as a nation depends, and stimulating safe 
and efficient means for meeting the na- 
tion’s energy needs,” the statement of pur- 
pose said. 

“The group will use the wider relation- 
ships its individual members have in the 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Broad Group 
Challenges 
Budget Tilt 

A national coalition brought together 
by the AFL-CIO has challenged drastic 
budget cuts demanded by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration and will mount a coordinated 
lobbying effort to prevent needed pro- 
grams from being jettisoned. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
flanked by other members of the Budget 
Coalition Steering Committee, told a 
crowded news conference that the 157 
cooperating organizations are especially 
concerned with the lopsided tilt of the 
budget proposals. 

A JOINT STATEMENT by the coali- 
tion partners termed it “basically wrong” 
to end assistance programs for the poor 
and the near-poor in order to fund tax 
cuts that will go largely to the top 20 
percent income bracket. 

“We believe that this nation can find 
solutions to the problems of high inflation, 
high interest rates, high energy costs and 
high unemployment which will not create 
unfair hardship on any one group of 
Americans,” the coalition said. (Text, Page 
4.) 

A representative group of Steering 
Committee members spoke of their special 
concerns at the news conference, which 
was held at the AFL-CIO headquarters. 

JACOB CLAYMAN, president of the 
National Council of Senior Citizens, said 
cutbacks in Medicaid, food stamps and 
housing assistance are falling especially 
heavily on the elderly. 

“Serious cuts in these life-sustaining 
programs are included in the President’s 
program,” dayman charged. The budget 
proposal, he said, “falls short of equity 
and humanity; it bodes ill for America’s 
elderly.” 

Christine Davis, representing the Na- 
tional Women’s Political Caucus, said the 
budget policy would lock many women 
into a cycle of poverty, cut federal assis- 
tance for child care facilities and force 
many working mothers to choose between 
quitting their jobs or leaving children un- 
attended. 

ROBERT McALPINE of the National 
Urban League said blacks and other mi- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


American workers being displaced by 
imports need expanded trade adjustment 
assistance, not sharp cutbacks in the pro- 
gram as proposed by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s budget-cutters, the AFL-CIO told 
Congress. 

Testifying before a House Trade sub- 
committee, federation economist Elizabeth 
Jager warned that the Reagan budget ax 
would effectively terminate the adjustment 
benefits that hundreds of thousands of 
workers and communities depend on when 
plants are shut down because of import 
injury. 

JAGER ALSO expressed concern that 
pressure from budget-cutters on the Trea- 
sury Dept, will result in slashing funds for 
the hiring of needed trade specialists who 
monitor imports. 

An effective monitoring program to help 
enforce U.S. trade laws is essential to 
make the nation more competitive at home 
and abroad, she said. 


Reagan Plan 
Would Skimp 
Basic Needs 

By David L. Perlman 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
pressed the House Budget Committee to 
base its spending ceilings and revenue 
goals on the nation’s needs, instead of 
gambling on the Reagan Administration’s 
dubious and untested economic theories. 

Repeatedly, in response to questions by 
right-wing Republicans and conservative 
Democrats, Kirkland rejected the view 
that President Reagan is entitled to get his 
economic program through Congress in- 
tact because he won the election. 

IT IS IN the nation’s interest that these 
issues be debated, Kirkland insisted. “We 
need mass transit. We ought to be going 
all out in search of energy alternatives to 
liberate us from thralldom to OPEC,” 
Kirkland urged. 

“We do not believe that the nation has 
been too generous in helping the poor, the 
disadvantaged and the unemployed; we 
believe the Administration’s proposal is 
too generous in supporting the wealthy 
and the powerful,” he said. 

Kirkland urged the committee not to 
lend itself to the Administration attempt 
to use budget-setting procedures to short- 
cut the normal legislative process, where 
laws are passed or changed only after study 
and consideration by the committees with 
jurisdiction over them. The budget pro- 
posals, he charged, would use spending 
ceilings to rewrite laws and abolish pro- 
grams. 

"THE BUDGET CUTS, tax cuts, regu- 
latory cuts and money supply cuts add up 
to more inflation and unemployment,” 
Kirkland warned. And, he said, they fall 
short of the government’s constitutional 
mandate to provide both for the common 
defense and the general welfare. “It is the 
duty and obligation of Congress to tell 
these facts to the people,” Kirkland 
stressed. 

In response to questions, Kirkland said 
the AFL-CIO doesn’t consider all govern- 
ment programs untouchable. Each pro- 
gram must stand on its own merits, he 
said. The AFL-CIO has suggested “areas 
where economies could be achfeved,” he 

(Continued on Page 3) 


The estimated cost of trade adjustment 
assistance for fiscal year 1981 is $2.7 bil- 
lion, just over 1 percent of the current 
annual value of imports, Jager noted. 

Prior reductions would limit the as- 
sistance program in fiscal ’82 to $1.5 bil- 
lion. But Jager pointed out that the Rea- 
gan Administration’s budget-cutters would 
slash total benefits to $350 million. 

THIS WOULD be done by amending 
the federal trade law so that workers would 
no longer get adjustment assistance while 
receiving unemployment insurance. 

When unemployment insurance ran out, 
workers laid off because of imports could 
get adjustment aid, but the payments 
would be lowered to the jobless insurance 
rate. 

So instead of a worker receiving 70 per- 
cent of his normal wages up to $269 a 
week for 52 weeks, the worker would be 

(Continued on Page 8) 


AFL-CIO Scores Curtailment 
Of Trade Adjustment Benefits 



Page Two 


AFL-CrO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 



EYE EXAMINATION is conducted at the University of Maryland Hospital for 
operators of newspaper video display terminals under a program sponsored by 
the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health. An extensive study into 
the health effects of VDTs is also being launched by the Newspaper Guild and 
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine at several U.S. and Canadian locals. 

Study to Explore Hazards 
Of Video Display Terminals 


In Dissent by Lyons 

Pension Law Proposals 
Seen as Backward Step 


Xhe Newspaper Guild and the Mount 
Sinai School of Medicine in New York 
disclosed plans for an extensive study into 
the health effects that video display ter- 
minals (VDTs) have on workers. 

The three-phase project is expected to 
cover some 2,000 Guild-represented news- 
paper employees, both VDT users and 
nonusers, in four to six Guild locals in the 
United States and Canada. 

The first phase of the study will involve 
a survey to compare the physical condi- 
tions and symptoms of VDT users with 
those of nonusers in the same offices. 

IF HEALTH irregularities are detected 
in a review of the questionnaires, follow- 
up ophthamological examinations and radi- 
ation tests will be conducted, the Guild 
said. 

Guild President Charles A. Perlik, Jr., 
said the study promises to be one of the 
most extensive of its kind. 


The Service Employees are joining 
forces with a national organization of sec- 
retarial and clerical workers to step up the 
union’s organizing among women workers. 

Creation of SEIU District 925 as a joint 
venture with the 10,000-member associa- 
tion known as Working Women were an- 
nounced at a press conference by SEIU 
President John J. Sweeney with Karen 
Nussbaum, executive director of Working 
Women who will be president of District 
925, and Jacquelynn Ruff, president of 
SEIU Local 925 in Boston who will be the 
program’s executive director. Local 925 is 
the nucleus of the new unit’s activities. 

DISTRICT 925, called a national local 
union by SEIU, will expand the union’s 
organizing efforts among secretarial work- 

Arleen Gilliam Joins 
Social Security Staff 

Arleen Fain Gilliam has joined the 
staff of the AFL-CIO as an assistant direc- 
tor of the Dept, of Social Security. She 
will concentrate on unemployment in- 
surance and workers’ compensation issues. 

Before joining the AFL-CIO, Gilliam, 
32, was with the Labor Dept, as execu- 
tive assistant to the assistant secretary for 
employment and training. She was for- 
merly a budget analyst with the Congres- 
sional Budget Office. 

Gilliam received a bachelor of science 
degree in economics and business from 
Skidmore College, and a master of science 
from the Sloan School of Management at 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
where she specialized in labor and indus- 
trial relations. 


“It should begin to provide a definitive 
answer as to whether VDTs produce cata-. 
racts or other damage to the eyes, as well 
as answer persistent questions about the 
possible effects of radiation,” Perlik said. 

The Guild said the study will be co- 
ordinated by Mount Sinai and the labor- 
supported Workers Institute for Safety & 
Health (WISH) to explore the effects of 
non-ionizing radiation in the workplace. 

INITIAL COSTS of the survey will be 
borne by the Guild and Mount Sinai. Fi- 
nancing of the later phases of the study 
is expected to come from several sources, 
including grants, participating Guild locals 
and negotiated agreements with employers. 

The pilot phase of the study is expected 
to get under way within two months at the 
Guild’s Vancouver-New Westminster local 
in British Columbia, and at the Los An- 
geles local. Subsequent phases of the proj- 
ect will be initiated later this year. 


ers, Sweeney said. Some 50,000 of the 
union’s 650,000 members are in clerical 
jobs, Sweeney said, and about half the 
union’s membership is female. 

Sweeney also announced the formation 
of a new division within the international 
union to serve the interests of the union’s 
secretarial and clerical membership. 

He told reporters that because most of 
the nation’s 20 million office workers lack 
union representation, they are “among the 
most underpaid and abused members of 
the workforce.” 

THE UNION hopes to organize more 
of these workers, Sweeney said, through 
the combination of SEIU’s collective bar- 
gaining expertise and Working Women’s 
successful representation of women’s is- 
sues. District 925 will be organizing in a 
field in which 80 percent of the workers 
are women, and the new local union will 
be run “for and by” women, Sweeney 
emphasized. 

Nussbaum told reporters that District 
925 will not replace Working Women. She 
said that organization will continue to offer 
“programs of legal action, counseling, edu- 
cation and public awareness” to interested 
women. 

RUFF NOTED that SEIU’s 1,000- 
member Local 925, a name that plays on 
office hours “nine to five,” has already 
posted substantial success in organizing 
workers in publishing, legal offices and 
universities in the Boston area. 

Four organizers have been assigned to 
the initial stages of the organizing pro- 
gram, Sweeney said, although no final bud- 
get has yet been established for the pro- 
gram. 


Many of the changes in social security 
and public sector retirement benefits that 
have been proposed by a presidential com- 
mission would work to the detriment of 
America’s workers. Iron Workers Presi- 
dent John H. Lyons protested in a formal 
dissent. 

Lyons, the only union official on the 
11 -member President’s Commission on 
Pension Policy, objected to reducing bene- 
fits as a means of easing funding problems 
and especially to a proposal that would 
gradually push the “normal” retirement age 
from 65 to 68. 

HE ALSO voiced some reservations 
about the commission’s proposal for man- 
datory employer-financed pensions meeting 
minimum federal standards as a supple- 
ment to social security benefits. The con- 
cept of such a private-sector program 
needs more detailed study than the com- 
mission was able to give it, Lyons sug- 
gested. 

The commission, established by Con- 
gress and appointed by President Carter 
in 1979, was headed by C. Peter 
McColough, board chairman of the Xerox 
Corp., and submitted its proposals both to 
President Reagan and to Congress. While 
the recommendations represented a con- 
sensus within the commission, six mem- 
bers in addition to Lyons submitted “addi- 
tional views” covering specific issues. 

Lyons made these major points in his 
dissenting views: 

• Pushing back the social security re- 
tirement age to 68, even if it would not 
affect workers now approaching retire- 
ment, “would break faith with younger 

. workers” and “undermine confidence” 
that workers who pay into the system can 
count on the benefits promised. While 
many workers choose to work beyond 65, 
lack of job opportunities and ill health 
won’t be overcome by later retirement. 

• A recommendation that public sector 
retirement systems should increase their 
normal retirement age “in tandem with 
social security” would amount to a uni- 
lateral sacrifice by public employees of 
improvements made over the years, often 
as a tradeoff for other benefits. 

• Abolishing early retirement rights 
now allowed for some public sector haz- 
ardous occupations ignores the fact that 
these provisions are in part designed to 
meet the need for persons in the physical 
prime of life. Further, where early retire- 
ment options are not available in such oc- 
cqpations as police and fire fighting, a high 
ratio of disability retirement offsets much 
of the supposed savings to the local gov- 
ernments. 

• A commission recommendation for 
universal social security coverage, even 
though supporting retention of existing 
public retirement programs as a supple- 
ment, does not provide sufficient assurance 
that employees affected would not be 
worse off. 


Increases in the jobless rate were wide- 
spread among the states in 1980, with 
rates in each of 22 s-tates exceeding the 
national increase of 1.3 percentage points, 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 

According to the annual average esti- 
mates from the Current Population Sur- 
vey, 32 states showed significant increases 
in unemployment rates. 

BLS REPORTED the largest increases 
were in the north central region, where 
cutbacks were prevalent in auto-related 
and other durable goods manufacturing 
industries. 

Michigan had the highest unemployment 
rate for the year — 12.6 percent. 

Declines in construction affected vir- 
tually all of the 32 states where unemploy- 
ment rates increased in 1980, BLS said. 


• Cutbacks in inflation protection for 
both social security and federal civil ser- 
vice retirement benefits put budget con- 
cerns over protecting pension payments 
against inflation. 

• The commission should have recom- 
mended a degree of general revenue financ- 
ing to supplement the social security pay- 
roll tax. 

• Social security benefits should con- 
tinue to be exempt from tax. The commis- 
sion proposed to allow a tax credit or de- 
duction for the employee-paid portion of 
the payroll tax but make the remainder 
subject to regular income tax while at the 
same time lifting the ceiling on outside 
earnings. 

ON THE proposed mandatory univer- 
sal pension system, which the commission 
refers to as MUPS, Lyons noted that the 
advantages it would bring “could be pro- 
vided through social security at less cost.” 

But he acknowledged that “political 
realities” make the likelihood of sufficiently 
improving social security benefits to 
achieve a more comfortable retirement in- 
come “virtually nil.” Thus, “the MUPS 
proposal may be the next best alternative.” 

As outlined by the commission, though, 
it has serious deficiencies, through smaller 
wage and benefit increases, and at the same 
time proposes a business tax credit to help 
employers meet the cost. 

THE AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
also sharply criticized commission recom- 
mendations affecting federal, postal, state 
and local government workers and fe- 
tirees. 

PED Director John Leyden charged 
that the recommendations are based on 
the false assumption that public sector 
pensions are overly generous. He said the 
department has developed position papers 
that point up “inaccuracies of the benefit 
and cost level comparisons between public 
and private sector employees which serve 
as the basis for the report’s conclusions.” 

Council G^ts Report 
Ending Two Boycotts 

Bal Harbour, Fla. — ^The AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council at its winter meeting here 
officially recognized the conclusion of two 
national consumer boycotts and removed 
the companies involved from the federa- 
tion’s boycott list. 

The consumer action against J. P. 
Stevens & Co., conducted for more than 
four years by the Clothing & Textile 
Workers, ended last October when the 
union won a landmark agreement with the 
giant textile manufacturer. 

The boycott against Cotrell & Leonard, 
Inc., a manufacturer of choir and gradua- 
tion robes, was called off by the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers in December when a 
settlement was reached with the company 
ending a long strike. 


Unemployment rates 'changed very little 
over the year in most northeastern states 
and in ten southern and western states. 

FIVE STATES had jobless rates higher 
than 8.5 percent. These included Alaska 
and Indiana, each with a rate of 9.6 per- 
cent, West Virginia at 9.4 percent and 
Alabama with a rate of 8.8 percent. 

In the Pacific region, jobless rates in- 
cluded 6.8 percent in California, 8.2 per- 
cent in Oregon and 7.5 percent in Wash- 
ington. 

The total number of employed persons 
rose slightly in more than half the states. 
However, there were decreases in 1 6 states, 
mainly in the north central and south 
Atlantic regions, including substantial de- 
clines in Michigan, where employment 
dropped 5.5 percent, and Indiana, where 
there was a 3 percent drop. 


Service Employees Launch 
Drive for Women Workers 


Auto Industry States Show 
Surge in 1 980 Joblessness 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 


Page Three 




Congress Urged to Reject Reagan Plan 

Kirkland Attacks ^Gamble’ 


With Nation ’s Basic Needs 



AT HOUSE HEARINGS, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland outlines labor’s 
alternatives to budget cuts sought by the Reagan Administration. With him are 
Legislative Director Ray Denison, left, and Research Director Rudy Oswald. 

Union-Busting Consultant Hit 
By NLRB on Illegal Campaign 


(Continued from Page 1) 

noted, including the “tax expenditures” 
that reward business for the export of jobs 
and the nation’s industrial base. Credit 
measures that bring down interest rates 
would significantly reduce the federal bud- 
get and at the same time greatly help cities 
and states, Kirkland pointed out. 

If Congress concludes that the budget 
must be reduced, he said, “it is more 
equitable to take a bit off everything . . . 
People can understand that and accept it.” 

REPEATEDLY, Kirkland challenged 
the view of government as a burden. He 
spoke of growing up in South Carolina, 
where gullies were ruining the land, only 
the main street in town was paved, kero- 
sene lamps lit farmhouses, and “the social 
security system was the county poor- 
house.” 

It took federal programs to turn that 
around, Kirkland reminded the committee. 

From the House hearings, Kirkland 
joined other union officials and represen- 
tatives of allied groups testifying before 
the Democratic Policy Forum, made up 
of the Democratic members of the Senate 
Labor & Human Resources Committee. 

He reminded the senators of the “slow, 
painful process” to achieve a measure of 
social progress and economic justice. 

NOW, HE SAID, those who cried 
“don’t move too fast” when programs to 
help the jobless and disadvantaged were 
enacted are demanding “full speed ahead” 
in dismantling them. 

“Workers who have been unemployed 
for long periods of time face more than 
termination of unemployment benefits,” 
Kirkland noted. “Cuts in welfare and food 
stamp programs will further reduce their 
families’ standard of living. Cuts in job 


(Continued from Page 1) 

norities would suffer disproportionately 
from reductions in food stamps, termina- 
tion of job training programs, rent in- 
creases for subsidized housing and reduc- 
tion of unemployment compensation for 
the long-term unemployed. 

Marvin Meek, national chairman of the 
American Agricultural Movement, said he 
had campaigned on behalf of President 
Reagan in 34 states but now was prepared 
to work with the labor movement and 
other coalition partners to see that prom- 
ises to labor, agriculture and consumers 
are kept “and to insure that rights of the 
truly needy are protected.” 

Nancy Neuman, director of the League 
of Women Voters, said members of her 
good government organization throughout 
the country “are in a state of disbelief and 
dismay over the shortsighted nature of 
many of the Administration’s announced 
budget cuts.” . 

SHE SAID projected cuts will frustrate 
the hopes of the poor “for ever getting out 
of the cycle of welfare dependency” and 
“take food out of the mouths of children 
of the working poor.” Environmental cuts 
will have “grave consequences” and some 
foreign assistance cuts “are equally my- 
opic,” she said. 

Leon Shull, director of Americans for 
Democratic Action, said the effect of the 
Reagan economic program would be “to 
transfer wealth from the workers, the mid- 
dle class and the poor to the corporations 
and the rich.” 

Althea T. H. Simmons, Washington 
director of the NAACP, said the Adminis- 
tration proposals would further increase 
“the economic inequities that presently 
exist between the rich and the poor and 
between blacks and whites.” She said the 
NAACP “will be an active part of this 


training and public service jobs programs 
eliminate opportunities to increase their 
chances of employment. Cuts in medicaid 
and housing programs would jeopardize 
their health and shelter.” 

The Senate committee also has jurisdic- 
tion over education programs, and Ameri- 
can Federation of Teachers President Al- 
bert Shanker spoke of the impact of the 
proposed budget cuts on the schools. 

FEDERAL AID to public elementary 
and secondary schools has been cut more 
than any other area of government spend- 
ing, Shanker noted. In addition, he said, 
“one-half of the cuts of the Dept, of Agri- 
culture come out of the Child Nutrition 
Program.” 

UAW President Douglas A. Fraser said 
the Administration’s proposed cutbacks 
“could not come at a worse time” for 
workers in the auto and parts supplier 
industries. 

He spoke of the direct effect of cut- 
backs in trade adjustment assistance and 
unemployment insurance, and the com- 
pounding of problems for recession-hit 
communities through elimination of CETA 
jobs, cuts in urban assistance, mass transit, 
school aid, housing and health services. 

SEN. EDWARD M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), 
the ranking minority member of the now 
Republican-controlled Senate Labor & 
Human Resources Committee, said the 
Democratic Forum intends to focus on 
achieving equity in what he considers the 
inevitability of budget cuts. 

There have been no complaints about 
the budget from the oil industry, Kennedy 
noted. “No industry, no region and no 
state should be given special privilege — or 
forced to bear a special burden,” he de- 
clared. 


coalition and will call its leadership in to 
lobby on Capitol Hill.” 

McALPINE OF THE Urban League 
said his organization has just completed 
an assessment of the President’s economic 
recovery plan that found that minorities 
and the poor would bear a disproportionate 
burden and that block grant consolidation 
of federal education, health and social 
services programs “would result in vastly 
inferior services for minorities and other 
disadvantaged groups.” 

John Gunther, who represented Steering 
Committee member Richard Hatcher, 
mayor of Gary, Ind., and president of the 
U.S. Conference of Mayors, said cities 
don’t have the resources to take up the 
burden that the Administration wants to 
shift from the federal government to cities 
and states. 

On elimination of CETA public service 
jobs, he noted that in New York about 
8,900 of 11,000 CETA workers were on 
welfare before they got CETA jobs. “They 
will be back on welfare or unemployment 
compensation,” he warned. 

STEPHEN BROBECK, director of the 
Consumer Federation of America, said the 
Administration program would “cripple 
the enforcement of pro-consumer and pro- 
worker regulations” and “eliminate federal 
programs highly beneficial to consumers 
and to low-income families.” 

Other members of the Budget Coalition 
Steering Committee on hand for the news 
conference were UAW President Douglas 
Fraser, Msgr. George G. Higgins of the 
U.S. Catholic Conference, and Karen E. 
Spellman of the National Urban Coalition. 

The cooperating organizations pledged 
to seek alternatives that would avoid “the 
unnecessary and unwise destruction of so- 
cial and economic advances achieved in 
the past 50 years.” 


Milwaukee, Wis. — ^The National Labor 
Relations Board has charged a manage- 
ment consulting firm with a reputation as 
a union-busting operation with unfair 
labor practices on an employer’s behalf 
during a hospital organizing drive. 

In a complaint issued here against 
Modern Management Methods, Inc., the 
NLRB regional office said that 3M, as the 
company is commonly called, independent- 
ly violated the National Labor Relations 
Act “by its having complete control and 
use of supervisory personnel at St. Francis 
Hospital in a systematic anti-union cam- 
paign ” 

THE NLRB complaint accused 3M of 
directing “illegal interrogations, promises 
of benefits, promises of improved condi- 
tions of employment, and threats of re- 
prisal against employees for engaging in 
union activities, which actions all prevent 
employees from freely exercising their 
right to make a decision as to union rep- 
resentation in an untainted atmosphere.” 

The St. Francis Federation of Nurses 
& Health Professionals, an affiliate of the 
American Federation of Teachers, lost an 
October 1979 election among the Mil- 
waukee hospital’s registered nurses by a 
100-95 vote. 

A three-member NLRB panel set aside 
the election last summer, finding that the 
hospital had unlawfully intimidated work- 
ers, promised benefits for voting against 
the union by announcing a 10-percent 
wage increase to take effect after the elec- 
tion, and solicited and promised to remedy 
grievances. The union filed unfair labor 
practice charges against the hospital, and 
sought a bargaining order. 

The union also filed charges against 3M, 
alleging that the firm was independently 
responsible for the various unfair labor ac- 


tions committed by hospital supervisors. 

NLRB REGIONAL Director George 
Squillacote said the complaint is believed 
to be the first authorized against the firm. 
Various unions have accused 3M of violat- 
ing worker rights. 

Squillacote said the St. Francis case 
would test the validity of such charges. 
Hearings before an NLRB administrative 
law judge are scheduled to begin on 
Apr. 20. 

Squillacote said that the “uniqueness of 
this matter is in the allegation that 3M is 
responsible as a separae entity, or at least 
as a co-employer rather than merely as 
an agent, for the violations committed by 
supervisory personnel at the hospital.” 

HE ADDED that the case would not 
apply to a normal relationship in which a 
consultant advises a client in its labor 
relations. 

Rather, the case stands on its own 
facts, “indicating that 3M was given and 
exercised daily intimate and independent 
direction of the supervisory personnel” at 
the hospital, he said. 

U.S. Court Overturns 
Federal Parking Fees 

Government Employees President Ken- 
neth T. Blaylock praised a federal district 
court finding that government-imposed 
parking fees on federal workers are illegal. 

Judge Harold H. Greene, in granting 
summary judgment on behalf of the 
AFGE, said President Carter acted “with- 
out proper authority” in 1979 when he im- 
posed parking fees on federal workers. He 
ordered a halt to the fees and said he 
would rule later on whether workers 
should be repaid past fees. 


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Bommarito to Take a Walk 
— Enlists Cheering Section 

Akron, Ohio— Rubber Workers President Peter Bommarito has challenged 
the chairmen of the board of each of the major U.S. rubber companies to accept 
his latest proposals. This time, however, the union president isn’t bargaining for 
wages or working conditions for his member^. 

In a letter to each company, Bommarito asked its chairman to sponsor him 
in the March of Dimes national WalkAmerica scheduled for Apr. 26 to raise 
money for the prevention of birth defects. 

^Tn conjunction with that program,” Bommarito said, I am prepared to fulfill 
one of management’s frequent requests. I will take a long hike.” He said he has 
volunteered to walk some 30 kilometers, about 18 miles, and asked each execu- 
tive to pledge ^^a substantial contribution per kilometer.” 

Management can reap a secondary benefit from the event, Bommarito said, 
pointing out that since he has recently recovered from knee surgery following a 
fall, the March of Dimes walk, “gives you a rare opportunity to satisfy any secret 
(or expressed) desire you may harbor to see me suffer while at the same time 
being secure in the knowledge that you are doing a great deal of good.” 

iiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Broad Coalition Challenges 
Slashes in Key Programs 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 


Something Is Wrong 


‘Jump! We’ll Catch You!’ 


T he organizations represented here today, and the other 
co-sponsors of this statement, believe in a healthy, prosperous 
nation and a stable, growing economy. Along with all other 
Americans we are disturbed by the destructive forces of inflation, 
joblessness, energy instability and high interest rates and we 
strongly support programs that can bring them under control. 

Each organization represented here has studied the proposals 
, of the Reagan Administration to reshape the budget, and it is 
our united belief they will not make America healthier and, 
instead, could make America weaker. 

THESE PROPOSALS do not set forth a period of belt-tighten- 
ing shared by all, after which America can again grow and 
prosper at all levels of our society. Instead, many vital programs 
are marked for extinction and others will be hopelessly crippled. 

We believe that something is basically wrong when programs 
assisting hard-pressed moderate-income working Americans and 
those living at or under the federal poverty level, but who pre- 
sumably are not “truly needy,” are decimated or destroyed to 
finance individual tax cuts benefiting primarily the top 20 percent 
of taxpayers. 

America’s minorities, women, seniors and disabled, would be 
among those drastically hurt. Furthermore, cuts in Medicaid, 
food stamps, unemployment insurance, and other life-support 
programs place gaping holes in the “safety net” the Administra- 
tion pledged to maintain. 

We believe something is basically wrong when federal budget 
, reductions simply shift the tax burden for essential services,-such 
as health and human services, sewer and road construction, educa- 
tion, economic development and income maintenance to state 
and loc^ governments. No real fiscal improvement for the nation 
or the taxpayer is achieved. 

WE BELIEVE something is basically wrong when budget 
cutbacks result in increased costs to all consumers regardless of 
their ability to pay. Federal assistance to transportation systems, 
utilities, construction, postal service and others would be replaced 
by higher fares, higher rates and higher user fees — or higher 
local taxes. 

We believe that this nation can find solutions to the problems of 
high inflation, high interest rates, high energy costs and high 
unemployment which will not create unfair hardship on any one 
group of Americans. We believe the Reagan Administration pro- 
posals will not solve these problems, but could wreak great 
damage to the fabric of this nation. 

Today we are aligning ourselves in a national coalition to urge 
that alternative and constructive solutions be proposed to these 
genuine and difficult problems and to carry out a fight against 
the unnecessary and unwise destruction of social and economic 
advances achieved in the past 50 years. 

— Statement of Budget Coalition comprising 157 organizations, 
including the AFL-CIO, adopted Feb, 27, 1981, Washington, D.C, 

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S Official Weekly Publication 

S of the 

1 American Federation of Labor and 

5 Congress of Industrial Organizations 

1 Lane Kirkland, President 

= Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 

1 Executive Council 

5 John H. Lyons 
1 Frederick O’Neal 
1 A1 H. Chesser 
S Albert Shanker 
i Edward T. Hanley 
= William H.McClennan 
= David J. Fitzmaurice 
1 Alvin E. Heaps 
I FredJ. Kroll 
s Wayne E. Glenn 
E William Konyha 

= Director of Information: Saul Miller 

1 Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

E Assistant Editors: 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

s David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 

= Washington, D.C. 20006 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, March 7, 1981 No. 10 | 


E The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-11 85) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
S ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C, The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. 

iitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason E 

S. Frank Raftery 1 

Murray H. Finley e 

Sol C. Chaikin e 

Charles H. Pillard = 

Lloyd McBride = 

Emmet Andrews s 

William H. Wynn s 

John DeConcini s 

Dan V. Maroney s 

John J. Sweeney s 



Demand Mounting 

U.S. Faces Critical Shortage 
Of Scientific, Technical Talent 


By Gus Tyler 

B y 1985, AMERICA will be garroted by a 
critical shortage of scientists, technicians and 
engineers. Indeed, the shortfall in talent is hurt- 
ing us right now. In the next few years, the 
scarcity will turn scary. 

Companies are coming to schools in search of 
trained personnel in these technical areas. The 
colleges and universities respond that they are 
short on graduates from their engineering and 
allied schools. When the corporations ask, un- 
believingly, why there is a shortage, the academies 
answer that they cannot turn out all the students 
they would like to because the companies have 
been draining away the faculties to work for the 
companies. 

WHEN I FIRST heard this story from a man 
high in American education, he asked: “Isn’t it 
stupid of these companies to expect to get more 
engineers from the schools when these same com- 
panies are busy stripping us of our teachers? You 
wonder why they do this.” 

“Because they need engineers,” I suggested. 

At present, academia has been bled so badly 
that it is seeking high and low to fill some 2,000 
vacancies in engineering faculties. 

THE REASONS for the shortage are double: 
higher demand and less supply. The supply is low 
because, several years ago, when the government 
cut back on its space programs, young people 
felt that the age of hard sciences was over and 
that it was time to turn to the hard-boiled crafts, 
like law. So they dropped Euclid and picked up 
Blackstone. 

Then came the demand — for alternative sources 
of energy, for making the nuke a bit safer, for 
guaranteeing product safety, for controlling qual- 
ity of manufactured commodities, for coping with 
industrial poisons, for cleaning up the environ- 
ment. 

MORE RECENTLY, the demand for com- 
puter scientists has zoomed. As we move into the 
age of micro-electronic computerized robots, 
more trained personnel will be needed to program 
the computer. We have the hardware (the ma- 
chine) and plenty of it; but we lack the software 
(the systems). At this moment, a computer scien- 


tist, fresh out of undergraduate school, can com- 
mand a salary of $30,000 a year. ^ 

This scientific anemia was predictable. Indeed, ^ 
it was predicted. About ten years ago when I was 
serving on a manpower commission of the Na- 
tional Research Council, I listened to a low-key 
presentation on the coming crunch: not enough “ 
trained brains to meet our energy needs, not ^ 
enough teachers, researchers, innovators, engi- 
neers, programmers, repair persons. 

By 1973, after the oil squeeze, it was abundant- 
ly, even painfully, clear that we would have to ^ 
shift to new sources of energy and that we would 
have to start immediately to prepare personnel for 
the crucial days ahead. Ir 

But we have hardly moved at all to respond — ^ 

not only to develop the needed people for the pro- 
fessional operations but also to train blue-collar 
workers. If we were to embark on a program of 
energy independence by installing adequate facili- 
ties, we wouldn’t have enough pipefitters, sheet 
metal workers, iron workers, electricians, etc. 

SO WHY haven’t we responded? Mainly, be- 
cause there is no “we.” All the power a research 
council has is to study and state. It cannot order 
or finance. Corporations go about their daily 
chores, rarely seeing beyond their most immediate 
nose. If they need more engineers, they pirate 
them. 

What is lacking is a government with a vision, 
a guiding intelligence and coordinating power, 
poking and prodding and putting things together 
so that business and the schools can ready us for 
tomorrow. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

Full Measure of Quality ! 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CID 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 


Pmge Five 


Kirkland's Commentary 


Reagan’s Economic Program 
Fails Tests of Justice, Equity 


The following article by AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland appeared in the New York Times 
business section, Mar. 1, 1981. 

By Lane Kirkland 

A merican workers share the economic 
goals announced by the President — ^less infla- 
tion, more jobs, improved productivity, stronger 
industries and more effective government. 

But the President’s program cannot achieve 
those goals. Its tax approach favors the rich and 
the budget cuts fall most heavily on the low- and 
middle-income families. It fails every test of 
justice and equity. Even the so-called across-the- 
board business tax cuts will flow to richer indus- 
tries rather than to those that truly need help. 

IN BLENDING the untested theories of sup- 
ply-side economists, who hold that salvation lies 
in giving free rein to industry, with the traditional 
doctrines of monetarists, who advocate high inter- 
est rates, tight money and balanced budgets, the 
Administration is, in effect, yoking optimistic 
guesswork to proven failure. 

To assume that tax cuts and depreciation 
speedups will, in themselves, encourage workers 
to work harder, suppliers to supply more goods 
and investors to invest more constructivelv is 
what Dr. Johnson, in another context, called “a 
triumph of hope over experience.” 

No doubt there are some who might increase 
their efforts and incomes if lower taxes made it 
more worthwhile to do so. The vast majority of 
salaried and hourly rated workers have no such 
option. Driven by inflation, they are already 
working to capacity to meet their bills. 

THERE IS NOT the slightest evidence that 
more money will induce a heavy investment in 
common stocks and away from speculation in 
real estate, gambling casinos, antiques and other 
rapidly appreciating “collectibles.” 

And what manufacturer in his right mind would 
jump on the supply-side bandwagon when much 
of his productive capacity is already idle, when 
his shelves are heavy with unsold inventories, 
interest rates hover near 20 percent and govern- 
ment policies aim at further tightening of the 
demand side? How, for instance, can supply-side 
economics help an auto industry that has many 
times more cars than customers? 

The problem is not lack of supply. And yet, 
while cheering on the supply side, the Reagan 
Administration adopts budget policies certain to 
destroy at least a million more jobs, which trans- 
lates into two or three times that many fewer 
potential customers. 

AS STRUCTURED, the Administration’s busi- 
ness tax changes would channel the lion’s share 
of benefits to the industries and companies that 
need it least. For new and marginal enterprises 
the package offers little or nothing. The richest 
companies would find it more profitable to con- 
tinue their “corporate acquisition” programs and 


to continue moving more and more jobs from 
areas where unemployment is already high than 
to increase production or introduce new products. 

Experience with the oil industry’s handling o^ 
its grossly inflated profits should make it clear 
that more money does not bring new ideas, new 
jobs and productive investment. If the past is 
any guide, we can expect only new waves of 
mergers and takeovers, more predatory exercises 
in conglomeration and monopoly. 

No important decision is ever based on tax 
incentives alone. Any business contemplating an 
investment in the South Bronx, for example, is 
likely to care much more about the quality of 
police and fire protection than about tax rebates. 
Therefore, the Administration’s approach to ur- 
ban programs offsets any hope of better days 
ahead for the cities. 

THE MOST DANGEROUS of the false as- 
sumptions that underlie the Reagan program is 
the notion that the network of social programs 
that has been erected over the last half-centu^ is 
an expendable luxury that can be demolished 
without injury to the nation’s economic and social 
fabric. 

Those who remember the conditions that made 
those programs necessary will tolerate no return 
to the suffering they relieved and the injustices 
they rectified. We know that by any realistic as- 
sessment, the resources and capabilities of our 
economic system are more than adequate to the 
needs of all the American people. 

The Administration’s income tax proposals, 
like the other parts of its domestic policy pack- 
age, are heavily loaded in favor of those who have 
much and against those who have little. 

A family earning $10,000 a year would get a 
tax break of $52 in the first year of the Reagan 
program. A family earning $30,000 would get not 
three times the tax benefit of the poorer family, 
but nearly IV 2 times. The family earning 
$100,000—10 times as much — would get tax 
benefits at least 35 times larger. 

RATHER THAN giving 60 percent of the tax 
cut to 20 percent of the taxpayers, as the Admin- 
istration proposes, the AFL-CIO urges a refund 
of 20 percent of social security taxes. The $10,000 
family would receive a benefit of $134, The 
$30,000 family and the $100,000 family would 
benefit by $395 each. Sixty percent of the tax cut 
would go to 80 percent of the taxpayers. 

A humane society requires a decent measure 
of concern for the old, the young, the disadvan- 
taged and the deprived. A rational society re- 
quires tax policies and investment policies tar- 
geted to meet demand — for housing, transporta- 
tion, energy, medical care and food. 

With the aid of all the allies we can find, the 
AFL-CIO will call these facts to the attention of 
the Congress and the American people in order to 
restore humane and rational policies to what we 
still believe is a government of, by and for the 
people. 


Filing for Federal Aid 

Labor-Senior Citizens Project 
Assists Needy on Utility Costs 


U NION MEMBERS in communities throughout 
the nation are assisting the National Council 
of Senior Citizens in its effort to help the elderly, 
disabled and poor families ease the impact of soar- 
ing utility costs. 

That report was made on Labor News Confer- 
ence by AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert 
Seidman and NCSC Energy Adviser Esther Peter- 
son, who stressed the importance of an outreach 
effort to assure that eligible persons get the utility 
cost help they desperately need and are entitled 
to receive. 

Seidman pointed out that “older people are 
particularly vulnerable to illness and even death, 
as a result of both extreme cold and extreme 
heat,” but often can’t afford the oil, gas or elec- 
tricity it takes to maintain healthful living condi- 
tions. The federal help made possible by the 


windfall oil profits tax adopted last year could be 
“the difference between life and death,” he said. 

Peterson said the NCSC outreach effort, dubbed 
Project Energy Care, is mainly an information 
ptogram to seek out low-income citizens and help 
them through the process of application and quali- 
fication for federal aid. 

SHE POINTED OUT that the Low-Income 
Energy Assistance Program procedures are de- 
termined by the states and localities that receive 
the federal grants and may differ widely from 
area to area. It is critical to have people at the 
grass roots who can sort out, understand and help 
guide desperately needy people through the local 
regulations, she noted. Union members are assist- 
ing through efforts coordinated by local AFL-CIO 
central bodies and the federation’s Community 
Services organizations. 



By Press Associates, Inc, 

A mong the most unfortunate examples of the meat-ax 
approach to budget-cutting is the National Consumer Cocq>- 
erative Bank, an innovative institution which quietly has been 
doing some fine things for consumers with a smdl but necessary 
boost from Uncle Sam. 

Now comes the Reagan Administration’s budget cutbacks 
which, ironically, would smother in the cradle the year-old Co-op 
Bank despite the bank’s orientation toward the conservative values 
embodied in America’s time-tested cooperative movement — values 
like local self-help and market enterprise and non-big government. 

Further, the bank fits right in with the Administration’s an- 
nounced aim of fighting inflation. It does so by helping co-ops 
around the country provide consumers with reasonably priced and 
high-quality food and housing, health care, child care and other 
services. 

LAUNCHED IN March 1980, the Consumer Cooperative 
Bank has moved toward filling a gaping hole of needs unmet by 
the commercial marketplace. 

Traditional lending institutions tend to turn a deaf ear when 
approached by worthy consumer co-ops seeking loans to get 
started, expand operations or stay afloat. Bankers and others often 
are ignorant or mistrustful of the very idea of co-ops despite their 
honorable history dating back to colonial times. More recently, 
the movement has had wide success among rural producer and 
electric cooperatives since the 1930s. 

Today, neighborhood food co-ops have become especially im- 
portant at a time of soaring food prices and when supermarket 
chains are abandoning central city areas. 

Housing co-ops also are needed more than ever during the 
current wave of condominium conversions so that tenants can 
avoid being displaced from their homes. 

MORE RECENT trends in the cooperative movement have 
followed growing needs in the areas of health care, child care and 
even auto repair and home improvement. 

The Co-Op Bank so far has approved more than $81 million 
in loans to co-ops of all sizes and in dollar amounts ranging from 
several thousand to more than a million. An additional $3 million 
in loans has been approved from the bank’s “self-help fund” which 
in some cases provides working capital at lower than prevailing 
market interest rates. These loans are earmarked for co-ops run 
by or for low-income people as well as co-ops just starting out 
and ones in temporary financial trouble. 

Borrowers from the Co-op Bank automatically become share- 
holders who eventually will elect all but one of the bank’s 15- 
member board of directors, now appointed by the President. The 
bank’s eight regional offices provide local access. 

THE LABOR MOVEMENT, no stranger to the cooperative 
movement over the years, has been showing a growing interest 
in the Co-op Bank and in co-ops in general. Harry Kaiser, in 
charge of labor liaison for the bank, reports that some unions 
are taking steps to sponsor cooperatives — a move he strongly 
recommends as “a membership service, an organizing tool, and a 
way to build stronger ties between the membership and the local.” 

Proponents of the bank point out that the $400 million pro- 
vided for the Co-op Bank’s capitalization over a five-year period 
is not a government subsidy but a loan to be repaid to the Treasury 
with interest. The bank, thev note, already is on the way to achiev- 
ing its goal of becoming self-sustaining. 

Thus, the Reagan Administration’s plan to put the bank out of 
business by terminating further funding — about $82 million for 
the rest of this fiscal year and $128 million for Fiscal 1982 — 
seems penny wise and pound foolish. 



UNION VOLUNTEERS are participating in the National Coun- 
cil of Senior Citizens’ Project Energy Care, aimed at helping 
the elderly and poor families get federal assistance in meeting 
their soaring utilities bills, AFL-CIO Social Security Director 
Bert Seidman, second from left, and NCSC Energy Adviser 
Esther Peterson, second from right, said on Labor News Con- 
ference. Questioning them were Diane Brockett of the Washing- 
ton Star and Calvin Zon of Press Associates, Inc. The AFL-CIO 
public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 



PERFORMING ARTS union officials welcome Ndem E. Ekpe, general secretary 
of Nigeria’s Radio, Television & Theater Workers Union, during a visit to New 
York. From left: Executive Sec. Williard Swire of Actors’ Equity, Ekpe, Exec- 
utive Sec. DeLloyd Tibbs of the Musical Artists, and President Frederick O’Neal 
of the Actors & Artistes. 

Long Printing Strike Ends 
As New Owner Signs Pact 


Democrats Critical 

Economic Panel Divides 
On Reagan’s Proposals 


Mount Morris, III. — Kable Printing Co. 
is back under a union contract after a 
long-running experiment with Boulwarism 
that precipitated a six and one-half year 
strike by the Graphic Arts International 
Union. 

The strike-settling agreement signed last 
December with Kable’s new owner, Provi- 
dence Gravure, was widely welcomed by 
Mount Morris’s 2,900 residents. Kable is 
the town’s principal employer. 

“THIS SETTLEMENT makes a whole 
new perspective for our community,” said 
Mount Morris Mayor Donald Mulcay. The 
strike and subsequent closing of the maga- 
zine and catalogue printing plant had a 
deep economic and ideological impact on 
the residents. 

“The strike tore the town apart in every 
way because Kable is the main source of 
everything here,” said President Lamont 
Gaston of GAIU Local 91 -P. 

Photoengravers of Local 91-P and book- 
binders of Local 65-B were forced to strike 

Program Assists 
Workers Seeking 
Higher Education 

A program to link workers with higher 
education opportunities has been launched 
by the Labor Institute for Human Enrich- 
ment, Inc., the research and education arm 
of the AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional 
Employees. 

The project, called Labor Education 
Advisory Services (LEAS), is supported by 
a grant from the Fund for Improvement 
of Post Secondary Education of the U.S. 
Education Dept. LEAS activities will in- 
clude providing technical help and infor- 
mation to unions and their members who 
are interest^ in taking advantage of 
higher education programs. 

IN ADDITION, LEAS will encourage 
educational institutions to develop and 
improve programs accessible to workers. 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Education will 
work closely with the project which has 
also been endorsed by the Teachers, the 
Government Employees, Graphic Arts In- 
ternational Union, Professional & Tech- 
nical Engineers and the Electrical, Radio 
& Machine Workers. Mayer Rossabi, la- 
bor studies director at New York’s Man- 
hattan Community College, will head the 
program. 

LEAS WILL act as a clearinghouse for 
information and research related to adult 
workers and education, Rossabi said, and 
will “encourage union members to take 
advantage of the millions of dollars avail- 
able to them through tuition assistance 
provisions in the contracts negotiated by 
their unions” 


Kable on May 10, 1974, when a previous 
owner. Western Publishing Co., attempted 
to force an inferior contract on them with 
a take^it-or-leave-it ultimatum, the hall- 
mark of Lemuel R. Boulware. 

THE COMPANY’S proposal was the 
brainchild of M. Melvin Connolly, a fol- 
lower of Boulware’s bargaining philosophy, 
who had been hired as Western Publish- 
ing’s labor relations director. 

Boulware had been the force behind the 
hard-nosed, bad-faith bargaining approach 
at General Electric Co. that triggered a 
number of long and bitter strikes. 

Western Publishing’s use of Boulwarism 
precipitated other disputes and led to the 
closing of other plants in its chain. In 
1979, Western Publishing sold the printing 
operations to Mattel Co., the toymakeV. 
But soon after Mattel discovered the seri- 
ous labor relations problems at Kable, it 
sold the plant in 1980 to Rhode Island- 
based Providence Gravure, a firm that the 
GAIU has had an amicable bargaining 
relationship with for a number of years. 

THE SETTLEMENT worked out with 
Kable’s new owner is patterned closely 
after an agreement covering the GAIU 
members in Providence, R.I. 

GAIU won almost every lawsuit it 
brought against Western Publishing for 
failure to bargain in good faith and other 
issues. 


The Food & Commercial Workers ac- 
cused two large supermarket chains of 
using surveys to solicit information from 
employees that can be used against them 
and their fellow workers. 

The UFCW said the chains involved 
were Safeway, the largest food chain in the 
nation, and Dominick’s, a chain with stores 
in the Chicago area but a part of the Ohio- 
based Fisher-Fazio group. Although the 
two chains used different management con- 
sultants to circulate the surveys, the union 
said employees at both companies were 
asked about “the sins of their fellow em- 
ployees and the transgressions of store 
managers.” 

“WHAT IS SO insidious about both 
surveys,” said UFCW President William 
H. Wynn, “is that they ask for so much 
personal information that it is easy to 
identify each employee. It really isn’t hard 
to figure out who the employee is when 
you know their store number, sex, race, 
years on the current job, age, seniority, 
weekly hours total, job classification and 
department.” 

Wynn explained that the union is in- 
structing its members to refuse to return 


Democratic members of the congre&r 
sional Joint Economic Committee, differ- 
ing sharply with the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s economic program, called for more 
moderate monetary and budget policies 
and heavy emphasis on structural reform 
to lower unemployment and shrink infla- 
tion. 

Splitting with the committee’s Republi- 
cans, Democrats led by Chairman Henry 
Reuss (D-Wis.) called for a tax policy of 
“immediate relief for the low- and middle- 
income class” to offset the recent increase 
in social security taxes. 

THEY CHARGED that President Rea- 
gan’s proposed three-year, 30-percent tax 
cut “favors the affluent,” and could prove 
to be inflationary. As for spending cuts, 
these should be made “without destroying 
those programs which fight inflation and 
unemploynient.” 

The JEC statement also opposed the 
Administration’s view that the Federal 
Reserve Board should continue to lower 
its money supply targets this year. 

“Interest rates are too high now, and will 
remain too high if the Federal Reserve 
continues to tighten its monetary targets 
even though control over inflation has not 
been achieved,” Reuss said. “Excessively 
high interest rates will retard investment, 
growth, and control over federal expendi- 
tures.” 

FOR THEIR PARTS, the 10 GOP 
members of the 20-member panel es- 
poused an economic plan identical to 
Reagan’s. The JEC Republican group 
called for across-the-board tax reduction, 
cuts in government spending, easing of 
regulation, and a tight-money policy. 

In the recent past, committee members 
of both parties were virtually unanimous 


Sacramento, Calif. — A unanimous Cali- 
fornia Supreme Court ruled that union 
representatives conducting contract-sanc- 
tioned safety inspections of a housing con- 
struction site cannot be prosecuted for 
trespassing. 

The decision overturned rulings by low- 
er courts holding that two Carpenters’ shop 
stewards were guilty of violating the state’s 
industrial trespass law. 

In writing the high court decision, Jus- 


the questionnaire to their employers. 

“This is a clear violation of the Taft- 
Hartley Act and a ploy by management 
to pit worker against worker and worker 
against store manager,” he said. “The com- 
panies are obviously gathering this infor- 
mation as ammunition against their em- 
ployees, including supervisory help. Such 
tactics on the part of major employers such 
as Safeway and Dominick’s make a 
mockery of the entire collective bargain- 
ing process.” 

FROM THE TENOR of the question- 
naire circulated by Safeway, Wynn said 
it “seems obvious that data will be used 
in negotiations. Employees are invited to 
evaluate benefits as well as tell manage- 
ment what they think Safe way’s profit 
ratio really is. The most childish question 
of all is one which demands that employ- 
ees tell management whether they thi^ 
the union or Safeway provides health bene- 
fits.” 

One UFCW member in the Richmond, 
Va., area who answered all 274 questions 
in the Safeway survey reported to his local 
union that it took two and a half hours of 
concentrated effort. 


in their annual economic recommenda- 
tions. The panel’s 1981 report with its 
different positions mirrors the debate over 
economic policy now under way. 

“The Administration says the budget 
must be cut. So do we,” said Chairman 
Reuss, speaking for the JEC Democrats, 
“provided that the cuts are sensible and 
fair. 

“The Administration says that the 
growth of money and credit must be con- 
trolled. So do we, but we recommend 
specific action for bringing interest rates 
down now. The Administration wants a 
vast personal income tax cut. . . . We 
favor more modest tax cuts, less oriented 
toward the wealthy.” 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS of both 
parties agreed in principle to the Reagan 
plan to cut the growth of federal spending. 
Democrats urged, however, that the pro- 
gram be designed to “reach full employ- 
ment without inflation,” a reference to im- 
plementation of the 1978 Humphrey- 
Hawkins Full Employment & Balanc^ 
Growth Act, which the Administration has 
ignored in its economic discussions. 

Budget policy should be one of “mode- 
rate restraint,” which would be intended to 
“exert a slow braking force on our rate of 
inflation,” the Democrats said. They also 
advocated: 

• “An expenditure policy which will 
brihg control over spending and the bud- 
get, and that will do so fairly, equitably, 
and without destroying those programs 
which fight inflation and unemployment by 
supporting investment and creating jobs. 

• “A firm commitment that govern- 
ment tax and spending actions should not 
increase poverty or reduce the share of 
income received by the middle classes.” 


tice Matthew O. Tobriner concluded that 
“collectively bargained safety and health 
provisions have little meaning if employee 
representatives can be ousted from the job- 
site,” particularly in an industry “where 
working conditions may be extremely haz- 
ardous.” 

If employers or third parties were per- 
mitted, in violation of the collective bar- 
gaining agreement, to prosecute union offi- 
cials for carrying out these inspection 
duties, the contract “becomes unenforce- 
able and a dusty dead letter,” the court 
declared. 

The case involves two shop stewards for 
the Ventura District Council of Carpenters 
who went to a construction site where 
three subcontractors that have agreements 
with the council were building 30 new 
houses. 

HOWEVER, the council did not have a 
contract with Stonecraft Homes, the own- 
er of the property. An agent of Stonecraft 
interrupted the safety inspection and asked 
the stewards to leave. They said they 
would leave as soon as the inspection was 
completed. 

Stonecraft called the police, but the offi- 
cers who responded to the call declined to 
arrest the. union inspectors. The owner 
then made a citizen’s arrest and the two 
Carpenters’ officials were convicted of tres- 
passing under the state criminal code and 
sentenced to a fine of $100 or four days 
in jail. The ruling was upheld in a second 
court. 

BUT IN overturning the two lower 
court rulings, the state Supreme Court held 
that the provision of the law protecting 
union representatives engaged in lawful ac- 
tivity should be extended to private job- 
sites as well. 

The trespass law “may not be used to 
frustrate legitimate union activities on pri- 
vate premises, at least in instances in 
which no significant property interest is 
threatened,” Justice Tobriner wrote. 


Supermarket Chains Scored 
On Employee Data Surveys 


Safety Check Not Trespass, 
California High Court Rules 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 


Page Seven 



AMERICAN-BUILT ships are essential to meet the nation’s meeting in Florida. Leading discussion of programs to im- 
merchant and military marine needs in the coming years, prove U.S.-built seapower is Department President Paul J. 
the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Dept, declared at its board Burnsky, right foreground. 

Union-Industries Unions Rally Wide Support 
Show to Open in Striking NABET Local 

Baltimore May 8 


Court to Hear 
NLRB Gases 
On Exclusions 

The Supreme Court has agreed to rule 
on two cases that could have a significant 
impact on the organization of office em- 
ployees. 

Both cases involve an employer at- 
tempt to deny office employees the right 
to union representation on the grounds 
that the workers have access to informa- 
tion the company considers “confidential.” 

IN EACH OF the cases, the National 
Labor Relations Board held that the em- 
ployees involved were protected by fed- 
eral labor law, since the supposedly con- 
fidential information they deal with did 
not involve labor policies or collective 
bargaining issues. In both cases, the 7th 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the 
NLRB position and sided with the com- 
pany. 

One case involved the secretary to the 
general manager of a Rural Electric office 
in Indiana, who was fired after she joined 
other employees in signing a petition pro- 
testing the firing of a fellow-worker who 
had lost his arm in a work-related acci- 
dent. 

JHE OTHER case involved the refusal 
of the Malleable Iron Range Co. at Beaver 
Dam, Wis., to bargain with a unit of 18 
clerical and technical workers on the 
ground that they were “confidential em- 
ployees.” 

In another matter, the Supreme Court 
declined to review and thus made final a 
decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Ap- 
peals holding that Eastern Airlines could 
not routinely ground a stewardess during 
the first 13 weeks of her pregnancy but 
could bar her from ffying duty thereafter. 

Funds Raised for Kin 
Of Iran Rescue Team 

Glen Burnie, Md. — ^Three local unions 
raised more than $3,500 in voluntary do- 
nations at the Westinghouse Corp. plant 
here for a scholarship fund for children of 
seven servicemen killed last year in an at- 
tempt to free American hostages in Iran. 

Westinghouse agreed to chip in a match-^ 
ing amount, boosting the total contribution 
to more than $7,000. 

The effort was spearheaded by top offi- 
cers of the three locals — ^Thomas J. Rost- 
kowski of International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers’ Local 1805, Kenneth 
P. Biebel of Electrical, Radio & Machine 
Workers’ Local 130 and Gus A. Geppi of 
the unaffiliated Westinghouse Salaried Em- 
ployees Association. 


The International Longshoremen’s As- 
sociation is a democratic trade union that 
has achieved landmark gains for its mem- 
bers and has cooperated fully in govern- 
ment investigations, ILA President Thomas 
W. Gleason testified at Senate hearings. 

Gleason told the Senate Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations that he 
welcomed the opportunity to testify be- 
cause “outrageous statements” seeking to 
link the ILA to organized crime “should 
not be permitted to go unchallenged.” 

THE ILA PRESIDENT, who is 80, told 
the panel how he went to work on the 
West Side piers in New York at the age 
of 15 for 10 cents an hour, how he joined 
the ILA at the age of 19, and was black- 
listed in 1932 for his union organizing 
activities. He moved up through the ranks 

CONVENTIONS 

The Arkansas State AFL-CIO will hold 
its 1981 convention June 22-24 at Hot 
Springs. 

The Delaware State AFL-CIO will hold 
its convention Sept. 18-19 at Wilmington. 

The Michigan State AFL-CIO will hold 
its convention Aug. 31 -Sept. 3 at Dear- 
born. 


The AFL-CIO Union-Industries Show 
will open May 8 for a six-day run in the 
Baltimore Convention Center. The show is 
produced and managed by the AFL-CIO 
Union Label & Services Trades Dept. 

More than 200,000 visitors are expected 
to attend the free exhibition which is held 
in a different major city each year, ULSTD 
Sec.-Treas. Earl D. McDavid said. The 
show, the 36th staged by the department 
since 1938, will feature some 300 craft 
and skill demonstrations and displays pre- 
pared by AFL-CIO union members and 
their employers. 

Activities are designed to highlight the 
skills, services and products union mem- 
bers provide to consumers, McDavid said, 
pointing out that the show’s theme, “Pro- 
gress through Cooperation,” sums up “the 
advantages to workers, employers and the 
public of the collective bargaining pro- 
cess.” 

More than $ 1 00,000 in gifts and free 
samples will be given away during the 
show, McDavid said. The prizes will range 
from food products to appliances, boats, 
television sets and musical instruments. 

For the first time, a meeting of the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council will be scheduled 
in conjunction with the show. The council 
will meet in Baltimore May 7 and 8. Also, 
the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurers’ Con- 
ference will meet May 11 and 12 in Balti- 
more during the show. 


to become president in 1963, he testified. 

Gleason denied “emphatically, categori- 
cally and without any reservation what- 
ever,” allegations that the ILA is domi- 
nated by organized crime figures. 

As to his election to the ILA presidency, 
Gleason testified: “I neither received my 
office nor do I maintain my office by any 
means but through election by the rank 
and file of the union.” 

Gleason recited with pride the ILA’s 
pioneering achievement in negotiating a 
guaranteed annual income program, estab- 
lishing a comprehensive health care pro- 
gram and network of clinics, a well-funded 
pension program, and achieving enactment 
of vital workers’ compensation legislation. 

THE UNION has eliminated geograph- 
ical wage differentials, he said, and has 
obtained “real” civil rights through access 
of blacks and other minorities “to decent, 
well-paying, productive jobs.” 

Where union officials, after due process, 
have been finally convicted, they are pun- 
ished according to law, Gleason said. But 
the union should not be smeared, he urged, 
by “distortions and half-truths” from “ill- 
informed and unreliable witnesses” who 
have testified before the panel. 


New York — ^A small local of the Broad- 
cast Engineers & Technicians is getting 
a big boost from organized labor in its 
bitter dispute with radio station WMCA 
here. 

Of the 13 original producers and tele- 
' phone screeners who struck the station 
last Nov. 24, only one remains today. 
Those now on strike are the third group 
of workers since NABET Local 11 was 
certified as bargaining agent over three 
years ago. 

“THROUGH FIRINGS, layoffs, harass- 
ment and coercion, the company has been 
successful in forcing a heavy turnover of 
personnel,” Strike Coordinator Arthur 
Kent declared. Kent said the strike was 
touched off by station owner R. Peter 
Straus’s insistence on “union-busting” 
clauses in the initial contract between the 
union and the station. 

The Conference of Motion Picture & 
Television Unions — a group of 18 unions 
in the entertainment industry — has come 
out strongly in support of the NABET 
strikers and has urged Straus “to consider 
the effect of, the anti-labor image of 
WMCA from this strike and take the re- 
quired steps to begin bargaining in good 
faith to resolve this grevious matter.” 

Since the strike began, several program 
sponsors have stopped using WMCA for 
commercial messages. 

OTHER SUPPORT has come from the 
Communications Workers, the Newsday 
unit of the Newspaper Guild, the New 
York City Central Labor Council, and 
the Teamsters. 

In addition, media luminaries such as 
ABC-TV’s Barbara Walters have refused 
to appear on the station’s talk shows. 
WMCA is a seven-day, 24-hour all-talk 
station owned by Straus Communications, 
Inc. Board Chairman Straus is former 
head of the International Communication 

Karl Feller Dies, 

Led Brewery Union 

Cincinnati — Karl F. Feller, director of 
the Teamsters’ Brewery & Soft Drink Con- 
ference and a former AFL-CIO vice presi- 
dent, died Feb. 5 of lung cancer. He was 
66 . 

Feller became president of the Brewery 
Workers in 1949 when it was an affiliate 
of the CIO. Earlier, he had been a local 
president and business agent in Dayton, 
Ohio, as well as international organizer 
and secretary. 

He was elected to the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council in 1957 and served as a fed- 
eration vice president until the Brewery 
Workers were merged into the Teamsters 
and the union’s- affiliation with the federa- 
tion was terminated in 1973. 

Twenty-two locals, representing about 
one-fourth of the union’s 40,000 members, 
rejected the merger plan and were char- 
tered by the AFL-CIO as directly affiliated 
locals. 


Agency’s Voice of America (VOA). 

Kent said he finds it ironic that Straus 
has refused to grant his employees the 
same rights that the VOA urges upon 
governments behind the Iron Curtain. 

“THE MAIN ISSUES that caused the 
strike are basic union security clauses that 
are in all union contracts in the broadcast 
industry,” Kent observed. He charged that 
Straus is holding out for contract provi- 
sions that would permit subcontracting of 
union-covered work, eliminate the union’s 
right to arbitrate discharges, and cut out 
seniority rights. 

“He just doesn’t want the union in 
there,” Kent declared. 

The workers, who make guest-bookings, 
handle other program arrangements, and 
screen incoming phone calls, are grossly 
underpaid, Kent charged. The highest-paid 
WMCA producer makes only $210 for a 
$40-hour week, while other employees earn 
as little as $150. One-third of the workers 
are blacks and Hispanics. Compensation 
in other NABET units ranges from $350 
to $490 for comparable classifications, 
Kent said. 

The National Labor Relations Board 
found the station guilty of unfair labor 
practices when Straus withdrew recognition 
from the union and refused to bargain. 
The ruling was uphelid by the 2nd U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals, but the employer 
has not gone beyond “surface bargaining” 
with NABETs negotiators. 

Economic Trend 
Indicators Down 
For 2nd Month 

The government’s index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators fell four-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in January, the second straight month 
of decline in this barometer of future 
trends in the economy. 

The decline, which followed a drop of 
nine-tenths of 1 percent in December, was 
too small to prove that the economy is 
about to head into a downturn, however. 
Felix Tamm, a Commerce Dept, economist 
who specializes in the leading indicators, 
said the back-to-back decreases are “dis- 
turbing in a general way” but “definitely 
inconclusive.” 

Eight of the 10 indicators available for 
January moved adversely, with the greatest 
decline reflected in one of the indicators 
most sensitive to future economic activity 
— crude materials prices. 

Other negative indicators were the lay- 
off rate, new orders, the number of com- 
panies receiving slower deliveries, con- 
tracts and orders for plant and equipment, 
stock prices, and the money supply. 

The two indicators that gave off posi- 
tive signs were the average workweek and 
the change in total, liquid assets. 


Gleason Tells Senate Panel 
Of ILA’s Accomplishments 




Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 7, 1981 


Dunlop to Coordinate Talks 

Labor-Industry Panel 
To Resume Dialogue 

(Continued from Page 1) 



A JOINT LABOR-MANAGEMENT panel independent of government will seek 
consensus solutions to major economic problems confronting the nation, the 
group’s principal officers said at a press conference to announce its formation. 
From left, they are Clifton C. Garvin, Jr., chairman of the Exxon Corp.; former 
Labor Sec. John T. Dunlop, and AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. Dunlop is 
coordinator of the group. 

Idaho, Montana Legislators 
Reject ‘Right-to-Work’ Bills 


business and labor communities to broad- 
en its knowledge of issues, to improve the 
overall labor-management climate, and to 
communicate the results of its deliberations 
to its respective associates.” 

BESIDES KIRKLAND, the group’s la- 
bor members include AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, Iron Workers Presi- 
dent John H. Lyons, Plumbers & Pipefitters 
President Martin J. Ward, Steelworkers 
President Lloyd McBride, and President 
William H. Wynn of the Food & Commer- 
cial Workers. Other union leaders are ex- 
pected to join the panel soon. 

Management members include Chair- 
man James H. Evans of the Union Pacific 
Corp.; President Philip M. Hawley of Car- 
ter, Hawley, Hale Stores, Inc.; Chairman 
Ruben F. Mettler of TRW, Inc.; President 
George B. Shultz of the Bechtel Group, 

Democrats Elect 
Unionists to Key 
Committee Posts 

Labor’s representation on the Demo- 
cratic National Committee was expanded 
with an increase of both at-large and DNC 
executive committee members from union 
ranks. 

Fifteen of the 25 at-large members 
elected at the DNC’s two-day meeting in 
Washington are union representatives. 
Thirteen of the 15 are from AFL-CIO 
affiliates. 

OVERALL, labor increased the number 
of its DNC at-large members from 10 to 
15 and expanded its representation on the 
33-seat executive committee from three to 
five. 

Labor representatives elected to the ex- 
ecutive committee are Glenn Watts, presi- 
dent of the Communications Workers; 
Leon Lynch, vice president of the Steel- 
workers; Rachelle Horowitz, political di- 
rector of the Teachers, and Sam Fishman 
and Bruce Lee of the Auto Workers. 

The 15 labor at-large members, in addi- 
tion to Watts, Lynch and Horowitz, are 
J. C. Turner, president of the Operating 
Engineers; William W. Winpisinger, presi- 
dent of the Machinists; Jerry Wurf, pres- 
ident of the State, County & Municipal 
Employees; Jack Otero, vice president of 
the Railway & Airline Clerks; Evelyn 
Dubrow, vice president of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers; Addie Wyatt, vice presi- 
dent of the Food & Commercial Workers. 

ALSO, William C. Marshall, president 
of the Michigan AFL-CIO; Elizabeth 
Smith, legislative and political education 
director of the Clothing & Textile Work- 
ers; Florine Koole, an executive assistant 
on the CWA staff; Frances Martinez Bus- 
sie of the Louisiana AFL-CIO staff; Ray 
Majerus, UAW secretary-treasurer, and 
Marc Stepp, UAW vice president. 

All 15 were on the at-large slate of 
Charles T. Manatt, who was elected DNC 
chairman. 



Inc., the former Secretary of the Treasury 
and director of the Office of Management 
& Budget; General Motors Chairman 
Roger B. Smith; Chairman-elect John F. 
Welch of the General Electric Co., and 
CitiCorp Chairman Walter B. Wriston. 

THE PANEL has its antecedents in a 
formal advisory group established in Janu- 
ary 1973 to consult with then-Treasury 
Sec. Shultz and Dunlop, who was chair- 
man of the government’s Cost of Living 
Council at the time. Since then, the com- 
mittee has re-emerged in basically the 
same shape under the Ford and Carter 
Administrations, but for its status. From 
early 1976 through 1978, it was a private 
organization with no ties to the govern- 
ment, which is the character of the new 
group. 

An effort to reconstitute the unit began 
about a year ago. Kirkland attributed its 
successful revival in large part to the com- 
mitment shown to it by two management 
members of the most recently dissolved 
group, Irving Shapiro and Reginald Jones, 
chief executive officers of DuPont and 
General Electric, respectively, who retire 
this year. 

Kirkland told reporters that he expects 
the new group to invite individuals from 
government and academic circles from 
time to time to share their views on issues, 
but stressed the committee’s non-govern- 
mental charter. Predecessor groups delved 
into international trade, inflation, housing, 
escalating medical care costs, illegal aliens, 
taxes, and other issues. 

THE PROCESS of joint exploration of 
these issues served to “sharpen our think- 
ing and increase our understanding of the 
problems,” Kirkland observed. 

Garvin, expressing broad support for the 
joint panel from the business community, 
embraced Kirkland’s remarks, adding: 
“The idea of a constant kind of dialogue 
makes sense. The fact that this group 
worked so well in the past is a sign that 
we ought to continue it.” 

The statement of purpose, unanimously 
agreed to by the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council at its winter meeting last month, 
recognized that the complexity of issues 
confronting the nation may not permit a 
group consensus on all matters, but where 
the parties differ they agree to respect each 
other’s views. 

“THE NATIONAL interest requires a 
new spirit of mutual trust and cooperation, 
even though management and organized 
labor are, and will remain, adversaries on 
many issues,” the two sides agreed in their 
statement. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

forced to take the lesser state jobless bene- 
fits for a shorter term, she observed. 

UNDER THIS program, an unem- 
ployed worker in Michigan could only col- 
lect a maximum of $136 a week for 26 
weeks, based on last year’s compensation 
rate. In Texas, the worker would receive^ 
only $120 per week, and in Georgia even 
less — $90 per week. 

Rather than curtailing the program, it 
should be expanded, Jager stressed. She 
noted that the Labor Dept, since April 
1975 has certified more than 900,000 
workers eligible for assistance in almost 
every state and major industry. 

But many more workers have been 
denied benefits, because the law narrowly 
excludes laid-off workers who make com- 
ponents and provide related services for 
the industries directly affected by imports, 
Jager told the subcommittee. 

ON THAT basis, she observed, a car 
dealer would not qualify for assistance, 
neither would a driver for a firm that 
delivered the cars. And although a worker 


(Continued from Page 1) 

were led by the state central bodies to per- 
suade local legislators to reject the union- 
busting proposals. 

Idaho AFL-CIO President Robert King- 
horn credited the victory to the response 
of the state’s 40,000 union members to the 
federation’s calls for constituent action. A 
series of meetings conducted by the State 
AFL-CIO in January prepared union mem- 
bers to rbpond and generated a “record- 
breaking” volume of mail, telephone calls 
and personal visits to legislators asking 
them to oppose the bill, Kinghorn said. 

More than 5,000 union members turned 
out for the Idaho House State Affairs 
Committee’s Feb. 13 hearings to voice 
their opposition to the bill. 

IN HIS OWN testimony, Kinghorn 
branded the so-called freedom-to-work 
bill a misnomer which guaranteed no one 
the freedom or the right to a job. The only 
purpose of such bills, Kinghorn said, “is 
plain and simple. To bust or weaken un- 
ions.” 

Kinghorn emphasized that “right^to- 
work” bills are supported mainly by such 
National Right to Work Committee, the 
employer-dominated organizations as the 
Chamber of Commerce, and by small busi- 
ness and agricultural associations who see 
such measures as a way to fatten profits 
by weakening labor’s effectiveness. 

AN EARLIER “right-to-work” proposal 
was defeated in Idaho in 1977 when the 
state senate insisted on adding an amend- 
ment unpalatable to the house. The labor- 


producing bumpers at one of the Big 
Three auto makers could qualify for assis- 
tance, a worker at an independent bumper 
company could not, unless the bumpers 
were imported separately. 

“The AFL-CIO believes that trade ad- 
justment assistance should be an integral 
part of an overall U.S. trade policy,” 
Jager said, adding that the sharp increase 
in international trade requires some addi- 
tions to be made to the federal budget. 

Thus current proposals to cut the pro- 
gram “are a giant step in the wrong direc- 
tion,” she stressed. 

LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR John J. 
Sheehan of the Steelworkers said in testi- 
mony to the panel that the program 
should not be slashed simply because its 
costs have increased sharply with the surge 
in auto imports. 

“It is a program which has provided 
hundreds of thousands of workers laid off 
because of imports the ability to readjust, 
and one which warrants expansion of cov- 
erage to workers who supply essential parts 
and services,” Sheehan declared. 


supported amendment would have given 
farmers and ranchers the right to refuse 
to pay assessments for services levied by 
the state’s commodities commissions. 

The Montana bill, introduced by “right- 
to-work” advocates, would have repealed 
the state’s agency shop law governing pub- 
lic workers to substitute conflicting rules 
on public employees’ rights to join or not 
join unions. Adequate laws already exist to 
protect those rights, unions pointed out. 

The state federation led nearly 200 op- 
ponents of the measure into the commit- 
tee’s hearings on the bill at which some 
40 witnesses testified against it. The bill 
was defended only by its sponsor. Repub- 
lican James Burnett and two officers of 
Montana Citizens for Right to Work, Inc. 

THE STATE AFL-CIO was joined in 
the fight to kill the bill by a coalition, of 
public employee associations, public inter- 
est groups, the unaffiliated Teamsters, the 
state Democratic Party and representatives 
of the governor’s office. State AFL-CIO 
Executive Sec. James Murry reported. 

Murry told the legislators the bill was 
“just the opening salvo in the battle for 
‘right to work’ in Montana.” Such mea- 
sures are “out of the mainstream” of both 
major political parties, Murray reminded 
the legislators, pointing out that the anti- 
public employee bill “is an example of the 
anti-union philosophy that is pervasive 
throughout the Northwest.” 

Other opponents of the bill cited figures 
showing that Montana workers are better- 
paid than workers in states where compul- 
sory open shop laws are on the books, 
and public employee union representatives 
called a part of the bill which would have 
permitted different wage rates for union 
members and non-union workers “ridicu- 
lous.” 

NO PUBLIC employer representatives 
came forward to defend the bill, and a 
representative of Gov. Ted Schwinden, a 
Democrat, testified that the executive 
branch was opposed to the measure “on 
principle.” 

A motion to table the bill in committee 
was defeated by a 9 to 8 vote, Murry said, 
with the majority arguing that Montana 
house members should be clearly on record 
against such legislation. 

Fourth-Quarter Output 
Shows 4 Percent Rise 

The Commerce Dept, issued revised 
figures showing that the nation’s economic 
output in the final quarter of 1980 in- 
creased at a seasonally adjusted annual 
. rate of 4 percent, a decrease of 1 percent- 
age point from the original estimate. 

The 4-percent annual rate of rise in 
“real” gross national product, the value of 
all goods and services produced, adjusted 
for inflation — compared with a 2.4-percent 
annual increase in last year’s third quar- 
ter. The economy declined at a 9.9 per- 
cent annual rate in the second quarter. 


Labor Protests Curtailment 
Of Trade Adjustment Benefits 


/ 




By Rex Hardesty 

A determination that the AFL-CIO will 
sharpen “every tool we can lay our hands 
on to pursue traditional union goals” was 
spelled out by President Lane Kirkland at 
the launching of the federation’s new 
series of regional conferences. 

The first two conferences of the series 
drew 420 delegates from eight states to the 
meeting in Philadelphia and 357 from 
eight states to Boston. In each case, regis- 
tration overflow forced the splitting of a 
delegation to keep the conference room 
attendance small enough to facilitate dis- 
cussion. 

«WE ARE PREPARED to use new 
methods, different techniques, and better 
ways to reach our goals,” Kirkland said 
in Boston. “It is our job to enhance the 
well-being of our members through any 


educational, political, legislative, or com- 
munity activities that can advance the 
cause of workers.” 

The conferences reflect that range of 
activities. 

In addition to Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 


Thomas R. Donahue, presentations are 
made by AFL-CIO department directors in 
charge of organization, legislation, COPE 
and legal affairs on the first day. In the 
closing half day, conference delegates 
select their choice of sessions on OSHA, 
education, research, community services. 


civil rights, communications, social secu- 
rity and support groups with each delegate 
able to choose two. 

THE CONFERENCES are the first of 
their type ever held by the AFL-CIO. 
They were announced by Kirkland in early 
1981 as a time “to renew the roots of our 
movement” through an emphasis on an 
interchange of views among state, local 
and national officials, rather than formal 
speeches. 

“Our agenda is not rigid,” Kirkland 
said in Philadelphia, “but we do want to 
encourage maximum discussion. Therefore 
speechmanking will be held to a minimum.” 

The next conference opens Mar. 19 in 
Chicago for the states of Illinois, Indiana, 
Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 
The final four will follow in San Francisco, 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Federation Rallies 
Support to Miners 

On Black Lung Aid 



LABOR STANDS TOGETHER in the fight to save benefits for black lung vic- 
tims and their families, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 6,000 Mine 
Workers at a rally to protest Administration plans to slash funding for the pro- 
gram. Kirkland joined the march and rally at the invitation of UMW President 
Sam Church, Jr., right. UMW District 4 President Walter Suba is at left. 

Reagan Deepens Slash 
In Jobs, Social Programs 


By James M. She vis 

President Reagan sent Congress a re- 
vised fiscal blueprint for the nation next 
year that would make even deeper cuts in 
worker protections and social programs 
than he had originally proposed. 

Calling for “dramatic change” to break 
up the pattern of economic stagnation and 
high inflation, Reagan asked Congress for 
quick approval of an updated fiscal 1982 
budget that would reduce spending by 

Auto Workers^ 
Board Endorses 
Reaffiliation 

Detroit — ^The executive board of the 
Auto Workers has unanimously endorsed 
reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO, and UAW 
President Douglas A. Fraser said the un- 
ion will convene special regional conven- 
tions this spring to vote on the issue. 

The UAW left the federation in 1968. 
But in recent years it has worked closely 
with the AFL-CIO and its affiliates on 
legislation, political action and other com- 
mon concerns. 

FRASER TOLD reporters, “I think it 
is time to unify. It is time for solidarity.” 

Delegates to the UAW’s most recent 
triennial convention, last June, will vote 
on a resolution empowering the executive 
board to take final action on reaffiliation. 
To save costs of bringing the nearly 3,000 
delegates from U.S. locals to a single loca- 
tion, the votes will be held at regional 

(Continued on Page 2) 


$48.6 billion from the level proposed by 
the Carter Administration in January. 

THE PLANNED spending cuts, which 
reflect Reagan’s conservative political 
philosophy, would be coupled with a 
three-year, 10-percent annual reduction in 
personal income taxes and faster depre- 
ciation write-offs for new business invest- 
ments. The budget cuts, which are central 
to Reagan’s plan to balance the budget by 
1984, would hit particularly hard at regu- 
latory agencies. 

At a hearing before the House Budget 
Committee last week, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland assailed the Reagan pro- 
gram as unfair to workers and the needy. 
He accused the Administration of “gam- 
bling with the well-being of those who can 
ill afford to gamble in order to provide a 
sure winner for the wealthy who are not 
asked to take any of the risk.” 

“THE BUDGET CUTS, tax cuts, regu- 
latory cuts, and money supply cuts add 
up to more inflation and more unemploy- 
ment,” Kirkland warned. “The measures 
advocated by the Administration are ine- 
quitable, unfair, and shortsighted.” 

The new $695.3 billion budget for the 
spending year that starts Oct. 1 contains 
sweeping reductions in outlays for jobs 
and welfare programs, energy, education, 
agriculture, federal "loans, and other 
civilian programs. 

Reagan also proposed a national “work- 
fare” program similar to a three-year 
experiment that he presided over as gov- 
ernor of California. The plan would re- 
quire welfare recipients to accept non- 
paying community service jobs if they 
were unable to find paying jobs or job- 
training on their own. 

(Continued on Page 3) 


By Susan Dunlop 

The AFL-CIO has linked arms with the 
United Mine Workers to fight stiff cuts 
in federal funding for black lung benefit 
programs proposed by the Reagan Admin- 
istration. 

Federation President Lane Kirkland 
joined UMW President Sam Church, Jr., 
at the head of an estimated 6,000 Mine 
Workers in a march around the White 
House to protest the Administration’s plan 
to cut some $387 million in black lung 
funding. 

KIRKLAND joined the march as it 
made a symbolic stop at AFL-CIO head- 
quarters with members of the Executive 
Council, heads of the federation’s consti- 
tutional departments, union staff repre- 
sentatives and members. 

The AFL-CIO and the UMW action 
reflected the solidarity of the recently 
formed budget coalition of 157 organi- 
zations in opposing cuts in the federal 
budget that could destroy social and eco- 
nomic programs, including those to aid 
black lung victims. 

AT A RALLY following the march, 
Kirkland told the demonstrators that “your 
brothers and sisters in the AFL-CIO are 
with you on this issue all the way. Those 
who would deprive miners of these bene- 
fits would stop at nothing.” 

Kirkland urged the miners to support 
efforts to save other vital programs as 
well, pointing out that “this is an impor- 
tant fight, and it is only the first of many 
fights trade union members will be in to 
defend the rights of working people.” 

The Mine Workers’ demonstration was 
part of a two-day “memorial period” for 


Administration proposals to cut back 
unemployment insurance protection for 
workers and reduce public assistance for 
the needy carry a price tag of human 
suffering that far exceeds any budget 
savings, AFL-CIO Social Security Direc- 
tor Bert Seidman testified. 

Seidman and other labor witnesses be- 
fore a House Ways & Means subcommit- 
tee warned that the programs President 
Reagan is seeking to cut are the true 
“safety net” against unemployment and 
poverty. 

THE UNEMPLOYMENT insurance 
proposals to which the AFL-CIO strongly 
dissented would: 

• Cut back the extended benefits pro- 
gram for the long-term unemployed — on 


black lung victims during which all union 
miners were urged to remain off the job. 
The work stoppage was permitted under 
the terms of the 170,000-member union’s 
contract which allows up to 10 days a 
year off for protests on safety issues. 

THE MARCH followed a series of 
speeches by UMW officers and elected 
officials from coal-producing states at a 
rally at the union’s Washington headquar- 
ters. 

The UMW reported that demonstrators 
from every coal state traveled to Wash- 
ington for the march, including some from 
as far away as Utah and Wyoming. The 
UMW march was the first such large- 
scale, vocal demonstration staged to pro- 
test any of the Reagan budget cuts. 

Some 50 students from the Seafarers’ 
Harry Lundeberg School in Piney Point, 
Md., made the trip to join the demonstra- 
tion which included a number of black 
lung victims. 

The Administration’s proposals include 
a sharp retrenchment in the program that 
now pays benefits to about 80,850 black 
lung victims and their dependents. Thfs 
would be accomplished through more 
stringent eligibility requirements and an 
end to federal assistance to the black lung 
trust fund. 

CONGRESS established the black lung 
aid programs as part of the Coal Mine 
Health & Safety Act of 1969 and set up 
the trust fund in 1977. The fund, which 
is supposed to be financed by a tax on 
coal sold by producers, has come under 
the most direct attack by the Administra- 
tion which claims that the industry, not 
the federal budget, should keep it solvent. 

(Continued on Page 3) 


top of the cuts Congress imposed last 
year. Reagan’s proposals would eliminate 
the present provision for a nationwide 
program of 13 weeks of extended benefits 
during periods of high unemployment. 
And the insured unemployment rate in a 
state would have to be substantially higher 
than at present to “trigger on” extended 
benefits. But another proposed change 
would “trigger off” a state program 
months sooner than under present law. 

• Require persons receiving unem- 
ployment insurance, after 13 weeks of 
joblessness, to accept any job paying as 
much as the unemployment benefit so 
long as it was not less than the federal 
minimum wage. States now have flexibil- 
ity to set suitability standards that take 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Labor Cites Heavy Costs 
Of Jobless Benefit Cutback 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 


AFL-CIO Kicks Off Regional Sessions 

Conference Series Focuses 
On Improving Techniques 



REGIONAL CONFERENCE workshop program is launched m Philadelphia 
with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
fielding questions from participants. The series of seven regional conferences 
is designed to produce a free flow of ideas, opinions and evaluations of labor 
programs at all levels of the federation. 

Industry Pressure Delays 
Lead Exposure Safeguard 


A key safeguard designed to protect 
workers from lead poisoning has been 
postponed for 31 days by the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Administration 
while it considers a lead industry petition 
for a one-year delay of the regulation. 

OSHA pushed back until Apr. 1, the 
effective date of the medical removal 
provision in the federal lead exposure 
standard which requires employers to 
take workers off the job when lead in 
their blood reaches a specified “trigger 
level.” The removal or transfer to a less 
hazardous job must be made without loss 
of pay, seniority or other benefits to the 
worker. 

THE NEW TRIGGER level that was 
scheduled to take effect Mar. 1 would 
have required the removal of workers 
whose blood lead level reached 60 micro- 

2-Earner Families 
Greatest Losers 
In Buying Power 

Families in which both husband and 
wife worked suffered a sharper drop in 
purchasing power in 1980 than individual 
workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
reported. 

Household survey data released by the 
BLS showed that real earnings— wages 
adjusted for inflation — of individuals who 
worked full time fell 2.7 percent in the 
year ended with the fourth quarter of 
1980, about the same as the 3 percent 
decline for the year ended with the third 
quarter. 

In families where husband and wife 
were earners, real earnings over the same 
period — fourth quarter to fourth quarter 
— fell 3.8 percent. 

THE BLS SAID that before adjustments 
for inflation, median weekly earnings of 
individuals employed full time rose 9.5 
percent for the year, from $253 to $277. 
For the husband-wife couple, the weekly 
income increased 9.2 percent, from $494 
to $539. 

For all families, the median wage and 
salary earnings rose only 6.8 percent, from 
$388 to $415 a week, because some work- 
ers lost their jobs and others were cut 
back to part-time work. Over the year 
ended with the fourth quarter, consumer 
prices increased 12.5 percent. 

Reflecting the effects of the economic 
slowdown last year, the number of mar- 
ried-couple families with two or more 
bread-winners dropped by about 600,000 
from the fourth quarter of 1979 to the 
fourth quarter of 1980. Most of this de- 
cline occurred among families in which 
both the husband and wife had previously 
been working, the BLS said. 


grams of lead per 100 grams of blood. 
The workers could return to the job when 
their blood lead level dropped to 40 
micrograms. 

During the postponement, the trigger 
level that has been in effect since March 
1980 must be observed, OSHA said. It 
requires employers to remove workers 
when blood levels reach 70 micrograms 
and allows them return to the job when 
the levels drop to 50 micrograms. 

The lead industry has been fighting the 
implementation of the lead standard since 
it was issued in November 1978. 

LAST DECEMBER, the Supreme 
Court stayed a section of the standard 
requiring the industry to reduce worker 
exposure to lead through the installation 
of engineering controls. But the high 
court refused to stay the medical removal 
provision. 

Lead poisoning, resulting from exces- 
sive exposure to the metal, can cause 
anemia, kidney failure, brain and nervous 
system damage, as well as death. The 
Labor Dept, estimates that more than 
800,000 workers in 40 industries are ex- 
posed to lead on the job. 

In filing for the one-year delay, indus- 
try contended that the lower trigger level 
would cut into productivity by requiring 
employers to remove skilled workers who 
could not be easily replaced. 

THE STEELWORKERS, one of sev- 
eral unions challenging the Lead Indus- 
tries Association’s petition, questioned the 
timing of the application, coming just six 
days before the provision was to take ef- 
fect, even though industry was aware of 
the regulation for more than two years. 

The USWA also pointed out that in- 
dustry provided no evidence in its petition 
to justify one-year delay in the provision. 


Legislation to curb automobile imports 
from Japan is urgently needed and a bi- 
partisan bill being considered by a Senate 
Finance subcommittee should be passed 
with strengthening amendments, the AFL- 
CIO testified. 

The bill, introduced by Subcommittee 
Chairman John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) and 
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), would set a 
quota of 1.6 million Japanese auto imports 
a year for the next three years. The figure 
is the average of auto imports from Japan 
for 1978 and 1979, and is about 300,000 
below 1980 imports. 

AFL-CIO LEGISLATIVE Rep. Stephen 
Koplan urged a lower quota — a limit of 
1.2 million imports a year, which reflects 
the annual average of the 1975-79 period. 

Action has been too long delayed, he 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Denver, Atlanta, and New Orleans with 
the states attending roughly following the 
format of the AFL-CIO seven regional 
offices. 

“We heard you,” Donahue said in his 
summing up session at the end of the 
workshops. “We heard you on the topic 
of your getting 10 different requests to do 
eight things in a differing range of prior- 
ities.” 

“AND WE HEARD you on such topics 
as affiliation, on jurisdiction and organiza- 
tion and on your problems with working 
with coalitions in your community,” Do- 
nahue said. “We heard you on a whole 
range of frustrations which stem from the 
fact our democratic union structure is not 
neat, tidy and easy to execute in. We are 
glad to take your message back and act 
on it.” 

Various state delegations to the first two 
regional conferences were made up primar- 
ily of representatives of state AFL-CIO 
and local central bodies, along with a 
sprinkling of delegates from international 
unions. Kirkland addressed those distinc- 
tions in his opening remarks. 

“Most of you are decision-makers in 
your own organizations,” Kirkland said. 
“Your actions percolate up from the local, 
state or regional level to your national and 
international unions, and from there to the 
federation.” 

BUT THE LOCAL and state AFL-CIO 
structure “is the vehicle through which we 
percolate out — translating policies into 
action, pursuing effective programs and 
reaching out to our natural allies.” 

One current priority, Kirkland empha- 
sized in both cities, is to protect work- 
ers against federal budget cuts that are 
“simply the wrong medicine, applied at the 
wrong time and in the wrong manner.” 

Kirkland said in response to reporters’ 
questions in Boston that President Reagan 
had “no mandate” to cut trade adjustment 
assistance and unemployment compensa- 
tion “unless he campaigned on that issue 
in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio.” 

Similarly, he said Reagan had “no 
mandate” to slash social security and 
black lung benefits unless he campaigned 
on those issues in Florida and West 
Virginia, respectively. 

“PM NOT comforted by the President’s 
assurance that his budget cuts will not hurt 
‘truly deserving needy,’ ” Kirkland said. 
“But if such distinctions are to be made 
among the poor, why not apply them as 
well to corporations? What sense does it 
make to say that McDonald’s should re- 
ceive equal treatment with an electronics 
plant or a devastated apparel industry?” 

Kirkland told reporters in Boston the 
AFL-CIO could not set priorities on the 
budget fight, because workers are affected 
by such a wide variety of programs. 

And Kirkland reminded delegates that 
any study of labor in its centennial year 


stressed. And “workers who need jobs 
have paid too much of the price for this 
failure to act.” Koplan noted that earlier 
this month, in Toledo, Ohio, 5,000 un- 
employed workers lined up for 90 jobs in 
an auto battery plant. 

Koplan reminded the Senate panel that 
the glut of imports and the cutbacks in 
U.S. auto production go far beyond auto 
assembly plants. “Two out of every three 
jobs in the industry have been held by 
workers who make machinery, steel, alu- 
minum, glass, electronics, rubber, plastics 
and other products which are assembled 
into automobiles,” he testified. 

The AFL-CIO endorsed a proposal by 
the Auto Workers to allow an exemption 
from the quota for Japanese automobiles 
containing a designated percentage of 
domestic content, such as engines and 


would show that “the American labor 
movement must take on this fight” over 
the budget. “We are not about to lose our 
nerve now, or scuttle our convictions.” 

AS AN EXAMPLE of such historic 
fights — and the variety of “tools” to be 
sharpened by the regional conferences — 
Kirkland traced the labor quest for a 
shorter workday. 

“In 1884, the Federation of Organized 
Trades & Labor Unions was only three 
years old, when it issued the call for the 
eight-hour day,” and the struggle evolved 
through strikes, and efforts in the 1880s 
and again just after World War I. 

“But the issue wasn’t resolved until the 
1938 enactment oif the original federal 
minimum wage law which made the em- 
ployer pay a premium for overtime. Col- 
lective bargaining couldn’t do it alone; no 
one strike did it, and the legislation didn’t 
just happened. 

“It took a combination, once again of 
every tool we could lay our hands on,” 
Kirkland said. 

IN RECOUNTING the “message we 
heard” from the workshop session, Do- 
nahue listed coordinated approaches to 
both organizing and bargaining on which 
the federation would be able to help. 

“And we heard your concerns about 
technical help on state legislative matters, 
on ways to counter the union-busting con- 
sultants and other interference by employ- 
ers in representation elections,” he said. 

Donahue also said that over a longer 
period of time, all units of organized labor 
would be continuing to “monitor the per- 
formance of elected officials on how they 
voted after we broke our picks working 
to elect them.” 

Auto Workers’ 
Board Endorses 
Reaffiliation Bid 

(Continued from Page 1) 
meetings and will then be tallied together. 

Dates and locations are still being 
worked out but, Fraser said he expects the 
vote tally to be completed before May 1 . 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
reporters at the federation’s recent Execu- 
tive Council session that the AFL-CIO 
has invited reaffiliation of the UAW and 
has had discussions with both the UAW 
and the Teamsters. The last AFL-CIO 
convention directed the Executive Council 
“to give prompt consideration” to any 
request for affiliation. 

The UAW has some 1.2 million mem- 
bers in the United States who would be 
included in the AFL-CIO if reaffiliation 
took place. 


other production parts. The domestic con- 
tent requirement could be phased in, 
Koplan suggested, to reach 75 percent by 
1983. 

HE URGED the committee also to con- 
sider limitations on imports of auto parts 
to complete the process of turning inter- 
national trade back into a two-way street. 

“The United States is the most open 
large market,” Koplan said. Other nations 
are enlarging their content requirements, 
he noted, and their laws encourage U.S. 
firms to manufacture abroad and export 
to the United States. The lack of any 
counter-pressure by the United States 
through import quotas, high tariffs or high 
content requirements “can mean the death 
of a viable U.S. auto industry,” Koplan 
warned. 


Senate Asked to Tighten Auto Quota Bill 


Puge Thre» 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 



STRONG CASE AGAINST repeal of Arkansas’s prevail- Woodson, right, of the State Building & Construction Trades 
ing wage law was made in testimony to the legislature by Council. A House labor committee voted 12 to 4 to shelve 
State AFL-CIO President J. Bill Becker and President Joe the anti-worker measure. 


Reagan Budget Would Deepen Cuts 
In Job Protection, Social Programs 


Pay Act Saved 
In Arkansas, 
KUled in Utah 

Arkansas labor staved off an attempt to 
repeal the state’s prevailing wage laws 
when testimony by the State AFL-CIO 
and building trades workers convinced the 
state’s house to refer the bill to a com- 
mittee for two years of study. 

In Utah, however, non-union contrac- 
tors were able to rally enough support in 
the state’s house and senate to push 
through a bill overriding the governor’s 
veto of a repeal measure. 

BACKED BY some 3,000 union mem- 
bers to attended committee hearings 
on the Arkansas measure. State AFL-CIO 
President Bill Becker called the “little 
Davis-Bacon” law essential to prevent 
bidding wars between contractors from 
undermining wage levels on projects 
financed by state and local governments 
and school districts. 

Wage cutting means bringing in un- 
skilled workers, Becker told the legisla- 
tors, adding that “the old adage that you 
get what you pay for is still true in the 
construction business.” 

Dewey Stiles, chairman of the state 
federation’s legislative committee, called 
the bill little more than a “smoke screen” 
to cut the income of construction workers. 

The house public welfare, health and 
labor committee voted 12 to 4 to recom- 
mend that the bill be referred to an 
interim committee, an action expected to 
bury it for the remainder of the state’s 
legislative session. 

IN UTAH, even a massive rally by 
union members was not enough to beat 
back overwhelming Republican majorities 
in both legislative houses. They voted to 
override Democratic Gov. Scott Mathe- 
son’s Mar.* 2 veto of a bill repealing the 
state’s prevailing wage statute. The votes 
were 50-24 in the house and 21-7 in the 
senate. The repeal bill was backed by the 
Utah Associated Builders & Contractors. 

Utah Building Trades Sec.-Treas. Steve 
Richins, although disappointed by the 
setback, said the repeal might be a bless- 
ing in disguise” for Utah labor as a rally- 
ing point for future political action, in- 
cluding “targeting some of the master- 
minds behind this repeal scheme in the 
next election.” 

Court Clarifies 
Job Bias Test 
Under Rights Act 

The Supreme Court clarified but did 
not change the legal test for determining 
whether an employer has been guilty of 
race or sex discrimination in Violation of 
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. 

The court ruled unanimously that the 
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was 
wrong when it imposed a heavy burden 
of proof on the employer to demonstrate 
that a personnel action was not a viola- 
tion of Title VII. In the case at hand, 
the Supreme Court said, the appellate 
court “also erred” in requiring the em- 
ployer “to prove by objective evidence that 
the person hired was more qualified.” 

THE SUPREME COURT noted that 
Title VII prohibits discrimination, but 
does not require an employer to “give 
preferential treatment of minorities or 
women” or to hire a minority or female 
applicant over a white male applicant with 
equal qualifications. 

The employer remains free to choose 
among equally qualified job candidates, 
the court said, provided the decision 
isn’t based on “unlawful criteria” of race, 
sex, national origin or religion. 

In the particular case, it said the em- 
ployer had adequately met the test of 
“articulating” a non-discriminatory rea- 
son for the personnel action that dispelled 
any assumption of illegal discrimination. 
Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., wrote the 
decision for the Supreme Court. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The major features of the plan were 
contained in the President’s Feb. 1 8 
address to Congress and budget outline 
calling for 83 major cuts resulting in 
$34.8 billion savings for 1982. In budget 
revisions forwarded to Capitol Hill on 
Mar. 10, additional cuts totaling $13.8 
billion in 200 federal agencies and pro- 
grams were unveiled. 

The revisions also seek $6.4 billion in 
cuts during the current fiscal year, $2 bil- 
lion more than the President had sought 
last month. The Reagan Administration 
proposed outlays of $655.2 billion with 
receipts anticipated at $600.3 billion this 
year. 

In a message accompanying the revi- 
sions, Reagan said that even with the 
budget cuts planned outlays in the 1982 
fiscal year represent a 6.1 percent increase 
in spending over 1981, or about one-half 
the 11.6 percent rise President Carter 
proposed. 

HE SAID he would recommend further 
cuts if necessary to reach his spending 
target, insisting that his election was “a 
mandate for change.” 

Reagan said his plan relies on “the 
private sector, rather than the federal 
government, as the fundamental source of 
economic motivation and growth,” and 
would shift responsibility to states and 
cities in areas of public services where he 
said the federal government has become 
“excessively or improperly involved.” 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council at its 
recent meeting charged that Reagan’s 
program would “substitute unrestrained 
market power for social responsibility and 
human concerns.” If Congress goes along 
with the proposed cuts, more than a mil- 
lion jobs will be sacrificed, the council 
warned. 

THE MAR. 10 budget revisions in- 
cluded new cuts in eight spending areas — 
veterans’ benefits, manpower training, sub- 
sidies for merchant marine shipbuilding 
programs, water development projects, 
small business loans, public health ser- 
vices, railroad employees’ pensions, and 
mortgage underwriting. 

More than 300,000 public service jobs 
funded under Comprehensive Employ- 
ment & Training Act programs would be 
eliminated by Sept. 30, for a slash of $600 
million this year and $3.6 billion in 1982. 
Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan has al- 
ready imposed a freeze on any new hiring 
in the CETA jobs program this year. 

THE ADMINISTRATION also called 
for the elimination of the Youth Conser- 
vation Corps, and achieving further sav- 
ings by consolidating other programs. 
Another cut would end Labor Dept, par- 


ticipation in state employment service op- 
erations that help unemployed workers 
find jobs. 

Reagan also plans to propose legisla- 
tion to end the national trigger for ex- 
tended unemployment insurance benefits 
beyond the 26 weeks’ coverage provided 
by basic state programs and make it 
harder to “trigger on” the state programs 
for extended benefits. 

Other cuts proposed in the Mar. 10 
message include: 

• An overall reduction of about $700 
million for veterans’ programs in 1982. 
This would include canceling and delay- 
ing several hospital projects. 

• Elimination of medical care for 
merchant seamen and the closing of the 
remaining eight Public Health Service 
hospitals and 29 clinics now providing this 
service. 

• A $700-million cut from the Health 
& Human Services Dept, budget, includ- 
ing elimination of the $255 lump-sum so- 
cial security death benefit if a beneficiary 
dies without a spouse or children. Con- 
gress rejected President Carter’s 1979 
proposal to end the lump-sum payment 
outright. 


(Continued from Page I) 

The Mine Workers point out that the 
industry has resisted its financing role in 
the fund and that federal support is essen- 
tial to aid victims of the crippling disease. 

“These are people who proclaim from 
the highest corporation or government 
heights,” Church told the demonstrators, 
“that safety regulations in our nation’s 
mines, and for that matter in every other 
workplace, are too stringent, too expen- 
sive, too restrictive and too much of a 
burden on business.” 

CHURCH CALLED these claims “at- 
tacks by people who will never suffer from 
breathing-in the air-conditioned air in their 
plush offices.” 

The union vigorously rejects an Admin- 
istration claim that 88 percent, of all 
miners certified as eligible for black lung 
payments “were either ineligible or could 
not be proved to have black lung disease.” 
That 88 percent “still can’t breathe” the 
union points out, charging that “red tape” 
delays in providing aid to ailing miners 
are a more appropriate subject for fed- 
eral attention which has not been investi- 


• Food stamp reductions of $2.3 bil- 
lion through more stringent eligibility re- 
quirements and $900 million more by 
converting food stamps for Puerto Rico 
into a block grant. 

• $700 million in nutrition programs 
for children and pregnant women. 

• Termination of the Government 
National Mortgage Association tandem 
mortgage purchase plan for the Housing 
& Urban Development Dept.’s Section 8 
program for low-income citizens after 
1982. 

• Cuts in the black lung disability 
trust fund, restricting benefits to those 
who are “truly” disabled by black lung 
disease. The objective is to “eliminate 
questionable claims,” the Administration 
observed. 

• $2.8 billion in “miscellaneous” cuts 
ranging from reduced subsidies for ship- 
building to decreases in the student loan 
program. 

Other spending reductions affect nearly 
every branch of government, but hit 
hardest at aid programs for consumers, 
the poor, the jobless, and even those with 
jobs. 


gated by the Administration. 

Black lung, the common name for pneu- 
moconiosis, causes severe shortness of 
breath, excessive coughing, and a daily 
build-up of suffocating mucus. More than 
4,000 mine workers die each year from 
the effects of breathing in tiny particles of 
coal dust, the UMW reports. 

The union points out that even though 
Congress widened the eligibility standards 
for black lung programs in 1977, a victim 
unable to work may still have to wait 
months to be certified as eligible for bene- 
fits, particularly if a former employer 
challenges the claim. 

MANY OF THOSE expected to be 
hurt by the proposed cuts are the families 
of deceased miners who are receiving 
benefits under a provision in the law that 
provides payments to dependents of miners 
presumed to have died from black lung. 

Other miners, in spite of having the full 
symptoms of the disease, could be shut 
off from aid if laboratory tests and x-rays 
do not show a sufficient degree of illness. 

Such tests have not been shown to be 
reliable, the UMW says. 


AFL-CIO Stands by Miners 
In Black Lung Benefit Fight 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 


A IVew Spirit of Cooperation 

T he united states faces a period in its history when 
non-inflationary economic growth and full employment are 
essential to the maintenance of a free and healthy society. 

American labor and business see these as necessary mutual goals 
to provide our society with new and expanded job opportunities, 
increased living standards, international competitiveness in an 
interdependent world and the capacity to meet social commitments. 

With these objectives in mind, the Labor-Management Group 
will meet on a voluntary basis to search for solutions to a wide 
range of issues. 

THE PRINCIPAL FOCUS of the Group’s discussions will be 
in the area of economic policy in which its collective experience 
is widely based. In framing its discussions, the Group is mindful 
that it is but one of many groups whose opinions may be sought in 
shaping the nation’s policies. The Group’s recommendations must 
consider its obligations to the aspirations of all Americans, includ- 
ing the just demands for equity by minorities, women and those 
for whom social justice is still a dream. 

The national interest requires a new spirit of mutual trust and 
cooperation, even though management and organized labor are, 
and will remain, adversaries on many issues. 

The uniqueness of America lies in the vitality of its free insti- 
tutions. Among these, a free labor movement and a free enterprise 
economy are essential to the achievement of social and political 
stability and economic prosperity for all. It is destructive to society 
and to business and organized labor if, in our legitimate adversarial 
roles, we question the right of our institutions to exist and perform 
their legitimate functions. In performing these functions, we recog- 
nize that both parties must respect deeply held views even when 
they disagree. 

ONE recognition of the legitimacy of our respective insti- 
tutions is demonstrated in the process of free collective bargaining. 
We believe that both the democratic right of employees to deter- 
mine the issue of representation and the process of collective bar- 
gaining must not be threatened by occasions of excessive behavior 
by employers or unions. 

The Group will use the wider relationships its individual mem- 
bers have in the business and labor communities to broaden its 
knowledge of issues, to improve the overall labor-management 
climate and to communicate the results of its deliberations to its 
respective associates. 

The complexity of issues suggests the Group may not find com- 
plete consensus on all the issues it explores. When it does, it will 
communicate its views publicly. Otherwise, the participants reserve 
to themselves the privilege to address issues in their individual 
capacities. 

The Group intends to look closely at the issues it knows best 
and how they are affected by public policy. These are the issues 
that grow out of our experiences in industries and localities. Fur- 
ther we intend to explore a wide range of issues with particular 
emphasis on revitalizing the nation’s economic base, rebuilding 
the private and public infrastructure on which our productive 
capacity as a nation depends, and stimulating safe and efficient 
means for meeting the nation’s energy needs. 

— Text of the Statement of Purpose issued by the Labor-Man- 
agement Group, Mar, 4, 198L 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary -Treasurer 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


KennethT. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 
Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 
Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 
Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, March 14, 1981 


No. 11 i 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.IV., Wash- 
S ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
S Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. = 

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Free Lunching at the Senate 

Some Federal Food Subsidies 
Aren’t Limited to Truly Needy’ 


By Gus Tyler 

P AULA HAWKINS says that food stamp 
cheats should be thrown in jail. Her words are 
not to be ignored because Paula Hawkins is the 
new senator from Florida who intends to make 
such jailing mandatory so that no lenient judge 
may fudge the sentence. 

Lest anyone think that this lady is being unduly 
mean, she makes it clear that her heart is with the 
truly needy. “The truly greedy,” she announces 
publicly, “is who I’m after, so there’ll be money 
left after to take care of the truly needy.” 

ALTHOUGH Sen. Hawkins’s proposal seems 
bland enough, compared with the old English 
practice of hanging children in public square for 
stealing a cookie, the posh confab at which she 
proclaimed her righteous purpose, erupted into 
unexpected unruliness. It all had to do with the 
food at the luncheon and just who paid for it. 

The invited guests at the lunch — mainly lobby- 
ists for agricultural interests — dined on choice 
beef, fresh asparagus and hot apple pie in the 
well-adorned surroundings of the Senate dining 
room. This eating place gets a subsidy from the 
federal government — in the same way as food 
stamps represent a subsidy — except that to eat 
in the Senate quarters you don’t have to prove that 
you are poor. 

Despite the subsidy to feed senators, and pre- 
sumably their guests, somebody still had to pay 
for the meal. The question was, who? 

WITH PAINFUL persistence, CBS correspon- 
dent Phil Jones put the query to Sen. Hawkins 
who, repeatedly and heatedly, said that she was 
picking up the tab. “I just wrote a check for it,” 
she announced. But pressed further, she blurted: 
“I haven’t got the bill yet.” 

Hawkins was annoyed that this line of ques- 
tioning had shifted the focus of the conference 
from poor cheats to non-poor lobbyists. Their 
presence once more made the point about welfare 
for the non-poor. 

All the guests proved the falsity of what passes 
for a truism about “no free lunch.” The diners on 
this occasion were getting a “free lunch,” partly 
at the expense of the U.S. Treasury. What is more, 
this costless cuisine was not unusual; it is the usual 
way of life for just about every business executive 
in America. 

On any one day, several million such non-poor 


eat meals without personal cost: they charge it to 
the company that, in turn, writes it off as a busi- 
ness expense in reporting income. So Uncle Sam 
picks up about half the cost. 

ON ANY ONE day, the U.S. Treasury must 
lose in such “free lunches” more than the $2 
million that Sen. Hawkins says is presently stolen 
by food stamp cheats over the course of a year. 
(TTiat $2 million represents two one-hundredths of 
1 percent of all the money that goes for food 
stamps, which must make that program one of the 
most honest and efficient in the country.) 

Meanwhile Hawkins will pursue her crusade 
against the “truly greedy.” 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Poor to Get Poorer 
If Budget Cuts Prevail 

The nation’s poor have suffered the conse- 
quences of prolonged unemployment and inflap 
tton more than any other segment in society. 
The buying power of public assistance benefits 
is rapidly deteriorating as inflation in the cost 
of necessities rises at an even greater rate than 
overall inflation. 

The poor spend over 90 percent of their inp 
come on basic necessities. They already live in 
the cheapest available housing, cut back on fuel 
and eat the cheapest food. 

Nowhere in America does the combination of 
assistance available from welfare and food 
stamps equal the poverty level — a level which 
is widely recognized as outdated and inade- 
quate. The level of living this assistance pro- 
vides the poor, the vast majority of whom are 
children, is wretched. 

^ Everyone agrees that when it comes to aid- 
ing the poor, work is vastly preferable to wel- 
fare. And yet the Administration proposes that 
both job and training programs be eliminated. 
Child care programs allowing mothers to seek 
and maintain jobs would disappear. Medical 
care, food stamps, energy assistance and child 
nutrition programs would be drastically cut 
back. The cumulative effect of these proposed 
measures would savage the poor, terrorize the 
elderly and bankrupt the cities. 

— AFL-CIO testimony at House hearings, 

Mar. 12, 1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 


Pace FIto 


Kitkland on Reagan Budget 

Living Standards on the Line 
For Workers, Jobless, Poor 


The following is excerpted from AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland's testimony before the 
House Budget Committee, Mar. 4, 1981. 

W E BELIEVE the federal budget should em- 
body more than programs and policies to 
achieve broad economic goals of reducing infla- 
tion, increasing jobs and restoring health to the 
nation’s productive base. The budget is the docu- 
ment through which the government carries out its 
constitutional responsibility to provide for the 
common defense and promote the general welfare. 

The Reagan Administration’s budget undercuts 
these responsibilities and will not meet its eco- 
nomic goals. 

The budget cuts, tax cuts, regulatory cuts and 
money supply cuts add up to more inflation and 
more unemployment. The Reagan budget con- 
stitutes the most costly roll of the dice ever pro- 
posed for this nation by economic policymakers. 
On the line are the living standards of millions of 
working Americans, the unemployed and the poor, 
the opportunity for energy security and the hope 
of reviving the nation’s indutries and cities. 

THE ADMINISTRATION is gambling with 
the well-being of those who can ill afford to 
gamble in order to provide a sure winner for the 
wealthy who are not asked to take any of the risk. 

The measures advocated by the Administration 
are inequitable, unfair and short-sighted. They are 
based on an untested theory, unrealistic projec- 
tions and questionable logic. 

• Budget cuts in income-support programs 
ignore the harm that befalls millions of Ameri- 
cans and will result in further shrinking purchas- 
ing power. 

• Budget cuts in alternative energy programs 
ignore the recently-learned lesson that the nation 
cannot be dependent upon a single source of 
energy or a single group of suppliers, be it a 
cartel of countries or a cartel of businesses. 

• Budget cuts in urban development, transpor- 
tation and essential municipal services ignore their 
integral role in building the nation’s economic 
competitiveness by providing the base for rein- 
dustrialization. 

• Tax cuts loaded on the side of the rich 
ignore the evidence of history that such cuts do 
not produce the type of investment society needs 
most and do not trickle surely down to enhance 
the general welfare. 

• Tax cuts for business ignore the fact that 
not all businesses need or would use the benefits 
for productive investment in plant and equipment. 

THE NATION has an array of vexing econom- 
ic and social problems, but the Administration 
budget presents no sound solutions. 

Cutting trade adjustment assistance will aggra- 
vate the problem of increasing joblessness due to 
failures in the nation’s foreign trade policies. 

Capping benefits for Medicaid recipients will 

Inconsistent Policies 


not solve the problem of waste caused by an in- 
efficient health care system or correct the fraud 
perpetrated by health care providers. 

Eliminating the minimum social security benefit 
will further deepen the severe poverty faced by 
the 85 percent of the recipients of those payments 
who depend primarily on social security. 

Wiping out a series of job and job-training pro- 
grams for the working poor will result only in a 
greater number going on welfare. 

We do not agree that America’s problems are 
so dire that a new sub-class of citizens must be 
created — drawing distinctions between the 
“needy,” the “truly deserving” and the “truly 
deserving needy.” Such distinctions are con- 
spicuously absent from the tax program. 

WE DO NOT believe that the nation has been 
too generous in helping the poor, the disadvan- 
taged and the unemployed; we believe the Admin- 
istration’s proposal is too generous in supporting 
the wealthy and the powerful. 

The centerpiece of the Administration’s pro- 
gram is the notion that government spending and 
deficits cause inflation. The evidence does not 
support this proposition. 

It is pure fantasy to believe that the budget cuts 
are going to reduce tax burdens and improve liv- 
ing standards. In large part, the costs will be 
shifted to the states and localities forcing increases 
in regressive sales and property taxes, cutbacks in 
essential programs and new or increased fees and 
charges for public facilities and services. 

It is simply wrong to develop an entire eco- 
nomic program based on the f^se premise that 
budget cuts are needed to finance tax cuts that 
are an income transfer from those who are less 
well-off to those who are more well-off. Business 
and wealthy individuals are not bearing a dispro- 
portionately high share of the nation’s tax burden. 
Therefore, we cannot support the size, shape or 
direction of the Administration’s tax proposals. 

The facade of equity constructed around a 10- 
percent across-the-board tax cut obscures the fact 
that there is no income tax cut for 15 million low- 
income wage earners, who are paying higher 
social security taxes and would lose assistance 
from programs facing the budget cut. 

Those in the middle are also short changed. 

Indeed, decontrol of oil prices and the resulting 
gasoline and heating fuel price hikes have already 
more than wiped out the tax benefits an average 
worker’s family would receive under the Reagan 
plan. 

According to the Administration’s own figures, 
nearly one-third of the $27-billion individual tax 
cut will go to the wealthiest 5 percent of tax- 
payers. 

The AFL-CIO tax proposal for a 20-percent 
refundable tax credit for social security payments 
would be equitable to all and would cost only $ 1 8 
billion. 


Reagan’s Clashing Economics 
Dim Prospects for Turnaround 


npHE REAGAN economic plan ties together 
contradictory policies that will cancel out 
hopes to spur the economy and curb inflation, 
AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald de- 
clared on Labor News Conference. 

Massive budget cuts are inconsistent with the 
Administration’s hope to stimulate the economy 
through tax cuts that heavily favor high-income 
Americans, Oswald asserted. He pointed out that 
the actual savings for workers are so small — about 
$4 a week for a family of four earning $20,000 a 
year — that the cut will do little to increase con- 
sumer spending and encourage increased produc- 
tion. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview, Oswald pointed out that the Adminis- 
tration’s program “encourages continuation of 
high interest rates and tight-money policies.” 
Those policies may “cost business much more” 
than the tax cuts and other incentives aimed at 


increasing industrial investment, he warned. 

Oswald scored specific program cuts that will 
be made “at the expense of those who have little,” 
particularly a 75 percent rollback of benefits for 
victims of “black lung” disease, the slash of un- 
employment insurance protection, and severe cuts 
of trade adjustment assistance for workers who 
have lost their jobs because of imports. 

HE TURNED ASIDE the contention that the 
labor movement is being “disruptive” by strongly 
stating its concerns over the Administration’s eco- 
nomic programs. 

“We don’t have a society that walks lock-step in 
concert with any proposal by any President, no 
matter how popular he may be in opinion polls,” 
Oswald declared. He said that the labor movement 
has a “responsibility to spell out its concerns” as 
Congress evaluates the potential impact of those 
policies upon the nation. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

I N RECENT WEEKS, the American public has been swamped 
by Reagan Administration propaganda about the alleged need 
for sharp cutbacks in funding for a broad range of social pro- 
grams. 

But the percentages and the billions of dollars proposed to be 
cut from this program and that program say little about the human 
dimensions — how the lives of flesh-and-blood people would be 
affected. 

To learn more about those who would be affected by the 
Reagan budget and to spotlight their plight, democratic members 
of the Senate Labor & Human Resources Committee invited some 
folks to Washington for an informal hearing in early March. 

THE CITIZENS who spoke at the hearing resembled the people 
President Reagan had talked about during his campaign — the job- 
less, the minorities, the middle-income, the hard-working — those 
whose lives he pledged to improve. 

Although there wasn’t a trace of self-pity among those who told 
their story at the forum, each of them might justifiably lay claim 
to the category of “truly needy” whom the President, in his budget 
message to Congress, promised not to let slip from society’s 
“safety.net.” Among them were: 

• Thomas Aldridge, an unemployed auto worker from Ander- 
son, Ind., with over 10 years of seniority at a General Motors 
plant who was laid off nearly 14 months ago. About 2,900 of his 
fellow workers at the plant are still out of work. 

Aldridge has six children living at home, three of them adopted 
when his sister died eight years ago. He has applied for work at 
six other GM plants, one of them as far away as Oklahoma, but 
none was hiring. Although he’d prefer to go back to work at GM 
to keep his seniority status, he’s also been looking for other jobs 
in Anderson. But other employers consider him and other auto 
workers a poor risk because they could be called back to the auto 
plant. “You can’t blame them,” he said. 

HIS VOICE rising, Aldridge told the senators, “I and the 
hundreds of us still on the street would go to work gladly for less 
money, but we can’t get any offers.” 

If it weren’t for extended unemployment protection and trade 
adjustment assistance — ^both of which Reagan proposes to drastic- 
ally curtail— -“I would have lost my house and everything else,” 
said Aldridge. 

• Sarah Richardson, 70, who lives with a grandson in rural 
Buckingham County, Va. She receives a $306 monthly social se- 
curity pension check. She also gets $80 worth of food stamps each 
month for herself and her grandson. 

THIS WINTER, Mrs. Richardson was able to pay her home 
heating bill only with the help of the Low-Income Energy Assist- 
ance Program. A federally supported health clinic provides medical 
care at a cost she can afford. If these programs were cut along the 
lines of the Reagan Administration’s request, “I just couldn’t make 
it,” Mrs. Richardson said. 

• Elinor Nemanich, a schoolteacher from Plainfield, 111., and 
a widowed mother, who worries that she won’t be able to put her 
youngest child through college because of the President’s proposed 
cuts in social security survivors’ benefits for students in college. 

Mrs. Nemanich said her college daughter, now a sophomore, 
may have to discontinue her studies. “I fail to sec how taking 
away the social security benefits my husband worked for over 30 
years is fair,” she declared. 

The five senators who participated in the forum seemed im- 
pressed, even moved at times, by the stories from Middle America. 

Said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, ranking minority member on the 
Labor Committee, “I think we have to be guided by the concepts 
of economic democracy and social justice when we look at where 
we’re going to cut and not going to cut.” 



CONFLICTING ECONOMICS espoused by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration will neither spur the nation’s economy nor curb 
inflation, AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald, center, 
said on Labor News Conference. He was interviewed by Frank 
Swoboda, left, of the Washington Post and Dale McFeatters of 
the Sertpps-Howard Newspapers. The program, a public affairs 
production of the AFL-CIO, is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 



CONTINUED RELIEF from job-destroying imports is needed for America’s 
shoe industry, labor representatives headed by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land told the International Trade Commission. From left, are Angelo Georgian, 
a vice president and shoe division director of the Clothing & Textile Workers; 
John E. Mara, a vice president and footwear division director of the Food & 
Commercial Workers, ACTWU President Murray H. Finley and Kirkland. In 
the background are Art Gundersheim, left, ACTWU International trade affairs 
director, and AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald. 


AFL-CIO Hits BUI to Scrap 
Eight-Hour Day Standard 


A Senate Labor subcommittee is “mov- 
ing in the wrong direction” with a bill to 
abolish the eight-hour day standard on 
federal contracts, AFL-CIO Legislative 
Rep. John P. Power suggested. But the 
subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Don Nick- 
les (R-Okla.), made it clear that he consid- 
ers the business-supported bill just the first 
step to end “government’s burdensome in- 
volvement in society.” 

Nickles, 32, was described in a recent 
Congressional Quarterly profile as “at the 
conservative end of a conservative group 
of Republican newcomers.” 

Congress Urged 
To Keep Funding 
Development Aid 

The Economic Development Adminis- 
tration has been a lifeline for unemploy- 
ment-ravaged communities and should be 
saved from the Reagan Administration’s 
budget ax, the AFL-CIO urged. 

A House Public Works subcommittee 
is reviewing a section of the Administra- 
tion budget proposals that would wipe out 
all funding for EDA, which helps job- 
creating businesses get established in com- 
munities with high unemployment. EDA 
also helps fund back-up public facilities. 

BESIDES WIPING out EDA complete- 
ly, the Administration has proposed com- 
bining related community development 
programs into a block grant package to 
achieve greater “flexibility” — but cutting 
federal funds by more than 80 percent. 

Henry B. Schechter, director of the 
Office of Housing & Monetary Policy in 
the AFL-CIO Research Dept., told the 
House panel there is “no logic” to the 
Administration’s approach. 

Its assumption that a general economic 
revival will make direct federal aid un- 
necessary and that “more can be done 
with considerably less” rests only on “an 
unproven belief,” Schechter protested. 

Just last year, Schechter reminded the 
House subcommittee, “Congress reviewed 
the EDA program and found it deserving 
of a three-year authorization. ... To elim- 
inate the EDA, with its expertise developed 
over 15 years, would constitute the de- 
srtuction of a valuable national asset.” 

THE AGENCY has also administered 
the emergency public works programs 
that have been used to provide “counter- 
cyclical” stimulus to the economy during 
severe recessions by putting local people 
to work on projects that are needed but 
could not be funded by cities or states. 

With unemployment still at historically 
high levels. Congress should be looking to 
such programs to get people back to work 
instead of slashing economic development 
funds, Schechter urged. 


The labor-opposed legislation is spon- 
sored by another conservative Republican, 
William L. Armstrong (Colo.). 

IT WOULD amend the Walsh-Healey 
Act and other laws affecting government 
contracts to enable employers to schedule 
workdays of up to 10 hours without hav- 
ing to pay overtime, as long as the total 
workweek did not exceed the 40-hour 
limit of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Power traced the history of the eight- 
hour day to the earliest struggles of the 
American labor movement. The vast ma- 
jority of union contracts, he noted, re- 
quire at least time and one-half after 
eight hours, with some applying premium 
pay requirements after seven hours. 

With unemployment persistently high, 
he suggested, it is time for Congress to 
consider a seven-hour day, 35-hour work- 
week standard. 

NICKLES, HOWEVER, had other 
thoughts on the direction his subcommit- 
tee should go. 

The panel should investigate the Long- 
shoremen’s & Harbor Workers’ Act to 
look into “racketeering and corruption” in 
claims, he said. 

Then he suggested, it should turn to 
the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law, 
which Nickles asserted “has had a 
deadening economic effect.” And he would 
like to see enactment of a youth submini- 
mum wage, which he referred to as “an 
opportunity wage.” 

Nickles protested that “for the last few 
decades the dominant political thought has 
been to meet each social problem by creat- 
ing more government, such as the Occu- 
pational Safety & Health Administration, 
at the price of individual freedom.” 

John Yarmola 
Seafarers’ Vice 

John Yarmola, a vice president of the 
Seafarers and national field coordinator 
of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept., 
died Mar. 8 at his home in Washington 
after a heart attack. 

Yarmola, who was 56, also was presi- 
dent of the United Industrial Workers of 
the Midwest, a Chicago-based affiliate of 
the SIU that he helped organize in the 
1960s. He also served on the executive 
boards of the SIU and the MTD. 

AFTER STARTING his trade union 
career with the Teamsters, Yarmola joined 
the federation’s Union Label & Service 
Trades Dept, in 1950 as assistant to the 
secretary-treasurer. He moved to the SIU 
in the late 1950s as an international rep- 
resentative and special assistant to the 
union’s president, the late Paul Hall. 

In a message to his family, AFL-CIO 


Labor Cites Job Stake 
In Pressing Extension 
Of Shoe Import Curbs 


By John R. Oravec 

A three-year extension of import relief 
is needed to help American footwear man- 
ufacturers and workers in their struggle 
for recovery from the onslaught of foreign- 
made shoes, labor and industry officials 
told the International Trade Commission. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
warned in testimony before the ITC that 
if existing import restraints on nonrubber 
footwear were removed, the modest gains 
that the industry has made in recent years 
would be quickly reversed. 

“THE TEMPORARY stability provided 
by the import relief program would be 
lost along with considerable time, money 
and energy invested by footwear manufac- 
turers and workers seeking to revitalize 
and modernize this essential industry,” 
Kirkland stressed. 

The import relief now in effect — based 
on unanimous findings by the ITC in 1976 
and 1977 that the domestic shoe industry 
was being battered by imports — will expire 
at the end of June. 

The ITC is holding hearings to consider 
extension of the relief program. The cur- 
rent program covers a marketing agree- 
ment with Taiwan and Korea to restrain 
imports and authorizes presidential action 
to control footwear imports from other 
countries. 

KIRKLAND NOTED that nearly 
100,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. foot- 
wear industry largely as a result of flood 
of imports since 1960. He expressed con- 
cern that the remaining 152,000 jobs of 
U.S. shoe workers and another 75,000 in 
support industries would be jeopardized if 
the import flood gates are swung wide 
open. 

“In human terms, jobs in -this industry 
are critical to the financial well-being of 
many thousands of workers and their fam- 
ilies, as well as to the overall health of 
the economy,” he said. 

“At a time when national debate is 
centered on the means to improve the 
health of the economy, fair, effective ac- 
tion to prevent the further erosion of the 
domestic industrial base is essential and 
wise.” 

ALSO DELIVERING testimony with 
Kirkland were President Murray H. Finley 
of the Clothing & Textile Workers, Presi- 
dent William H. Wynn of the Food & 
Commercial Workers and President Fred 
A. Meister of the American Footwear In- 
dustries Association. 

Finley told the ITC that while imports 
from Taiwan and Korea have been reg- 
ulated by the relief program, footwear 
imports from other countries — such as 
Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore 
— have increased sharply. 

To stem this surge, Finley said that 

Dies at 56, 
President 

President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue said that Yarmola’s 
death “is a heavy blow not only to the 
Seafarers, but to all workers to whom he 
dedicated his lifetime.” 

And as “Hall’s strong right arm,” they 
continued, “Johnny was a tremendous as- 
set to the union” and the MTD. “But to 
thousands of men and women in and out 
of the labor movement who knew and 
loved Johnny as we did, he was much 
more. He will be remembered as a strong 
and gentle man and a generous and unfail- 
ingly loyal friend.” 

Survivors include his wife Peggy, son 
Jeffrey, mother Anna, sister Marie Zelen- 
sky, and brother Steve of the AFL-CIO 
staff. Services were scheduled Mar. 14 in 
Bridgeview, 111., with burial at St. Mary’s 
Cemetery in Evergreen Park, 111. 


upon extension of the program, it would 
be essential for the Reagan Administration 
to move quickly against the countries that 
undermine the import relief efforts. 

“THE CONTINUED import injury and 
related loss of jobs in this industry is un- 
acceptable,” he declared. If an effective 
program of relief is implemented for the 
next three years, he said, “the industry 
can continue its revitalization efforts, the 
reduction in our workforce can be halted, 
and new employment opportunities can be 
created.” 

Wynn noted in testimony presented by 
UFCW Vice President John E. Mara, that 
13,000 shoe workers lost their jobs be- 
tween 1976 and 1979, the year when shoe 
imports reached a record high of 405 
million pairs. 

“The job losses and the resultant social 
and financial problems created by them are 
not the only cost of unemployment caused 
by imports,” Wynn noted. 

“SINCE 1975, when the federal trade 
adjustment assistance program went into 
effect, a staggering $64.2 million has been 
paid to shoe workers who lost their jobs 
to imports,” he said. 

“And this sum is only a part of the costs 
to the U.S. economy, since it does not in- 
clude the tens of millions of dollars in un- 
employment insurance and welfare pay- 
ments which also have been made.” 

Meister warned that expiration of mar- 
keting agreements with Taiwan and Korea 
could lead to a reduction of some 24,000 
more jobs in the U.S. shoe industry and 
another 12,000 jobs in supplier industries 
by 1984. 

Meister said the termination of import 
relief would also cause the business com- 
munity to lose confidence that the nation 
will be able to solve its economic problems. 

Pilots Oppose 
Airport Safety 
Fund Diversion 

The Air Line Pilots urged Congress not 
to allow the use of federal aviation trust 
funds for operating costs of the Federal 
Aviation Administration while many of 
the nation’s airports still lack basic safety 
and navigation equipment. 

“Too many of our nation’s airline air- 
ports still lack many facilities and equip- 
ment that enhance safety,” ALPA Presi- 
dent John J. O’Donnell testified before the 
Senate Aviation Subcommittee considering 
legislation on the federal airport and air- 
way development program. 

“WE FIND IT particularly trouble- 
some,” O’Donnell said, “that this situa- 
tion continues even though there are 
plenty of funds available. The uncom- 
mitted surplus in the Airport and Airway 
Trust Fund now stands at about $4 bil- 
lion, an amount that could more than pay 
for all the safety needs we have identified.” 

The trust fund holds money, mainly in 
the form of airline ticket taxes, that was 
collected to pay for airport improvement 
and other aviation programs. 

O’Donnell pointed out that of the 388 
airports served by air carriers, 165 lack 
radar coverage, 1 1 9 do not have a control 
tower, 78 lack instrument landing systems, 
73 are in need of approach lights, and 
roughly half of the runway ends at the 
airports do not have visual approach slope 
indicators. 

HE URGED that the following provi- 
sions be included in any legislation affect- 
ing the airport program: 

• Significant increases in authorized 
funding levels for facilities and equip- 
ment. 

• Specific language directing the FAA 
to make air safety the first priority in 
administering the program and trust fund. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 


Page Seven 


Employers Targeted 

Panel Asks Crackdown 
On Illegal Alien Hiring 



EMERGENCY PLANS for dealing with a major cut-off of U.S. oil imports 
should not be left to unharnessed market forces, Oil, Chemical & Atomic 
Workers President Robert F. Goss tells reporters at a press conference. Goss 
registered a sharp dissent to that recommendation of the National Petroleum 
Council’s committee on energy preparedness on which he serves. 

Energy Emergency Plan Hit 
As Scheme to Rig Oil Prices 


Employers who hire illegal aliens should 
be subject to penalties and enforcement of 
fair labor standards laws should be stepped 
up to help deter illegal immigration, a 
federal commission has recommended. 

The Select Commission on Immigration 
& Refugee Policy also called for an am- 
nesty program for some illegal aliens al- 
ready in this country, curtailing of “guest- 
worker” programs and improved funding 
to hire, train and equip border patrol and 
immigration officers. 

THE COMMISSION’S recommenda- 
tions, many of which paralleled AFL-CIO 
positions, were made in its final report to 
Congress and the White House. Among 
the sixteen members of the panel was J. F. 
Otero, vice president of the Railway 
& Airline Clerks, who was appointed by 
former President Carter. The panel was 
chaired by the Reverend Theodore M. 
Hesburgh, president of the University of 
Notre Dame. 

The 453-page report, titled U.S. Immi- 
gration Policy and the National Interest, 
emphasized that most illegal aliens are 
attracted to the United States by the 
chance to get a job. Most were unem- 
ployed or underemployed in their home 
countries and can earn many times more 
here, even on minimum wage jobs, the 
panel noted. 

As long as the possibility of employ- 
ment exists, people will take great risks to 
come to the United States, and curbing 
illegal immigration will be difficult, the 
report observed. 

IT STRESSED THAT deterrents are 
needed to make the employment of illegal 
aliens unprofitable, including penalties 
levied on employers for hiring undocu- 
mented workers. The Farm Labor Con- 
tractor Registration Act is the only current 
federal law restricting hiring of illegal 
aliens. 

The commission stopped short of a de- 
termination on whether such sanctions 
should be civil, criminal or a combination 
of both depending on the magnitude or 
frequencies of offenses. The AFL-CIO has 
called for similar measures, including 
criminal penalties and injunctions to dis- 
courage repeat violations. 

The commission also pointed out that 
large-scale illegal immigration “encour- 
aged by employers who provide jobs, has 
created an underclass of workers who fear 
apprehension and deportation,” permitting 
exploitation of these workers “who can- 
not or will not avail themselves of the 
protection of U.S. laws.” 


(Continued from Page 1) 

into consideration past work history and 
experience, as well as length of unem- 
ployment. 

• Deny unemployment insurance pro- 
tection to members of the armed services 
who leave the military voluntarily when 
their enlistment is up. 

SEIDMAN NOTED that Congress has 
in the past ignored urgings by presidential 
commissions and the AFL-CIO for fed- 
eral standards on unemployment in- 
surance benefits to assure adequacy. 

Now, he said, the Reagan Administra- 
tion is proposing to use the mechanism of 
federal standards to achieve its unem- 
ployment insurance cutbacks — despite its 
repeated insistence that it wants to trans- 
fer power from the federal government 
to the states. 

It would be bitter irony, Seidman sug- 
gested, for Congress now to use federal 
standards to “force states to withdraw 
the protections that unemployed workers 
now have.” 

ON ADMINISTRATION proposals 
dealing with cuts in welfare assistance to 


AND WHILE the immigration law is 
being flouted, worker protections such as 
the minimum wage law and occupational 
health and safety regulations are also be- 
ing disregarded, the commission observed. 
It stressed that existing wage and working 
standards laws should be enforced strictly 
along with “employer responsibility” leg- 
islation. 

Immigration & Naturalization Service 
budgets should be increased now, the panel 
recommended, to permit wide investiga- 
tion in areas and industries where there 
is evidence that many illegal aliens are 
already working. 

Legalization of the status of many illegal 
aliens in the U.S. would be a “realistic 
response” to the problem, the panel sug- 
gests, and a similar position has been 
taken by the AFL-CIO which called for 
adjustment for aliens with “a demonstrated 
attachment to the community.” 

THE COMMISSION’S report empha- 
sized that legalization would be in the 
economic and social interests of the 
United States as well as an expression of 
humanitarian concern, particularly for the 
reunification of families. 

But legalization should only follow the 
institution of new, effective enforcement 
measures, the panel cautioned, so that it 
does not encourage further illegal immi- 
gration. 

Enforcement, the panel said, must in- 
clude increased funding to expand the 
numbers and training of Border Patrol 
personnel as well as the purchase of bor- 
der movement sensor systems, aircraft and 
other equipment. 

THE MORE THAN 90 recommenda- 
tions also include suggestions for improve- 
ments in the Immigration & Naturaliza- 
tion Service, including better training pro- 
cedures for INS officers and safeguards 
for the non-discriminatory enforcement of 
immigration laws. 

While the commission recommends that 
legal immigration levels be allowed to rise 
slightly, it opposes the introduction of new 
temporary worker programs, a position 
also taken by the AFL-CIO. 

Evidence from “guest-worker” programs 
in the United States and Europe, the panel 
points out, supports the position that such 
programs do not effectively stem illegal 
immigration. Many of the commission 
members, the report noted, oppose guest- 
worker programs in that they create an 
“underclass” of workers while undermin- 
ing working conditions and increasing so- 
cial costs for the host country. 


the poor and in social services, Seidman 
warned that the retrenchments sought 
would be self-defeating as well as unjust. 

Inflation has already cut severely into 
the buying power of public assistance 
benefits, Seidman said. And budget cuts 
sought by the Administration, he charged, 
would make it more difficult for people to 
get free of welfare dependence. 

Under the Reagan budget cuts, he said, 
“child care programs allowing mothers to 
seek and maintain jobs would disappear. 
Medical care, food stamps, energy assis- 
tance and child nutrition programs would 
be drastically cut back . . . job and train- 
ing programs would be eliminated.” Other 
retrenchments would affect services for 
the elderly and adoption assistance for 
homeless children. 

“THE AFL-CIO will fight the enact- 
ment of legislation which would result in 
throwing tens of thousands of poor 
children out of day care, deprive the 
homeless of needed foster care, cut off 
services to the elderly and generally make 
the lives of the poor more miserable,” 
Seidman told the subcommittee. 


Consumers stand to pay out billions of 
dollars in higher oil and gasoline prices 
in the event of a national energy emer- 
gency if a government study panel’s rec- 
ommendations become policy. Oil, Chemi- 
cal & Atomic Workers’ President Robert 
F. Goss warned. 

Goss leveled the charge at a news con- 
ference to air his dissent from a draft re- 
port by the National Petroleum Council’s 
subcommittee on emergency preparedness. 
He slapped the committee’s recommenda- 
tion that “the competitive market should 
be relied upon as the primary adjustment 
mechanism” for dealing with shortfalls of 
oil such as those caused by cut-offs of 
crude oil sales to the United States. Goss 
is a member of the NPC committee which 
was established by the U.S. Energy Dept. 

“THIS IS rationing by the size of the 
pocketbook,” a system that would permit 
producers, refiners, and retailers to push 
up prices “until the average citizen could 
not afford to buy.” 

The report, issued by a committee Goss 
described as broadly representative of the 
major oil companies, calls for the profits 
system to continue to operate in the event 
of shortfalls of as much as two million 
barrels of oil a day. These shortfalls far 
exceed those experienced during the Arab 
oil embargo of 1973-74 or the Iran crisis- 
related shortages of 1979, Goss pointed 
out. 

He estimated that a six-month long 
shortfall of that size would give the oil 
industry a windfall of more than $100 
billion in.profits. 

GOSS NOTED that the committee, rec- 
ognizing that the near total cut-off of oil 
imports could not be handled by the mar- 
ket system, also recommended a stiff, re- 
batable consumption tax to be levied on 
top of the pricing system to further cut 
back on demand. 

A better response, the OCAW presi- 
dent said, would be rationing and a work- 
able system of product allocations. But he 
noted that the committee is almost unani- 
mously opposed to rationing for reasons 
that are “self-serving.” 

“Rationing would reduce demand,” Goss 
said, “and with lower demand there would 
be less upward pressure on prices, even if 
prices were controlled. The forces of sup- 
ply and demand would be balanced, and 
oil prices would stay down with lower 
profits to the oil companies.” 

A SYSTEM OF “recycling” government 
revenues from taxes on gas and oil is un- 
tested and could mean burdening govern- 
ment agencies such as the Internal Reve- 
nue Service with the handling of “amounts 
of money that could exceed the gross fed- 
eral budget” during the emergency, Goss 
charged. 

“We are not anti-industry,” he empha- 


sized. “We are part of the industry and 
represent the workers in the industry.” 

His criticisms of the committee’s report 
do not extend to all its recommendations, 
many of which are excellent, Goss told 
reporters. 

Calling the committee’s draft “self-serv- 
ing” and the committee itself “not repre- 
sentative of. the public,” Goss explained 
that his dissent was intended to help pre- 
vent the recommendations from becoming 
government policy. 

THE DRAFT will be sent to the full 
National Petroleum Council for approval 
on Mar. 16, and the NPC will consider it 
before transmitting it with its own rec- 
ommendations to the Energy Dept. 

The report will not be adopted “if the 
public yells loud enough,” Goss said. He 
expressed the hope that the airing of his 
dissent would prompt “yells of dismay 
about this report” that will reach “the 
highest levels” in the Administration and 
Congress. 

Committee Backs 
Two Nominees 
For Labor Dept. 

The Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee recommended confirmation of 
Albert Angrisani as Assistant Secretary 
of Labor for Employment & Training and 
Timothy Ryan, Jr., as Solicitor of Labor, 
paving the way for action by the full 
Senate. 

Ryan was endorsed by the panel over 
the objection of the Graphic Arts union, 
which charged that he had served as a 
“consultant” as well as an attorney to 
anti-union activities of Rand-McNally 
and the Master Printers of America, a 
trade association. 

A statement by GAIU Vice President 
Edward V. Donahue said the union is of 
the opinion that Ryan “flagrantly ignored” 
Landrum-Griffin Act requirements that 
third-party consultants to employers in- 
volved in representation elections must 
file reports of their activities and expendi- 
tures. 

Ryan told the Senate panel that he 
would not participate in any matters that 
came before his office involving Rand- 
McNally or the Master Printers of 
America. 

The committee put off action on the 
nomination of Thorne Auchter as Assis- 
tant Secretary for Occupational Safety & 
Health to allow members to submit writ- 
ten questions after confirmation hearings 
had to be cut off because of the lateness 
of the hour. 


Labor Cites Heavy Costs 
Of Jobless Benefit Cutback 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 14, 1981 


Fednt Signs of Revolt 


Drastic Budget Cuts Stir 
Opposition in Congress 




By David L. Perlman 

The first faint signs of revolt against 
Reagan Administration budget decisions 
began to surface in congressional com- 
mittees that have been asked to concur in 
the destruction of federal programs they 
helped bring to life. But the rebellion is 
not yet deep enough to alarm Administra- 
tion loyalists. 

Thus far, only the House Post Office & 
Civil Service Committee has refused to 
endorse any major spending cut within 
its jurisdiction. On a party-line vote, the 
committee’s Democratic majority reject- 
ed sharp cuts in postal service funds and 
opposed tampering with cost-of-living ad- 
justments for retired federal workers. 

ON THE SENATE Labor & Human 
Resources Committee, liberal Democrats 
were outvoted in their efforts to prevent 
drastic slashes in health, education, jobs 
and social service programs. But Repub- 
licans agreed to “compromises” restoring 
about $2 billion of $11 billion in pro- 
posed cuts. The committee voted to in- 
crease funding for black-lung benefits, to 
maintain fuel subsidies for low-income 
households at current levels, to fund the 
Legal Services Corp. at about one-third of 
current spending instead of abolishing it 
outright as Reagan asked. 

At a House Education & Labor sub- 
committee hearing, there was bipartisan 
outrage at an Administration proposal to 
slash school lunch programs. And there 
were other panels where there were signs 
of resistance to specifics of the Reagan 
budget. 

But the White House exuded confidence 
that the President’s program would be 
changed only in details and that a con- 
servative coalition in the House and a 
Republican majority in the Senate can 
control the budget-setting mechanism so 
as to enact a large part of the President’s 
program by mid-summer. 

THE LITTLE-UNDERSTOOD budget 
process is the vehicle chosen by the Re- 
publicans to accomplish the rewriting of 
laws and the reshaping or abolition of 
programs through a single piece of legis- 
lation. 

The process now under way — consid- 
eration of the Administration’s budget 
proposals by the legislative committees 
responsible for the various programs — is 
merely advisory. The committees, sup- 
posedly by Mar. 20, will pass on to the 
separate budget committees of the House 
and Senate their estimates of spending 


needs for programs in their jurisdictions. 
But the budget committees are not bound 
by these estimates. 

Thus, Senate Budget Committee Chair- 
man Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said he 
intends to resist attempts to moderate the 
President’s budget proposals. There is 
likely to be more reshuffling of the Ad- 
ministration figures in the House Budget 
Committee, where Chairman Jim Jones 
(D-Okla.) has said his panel will try to 
find some alternate “savings” to lessen 
program cutbacks. 

BUT WHILE the Democrats hold a 
242-191 margin in the House, the election 
decimated liberal ranks, and a 44-member 
Conservative Democratic Forum “com- 
plained” that the President hadn’t gone 
far enough in cutting the budget. One 
additional “saving,” the largely southern 
bloc suggested, would be repeal of the 
Davis-Bacon Act, which requires payment 
of local prevailing wages and benefits on 
federally-funded construction projects. 

The key to the Republican strategy is 
the budget reconciliation process, seldom 
used until last year. 

The budget resolution that will be sent 
to the House and Senate floors will in- 
clude instructions to the various legislative 
committees to make cuts of specified 
amounts in various program categories 
within their jurisdiction. In some cases, 
the committees will have a degree of lee- 
way in where to make the cuts; in others, 
the magnitude of the cutbacks virtually 
dictate the action to be taken. 

MOST OF THESE cuts will be achieved 
by changing permanent laws — thus affect- 
ing government programs in future years 
as well as the forthcoming fiscal year. 

The changes thus required of each 
committee will then be incorporated into 
a single reconciliation bill — and that’s the 
vehicle the Administration hopes will carry 
the bulk of its economic program. The 
tentative target date is mid-July. 

The Administration’s tax proposals will 
be considered separately, and the first 
battleground will be the House Ways & 
Means Committee. While there is general 
agreement that a tax bill will be enacted 
this year, reservations about the Adminis- 
tration proposal have been expressed by 
Republicans as well as Democrats. 

The larger the tax cut, the bigger the 
budget deficit. But the Administration’s 
economic strategy calls both for heavy 
cuts in federal outlays and tax cuts it 
hopes will stimulate business expansion. 





Dip in Jobless Rate to 7.$% 
Masks Worsening Outlook 


Unemployment edged down to 7.3 per- 
cent in February, after holding at 7.4 
percent for two months, but the slight 
decline does not mean any improvement 
in the nation’s job picture in the com- 
ing months, the Reagan Administration 
warned. 

To the contrary, Labor Sec. Raymond 
Donovan said joblessness is likely to get 
worse partly as a result of the massive 
cuts in federal funds for youth employ- 
ment and training programs that the Ad- 
ministration has called for. 

DONOVAN TOLD the congressional 
Joint Economic Committee chaired by 
Rep. Henry Reuss (D-Wis.) that phasing 
out public-service jobs between now and 
the end of September will lead to in- 
creased unemployment that cannot im- 
mediately be absorbed by the private 
sector. 

“I don’t believe in the next six months 
that the private sector will be able to 
employ” all those displaced as a result of 
reductions in budget outlays under the 
Comprehensive Employment & Training 
Act, Donovan said. 


Fuel Costs Pace Wholesale Price Rise 


Producer prices for finished wholesale 
items rose another eight-tenths of 1 per- 
cent last month, mostly due to higher 
energy prices, the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics reported. 

Prices for finished energy goods went 
up 3.6 percent in February, the fourth 
consecutive large monthly increase and the 
largest since March 1 980. 

GASOLINE prices moved up 4.7 per- 
cent, following a 2.5 percent rise in Janu- 
ary, and home heating oil prices rose 6.5 


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percent, after a 5.7 percent increase the 
month before. Over the past year, gaso- 
line at the wholesale level has risen by 

22.4 percent and fuel oil by 27.4 percent. 

Most of the increase in energy prices 
last month was attributed to the round of 
price hikes announced by the Organiza- 
tion of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 
December and January. The decontrol of 
energy prices begun by President Carter 
and continued by President Reagan also 
resulted in substantial price rises for fuel 
oil and gasoline. 

The February increase in producer 
prices for finished goods compared with 
increases of nine-tenths of 1 percent in 
January and five-tenths of 1 percent in 
December. 

In issuing the new figures, the BLS 
said its finished goods price index was 

10.4 percent higher in February than a 
year earlier. 

The bright spot in the report was a 
drop of six-tenths of 1 percent in the 
wholesale price level of food items ready 
for retail sale, the first actual decline since 
April of last year. Consumer finished food 
prices showed no change in January. 


PRICES FOR beef and veal, pork, and 
2 1 processed poultry all continued to fall in 
February. Fresh fruit prices averaged 
Si lower despite a sharp rise for Florida 


oranges. Prices also were lower for re- 
fined sugar. 

On the other hand, prices for fresh and 
dried vegetables and whole black pepper 
rose, after declining in January. Prices 
for orange concentrate, fresh orange juice, 
and canned orange juice all rose sharply 
over the month. Peanut butter prices were 
up 6.6 percent, the fourth consecutive 
sharp monthly increase. 

Finished consumer goods, not includ- 
ing food, increased 1.3 percent, com- 
pared with 1.2 percent a month earlier. 

PRICES FOR capital equipment con- 
tinued to rise briskly, and were up over- 
all by 1.1 percent. Contributing to the 
increase were higher prices for heavy 
motor trucks, construction machinery, 
commercial furniture, railroad equipment, 
farm machinery, photographic equipment, 
plastic and rubber industry machinery, 
pumps and compressors. 

Prices at other levels of production also 
rose last month. The rate of increase for 
intermediate goods — those requiring 
further processing — slowed to four-tenths 
of 1 percent in February after two con- 
secutive monthly increases of 1.2 per- 
cent. Prices for crude goods jumped 2.9 
percent, following a 1 -percent decline in 
January; soaring prices for crude energy 
materials were the primary factor, BLS 
said. 


The Administration’s official projec- 
tion of an average 7.8 percent unemploy- 
ment rate for 1981, with a 7.7 percent 
rate in the fourth quarter of the year, im- 
plies a steep rise in the jobless rate this 
spring and summer and a falling back in 
the autumn. 

THE DECLINE of one-tenth of 1 per- 
cent in the February jobless rate was 
statistically insignificant and left unem- 
ployment about where it has been since 
last summer. The slight improvement 
over the month benefited women work- 
ers most. Their jobless rate declined two- 
tenths of 1 percent to 6.5 percent. 

Teen-age unemployment reached 19.3 
percent as it kept up its steady climb, 
however. The percentage was three-tenths 
of 1 percent higher than January’s level. 
Unemployment among black and other 
minority teenagers declined 1.1 percent to 

35.4 percent, remaining at a severely high 
level. 

In releasing its monthly report on the 
nation’s employment situation, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics observed that jobless 
rates for most other major worker groups 
werb also substantially above their year- 
earlier levels. The February rate for 
adult men was 6 percent, for whites 6.6 
percent, Hispanics 12 percent, and black 
and other workers 13.1 percent. 

BLS COMMISSIONER Janet Nor- 
wood, in her turn before the Joint Eco- 
nomic Committee, noted that one of the 
key labor force indicators last month was 
weak and “bears watching.” She pointed 
to the average length of the factory work- 
week which, after rising steadily since last 
summer, fell off by 36 minutes, an 
unusually large drop. 

“It is difficult to evaluate the impor- 
tance of this decline since the data were 
affected by extremely bad weather condi- 
tions during the survey reference week 
in the heavy manufacturing areas of the 
Midwest and central United States,” she 
said. The bad weather also was responsi- 
ble for a sharp, over-the-month curtail- 
ment in weekly construction work hours, 
a drop from 38.4 hours in January to 
35.9 in February, she said. 

Total employment grew by 231,000 
to 97,927,000 last month, outstripping 
growth in the labor force, which rose 

138.000 to 105,681,000, and reducing the 
total number of unemployed workers 

93.000 to 7,754,000. 

Unemployment among major industry 
groups showed little change, with the 
greatest increase coming among agricul- 
tural workers, where the jobless rate rose 
from 11.5 percent to 12.1 percent over the 
month. 


High Interest 
Taking Toll 
Of Economy 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, March 21, 1981 : 


No. 12 




Labor, Coalition Mount 
Fight to Preserve Gains 



ADVERSE SOCIAL and economic impact that would result from a sub- 
minimum wage for teenage workers was spelled out by Jessica Smith, executive 
director of Frontlash, for high school students participating in the Presidential 
Classroom for Young Americans. The students, coming from all parts of the 
country, were in Washington to study the workings of government. 

AFL'-CIO Alternative 

Program to Strengthen 
Social Security Outlined 


A fresh batch of reports on the econ- 
omy’s performance in February gave fur- 
ther support to predictions of both private 
and government economists that the nation 
is in for a further downturn this year. 

Production of American factories fell a 
seasonally adjusted five-tenths of 1 percent 
after six consecutive monthly increases; 
housing starts plunged at an annual rate 
of 24.6 percent; personal income rose at 
the smallest rate since June, and factory 
use of potential capacity fell for the first 
time since July. 

IN ADDITION, the government revised 
downward its final reading of fourth-quar- 
ter 1980 “real” gross national product, 
showing it grew at a 3.8 percent annual 
rate instead of the 5 percent annual rate 
originally reported. Reflecting the down- 
turn, profits of U.S. businesses were off 
2.4 percent after taxes on a year-to-year 
basis in the October-December quarter. 

The new statistics clearly showed the 
inroads of continuing high interest rates on 
the American economy. The auto industry 
is running at between 55 and 60 percent 
of capacity because prospective buyers 
either cannot afford the finance charges or 
obtain loans in the first place. The steep 
drop in the housing market was due 
chiefly to high mortgage rates, which hov- 
ered near a national average of 15 percent 
in January and have climbed even higher 
since. 

FEBRUARY’S decline in industrial pro- 
duction followed increases of four-tenths 
of 1 percent in January and 1 percent in 
December, the Federal Reserve Board said. 
Business equipment production declined 
three-tenths of 1 percent. Consumer goods 
output fell six-tenths of 1 percent, while 
production of materials was down three- 
tenths of 1 percent. 

The modest rise of seven-tenths of 1 
percent in personal income was the small- 
est since an increase of six-tenths of 1 
percent last June. Meanwhile, the personal 
savings rate, which is reported after a one- 
month lag, was 4.4 percent in January, the 
lowest since the Commerce Dept, began 
keeping monthly tabs on it in 1959 and 
only slightly above the 4.2 percent savings 
rate for the first quarter of 1951. 

THE HOUSING industry slump, long 
predicted by analysts, reflected a 21.5- 
percent decline in starts of new one-family 
houses and a 29.5-percent drop in starts 
of multi-family residences, both figures ex- 
pressed in terms of annual, rates. Permits 
for future housing construction fell 6.9 
percent in February, the third consecutive 
month of decreases. 

The utilization rate of the nation’s fac- 
tories fell to 79.3 percent of their theoreti- 
cal capacity in February, a drop of seven- 
tenths of 1 percent over the month. Ana- 
lysts said that the low. level of auto indus- 
try production reflected continuing efforts 
to trim inventories. 


A House subcommittee has turned a 
spotlight on the role of management con- 
sultants who are hired to break up union 
organizing campaigns or to try to get rid 
of unions that are already established. 

The panel’s report on pressures in the 
workplace is based on hearings held dur- 
ing the 1979 and 1980 sessions of Con- 
gress by the Subcommittee on Labor-Man- 
agement Relations. The report on what 
management gets for the $500 million a 
year it spends on consultants was signed 
by all 12 Democrats who served on the 
subcommittee during the 96th Congress. 
The six Republican members disassociated 
themselves from the overall report, but 
said that as individuals they could “prob- 
ably agree” with portions of it. 

A KEY AREA of concern was whether 
the Labor Dept, has been lax in not com- 
pelling consultants to report on their ac- 
tions in fighting off union organizing. 

While there is some question of inter- 


The social security system can be kept 
financially sound without cutting back 
benefits or raising the payroll tax rate to 
unacceptably high levels, the AFL-CIO 
insisted at House hearings. 

Social Security Director Bert Seidman 
urged a Ways & Means subcommittee to 
head off a funding crisis through an in- 
fusion of general tax revenues to supple- 
ment the payroll tax. 

SEIDMAN SAID the first step should 
be to use general revenues to pay half the 
cost of the Medicare hospitalization insur- 


pretation of the law, the report noted, it 
found the Labor Dept, should be more 
diligent in enforcing the disclosure law. 

“Virtually every union is required to 
and does report its activities,” as required 
by the Landrum-Griffin Act, the panel 
noted. It termed it “inequitable” that the 
Labor Dept, doesn’t require consultants 
to disclose their involvement, even when 
they are “clearly running management’s 
anti-union campaign.” 

AS TO THE role of consultants in seek- 
ing decertification of unions that already 
hold bargaining rights, the report notes 
that “the law is clear” that decertification 
procedures can be initiated and pursued 
only by employees, without management 
involvement. 

“Nevertheless, evidence indicates that 
consultants are increasingly involved with 
campaigns to decertify unions and advise 
employers how to prompt them.” 

(Continued on Page 3) 


ance, which is now funded through a 1.3- 
percent payroll tax. Half the Medicare tax 
could then be shifted to the basic old age, 
survivor and disability insurance cash 
benefits program. Thus, the total payroll 
deduction could be held to the current 
level of 6.65 percent for workers and em- 
ployers, Seidman said, averting a short- 
term crisis. 

The 50-50 financing of Medicare was 
also endorsed in the just-issued final report 
of the National Commission on Social 
Security, which made a two-year study of 
the system. 

But Seidman and dissenting members of 
the commission took sharp issue with some 
of its other recommendations, including a 
proposal to raise the retirement age from 
65 to 68. 

THE COMMISSION proposed that the 
increase in “normal” retirement age begin 
20 years from now, with persons who 
thereafter choose to stop working at 65 
being entitled only to a reduced pension. 

Dissenting from the recommendation 
were commission members Joyce D. Mil- 
ler, who is a vice president of the AFL- 
CIO and of the Clothing & Textile Work- 
ers; Elizabeth T. Duskin, research director 
of the National Council of Senior Citizens 
and vice chairman of the commission, and 
Wilbur J. Cohen, now a University of 
Texas professor and former Secretary of 
Health, Education & Welfare. 

They questioned the need for the 
change, said encouragement of people to 
work long should not be done “in a puni- 
tive manner,” and noted that the longer 
life expectancy that is used to justify the 
change does not necessarily mean more 
years of good health. 

In his testimony before the House 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Battle Waged 
In Congress 
Over Budget 

By David L. Periman 

Labor and its coalition allies are lobby- 
ing on Capitol Hill to save a generation of 
progressive legislation and working in the 
nation’s congressional districts to build 
back-home awareness of the magnitude 
and harshness of President Reagan’s pro- 
posed budget. 

Legislative representatives of the AFL- 
CIO and the various unions testified at 
House and Senate hearings against cut- 
backs in job safety inspections and slashes 
in the food stamp program. 

THEY ALSO defended youth employ- 
ment and job training programs and ob- 
jected to doing away with all public ser- 
vice jobs when the private sector is still 
such a long way from full employment. 

At other hearings, they protested re- 
ductions in social security protections and 
proposed alternatives to deal with the 
social security system’s immediate fund- 
ing needs. 

They warned that slashing railroad 
passenger service would be self-defeating 
and questioned why lower-income tax- 
payers should have to subsidize additional 
tax breaks for those with more money. 

THERE WERE some stirrings of re- 
sponse, more so in the House than in the 
Republican-controlled Senate. 

The boldest step came from the Demo- 
cratic majority of the House Education & 
Labor Committee. 

On a series of 20-14 votes, split along 
party lines, the committee told the House 
Budget Committee that it opposes the 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Job Protections 
Threatened by 
Funding Cutback 

The AFL-CIO urged the ‘House Appro- 
priations Committee to resist funding cuts 
that would weaken labor law enforcement, 
force sharp reductions in workplace safety 
and ’health inspections, curtail federal me- 
diation services and lessen compliance with 
federal wage-hour standards. 

Legislative Rep. Peggy Taylor told a 
subcommittee handling appropriations for 
the Labor Dept, and related agencies that 
the budget proposed by the Carter Admin- 
istration before it left office represents the 
minimum needed to maintain existing ser- 
vices. 

SHE WARNED that the non-binding 
recommendation made by the Senate La- 
bor Committee to the Budget Committee 
would have “a disastrous effect” on work- 
er protections and labor-management rela- 
tions. The Senate panel had proposed re- 

(Continued on Page 7) 


House Unit Spotlights Role 
Of Anti‘Union Consultants 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


Cutback in Food Stamps Challenged 


Cuts in the food stamp program will 
penalize the unemployed and the needy 
and Congress should reject them, the 
AFL-CIO told a House Agriculture sub- 
committee on nutrition. 

Legislative Rep. Kenneth Peterson 
termed the federal food stamp program 
the “principal defense” against hunger for 
the poor and the long-term jobless. 

“The Administration’s misguided ef- 
forts to cut benefits to those who are 
receiving food stamps should be directed 
instead to reducing the number of poor 
who need them,” Peterson emphasized. 

THE SIZE OF the food stamp program 
is directly related to the lack of growth in 
the economy, he pointed out. Each addi- 
tional 1 percent of unemployment in- 
creases food stamp program participation 
by 1 to 1.2 million persons while every 1 
percent increase in the rate of inflation 
adds $100 million to the program’s costs,. 
Peterson noted. 

Participants in the program, which pro- 
vides an average of 44 cents a meal for 
food, are already below the poverty line, 
Peterson told the subcommittee, either 
because they have low incomes or because 
large numbers of dependents and high 
expenses for shelter and other necessities 
bring their net incomes below the official 
poverty level. In the light of those statis- 
tics, the Administration’s claims that its 


proposed cuts in the program will not hurt 
the “truly poor” are “patently false,” he 
declared. 

Anyone fulfilling the strict income and 
asset eligibility requirements of the food 
stamp program should be entitled to re- 
ceive its benefits promptly, Peterson said. 
The proposed “retrospective accounting” 
system that would determine whether a 
person was eligible for food stamps based 
on past income rather than current need 
would lead to serious hardship, he said. 

“Using this method for determining 
eligibility,” Peterson pointed out, “would 
mean that a worker who has suffered a 
recent job loss or who has run out of 
unemployment insurance would have to 
suffer a period of several weeks with no 
income before being eligible for food 
stamps with which to feed his or her 
children.” 

THIS SYSTEM would also penalize mi- 
grant workers and others with low, fluc- 
tuating incomes and could be used to 
deny food stamps to strikers and their 
families who would otherwise qualify on 
the same basis as other needy Americans, 
Peterson observed. 

Although strikers account for only two- 
tenths of 1 percent of food stamp re- 
cipients, they are repeatedly singled out 
for attack, he noted. 



HARD ROCK, stone, sand and gravel miners should remain under the protec- 
tion of the Mine Safety & Health Administration and not be transferred to the 
Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the Cement, Lime & Gypsum 
Workers and the Steelworkers told the Senate labor subcommittee. Testifying 
are, from left, Tom Balanoff, CLGW safety and health coordinator; CLGW 
President Thomas F. Miechur; USWA Legislative Director John Sheehan; and 
a local union member, Wendell Pelke, a Vermont stone cutter. • 


Unions Oppose Elimination 
Of Mine Safety Coverage 


Two AFL-CIO unions called on Con- 
gress to continue the protection of sur- 
face stone, sand and gravel miners under 
the Mine Safety & Health Act. 

In testimony before the labor subcom- 
mittee of the Senate Labor & Human Re- 
sources Committee, the Steelworkers and 
the Cement, Lime & Gypsum Workers 
urged the panel to reject bills that would 
transfer safety jurisdiction for almost half 
the nation’s non-coal surface mines to the 
Occupational Safety & Health Adminis- 
tration along with coverage of certain sur- 
face mine work performed by independent 
contractors. 

“IN JUST the three years that the MSH 
Act and Administration have been in 
effect,” CLGW President Thomas F. 
Miechur told the committee, “we have 
witnessed an appreciable decline in the 
rates of fatalities and injuries for stone, 
sand and gravel miners.” 

John Sheehan, Steelworkers’ legislative 
director, called the legislation “an essential 
and irreplaceable part of a worker-sensi- 
tive safety and health protection system” 
in a dangerous industry. 

Both unions rejected industry claims 
that MSHA is more applicable to deep 
underground coal mining than to surface 
mining, that the latter is similar to OSHA- 
protected construction work or is “safer” 
than other types of mining. 


WHEN THE surface mining industry 
was covered by the less stringent Metal 
& Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966, 
the unions pointed out, the industry did 
not object to its mining classification, es- 
pecially after passage of OSHA in 1970. 

“It was only after the passage of the 
stricter MSHA law that the stone, sand 
and gravel operators decided that they 
were not ‘miners’ after all,” Sheehan ob- 
served. He pointed out that MSHA was 
written to parallel OSHA in many ways 
with special inspection, shutdown and 
penalty provisions related to the hazards 
of the mining industry. 

The surface mining industry is redefining 
its activities as a convenience to itself, the 
unions charged, in an effort to avoid cov- 
erage under MSHA with its strict mining 
rules and stronger enforcement powers. 

THE UNIONS emphasized that the 
safety and health experience of surface 
stone, sand and gravel mines demonstrate 
that they are just as hazardous as other 
types of surface mines, coal and noncoal. 

The surface mining industry is danger- 
ous, Miechur stressed, adding that the 
MSHA has helped reduce the hazards. 
“Congress must realize that if it exempts 
stone, sand and gravel miners from cover- 
age under the Mine Safety & Health Act, 
the result will be more death and injury in 
the mines,” he said. 


The proposal to make families already 
getting food stamps mail in a monthly 
income report or face automatic loss of 
their benefits would be a “serious hard- 
ship” for the elderly, the blind or disabled, 
and people who speak no English or are 

functionally illiterate, he pointed out. 

/ 

WITH INFLATION continuing to push 
up the costs of necessities such as shelter 
and fuel — a fact beyond the control of the 
poor — Peterson branded as unjust the Rea- 
gan Administration’s proposal to drop the 
shelter and energy inflation adjustments 
from the formula for determining eligi- 
bility for food stamps. 

He gave low marks to the Administra- 
tion’s plan to reduce food stamp benefits 
to all families with children enrolled in 
schools with subsidized lunch programs. 

This proposal alone would cut the 
amount of food stamps available to an 
estimated 43 percent of recipients, Peter- 
son pointed out. The cuts would amount 
to about $12 a month for each child in 
a poor family. When it was originally put 
into effect by the Agriculture Dept., the 
school lunch program was intended to 
complement nutrition programs not re- 
place them, and they should be left intact 
to perform that function, Peterson said. 

He pointed out that Administration 
proposals to slash all households from the 


food stamp program after July 1 if their 
gross incomes exceed $11,000 a year 
would hit hardest at those people who are 
trying to work their way out of depen- 
dence on public programs. 

Stressing that the poor are the victims 
of a poor economy not the cause of it, 
Peterson said proposed changes in cost-of- 
living adjustments for food stamp benefits 
would create long lags, throwing an al- 
ready low allotment further out of line 
with actual food costs. 

THE AFL-CIO testimony also opposed 
cutbacks in the successful supplemental 
food program for women, infants and 
children. The Administration’s intention 
to slash $300 million from the program, 
some 30 percent of its operating budget, 
will mean an end to food supplements for 
about 700,000 low-income women and 
children, Peterson estimated. 

Another proposal to cut some $1 billion 
out of the child nutrition program will 
affect all children now receiving school 
lunches and those in child care centers, 
Peterson noted. 

He said the AFL-CIO believes the food 
stamp and nutrition programs are “abso- 
lutely essential to prevent hunger and 
starvation for millions of unemployed, 
poor and elderly Americans” and their 
families. 


DNC Labor Members Hit ' 
Party Group on Budget Cuts 


A group of union officials who are at- 
large members of the Democratic National 
Committee accused 44 conservative House 
Democrats of “political malfeasance” for 
endorsing the Reagan Administration’s at- 
tacks on long-established social and worker 
programs. 

The charges came in a statement di- 
rected at the House Democratic Forum 
by 11 union representatives on the DNC. 

EXPRESSING regret and dismay at the 
views the Democratic conservatives es- 
poused at a White House meeting with the 
President, the panel said it would strive to 
persuade them to support the party’s tra- 
ditional platform goals. 

Forty members of the conservative 
forum — largely congressmen from south- 
ern states — not only backed Reagan’s sharp 
budget cutbacks, but went even further in 
calling for an additional $11.3 billion in 
budget slashes. 

By siding with Reagan, the statement 
said, the conservative forum spurned the 
Democratic Party’s heritage and denied its 
purpose and platform. 

“FOR THESE self-proclaimed Demo- 
crats to support the present Republican 
Administration in its programs that would 
strip workers of long-accepted wage pro- 
tections, the elderly of income that barely 
meets the ravages of inflation, the poor of 
government legal services, represents an 
act of political malfeasance,” the statement 
said. 

President J. C. Turner of the Operating 
Engineers, in presenting the statement at 
a Washington press conference, said the 
labor group viewed the conduct of the con- 
servative House Democrats “more in regret 
than in anger.” 

President William W. Winpisinger of 
the Machinists warned that the labor 
members are questioning the “mode of 
conduct of our Democratic colleagues” and 
that “we will be watching” how they vote 
on the Reagan programs. 

Evelyn Dubrow, legislative director and 
a vice president of the Ladies’ Garment 
Workers, noted that a number of the con- 
versative forum’s members had labor’s 
support in their election campaigns and 
should be fully aware of labor’s positions 
on the budget. She suggested that some 
members of the forum may not support 
the statement made in their names en- 
dorsing the Reagan program. 

VICE PRESIDENT Leon Lynch of the 
Steelworkers, who also serves on the 
DNC’s executive committee, said the 


USWA is “infuriated” by actions of con- 
gressmen the union helped elect and who 
are now aborting the party’s platform 
programs for the needy, elderly and 
workers. 

Elizabeth Smith, legislative director of 
the Clothing & Textile Workers, said a 
“definite tide of resentment against the 
budget cuts” has been detected and pre- 
dicted, that the Democratic conservatives 
would soon be advised of those feelings 
by their constituents. 

Auto Workers Sec.-Treas. Ray Majerus 
and Vice President Marc Stepp questioned 
how Democrats elected with labor’s sup- 
port could endorse efforts to dismantle 
many of the vital social programs that 
date back to the Roosevelt era. 

THE PANEL’S statement stressed that 
Democratic Party leaders in Congress and 
elsewhere “must speak out now in behalf 
of the would-be victims of the Reagan 
economic program — the workers, the mi- 
norities, the elderly and the poor. 

“These leaders must make it clear that 
the ‘me-tooism’ advocated by a small 
group of conservative Democratic con- 
gressmen does not represent the viewpoint 
of the vast majority of the party.” 

Machinists Re-Elect 
Winpisinger, Glover 

The Machinists re-elected President Wil- 
liam W. Winpisinger, Sec.-Treas. Eugene 
Glover and eight U.S. vice presidents to 
new four-year terms. 

The 10 I AM officers emerged unopposed 
from a month-long nominating process in 
which no challengers were nominated by 
at least 25 locals as required by the un- 
ion’s constitution. 

The only contest coming in the April 
election will be for the Canadian vice 
presidency between incumbent Mike Ry- 
gus and challenger Jim Goodison, both of 
I AM Local 1922 in Malton, Ont. Rygus 
was nominated by 768 locals; Goodison 
by 61. 

Winpisinger, 56, will begin his second 
term July 1. Glover, 58, was re-elected to 
his fourth term. 

The eight 'U.S. vice presidents are 
Thomas Ducy, Denver; Sal laccio. New 
York; Roe Spencer, Lake Charles, La.; 
John Peterpaul, Utica, N.Y.; Stanley Jen- 
sen, Portland, Ore.; Justin Ostro, Burbank, 
Calif.; George Poulin, Hartford, Conn., 
and Merle E. Pryor, Jr., Wichita, Kan. 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


Page Three 


Budget Battle in Congress 

Labor, Coalition Fight 
Harsh Program Cuts 



STRATEGIES TO COMBAT union-busters were explored at a Chicago confer- 
ence that drew some 500 union representatives. Discussing problems posed by 
anti-union employers and their consultants are, from left, Director Alan Kistler 
of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization & Field Services, Prof. Jack Barbash of 
the University of Wisconsin School for Workers and Stanley H. Ruttenberg, 
economic consultant. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Chicago AFL- 
CIO and the Illinois AFL-CIO. 

Chicago Conference Tackles 
Challenge of Union-Busters 


(Continued from Page 1) 

$14 billion in budget cuts the Administra- 
tion is seeking in programs under the 
committee’s jurisdiction. 

The cuts it voted to resist include pub- 
lic service jobs, aid to all levels of educa- 
tion, occupational safety and health pro- 
tections, child nutrition subsidies, mine 
safety enforcement and a host of others. 

BUT THE Budget Committee can, how- 
ever, bring to the floor a bill that would 
direct the Education & Labor Committee 
to rewrite laws and spending authoriza- 
tions to stay within a specified budget ceil- 
ing. 

Earlier, the Senate Labor & Human 
Resources Committee had approved most 
of the Reagan budget cuts by a party-line 
vote with the Republican majority in 
command. 

The president was also winning his way 
on a series of other committee actions, 
including a virtual wipeout of special 
trade adjustment assistance for persons 
whose jobs are killed off by imports. A 
House Ways & Means subcommittee en- * 
dorsed the Administration plan to substi- 
tute regular unemployment insurance for 
most of the special benefits. And another 
Ways & Means subcommittee approved 
heavy cuts in unemployment insurance as 
well as in child welfare, low-income heat- 
ing assistance and other social programs. 

The Senate Budget Committee, mean- 
while, was putting the final touches on its 
version of the budget and is counting on 
the GOP majority in the Senate to back 
the President’s requests almost down the 
line. 

WITH CONSERVATIVE Democrats 
going along with the Republican majority 
on most issues, the Senate panel went 
even further than the Reagan Administra- 
tion had sought in cutting some social 
programs. 

The committee deepened the proposed 
cutback in subsidized housing and commu- 
nity development programs $139 million 
more than the President requested. The 
added “savings” was then used to reduce 
the cut the Administration had proposed 
for the Export-Import Bank. Ironically, 
the cut in the bank funds had been cited 
by Office of Management & Budget Direc- 
tor David A. Stockman as evidence that 
large corporations, as well as the poor, 
are being required to make financial sac- 
rifices. 

The panel also voted deeper cuts in 
Medicare and Medicaid than Reagan had 
asked. And it rejected, 12-6, an attempt 
by Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D- 
Ohio) to lessen the severity of the budget 
cuts by closing off $2 billion in tax loop- 
holes and tax shelters for investors. 

The committee did, however, moderate 
cuts in nutrition programs for pregnant 
women and infants, restore some funds 

Bommarito to Retire 
As URW President 

Fresno, Calif. — Peter Bommarito, presi- 
dent of the Rubber Workers for the past 
14 years, announced he will not seek re- 
election at the union’s convention in Oc- 
tober. 

Bommarito, who is 65, disclosed his 
intention to retire at a URW District 5 
council meeting here. He told the group 
that it has been an enriching experience 
to serve the international for the past 21 
years as vice president and later as presi- 
dent. 

He has been a member of URW Local 
101 in Detroit since 1936 and was presi- 
dent of the local when he was elected 
vice president of the union in 1960. He 
was first elected president of the URW in 
1966. 

Bommarito has been a vice president 
of the AFL-CIO since 1969 and is chair- 
man of the Executive Council’s Commu- 
nity Services Committee. 


for education aid to the poor and for 
youth job training, reject a proposed cut 
in black lung benefits and approve a year’s 
reprieve for three public health service 
hospitals the Administration wants to 
close. 

It also decided not to tinker with the 
cost-of-living formula for social security 
benefits as a means of cutting government 
outlays. The AFL-CIO had testified 
against such manipulation. Republican 
senators who had advocated it dropped 
the proposal after President Reagan told 
them he opposed it. 

In the House Budget Committee, con- 
servative Democrats are expected to line 
up with Republicans to support total cuts 
approaching the Administration target. 
But there is likely to be more reshuffling 
of the ingredients of the budget, with con- 
stituent reaction playing a more important 
role. 

A legislative alert from the AFL-CIO 
and similar communications to key mem- 
bers around the country by the various 
unions and other coalition groups, spelled 
out the details of the Reagan budget as 
“a potential disaster” that would throw 
more people out of work and make life 
harsher for the jobless and the poor. 

The AFL-CIO alert urged letters, tele- 
phone calls and personal visits to senators 
and representatives. 

“Tell them you want a balanced econ- 
omy, not a slashitig of vital programs 
built over decades,” AFL-CIO Legislative 
Director Ray Denison urged. 

MEANWHILE, at every possible hear- 
ing, labor challenged the rush to dump pro- 
grams and withdraw protections through 
the device of setting budget ceilings. 

Social security, unemployment compen- 
sation, public assistance, Medicaid and 
other social programs stem from the be- 
lief that all Americans are entitled to a 
degree oT protection from poverty and 
deprivation, AFL-CIO Social Security Di- 
rector Bert Seidman stressed in testimony 
before two House panels. 

Legislative Rep. Peggy Taylor trans- 
lated proposed spending cuts into reduced 
enforcement of safety and minimum wage 
laws, and to tripling the backlog of NLRB 
cases awaiting action. She urged the House 
Appropriations Committee not to go be- 
low the stringent hold-the-line budget that 
President Carter sent up before he left 
office. 

LEGISLATIVE REP. Robert McGlot- 
ten, at Senate hearings, said that with 
unemployment over 7 percent and at de- 
pression levels in many cities, “it makes 
no sense to reduce funding levels for pro- 
grams that are specifically designed to 
develop skills and put people to work.” 

Instead of reducing food stamp assis- 
tance, Legislative Rep. Kenneth Peterson 
told a House Agricultural subcommittee, 
the thrust should be to reduce unemploy- 
ment. It’s not the average allowance of 
44 cents a meal that has pushed up costs, 
he suggested, but the fact that each addi- 
tional 1 percent rise in the unemployment 
rate increases food stamp participation by 
more than a million people. 

The thrust of their testimony and the 
testimony of other union and coalition 
witnesses was that the budget does not, 
as the Administration claims, provide a 
“safety net” for the “truly needy.” 

RATHER, THEY pointed out at the 
House and Senate hearings, it is the pro- 
grams marked for destruction or severe 
cutbacks that are in fact the safety net. 

Thus, the Health Security Action Coun- 
cil, headed by Auto Workers President 
Douglas A. Fraser, noted that 45 percent 
of people eligible for Medicaid assistance 
are children, and they would be among 
the hardest hit by proposed funding cuts. 

The Administration would pass respon- 
sibility for a host of other health care pro- 
grams on to the states, but severely cut 
back the money to pay for them. Their 
concern is “with numbers and dollars,” 
Fraser protested, rather than “people and 
needs.” 


Chicago — No union is safe from attack 
from union-busting employers and their 
paid consultants. President Robert G. Gib- 
son of the Illinois State AFL-CIO warned 
at an all-day conference on the problem 
here. 

Gibson told the 500 union officers and 
representatives taking part in the confer- 
ence that labor will not shrink from the 
challenge posed by the union-busters. To 
the contrary, he said, “we’re going to stand 
our ground, and fight because . . . the union 
is the only safeguard for the worker.” 

SPONSORED jointly by the State AFL- 
CIO and the Chicago AFL-CIO, the con- 
ference featured speakers who reviewed 
various aspects of current union-busting 
activities including techniques unions are 
developing to protect their members’ inter- 
ests. Workshops focused on the problem 
as it exists today in five industries — con- 
struction, manufacturing, public employ- 
ment, service employment, and transporta- 
tion. 

In an address to the conference. Presi- 
dent Murray H. Finley of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers observed that setbacks in 
last year’s elections have not diminished 
labor’s influence among workers. He pre- 
dicted that legislators will be looking for 
organized labor’s support as the 1982 elec- 
tions draw near. He added that in the next 
six months, as the full meaning of the 
Reagan budget cuts is realized by more 
and more Americans, the nation’s voters 
will develop a better appreciation of the 
issues involved. 

Finley pointed out that, while Reagan 
got the support of most voters last fall, be- 
tween 55 and 58 percent of all union mem- 
bers who cast ballots backed former Presi- 
dent Carter, who had the AFL-CIO’s sup- 
port. 

ALAN KISTLER, director of the AFL- 
CIO Dept, of Organization & Field Ser- 
vices, reported on the federation’s pro- 
gram for gathering and sharing informa- 
tion on the union-busters and on the 
seminars dealing with consultants’ tactics. 
Teams of union organizers who know the 
tactics of specific union-busting firms are 
being developed, Kistler reported, to help 
individual unions withstand the anti-labor 
attacks. 

Prof. Jack Barbash of the University 
of Wisconsin School for Workers dis- 
cussed the changes demanded of the labor 
movement because the environment in 
which it functions is changing. The New 
Deal years, he noted, brought a peaceful 
revolution that fostered radical improve- 
ment in the lives of workers. He said 
President Reagan is now offering a coun- 
ter-revolution, an attempt to return big 
business to a position of power. 

BARBASH expressed the belief that 
labor is fully capable of changing its ap- 


proaches to meet the challenge — in bar- 
gaining, internal affairs, politics, legislation 
and worker education. 

Stanley H. Ruttenberg, a research con- 
sultant for a number of labor organiza- 
tions, said the most revealing aspect of a 
survey of union members’ attitudes was 
how workers felt about what they would 
lose through new laws. They were most 
concerned, he noted, about losing pensions 
and retirement benefits, next came medical 
benefits, third came wages. 

House Report 
Spotlights Role 
Of Consultants 

(Continued from Page 1) 

The report quotes extensively from the 
testimony of witnesses at the House hear- 
ings, including union organizers, workers, 
supervisors and consultants themselves. 

“Perhaps the most distressing aspect of 
the emergent consultant industry is the 
perspective it brings to labor-manage- 
ment relations,” the subcommittee report 
stressed. 

“IT IS A philosophy of labor-manage- 
ment relations which is first and foremost 
anti-union. The defeat of unions is an end 
of itself, and in many instances consul- 
tants come dangerously close to justifying 
whatever means are necessary to accom- 
plish that end.” 

The subcommittee hearings also dealt 
with invasions of privacy, including the 
use of so-called lie detectors and electronic 
surveillance. 

The report recommends enactment of 
federal legislation to prohibit private em- 
ployers from requiring or asking workers 
or job applicants to take so-called lie- 
detector tests. 

In a related area, the subcommittee 
noted that some consultants have recom- 
mended pre-employment screening de- 
signed to weed out potential union sup- 
porters, even though denial of employ- 
ment because of union sympathies is clear- 
ly unlawful. 

EVEN WHEN union attitudes are not 
the goal of the screening, much of the 
information sought invades all standards 
of privacy, the report observes. 

“At issue,” it stresses, “is whether men 
and women who are guilty of no more 
than desiring to work are to be required 
to submit to a search by private employers 
that law enforcement agencies are consti- 
tutionally prohibited from forcing upon 
suspected criminals.” 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


The Proper Federal Role 

i^VER MANY DECADES, workers, the young, the very old, 
the disadvantaged, the economically dislocated, and the 
handicapped have turned to their government system for the justice 
that was not provided to them by the market system. And the 
government responded. 

Programs were proposed, carefully considered, enacted by the 
Congress, deliberately funded, checked and reviewed — as is pro- 
vided for under this nation’s system of governance. 

As a result, social progress was exacted from an economic sys- 
tem that refused to grant it. It has been a slow, painful process, 
but a necessary one. 

The proposals that this Administration has placed before us in 
the past month — ^particularly when they are considered together 
with the very substantial further reductions that are planned for 
future years — question fundamentally the legitimate role of the 
federal government in labor, health, education and welfare pro- 
grams. The notion that there is no legitimate role is as impractical 
as the idea on the other end of the spectrum that the state should 
be totally controlling and all services should be run by the govern- 
ment. 

A 20-PERCENT reduction from current funding that has been 
proposed by the Senate Labor & Human Resources Committee to 
the Budget Committee would have a disastrous effect on labor 
law enforcement, safety and health protection and labor-manage- 
ment relations. 

A 20-percent cut from 1981 activity levels would mean 14,000 
fewer Fair Labor Standards Act investigations, 800 fewer Farm 
Labor Contract Registration Act investigations. The Pension & 
Welfare Benefits Administration would conduct 350 fewer ERISA 
investigations into pension plans, which in 1975 covered $460 
billion in pension assets. 

A 20-percent cut in safety and health enforcement would mean 
12,600 fewer federation inspections and 22,600 fewer state inspec- 
tions. Additionally, severe cutbacks would be made in employer 
consultation, employee education and standard setting. 



FOR THE FIRST TIME in its history, the National Labor Re- 
lations Board has begun building up a serious backlog of cases as 
a consequence of the Carter Administration hiring freezes. 

The 20-percent cutback would triple the current 7,000 case 
backlog to 25,000. The NLRB is a case-processing agency and 
has no control over the number of cases sent for consideration. At 
present approximately 50,000 cases are handled a year. The multi- 
year effect of compounding the 25,000-case backlog would be to 
grind the agency to a virtual halt. 

The Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service mediates labor 
disputes when the parties involved request their help. In the past 
four years FMCS staff have been reduced by 13 percent, eliminat- 
ing all “fat” and cutting administrative expenses to an absolute 
minimum. 

The 20-percent reduction would literally mean that a significant 
number of disputes needing mediation assistance would not get it. 
The cuts would mean reductions in force and closing field offices. 

— From AFL-CIO testimony before a Senate Appropriations 
subcommittee, Mar, 16, 1981. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 
Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 
Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 
Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


i Voi. XXVI 


Saturday, March 21, 1981 


No. 12 I 


5 The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 00I-II85) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wam- 
=: ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= thing in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiii# 



Percent of GNP 

Federal Debt Getting Smaller 
In Terms of Ability to Carry It 


By Gus Tyler 

A t least once a year. Sen. Russell Long 
- (D-La.) renders a valuable public service. He 
tells the truth about the federal debt and does so 
in print. 

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, 
he has been using his prerogative to ask the LF.S. 
Treasury to give him the facts and figures on 
what Uncle Sam owes private lenders. He wants 
to know how big it is, what part of total public 
and private debt it is, and what percentage of the 
gross national product (total output of our econ- 
omy in any one year) it is. Those are all vital 
facts because they tell us whether or not that 
debt burden is about to break our back. 

AFTER SEN. LONG gets the final figures, he 
enters them in the Congressional Record for all 
to see and to study. He did so again this year. 
Here are the facts: 

The debt is big: in 1979, it was $546 billion. 
In 1945, it was only $228 billion. So, in 35 years, 
the total debt has more than doubled. 

The burden has become bigger, much bigger; 
but the shoulders to carry that burden have grown 
even more rapidly than the debt itself. The 
“shoulders” are the GNP, the mighty output of 
this country. In 1945, the GNP was only $212 
billion; in 1979, it was two and a half trillion. As 
a result, our federal debt in 1945 was 107 per- 
cent of the GNP; in 1979, it was a mere 22.6 
percent. 

TAKE THESE statistics personally, if you 
please. Would you rather be a person whose in- 
come is $10,000 a year with an indebtedness of 
$11,700 or someone with an income of $70,000 
a year with a debt of $25,000? 

While the federal debt has been going down as 
a portion of the GNP, private indebtedness has 
been on the rise. In 1945, all private debt — indi- 
viduals and corporations — was only two-thirds of 
the GNP, but by 1979 that private debt had risen 
to 137 percent of the GNP. (State and local gov- 
ernment debt has remained fairly steady as a por- 
tion of the GNP.) 

So we discover that the big borrowers, the big 
spenders, the big debtors are the great American 
corporations and just plain consumers like you 
and me — and not Uncle Sam. Today his debts are 
only 15 percent of all the indebtedness in this 


country, a big reduction since 1945 when the 
federal debt was 60 percent of all debt. 

For good measure. Sen. Long threw in another 
fact by comparing the federal debt with all wages 
and salaries in the country. In 1946, the public 
debt was 240 percent of worker earnings; in 1980, 
it is only 68 percent. 

IN SHORT, if we view the federal debt in 
terms of ability to pay, we are far better off 
today than we were in the first years after World 
War II. 

The facts appear on page S 993 of the Con- 
gressional Record for Feb. 5, 1981. I mention 
that because you are not likely to be exposed to 
these startling statistics easily if you don’t know 
where to look. Apparently, the plain truth is just 
too embarrassing to those who insist that we must 
cut our budget to the bare and bleeding bone if 
we don’t want to go broke as a country. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

iiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiminiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

How Consultants Sour 
Workplace Relations 

There is a growing trend on the part of man- 
agement to contract out for specialists . . . con- 
sultants entrusted with the task of keeping a 
company ^^union free.” 

Perhaps the most distressing aspect is the 
perspective it brings to labor-management rela- 
tions. It is a philosophy of labor-management 
relations which is first and foremost anti-union. 
The defeat of unions is an end of itself. And in 
many instances, consultants come dangerously 
close to justifying whatever means are neces- 
sary to accomplish that end. 

They are hired to win an election. The con- 
sultant’s reputation is built upon a winning per- 
centage. . . . The result can be lingering con- 
flict and antagonism. 

Once the election is over, the consultant is 
paid his fee and leaves. Management and 
workers are left to deal with the aftermath. 

— From report of the Subcommittee on 
Labor-Management Relations of the House 
Education & Labor Committee on ^'Pressures 
in Today* s Workplace.** 


<5 















AFlX:iO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


Page Five 




New 'Middle Class' Created 

Extremist Attacks Fail to Slow 
Land Reforms in El Salvador 

The author of this article is executive director 
of the AFL-ClO's American Institute for Free 
Labor Development. Two AFL-CIO representa- 
tives working with an El Salvador union on land 
reform were slain by terrorists earlier this year. 

By William C. Doherty, Jr. 

the AFL-CIO has 
ipport those groups 
(and particularly unions) whose legitimate desire 
for social and economic change have all too often 
become frustrated in the face of rightist dictatorial 
governments, and have become easy prey for the 
false prophets of the ideological extreme left. His- 
torically, those countries which have been victim- 
ized by the deceit of communist totalitarianism, 
have suffered as much, if not more, from their 
new masters. 

At the February 1981 meeting in Bal Harbour, 

Fla., the AFL-CIO Executive Council called for 
three conditions for the continuation of U.S. aid 
to El Salvador: a reduction of domestic violence, 
an expansion of the reform programs, and the 
calling of free and democratic elections as soon 
as possible. 

THE AGRAMAN REFORM program, of 
course, has been the centerpiece of the centrist 
government’s attempts to modernize and demo- 
cratize that impoverished nation. Had not the 
AFL-CIO long ago opted to work closely with 
the democratic Peasant Workers Union of El 
Salvador, the reforms could not have taken place 
and a democratic form of government would have 
been unachievable. 

The American Institute for Free Labor Devel- 
opment, founded by the AFL-CIO in 1962 to 
support the development of free and democratic 
Latin American unions, was able to respond to 
the requests of the Union Comunal Salvadorena 
for technical advice and financial support when 
the political opportunity for a real land reform 
presented itself in October 1979. 

Land reform had been studied for many years, 
and half-hearted attempts at reform had been 
made. But it was only with the appointment of 
Jose Rodolfo Viera, the secretary-general of the 
^,UCS, to head the Land Transformation Institute, 
that a meaningful agrarian reform program could 
be put into effect. With this program, a “middle 
class” was created — persons with a stake in dem- 
ocratic solutions to their political problems. 

FROM THE START, our efforts to support 
the land reform programs have been under attack. 

The criticisms originate from those groups that 

Coupled with Reagan Cuts 

Tuition Tax Credit Proposal 
Called Threat to Public Schools 

^T^UITION TAX CREDITS could destroy the everyone who applies, Shanker pointed out, while 
nation’s system of free public education. Pres- private schools are free to pick and choose, 
ident Albert Shanker of the American Federation “That’s not very fair competition,” he asserted 
of Teachers warned in a network radio interview. , on Labor News Conference. 

SHANKER SAID the deep cuts in education 
grant programs proposed by the Reagan Admin- 
istration would have a severe impact on the na- 
tion’s public schools, particularly those in a score 
of major cities that have already cut back large 
numbers of teachers and guidance counsellors and 
are still on the brink of bankruptcy. He said the 
proposed $4 billion cut in aid to poor families, 
handicapped children, nutrition and bilingual edu- 
cation programs — coupled with a drastic cut of 
CETA workers and the proposed tuition tax 
credit scheme — ^will further damage the quality of 
public education. 

Shanker predicted that if the Reagan plan is 
approved, “a dual system of education” will de- 
velop rapidly in the United States and “the chil- 
dren are going to suffer.” 

Reporters questioning Shanker were Stephenie 
Overman of the National Catholic News Service 
and Jerome Cahill of the New York Daily News. 
The program is produced by the AFL-CIO as a 
public service and is broadcast weekly on the 
Mutual radio network. 


Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for es- 
sentially “private services” that are not available 
to everyone, Shanker declared. He said that prin- 
ciple should be preserved whether the private 
service is a security force, a swimming pool or a 
school. He urged Congress to reject the Pack- 
wood-Moynihan proposal to grant tax credits for 
50 percent tuition costs up to $500 a year per 
student. 

Public schools have a responsibility to accept 


Full Measure ef Quality ! 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIS 


F or many, many years, 
urged our government to 


have a vested interest in the program’s failure: 
the Marxist left which needs discontent in the Sal- 
vadoran rural areas if they are to obtain the goal 
of power through violent revolution; and the ex- 
treme right which would like to regain its posi- 
tions of prestige and influence through the ex- 
ploitation of millions of Salvadoran campesinos. 

Both extremes have lost. Despite the fact that 
the killings by fanatical proponents of the left and 
the right continue, the land reform process has 
been a success. It is not something yet to be ac- 
complished — it is a fact. Of the 300,000 families 
of landless peasants in El Salvador before the 
reform, 210,000 (more than two-thirds of the 
total) have already received land. The land 
transfer was conferred on the campesinos a year 
ago, on Mar. 6, 1980, and the “formalization” of 
this process, the issuing of titles began in earnest 
in February 1981. The campesinos are in effective 
control of the land. 

It would be difficult to tell these families that 
land reform is a “cruel hoax,” as it has been 
called, and impossible to convince them that the 
program is reversible. 

This success is all the more remarkable when 
one realizes that this historic reform has taken 
place in only one short year: twelve months filled 
by killings, torture, and repression by the com- 
munist guerrilla movement on the left and by the 
uncontrolled military and para-military groups on 
the extreme right. That crop production, under 
these circumstances, has been as high as the pre- 
vious year is not only a great tribute to the 
campesinos of El Salvador, but also the best evi- 
dence of the program’s success. 

THIS SUCCESS does not, or should not, sug- 
gest complacency. The fighting continues and 
many dangers to El Salvador’s future are pre- 
sented to us daily in the press. Nevertheless, the 
government of El Salvador has begun making 
preparations for elections to be held in 1983, an 
event that would not have been worth mentioning 
a year ago. 

The campesinos of El Salvador still risk their 
lives to obtain freedom from economic and polit- 
ical repression. But in this effort, they know that 
they will continue to have the active support of 
the AFL-CIO, through the AIFLD, which has 
suffered tragic losses in El Salvador along with 
the campesinos through the brutal murders of 
Mike Hammer and Mark Pearlman. A successful 
land reform program and a democratic political 
solution is their lasting memorial. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

A fter a decade of heartening progress in the struggle to 
^ reduce hunger and malnutrition in America, the Reagan Ad- 
ministration and some in Congress apparently want a cease-fire. 

If the Reagan budget-cutters succeed in winning cuts of nearly 
20 percent in food stamps and 35 percent in child nutrition pro- 
grams, the recent hard-won gains will be seriously undermined. 

The food stamp program has been reviewed periodically and 
tightened up and is mainly helping those whom it was intended 
to help. The Census Bureau recently issued this data about the 
recipients: 

“About 7 percent (5.9 million) of U.S. households received 
food stamps in 1979. Median income of this group was $5,300 
(compared with $16,530 for all U.S. households), and 60 percent 
had annual income below the poverty level in 1979.” 

THE REPORT said 42 percent were families in which the 
family head was female with no husband present; in 35 percent 
the family head was black; and in 10 percent the family head was 
of Spanish origin. 

“The average annual value of food stamps received by all 
households was $810,” the report said. That comes to $15.58 per 
week. 

In 1967, when teams of Field Foundation doctors visited the 
Bronx, the isolated areas of Appalachia, the Mississippi delta, 
coastal South Carolina, the barrios of Texas and the migrant 
camps of Florida, this is what they told Congress they had found: 

“Wherever we went and wherever we looked, we saw children 
in significant numbers who were hungry and sick, children for 
whom hunger is a daily fact of life. . . .” 

Ten years later, in 1977, six teams of doctors returned to the 
same poverty areas. The outward evidence of poverty may have 
been there still — poor housing, schools and health services — ^but 
there was one noticeable change: 

“Our first and overwhelming impression is that there are far 
fewer grossly malnourished people in this country today than there 
were ten years ago . . . children with swollen stomachs and dull 
eyes and poorly healing wounds characteristic of malnutrition — 
such children are not to be seen in such numbers.” 

THE FOOD STAMP, child nutrition and the women, infants 
and children programs “made the difference,” according to the 
doctors’ report. 

Yet, in its quest for big budget cuts, the Reagan Administration 
is going after the food stamp program in particular and is relying 
on old myths. 

One myth is that food stamps are used by people too lazy to 
work. But the U.S. Dept, of Agriculture in a 1979 survey reported 
that 53 percent of the 22 million food stamp users were children 
under age 17. Eight percent were elderly. The remainder were 
mostly disabled and very poor working people. Those considered 
employable must be actively seeking work. 

More than half of all families getting stamps had no liquid 
assets whatever. Some 70 percent did not own cars and only 29 
percent owned their homes. Amendments by Congress have tight- 
ened eligibility to permit assets of only $1,500 for the non-elderly 
and $3,000 for the elderly. 

Some critics say food stamp benefits are too generous and are 
used to buy luxury foods. 

The rising costs of the food stamp program have been due not 
to fraud or abuse, but rather to the nation’s stagflation. 

Since every 1 percent rise in unemployment adds $1 billion to 
the cost of the food stamp program, continuing high-level un- 
employment keeps the program costs high. Rising employment 
would not only bring down food stamp costs but would increase 
federal revenue as well, so the sounder remedy lies more in eco- 
nomic growth policies than in budget cuts. 



FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS are threatened by the push for 
tuition tax credits and the deep cuts in education programs 
President Reagan has called for in his 1981 budget proposals. 
President Albert Shanker, center, of the American Federation of 
Teachers, warned on Labor News Conference. Questioning 
Shanker were Stephenie Overman of the National Catholic 
News Service and Jerome Cahill of the New York Daily News. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


my rituviUtU W 

THLASSISTA! 



UNION EFFORTS to help victims of a severe typhoon that struck the Philip- 
pines in late 1980 were aided by a grant from the AFL-CIO which bolstered 
the relief work of the Philippines Food & Tobacco Workers. The grant, recom- 
mended by the AFL-CIO’s Asian-American Free Labor Institute, enabled the 
union to buy and distribute food, clothing and medical supplies to storm victims. 
Shown with union volunteers packing bags of supplies are Tobacco Workers 
President Laureano Say as, Jr., far left, and AAFLI Program Officer Phillip A. 
Fishman, third from left. 

Appeals Court Backs NLRB 
On Corporate- Wide Access 


Rail Unions 
Hit Reagan’s 
Amtrak Cuts 

Budget cuts proposed by the Reagan 
Administration for Amtrak, the federally 
financed national passenger rail service, 
threaten to set back the railroad’s steady 
gains over the past decade and bring about 
its extinction, railroad union leaders 
warned Congress. 

“This country cannot afford to dismiss 
the existence of Amtrak” simply to trim 
the federal budget, said Fred J. Kroll, 
chairman of the Railway Labor Execu- 
tives’ Association. 

“THIS COUNTRY should not be de- 
prived of a valuable transportation re- 
source which it can never recover in order 
to save three-tenths of 1 percent of our 
federal budget,” he said. 

Kroll testified before a House Energy 
& Commerce subcommittee that denial of 
federal aid to Amtrak in anything like the 
magnitude suggested by the Administration 
would “exterminate” it as the National 
Railroad Passenger Corp. and reduce it to 
a Northeast Corridor Rail Corp. 

“That act will forever remove intercity 
rail passenger service from out* transpor- 
tation system,” he said. “Does the pro- 
posed national budget reduction justify the 
destruction of intercity rail passenger ser- 
vice in this nation? If our national budget 
must be cut, must that cut deprive all 
future generations of Americans of the 
benefits of intercity rail passenger transpor- 
tation? We cannot believe that to be true.” 

Kroll said the future of American trans- 
portation will be determined by the avail- 
ability and the cost of fuel. He warned 
that the day is fast approaching when gas- 
oline may become so expensive and scarce 
that intercity rail service, if it exists, will 
be preferred to travel by private auto. 

IF AMTRAK is destroyed, the country 
will lose what is potentially its most energy 
efficient means of passenger transport, 
Kroll said. The railroad employs some 
20,000 workers, has a national orute sys- 
tem of about 27,000 miles serving 571 
stations, and maintains a fleet of over 
1,600 rail passenger cars. 

Kroll suggested that if Amtrak cuts are 
deemed essential, budget-trimmers should 
take a hard look at non-revenue items. 
Substantial cuts could be made in items 
relating to the lines headquarters offices, he 
said. 

“The fat should be cut from Amtrak 
before the bones are removed,” he said. 


Legal action initiated by two labor and 
industry groups charges the Commerce 
Dept, with “utter disregard” of federal 
trade law in failing to collect several hun- 
dred million dollars in duties while 21 
American companies were forced out of 
business by the dumping of Japanese tele- 
vision sets on the U.S. market. 

The suit filed in the U.S. Court of In- 
ternational Trade challenges the Com- 
merce Dept.’s attempt last year to settle 
the biggest dumping case in American 
history for little more than 10 cents on 
a dollar owed the Treasury. 

THE COURT action was taken by 
COMPACT, the Committee to Preserve 
American Color Television, and by a di- 
vision of the Electronic Industries Asso- 
ciation. COMPACT is a coalition of 14 
industry and labor groups, including the 
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept., which 
has been fighting to halt the erosion of 
U.S. production and jobs by TV imports. 

An earlier suit the two groups initiated 
was stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals 
for the District of Columbia to give the 
new Court of International Trade an op- 
portunity to decide if it will accept juris- 
diction. 

The appellate court issued an injunction 
against the Commerce Dept.’s settlement 
of the 10-year-old dumping duty case for 
$77 million in the face of Customs Ser- 


The Steelworkers won a major legal 
victory in principle against Florida Steel 
Corp., with a ruling by the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia up- 
holding the right of the National Labor 
Relations Board to grant unions corporate- 
wide access remedies in appropriate cases. 

The USWA, with the help of the AFL- 
CIO’s Industrial Union Dept., has been 
attempting to organize the company for a 
number of years. 

The NLRB had held that an unfair 
labor practice at the company’s Indian- 
town, Fla., plant was part of a pattern of 
unlawful conduct by the employer over 
the years that reflected a rejection of the 
principles of self-organization and collec- 
tive bargaining. 

CITING among other past violations, a 
1975 decision in which the firm had with- 
held a wage increase to retaliate for its 


vice data showing that as of 1977 Japa- 
nese exporters and U.S. importers owed 
nearly $400 million in duties under pro- 
visions of the 1921 Antidumping Act. 
COMPACT etimates that the duties have 
said increased to at least $600 million. 

DUMPING IS THE practice of selling 
exported goods below the going domestic 
market price in an effort to break down 
competition. 

“It is well known that Japanese 19-inch 
color TV sets that sold for less than $300 
in the U.S. market for years were selling 
for $550 to $600 in Tokyo — a clear indi- 
cation of dumping,” COMPACT charged. 

In a related action, the U.S. Interna- 
tional Trade Commission postponed a de- 
cision on a Japanese petition to drop the 
1971 dumping finding until the Commerce 
Dept, completes a review of the current 
margins of dumping. 

COMPACT said there were “serious 
legal and factual errors” in the margin 
calculations currently being computed by 
the Commerce Dept. 

The new suit argues that the dumping 
margins should be based on values as- 
signed the Japanese TV sets by Japan’s 
commodity tax system rather than on in- 
formation submitted by Japanese manu- 
facturers, which the Customs Service 
found to be false and inaccurate. 


workers’ union activities, the board found 
that extra relief was required over and 
above the conventional “cease-and-desist” 
order and “make whole” remedy. It di- 
rected that the company grant union or- 
ganizers access to deliver a 30-minute 
speech at any plant where an NLRB- 
conducted election might be scheduled 
within a two-year period, and equal access 
during the same two years to respond to 
any management speech given workers 
concerning union representation. 

In its decision, the NLRB said that its 
unusual remedy was required because of 
Florida Steel’s “proclivity to disregard the 
statutory rights of its employees and their 
chosen bargaining representatives.” 

THE APPEALS COURT agreed that 
when dealing with recidivist violators, the 
NLRB “has the power — and indeed the 
obligation — to take into account a history 
of recalcitrance” in designing a remedial 
order. It held that the board may require 
access at unorganized plants of a repeater 
violator based on a finding that the em- 
ployer’s unlawful tactics at an organized 
plant have chilled employee rights at the 
other plants. 

The court specifically rejected the Fifth 
Circuit Appeals Court’s reasoning last 
year in another case that such a remedy 
was punitive, and therefore beyond the 
NLRB’s authority. Both the union and 
the board have raised the same issue in 
this case. Florida Steel has been cited for 
unfair labor practices in 17 separate cases 
since 1974. 

“We agree that access at unorganized 
plants may be necessary in an appropriate 
case to remedy a refusal to bargain at an 
organized plant, and that such access 
therefore would not be improper,” the 
court said. It added that it would reject 
employer arguments of interference with 
property rights, and enforce such an access 
order in appropriate cases. 

The District of Columbia Circuit, in this 
instance, referred the access order back 
to the NLRB for further consideration. 
It held that while the NLRB has the 
power to impose such access remedies, 
the agency failed to make explicit find- 
ings that employer misconduct at the 
Indiantown plant had a chilling effect on 
worker rights at other unorganized plants. 


Lynchburg, Va. — ^Wayne L. Demon- 
court, a vice president of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers and director of the 
ACTWU Textile Division’s upper south 
region, died after a heart attack Mar. 16. 


Jobless Rates 
Up over Year 
In Most States 

Nearly all the states — 42 of 46 report- 
ing — had higher unemployment rates in 
January than a year earlier, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reported. 

The government survey showed 28 
states had increases of 1 percent or more, 
six of which were 2 percentage points or 
more over year-earlier levels. 

SIXTEEN STATES reported jobless 
rates of 8.5 percent or higher in January 
compared with eight a year before. The 
national unemployment rate for January, 
not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, was 
8.2 percent, or 1.4 percent above the year- 
earlier mark. 

The north-central region continued to 
be most severely affected by rising unem- 
ployment. Four of the six states in the 
area with over-the-year unemployment rate 
increases of 2 percentage points or more 
were in that region — Illinois, Michigan, 
Ohio, and Wisconsin. Similar jumps oc- 
curred in South Carolina and West Vir- 
ginia. 

Employment declines in construction 
and manufacturing occurred in all those 
states with large over-the-year unemploy- 
ment rate increases, the BLS said. 

UNEMPLOYMENT rates were 10 per- 
cent or higher in Alaska, Michigan, Ohio, 
Oregon, and West Virginia in January. A 
year earlier, Alaska, Michigan, and West 
Virginia had 10 percent or higher unem- 
ployment. No state had an unemployment 
rate below 4.5 percent in January 1981, 
compared with four states in January 
1980. 

Among major urban areas, unemploy- 
ment rates rose by 1 percent or more over 
the survey period in 77 of the 146 report- 
injg metropolitan centers. In 34 of those 
areas, the increase was at least 2 percent. 
In Kenosha, Wis., where there were large 
employment reductions in durable goods 
industries, the jobless rate rose by 5.6 
percentage points over the year. 

Mediators Enter 
Transit Dispute 
In Philadelphia 

Philadelphia — Members of Transport 
Workers Local 234 pressed their picketing 
of the city’s bus, trolley, and subway lines 
as a state mediator attempted to break the 
impasse in the week-old transit strike. 

The mediator shuttled between offices 
of the union and the Southeastern Penn- 
sylvania Transportation Authority, known 
here as SEPTA, in an effort to gain agree- 
ment on a new contract to replace one that 
expired on Mar. 14. But Dominic Di- 
Clerico, president of the local, said “we’re 
at a stalemate.” 

The strike involves about 5,000 drivers, 
mechanics, and cashiers. Wages are not a 
major issue in the strike, DiClerico said. 
The two big stumbling blocks are the tran- 
sit authority’s desire to hire part-time work- 
ers for up to 5 percent of the work force 
and its proposal to require that mainte- 
nance employees pass written examinations 
before being promoted. 

The union also is resisting any move to 
eliminate the no-layoff clause in the ex- 
pired contract. 

SOME 200 MEMBERS of the United 
Transportation Union employed by SEP- 
TA’S Red Arrow bus line were suspended 
when they honored TWUA picket lines. 

Over the last six years, three of four 
contract expirations have resulted in Phila- 
delphia transit strikes, including one in 
1977 that lasted 44 days. In 1979, a new 
contract was reached without a strike. 


Demoncourt, who was 62, was with the 
Steel Workers Organizing Committee in the 
late 1930s. In 1946, he joined the staff of 
the Textile. Workers, which merged with 
the Clothing Workers to form ACTWU. 


Court Asked to Overturn 
Settlement of TV Dumping 


ACTWU Vice President Wayne Dernoncourt Dies 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


Pa^e Seven 















AFL-CIO Alternative 

Program to Strengthen 
Social Security Outlined 



REDUCING MANAGEMENT ranks and increasing the efficiency of operations 
are the keys to ConraiPs financial problems, President Fred Hardin of the United 
Transportation Union declared at a Washington news conference. The carrier’s 
proposed $200-million-a-year labor concessions would lop off $2,800 annually 
from workers’ current pay of about $20,000, he said. Seated next to Hardin is 
UTU Vice President James Burke, labor board member of the U.S. Railway 
Association, ConraiPs banker and overseer. 

UTU Links Conrail Losses 
To Management Weakness 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

panel, Seidman also made the point that 
the burden of a later retirement “would 
fall disproportionately on those in poor 
health who cannot qualify for disability 
benefits and blue-collar workers whose jobs 
demand more strenuous physical effort.” 

Seidman protested Reagan Administra- 
tion budget proposals that seek to hold 
down government outlays by permanently 
reducing “the level of protection for which 
people have worked and paid contribu- 
tions” and thus break what amounts to “a 
social compact between citizens and gov- 
ernment.” 

Continued benefits through age 21 for 
surviving children attending school full 
time are part of the insurance protection 
the social security system was set up to 
provide and should not be eliminated, 
Seidman said. He noted also that the Ad- 
ministration is at the same time trying to 
cut back on college student assistance, 
which it contends make the added years 
of social security payments unnecessary, 

SEIDMAN PROTESTED also Admin- 
istration proposals to eliminate the mini- 
mum social security benefit, which guar- 
antees payment of $122 a month, and fur- 
ther tightening of disability insurance eligi- 
bility. 

He outlined AFL-CIO proposals for im- 
proving the funding of social security, in- 
cluding general revenue payments during 
periods of high unemployment to compen- 
sate for loss of payroll tax income. 

That concept was recommended by 
President Carter in 1977, Seidman noted, 
and was endorsed by the last Advisory 
Council on Social Security. 

Seidman also urged a provision in the 
law stating that “social security benefits, 
like interest on the national debt, will be 

Laborers Aid Fund 
On Atlanta Slayings 

Atlanta — The Laborers have given the* 
city of Atlanta $5,000 to help pay the costs 
of the police investigation into the murders 
and disappearances of more than 20 black 
children in the city. 

Laborers President Angelo Fosco and 
Sec.-Treas. Arthur E. Coia, in a letter to 
Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, said the 
union “shares with you a determination 
that these vicious incidents be stopped and 
their perpetrators brought to justice.” 

The check was presented to Jackson by 
LIU Vice Presidents Robert E. Powell and 
Ledger Diamond, Regional Manager How- 
ard I. Henson and Amos Beasley, Jr., busi- 
ness manager of Local Union 438. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

ducing major enforcement programs 20 
percent below this year’s funding levels. 

Cuts of that magnitude, Taylor warned, 
would mean: 

• For OSH A, 12,600 fewer federal in- 
spections and 22,600 fewer state inspec- 
tions as well as reduced levels of employer 
consultation, worker safety education and 
standard setting. 

• In employment standards, 14,000 
fewer wage-hour investigations, 800 fewer 
Farm Labor Contract Registration Act in- 
vestigations and 1,300 fewer federal con- 
tract compliance investigations. 

• An estimated 350 fewer investiga- 
tions into pension plan administration, and 
severe reductions in niine safety programs. 

• Probable tripling of the backlog of 
cases awaiting action by the National La- 
bor Relations Board and comparable dam- 
age to the workload of the Federal Media- 
tion Sc Conciliation Service and the 
National Mediation Board, which deals 
wkh^ 4*ailroad and airline labor-manage- 
ment relations. 


paid from general revenues in the event 
payroll taxes are insufficient.” 

MAKING THE present moral obliga- 
tion a legal one, Seidman suggested, would 
shore up public confidence in the program. 

He cautioned against overdependence on 
long-range economic and demographic as- 
sumptions in projecting the future funding 
needs of the program in view of the sub- 
stantial margin for error. 

He noted also that there are other facets 
to the concerns expressed that “because of 
the low birthrate, a proportionately smaller 
labor force will have to support a much 
larger proportion of older people.” 

AMONG THE offsetting factors, Seid- 
man suggested, “a lower birthrate will 
mean a proportionately smaller labor force 
but also fewer children, unemployed and 
disabled.” Thus, “the total dependency 
burden for active workers will not change 
much ... the burden of the retired for 
the economy as a whole will be offset to 
a large degree by the decline in society’s 
support required for other groups.” 

The national commission report also 
noted the uncertainty of assumptions of 
future birth rates and unemployment levels 
but argued that the protections society can 
give its elderly must necessarily be limited 
by the nation’s resources and to avoid a 
“generalization conflict.” 

Miller, Duskin and Cohen viewed the 
commission majority’s concerns as some- 
what overdrawn in view of the potential 
of the American economy. 

THEY ALSO dissented from the com- 
mission majority on proposals to modify 
the indexing of special security benefits 
during periods of high inflation as a means 
of holding down costs. 

Any revision in the indexing, they urged, 
“should be a professionally independent 
decision by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
and not by legislative fiat or political inter- 
vention.” 

In his testimony before the Ways & 
Means subcommittee and in subsequent 
testimony before a House Budget Commit- 
tee task force, Seidman voiced concern at 
the impact of the Reagan budget proposals 
on key entitlement programs. 

“SOCIAL SECURITY, unemployment 
compensation, public assistance, Medicaid 
and other social programs are not govern- 
mental acts of charity,” Seidman insisted. 

They stem from the belief that all Amer- 
icans are entitled to a degree of protection 
from poverty and deprivation, he said. La- 
bor’s concern is that through the budget 
process, “the social progress made over so 
many years will now be reversed.” 


Taylor also urged against scuttling the 
Comprehensive Employment & Training 
Act’c program of creating public service 
jobs. 

While it may be appropriate to shift a 
bigger emphasis to employment and train- 
ing programs geared to the private sector, 
she said, a public sector program still has 
a place in dealing with “complex job mar- 
ket problems” and should not be entirely 
eliminated. 

Likewise, Taylor urged, youth training 
programs should be kept intact, rather 
than folded in with adult job programs 
with a heavy funding cut. 

SHE PROTESTED that Administration 
proposals for cutbacks in labor, health, 
education and welfare programs appear 
to have been motivated by a “purist” eco- 
nomic and political philosophy that ap- 
pears to deny “the legitimate role of the 
federal government.” 

She objected also to the attempt to use 
the budget-setting process to minimize the 
“deliberative role” of congressional com- 
mittees and to “stifle” debate. 


The United Transportation Union has 
called for a program to improve service 
and build business on Conrail, the federally 
subsidized freight railroad, by reducing the 
carrier’s losses. 

“Today this railroad system is reeling 
economically — dependent on federal finan- 
cial support for its very survival,” Fred A. 
Hardin, the union’s president, observed at 
a Washington news conference. 

’80 Jobless Rate 
Of Blacks Double 
That of Whites 

Joblessness among black and other mi- 
nority workers last year continued at more 
than twice the rate among whites. 

The annual average unemployment rate 
for minority workers was 13.2 percent in 
1980, compared to an average of 6.3 per- 
cent for whites, the Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics reported. The comparable 1979 fig- 
ures were 11.3 and 5.1 percent. BLS said 
there were about 1.7 million minority un- 
employed and about 5.8 million jobless 
whites on the average. 

Joblessness for both whites and blacks 
and other population groups was highest 
in states most directly affected by slow- 
downs in the automotive industry and re- 
lated areas, BLS said. The highest rates for 
black and other races were in Michigan, 
23.5 percent, and in Montana, 20 percent. 

The jobless rates for white workers in 
most of the industrial north-central states 
were over 7 percent and, in Michigan, 
exceeded 1 1 percent. By contrast, the rates 
for whites were below 5 percent in the 
central farm belt of the nation from North 
Dakota down to Texas and in several 
southern states. 

NEARLY ONE-THIRD of both unem- 
ployed whites and minorities were concen- 
trated in four large states last year — Cali- 
fornia, Illinois, Michigan, and New York 
— where about 27 percent of the white 
labor force and 30 percent of the minority 
labor force resided. 

In eight states — six in the north-central 
region — the unemployment rate for minor- 
ities was at least 10 percentage points 
higher than for whites. Only Hawaii had a 
rate that was lower for minorities than for 
whites. 

In 35 of the 38 states where separate 
figures were available for the annual un- 
employment averages the jobless rates for 
blacks and other minorities were at least 
1 0 percent, and in 1 5 states the rates were 
at least 1 5 percent. 


“THE UTU, however, thinks it is pos- 
sible to preserve Conrail jobs and upgrade 
services over the entire network while re- 
ducing federal financial assistance. Our 
goal must be profitability for Conrail,” 
Hardin said. 

Conrail management recommended in a 
recent report to Congress that the unions 
representing the line’s 71,000 employees 
give up about $200 million a year through 
concessions in this year’s round of collec- 
tive bargaining. The UTU represents about 
21,000 operating employees of the carrier. 

“UTU is willing to do everything that is 
reasonable and practicable to make strong 
railroads,” said Hardin, “but we don’t 
think our agreements have to be raped, 
abandoned, as Conrail proposes.” 

INSTEAD, the union called for effective 
quality control and sound railroad business 
management, and pledged to do its part to 
cooperate. Labor’s share of Conrail prob- 
lems is secondary, Hardin said; “it’s a 
management problem on scheduling and 
utilization of equipment.” 

The union proposes to apply to the 
troubled Conrail system the same methods 
that have proved successful for Japanese 
industry. It has already hired W. Edwards 
Deming, the American consultant to whom 
the Japanese turned in 1950 to upgrade 
their railroads. Now, the union will ask 
Congress to mandate a one- to two-year 
study by Deming to determine where and 
if cuts in the Conrail system should be 
made. 

Hardin released a memorandum from 
Deming observing that “in our experience, 
over a wide variety of industries, service 
industries as well as manufacturing, the 
bulk of the problems that we discover — 
around 85 percent — are the fault of the 
system and hence chargeable to manage- 
ment. . . .” 

THE UTU is urging an approach to 
ConraiPs troubles that would pinpoint 
weaknesses. Hardin said it will take the 
cooperation of labor and management to 
correct the system’s faults. A joint session 
between him and Conrail chairman L. 
Stanley Crane is scheduled for Apr. 24. 

CONVENTIONS 

The Building & Construction Trades 
Department will hold its 1981 convention 
Oct. 18-25 in Atlantic City, N.J. 

The Television & Radio Artists will 
hold its 1981 convention July 23-26 in 
Cleveland. 

The Elevator Constructors will hold its 
1981 convention in Seattle starting July 
27 rather than July 19 as previously listed. 


House Told Fund Slashes 
Imperil Worker Protections 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 21, 1981 


In Senate Testimony 


Labor Presses Renewal 
Of CETA Job Program 


Slashing budgets for federal job and 
training programs is “the wrong approach 
at the wrong time,” the AFL-CIO told 
Congress. 

Targeted programs under the Compre- 
hensive Employment & Training Act 
aimed at providing jobs for young people, 
women and minorities are vital in the 
current period of high unemployment, 
Legislative Rep. Robert McGlotten stressed 
in testimony before a Senate Labor & 
Human Resources subcommittee. 

McGLOTTEN’S testimony endorsed the 
Youth Demonstration Amendments of 
1981 which would extend for one year 
CETA programs that provide funding to 
help teenagers learn skills and find employ- 
ment. 

The solution to the high level of job- 
lessness among teenagers, minorities and 
women is a full employment economy, 
McGlotten told the subcommittee. But 
until the nation’s general economic policy 
is directed toward full employment, he 
emphasized, specially focused government 
programs are essential to “provide the 
basic underpinnings” for developing skills 
and jobs for “the most disadvantaged 
groups in our society.” 

CETA Title III funds, McGlotten ex- 
plained, have enabled the AFL-CIO’s Hu- 
man Resources Development Institute and 
similar organizations to provide specific 
outreach and training services for minori- 
ties, veterans, women, the handicapped, 
native Americans, migrant workers, ex- 
offenders and others. 

HE EXPRESSED the AFL-CIO’s con- 
cern over the Reagan Administration’s 
proposals to turn targeted Title IV youth 
job programs into block grants as well as 
over the proposed cuts in funding. The 
Reagan budget suggests a total outlay for 
CETA ^programs $670 million less than 
for fiscal 1981 and a reduction in spend- 
ing authorizations of $1.5 billion. 

“At a time when unemployment is well 
over 7 percent and many cities in this 
country are in the middle of a depression, 
it makes no sense to reduce funding levels 
for programs that are specifically designed 
to develop skills and put people to work,” 
McGlotten emphasized. 

He stressed that cutbacks in training 
and employment programs will be offset 
by higher unemployment insurance and 
welfare costs and other effects of “ram- 


pant, pervasive joblessness” such as in- 
creased crime. 

THE AFL-CIO called for continuation 
of Title IV programs such as the Youth 
Employment & Training Program and the 
Youth Community Conservation & Im- 
provement Projects, which would assume 
that a specific amount of employment and 
training funds are earmarked for youth 
programs. 

While block grants would not neces- 
sarily mean that teenagers would be totally 
ignored by CETA prime sponsors who 
provide training and jobs, “the fact that 
the Administration has thrown 350,000 
public service employees out on the street” 
will mean stiffer competition for CETA 
dollars in the future, McGlotten pointed 
out. 

“Targeting is the only way the CETA 
system has of assuring that all groups that 
need its services have a fair chance of 
getting them,” he told the Senate subcom- 
mittee. 

"THE BLOCK GRANT concept,” Mc- 
Glotten said, “will only serve as a means 
of denying our neediest, most desperate 
citizens of the services they need to be- 
come productive, self-supporting members 
of their communities.” 

Similarity, the proposed slash in funds 
for such CETA Title III programs as 
youth demonstration projects, apprentice- 
ship outreach and employment counseling 
and placement services would “have a 
devastating effect on programs aimed at 
the most disadvantaged people in our so- 
ciety,” McGlotten declared. 

He also expressed the AFL-CIO’s strong 
opposition to the Administration’s plan to 
abolish the CETA public service jobs pro- 
gram, which he pointed out provides jobs 
for people who are victims of “structural” 
unemployment or who cannot find other 
unsubsidized jobs. 

STRICT TARGETING of these pro- 
grams from the national level assures that 
they go to those who need them most, 
McGlotten stressed. 

CETA programs exist to provide jobs 
and skill training to the most disadvan- 
taged people in our society, McGlotten 
pointed out, and reducing or cutting these 
programs tells those already unemployed 
and discouraged they are “no longer im- 
portant enough to deserve our help.” 



PRESERVING HARD-WON RIGHTS of workers has emerged as the primary 
objective of labor in dealing with a conservative Congress and Administration, 
President Harold J. Buoy of the Boilermakers stressed at the union’s legislative 
conference in Washington. The five-day session drew more than 300 delegates 
from across the country. 

Congress Urged to Bar Plan 
To Juggle Benefit Indexing 


Cost-of-living indexing intended to pro- 
tect the buying power of government bene- 
fits should not be manipulated in order to 
impose an artificial ceiling on budget costs, 
the AFL-CIO declared. 

A House Budget Committee task force 
is exploring possible changes in the index- 
ing of various government retirement and 
income maintenance programs that have 
escalated in cost because of the high infla- 
tion rate. 

AFL-CIO RESEARCH Director Rudy 
Oswald told the panel that the federation’s 
position is that “the purchasing power of 
benefits under these programs should be 
maintained in full.” 

For the most part, he testified, the bene- 
fits go to people whose living standards 
would fast deteriorate without inflation 
protection. 

“They are not in the active labor force,” 
Oswald noted, and can’t cope with inflation 
“by such means as getting a better job, 
negotiating a better benefit, starting up a 


Millions Face Slash in Health Care Aid 


Proposed cuts in federal health pro- 
grams resulting from President Reagan’s 
budget for the next fiscal year will extract 
a heavy human price, the Health Security 
Action Council warned. 

Reacting to the economic package that 
Reagan sent to Congress, HSAC Chair- 
man Douglas A. Fraser charged that the 


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slashes in health programs will have a 
severe impact on many people — “children, 
the poor, the sick, migrants, the mentally 
ill, low-income workers, and millions of 
other vulnerable Americans.” 

FRASER, WHO is president of the 
Auto Workers, said the Administration’s 
budget cuts and revisions reflect a tragic 
reversal of the nation’s concern for its 
people. 

“We have wanted to support the Presi- 
dent in his efforts to combat inflation and 
increase employment, but it makes little 
sense to expect that this be done at the 
human price the President expects us to 
pay,” he declared. 

Fraser also heads HSAC’s sister orga- 
nization, the Committee for National 
Health Insurance. AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland is secretary-treasurer of 
both* groups. 

THE STATEMENT pointed out that 
children, who account for 45 percent of 
the 13 million people eligible for Medic- 
aid, would be hard hit by program cut- 
backs. 

It questioned the Administration’s 
plan to alter the program by dropping 
eligibility requirements, eliminating man- 
datory basic benefits and allowing each 
state to determine how it wishes to handle 
the program, but with substantially less 
money. 

“In the game of pass the medical care 
buck,” Fraser observed, “the poor and 


the sick can only be the losers.” 

HSAC also noted that the Administra- 
tion would abandon federal support for 
750 community mental health centers, put 
the funds in block grants to the states and 
reduce the funding by one-fourth. For mil- 
lions of Americans, HSAC pointed out, 
the mental health centers are the primary 
source of treatment. 

Similar reduced block grant funding 
for the states will affect treatment pro- 
grams for people with alcohol, narcotics 
and high blood pressure problems, mi- 
grants and those with genetic disorders 
and venereal disease. 

“What is startling about the Adminis- 
tration’s health cut plans is how utterly 
devoid they are of creative ideas,” Fraser 
observed. 

"THEY ARE concerned with numbers 
and dollars, but not with people and needs. 
They want to abandon support for pro- 
grams which protect the quality of health 
care, and those which encourage cost- 
saving community health planning. 

“They propose to give up federal gov- 
ernment encouragement of nonprofit com- 
munity-based health maintenance organi- 
zations,” Frazer pointed out. 

He said that these efforts had been 
“enthusiastically supported by previous 
Republican and Democratic administra- 
tions as a means of getting better health 
care to more people at lower costs. In 
their place, they offer nothing.” 


business or committing resources to high- 
yielding money-market funds.” 

ONE PROPOSAL the panel is exploring 
would hold benefit increases to the percent- 
age rise in either wages or prices, which- 
ever is less. 

That would be a “double-whammy” for 
the retired, disabled or disadvantaged, Os- 
wald protested. “If general living stan- 
dards are rising, beneficiaries, would partic- 
ipate only to the extent of price increases,” 
he pointed* out. “If prices are rising more 
than wages, the modest protection afforded 
by benefit payments is eroded. Beneficiaries 
would always share real income losses, but 
never real income gains.” 

Oswald said a good case can be made 
for developing a separate consumer price 
index for retirement benefits because the 
cost of living expenses for retirees differ 
in composition from those of the working 
age population. Thus food, utilities and 
medical expenses may represent a higher 
share of a retiree’s budget and housing a 
lesser share. But this is a matter for ob- 
jective determination, he stressed, not a 
gimmick to hold down the budget. 

THE EXISTING cost-of-living index 
for the general population is valid and 
should not be tampered with, Oswald 
urged. The alternative “experimental in- 
dexes” that are being pushed as money- 
saving alternatives are largely proposals 
that* had previously been considered and 
rejected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
he noted. 

Any decisions on computation of the 
consumer price index “should be based on 
the best expert evidence possible and re- 
moved from considerations of whether or 
not it will produce savings for the federal 
budget,” Oswald stressed. 

Senate Confirms Three 
For Labor Dept. Posts 

The Senate has confirmed three presiden- 
tial appointments to the Labor Dept., all 
by voice vote after endorsement by the 
Labor & Human Resources Committee. 

. They are Thorne G. Auchter, a construc- 
tion company executive as Assistant Secre- 
tary for Occupational Safety & Health; 
Albert Angrisani, a bank executive as As- 
sistant Secretary for Employment & Train- 
ing, and Timothy J. Ryan, who has been 
an attorney for employer groups, as Solici- 
tor of Labor. 

President Reagan has not yet nominated 
an Under Secretary of Labor, the number 
two job in the department, or assistant sec- 
retaries for employment standards; for pol- 
icy, evaluation and research; labor-man- 
agement services, and to head the Mine 
Safety & Health Administration. 


Oil Decontrol Fuels Price Surge, Saps Earnings 



By James M. Shevis 

Gasoline and fuel oil prices — zooming 
as a result of President Reagan’s decontrol 
of domestic oil prices — ^kept the nation’s 
inflation rate in the double digits in Feb- 
ruary, and contributed to the largest 
monthly drain in workers’ buying power 
since April 1979. 

Rising prices for energy accounted for 
about two-thirds of the nine-tenths of 1 
percent increase in the federal govern- 
ment’s consumer price index last month, 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 
Gasoline prices shot up 6.7 percent over 
the month. Heating oil prices soared 8.1 
percent. 

«THE DOUBLE-DIGIT price increases 
of February are directly traceable to the 
stepped-up oil decontrol order of the Pres- 


ident,” AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald said. “The inflationary effects of 
higher energy prices will continue to move 
their way throughout the economy in the 
months ahead. 

“The immediate jolt to gasoline and 


fuel oil prices has had a severe impact on 
the buying power of workers’ wages. All 
the proceeds from the higher energy prices 
represent a transfer of funds from U.S. 
workers to U.S. oil companies.” 

At a hearing of the congressional Joint 


Economic Committee, Chairman Murray 
Weidenbaum of the President’s Council 
of Economic Advisers estimated that 
about 6 cents of the 8.4-cent increase in 
gasoline prices last month was the result 
of Reagan’s decision to decontrol domestic 
crude oil and gas prices at the end of 
January rather than to phase out the con- 
trols through October, as former Presi- 
dent Carter had planned. He said the rest 
of last month’s gasoline price increase 
reflected an oil price jump by the Organi- 
zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries 
and other factors, such as dealer markups. 

Weidenbaum added that the Adminis- 
tration expects “several more months of 
disappointing price performance” before 
the inflation rate begins to improve. 

For workers, last month’s steep climb in 
(Continued on Page 11) 




TEENAGE UNEMPLOYMENT should be dealt with by job training programs 
and an expanding economy, not by reducing the minimum wage, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland urged at Senate hearings. With him are Legislative 
Director Ray Denison, left, and Research Director Rudy Oswald. Earlier, 
Kirkland testified before the House Ways & Means Committee, urging labor’s 
alternative to the “grossly unfair” tax cuts proposed by the Administration. 

Reagan Acts to Change 
Or Kill 63 Regulations 


The Reagan Administration announced 
that it intends to change or eliminate 63 
federal regulations many of which were 
designed to protect workers and the health 
and safety of all Americans. 

Included are rules now in effect — for 
many years in some cases — or pending 
adoption by a number of government 
agencies. They cover a broad spectrum, 
ranging from job safety to education of 
handicapped children, surface mining, and 
workplace cancer policies. 

VICE PRESIDENT George Bush, who 
chairs the President’s task force on regu- 
lations, told a news conference that he ex- 
pects “there will be an awful lot of 
changes” made in the regulations to com- 
ply with a January Executive Order by 
Reagan requiring cost-benefit analyses of 
rules and selection of the most cost-effec- 
tive choice. 

This approach to regulatory relief was 
denounced by the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council at its February meeting as ignor- 
ing the contributions to a higher quality 
of life made by federal rules protecting 
the workplace, the environment, health 
and safety, and consumers. 

“In the name of business efficiency, he 
would let the marketplace determine if, 
when and how workers, buyers and natural 
resources are to be protected,” the coun- 
cil said. “Past experience demonstrates that 
the market undervalues the need for these 
protections.” 

LABOR SEC. Raymond J. Donovan, 
in an announcement separate from Bush’s, 
said that five of the regulatory actions 
proposed in the closing days of the Carter 


Administration would be withdrawn Mar. 
27, and that the department is moving to 
scrap other regulations. 

Donovan said he had withdrawn a can- 
cer policy for the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration, which would have 
set guidelines on how the government 
would detect and regulate potential can- 
cer-causing agents; a rule that would have 
required employers to pay workers for 
time spent on work-site inspections; an 
action that would have denied approval 
of the Indiana OSHA program; a regula- 

(Continued on Page 2) 


The Senate opened debate on a labor- 
opposed budget resolution that would com- 
pel massive cutbacks in virtually all non- 
defense programs, and bite even deeper 
than the Reagan Administration had pro- 
posed. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Deni- 
son called on senators to vote against the 
resolution, to answer “no” to the proposed 
“massive destruction of jobs and pro- 
grams.” 

THE BUDGET measure would compel 
Senate committees to approve by May 31 
permanent changes in laws and funding 
authority that would slash $36.4 billion 
from the belt-tightening budget that Presi- 
dent Carter submitted before leaving office 
in January. 

Even that wouldn’t be the end. Another 
$8.8 billion in cuts is expected to be in- 


Kirkland Hits 
Tax Proposal 
As ‘Unfair’ 

The AFL-CIO protested the Reagan 
Administration’s “grossly unfair” tax pro- 
posals and urged the House Ways & 
Means Committee to endorse a more 
equitable alternative. 

Instead of big tax cuts for the very 
wealthy. Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land said a 20-percent social security tax 
credit would provide greater tax relief for 
more people at less cost. 

The Administration plan, Kirkland 
charged, “would add to inflation, exag- 
gerate fundamental economic problems, 
and dissipate funds needed for their reso- 
lution.” 

Likewise, the Administration’s proposals 
for business tax relief, including a vast 
speedup in depreciation tax writeoffs, 
would give “huge benefits” to prosperous 
firms that don’t need them without any 
assurance that the added revenues will go 
to productive investment. 

THE ADDED CASH could as easily 
be used “to buy up other companies, in- 
crease dividends, invest overseas, specu- 
late, or to finance shutdowns and reloca- 
tions that destroy jobs and blight local 
communities,” Kirkland protested. 

He contrasted this approach with the 
AFL-CIO’s proposal for targeted tax cuts 
to help finance a reindustrialization pro- 
gram for American industry. 

The AFL-CIO has also proposed that 
all employers receive a tax rebate equal 
to 5 percent of their share of the social 
security payroll tax — an action that would 
be “of particular help to smaller, more 
labor-intensive firms,” Kirkland noted. 

One of the inequities of the Reagan 
proposal, Kirkland testified, is the lack of 

(Continued on Page 12) 


eluded in a later budget resolution. 

Denison reminded senators of the in- 
creased unemployment that would be 
caused by such a budget — which ironically 
at the same time would compel reductions 
in unemployment assistance, food stamps, 
health services and the array of “safety 
nets” for the needy. He cited reduction of 
educational opportunities, cuts in transpor- 
tation programs — and the inevitable shift- 
ing of burdens to states and cities. 

THE REAGAN budget may be praised 
by the wealthy and those corporations that 
will profit, Denison observed, “but the 
price to the rest of America is simply 
too high.” 

There was no doubt, however, that the 
Republican majority in the Senate had the 
votes to push through the spending cuts 
with few, if any, concessions. 


Senate Asked 
To Sidetrack 
Subminimum 

By David L. Perlman 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
called on Congress to reject proposals for 
a subminimum youth wage, block the dis- 
mantling of effective job training pro- 
grams, and consider raising the minimum 
wage for workers of all ages to restore 
buying power eroded by inflation. 

Kirkland and other union witnesses dur- 
ing two days of Senate hearings sharply 
challenged the claims of sponsors of as- 
sorted “youth opportunity” bills that 
lowering the wage floor is the answer to 
teenage unemployment. 

Teenage unemployment is too high, but 
so is unemployment generally, Kirkland 
reminded members of the Senate Labor 
subcommittee. Adults made up 6 million 
of the 7.8 million persons seeking jobs 
last month, he noted. And of the 5 million 
persons, mostly women and minorities, 
who work for the minimum wage, 70 per- 
cent are adults. 

DOES CONGRESS really want to en- 
courage employers to substitute teenagers 
for adults in the low-skill jobs at the bot- 
tom of the wage ladder, Kirkland asked. 

He reminded the Senate panel that more 
than half a million young people are al- 
ready being paid less than the $3.35 an 
hour minimum wage under, student and 
learner exemptions allowed by the Labor 
Dept. Further, employers who hire dis- 
advantaged youths are currently entitled 
to generous tax credits, up to $1.50 an 
hour for each such employee. 

If lowering wages created additional 
jobs, Kirkland said in reply to a ques- 
tion, there should have been no unem- 
ployment in the depths of the Great De- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Conservative Democrats who have 
jumped on the Reagan economic band- 
wagon outnumber the handful of Repub- 
licans who might dissent from some por- 
tions of the cutbacks. Senate Democrats 
caucused for three days in an only partial- 
ly successful attempt to agree on a package 
of amendments aimed at restoring about 
$4 billion of the budget cuts. 

EVENTUALLY, the Senate’s action will 
have to be meshed with the budget reso- 
lution adopted by the House — still some 
weeks off. But the Senate figures will be 
the benchmark for all future budget 
actions by Congress. 

The Senate jumped off to a quick start 
as part of a Republican strategy to take 
advantage of President Reagan’s supposed 
“honeymoon” period, the first months in 

(Continued on Page 11) 


Wo ’ Vote Urged on Deep Budget Cuts 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASEUNGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 






SOME 8,000 trade unionists rally 
outside the Washington state capitol 
in Olympia to protest a measure be- 
fore the legislature that would slash 
workers’ compensation benefits and 
allow private insurance companies to 
write industrial coverage policies for 
profit. The state has operated the non- 
profit program since 1911. The so- 
called Three-Way Bill, which already 
has cleared the House, is vigorously 
pushed by the Republican majority 
in the Senate with the strong backing 
of big business and insurance com- 
pany lobbies. President Marvin 
L. Williams, left, of the Washington 
State AFL-CIO, which cosponsored 
the Mar. 18 “No Way on Three- 
Way” rally along with other labor 
groups, pledged an all-out fight to 
keep the state from turning over 
“profits to insurance conglomerates.” 


Government Union Scores 
Bid to Shift Loan Collection 


The Government Employees attacked 
the Administration’s decision to contract- 
out the job of collecting defaulted student 
loans to the private sector, a function per- 
formed by federal workers over the past 
four years. 

AFGE President Kenneth Blaylock said 
that “it’s appropriate that this idea is 
coming to pass during Reagan’s so-called 
‘waste and fraud’ week, because it wastes 
the taxpayers’ money and perpetuates the 
fraud that government is less efficient than 
the private sector.” 

Government employees, who have per- 
formed the task of collecting over 600,000 
overdue loans to students a year, have a 
collection record of more than 90 percent, 
Blaylock said. Their collection rate aver- 
ages $3 for every $1 in cost to the tax- 
payer. 


The National Labor Relations Board’s 
caseload for the first three months of 1980 
reached a record 14,986, or 7.8 percent 
higher than in the same period a year 
earlier. 

The NLRB said the case intake ex- 
ceeded the previous record quarter, April- 
June 1979, by more than 300 cases. 

Unfair labor practices by employers, 
unions, or both totaled 11,234. In the rep- 
resentation areas, there were 3,588 peti- 
tions seeking employee elections, 158 for 
unit clarification, and six for amendment 
of certification. 

During the first three months of 1980, 
the board conducted 1,708 representation 
elections, with workers voting in favor of 
unions 49 percent of the time. Eighty-nine 
percent of the employees eligible to vote 
did so. AFL-CIO unions participated in 


Normal procedure in the private sector 
is for the collection agency to take 50 
cents on the dollar in collection fees, 
Blaylock noted. 

Education Sec. Terrel Bell, in a memo 
to his staff, supported these facts and 
noted that federal collectors have “proved 
to be very efficient,” Blaylock observed. 
Yet Bell expects the agency to cut the 
current staff of 955 collectors to 390 by 
the end of the current fiscal year with 
further reductions next year. 

Blaylock said that Bell also is seeking 
to “expedite” the contracting process, tar- 
geting Aug. 30 as a final selection date. 

The AFGE head said the union is re- 
viewing the Education Dept.’s plans for 
possible legal action “to block the con- 
tracting decision, save the jobs of the col- 
lectors, and stop this ridiculous waste of 
tax dollars.” 


1,039 elections, won in 498 and lost 541. 
Unaffiliated unions participated in 724 
elections, winning 337 and losing 387. 

NLRB REGIONAL offices, which re- 
ceive the cases initially, were successful in 
settling or resolving a major percentage of 
the unfair labor practices and their under- 
lying disputes early in the case-handling 
process. 

The great bulk of charges which investi- 
gation showed to be without merit were 
also resolved at the regional level, the 
board said. Regional directors, working on 
the remainder of the cases, issued 1,398 
complaints, setting the cases for trial. 

After further settlement efforts following 
the issuance of complaints, NLRB admin- 
istrative law judges conducted 268 trials of 
unfair labor practice cases during the 
quarter. 


Administration 
Pulls Back 63 
Key Regulations 

(Continued from Page 1) 
tion establishing a minimum wage for 
farm employers who wish to use alien la- 
bor, and a rule that would have barred 
federal contractors from paying member- 
ship fees for their employees in private 
clubs that discriminate. 

DONOVAN, WHO is a member of the 
Reagan deregulation task force, also post- 
poned for another 30 days proposed new 
regulations under the Davis-Bacon and 
Service Contract Acts and under the new 
OSHA lead standards. In calling for a re- 
view of the prevailing wage rules, the 
Bush panel said that “their effect over 
time . . . has been to escalate wages above 
rates prevailing in the private sector.” 

Bush said it would take several weeks 
to several months to determine whether 
the rules comply with the Administration’s 
regulatory objective. Final action would be 
administrative; new legislation would not 
be required to change or kill the regula- 
tions, government officials said. 

Of the 63 regulations under discussion, 
27 are already on the books. The remain- 
der are among the 172 rules proposed in 
the closing days of the Carter Administra- 
tion but suspended in an initial 60-day 
freeze imposed by Reagan on Jan. 29. 
These 36 proposed regulations will not be 
made final, but will be reviewed by affect- 
ed government agencies, which will de- 
cide whether to cancel or modify them. 

BUSH SAID 41 other regulations 
caught in the January freeze have since 
been allowed to take effect and 95 more 
would be permitted to become effective 
on Mar. 30, when the freeze ends. 

Among the rules singled out for re- 
view and possible modification or elimina- 
tion are procedures for setting area pre- 
vailing wages on federally financed con- 
struction, occupational noise standards, 
and federal contract compliance require- 
ments — the basis of the government’s 
affirmative action program since the Ken- 
nedy Administration. 


NLRB’s Caseload Reaches 
New Peak in First Quarter 


Miners Voting 
On Coal Pact 
For 160,000 

A new three-year agreement between 
the Mine Workers and the soft-coal indus- 
try provides for substantial wage and 
fringe benefit improvements for 160,000 
miners in eastern and midwestern states. 

Approved by the unaffiliated union’s 
39-member bargaining council, the tenta- 
tive contract now goes to the coal fields, 
where a ratification vote will be held after 
local union hall briefings. 

UMW PRESIDENT Sam Church, Jr., 
said he expects the pact, which includes a 
31 -percent pay boost over the next three 
years, will be ratified. The current agree- 
ment with the Bituminous Coal Operators’ 
Association expired on Mar. 27. 

Reached on Mar. 23, the accord takes 
at least nine days to ratify, making a 
strike of a few days’ duration inevitable. 
Under the UMW constitution, a “no con- 
tract, no work” rule prevails until a new 
contract' is ratified. Final results of the 
voting on the settlement are expected to 
be known by Apr. 1. 

The contract’s provisions will increase 
wages and benefits by a total of about 36 
percent over three years. Top-scale wages 
would rise 31 percent over the life of the 
contract through a combination of annual 
and quarterly raises, from the current 
$10.56 an hour to $13.86. 

THE MINERS also achieved other sig- 
nificant gains, and agreed to certain trade- 
offs with the industry. Among the contract 
improvements: 

• Increased pension benefits. General 
pension benefits would rise to $375 a 
month, from the current $275 a ifionth, 
for miners who retired before 1974. For 
the first time, the 45,000 widows of these 
older miners would receive a pension of 
$100 a month. 

• A new dental care plan. Optical care 
coverage was negotiated in the last settle- 
ment. 

• An agreement to dismantle a cen- 
tralized arbitration review board created 
in the last contract. The board had been 
the focus of strong rank-and-file resent- 
ment. The industry agreed to return to 
regional arbitration. 

• The industry’s reversal on its de- 
mand for mandatory Sunday mining. 
Miners preferred more time off, and Sun- 
days off was a pivotal issue for them. 

• An 11th paid holiday, the day after 
Thanksgiving. 

College Faculties 
Covered Under 
Joint Affiliation 

The Teachers and the unaffiliated Amer- 
ican Association of University Professors 
signed an affiliation agreement covering 
the 10,000 AFT-represented faculty mem- 
bers of the City University of New York. 

The agreement was hailed by both 
principal signatories — AFT President Al- 
bert Shanker and AAUP President Henry 
Tom Yost — at signing ceremonies in 
Washington, D.C., as a welcome develop- 
ment toward achieving unity. 

Shanker said the action will enable the 
AFT and AAUP “to work together in pro- 
moting and protecting the interests and 
concerns of their respective memberships.” 
Yost concurred, adding that the AAUP 
will look forward to the new coalition that 
“will effectively work to maintain a system 
of quality education in this counrty.” 

The AFT-affiliated Professional Staff 
Congress at CUNY will continue as the 
bargaining agent for the faculty and non- 
classroom professionals in the 19-campus 
system. 

A separate “no raiding” agreement was 
signed by the AFT’s New York State 
United Teachers and the AAUP in which 
both sides pledged not to challenge estab- 
lished campus bargaining units of the 
NYSUT or AAUP. 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 


Paf(e Three 


Job Claims Challenged 

Congress Urged to Kill 
Subminimum Pay Plan 

(Continued from Page 1) 



OPPONENTS OF a youth subminimum wage, testifying at Senate Labor sub- 
committee hearings, included this panel of Althea T. L. Simmons, director of the 
Washington bureau of the NAACP; Ladies’ Garment Workers President Sol 
C. Chaikin, and William Lucy, secretary-treasurer of the State, County & Muni- 
cipal Employees. 

High Court Urged to Bypass 
Warrant Rule on Mine Safety 


' pression, when there was no minimum 
wage law and employers cut pay. 

Youth unemployment should be coun- 
tered by targeted programs coordinating 
training with placement in jobs “that have 
a future,” he said. That’s what the AFL- 
CIO has been trying to do through its 
Human Resources Development Institute 
and various budget-threatened outreach 
programs, Kirkland added. And labor’s 
proposals for reindustrialization would 
enlarge private sector job opportunities for 
workers of all ages, he pointed out. 

KIRKLAND URGED Congress to in- 
dex the minimum wage so it remains a 
meaningful floor and so that full-time 
workers will not have to rely on public 
assistance to subsidize inadequate pay. 

Labor views the employer campaign for 
a subminimum wage as part of an attack 
on the entire concept of a minimum wage 
law, Kirkland testified. 

It is “in the interests of society,” he told 
a questioner, that the minimum wage be 
set above the level of exploitation and that 
its “real value” be maintained against 
inflation. 

A scattering of employer, groups testi- 
fied for a subminimum youth wage, but 
they were countered by unions represent- 
ing workers in traditionally low-paying 
industries and representatives of other 
groups opposed to a two-tier minimum 
wage. 

In union testimony: 

• Ladies’ Garment Workers President 
Sol C. Chaikin cited findings by secre- 
taries of labor in both Republican and 
Democratic administrations that past in- 
creases in the minimum wage have not 
resulted in higher teenage unemployment. 
He warned that a youth subminimum 

NASA- Space Scientists 
Give Strong Vote to Union 

Greenbelt, Md. — Some 1,200 engineers 
and scientists at the National Aeronautics 
& Space Administration’s Goddard Space 
Flight Center here voted overwhelmingly 
to be represented by the Professional & 
Technical Engineers. 

The Federal Labor Relations Authority 
said that a clear majority of the almost 
70 percent eligible to vote wanted the 
IFPTE as their bargaining agent. 


Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan told 
Republican senators who have sponsored 
youth subminimum wage bills that the 
Administration can’t support any of their 
proposals at this time. 

Donovan gave a qualified endorsement 
to the “concept” of a lower minimum 
wage for teenagers. But it wouldn’t be a 
“cure-all for youth unemployment,” he 
testified. 

More information is needed, Donovan 
told the Senate Labor subcommittee, to 
determine whether lowering the minimum 
wage would in fact open up new jobs for 
young people or merely bump older work- 
ers out of existing jobs. 

DONOVAN NOTED that a Minimum 
Wage Study” Commission established by 
Congress is scheduled to report in May, 
and he told the panel he would want to 
“carefully review” the commission’s studies 
on the issue of a subminimum youth wage. 
The Administration’s decision to back off 
from a minimum wage battle at the start 
of a new Congress was made at the Cabi- 
net level, Donovan indicated. 

The Secretary of Labor’s first testimony 
since his confirmation hearings brought 
praise from committee Democrats, but ex- 
pressions of impatience from conservative 
Republicans who have been pushing for 
a subminimum youth bill. 

The issue has been “studied to death,” 
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) complained. 

Hatch is chairman of the full Senate 


would merely steer teenagers into “sub- 
minimum jobs” without career opportuni- 
ties. “Surely we can do better than that,” 
he observed. 

• Service Employees President John J. 
Sweeney testified that a youth submini- 
mum wage would “pit sons and daughters 
against fathers and mothers — with no 
winners.” 

Most minimum wage workers are in ser- 
vice jobs, he said, where “the minimum 
wage is not some abstract number but a 
vital floor for economic survival.” The 
SEIU’s members, Sweeney said, “including 
teenagers,” would join in testifying “that 
the subminimum proposals are for the 
benefit of minimum wage employers who 
will reap windfall profits.” 

• Jacob Sheinkman, secretary-treasurer 
of the Clothing & Textile Workers, termed 
the federal minimum wage an essential 
“safety net” for millions of • low-paid 
workers. “A youth subminimum could 
rend it, perhaps beyond repair,” Sheink- 
man said. 

A BILL BEFORE the Senate subcom- 
mittee that would set the teenage minimum 
at 75 percent of the adult rate is a “cut- 
rate wage bill for cut-rate employers,” he 
charged. It is based on a series of “false 
premises.” And the fast-food chains that 
have been most actively pushing for a 
subminimum wage “aren’t losing any 
money now — there’s no need to make 
them richer.” 

• William Lucy, secretary-treasurer of 
the State, County & Municipal Employees, 
said minority teenagers “can’t afford to 
take a 15 percent or 25 percent pay cut” 
through a lower minimum wage. 

Apart from its income floor, the mini- 
mum wage helps to maintain the principle 
of “equal pay for equal work for Amer- 
ica’s low-wage employees,” Lucy testified. 

• Michael Tiner, assistant government 
affairs director for the Food & Commer- 
cial Workers, said the UFCW “rejects the 
notion that the way to increase employ- 
ment is to decrease wages.” 

The federal minimum wage was in- 
tended to apply to covered industries, he 
reminded the panel. “No workers, young 
or old, should be required to exchange 
their labor for less than the minimum 
wage.” The path to increased employ- 
ment, Tiner urged, lies “in a strong and 
healthy economy, not discrimination in the 
wage structure.” 


Labor & Human Resources Committee 
and the sponsor of a bill that would en- 
able employers to pay workers under the 
age of 20 only 75 percent of the minimum 
wage for up to six months. 

SUBCOMMITTEE Chairman Don 
Nickles (R-Okla.), whose bill would totally 
expel employees under 1 8 from the 
wage-hour law, said the best hope for 
youth employment is “an unrestrained 
free enterprise system.” 

Donovan testified that “before the Ad- 
ministration can endorse a specific legisla- 
tive approach,” it must consider such 
questions as: 

• The effect of youth differentials on 
jobs of adult wage-earners. 

• The most effective means of enforce- 
ment to prevent adult displacement and 
the firing of teenagers when they can no 
longer be paid a subminimum wage. 

• The effect of a subminimum wage on 
poor families who depend on the earnings 
of teenagers. 

• The extent to which employers will 
create additional jobs that can be filled 
by teenagers, and the experience of other 
countries with a youth wage. 

He noted that under present law 
nearly 500,000 students are employed at 
85 percent of the minimum wage in after- 
school jobs and summer employment. 

When Nickles said that existing pro- 


The federal government does not need 
a court warrant to carry out worksite in- 
spections required by the Mine Safety & 
Health Act, the AFL-CIO contended in 
a brief to the Supreme Court. 

At issue is whether a 1978 Supreme 
Court decision that an employer can in- 
sist on a warrant before allowing the 
Occupational Safety & Health Adminis- 
tration to inspect his premises also gov- 
erns workplaces covered by the mine 
safety law. 

The Labor Dept., the AFL-CIO and 
several federal appellate courts cite im- 
portant differences that keep the OSHA 
ruling from applying to mine safety in- 
spections. 

THE MINE SAFETY law (MSHA) 
requires that underground mines be in- 
spected four times a year and that surface 
mines and quarries by inspected twice a 
year. There is no comparable provision 
under OSHA, which was a factor in the 
Supreme Court’s split decision that a war- 
rant could be required to assure that the 
decision to inspect a particular workplace 
was part of a national plan of inspections 
or justified on the basis of an employee 
complaint. 

Further, the industries regulated by 
MSHA are among the most hazardous in 
the nation. 

A federal judge in Wisconsin held 
otherwise, however, and upheld the right 
of the Waukesha Lime & Stone Co. to 
insist that MSHA obtain a warrant allow- 
ing it to carry out an inspection. It is 


cedures for hiring at subminimum rates 
are “cumbersome,” Donovan suggested 
that it might be even more cumbersome 
to supervise a general youth subminimum 
wage to make sure that it is not being 
abused. 

Neither Donovan nor the White House 
ruled out a future push by the Administra- 
tion for a subminimum youth wage, which 
was one of the planks in the Republican 
platform last year. A White House press 
aide stressed that President Reagan sup- 
ports a lower youth wage “in principle.” 

WHILE TRADE associations of restau- 
rant owners and retail food stores testified 
for the subminimum bills, the U.S. Cham- 
ber of Commerce merely sent a somewhat 
ambiguous letter endorsing the “concepts” 
of the various bills and saying it is work- 
ing on its own “comprehensive analysis” 
of the issue. 

Press reports had indicated that the 
business association was concerned that 
enactment of a youth subminimum might 
be accomplished through an increase in 
the wage floor for adults. 

The two ranking Democrats on the 
Labor & Human Resources Committee, 
Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Harrison 
A. Williams, Jr. (N.J.), noted that inflation 
has deeply eroded the buying power of 
the present $3.35 an hour wage floor. But 
Donovan said he didn’t expect the Admin- 
istration to support a higher minimum 
wage anytime soon. 


this ruling that the Labor Dept, is asking 
the Supreme Court to reverse. 

THE AFL-CIO BRIEF noted that a 
number of employers have taken advan- 
tage of the Supreme Court’s ruling on 
OSHA inspections to delay the inspec- 
tion process and to tie up OSHA person- 
nel on procedures for getting warrants, to 
the detriment of enforcement of the law. 

Also, the AFL-CIO suggested, the 
Supreme Court’s OSHA ruling left largely 
undefinied the criteria for issuance of a 
warrant, resulting too frequently in “a 
level of judicial scrutiny of inspection de- 
cisions which severely hampers an effective 
inspection system.” 

If the Supreme Court should decide the 
MSHA case as it did the OSHA dispute, 
the AFL-CIO asked that the decision make 
clear that any warrant requirement could 
be met without an adversary proceeding 
on a showing by the government that the 
inspection was part of a rational plan for 
enforcing the law or was based on a com- 
plaint or some other indication of possible 
safety hazard. 

Fuel Assistance 
Cutbacks Termed 
Blow to Elderly 

A retired Steelworker member from 
Claremont, N.H., urged a Senate subcom- 
mittee to reauthorize the low-income 
energy assistance program and reject an 
Administration proposal to fold it into an 
overall state block grant program and cut 
available funds by 25 percent. 

Earl Bourden, who has been involved 
in helping needy families in his home area 
get federal assistance in meeting high fuel 
costs, testified on behalf of the National 
Council of Senior Citizens. He is president 
of the NCSC affiliate in Claremont and 
a member of the organization’s national 
board. 

“Our senior citizens must not be forced 
to choose between heating and eating,” 
Bourden urged. “For thousands of senior 
citizens, the rising cost of fuel has far 
outstripped the financial assistance they 
have been able to get.” 

Bourden suggested that their plight 
offers “a true test of the compassion that 
this Administration claims to have for 
America’s needy.” 

Calistri Named Editor 
Of Labor Newspaper 

Richard J. Calistri has been named edi- 
tor of Labor newspaper to succeed the 
late Ruben Levin. Calistri, 55, had been 
with the paper during the 1960s and re- 
turned to Labor last year as associate 
editor. 

Calistri also had worked on union pub- 
lications for the Machinists, Seafarers and 
Government Employees. Labor newspaper 
is published tri-weekly by 1'4 unions with 
members in railroads, airlines and related 
transportation fields. 


White House Hedges Stand on Youth Wage 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 


All Unfair Tax Tilt 

rpHE PRESIDENPS tax package is grossly unfair and much 
too costly. It would add to inflation, exaggerate fundamental 
economic problems and dissipate funds needed for their resolution. 

The facade of even-handedness implied in the 10 percent per 
year across-the-board cuts (for individuals) quickly disappears 
upon closer inspection. 

Despite claims to the contrary there is no tax cut under the 
Administration’s proposal for some 15 million low-income work- 
ing Americans. TTieir taxes went up this past January as a result 
of the social security increases; this same group will be among the 
first to feel the impact of the Administration’s cuts in social 
programs. 

The average worker in the private sector who, according to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, earns about $12,000 a year, would 
receive a first-year cut of $128 if single; but only $92 if support- 
ing a family of four. 

A FAMILY AT THE national median of approximately 
$20,000 would receive $228. At twice the national median 
($40,000) the cut amounts to $648 — almost three times as much. 
At $100,000 the cut is $1,840 — eight times as much. 

The three-year program amounts to a 9.2 percent increase in 
after-tax income of the $100,000-a-year salary earner compared 
to 3.4 percent for the $20,000 family and only 1.9 percent for the 
$ 1 2,000 wage earner. ^ 

According to the estimates of both the Administration and the 
Joint Committee on Taxation nearly 30 percent of the benefits 
of the tax cut will go to those with incomes of $50,000 and 
over — the top 5 percent of the nation. When fully effective, the 
average cut for this group will be $5,669. The remaining 95 per- 
cent of the population will receive an average reduction of $743. 

Clearly a scheme which gives more to those at the top — in 
absolute as well as relative terms — cannot be considered fair or 
even-handed. 

The so-called supply-side notion that such cuts in marginal tax 
rates will entice more people into t^ie labor force and encourage 
them to work harder completely ignores the fact that there are 
nearly eight million Americans looking for work, four million on 
part-time schedules because full-time work is not available, and 
over one million workers who have dropped out of the labor 
force because the search for jobs was futile. 


THE ADMINISTRATION’S depreciation proposal amounts to 
a rapid and arbitrary speed-up in depreciation write-offs which 
would render the concept of business income for income tax 
purposes meaningless. Huge revenue losses would result and the 
corporate contribution to the costs of government would be cut 
by over one-third. 

We see no justification, particularly in this time of budget slash- 
ing and proclaimed need for austerity and sacrifice, to throw as 
much as $60 billion a year in federal tax cuts to the nation’s 
corporations and their stockholders and wait and hope that this 
largess will trickle down to workers and consumers in the form 
of needed jobs and more goods and services at reasonable prices. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in testimony before the 
House Ways & Means Committee, Mar. 24, 1981. 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary -Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 
Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 
Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I VoL XXVI 


Sat\urday, March 28, 1981 


No. 13 I 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 



liiiiiniliiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn 


‘That’s the Name of This Game!’ 



Trading OH Jobs 

Inflation Fueled, Not Curtailed 
By Forcing Up Unemployment 


By Gus Tyler 

I N A LONG PIECE in the Wall Street Journal, 
Herbert Stein includes one short paragraph 
that may tell us more about why the Nixon and 
Ford Administrations failed to check inflation 
than countless commentaries that have spouted 
from legions of pundits. 

That mighty little paragraph comes from a man 
who wielded much might in the nation’s capital 
for many years: he was the Chairman of the 
Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents 
Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and, for a mo- 
ment there, was considered to be a likely choice 
to end up as top adviser to President Ronald 
Reagan. So what Stein has to say is not of minor 
consequence. 

HIS PARAGRAPH refers to what happens 
when the government embarks on a policy of 
shrinking the economy in order to check inflation. 
Although such a “cooling” of the business engine 
is what Stein continues to advocate, he does grant 
that such a process does have a few negative side 
effects. 

First, he says, “the process of reducing inflation 
creates ' a period of unemployment and excess 
capacity.” 

This is a refreshing admission. It tells us that 
unemployment didn’t just happen to us; it was 
made to happen. Unemployment was manufac- 
tured as part of that “process of reducing infla- 
tion.” 

That same pithy little sentence tells lis that the 
“process” creates “excess capacity.” That means 
that much of our productive machinery in the 
United States is idled. Such idle overhead is very 
costly and is, quite naturally, added to the price 
of the commodities we purchase. So — to put it 
bluntly — this “process” to reduce inflation is, in 
itself, inflationary. 

That’s why, for a full decade now, we have been 
suffering simultaneously from unnecessarily high 
unemployment and needlessly high prices — the 
sickness called “stagflation.” 

THE CURRENT CURE for this ailment, the 
fundamental faith of the new Administration, is 
to enrich the rich so that they will have the neces- 
sary “capital” to invest — to spur jobs, to increase 


supply. Along the way, the Administration also 
proposes to cut government spending. 

But, says Stein, a condition of unemployment 
and excess capacity is “not an economic environ- 
ment in which there will be much new investment, 
movement of workers, or cuts in government 
spending programs. It will also be an environ- 
ment of large budget deficits.” 

What Stein is saying seems, after it is said, so 
obvious that one wonders why we needed a learned 
authority to say it. After all, if a plant is going 
unused or only partly used, why should the com- 
pany put up a second plant or enlarge the present 
facility? 

If there is higher unemployment, how can we 
put more people to work? And if there are more 
people without a steady income because they were 
frozen out of the cooled economy, how can the 
government expect to balance its budget when it 
must pay the added billions in assistance while 
losing additional billions in income? 

The amazing thing is that, despite all these 
arguments, Stein insists that we must go right 
ahead and cool the economy some more. Some- 
day somehow, he expects that the poison will 
cure the patient. Just when, he does not say. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns ^ 



Kiiild Union 



THE >1DMINISTR4TION PMN 


M-mium Th6Thr60toJobs 

and Social Progress 


The AFL-CIO has long maintained that the federal budget 
must be based on a careful determination of the nation’s needs 
and the federai government’s responsibiiity in meeting those 
needs. Currently, these needs and responsibilities are being 
ignored and preempted by a combination of honest misunder- 
standings of the role and function of government; exagger- 
ated conceptions of government growth, influence or waste; 
and simplistic notions that ail of the nation’s problems would 
go away if the budget were baianced and our government 
wouid simply spend less, tax less and protect less. 

The budget proposed by the President for fiscal 1982 is not 
the usuai compendium of expenditures, revenues and propos- 
als that reflect the nation’s needs and circumstances. 

It will result in the loss of 1,260,000 jobs. And it wiil have 
muitiple negative effects on the entire U.S. economy. 

It adds up to a massive attempt to reshape and restructure 
programs that have been devised, proposed, carefully consid- 
ered, enacted by the Congress, deliberately funded, checked 
and reviewed as is provided for under the nation’s system of 
governance. 

It proposes revisions in iaw without the benefit of careful, 
prudent consideration and a short-circuiting of the appro- 
priate legislative process of deiiberation and oversight. 

It is based on economic theories that have no foundation 
in fact, defy logic and ignore compassion. 

The AFL-CIO does not believe that this nation has been 
too generous in helping the poor, the disadvantaged and the 
unemployed. 

We do not believe the nation has been too ambitious in 
revitalizing its cities, enhancing educational opportunities, 
improving transportation or meeting its energy problems. 

We do not believe the nation has been overzeaious in pro- 
tecting its environment, its natural resources, its consumers 
or its workers. 

And, we do not believe the tax structure overburdens those 
with wealth and power and treads too lightly on everyone else. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council called the President’s pro- 
gram — “a high-risk gambte with the future of America” with 
workers and the poor taking the iion’s share of the risk. 

This report, produced by the AFL-CIO Dept, of Economic 
Research, highlights the impact on jobs and people of the 
reductions proposed by the Reagan Administration in the fis- 
cal 1982 budget. 


Jobs and Training 

The most direct and greatest impact of 
the Reagan Administration Budget in 
creating unemployment would occur in 
the jobs and training programs. Termina- 
tions of various programs under the Com- 
prehensive Employment & Training Act 
(CETA), youth employment and training 
programs, and National Endowments for 
the Arts and the Humanities would abolish 
opportunities for the training and entry 
experience employment for hundreds of 
thousands of people who would be added 
to the number of unemployed. 

COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT & 
TRAINING ACT (CETA) 

Budget Cut: $3,600 million 

Job Loss: 340,000 

CETA Titles II D and VI would be 
terminated. These programs provide train- 
ing and public service jobs in state and 
local government agencies for workers on 
welfare or who have been unemployed at 
least 10 weeks and whose family income 
was below $10,000. About 340,000 work- 
ers are currently employed in such pro- 
grams. These jobs would be terminated by 
the Reagan Administration proposal and 
the workers would not be eligible for 
unemployment benefits because of recent 
changes in the law. Many would be forced 
on welfare. A sizable part of the budget 
cut would be transferred to state and local 
budgets. This is on top of cuts in the ’81 
CETA budget which will cost many more 
jobs. 

YOUTH INITIATIVE— CETA GRANT 
CONSOLIDATION 

i Budget Cut: $800 million 

Job Loss: 160,000 

The Administration is withdrawing the 
youth education, training and employment 
program, and youth initiative proposed in 
the Carter January 1981 budget. The 
youth initiative was intended to help 
needy junior and senior high school stu- 
dents learn the basic academic and em- 
ployment skills necessary to find jobs. The 
Administration is proposing a consolida- 
tion of youth programs into a general 
purpose CETA grants, resulting in a re- 
duction in fiscal 1982 of $670 million in 
outlays from the January levels. 

NATIONAL CETA PROGRAMS 

The Administration recommends a $100 
million or 50 percent cut in Special Na- 
tional Programs and Support Services 
under CETA’s Title III. Title III is a 
source of assistance to groups with serious 
disadvantages in the job market — minori- 
ties, veterans, women, the handicapped, 
migrant workers and native Americans. 
It also assists on the job training pro- 
grams operated by such national groups 
as the Urban League, the Human Re- 
sources Development Institute, and some 
20 international unions for the benefit of 
disadvantaged individuals, as well as ap- 
prenticeship outreach programs that have 


played a critical role in creating opportuni- 
ties for minorities and females in the 
skilled trades. 

YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS 
Budget Cut: $60 million 
Job Loss: 2,000 

This Administration proposes to phase 
out the Youth Conservation Corps of the 
Dept, of Interior by the end of 1981. 
This program provides summer jobs on 
public lands for youths age 15 to 18. It 


gives them environmental training and 
jobs. 

YOUNG ADULT CONSERVATION 
CORPS 

Budget Cut: $179 mfllion 

Job Loss: 18,000 

This program would be terminated. It 
provides employment to youths age 16 to 
23 in such work activity as flood control, 
park maintenance and forestry on public 
land. 


NATIONAL ENDOWMENTS FOR 
THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES 

Budget Cut: $87 million 

Outlays for these programs would be 
cut by about $87 million in 1982; budget 
authority would be cut by nearly 50 per- 
cent. They provide grants to state and 
local agencies, cultural institutions, orga- 
nizations and individuals to encourage 
creative efforts, enhance access to the 
arts, support art institutions and maintain 
the artistic heritage of different cultural 
and ethnic groups. The Endowment for 
the Humanities provides support to pro- 
mote understanding and teaching of the 
humanities. The Reagan proposal cuts in 
half the support for these programs, which 
help dedicated and talented people enter 
into cultural and artistic pursuits. 

LABOR ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS 

The Administration is proposing that 
there be reductions of from 6 to 9 percent 
in the full-time permanent employment 
levels of agencies that regulate labor stan- 
dards and workers health and safety. These 
cuts would reduce employment levels for 
Fiscal Years 1981 and 1982 from Dec. 31, 
1980, levels. The inspectors of the Occu- 
pational Safety & Health Administration 
would be reduced by 250 or 9 percent over 
two years. The Mine Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration would be reduced by 6.6 per- 
cent. The Employment Standards Adminis- 
tration would be reduced by 300 employees 
or 6.1 percent. 

The Administration also proposes reduc- 
tions of 10 percent in the Equal Employ- 
ment Opportunities Commission, 7 percent 
in the Federal Mediation & Conciliation 
Service and 2 percent in the National La- 
bor Relations Board. 

STATE EMPLOYMENT 
SECURITY AGENCIES 

Budget Cut: $150 million 

Job Loss: 5,000 

Grants to states to help unemployed 
workers find jobs will be reduced by $150 
million in 1982 and further reductions 
made in subsequent years. The aim is to 
reduce staffing levels from the present 
30.000 to less than 25,000 in the state 
agencies, a cut of 1 7 percent. 

Transportation 

Transportation — by road, rail, air, and 
water — is of central importance to the 
nation’s “infrastructure.” Federal govern- 
ment programs — mainly centered in the 
Dept, of Transportation — supply money to 
the states to help build highways and pro- 
mote highway safety; provide assistance to 
railroads; provide grants and subsidies for 
urban mass transit systems, and assist the 
construction of airports and ocean-going 
merchant ships. The National Railroad 
Passenger Corp. (Amtrak), supported main- 
ly through federal financing, is the nation’s 
most important supplier of intercity rail 
passenger service. Consolidated Rail Corp. 
(CONRAIL) receives federal subsidies for 


operating freight and commuter trains in 
the northeast and midwest. The total re- 
duction in outlays for transportation is $1.7 
billion, about 8 percent. Job losses prob- 
ably exceed 100,000. 

FEDERAL fflGHWAY 
CONSTRUCTION 

Budget Cut: $421 million 
Job Loss: 44^000 

Current outlays would be reduced by 5 
percent, and the Reagan Administration 
proposal would cut 20 percent from bud- 
get authority for federal highways. This 
would result in a $2 billion reduction in 
highway construction. Ten percent of the 
Interstate system needs resurfacing, many 
bridges require rehabilitation and new area 
developments demand increased road ca- 
pacity. Shifting responsibility to state and 
local governments would require about a 
2-cent per gallon increase in state gasoline 
taxes. If highway construction is curtailed 
by $2 billion, 44,000 man-years of work 
would be lost. 

MASS TRANSIT 
Budget Cut: $420 million 
Job Loss: 33,000 

A 15-percent cutback ($420 million) is 
proposed in mass transit capital outlays, 
accompanied by a 35-percent ($1.3 bil- 


Budget Coalition 

The AFL-CIO is working with 
more than 185 national organi- 
zations in a Budget Coaiition 
pledged to fight against the ‘*un- 
necessary and unwise destruction 
of social and economic advances 
achieved in the past 50 years.” 
The Budget Coalition can be con- 
tacted at 202-637-5086. 


lion) reduction in budget authority. Grants 
for new construction would be discon- 
tinued entirely after 1982. A $1. 3-billion 
cut for construction would mean a loss of 
about 33,000 man years of work. Operat- 
ing subsidies would not be reduced in 1982 
but would be entirely phased out by 1985. 

AMTRAK 

Budget Cut: $304 million 
Job Loss: 10,000 

Amtrak train subsidies would be reduced 
by nearly one-third in 1982. Fares would 
be increased and the financial burden shift- 
ed to passengers or state governments. Cer- 
tain trains will be eliminated, hurting the 
economies in less populated areas. As 
Amtrak equipment has been improved on 
some routes, a greater capacity ratio has 
been achieved. This cut would allow the 
deterioration of the most efficient long- 
distance transportation, and the fixed and 
rolling capital that is already invested. 

LOCAL RAIL SERVICE 
Budget Cut: $100 million 
Job Loss: 2,300 

Local Rail Service Assistance Grants 
would be cut by 40 percent. These provide 
subsidies to cushion shippers against rail 
line abandonments. No additional budget 
authority would be provided for the pro- 
gram. Areas in midwestern states and Texas 
and Oklahoma would be most affected by 
higher shipping costs or abandonment of 
rail service. CONRAIL subsidies would be 
reduced in 1 982 and terminated thereafter. 
Substantial track abandonment and ulti- 
mate dismemberment of CONRAIL is the 
likely outcome. 

NORTHEAST RAIL CORRIDOR 
Budget Cut: $155 million 
Job Loss: 2,000 

Outlays on improvement of the North- 
east Rail Corridor would be reduced by 
one-third with a resulting loss of 2,000 
jobs. Railbed improvement would lead to 
improved freight handling, more passenger 
traffic and a reduction of subsidies required 
for railroad operations. 

AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION 
Budget Cut: $50 million 
Job Loss: 6,000 

A reduction of 8 percent is proposed in 
1982 outlays for the airport construction 
program. There would also be a $300- 
million cut in budget authority for airport 
expansion and improved safety. 


MARITIME SHIP CONSTRUCTION 

Reduced levels of subsidy of construc- 
tion of new privately-owned commercial 
vessels in ocean foreign commerce would 
result in a $40 million cut in 1 982. Budget 
authority is reduced by $107 million lead- 
ing to continued low-level of support for 
modernization and expansion of the U.S. 
merchant fleet. 

Education 

Major federal education support pro- 
grams would be sharply reduced. Through 
proposed consolidations and cutbacks of 
programs, there would be reduced outlays 
for Elementary & Secondary Education 
Grants, Vocational Education, School As- 
sistance in Federally Affected Areas and 
Student Loan Assistance programs. Educa- 
tion activities at all levels, from elemen- 
tary through higher levels, would suffer 
serious financial setbacks. 

ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY 
EDUCATION GRANTS 

Budget Cut: $1.1 Billion 

Consolidation would cut the total funds 
by $1.1 billion in 1982 and $1.7 billion 
in 1983, or 27 percent of the projected 
budget. All or part of 44 federal elemen- 
tary and secondary education assistance 
programs would be reduced to two block 
grant programs. Localities would no longer 
have to provide specific educational ac- 
tivities and services, such as special edu- 
cation for the handicapped and adult 
education. The requirements for matching 
funds by localities would be eliminated. 
This proposal would reverse hard-won 
laws to gain educational equity for the 
nation’s young people, permitting state 
and local agencies to ignore the needs of 
minorities and disadvantaged. Budget 
authority would be cut by $1.5 billion in 
1982, and states and localities forced to 
assume increased education costs in their 
budgets. 

STUDENT ASSISTANCE 

Budget Cut: $944 million 

A $230 million reduction is proposed 
in 1982 for higher education assistance 
to students and parents. The amount of 
discretionary income for Pell Grants that 
families must contribute to the support of 
a student has been increased and a $750 
self-help contribution from students going 
to college is now required. The new 


parental loan subsidy will be eliminated. 

Guaranteed student loan changes would 
push out of college an estimated one mil- 
lion students, or 50 percent of those cur- 
rently benefitting. This program has been 
frozen until final details of the cuts are 
worked out. The total cost of attending 
public colleges in 1981 was $2,500 for 
residents and $3,800 for non-residents. 

STUDENT LOAN MARKETING 
ASSOCIATION 

Off-budget Cut: $1,400 million 

The Reagan Administration proposes 
to eliminate access of the Student Loan 
Marketing Association (“Sallie Mae”) to 
the Federal Financing Bank. This would 
bring about a drastic curtailment in Sallie 
Mae’s efforts to assist student loans. “Sal- 
lie Mae” provides a market in which banks 
and other commercial lenders can sell 
their guaranteed loans and helps to free 
private capital for further student loans. 

SCHOOL ASSISTANCE IN 
FEDERALLY AFFECTED AREAS 
(IMPACT AID) 

Budget Cut: $450 minion 

The number of districts receiving im- 
pact aid in 1982 will be reduced from 
approximately 3,900 to 330. Funds will 
be reduced by 45 percent. This money is 
vital to support schools in communities 
with large federal installations which do 
not pay property taxes. 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

Budget Cut: $200 minion 

The $200 million cut in 1982 outlays 
is nearly one-fourth of the funds available 
for vocational education which is designed 
to improve the job skills and employ- 
ability of young people. The vocational 
education program dates back to 1917 
and needs expansion, technology and 
modern equipment: 

Commerce, Credit 
And Housing 

Hundreds of millions of dollars in out- 
lays as well as billions of dollars in budget 
authority would be cut from programs in 
these activity areas. Major programs in- 
volve housing finance, rehabilitation and 
new construction. Small Business Admin- 
istration and National Consumer Coop- 


Unfair Cuts from 
Untested Theory 

The measures advocated by the 
Administration are inequitable, un- 
fair and short-sighted. They are 
based on an untested theory; un- 
realistic projections and question- 
able logic. 

Budget cuts in income-support 
programs ignore the harm that 
befalls millions of Americans and 
will result in further shrinking pur- 
chasing power. 

Budget cuts in alternative ener- 
gy programs ignore the recently- 
learned lesson that the nation 
cannot be dependent upon a sin- 
gle source of energy or a single 
group of suppliers, be it a cartel 
of countries or a cartel of busi- 
nesses. 

Budget cuts in urban develop- 
ment, transportation and essential 
municipal services ignore their in- 
tegral role in building the nation’s 
economic competitiveness by pro- 
viding the base for reindustrializa- 
tion. 

— AFL'ClO President Lane Kirk- 
land, Mar. 4, 1981, to the House 
Budget Committee. 


erative Bank lending, economic develop- 
ment and rural electrification. 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 
ADMINISTRATION (EDA) 

AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 
COMMISSIONS 

Budget Cut: $481 million 

Job Loss: 116,000 

Programs of EDA, regional commissions 
and the Appalachian Commission programs 
would be terminated. This would greatly 
reduce economic development in some of 
the most depressed areas. Recent EDA 
program experience suggests that its loans 
and grants result in the creation of about 
1 1 6,000 jobs in eligible areas by triggering 
private capital investment. Total investment 
is several times the EDA contribution as 
private funds are induced in building plants 
and starting new businesses. 

GOVERNMENT NATIONAL 

MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION 

There is no significant change in 
GNMA (below market interest rate) 
housing finance outlays for 1982. How- 
ever, it is proposed that after making 
mortgage purchase commitments in 1982 
to purchase eligible low-income housing 
mortgages for projects already under 
development, the “tandem plan” pro- 
gram for such mortgages would be dis- 
continued. If market interest rates remain 
at high levels, the absence of tandem plan 
financing would mean a phase-out of 
federally subsidized low-income rental 
housing, which would leave many families 
ill-housed and add to construction unem- 
ployment. 

FARMER’S HOME ADMINISTRATION 

Budget Cut: $105 mUlion 

Job Loss: 41,000 

Outlays would be reduced by $105 mil- 
lion or 7 percent in 1982. New loan com- 
mitments by three funds administered by 
the FmHA would be cut many times that 
amount. The Agricultural Credit Insurance 
Fund which makes and guarantees loans 
for the purchase and operation of family 
farms and provides disaster loans, would 
have its loan commitment authority cut by 
$1,139 million in 1982 in a gamble on a 
reduction in natural disasters. 

The Rural Housing Insurance Fund 
makes and guarantees subsidized loans to 
low and middle-income home purchasers 
and developers of rental property in rural 
areas who cannot get financial assistance 
from other sources. The Rural Develop- 
ment Insurance Fund makes loans related 
to water and waste disposal and the de- 
velopment of rural business 'and commu- 
nity facilities, including fire and rescue 
services, health care, transportation and 
community, social, cultural and recreational 
facilities. 

These programs are needed to stem the 
departure to urban areas of rural residents 



and assist economic growth and develop- 
ment. These cuts would result in a 1982 
reduction of $166 million in home financ- 
ing and $630 million for community de- 
velopment, representing losses of about 

41,000 man years of work. In total, loan 
obligations would be cut by $2,935 million, 
greatly setting back economic development, 
provision of housing, family farm opera- 
tions and disaster relief in rural areas. 

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 
Budget Cut: $98 million 

Outlays by the Small Business Adminis- 
tration in 1982 would be reduced about 
$100 million for business loans and $16 
million for technical assistance. More sig- 
nificant would be a reduction of $1.5 bil- 
lion in loan guarantee commitment author- 
ity. SB A makes and guarantees business 
loans and provides technical assistance for 
newly developing small business, giving 
special attention to minority-owned busi- 
ness. The proposed cutbacks would de- 
crease job creation for which small busi- 
ness is a major source, and minority-owned 
businesses would be particularly affected. 

NATIONAL CONSUMER 
COOPERATIVE BANK 

Budget Cut: $133 million 

The entire $133 million of outlays pro- 
posed for 1982 for the National Consumer 
Cooperative Bank would be eliminated. 
This action would close a source of financ- 
ing for cooperatives that was established 
about a year ago and is just getting started. 
Many areas in which consumers could 
benefit from formation of cooperatives, 
such as in housing, day care centers for 
working mothers, and prepaid medical care, 
would not be supported. 

HUD REHABILITATION LOAN FUND 
Budget Cut: $199 million 
Job Loss: 4,000 

The HUD rehabilitation loan fund would 
be terminated, 1981 budget authority re- 
scinded, and no funds authorized for future 
years. Providing below-market interest rate 
federal loans to rehabilitate older housing 
and some commercial properties is vital to 
urban areas. The loans are used mostly to 
help low-income homeowners, conserve 
older properties and neighborhoods and 
thus reduce the need for new construction 
expenditures. Termination of this program 
would lead to a net reduction of rehabilita- 
tion activity, a net loss of housing and more 
inflationary pressures on home prices and 
rents. It would also mean about 4,000 man- 
years less of construction employment. 

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION 
ADMINISTRATION 

Budget Cut: $1,152 million 
Job Loss: 158,000 

Loan guarantee commitments for rural 
electric cooperatives would be reduced by 
$5.5 billion. The Reagan Administration 
would stop origination of REA-guaranteed 
loans by the Federal Financing Bank to 
electric cooperatives and to telephone com- 
panies and cooperatives. This would result 
in increased production costs for farmers 
and higher prices of farm products that 
would add to inflation. A slowdown in 
rural utility construction would also add 
to unemployment. 

SUBSIDIZED HOUSING 
Budget Cut: $138 million 
Job Loss: 51,000 

The Administration proposes to cut out- ^ 
lays for 1982 rent subsidies by $119 mil- 
lion, increasing rental costs of low-income 
tenants. In addition, cuts of $8.7 billion 
are proposed in program level authoriza- 
tion, which would reduce support of new 
units and the leasing of additional existing 
units. Instead of supporting a total of 

260,000 units in fiscal 1982, as under the 
Carter Budget, there would be budget au- 
thority for only 175,000 subsidized units. 
Instead of authorizing 130,000 new units, 
there would be only about 79,000 new 
units. This reduction of 51,000 new units 
would mean the loss of about 51,000 man- 
years of work. 

PUBLIC HOUSING MODERNIZATION 
Budget Cut: $500 million 
Job Loss: 13,000 

The program authority to modernize and 
conserve the stock of low-income public 
housing would be reduced one fourth or 
by $500 million in 1982. This is justified 
by the Administration on an assumption 


Write Now 

Every American will feel the im- 
pact of the President’s budget 
cuts if they succeed. 

More than 1.2 million jobs will 
go down the drain. 

This massive dismantling of fed- 
eral programs and jobs can be 
stopped if Senators and Repre- 
sentatives are urged by the voters 
back home to oppose in every 
way they can the destruction of 
programs detailed in these four 
pages. 

Write now, while this issue is 
before Congress. Write to your 
Senators and Representative, c/o 
U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C. 


that there will be a reduction of inflation- 
caused increases in operating costs for pub- 
lic housing. For the longer run, it will mean 
further deterioration of a valuable publicly- 
owned asset. For 1982, the $500 million 
cutback in the program level will mean a 
loss of approximately 13,000 jobs. 

Natural Resources 
And Environment 

Fiscal 1982 outlays for the natural re- 
sources and environment function would 
be reduced by about $2 billion or 14 per- 
cent from the level of the budget proposed 
in January through a variety of reductions, 
including water resource construction and 
municipal waste treatment grants. The 
budget revisions propose a moratorium on 
Federal land purchases and elimination of 
major grant programs for recreation land 
acquisition and development and historic 
preservation. 

WATER RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT 
Budget Cut: $230 million 
Job Loss: 2,000 

The Administration proposes a 15 per- 
cent reduction in planned construction for 
water resources programs, primarily involv- 
ing recreation area, flood control and irri- 
gation deliveries. About one-fourth of all 
projects would be delayed. Funding would 
be eliminated for the Water Resources 
Council and the Office of Water Research 
& Technology. 

WATER PURIFICATION 
Budget Cut: $290 million 
Job Loss: 91,000 

The Administration proposes to reduce 
funds for the municipal waste treatment 
grant program at a time when water supply 
problems are becoming critical in many re- 
gions of the country. This would cut bud- 
get outlays $290 million and budget au- 
thority $3.7 billion in 1982, severely 
crippling the program for years to come. 

Energy 

Energy research and development pro- 
grams outside the nuclear area and con- 
servation programs would be sharply cut 
back by the Administration. These cuts 
would seriously retard the nation’s efforts 
to reduce reliance on imported oil and to 
deal with hardships due to price increases 
and supply disruptions. 

SYNTHETIC FUELS SUBSIDIES 
Budget Cut: $789 million 
Job Loss: 91,000 

Outlays of $263 million for fiscal 1981 
would be rescinded and $789 million for 
fiscal 1982 would be cut. The Administra- 
tion would eliminate nearly all direct sub- 
sidies for a half-dozen major synthetic 
fuels projects supported by Dept, of En- 
ergy, transferring them to the Synthetic 
Fuels Corp., which may or may not pro- 
vide loan guarantees. This would rescind 
Synthetic Fuels Corp. funding support for 
a proposed TVA coal gasification plant, 
and other demonstration projects that have 
been approved. The cuts would set back 
the construction of large-scale synfuels pro- 
duction capacity by several years and would 
discourage a number of investments in 
large-scale synfuels production. These sub- 
sidies would have assisted at least $4.2 bil- 
lion in plant construction in 1982 and 

91,000 man-years of work. 


OTHER ENERGY SUPPLY 
PROGRAMS 
Budget Cut: $196 million 

A one-forth reduction in outlays is pro- 
posed. There would be significant reduc- 
tions in funds for research and develop- 
ment for geothermal, hydropower, electric 
energy systems and energy storage systems. 
The geothermal loan guarantee program 
would be terminated. Funds would be 
slashed for research and demonstration 
projects to analyze health and environmen- 
tal effects of different energy policies and 
programs. Energy impact assistance, badly 
needed by coal and oil shale development 
“boomtowns,” would be eliminated. Ura- 
nium resource evaluation field work needed 
to assess the availability of domestic ura- 
nium reserves would be phased out. 

SOLAR ENERGY & ENERGY 
CONSERVATION BANK 
Budget Cut: $134 million 
Job Loss: 2,700 

The Solar Energy and Energy Conserva- 
tion Bank program, administered by HUD, 
would be terminated. It promotes the use 
of passive solar design features in new 
residences and active solar systems for new 
and existing homes and buildings. The 
energy conservation subsidies are primarily 
for low- to moderate-income households. 

SOLAR ENERGY 
Budget Cut: $380 million 
Job Loss: 2,500 

A 69-percent cut would be made in solar 
research, development, and demonstration 
projects. This, combined with the cut of 
the solar bank, would cripple an important 
alternative energy source. 

ENERGY REGULATION 
Budget Cut: $179 million 

Scheduled for elimination are the coal 
conversion program requiring utilities to 
shift to coal; programs that help state pub- 
lic utility commissions review utility rate 
reforms and conservation investments; state 
grants for emergency preparedness plan- 
ning; and emergency gasoline rationing. 

LOW INCOME-ENERGY ASSISTANCE 
Budget Cut: $390 million 

The Administration would fold this pro- 
gram in with several others and cut total 
funding by about 27 percent. The low- 
income assistance program was funded at 
$1,850 million in 1981. A 27-percent cut 
would amount to $390 million. The pro- 
gram helps poor people pay their heating 
bills, using a portion of the windfall profits 
tax to alleviate the impact of oil deregula- 
tion. 

NUCLEAR RESEARCH AND 
DEVELOPMENT 

The Energy budget contains an addi- 
tional $200 million for nuclear research 
and development to get the Clinch River 
Breeder reactor program under way. 

FOSSIL ENERGY PROGRAMS 
Budget Cut: $321 million 
Job Loss: 4,600 

Research and development in fossil fuels 
would be cut in half, including projects in 
coal liquifaction and gasification, oil shale 
and tar sands. An estimated 4,600 jobs 
could be affected. 

ALCOHOL FUELS/BIOMASS 
ASSISTANCE 

(Dept of the Treasury Administers) 
Budget Cut: $122 million 

Support for alcohol fuels and biomass 
energy would be terminated. 

ENERGY CONSERVATION 
Budget Cut: $442 million 
Job Loss: 17,000 

Energy conservation programs would be 
cut by 59 percent. The Administration 
would rely on accelerated oil and gas price 
decontrol to induce conservation. Programs 
affected include technology development 
for energy from urban waste, more efficient 
consumer products and improved automo- 
tive engines and industrial processes. Fund- 
ing would also be eliminated for low- 
income home weatherization assistance, 
which alone would cost 12,000 jobs. 

Income Support 

The Reagan Administration is proposing 
a wide range of budget reductions that 
would reduce significantly the Federal gov- 
ernment’s level of support for the income 
security of its citizens. 


FOOD STAMPS 
Budget Cut: $2,304 million 

The Administration proposal would cut 
food stamps by more than 18 percent. The 
program provides economically disadvan- 
taged Americans an average of little more 
than $1 a day — 38 cents per meal — for 
food. Ninety percent of the recipients have 
incomes below the poverty line, 80 per- 
cent are children, and 1 3 percent are elder- 
ly or disabled. Of the 22 million individ- 
uals receiving such aid nearly 15 million 
need it to supplement their meager benefits 
from AFDC (Aid to Families with De- 
pendent Children) and SSI (Supplemental 
Security Income). . 

Unless an additional $1.4 billion is ap- 
propriated for the current fiscal year, the 
entire program will collapse by July. Cuts 
would include lower benefits for low- 
income families with children receiving free 
school meals — 43 percent of food stamp 
recipients — a program designed to supple- 
ment, not duplicate, food stamps. Escalat- 
ing fuel and housing costs would no longer 
be figured into entitlement formulas, seri- 
ously hurting the elderly and working poor 
families who use food stamps. Other mea- 
sures would reduce or eliminate benefits 
to the working poor and deny benefits to 
the newly unemployed or those whose un- 
employment insurance has been terminated. 

CHILD NUTRITION 
Budget Cut: $1,530 mUlion 
The Administration proposes to cut by 
over 40 percent programs that provide 
school lunches and breakfasts, meals at 
day care centers, summer programs and 
nutritional supplements to low-inconiie 
pregnant and nursing women and infants 
at nutritional risk. The official budget 
reduction is estimated at approximately 
$1.5 billion, but authoritative estimates 
show that $2 billion is more accurate. 
The amount of the subsidy varies with 
family income. The cuts will have a par- 
ticularly severe effect on poor children 
attending inner-city schools. 

SOCIAL SECURITY 
Budget Cut: $2,520 million 
The Administration would cut disability 
insurance by 3 percent for 1982, restrict- 
ing benefits or removing eligibility alto- 
gether for 55,000 now receiving these 
benefits; eliminate the social security min- 
imum benefit affecting 1.5 million bene- 
ficiaries; eliminate the lump-sum death 
benefit for about 700,000 deceased work- 
ers without a surviving spouse or child, 
and phase out benefits for surviving 
children who are full-time students, age 
18 through 21. Some 200,000 students 
would lose benefits immediately and an- 
other 560,000 would be cut off over four 
years. About three million persons would 
lose benefits altogether or undergo cut- 
backs in benefit levels. These cutbacks of 
social security protection provisions for 
workers and their families would be most 
harmful to widows, the disabled, the young 
and the poor. 

AID TO FAMILIES WITH 
DEPENDENT CHILDREN 
Budget Cut: $636 million 
The Administration proposes to cut Aid 
to Families with Dependent Children 
(AFDC) by about one-sixth. AFDC pro- 
vides monthly payments ranging from $29 
a month per person in Mississippi to $125 
a month in California to 10.7 million 
individuals, 7.4 million of whom are 
children. While proposed cuts in other 
programs, including CETA and unemploy- 
ment insurance, will force large numbers 
of people to seek welfare assistance, 
AFDC will also have been reduced. 
Mothers on AFDC with children '3 years 
of age or over would be forced into part- 
time make work jobs (so-called “work- 
fare”) in which they will receive no wages 
but will simply work off their welfare 
payments. 


Generous to Whom? 

We do not believe that the na- 
tion has been too generous in 
helping the poor, the disadvan- 
taged and the unemployed. We 
believe the Administration’s pro- 
posal is too generous in support- 
ing the wealthy and the powerful. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land, Mar. 4, 1981, to the House 
Budget Committee. 


The Budget estimate of the cut is ap- 
parently a gross understatement. HHS 
estimates the cut at about $1.2 billion. 

MEDICAID 

Budget Cut: $944 million 

A cut of 8 percent would be imposed 
on Medicaid, the health program most 
directly targeted to the needy. More than 
half those eligible for its health services 
have incomes below the poverty level of 
about $3,600 for a single person and 
$7,400 for a family of four. If Medicaid 
is slashed, the inability of the poor to 
pay for health care could increase chronic 
illness, mortality and disability, particular- 
ly of children. This could affect 22 million 
persons now receiving Medicaid. 

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH 

Budget Cut: $73 million 

There is a $73 million reduction in the 
NIH budget base for 1982, involving a 
broad spectrum of program cuts. 

The leadership of the United States in 
advances in basic biomedical knowledge 
is recognized throughout the world. Al- 
most all this basic research is funded by 
the National Institutes of Health. Privately 
funded research cannot be expected to 
finance this research. 

SOCIAL SERVICES 

Budget Cut: $1,836 million 

The Administration’s proposal would 
cut 25 percent from the amounts avail- 
able in programs to provide life sustaining 
services to the aged, blind, disabled, poor 
and children. Included in the consolida- 
tion would be the activities presently 
carried on by local agencies, funded by 
the Community Services Administration, 
to make the poor self-sufficient, such as 
job training and instruction on food and 
nutrition. The Administration would give 
states discretion as to how to distribute 
the remaining funds, eliminating all federal 
minimum standards and doing away with 
any accountability by states as to how the 
federal funds are used. State and local 
governments would be forced to assume 
the entire burden for increased caseloads 
and future inflation. 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & 
HEALTH 

Budget Cut: $27 million 

A $27-million cutback would constitute 
a one-third reduction in the funds avail- 
able to the National Institute of Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health in 1982. All 
NIOSH training of professionals for eval- 
uation of health hazards at the workplace 
would be brought to a halt, and evalua- 
tion would be curtailed along with re- 
search on toxic substances to which 
workers are exposed. These fund reduc- 
tions would be reflected in reductions in 
the health, safety and lives of workers. 

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 
HOSPITALS 

Budget Cut: $82 million 

Since 1798, merchant seamen and 
their dependents have received medical 
care by the Public Health Service. Such 
services have been provided by a network 
of public service hospitals and clinics. 
During recent years this program has 
been curtailed from 23 to 8 hospitals. The 
Administration proposes to close down 


A Costly Roll 
Of the Dice 

The Reagan budget constitutes 
the most costly roll of the dice 
ever proposed for this nation by 
economic policymakers. On the 
line are the living standards of 
millions of working Americans, the 
unemployed and the poor, the op- 
portunity for energy security and 
the hope of reviving the nation’s 
industries and cities. 

The Administration is gambling 
with the well-being of those who 
can ill afford to gamble in order 
to provide a sure winner for the 
wealthy who are not asked to take 
any of the risk. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land, Mar. 4, 1981, to the House 
Budget Committee. 


the remaining hospitals and clinics, which 
also provide care for low-income people 
in their areas. ' 

HEALTH PLANNING 

Budget Cut: $45 million 

The Administration proposes phasing 
out health planning by the end of fiscal 
year 1983. Though health planning is 
federally financed, it delegates almost 
complete power over the planning and 
development of health facilities to the 
states and local planning agencies, which 
help restrain costs by controlling dupli- 
cation of facilities and equipment. 

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE 
CORPS 

Budget Cut: $38 million 

No new scholarships for medical stu- 
dents would be awarded under this pro- 
gram, which offers tuition and living 
stipends in exchange for later service in 
areas of the country that are short of 
physicians. Scholarships and loans are 
also directed to those who intend to 
specialize in primary care, family prac- 
tice, internal medicine or pediatrics. 

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 

Budget Cut: $238 million 

The Administration proposes a 60-per- 
cent slash in extended unemployment in- 
surance benefits (EB), imposing a severe 
hardship on 1.2 million long-term jobless 
workers with long and firm attachment to 
the labor force. 

The proposed cutbacks include: (1) 
eliminating the national “trigger” requir- 
ing payment of extended benefits all over 
the country when the insured unemploy- 
ment rate reaches 4.5 percent (the equiva- 
lent of a total unemployment rate of 7.5 
percent or more); (2) removing EB recip- 
ients from national and state unemploy- 
ment figures used to trigger EB benefits; 
(3) increasing the optional state trigger 
from 5 percent to 6 percent; and (4) 
denying extended benefits to anyone with 
less than 20 weeks of qualifying unem- 
ployment. 

In addition, the Administration has pro- 
posed that all recipients of unemployment 
insurance benefits, regardless of their skills 
or experience, be forced to accept any 
job paying as much as the minimum wage 
or the unemployment benefits, whichever 
is higher. 

Finally, ex-service members who leave 
the military service voluntarily after July 
1, 1981 would no longer be elieible for 
unemployment compensation. Those who 
choose not to re-enlist would have no pro- 
tection while they are seeking jobs. 

While the official budget reduction is 
estimated at $238 million, official Labor 
Dept, estimates are that $1,456 million is 
more realistic. 

BLACK LUNG TRUST FUND 

Budi^et Cut^ $378 million 

The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund 
is to be cut by 78 percent. The fund 
compensates miners suffering from pneu- 
moconiosis or black lung, a disabling dis- 
ease caused by inhalation of coal and 
other mineral dust. The Reagan Adminis- 
tration cuts would come through much 
stricter eligibility requirements. 

TRADE ADJUSTMENT 
ASSISTANCE (TAA) 

Budget Cut: $1,150 million 

A 77-percent cut is proposed in TAA, 
which pays benefits in addition to unem- 
ployment insurance to workers when in- 
creases of imports “contribute importantly” 
to their job losses. Benefits cover 70 per- 
cent of prior weekly wages up to a maxi- 
mum benefit of $269 for 52 weeks. Work- 
ers over 60 years of age or in approved 
training can draw 26 additional weeks. 
Administration proposal would limit TAA 
payments to people who have exhausted 
U.I. eligibility, cap weekly TAA payments 
at the maximum U.I. amount, and limit 
total U.I. and TAA payments to a maxi- 
mum of 52 weeks. T^e projected budget 
cuts would mean a two-thirds reduction in 
the weekly benefits and purchasing power 
of TAA recipients and a one-third reduc- 
tion in the period of payments. It would 
reduce the benefits to below the poverty 
level, and greatly increase the losses from 
long-run unemployment for hundreds of 
thousands of workers. 


Federal Employees 

Contrary to popular belief, federal em- 
ployment has been declining over the years, 
despite the rising number of government 
programs and the country’s population 
growth. As of 1980, there were 2,161,000 
federal employees and 660,000 post office 
employees. Of the federal employees, 
28,000 were workers under special work- 
opportunity programs. A large portion of 
regular federal civilian employment, over 
43 percent, is in the Dept, of Defense. 

The Reagan Administration plans large 
cutbacks in federal civilian employment 
(except for Defense, which would be in- 
creased), and reductions in the federal sub- 
sidy to the Post Office. Stepped-up con- 
tracting with the private sector for needed 
goods and services will be encouraged. The 
Administration also plans changes in the 
“pay comparability” program that would 
produce smaller increases for federal 
workers. 

FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYMENT 

Job Loss: 43,100 

The budget cuts in federal employment 
will be accomplished through program cuts 
and lower agency staffing levels. The cuts 
will fall entirely on civilian agencies, where 
63,100 jobs will be eliminated from the 
1 982 level projected in the Carter Admin- 
istration budget. However, 20,000 civilian 
jobs will be added at the Defense Dept., so 
that the net government-wide reduction 
would be 43,100. 

PAY COMPARABILITY 

Budget Cut: $300 million 

The Reagan program incorporates pay 
comparability changes proposed by the 
Carter Administration, so that the cuts 
from the Carter budget estimates are rela- 
tively small (about $300 million), but the 
combined effect of Carter and Reagan pro- 
posals is very large — about $3.7 billion. 

Under the Carter proposals, adjustments 
in the method of figuring comparability in- 
clude: “Total compensation” comparisons, 
rather than pay rates only; adding state and 
local government pay in the comparisons; 
setting white collar pay on a locality basis; 
changing the blue collar wage system; re- 
ducing protection under federal premium 
pay laws; and introducing “pay flexibility” 
for management purposes. In addition, the 
Administration would set comparability at 
94 oercent of average non-federal compen- 
sation and require agencies to absorb 40 
percent of the cost increase of higher sal- 
aries, rather than 30 percent. As a result 
the estimated pay increase for “compara- 
bility” is 4.8 percent in the Reagan Budget, 
as against 5.5 percent in the Carter Budget. 

POSTAL SUBSIDY 

Budget Cut: $250 million 

Job Loss: N.A. 

The Reagan Budget would cut outlays 
for the Postal Service by about 17 percent 
in 1982, producing higher costs for users 
and adverse effects on mail deliveries and 
jobs. 

In addition, the amount of revenue fore- 
gone represented by the subsidy for non- 
profit mail would be cut $289 million. 
The effect would be a doubling of postage 
costs for non-profit organizations, effec- 
tive Oct. 1, 1981. 

Additional 

Programs 

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 

Budget Cut: $1,100 million 

Aid to poof countries through the Agency 
for International Development, the Peace 
Corps and food aid programs would be 
reduced about $300 million, and contribu- 
tions to international funds previously com- 
mitted would be stretched out for another 
$200 million reduction in 1982 outlays. In 
total, it would be a 7 percent reduction. 

A 7-percent or $800 million reduction 
is proposed in international affairs outlays 
primarily through assumed lower interest 
rates, requiring less subsidy of Export- 
Import Bank loans, and through slower 
disbursements of such loans and of con- 
tributions to international organizations. 
There would also be a reduction in lending 
authority. 


EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 

Budget Cut: $236 million 

This program provides credit support to 
promote sales of American goods and ser- 
vices overseas. It makes direct loans to 
purchasers, guarantees private loans and 
provides loan insurance against defaults on 
loans to foreign purchasers. The bank’s 
activities are concentrated in some areas 
where American producers must compete 
against government-subsidized foreign com- 
panies, most notably overseas aircraft sales 
and large construction projects. The pro- 
gram changes would mean higher financing 
costs and a weaker competitive position for 
U.S. airplane manufacturers. 

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

Budget Cut: $8 million 

The Administration is proposing a 40- 
percent staff reduction in the Federal Trade 
Commission by 1986 by phasing out the 
regional offices and decreasing the head- 
quarters office. The FTC helps prevent the 
free enterprise system from being stifled by 
monopolistic and unfair or deceptive prac- 
tices. Both the FTC’s antitrust and con- 
sumer protection functions would be sub- 
stantially weakened and the burden would 
be at least shifted to state and local govern- 
ment consumer agencies and other federal 
agencies, such as the Justice Dept. 

GENERAL SCIENCE, SPACE 
AND TECHNOLOGY 

Outlays in 1982 for activities of the Na- 
tional Aeronautics & Space Agency (NASA) 
and the National Science Foundation that 
are supported under this function would 
be cut about $600 million or 8 percent. 

NASA 

Budget Cut: $428 million 

For fiscal 1982, there is a 7-percent re- 
duction in funding for NASA space activi- 
ties. Reductions affect the development of 
Spacelab, elimination of funding for the 
solar electric propulsion system and re- 
scheduling of space science flight projects. 
There will be a deferral of projects such 
as the gamma ray observatory spacecraft, 
the Venus orbiting imaging radar project 
and spacelab experiments. There would 
also be deletion and reductions in space 
applications and general support activities. 

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Budget Cut: $209 million 

National Science Foundation 1982 out- 
lays would be cut $209 million, or 15 per- 
cent. Programs that would be reduced or 
eliminated would include those in science 
and engineering education and in the be- 
havioral, social and economic sciences. 
University laboratory modernization grants 
would be deferred. The cuts thus would 
retard the development of human capital 
trained for scientific work and basic labo- 
ratory research. 

JUSTICE 

Program cuts for the Justice Dept, and 
legal aid programs total about $500 mil- 
lion, or 10 percent. The main reduction is 
accomplished through elimination of $312 
million in outlays for the Legal Services 
Corp., which would disappear into the so- 
cial services block grant for states. The 
corporation is the largest provider of legal 
aid for people unable to afford it. It has 
helped people to assert rights with respect 
to government programs, while assisting 
with rent disputes, family troubles, and 
creditor problems. 

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY 
COMMISSION 

Budget Cut: $14 million 

The $ 14-million cut for the Consumer 
Product Safety Commission would reduce 
its funds by about 30 percent in 1982. 
CPSC performs an important consumer 
protection function in identifying danger- 
ous consunier products (including chil- 
dren’s toys) developing product safety stan- 
dards, and removing extremely hazardous 
products from the market. 


Additional copies of this analy- 
sis of the impact of the Adminis- 
tration’s planned budget cuts are 
available from the AFL-CIO Pam- 
phlet Division, 815 - 16th St., N.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20006. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 


Page Nine 


Public Healing Rule Ignored 

Oil Decontrol Shortcut Adds 
$11.7 Billion to Consmner Costs 



The following article is from the New York 
Times op-ed page of Mar. 19, 1981. It was writ- 
ten by David 1. Greenberg and Ann K. Lower, 
who are on the staff of the Consumer Federation 
of America. 

W HEN PRESroENT REAGAN decontrolled 
crude oil, gasoline, and home-heating oil, he 
did so without formal counsel from Congress and 
the public. His desire to act on his own came at 
the expense of public hearing requirements set out 
in The Economic Stabilization Act of 1971, which 
Congress later incorporated into statutes govern- 
ing oil price controls. 

The Administration’s accelerated decontrol pro- 
gram also comes at great expense to consumers. 
It provides an immediate 1 percent increase in 
inflation, and by the end of fiscal 1981 it will 
have added $11.7 billion to the price of oil 
products. 

IF OUR EXPERIENCE with oil decontrol 
has taught us anything, it is the wisdom of pub- 
lic cross-examination of presidential oil-pricing 
initiatives. In 1979, Secretary of Energy James 
R. Schlesinger estimated that decontrol would 
cost consumers $16 billion between June 1979 
and September 1981. Later, congressional hear- 
ings forced the Carter Administration to raise its 
estimate to $48.9 billion for that period. 

Under scrutiny, Jimmy Carter’s promise of only 
a three-tenths of 1 percent rise in the consumer 
price index by September 1981 also proved fanci- 
ful. A House subrommittee demonstrated that the 
impact of energy price increases added nearly 4 
percent to inflation in 1979. 

Reagan has offered the public a set of decontrol 
promises that also borders on the fanciful. These 
forecasts underscore Congress’s wisdom in requir- 
ing public hearings “to the maximum extent 
possible.” 

When Reagan signed the Executive Order Jan. 
28, his advisers projected retail price increases 
from “almost nothing” to 3 cents to 5 cents per 
gallon of gasoline. “That was ridiculous,” said 
John Lichtblau, executive director of the Petro- 
leum Industry Research Foundation. “They were 
wrong within a week.” Actually, they were wrong 
within two days. On Jan. 30, Standard Oil of 
California increased wholesale gasoline prices by 
6 cents and home-heating oil by 5 cents as a 
“direct result” of decontrol. 

WITHIN TWO WEEKS, gasoline prices rose 
an average of 7 cents and the price of jet fuel had 
airline companies clamoring for fare increases. 
The Congressional Budget Officei projected in- 
creases of 9 cents a gallon of gasoline at the pump 
by the end of the first month. Today, consumers 
are paying an average of 10 cents a gallon more. 

Targeted Relief Needed 


At minimum, then, the impact of decontrol will 
be double the Reagan team’s projections. 

A similar fate appears to await Administration 
estimates of increased production, as well as 
Energy Secretary James B. Edwards’s projected 
savings of 50,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil per 
day. 

Even the industry greeted these promises with 
skepticism. A Gulf Oil executive put Reagan’s 
“increased incentives” argument into perspective: 
“There aren’t too many rigs unoccupied cur- 
rently,” said Charles Campbell, a senior vice pres- 
ident. And Lichtblau said that he anticipated only 
slight improvements in both production and con- 
servation. 

THESE COMMENTS fit the reality of oil eco- 
nomics. While the price of crude oil has jumped 
1,600 percent in the last 10 years, the number of 
exploratory wells in the United States has risen 
only 10 percent. 

Ultimately, the Administration’s decision to 
forgo hearings on decontrol makes political sense. 
No President wants to defend an inflationary 
energy program that produces neither exploration 
nor conservation. 

What the President’s program will produce is 
tax revenues in fiscal 1981 and 1982 — a projected 
$7.9 billion in corporate income taxes and wind- 
fall profits that oil companies collect from con- 
sumers. But a President who cherishes his tax- 
cutting image is unlikely to seek public comment 
on a tax plan posing as energy policy. 

In the end. President Reagan only hastened the 
challenge to decontrol. 

The challenge began a few weeks later. On 
Feb. 26, Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene 
heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by Sen. 
Howard M. Metzenbaum of Ohio, Rep. Toby 
Moffett of Connecticut, New York State, the Con- 
sumer Federation of America, and others that 
sought to overturn the decontrol order. On Mar. 
5, Judge Greene refused to reverse the President’s 
action, ruling that the plaintiffs had failed to meet 
the heavy legal burden required to support an 
injunction. 

STILL, THE PLAINTIFFS scored on two 
important points. First, Judge Greene affirmed 
that the President lacked unfettered discretion to 
order decontrol without hearings; second, he rec- 
ognized that injury to consumers “clearly aj>pears 
to exist.” 

That economic injury will form the basis of a 
broader challenge to accelerated decontrol. The 
challenge will come from consumers, as they feel 
the pinch of energy costs and energy-fueled infla- 
tion. At that point, Reagan may well wish he had 
stayed in closer step with the law. 


Tax Cut Scheme Fails to Focus 
On Specific Industry Problems 


HE ADMINISTRATION’S business tax cut 
proposal would apply an across-the-board 
solution to economic problems that are sharply 
different in specific industries and areas of the 
nation, AFL-CIO economist Arnold Cantor said. 

Basic industries such as steel, autos, rubber and 
others have been “severely hurt by unfair foreign 
competition, changes in demand and a variety of 
other factors,” Cantor noted. But, he pointed out, 
the Administration’s across-the-board approach 
“goes on the basis that everyone is in the same 
shape.” He said that unless the relief is targeted to 
industries and areas where it is most needed, less 
than half of the cut will go to additional invest- 
ment in U.S. industries. 

“At least 60 cents of every dollar” of the busi- 
ness tax cut that the Administration proposes will 
probably be used for corporate mergers and take- 
overs, overseas investments or speculation, but 
“none of these things do anything to boost pro- 
ductivity” and create jobs, he declared. 

Cantor said on the network radio interview 


Labor News Conference that the individual tax 
cuts that the President is urging Congress to ap- 
prove also lack balance and fairness. 

THERE IS “an elegant facade of equity” in a 
10 percent across-the-board cut for all taxpayers, 
regardless of their income level. He pointed out 
that under this plan, an average factory worker 
who makes $12,000 a year would get $92, but a 
$100,000 annual income earner would get $1,840. 

There is “a huge risk” in the Administration’s 
tax program. Cantor warned, and those who are 
taking that risk “are the people who are going to 
be severely hurt by the budget cuts” — low- and 
moderate-income taxpayers who have been hit 
hard by inflation and increased social security 
taxes. 

Reporters questioning Cantor on the AFL-CIO 
produced public affairs program were Ben Rath- 
bun of Daily Labor Report and Robert Cooney 
of Press Associates, Inc. Labor News Conference 
is broadcast weekly on Mutual radio. 



TN THE ORGY of budget-cutting pushed by the Reagan Admin- 
* istration and embraced by conservatives of both parties on 
Capitol Hill, the reasons usually given are the need to cut waste 
and fight inflation. So it seems odd that President Reagan and his 
advisers want to abolish the Legal Services Corp., a model of 
efficiency and integrity in serving the poor. 

The idea of equal justice under law is part of the very founda- 
tion upon which this nation rests. In 1963, the Supreme Court 
acknowledged that the cost of a defense lawyer can make some 
people more equal than others. In hearing Gideon vs. Wainwright, 
the high court ruled that people charged with a crime who are not 
able to afford a lawyer must be provided one at public expense. 
This decision inspired the public defenders system in criminal law. 

However, the cost of legal aid still prevented some people from 
being equal under civil law. Recognizing this disparity, the Ameri- 
can Bar Association, in 1965, under the leadership of its then- 
president Lewis F. Powell — now Supreme Court Justice — adopted 
a resolution calling for federal legal services in civil cases. The 
ABA pledged at that time to cooperate with the federal Office of 
Economic Opportunity to make civil legal services available to the 
poor. 

IN 1974 CONGRESS created the Legal Services Corp. to “pro- 
vide high quality legal assistance to those who would otherwise 
be unable to afford adequate legal counsel.” 

Legal Services distributes funds to local and state programs to 
meet the legal needs of poor people in housing problems, con- 
sumer disputes, family law matters and other civil law problems. 

In 1981, the more than 6,000 lawyers employed in 323 local 
and state programs handled over 1.5 million cases. The federal 
appropriation fpr the programs is about $321 million. Since there 
^re about 30 million poor people in the United States, the federal 
appropriation works out to about $10 per person. Only about 3 
percent of its budget goes for administrative costs. 

The maximum income levels to qualify for help from Legal Ser- 
vices are $4,738 per year for an individual or $9,313 for a family 
of four. 

LEGAL SERVICES helps poor people with problems like 
these — often without having to go to court. 

If Legal Services is providing equal access under the law to poor 
people at a comparatively small cost and is doing it efficiently, why 
is the Administration seeking to destroy the corporation? 

Some are convinced the motive is political. 

During Reagan’s first term as governor of California, he sought 
to cut funds for state welfare and medical aid to the poor. Cali- 
fornia Rural Legal Services lawyers representing the poor, forced 
21 counties in that state to broaden food stamp and school lunch 
programs and to restore the cuts. 

Following his loss in this battle in 1970, Reagan vetoed a $1.8 
million federal grant from the OEO to Rural Legal Assistance on 
the grounds that the poverty law agency had “misused taxpayers 
funds and . . . failed in its mandated purpose of serving the true 
civil legal needs of the poor.” 

However, a commission appointed by OEO to investigate 
Reagan’s claims called the California Rural Services agency “com- 
petent, efficient and exemplary,” with not a “shred of evidence 
showing actual misconduct.” The grant was restored. 

The Administration does not say outright that it is against legal 
services for the poor. Rather it is lumping funds for that and 
dozens of other programs into block grants, cutting the total, and 
turning the job over to the states and localities. They are then free 
to fund their own legal services programs. The Catch 22 is that 
the federal agency has battled many of these same governments on 
behalf of the poor. 



ACROSS-THE-BOARD business tax cuts that the Administra- 
tion is proposing will not ease the economic problems of specific 
industries, AFL-CIO economist Arnold Cantor, center, said on 
Labor News Conference. He was questioned in the public affairs 
interview by Robert Cooney, left. Press Associates, Inc., and 
Ben Rathbun of the Daily Labor Report. The program is broad- 
cast weekly on the Mutual radio network. 


Page Ten 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 







0 

Percent 


First Year Wage 
Increases* 


Increases Under Major Agreements 


(Average Annual Rate of Increase Negotiated) 

Wage Changes ever Life 
of Contracts* 


and Fringe Benefits over 




0 

Percent 


2 

Percent 


'Agreements covering 1 ,000 or more workers. 
"Agreements covering 5,000 or more workers. 
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

Dept, of Labor. 


Wage Catch-Up Heads ’81 Bargaining Agenda 


Collective bargaining on major contracts 
this year will affect an estimated 2.6 mil- 
lion workers, a lighter schedule than in 
either 1979 or 1980. 

The prognosis for 1981 is for more of 
the same problems — trying to keep up 
with inflation, says Arne Anderson, re- 
search associate in the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Economic Research in the current issue of 
the American Federationist. 

IN 1980, collective bargaining faced a 
relentless treadmill, Anderson notes. Infla- 
tion, as measured by the federal govern- 
ment’s consumer price index, was up 12.5 
percent — the second highest annual rate 
in over 30 years, behind only the 13.4 
percent increase of 1979. Over the year, 
real average weekly earnings — take-home 
pay stripped of inflation since 1967 — fell 
3.8 percent. During the last two years, 
workers’ purchasing power has declined 
by 10 percent. 

At the same time, last year’s unemploy- 
ment situation was bad, and has not really 
improved that much so far this year. The 
nation’s jobless rate rose from 6 percent 
in December 1979 to 7.6 percent last May. 
Since May, the jobless rate has fluctuated 
between 7.4 and 7.6 percent, for the most 
part, declining to 7.3 percent only last 
month. 


“Because of the economic conditions, 
collective bargaining in 1980 was a year 
of scrambling to keep even,” the article 
in the federation’s monthly magazine ob- 
serves. Workers under major private col- 
lective bargaining agreements — defined as 
those involving 1,000 or more employees 
— received an average first-year wage in- 
crease of 9.5 percent last year — way 
behind the cost of living. While the figure 
does not include adjustments under escala- 
tor clauses, COL provisions were unable 
to make up for all the purchasing power 
lost by workers. 

“Roughly 61 percent of the workers in 
1980 settlements were covered by some 
form of COLA provision,” Anderson 
notes. “The average 1980 gain negotiated 
by all COLA clauses, both current and 
previously negotiated, was 7.3 percent, or 
less than 60 percent of the actual increase 
in the cost of living.” 

THE 2.6 MILLION workers covered 
by major 1981 bargaining compares with 
about 3.7 million in each of the two previ- 
ous years. The major industries where 
bargaining takes place this year are rail- 
roads, mining, postal service, airlines, 
maritime. West Coast longshoring, and 
construction. The two largest units in- 
volve 570,000 employees of the U.S. 


Illllllllllillillllilllllllllillllililliillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ 

Schedule for April Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

Three labor studies programs are being offered by the George Meany Center 
at Silver Spring, Md., during April for officers and staff members of AFL-CIO 
unions. 


Seven AFL-CIO affiliates, two AFL-CIO departments and the American Insti- 
tute for Free Labor Development will use the campus during the month for their 
own training programs. The schedule: 

Labor Songs and Labor Lore, Apr. 5-8 — The third annual program for union- 
ists interested in keeping alive the traditional songs and stories of labor. 

Effective Union Action for Civil Rights, Apr. 12-16 — A conference on civil 
rights and women’s rights Designees of AFL-CIO unions co-sponsored by the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Civil Rights. 

New Developments in Collective Bargaining, Apr. 12-17 — An institute to 
' examine innovations in collective bargaining and review ways to soften the im- 
pact of changing technology. 

Unions using the campus for leadership development during April are the 
Flight Attendants, Mar. 30-Apr. 2; Service Employees, Apr. 5-10; Printing & 
Graphic Communications Union, Apr. 5-10; Asbestos Workers, Apr. 17 and 20; 
Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers, Apr. 21-24; Carpenters, Apr. 26- 
May 1 ; Communications Workers, Apr. 26-May 1 . 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Legislation has scheduled a seminar for union legisla- 
tive representatives Apr. 20-21; the Dept, of International Affairs will hold a 
pre-conference session Apr. 21-24, for the U.S. delegation to the 67th Confer- 
ence of the International Labor Organization in June. 

The AIFLD is hosting 40 Spanish-speaking Latin American trade unionists 
through Apr. 24. 

In addition, the center is sponsoring four off-campus programs: a briefing 
session on pension fund investment, Apr. 9-10, at San Francisco; an institute on 
pension bargaining at the University of California, Berkeley, Apr. 12-16; training 
sessions in the center’s National Project on Transit Technology & Innovation at 
Pennsylvania State University, Apr. 5-10, and at the University of Illinois, 
Apr. 26-May 1 . 

Information on these and other labor studies programs may be obtained from 
Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., director, George Meany Center, 10000 New Hampshire 
Ave., Silver Spring, Md., 20903. Telephone 301/431-6400. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Postal Service and 438,000 railway work- 
ers under contract with the nation’s major 
railroads. 

In 1981, about 6.1 million workers are 
slated to receive an average 7.3 percent in- 
crease under previously negotiated pacts. 
This compares to a 6.7 percent deferred 
increase for almost 5 million workers last 
year. The hikes excluded COL adjust- 
ments. Deferred 1981 increases will aver- 
age 7 percent in manufacturing, 7.7 per- 
cent in non-manufacturing, and 9.6 per- 
cent in construction. 

EXAMINING THE leading trends of 
last year’s bargaining, Anderson notes that 
pension plans gained added importance. 
As hard hit by inflation as wages, pension 
benefits were improved wherever possible. 

The Machinists, for example, raised 
pension rates at Lockheed from $12.60 to 
$14 per month per year of service prior 
to 1981. For each year worked after 1981, 
the rate will rise from $14 to $17. In 
1983, the monthly benefit for past service 
will go up an additional $1 per year of 
service. 

Although court rulings have held that 
issues relating to retired workers are not 
mandatory bargaining issues, current re- 
tirees were not neglected in last year’s 
bargaining. The Steelworkers, for instance, 
secured pension increases of 10 to 70 
percent for 'past retirees from the nation’s 
major steel firms. Those who retired be- 
fore July 31, 1966, received the full 70 
percent boost. The USWA and other un- 
ions also negotiated major increases for 
new retirees in their settlements in the 
copper and aluminum industries. 


Escalating medical costs also increased 
the need for protection, which often took 
the form of higher major medical, im- 
proved coverage, and dental plans, Ander- 
son notes. Along with wider coverage, 
higher employer contributions to health 
and welfare funds were negotiated. 

PLANT CLOSINGS made job security 
and severance conditions another prime 
issue in bargaining last year. In its three- 
year contract with A&P, the Food & 
Commercial Workers won a provision that 
gives workers a $300 lump sum payment 
for each consecutive year of employment 
if a store is closed and the worker was 
hired before Aug. 7, 1971. 

Attendance and paid leave time were 
connected in a contract provision between 
the UAW and the J. I. Case Co. Em- 
ployees with one to 10 years of seniority 
will receive 1.5 bonus hours for each week 
of perfect attendance and an additional 
3.75 hours for every consecutive five 
weeks of perfect attendance. 

For workers with 10 to 20 years of 
service, the bonus goes to two hours a 
week with five hours for five weeks of 
perfect attendance. For workers with over 
20 years of service, the bonus hours go 
to three and 7.5, respectively. The worker 
can take up 80 hours in paid leave per 
year, and receive pay for the excess. 

In other areas, better vacations were 
achieved through shortened eligibility re- 
quirements; work conditions, grievance 
procedure, and union security improved; 
prepaid group legal plans adopted, and 
educational leave approved. Also, some 
smaller contracts provided unique fringe 
benefits not found in major contracts.' 


Reagan Budget Cut to Inflate 
Nonprofit Press Postal Rates 


Detroit — Every member of Congress 
should quickly be made aware that one of 
the Reagan Administration’s proposed bud- 
get cuts would seriously jeopardize the 
continued existence of much of the nation’s 
nonprofit publications, the International 
Labor Press Association’s executive coun- 
cil declared here. 

The proposed slashes, unless restored, 
would result in the immediate doubling, 
and more, on Oct. 1, 1981, of second- and 
third-class postage rates for nonprofit 
publications. 

Among those affected would be news- 
papers, newsletters and magazines pub- 
lished by churches, veterans’ and farm 
groups, educational and charitable institu- 
tions and community organizations as well 
as unions at all levels — from locals through 
internationals. 

THE DOUBLING of the rates would 
occur through the Administration’s pro- 
posal to eliminate appropriations mandated 
by Congress in 1970 and 1974 to phase in 
over 16 years steep increases in nonprofit 
mailers’ postage so that it will cover costs 
directly attributable to their publications’ 
delivery, the ILPA council noted in a 
“statement of concern.” 

Nonprofit publications’ postage rates 


have increased by about 1,500 percent in 
the last ten years — the largest percentage 
increase of any class of mailer — and under 
the phase-in program are due to double 
again by 1987. 

THE ILPA’S mailing consultant, Edwin 
M. Schmidt, director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Reproduction, Mailings & Sub- 
scriptions, projected the increases several 
unions’ publications would face Oct. 1 un- 
der the Reagan budget: 

• More than 150 percent, to just over 
$2,000 per issue, for an eight-page tabloid 
newspaper with 25,000 circulation. 

• More than 130 percent, to over 
$8,200 per issue, for a magazine of 100,000 
circulation. 

• Just over 100 percent, to $19,400 per 
issue, for a tabloid of 325,000 circulation. 

“Since enactment of the Pony Express 
statutes” circulation of the printed word in 
the mails has been treated as “a public 
service: to be promoted by the government,” 
the ILPA council declared. 

“The freedom of speech of nonprofit or- 
ganizations would be seriously jeopardized 
by the high cost of postage” if the Reagan 
proposal to eliminate the nonprofit rate 
phase-in appropriation is allowed to stand, 
the ILPA said. 


Real Wages Drop 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 


Page Eleven 


Price Surge Follows 
Lifting of Oil Controls 



DURING A BREAK in sessions at the AFL-CIO regional conference in 
Chicago, views are exchanged by Federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
(top photo) and President Lane Kirkland with conference participants. Other 
regional meetings are scheduled for Denver, Atlanta and New Orleans. The 
three-day San Francisco conference concludes Mar. 28. 

California High Court Upholds 
State Employee Bargaining 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the CPI meant another decline in living 
standards. “Real” spendable earnings — 
take-home pay adjusted for the impact of 
inflation since 1967 — fell 1.5 percent in 
February, the largest decline since a 2.4 
percent drop in April 1979. Last month’s 
decrease was helped by a decline in the 
number of hours people worked, but was 
primarily the result of higher prices. Over 
the year, purchasing power was down 4.4 
percent. 

The average earnings of all non-super- 
visory workers in private, non-farm jobs 
in February were $247.46 a week in cur- 
rent dollars. Adjusted for inflation, how- 
ever, the average worker’s “real” weekly 

Crafts, Industry 
Revise Plan to 
Settle Disputes 

Five AFL-CIO building trades unions, 
the unaffiliated Teamsters, and the Asso- 
ciated General Contractors of America 
have agreed on a revised voluntary plan 
for the settlement of impasses to “avoid 
costly and sometimes unnecessary work 
stoppages” in the construction industry. 

The plan, which updates procedures 
developed in 1978, includes a 30-day wait- 
ing period during which local bargaining 
parties at an impasse would agree not to 
engage in a strike, lockout, or any other 
economic action. 

The deadlock would be referred to a 
dispute settlement board consisting of two 
national representatives from the contrac- 
tors’ association and two from the union 
whose local is involved in the bargaining 
impasse. The board must issue its decision 
within 30 days. 

THE BOARD may be expanded, when 
appropriate, to include representatives of 
other affected associations. If more than 
one basic trade has reached an impasse in 
the area, there will be coordination be- 
tween the involved dispute settlement 
boards. 

The plan was unveiled by AGC’s Basic 
Trades Joint Labor Management Commit- 
tee co-chaired by AGC President-elect 
Thomas Dailey and President J. C. Turner 
of the Operating Engineers. Other unions 
that have endorsed the plan are the Iron 
Workers, the Laborers, Plasterers & 
Cement Masons, and the Carpenters. 


pay was only $93.66. January’s compar- 
able figures were $249.21 and $95.19. 

The sharp increase in petroleum-prod- 
uct prices last month far outweighed price 
advances for other goods and services. 
Food and beverage prices were up only 
two-tenths of 1 percent, after declining by 
that much in January. Shelter costs in- 
creased six-tenths of 1 percent, compared 
to seven-tenths of 1 percent the month 
before. Apparel and upkeep costs rose 
five-tenths of 1 percent after gaining by 
three-tenths of 1 percent in January. 

THE BIG increase in gasoline prices 
last month pushed the CPI’s transporta- 
tion component up 2.4 percent, the largest 
advance in 12 months. Automobile fi- 
nance charges continued to rise, although 
by less than in recent months. Used car 
prices rose five-tenths of 1 percent. Prices 
for new cars, softened by rebate programs 
of domestic automakers, declined one- 
tenth of 1 percent, following an increase 
of one-tenth of 1 percent in January. 

About three-fourths of the six-tenths of 
1 percent increase in the housing index 
was due to higher costs for fuel and other 
utilities. Increases in maintenance and 
repair, property taxes, and rent were offset 
by a decline in house prices. 

The relatively small two-tenths of 1 
percent rise in food and beverage prices 
reflected another sharp drop in prices for 
meats, poultry, fish and eggs. Prices for 
fresh fruits and vegetables rose 2.3 percent 
in February, partly due to severe weather 
conditions. Prices for cereal and bakery 
products rose eight-tenths of 1 percent. 

MEDICAL CARE charges rose nine- 
tenths of 1 percent over the month, down 
from the 1.3 percent January increase. 
Entertainment costs jumped by 1.2 percent 
as against nine-tenths of 1 percent in 
January. 

Weidenbaum told the congressional 
panel that he expects April to be the “peak 
month” for inflation this year, when an 
overall rate of about 1.1 to 1.2 percent, 
as food price increases speed up and auto 
rebates end. 

The Administration is forecasting an 
average inflation rate of 11.1 percent this 
year, dropping to single digits next year. 
Weidenbaum said that the Administra- 
tion’s 1981 forecast “allows for the pos- 
sibility of very sluggish economic activity 
— or even a period of outright decline — 
during the spring and summer quarters of 
the year, until the elements of the (Ad- 
ministration’s) economic program are put 
into place.” 


The California Supreme Court has up- 
held a collective bargaining law covering 
130,000 state employees whose unions 
previously had only “meet and confer” 
rights. 

Its 4-2 decision, welcomed by the state’s 
labor movement, paves the way for union 
representation elections and negotiations 
of contracts. 

A court challenge brought by the anti- 
union Pacific Legal Foundation had 
blocked implementation of the 1977 law, 
the State Employer-Employee Relations 
Act. A state appellate court had struck 
down the law as an infringement on civil 
service provisions of the California con- 
stitution, but the supreme court majority 
found no conflict. 

THE HIGH COURT also rebuked 
State Atty. Gen. George Deukmejian for 
switching sides and filing his own chal- 
lenge to the law. Deukmejian was elected 
as a Republican, but the court noted that 
he is by law the attorney for the governor. 
Democrat Edmund Brown, Jr., and for 
the state. 

The supreme court said Deukmejian 
was within his rights in withdrawing from 
the case and authorizing the appointment 
of a special counsel to defend the law. But 
it could find “no statutory or ethical au- 
thority” to justify the attorney general 
to “represent clients one day, give them 
legal advice with regard to pending litiga- 
tion, withdraw, and then sue the same 
clients the next day on a purported cause 
of action arising out of the identical con- 
troversy.” 

It is “generally understood,” the court 
said, that before an attorney may repre- 
sent interests adverse to a client, he must 
obtain the client’s consent in writing. 

The four-member majority of the state 
supreme court said the legislation under 
review follows logically from earlier state 
laws that established collective bargaining 
procedures for teachers and other school 
employees and for the state’s colleges and 
universities. 

INVALIDATION of the law, the state 
justices said, “would be a sorrowful step 
backwards” in establishing a framework 
to resolve employer-employee disputes. 

One of the two dissenters was William 
P. Clark, who was confirmed last month 


as Deputy Secretary of State, but re- 
frained from taking his oath in order to 
take part in a final group of decisions of 
the California Supreme (^urt. 

Clark, a close personal associate of 
President Reagan who came under fire 
during his confirmation hearings for an 
apparent lack of knowledge of foreign 
affairs, resigned from the state court on 
Mar. 24, after the decision on the collec- 
tive bargaining case was handed down. 

Senate Launches 
Floor Debate on 
Budget Slashes 

(Continued from Page 1) 
office in which a new president is pre- 
sumed to have the goodwill of the public 
and of the polls-conscious Congress. 

With Republicans in the majority, 
the legislative committees dutifully and 
promptly notified the Budget Committees 
of the amount of “savings” they estimated 
could be made from cuts in programs in 
their jurisdictions. 

IN THE FEW instances when the pro- 
jected cuts were below the Administra- 
tion’s blueprint, the conservative-dominat- 
ed Budget Committee did not hesitate to 
overrule the legislative committees. 

For example, the Democrats and mod- 
erate Republicans on the Labor & Human 
Resources Committee agreed to fund some 
programs at higher levels than the Ad- 
ministration proposed. But the Budget 
Committee voted to direct the Labor & 
Human Resources Committee to cut its 
programs $1 billion more than it had 
planned to do. 

THE EXACT programs to be cut are 
not specified in the budget resolution, so 
there is some flexibility for the legislative 
committees to shift funds among the vari- 
ous programs. 

Technically, the resolution directing the 
cuts is a measure to cut spending authority 
for the balance of this fiscal year, which 
runs through Sept. 30, 1981. But its chief 
impact is to reduce outlays for the 1982 
fiscal year, with still further cuts mandated 
for fiscal 1983. 




Page Twelve 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 28, 1981 


Protest Rally Scheduled 

Rail Unions Plan Battle 
To Save Conrail, Amtrak 


Railway labor organizations called for 
an Apr. 29, Washington, D.C., rally to 
protest President Reagan’s “misguided 
budget cutting” of Conrail and Amtrak 
rail service. 

The Administration proposals, which 
would cut Amtrak service by 75 percent 
and liquidate Conrail by selling its lines 
to other railroads, is “the most serious 
crisis for America’s railroad workers since 
the dismal days of the 1930 Depression,” 
Chairman Fred J. Kroll of the Railway 
Labor Executives’ Association declared. 

"THE THREAT to jobs and living 
standards is so menancing that it cannot 
be accepted passively by the unions of rail- 
road workers in this country,” Kroll said 
in a statement. 

Kroll said he expects several thousand 
members of the various railway labor or- 
ganizations affiliated with RLEA to come 
to the nation’s capital to express their op- 
position to the Reagan proposals on fed- 
erally subsidized rail transportation. 

Earlier, Kroll presented the unions’ 
position in testimony before a Senate 
Commerce subcommittee on surface trans- 
portation. His views reflected those ex- 
pressed at an emergency meeting of the 
16 RLEA affiliates in Washington on Mar. 
18. 

Tax Breaks Opposed 
For Special Accounts 

Congress should reject legislation that 
would add a host of new tax deductions 
for persons establishing individual retire- 
ment accounts and other forms of special 
bank accounts, the AFL-CIO urged. 

Assistant Research Director Arnold 
Cantor cautioned in a statement to a 
Senate Finance subcommittee that tax ex- 
emptions on interest for accounts set up 
for future education or home purchase 
would benefit primarily persons with the 
largest incomes. The revenue loss would 
have to be made up by other taxpayers, he 
noted. 


The Administration’s proposed dis- 
mantling of the Amtrak passenger service 
comes at a time when it is increasingly 
popular with the traveling public, particu- 
larly those in the lower income levels, 
Kroll observed in his statement. Fund 
reductions would leave only Amtrak’s 
northeast corridor intact, wiping out some 
21,000 jobs. 

BY SPLITTING up Conrail and selling 
its lines to other railroads, the viability of 
the nation’s northeastern and midwestem 
rail freight systems most certainly would 
be endangered, Kroll said. The Adminis- 
tation also proposes to relieve Conrail of 
its obligation to run intercity passenger 
and commuter trains. Some 50,000 jobs 
would be cut altogether, and remaining 
Conrail employees would be expected to 
take severe wage cuts and loss of their em- 
ployee representation, Kroll noted. 

“History offers no parallel to our present 
situation: the government of an industrially 
advanced nation giving serious considera- 
tion to a series of programs which contain 
such obvious shortcomings and dangers 
not only for railroad transportation but 
for the entire economy. 

“In their passionate zeal for budget- 
cutting, the Reagan Administration and 
its congressional allies appear to ignore 
completely the economic and social costs 
of battering the railroad industry and the 
workers who are employed in its opera- 
tions. 

“It is time to remind President Reagan 
and his advisers that there is a ‘commun- 
ity side’ and an ‘employee side,’ as well as 
a ‘supply side,’ to the national economy.” 

RLEA affiliated unions are the Train 
Dispatchers, Locomotive Engineers, Main- 
tenance of Way Employees, Signalmen, 
Carmen, Railway & Airline Clerks, Hotel 
& Restaurant Employees, Machinists, Boil- 
ermakers & Blacksmiths, International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Fire- 
men & Oilers, Longshoremen, Seafarers, 
Marine Engineers, Yardmasters, Sheet 
Metal Workers, Transport Workers, and 
United Transportation Union. 


Kirkland Hits Unfair Tax Cut, 


Urges Social Security Credit 


(Continued from Page 1) 

any tax relief for some 15 million low-in- 
come working Americans — even though 
their social security payroll tax went up 
this year. 

THEY ARE NOT the only ones who 
would be better off under the AFL-CIO 
proposal for a social security tax credit, 
Kirkland said. Most moderate and middle- 
income wage and salary earners would 
also receive a larger first-year tax cut un- 
der the AFL-CIO plan. • 

The top 5 percent income bracket — 
those over $50,000 a year — would still get 
5 percent of the total tax benefits under 
the AFL-CIO proposal, Kirkland noted. 
But under the Reagan plan, they would 
take away 30 percent of the tax savings. 

Kirkland stressed the labor movement’s 
dissent from the Reagan Administration’s 


is/sz/t 




if 

K 



“upside-down notion of equity” in tax 
relief — and from the “supply-side” eco- 
nomic theory on which it is based. 

"WE SEE NO justification, particularly 
in this time of budget slashing and pro- 
claimed need for austerity and sacrifice, 
to throw as much as $60 billion a year 
in federal tax cuts to the nation’s corpora- 
tions and their stockholders,” Kirkland 
said. 

Nor, he added, does the AFL-CIO con- 
sider it probable “that this largess will 
trickle down to workers and consumers 
in the form of needed jobs and more 
goods and services at reasonable prices.” 

The Administration’s tax plan was also 
scored by Communications Workers Presi- 
dent Glenn E. Watts, who told the com- 
mittee that its result would be to further 
shift the tax burden from the wealthy to 
middle- and low-income wage earners. 

Further, he protested, “while the Ad- 
ministration program shifts major spend- 
ing responsibilities from the federal level 
to state and local governments, it also 
takes away funds needed to meet these 
new obligations.” 

THE PRESIDENT’S tax plan gained 
the enthusiastic endorsement of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce and the National Asso- 
ciation of Manufacturers, however. Both 
groups urged the Ways & Means Com- 
mittee to give approval to the Reagan pro- 
posal. 

Ways & Means Committee Chairman 
Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) has said the 
committee is likely to come up with a 
one-year, tax package close to what the 
President has asked, but with some “com- 
promises” that reflect the diversity of 
views presented at the hearings. 



SERIOUS CRISIS for America’s railroad workers is posed by the Administra- 
tion’s plan to slash Amtrack and Conrail passenger and freight operations at 
a cost of about 22,000 jobs, rail union officers told the Senate Commerce sub- 
committee on surface transportation. Testifying are, from left. Railroad Clerks 
President Fred J. Kroll, chairman of the Railway Labor Executives Association; 
William Mahoney, RLEA counsel; United Transportation Union President 
Fred A. Hardin, and UTU Vice President James Burke. 


Move to Cut FKght Attendants 
Held Threat to Safety, Service 


The safety and rights of the traveling 
public could be jeopardized by a pro- 
posal to change the rules governing the 
size of cabin crews on airliners, the Asso- 
ciation of Flight Attendants charged. 

The union called on the Federal Avia- 
tion Administration to withdraw a pro- 
posed change in regulations that would 
allow air carriers to base the number of 
attendants on each flight on the number 
of ticketed passengers instead of on the 
seating capacity of the plane. 

The AFA, an affiliate of the Air Line 
Pilots, represents 23,000 professional flight 
attendants. 

AT A NEWS conference called to 
launch a public awareness campaign op- 
posing the change AFA President Linda 
Puchala called it “dangerous and foolish.” 

In addition to its safety implications, 
Puchala emphasized, the new rule would 
permit the airlines to do away with most 
passenger seating preferences at the car- 
rier’s convenience. 

The new rule, proposed Jan. 19, would 
require only one flight attendant for every 
50 ticketed passengers with a minimum of 
two attendants per flight. The current 
standard, adopted in 1974, requires one 
attendant for every 50 seats in the aircraft. 

Under the new proposals, Puchala told 
reporters, it is possible that a 400-to-500- 
seat Boeing 747 would be allowed to take 
off with as few as two flight attendants. 

“In an emergency,” she emphasized, 
“we must evacuate a plane in a matter of 
seconds, not minutes. To accomplish this, 
we need an adequate, well-trained crew of 
professionals.” 

The union estimates that safety-trained 


professional flight attendants have an aver- 
age of 50 seconds to get passengers off a 
burning plane. The primary function 
of flight attendants on any commercial air- 
craft is passenger safety, the union points 
out. By law, flight attendants must take 
part in safety training programs every 
year. 

PUCHALA explained that the original 
standards for safety crews were set by the 
FAA based on aircraft seating capacity, 
number of exits, seat spacing and width 
of aisles. Seating capacity was accepted 
as a “good indicator” of all these measure- 
ments, she noted. 

The proposed FAA rule would allow 
airlines to concentrate passengers in 
blocks in one part of a plane, yet there 
is no evidence that grouping passengers in 
a particular area increases safety, Puchala 
said. 

“In fact,” she warned, “such a seating 
arrangement might well hinder people 
from reaching the nearnest functioning exit 
if an emergency should arise.” 

GIVING THE air carriers the option of 
seating passengers in designated areas 
interferes with a traveler’s right to sit in 
the part of the plane where he or she is 
most comfortable, Puchala asserted. 

Preferences such as aisle or window 
seating, first class, buffer zones between 
smoking and non-smoking sections could 
become unavailable, she pointed out. 

The union’s public awareness program, 
the Campaign for Air Passenger Safety 
(CAPS), will include demonstrations at 
major airports on Apr. 3 and 4. Passengers 
will be asked to write the FAA and Presi- 
dent Reagan to urge that the rule change 
be dropped. 


Governor's Veto Blocks 
New Mexico R-T-W Law 


Santa Fe, N.M. — Gov. Bruce King slammed the door on a ‘‘right-to-work” 
bill, making New Mexico the third state to block the anti-union strategy this year. 
King, a Democrat, vetoed the measure on Mar. 20 just one day before the end 
of the legislature’s official session. He had vetoed a similar bill in 1979. 

Earlier this month, a "right-to-work” proposal was stalled in Idaho where 
the state senate indefinitely tabled the measure by voting to return it to the 
lower house. A bill designed to cripple Montana’s public employee unions, 
branded by the State AFL-CIO ‘‘a first step to ‘right to work,’ ” was killed in 
committee. 

Although the New Mexico legislature is meeting in special session to discuss 
budget issues, the State AFL-CIO said the governor’s action was sufficient to 
make the issue "definitely dead” for this year. 

The legislature also sent the governor a bill repealing the state’s prevailing 
wage law, but it did not reach his desk within 72 hours of adjournment of the 
legislature. In such cases, state law gives the governor until mid-April to decide 
whether to veto the bill, which passed by only a slim margin. 


Unions Hit Stall on Cotton Dust Rule 



Labor Joins in Outrage 
At Assault on President 



PRESIDENT REAGAN received a cordial welcome at the legislative conference 
of the AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades Dept., the first union meeting 
he had addressed since taking office. It was as the President left the hotel after 
his speech that the assassination attempt took place. In this picture are, from 
left, Iron Workers President John H. Lyons, BCTD President Robert A. Geor- 
gine and, at right, BCTD Sec.-Treas. Joseph F. Maloney. 

Senate Actions Affirm 
Reagan’s Budget Cuts 


Will Fight 
Court Delay 
On Standard 

By John R. Oravec 

The Reagan Administration’s attempt to 
block the federal cotton dust standard 
from moving forward was assailed by 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland as a 
disservice to workers who face the hazards 
of brown lung. 

In a two-step move, the Occupational 
Safety & Health Administration called for 
an economic impact review of the regula- 
tion and asked the Supreme Court to delay 
a pending decision on the 1978 standard. 

“WE BELIEVE it is a disservice to the 
exposed workers and the legal process for 
the Labor Dept, to make an eleventh hour 
attempt to reopen a rulemaking proceed- 
ing that began more than five years ago,” 
Kirkland said. 

He pledged that union parties involved 
in the cotton dust case — the federation, 
the Industrial Union Dept, and the Cloth- 
ing & Textile Workers — ^will oppose ef- 
forts to delay the high court’s decision. 

Assistant Labor Sec. Thome G. Auch- 
ter, the new head of OSHA, said in an- 
nouncing the agency’s action that the 
cotton dust standard would remain in ef- 
fect while the cost-benefit analysis is con- 
ducted. 

AUCHTER SAID the action is in line 
with President Reagan’s Executive Order 
of Feb. 19 which requires federal agencies 
to assess the costs and benefits of major 
federal regulations. 

Although OSHA will focus only on the 
cotton dust standard at this time, Auchter 
acknowledged at a press conference that 
the economic impact study would be done 
with a view toward subjecting other OSHA 
standards to similar scrutiny. 

OSHA initiated the review on Mar. 27, 
the same day that textile employers were 
required to establish and implement a 
written program of engineering controls 
and work practices aimed at sharply re- 
ducing worker exposure to cotton dust. 
Provisions of the existing standard require 
the industry to have engineering controls 
and work practices completed by Mar. 27, 
1984. 

WORKERS exposed to excessive levels 
of cotton dust are particularly susceptible 
to byssinosis, the crippling brown lung 
disease. Government studies show that up 
to 800,000 workers, mostly in the textile 
industry, are exposed to cotton dust. 

A booklet issued by OSHA last year 
said that “over 35,000 cotton workers 
have already been crippled from cotton 
dust exposure, and thousands of others 
show some signs of brown lung.” 

Auchter ordered the recall and destruc- 
tion of some 100,000 of the booklets that 
had been sent to OSHA field offices before 
he took office. 

THE STANDARD that OSHA issued 
in June 1978 provides for a graduated 
reduction in exposure levels — ^first through 

(Continued on Page 2) 


The AFL-CIO and unions representing 
workers whose jobs are threatened by im- 
ports urged Congress to reject Administra- 
tion cost-cutting proposals that would ef- 
fectively destroy the trade adjustment as- 
sistance program. 

The program, which labor has urged be- 
broadened to cover additional groups of 
workers, now allows 70 percent of lost 
pay up to a maximum of $269 — the aver- 
age factory wage — to workers whose jobs 
have been wiped out by increased im- 
ports. Benefits can continue for up to 52 
weeks of unemployment, with an addi- 
tional 26 weeks allowed to complete re- 
training programs or for displac^ work- 
ers over the age of 60. 


The Senate directed its legislative com- 
mittees to rewrite laws and change funding 
levels of government programs so as to 
achieve the drastic budget cuts demanded 
by the Administration. 

Through a week of debate, an alliance 
of Republicans and conservative Demo- 
crats repeatedly crushed labor-supported 
attempts to salvage programs that have 
provided a cushion against the severe un- 


A panel of labor representatives, tes- 
tifying before a House Ways & Means 
subcommittee, protested that changes 
sought by the Administration would deny 
workers hurt by imports the income pro- 
tection that the Trade Act of 1974 and 
predecessor laws directed they be given. 

THE ADMINISTRATION assumption, 
AFL-CIO Legislative Rep. Stephen Kop- 
lan charged, is that “the way to solve the 
budget problem is to deny workers pay- 
ments the law entitles them to receive.” 

Under the Administration proposal, 
designed to chop 77 percent from the pro- 
gram’s budget cost, eligible workers would 

(Continued on Page 2) 


employment brought on by economic re- 
cession and unrestricted imports. 

TWO KEY VOTES on issues of special 
importance to the trade union movement 
reflected the Senate’s uncompromising 
mood. 

One test came on the issue of scuttling 
the trade adjustment program so that 
workers who lose their jobs because of 
increased imports resulting from the gov- 
ernment’s virtually tariff-free trade policy 
would get no more in weekly benefits than 
is provided through their state’s unemploy- 
ment compensation program. 

Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton (D-Mo.) 
sought to strike from the budget recon- 
ciliation bill an instruction to the Senate 
Finance Committee that would virtually 
compel it to enact the Administration 
plan in order to achieve a $500 million 
savings in trade-related categories of the 
budget. 

HIS AMENDMENT was beaten, 69- 
29. 

Another Administration proposal, which 
Senate Republicans are seeking to compel 
through the budget reconciliation process, 
would drastically curtail eligibility for ex- 
tended unemployment benefits for those 
who are still without jobs when their state 
payments run out. It would eliminate the 
national trigger for the program, and per- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Kirkland Calls 
Mad Violence 
Threat to All 

By David L. Perlman 

America’s trade union movement re- 
acted with shock and outrage to the at- 
tempted assassination of President Reagan, 
and workers everywhere joined in the 
prayers for the full recovery of all the 
victims. 

In Denver, hours after the shooting, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland spoke 
to participants in a 10-state regional con- 
ference of the shock waves from the gun- 
fire. 

SUCH MAD violence threatens society’s 
foundations, Kirkland said, assaulting ”not 
only the public servants who stand in the 
line of fire, but the people at large.” 
Democratic institutions such as the trade 
union movement “require for their sur- 
vival civilized discourse in a humane so- 
ciety,” he noted. 

“Whatever our differences with the 
President’s policies,” Kirkland said, “we 
have never doubted that we share with 
him an overriding common purpose — the 
good of our country.” 

The trauma and dismay was especially 
felt by more than 5,000 delegates and 
guests at the legislative conference of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept., where Reagan had spoken just 
minutes before the shooting. 

Reagan had addressed the group at the 
start of the afternoon session on the open- 
ing day of what was scheduled as a three- 
day legislative conference. It was his first 
speech to a union meeting since he as- 
sumed the presidency. 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Economic Index 
Drops for Third 
Straight Month 

The government’s index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators fell for the third month 
in a row in February, portending a bumpy 
road for the nation’s economy in the 
months ahead. 

The three consecutive drops in the in- 
dex, which is designed as a barometer of 
future ♦economic activity, followed six 
straight months of increases. 

THE FEBRUARY index fell three- 
tenths of 1 percent following declines of 
six-tenths of 1 percent in January and 
one-tenth of 1 percent in December. Both 
of the latter figures represent revisions of 
earlier Commerce Dept, estimates. 

The Reagan Administration has pre- 
dicted a lackluster economic performance 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Congress Urged to Keep 
Trade Act Benefits Intact 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 




OSHAKiUs 
Pamphlets on 
Brown Lnng 


Cuts Would Scuttle Aid 

Congress Urged to Keep 
Trade Act Benefits Intact 


Leonard R. Page, associate general 
counsel of the Auto Workers, sharply pro- 
tested the Administration assumption that 
laid otf workers are “abusing” the pro- 
gram by collecting benefits instead of 
looking for new jobs. A survey by the 
Michigan Employment Security Commis- 
sion last year showed 78 percent of eligible 
workers interested in training programs 
and more than one-third willing to re- 
locate to take a job, he noted. 

Cutting the adjustment program would 
breach the “covenant this country made 
with labor” in the 1962 Trade Act, Page 
charged. 

“We have had over 19 years of steady 
decrease in tariffs and duties, matched by 
increases in imports,” he said. Now the 
Administration is proposing “to withhold 
labor’s payment on that contract.” 

Kirkland Scores 
Attempt to Block 
Cotton Dust Rule 

(Continued from Page 1) 

the use of respirators and eventually 
through the installation of engineering 
controls. 

The regulation limits worker exposure 
over an eight-hour workday to 200 micro- 
grams of respirable cotton dust per cubic 
meter of air in yam manufacturing, 500 
micrograms in textile production and 750 
micrograms in slashing and weaving. 

ACTWU President Murray H. Finley 
said he was saddened by the Labor Dept.’s 
“action to weaken the OSHA standard,” 
terming it vital to the health of more than 
a half-million textile workers. 

“OF ALL THE measures the new Ad- 
ministration could take to improve the 
economy,” he observed, it has “sought one 
which will bring untold suffering to many.” 

“The answer to our nation’s problems is 
not to place a monetary value on human 
life, nor is it to keep hundreds of thou- 
sands of workers in daily risk of losing 
their health,” Finley stressed. 

He pointed that “even the textile indus- 
try admits that it can meet the standard 
in most affected areas.” 

According to an industry survey, about 
75 percent of the spinning operations al- 
ready are at or below the 200-microgram 
exposure limit and 88 percent of weaving 
operations are at or below the 750-micro- 
gram level. 

EVEN SO, the American Textile Manu- 
facturers Institute and the National Cotton 
Council continued to challenge the OSHA 
standard. After the industry’s challenge 
was rejected by a federal appeals court 
last year, it appealled to the Supreme 
Court. 

The AFL-CIO, lUD and ACTWU in- 
tervened on the side of OSHA before the 
Supreme Court. In delivering oral argu- 
ments for the labor groups, on Jan. 21, 
Atty. George H. Cohen stressed that the 
federal job safety law clearly specifies that 
OSHA is required to implement the most 
effective regulations. Cohen also main- 
tained that in enacting the 1970 law. 
Congress did not intend to compromise 
the health protections of workers with 
cost-benefit assessments. 

Industry contends that to fully meet the 
standards’ provisions it will cost employ- 
ers five times more than the $550 million 
estimate OSHA issued in an earlier eco- 
nomic impact study. 

CONVENTIONS 

The Iron Workers’ 1981 convention in 
Miami will be held Aug. 10-14 rather 
than Aug. 24-28 as previously listed. 

The Carpenters’ 1981 convention in 
Chicago will open Sept. 4 rather than Aug. 
10 as previously listed. 

The Maryland-D.C. AFL-CIO will hold 
its 1981 convention Aug. 30-Sept. 4 at 
Baltimore. 


ROLE OF THE LABOR PRESS in the American trade 
union movement is discussed by Jeffrey Miller, editor of 
the CWA News, with a delegation of eight Swedish labor 
editors at a Washington seminar arranged by the Inter- 


national Labor Press Association. The visiting editors, 
representing unions from Sweden’s blue-collar and white- 
collar labor federations, examined policies and techniques 
with a cross section of U.S. labor editors. 


A 16-page booklet that alerts textile 
workers to the health hazards of cotton 
dust has been recalled by the new head of 
the Occupational Safety & Health Admin- 
istration. 

It was one of the first acts of Thome 
G. Auchter after his confirmation by the 
Senate as assistant Secretary of Labor. 

AUCHTER SAID he ordered the recall 
of the booklet, titled Cotton Dust: Worker 
Health Alert, because a photo on the cover 
“makes a clearly biased statement” in 
favor of workers and against employers. 

The photo is a candid portrait of a 
worker. The inside cover identifies him as 
Louis Harrell, who “worked 44 years in 
the cotton industry. He died of brown 
lung in 1978.” 

Brown lung, or byssinosis, is a crippling 
and sometimes fatal respiratory disease 
resulting from the inhalation of excessive 
levels of cotton dust. 

Auchter disclosed the recall of the book- 
lets at a press conference at which he 
announced OSHA’s plans to review the 
federal cotton dust standard and under- 
take a cost-benefit analysis. He denied 
that he had ordered the booklets destroyed. 

BUT A MEMORANDUM issued Mar. 
19 by Auchter’s acting director of infor- 
mation, Jim Foster, said the booklet 
“should be withdrawn from circulation 
and destroyed.” 

A copy of the memorandum, which was 
acquired by the Clothing & Textile Work- 
ers, also calls for the destruction of an- 
other OSHA booklet, titled Cotton Dust 
Standard: Management’s Role, and a re- 
lated poster carrying the message, “Cotton 
Dust Can Destroy Your Lungs.” 

The publications were issued last year 
by the then OSHA chief. Assistant Labor 
Sec. Eula Bingham. 

Sol Stetin, senior executive vice presi- 
dent of ACTWU, accused Auchter of 
undermining OSHA’s responsibility of pro- 
tecting workers. 

IN A STRONGLY worded letter to 
Auchter, Stetin said, “Your order to not 
only withdraw these publications but also 
to destroy them, was both grossly impru- 
dent and wasteful of government funds, 
and a callous disregard of your responsi- 
bility to educate workers about the haz- 
ards of cotton dust.” 

Several other worker education materials 
have been recalled under Auchter’s order. 
They include three films on the history of 
OSHA, workplace hazards, and worker 
rights under the federal job safety law. 
Also banned are two slide presentations 
dealing with the hazards of cotton dust 
and acrylonitrile, a carcinogen, that were 
developed to meet the training require- 
ments of OSHA standards. 

Copies of the banned visual aid mate-, 
rials are available through the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Occupational Safety & Health. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

have to exhaust their state unemployment 
insurance benefits before qualifying for 
additional weeks of payment at the same 
weekly benefit rate they had been getting 
under unemployment insurance — and sub- 
ject to the same requirements the admin- 
istration is seeking to impose that recip- 
ients take minimum wage jobs if available. 


TOTAL BENEFITS, including state 
payments and retraining programs, could 
not continue beyond 52 weeks. 

Further, the Administration has also 
proposed toughening the eligibility criteria 
so that fewer workers would be certified 
as meeting the test of import-related un- 
employment. 

Koplan noted that by the Administra- 
tion’s own estimate, its proposals would 
result in dropping the average payment 
for each worker covered by trade adjust- 
ment assistance from $6,400 to $1,800. 


CHARGING that this cover photo 
was slanted against employers, As- 
sistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. Auchter 
ordered the recall and destruction of 
some 100,000 OSHA booklets on 
cotton dust hazards. 

Performers Ask 
Budget Reprieve 
For Aid to Arts 

New York — The Actors & Artistes — the 
federation of AFL-CIO performer unions 
— appealed to Congress to save arts and 
humanities programs that would be crip- 
pled by President Reagan’s proposed bud- 
get. 

The organization cited a proposed 50- 
percent cut in the budgets of the National 
Endowment for the Arts and the National 
Endowment for the Humanities as “com- 
pletely out of line.” 

It protested that a suggested cut of 25 
percent for the Corporation for Public 
Broadcasting will force the system to be- 
come “almost entirely dependent on com- 
mercial interests and, contrary to the con- 
gressional .mandate, create little more than 
an echo of commercial networks.’” 

It also urged continued funding through 
the Labor Dept.’s Employment & Training 
Administration for job development pro- 
grams of the Labor Institute for Human 
Enrichment. 


WHILE THE Administration has said 
it will support some training and reloca- 
tion assistance for workers forced into im- 
employment by imports, Koplan said re- 
training holds limited potential if the jobs 
are not available. Just recently, he re- 
minded the subcommittee, some 5,000 un- 
employed workers in Toledo, Ohio, “lined 
up for 16 hours for 90 jobs in an auto 
battery plant.” 

Wilbur Daniels, executive vice president 
of the Ladies’ Garment Workers, said the 
proposed cutbacks in trade adjustment as- 
sistance would also “make more difficult” 
development and acceptance of govern- 
ment policies to promote international 
trade. “They would break the long-estab- 
lished covenant between the government 
and worker and industries adversely af- 
fected by imports.” 

DANIELS referred to the trade adjust- 
ment aid as “a social contract” and noted 
that it was first adopted as part of the 
Trade Expansion Act of 1962. He quoted 
from a congressional conunittee report ac- 
companying that legislation, declaring that 
“the special nature of employment dis- 
ruption resulting from changes in trade 
policy necessitates a level of worker pro- 
tection somewhat beyond what is available 
through regular state unemployment in- 
surance programs.” 

Steelworkers Legislative Director John 
J. Sheehan told the Ways & Means panel 
that the solution to high costs of trade 
adjustment assistance is growth in the job 
market. 

The program, he pointed out, is “com- 
pensation for injury” to workers whose 
jobs in effect have been sacrificed as part 
of overall trade policy. 

Sheehan noted that the program is 
scheduled to come up for review and re- 
authorization next year, and questioned 
why Congress should be considering “a 
de facto termination of the program” at 
this time. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D,C., APRIL 4, 1981 


Page Three 


At Legislative Conference 

Building Trades Spur 
Grass-Roots Campaign 



LABOR’S STRATEGIES to repel budgetary assaults on vital social and worker 
programs by the Administration and in Congress were the focus of attention at 
the Machinists’ four-day legislative conference in Washington. In keynoting the 
conference that drew more than 500 delegates, lAM President William W. 
Winpisinger disclosed plans for several pilot projects aimed at spurring grass- 
roots political education and action programs. 

Reagan’s Budget Cutbacks 
Upheld in Key Senate Votes 


The AFL-CIO Building & Construction 
Trades Dept, is counting on more than 
4,000 local leaders who came to its legis- 
lative conference to build back-home sup- 
port for labor’s program and help per- 
suade Congress that the election returns 
were not a mandate “to repeal economic 
justice.” 

BCTD President Robert A. Georgine 
stressed in his keynote speech that labor’s 
willingness to cooperate wherever possible 
with a new Administration does not mean 
acquiescence in “right-wing dreams of dis- 
mantling all the progress of generations 
past.” 

MOST OF the Capitol Hill visits were 
cancelled by the termination of the con- 
ference after the shooting of President 
Reagan. The gunman fired at the Presi- 
dent just outside the hotel where Reagan 
had addressed the building trades confer- 
ence — his first speech to a union group 
since taking office. 

But a key goal of this legislative con- 

Delegate’s Tackle Aids 
In Capture of Gunman 

A 68-year-old carpenter from Cleve- 
land, Alfred Antonucci, was among the 
first witnesses to the shooting of Presi- 
dent Reagan to tackle the suspected 
assailant. 

Antonucci, president and business 
agent of Carpenters Local 1715, was in 
the crowd waiting to greet the President 
as he left the hotel where the building 
trades legislative conference was held. 

The gunman was nearby and Anto- 
nucci joined Secret Service agents and 
police who leaped on him when the 
shots were heard. Friends in Cleveland 
recognized him in television pictures 
and the Cleveland Plain Dealer con- 
firmed his role in helping to subdue the 
assailant. Also joining the pileup was 
Frank J. McNamara, 62, of Parma, 
Ohio, president of Millwrights Local 
1871. 

But the stress took its toll. A few 
hours later, Antonucci was hospitalized 
after suffering chest pains and several 
days after the episode was still under 
care in fiie coronary unit at George- 
town University Hospital. 

imiiiiiiiiiiniHiniiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiniiiiniiiiiiiin 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The President received respectful atten- 
tion from an audience that had come to 
Washington to lobby against many of the 
policies and program cuts advocated by 
his Administration. And there was warm 
applause for his tribute to the courage of 
Poland’s workers and his insistence that 
this country must be “strong enough to 
remain free.” 

BACKSTAGE, White House Press Sec. 
James S. Brady listened to the audience 
reaction and made notes on his copy of 
the President’s text. 

Reagan had just left the hotel and was 
entering his limousine when the shots rang 
out. 

When the delegates convened the next 
morning, the president of the building 
trades department, Robert A. Georgine, 
somberly asked their attention. 

He spoke of the horror they all felt — 
deeper and more painful, perhaps, be- 
cause of their proximity to the event. 

AFTER THE group had joined in the 
prayer offered by the Rev. Joseph Dona- 
hue, the department’s longj^time chaplain, 
Georgine relayed the decision that had 
been concurred in by the presidents of 
the 15 affiliated unions, to adjourn the 
formal proceedings of the conference. “It 
is simply not appropriate that we con- 
tinue,” he said. 

The building trades leaders made it clear 


ference was to involve local leaders even 
more than previously in an issue-oriented 
grass-roots program. 

A booklet on grass-roots lobbying given 
to every delegate stressed the large num- 
ber of recently elected representatives and 
senators from marginal districts, who are 
“especially attuned to constituency pres- 
sures that may affect their re-election.” 

THEY HAVE been hearing from busi- 
ness and conservative groups. They should 
also be hearing “directly from union mem- 
bers,” the brochure suggested. 

Other material given to the delegates 
dealt with issues of special concern to 
building trades unions — from attacks on 
the Davis-Bacon Act to the impact of 
budget slashes. 

Georgine’s keynote speech stressed the 
commitment of the building crafts to la- 
bor’s broad concerns and identified the 
chief foes as “narrow idealogues” who 
make up “the anti-union chorus.” 

“WE REJECT their belief that produc- 
tivity depends more on wealthy investors 
than on skillful laborers,” he said. 

The building trades will be “construc- 
tive” in their criticisms when they can’t 
go along with the Administration, Geor- 
gine promised. But the unions will insist 
that sacrifices demanded of workers must 
also be required of “the owners of capi- 
tal,” he declared. 

Georgine said a prosperous economy 
also needs a sound transportation system, 
clean cities and better neighborhoods. 
“We will oppose the gutting of programs 
that do the vital work of building the 
country and improving our society,” he 
said. 

LABOR WANTS President Reagan’s 
programs to succeed, he declared, but “we 
will not rubber-stamp cuts in school 
lunches while tobacco subsidies go virtual- 
ly untouched” or “cuts in unemployment 
compensation and trade adjustment assis- 
tance while corporations get tax breaks to 
export jobs overseas.” 

Further, he urged, “tax cutting, like 
budget cutting, has to be fair.” The build- 
ing trades will work with the rest of the 
AFL-CIO “for a better, more equitable 
tax cut” than the Administration has pro- 
posed, Georgine said. 

“The New Right does not speak for 
our workers,” he declared. 


that they remained committed to a pro- 
gram that in some areas puts them firmly 
opposed to Administration policies, and to 
the protection of labor laws and standards 
that have been special targets of Reagan’s 
right-wing supporters. 

But they also made clear, before the 
President’s speech as well as in its after- 
math, their readiness to cooperate with the 
Administration in areas of common pur- 
pose. 

AT THE OPENING session of the con- 
ference, Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
spoke from the vantage point of a con- 
tractor who had negotiated with the build- 
ing trades and knew their industry first 
hand. 

Donovan stressed common goals, such 
as “full employment through economic 
growth,” reiterated the Administration’s 
insistence on reducing what he called 
“seemingly attractive programs that are 
not cost effective,” and asked that he and 
the Administration be judged on “results” 
that are achieved. 

Neither Donovan nor Reagan, however, 
sought to gloss over the policy differences 
between labor and the Administration. 

Reagan insisted that the first priority is 
to curb government spending and that 
Congress must enact his entire economic 
program. 

“If only part of the package is passed 
by the Congress, we will only ease some 


(Continued from Page 1) 

mit states to raise the state trigger above 
present requirements. 

Especially damaging to the concept of 
unemployment insurance is a related pro- 
posal to require workers jobless for 13 
weeks to take any available job that pays 
an amount equal to unemployment bene- 
fits as long as it is not less than the mini- 
mum wage. 

THE BUDGET reconciliation measure 
would not produce any “savings” until 
fiscal 1983 since states would have to be 
given time to change their laws to comply 
with the harsher federal standards. But a 
motion by Sen. Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D- 
Mich.) to delete those irfstructions was 
quashed, 60-38. 

The power of the conservative coalition 
was clearly demonstrated in the defeat of 
an effort by a group of moderate Repub- 
licans to mitigate some of the most severe 
cuts in social programs. 

Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) carried with 
him 10 other Republican senators on an 
amendment to restore $973 million that 
had been cut from programs of education 
aid, fuel assistance for the poor, weatheri- 
zation, urban development grants, mental 


of our problems, and that is no solution 
at all,” Reagan said. 

THE NATION’S “economic mess” 
came about “because our leaders have 
forgotten that we built this great nation on 
rewarding the work ethic instead of pun- 
ishing it,” the President insisted. 

The cancelled days of the conference 
were to have included workshops on po- 
litical, legislative, organizing, energy, pen- 
sion and legal issues as well as talks by 
congressional leaders of both parties and 
an address by AFLtCIO President Lane 
Kirkland. Former Labor Sec. Ray Mar- 
shall was a schedulled participant in a 
panel on the Davis-Bacon Act. 


Miami — Stephen Coyle was elected ex- 
ecutive vice president of the Food & 
Commercial Workers at the union’s execu- 
tive board meeting here. Coyle, a UFCW 
vice president, has been director of the 
union’s food processing division. 

He succeeds Harry R. Poole who is 
retiring after 46 years of service to the 
labor movement during which he held a 
number of key offices. Poole became ex- 
ecutive vice president of the UFCW in 
1979 when the union was formed by the 
merger of the Meat Cutters and Retail 
Clerks. He had been president of the Meat 
Cutters since 1976. 


health and mass transit, among others. 

EVEN IF the amendment had been 
adopted, the budget cuts mandated by the 
Senate would have remained close to what 
the Administration proposed. 

But 16 Democrats swung over to vote 
against the amendment, and it was de- 
feated on a 59-40 vote. 

The Senate action is the first big step 
in the complex budget-setting process, and 
many of the battles will be refought in the 
House and in subsequent Senate votes. 

The vehicle for the Senate Republican 
strategy to win quick achievement of the 
Reagan Administration program was a bill 
designed to reconcile spending for the bal- 
ance of this fiscal year with budget goals. 

THE SENATE then included in the bill 
instructions to legislative committees to 
make changes designed to achieve speci- 
fied savings in spending levels for both 
Fiscal 1982 and Fiscal 1983. The commit- 
tees are directed to complete their assign- 
ments by May 31, and their actions will 
then be presented to the Senate as part of 
an omnibus “reconciliation bill.” 

The House, meanwhile, is moving on a 
somewhat slower schedule with its version 
of budget reconciliation, and eventually 
the two measures will have to be meshed 
in a House-Senate conference. But the 
Administration and its spokesmen in Con- 
gress are counting on the speedy and one- 
sided action by the Senate for the momen- 
tum to put the President’s program 
through virtually intact. 

FINAL PASSAGE by the Senate of the 
reconciliation instructions to committees 
was expected momentarily as the AFL- 
CIO News went to press. But other budget 
issues will continue to occupy the Senate 
in the next few weeks. 

The Senate Budget Committee is still in 
the process of putting together a formal 
resolution setting government spending 
ceilings for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 
1981. That resolution will also include 
revenue estimates based in part on pro- 
jected changes in tax laws. 


Coyle, a vice president of the Meat 
Cutters before the merger, became active 
in the labor movement as a member of 
the Fur & Leather Workers. He held major 
local and national offices with the union 
prior to its merger with the Meat Cutters 
in the 1950s. 

Also announcing their retirement at the 
meeting were UFCW Vice Presidents Fred 
Clavio, Sr., Ken Edwards and Rudy 
Krickan. 

Ed T. Hardy resigned as a vice president 
to become x:ollective bargaining representa- 
tive for the union’s northwest division. 


Outrage Swells at Assassination Attempt 


Coyle Succeeds Poole at UFCW 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 



With Fairnesis and Equity 

rpHE AFL-CIO supports the proposition that inflation must be 
•L reduced; the number of jobs increased and the unemployed put 
back to work; that productivity must be improved, industrial 
strength restored, and federal programs made more effective and 
efficient. 

America needs policies, including an industrial policy, that meet 
the nation’s needs with fairness and equity. 

During the Seventies, the American economy experienced ex- 
tended periods of high unemployment, massive layoffs, and plant 
closings. The growth of the economy slowed, inflation increased, 
and our balance of payments worsened. These events would have 
been bad enough if they had been purely cyclical in nature, with 
the economy rebounding after a downturn. 

Underlying these setbacks, however, was a much more serious 
and enduring problem: the industrial base of the American 
economy was in fact eroding. 

The American share of the world market for manufactured 
goods declined 23 percent, and our share of our own domestic 
market also declined. As a result of this deindustrialization, at 
least 2 million industrial jobs have been lost. There has been no 
coherent national policy to reverse this ominous trend. 

Now, in the Eighties, the need to reindustrialize the American 
economy has become widely acknowledged. There are, however, 
distinctly different concepts about how to do it. 

ONE APPROACH that is receiving almost faddish attention 
emphasizes removing the allegedly excessive burden that govern- 
ment places on the private sector. Its adherents call for general 
business-tax cuts and a reduced role for government in the econ- 
omy. In other words, we should return to a more laissez-faire 
environment for business. 

Industries and regions that are experiencing economic difficulties 
would be left to sink or swim, their fate supposedly determined by 
the benign invisible hand of the competitive market. 

This approach ignores the radical departure from the ideal 
competitive market that has taken place in the real world. Deci- 
sions of large firms to relocate abroad can have disastrous effects 
upon domestic industries and communities. Moreover, domestic 
firms increasingly face competition from foreign producers that are 
heavily subsidized by their governments. 


WE JUST DON’T believe that you can write off major indus- 
tries in this country without paying for it dearly in the future. Nor 
do we believe that whole cities and regions can be allowed to de- 
cay, without serious social and economic consequences. 

It’s the height of arrogance to talk in abstract, theoretical terms 
about letting certain industries disappear and then putting everyone 
else to work making micro-chips. 


We feel it’s important that America remain a diversified, indus- 
trial nation, not one that just depends upon one or two industries 
or upon a so-called “service economy.” I do not believe that our 
standard of living will be or can be improved if we allow basic 
industries to erode, nor would the world be better off if each 
country simply specialized in the production of one kind of 
product. No other country has accepted that idea. 


— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at the Wharton School, 
University of Pennsylvania, Mar, 23, 1981, 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 5 

S. Frank Raftery = 

Murray H. Finley | 

Sol C. Chaikin = 

Charles H. Pillard | 

Lloyd McBride = 

Emmet Andrews = 

William H. Wynn | 

John DeConcini s 

Dan V. Maroney E 

John J. Sweeney E 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 


Managing Editor: John M. Barry 


Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, April 4, 1981 No. 14 | 


= The AFLCIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
5 ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
5 Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 



^m\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\m\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\m\\\\\\\\\\\\\m\\\\m 



Legislature Sticks Consumers 

Delaware Law Writes Banks 
Blank Check on Interest Rates 


By Gus Tyler 


^WO PRESTIGIOUS New York banks— 
Chase Manhattan and J. P. Morgan & Co. — 
decided to cross to Delaware, not to liberate but 
to impose new burdens on the already overbur- 
dened American. The Delaware deal involved 
skillful planning. 

Over a period of six months, the best brains 
that these banks could buy were at work devising 
a new law under which banks could operate their 
credit card schemes. Finally, they came up with 
a devilish device. 


THE BANKS COULD charge without legal 
ceilings; they could jack up the rates retroactively; 
they could charge some folk one rate and other 
folk another; they could impose any fee they 
wished for the privilege of using credit cards; and 
they could foreclose on a house for failure to pay 
up when debts on cards fell due. 

Dreaming up this banker’s dream probably 
came easily. But how to get a state — any state — 
to write such usurious practices into law was 
probably more difficult, especially if the banks are 
located in a state like New York where the legis- 
lature is in nobody’s back pocket and where the 
citizenry knows how to scream. 

So the bankers crossed to Delaware, where 
Pierre S. duPont IV fe the government and where 
E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co. is the economy. 
In a brief three hours, the necessary bill went 
scooting through the legislature, although the New 
York Times reports, “many legislators say they 
did not read the 61 -page bill before agreeing to 
sponsor it and did not understand the complicated 
measure before voting on it.” 


WITH THIS LAW as a lure. Gov. duPont be- 
gan a cross-country sales tour to induce banks to . 
come to Delaware, a state with a “hospitable 
climate” for banks. 


short, the meanest set the measure for proper 
conduct. 


This little story is almost a classic model of 
what happens when we “leave it to the states.” 
First, there are no federal standards, no floor to 
decency, no norm below which no one may sink. 
Second, each state is free to cut the throat of a 
neighboring state. 


MORE IMPORTANT, business people with 
large operations can play one state off against 
another. They get Delaware to act, then they use 
Delaware as a club over the head of New York 
et al, then they finally get everything their own 
way. 

Leaving it to the states means, too often, leav- 
ing it to the richest to run the whole country. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiH 


Budget Cuts No Cure 
For Trade Problems 


The way to solve the budget problem is not 
to deny workers payments the law entitles them 
to receive. 


Administration proposals that amount to a 
termination of trade adjustment assistance 
would deny to American workers huit by im- 
ports the benefits to which the Trade Act of 
1974 entitled them. 


So far, not one bank has moved to Delaware. 
But many banks are telling their state govern- 
ments that unless they are as generous to the 
banks as Delaware is, the banks will pack up and 
leave for a cozier clime. In other words. New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and every other 
state that puts some restraints on banks issuing 
credit cards must do like the bankers want — or 
else. 


The Administration is not claiming that con- 
ditions have changed. It merely decided to cut 
the $1.5 billion estimated by the Carter Admin- 
istration to $350 million, and then proposed 
radical legislative surgery to accomplish that 
objective. 

The Administration proposals are not based 
on the assertion that fewer workers will be ad- 
versely affected by imports than estimated. It 
proposes only that fewer workers will be paid 
and the payments will be lower. 


Imports are continuing to rise, particularly 
from low-wage countries. We believe that the 
program should be continued and that the Ad- 
ministration’s proposals should be rejected be- 
cause they effectively end the program. 


If a state wants to impose restraints, wants to 
protect the consumer, it will have a hard time 
doing the right thing. It may lose big banks. In 






— From AFL-CIO testimony before a House 
Ways & Means subcommittee. Mar, 31, 1981, 





AFL^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 


Page Five 


Justice System on Trial 

Legal Aid for Poor at Stake 


Ry Norman Hill 

President, A. Philip Randolph Institute 

W HILE PRESIDENT REAGAN’S budget 
cuts will eliminate a number of vital pro- 
grams, few of the cuts will have more far-reach- 
ing consequences than the proposed elimination 
of the Legal Service Corp. 

Created in the 1960s in the context of the Great 
Society and the War on Poverty, the Legal Ser- 
vices Corp. has been the most significant instru- 
ment the poor possess to insure adequate repre- 
sentation before the courts. A number of Reagan’s 
ultra-conservative advisers have suggested that the 
federally funded legal aid program is a hotbed of 
radicalism and leftist politics. In truth, the pro- 
gram’s 6,000 lawyers who serve 330 communities 
throughout the United States are involved most 
often in such critical issues as landlord-tenant 
relations, welfare rights, and civil rights. 

OVER THE YEARS millions of poor and 
working poor have benefited from this legal aid 
network. The poor have u;sed the system to chal- 
lenge improper dismissals from work, landlord 
harassment and building code violations, and dis- 
crimination in employment. 

An important instrument by which millions of 
Americans have indirectly benefited is the class 
action suit. In sucl^ suits, often brought by legal 
aid lawyers, judges do not simply resolve a single 
dispute but impose remedial orders which have 
the effect of improving the lives of large numbers 
of Americans. 

The elimination of the legal aid program will 


result in fewer such suits being brought to the 
courts and in fewer direct benefits to workers. 

In the distant past, lawsuits were relatively 
straightforward matters and the legal system was 
turned to only as a matter of last resort. Today, 
with the increased complexity of government reg- 
ulations and laws, access to informed legal advice 
and legal aid is an absolute necessity. 

THE LEGAL AID program has intervened in 
behalf of unemployed workers denied welfare 
benefits, illegitimate children, and social security 
recipients who couldn’t get cases reopened for 
government hearings. This list of issues hardly 
suggests that legal aid programs are being run 
by ultra-leftist extremists. Rather it suggests that 
the legal aid system is truly defending the inter- 
ests of the poor. 

Our system has prided itself on its basis in 
equal protection under the law. The unfortunate 
consequence of Reagan’s proposed elimination of 
the Legal Services Corp. is that it will make the 
courts accessible only to those who are well off. 
Putting the poor outside the law will lead to 
greater bitterness and alienation. 

Conservatives have claimed that well-inten- 
tioned programs designed to deal with poverty 
have often resulted in consequences more harmful 
than the benefits that have been provided. 

What we will learn from the Reagan era is that 
the elimination of certain government programs 
may have consequences which are in the long-run 
more costly and damaging than the immediate 
budgetary savings that they bring. 


Return to Welfare 

Budgeted Shortcut to Poverty 


S uppose the government cuts funds for day 
care programs. This is a reasonable supposi- 
tion since many social programs of this kind, 
which provide help to the next-to-poor, or the 
poor-plus-one, are on the Administration’s budget- 
cutting list. What will happen to the federal budget 
in consequence? Will it decrease by the amount of 
the program cut? 

No — more likely, it will increase. This is be- 
cause those women whose children were previ- 
ously cared for by day care programs will give 
up their low-paying jobs and go back on welfare, 
rejoining the ranks of the “truly needy” whom the 
President has pledged to protect. ITiis, in turn, 
will drive up costs not only for the basic welfare 
program — Aid to Families with Dependent Chil- 
dren (AFDC) — but also for food stamps, Medic- 
aid and low-income energy assistance. 

THE POINT IS that it is remarkably’ and 
temptingly easy to fool yourself about budget 
savings. Some kinds of short-term savings quickly 
bound back as long-term costs in other parts of 
federal, state or local budgets. Job, training, com- 
pensatory education, family planning and child 
care programs have helped many people to get 
out or stay out of poverty. That’s why they were 
set up in the first place. 

But many of these immigrants from poverty 
remain precariously placed at the borderline of 
that subsistence level of living that officialdom has 
characterized as “truly poor.” Cut chiy care and 
the working mother is likely to be pushed back 


onto welfare. Cut jobs and training and chances 
increase that not only adults but also their chil- 
dren, another generation of poor, will end up on 
the list of the chronically dependent. 

REPATRIATING PEOPLE back into the 
land of officially designated poverty would be 
monstrous social and economic policy. Being offi- 
cially poor means having income less than the 
government’s “poverty line,” a measure originally 
developed by multiplying the cost of a just-above- 
starvation diet by three. 

No one thinks this definition is a model of 
conceptual perfection, but all you really need to 
know about it is that the level of living it pro- 
vides is, by the standards of modern American 
life, wretched. And yet not a single state has a 
family welfare benefit that, combined with food 
stamps, reaches even this ungenerous standard. 
Some states have combined benefits less than half 
that amount. 

So in your attempts to think rationally and 
fairly about the continuing budget cuts, tuck this 
away as another principle: cutting back on aid 
to the less needy may sound efficient and relatively 
costless and, in some cases, it might be. But it 
isn’t necessarily the case. A small investment in 
the poor-plus-one population can help keep the 
ranks of the “truly needy” — and the taxpayer 
burden of supporting them and their children — 
from growing now and in the future. 

— Excerpted from an editorial in the Washing- 
ton Post published Feb. 13, 1981. 


30,000 Jobs Affected 

Rail Service Under Budget Ax 


P PROPOSED transportation budget cuts would 
end railroad passenger and freight service in 
much of the country and substantially boost fares 
and rates where service continues. President Fred 
J. Kroll of the Railway & Airline Clerks warned. 

Kroll said that Amtrak cutbacks “would virtual- 
ly destroy the passenger system in the United 
States.” He said as many as 30,000 railroad jobs 
would be wiped out if Congress approves the sub- 
stantial reductions of Amtrak and Conrail appro- 
priations urged by the Administration. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, the AFL-CIO 
vice president said the cutbacks of rail passenger 
service would hit low-income Americans particu- 


larly hard, pointing out that they are heavy users 
of the system. 

Kroll said Conrail’s report to Congress also 
urges wage restrictions and “government over- 
sight” of collective bargaining that would cause 
severe harm to labor-management relations. 

HE SAID THE proposal that Conrail employ- 
ees “get no wage increases until lower-paid cler- 
ical people in geographical sectors catch up” 
could leave BRAC members “sitting for ten years 
without a raise.” 

Kroll predicted that negotiations for new con- 
tracts with Amtrak and Conrail, which started a 
few weeks ago, will be “the most difficult we’ve 
had in half a century.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

L egislation to establish a subminimum wage for teenagers 
was given a public airing by the Senate Labor subcommittee 
chaired by Don Nickles, a newly elected Republican conservative. 

Nickles, a businessman from Oklahoma, has introduced a bill 
which would altogether eliminate minimum wage protection for 
workers under 18. 

Another bill introduced by Labor Committee Chairman Orrin G. 
Hatch (R-Utah) would allow employers to pay workers under 20 
years old 25 percent less than the minimum wage for up to six 
months. A third bill would cut the wage floor for teenagers by 
15 percent. 

Nickles and Hatch have labeled their proposals “Youth Oppor- 
tunity” bills which, they contend, could alleviate the problem of 
youth unemployment, especially among minority teenagers. 

Teenage unemployment, the Labor Dept, has reported, stood 
at 19.3 percent in February, with black teenage joblessness at 35.5 
percent. Similarly high jobless rates have persisted among youth 
for several years. 

AT THE HEARINGS in late March, Hatch called the teenage 
jobless situation “a cancer” and “a new form of slavery.” He 
noted that jobless youth often turn to crime. 

But despite the uncharacteristically strong language about the 
plight of jobless youth. Hatch and other subminimum wage pro- 
ponents admit they don’t know “whether it will work or not,” as 
Hatch put it, to make a significant dent in the problem. 

The subcommittee heard testimony from impartial experts that 
a youth wage differential would have only a marginal effect on 
teenage unemployment. Also, it was predicted that any jobs would 
more likely go to suburban white teenagers rather than to the 
hard-core unemployed youths in the inner city. 

Moreover, labor officials testified that there would be displace- 
ment of adult workers by teenagers hired at the lower wage. It 
was pointed out that nearly 70 percent of those working at the 
minimum wage levels are adults, many with families to support. 
Of these adults, some 70 percent are women. 

Thus, one group of workers would be pitted against another. 
Rather than creating employment, unemployment would be 
redistributed. 

Rather than talking about a subminimum wage as a way to 
lessen youth unemployment, labor and civil rights representatives 
urged the Senate panel to focus on programs to train and employ 
jobless young people. The same Republican senators calling loudly 
for a youth wage are stalwarts for the Administration’s budget- 
cutting drive, including cutbacks in youth jobs programs. 

Government economic policies geared toward full employment 
would be the best overall approach to youth joblessness, which is 
especially sensitive to changes in the economy, the labor leaders 
told Congress. 

SOME BUSINESS GROUPS which have lobbied in the past for 
. a two-tier wage declined to testify at the hearings. It was said that 
the businessmen feared that legislation to amend the Fair Labor 
Standards Act will open up the question of raising the minimum 
wage. 

Indeed, the labor officials told the Senators that Congress should 
consider raising the inflation-shrunken wage floor and indexing it 
to the cost of living. 

It was noted that the minimum wage, to have maintained the 
same buying power of the $1.40 minimum in 1967, should now 
be $3.75 an hour. On Jan. 1, the floor went to $3.35 an hour and 
will remain there unless Congress acts. 

Instead of going with the current game plan of placing the 
burden of a lagging economy on those who can least afford to 
bear it. Congress should provide for a living wage for millions of 
“working poor” Americans. 



DEEP BUDGET CUTS proposed by the Reagan Administra- 
tion threaten needed railroad services and 30,000 related jobs. 
President Fred J. Kroll, center, of the Railway & Airline Clerks 
warned. He was questioned on Labor News Conference by Lee 
Coney, left, of the Daily Labor Report and Drew Von ^rgen 
of United Press International. The program, produced by the 
AFL-CIO as a public service, is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 



TOP OFFICIALS of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights welcome Ralph 
Neas, second from left, as the organization’s first full-time executive director. 
Neas takes over many of the functions that Marvin Caplan, legislative director 
of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept., handled for 17 years as executive 
assistant. From left are Bayard Rustin, chairman of the organization’s executive 
committee; Neas; Clarence Mitchell, conference chairman, and former Sen. 
Edward W. Brooke, executive committee member. 

AIW Brewery Local Wins Role 
In Governing Pension Funds 


Blaming the Victims 

Food Stamp Cut Viewed 
As Rip in ‘Safety Net’ 


Frankenmuth, Mich. — Members of Al- 
lied Industrial Workers Local 812 will 
have a voice in the investment of their 
pension funds as the local won agreement 
on joint administration of the plan at the 
G. Heileman Brewing Co. plant here. 

While joint labor-management policy de- 
cisions on multi-employer plans are not 
uncommon, such a system is relatively rare 
in single-employer programs. 

THE HEILEMAN plan provides for a 
joint administrative committee composed 
of members appointed separately by the 
union and the company, with each side 
casting one aggregate vote. In the case of 
a deadlock, a neutral third-party arbitra- 
tion procedure may be invoked. 

“The exciting part of this particular 
program is that we were able to negotiate a 
joint administrative committee with over- 
all authority and responsibility for the 
operation of the plan,” AIW President 
Dominic D’Ambrosio said. “This will in- 
clude making the basic decisions with re- 
gards to the funding agent and the philoso- 

Mine Workers Reject 
Pact by 2-to-l Margin 

Members of the unaffiliated Mine Work- 
ers voted down a tentative three-year 
agreement with the soft-coal industry, 
pushing their strike against the operators 
into its second week. 

The union said that members voted 
against the pact’s ratification by a margin 
of more than 2 to 1. While the contract 
won approval in some small UMW units, 
it was defeated in the larger membership 
districts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West 
Virginia. 

Reached on Mar. 23, the proposed con- 
tract with the Bituminous Coal Operators’ 
Association would have replaced the mi- 
ners’ old pact that expired on Mar. 27. 

Unions Cover 

More than three out of five federal em- 
ployees were represented by unions last 
year, excluding the solidly organized U.S. 
Postal Service which once represented the 
bulk of organized public sector workers. 

The government’s Office of Personnel 
Management reported that 1,250,000 non- 
postal federal employees are in bargaining 
units, and 1,167,265 of them are protect- 
ed by negotiated agreements. The union- 
represented group is up 4,000 from the 
previous year and the number covered by 
contract is 18,443 higher. 

ON A PERCENTAGE basis, 61 per- 
cent of the federal workforce is represent- 
ed by unions. 

There are also 586,100 postal workers 
represented by unions, 88 percent of total 
postal employment. 


phy as to how the assets are to be in- 
vested. The committee will also hear and 
make all decisions on claim disputes.” 

While the pact provides for joint con- 
trol of the basic investment and benefit 
decisions, the company retains the right 
to select and supervise the actuary, the 
master trustee, and the plan administrator 
who maintains the records. However, it is 
the joint administrative committee which 
will decide on the investment managers 
and give investment instructions to these 
managers. 

“WHEN WE first put this proposal on 
the table, the company went into a whole 
song-and-dance about fiduciary responsi- 
bility like it was some sort of deadly dis- 
ease,” AIW Assistant Research Director 
Jeff MacDonald recalled. 

“But our local bargaining committee 
understood that this is simply the kind of 
responsibility you’d want anyone to ac- 
cept who has authority over someone else’s 
money. It’s very much of a common-sense 
thing, not something only experts and 
lawyers can comprehend,” he said. 

MacDonald indicated that the union 
would offer an education and training 
program for its new pension trustees. 

ANOTHER AIW unit. Local 806 at 
the Caterpillar Tractor Co. in Milwaukee, 
recently negotiated a joint board for the 
administration of a newly created sup- 
plemental employment benefit program. 
Three union and three company represen- 
tatives will mak© up the board, which 
will be responsible for determining the 
eligibility of workers for benefits and the 
level of benefits for which they qualify. 

The Caterpillar board will not have any 
investment authority, although the nego- 
tiated agreement specifies the types of 
investments permissible. A third-party 
chairman may be appointed to resolve 
disputed issues. 


In all these percentage figures, supervi- 
sory and management-level employees are 
considered as part of the workforce. The 
percentage of the workforce represented 
by unions would be higher if persons not 
eligible for bargaining units were excluded. 

While there are more white-collar sala- 
ried employees than hourly-paid blue-col- 
lar workers in federal bargaining units, 
86 percent of the blue-collar workers are 
represented by unions compared with 54 
percent of white-collar workers. 

THE AMERICAN Federation of Gov- 
ernment Employees, representing 509,500 
salaried employees and 186,460 blue-col- 
lar employees, bargains for the largest 
group of federal workers. Others with 
substantial bargaining units are the Metal 
Trades Councils and the Machinists, 


Food stamps are a major line of defense 
against hunger for the jobless, the poor 
and the elderly living on welfare budgets, 
and gains made in the program should be 
preserved, the AFL-CIO told the Senate 
Agriculture Committee. 

Legislative Rep. Kenneth Peterson tied 
the growth in the program to the lack of 
growth in the economy and to mounting 
state and local budget problems. 

EVERY ONE PERCENT of unem- 
ployment increases food stamp participa- 
tion by 1 to 1.2 million persons, Peterson 
said, pointing out that “more and more 
states are decreasing their welfare pay- 
ments to the poor and forcing the food 
stamp program to take up the slack.” 

The AFL-CIO opposes cuts in the pro- 
gram sought by the Administration, Peter- 
son said. He noted that the present Food 
Stamp Act is the result of “intensive ef- 
forts” over the past four years to make 
benefits more accessible to the needy and 
streamline administrative procedures. 

Peterson questioned Administration 
claims that large cuts in aid, which pro- 
vides about 44 cents a meal for food, 
would still provide a “safety net for the 
truly needy.” 

ALL RECIPIENTS of food stamps are 
poor, Peterson emphasized. Some 87 per- 
cent have gross incomes below the official 
poverty line, he said, adding that “those 
with incomes above the poverty line have 
numbers of dependents and excessive shel- 
ter and other expenses which bring their 
net incomes below the poverty level.” 

Peterson criticized the proposed “retro- 
spective accounting” method of determin- 
ing eligibility for food stamps, which 
would base eligibility for aid on a period 
of past income rather than current need. 

It would penalize workers recently laid 
off or who have run out of unemployment 
benefits who would have to “suffer a pe- 
riod of several weeks with no income” 
before being eligible for food stamps to 


Cleveland — Tough legislation to curb 
excesses of private plant security guards, 
prompted by labor’s complaints about the 
killing of a union picket, has been passed 
by the Cleveland City Council. 

Councilman Michael R. White, a Dem- 
ocrat, called the new ordinance one of the 
“most stringent laws regulating security 
guards on strike premises.” 

THE LEGISLATION, which has been 
amended four times since White, at the 
urging of the Cleveland AFL-CIO, intro- 
duced it about 27 months ago, requires 
armed security guards tto be licensed by 
the city and bonded to at least $5,000. 

Private security firms must have com- 
prehensive liability insurance and must 


among AFL-CIO affiliates, and the un- 
affiliated National Federation of Federal 
Employees, Treasury Employees Union 
and National Association of Government 
Employees. 

There are no union security provisions 
in contracts covering federal workers so 
that, especially in the non-postal fields, 
large numbers of workers vote for union 
representation but do not belong to the 
unions that bargain for them. 

While union representation figures were 
little changed..over the year, OPM report- 
ed a decline in bargaining units as the 
result of major consolidations of units in 
the Veterans Administration and the Gen- 
eral Services Administration. The average 
bargaining unit size, 474 last year, is 42 
percent higher than five years ago. 


feed their families, Peterson pointed out. 

MIGRANT WORKERS and others 
with low, fluctuating incomes would be 
hurt by this system, Peterson said, point- 
ing out that it could be used to deny food 
stamps to strikers who, although they ac- 
count for only two-tenths of 1 percent of 
food stamp recipients, are repeatedly sin- 
gled out for attack. 

Another proposal, which would force 
food stamp families to mail in monthly 
income statements or lose benefits, could 
create “serious hardship” for the elderly, 
the disabled and others, Peterson said. 
And he branded as unjust the Adminis- 
tration proposal to drop inflation-fueled 
shelter and energy adjustments from eligi- 
bility formulas. 

The plan to reduce food stamp benefits 
for families with children enrolled in 
school lunch programs would cut benefits 
to about 43 percent of recipients, Peter- 
son told the committee. He voiced labor’s 
opposition at the same time to an Admin- 
istration proposal to cut some $1 billion 
from the child nutrition and school lunch 
program itself. 

STRESSING THAT the needy are vic- 
tims of a poor economy, not the cause of 
it, he scored Administration plans to slash 
cost-of-living adjustments for food stamp 
benefits and pointed out that the proposal 
to cut off all households from food stamp 
programs whose incomes exceed $11,000 
a year after July 1 would “hit hardest at 
those people who are trying to work their 
way out of dependency on public pro- 
grams.” 

The AFL-CIO believes that energy di- 
rected at slashing the food stamp program 
would be better used for programs to re- 
duce the number of poor who need them, 
Peterson said. 

The needy “have the most to lose as 
they wait on the Administration’s untested 
economic theory to provide jobs,” he , 
observed. 


purchase a $150 license from the city. 

Labor and community pressure for 
the ordinance came after the shooting of 
Thomas Moss, Jr., a welder and member 
of Upholsterers Local 48, by a Chicago 
security guard. Moss was killed while on 
picket duty at the struck Bargar Metal 
Fabricating Co. in January 1978. Cleve- 
land unions raised $20,000 for his sur- 
vivors. 

Local union officials had attended more 
than 10 hearings on the new city law 
offering testimony. 

“It was a long hard struggle but justice 
prevailed,” said Sebastian Lupica, execu- 
tive secretary of the Cleveland AFL-CIO. 
“All of labor worked hard for passage and 
Councilman White never gave up.” 

“NOT ONLY should union members be 
safer during strikes from the actions of 
irresponsible security guards because the 
ordinance should help weed out most of 
the bad ones, but the general public will 
benefit,” said Martin J. Hughes, president 
of the central labor body. 

Hughes said another important provi- 
sion is that security guards working labor 
disputes are prohibited from leaving their 
firms with a weapon. 

The law also prohibits a security guard 
working a labor dispute from discharging 
a weapon except to protect his life or the 
life of another person. 

In life-threatening situations, police 
must be called, the ordinance specifies. 
Violators will be subject to damages deter- 
mined by a court. 

All security guards will be required to 
carry city-issued identification cards with 
photographs and may not carry weapons 
more powerful than a .38-caliber pistol. 


61 fo of Federal Workforce 


Cleveland Adopts Strict Law 
Regulating Company Guards 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 


Page Seven 


Labor Press 
Wins Postal 
Discount Rate 

The AFL-CIO International Labor 
Press Association won a major victory for 
all non-profit publications when the Post- 
al Rate Commission agreed to provide 
the same special discounts available 'to 
regular rate publications. 

The decision, upheld by the governors 
of the U.S. Postal Service, came after a 
four-year fight by ILPA to win discounts 
for pre-sorting mail to Postal Service 
specifications. The discounts reflect sav- 
ings to USPS from having mailers per- 
form these tasks in their own mailrooms. 

ALTHOUGH THE rate commission 
had agreed with ILPA in two earlier rate 
cases that non-profit mailers should be 
entitled to the discounts for pre-sorting to 
various zip code and carrier route levels, 
the most recent case, decided Feb. 19, was 
the first time the commission actually 
set the discounts in the rate structure. 

ILPA Sec.-Treas. Susan Dunlop, in a 
statement outlining the discounts, pointed 
out that while only larger publications 
would be in a position to take advantage 
of the more sophisticated carrier route 
sorting, labor papers that sort only to the 
zip code level will realize total savings of 
more than $1 million in 1981 compared 
with the previous rate structure. Most 
labor publications already sort at this 
level, Dunlop pointed out, aifd the cost 
factor of adjusting to the new sorting re- 
quirements is negligible. 

By 1987, Dunlop noted the savings 
from zip code sorting could amount to 
nearly $2 million per year in postal costs 
for the labor press. 

SHE WARNED, however, that the vic- 
tory would be curtailed if the Administra- 
tion’s budget cut proposals for the Postal 
Service are adopted. 

The cuts would eliminate almost im- 
mediately the phasing of a long-term 
series of rate increases for non-profit pub- 
lications. Both second and third class non- 
profit postal rates would virtually double 
on Oct. 1, 1981, and the effect of the 
newly won discounts would be lessened, 
Dunlop said. 

Economic Index 
In 3-Month Drop 

(Continued from Page 1) 

for the country this year. A forecast last 
month anticipated that “real” gross na- 
tional product — the inflation-adjusted 
value of all goods and services produced 
in the country — would rise only about 
1.1 percent this year, following last year’s 
decline of two-tenths of 1 percent. 

Six of the 10 indicators available for 
the Commerce Dept, report on economic 
trends contributed to last month’s decline 
in the index, with the sharpest drop com- 
ing in the length of the average factory 
workweek. This was estimated at 39.8 
hours, down from 40.4 hours in January. 

Other signs of economic weakness in- 
volved the layoff rate, contracts and or- 
ders for plant and equipment, building 
permits, stock prices, and money supply. 

The four indicators reflecting strength 
were the percentage of companies report- 
ing slower deliveries from suppliers, new 
orders for consumer and manufacturing 
goods, producer prices, and the change in 
liquid assets. 

Three Summer Schools 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Education and 
the Coalition of Labor Union Women 
will co-sponsor three regional schools for 
union women this summer in cooperation 
with the Task Force on Education for 
Union Women of the University & Col- 
lege Labor Education Association. 

Each five-day school will include work- 
shops on grievance handling, public speak- 
ing, newsletter publication, assertiveness 
training, organizing and legislative and 
political issues of importance to labor. The 
schools are open to all union women, and 



national legislative - 

POLITICAL CONFERENCE 


BUDGET ILLS should be cured by job-creating programs, union’s legislative conference. Afternoons during the three- 
not funding cuts that add to unemployment, Communica- day meeting were spent in visits to legislators on Capitol 
tion Workers President Glenn Watts told delegates to the Hill urging preservation of vital social and jobs programs. 


CWA Legislative Sessions 
Score Budget-Cutting Fever 


N.Y. Sweatshops 
Targeted for 
Wage Abuses 

The Labor Dept, has ordered a special 
strike force into New York City’s garment 
district as part of a nationwide crackdown 
on violations of federal minimum wage, 
overtime, and child labor laws. 

Citing increasing reports of an upsurge 
in violations of the wage laws and a re- 
turn of “sweatshops” to the New York 
area. Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
pledged “to use my full legal authority” 
to protect workers from exploitation and 
uphold the Fair Labor Standards Act. The 
act requires employers to pay a minimum 
of $3.35 an hour and also to pay over- 
time for work in excess of 40 hours a 
week. 

THE LABOR DEPT, began using strike 
forces in February 1979 in New York’s 
Chinatown district. The enforcement 
team’s efforts there resulted in over 100 
court injunctions against minimum wage 
and overtime violators. 

The strike force concept involves focus- 
ing a team of experienced compliance 
officers in geographic areas or industries 
where workplace abuses are believed to be 
widespread. 

In fiscal year 1980, the Wage & Hour 
Division of the Labor Dept.’s Employment 
Standards Administration, which adminis- 
ters the Fair Labor Standards Act, con- 
ducted more than 1,600 strike force in- 
vestigations. About $4.7 million in wage 
underpaym’ents was found owed to low- 
income workers. Over $2 million has al- 
ready been refunded to workers, and the 
department is suing to recover the balance. 

DONOVAN SAID that while reports 
of abuses are widespread, they are often 
difficult to document. 

“Our compliance officers can and do 
find substandard working conditions. They 
also find undocumented workers who fear 
deportation, and therefore do not ffle 
complaints. Records are often not kept. 
Hours worked are falsified. Social secu- 
rity numbers are not listed. Home ad- 
dresses are not maintained. Time cards 
are inaccurately punched. Workers are 
often paid ‘off the books,’ ” he said. 

Set for Union Women 

teaching staff will come from university 
labor education departments, the AFL- 
CIO and unions. 

The Northeast and Mid- Atlantic school 
will be held July 19-24 at the University 
of Maine, Orono. The Midwest school will 
be held July 26-31 at Macalester College, 
St. Paul, Minn., and the Southern school 
will meet Aug. 9-14 at Unicoi Resort, 
Helen, Ga. Information on applications 
and tuition is available from state federa- 
tion officers in each region or from the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Education. 


Job-creating programs would do more 
to balance the federal budget than slash- 
ing spending for social programs and 
thereby adding to the unemployment rolls. 
Communications Workers President Glenn 
Watts told the union’s national legislative 
conference. 

Emphasis at the Washington meeting 
was on political and legislative action to 
deal with the new political climate in Con- 
gress and the White House. 

WATTS TOLD the 1 ,000 delegates that 
the Administration’s budget-cutting eco- 
nomic package is “cold, insensitive and 
impersonal.” 

“It doesn’t take an economist,” he ob- 
served, “to conclude that the Reagan plan 
will require the greatest sacrifices from 
those least able to make them.” 

With each afternoon of the Washington 
conference set aside for personal calls on 
senators and representatives, Watts urged 
the delegates to make the budget issue the 
“top priority” on visits to Capitol Hill. 
He warned that congressional rubber- 
stamping of the Administration’s proposals 
could result in “the worst assault on the 
nation’s poor and needy, its minorities, 
and even its middle class,” since the De- 
pression. 

Watts questioned whether budget cuts 
of “essential social programs that will 
weaken the economy, increase unemploy- 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
called on Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
to clarify Administration policy on im- 
migration and on funding of manpower 
programs. 

In a letter to Donovan, Kirkland cited 
reports that the Administration’s Inter- 
agency Task Force on Immigration Policy 
will shortly recommended the adoption of 
“some sort of ‘bracero’ or ‘guestworker’ 
programs.” 

ANY SUCH recommendation is “con- 
trary to the interests of U.S. workers and 
will exacerbate unemployment and under- 
mine the already low level of wages” in 
industries likely to employ imported work- 
ers, Kirkland said. 

“We will oppose any program which 
would have such results, and I would ask 
that you exercise your full authority to 
prevent this injury to American workers,” 
he added. 

Uncertainty caused by the absence of 
firm Administration policy on the imple- 
mentation of budget cuts affecting a num- 
ber of national manpower programs is 


ment by up to a million jobs and cause 
individual hardships” could actually cure 
budget deficits. Eliminating job programs 
will increase unemployment, he pointed 
out, terming such proposals “a strange 
way to foster economic recovery.” 

He called for adoption of labor’s alter- 
native program stressing job creation and 
full employment as antidoes to the nation’s 
economic ills. 

KENNETH YOUNG, executive assis- 
tant to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land, told the CWA delegates they were 
in the forefront of “people coming to the 
nation’s capital to make it clear that 
American workers strongly oppose wiping 
out more than 40 years of social progress.” 

Labor rejects the view “that the new 
Administration came to this city with a 
mandate to take from the workers and 
give to the wealthy,” Young said. 

He called the Administration’s endorse- 
ment of so-called supply-side economics 
a gamble with the economy which would 
“pour benefits on the wealthy” in the hope 
that “eventually some will spill over to 
those most in need.” 

Tax breaks for corporations, he said, 
should be targeted to the Administration’s 
own definition of “the truly needy” to 
help damaged industries and areas of high 
unemployment rather than already thriv- 
ing industries. 


causing “difficulties and hardship” for 
hundreds of workers who conduct the pro- 
grams and tens of thousands enroll in 
them, Kirkland said. 

Although Labor Dept, contracts cover- 
ing some 30 national contracting agencies, 
including the AFL-CIO’s Human Resour- 
ces Development Institute, were to expire 
on Mar. 31, Kirkland said in his letter of 
Mar. 26, the situation is confused by con- 
flicting “rumors of one-month extensions, 
phasing down, phasing out, etc.” 

THE AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions 
involved in these programs “feel a heavy 
responsibility” to all persons involved in 
them, Kirkland said. 

“It is impossible to continue to hold 
these organizations together, to maintain 
trained staffs, to plan for the future or to 
reassure present enrollees, without clarifi- 
cation of future policy from the Labor 
Dept.,” Kirkland concluded. “I urge you 
to consider this matter and to provide the 
clearest possible information about these 
programs, their contracts and their future 
as promptly as possible.” 


Donovan Pressed on Policy 
For Migrants, Job Programs 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., APRIL 4, 1981 


As Conversions Surge 

Curb on Abuses Urged 
In ‘Condo’ Takeovers 


The increase in rental property conver- 
sion to high-priced condominium and co- 
operative apartments at a time when hous- 
ing generally is in short supply is creating 
hardships for many Americans, the AFL- 
CIO warned Congress. 

“Measures must be adopted to combat 
the inequity and social stress, as well as 
the inflationary impact, of unrestrained 
conversion of rental properties,” Henry 
B. Schechter, director of the federation’s 
Office of Housing & Monetary Policy, said 
in testimony submitted to a House Govern- 
ment Operations subcommittee. 

IN VIEW of tight rental markets and 
the accelerating trend toward conversions, 
he said Congress should consider several 
steps, including: 

• Expanded authority for federally as- 
sisted, newly constructed rental housing to 
enlarge the available supply for low- and 
middle-income Americans, “rather than 
the drastic reductions being proposed by 
the Reagan Administration.” 

• The exercise of selective credit reg- 
ulation under the 1968 Credit Control Act 
to halt the financing of condominium con- 
versions until the housing supply has ex- 
panded to adequate levels so that conver- 
sions will not add to inflation. 

• A study to determine whether more 
definite guidelines are needed on con- 
dominium conversions and whether to pro- 
vide for federal intervention if appropriate 
state or local measures are not adopted. 

A RECENT Housing & Urban Devel- 
opment Dept, study showed that by late 
1979 and in the first half of 1980, be- 
tween 20 and 30 percent of new apart- 


ment units being completed, or about 
100,000 a year, were condominiums or 
cooperatives, Schechter observed. But the 
rate of condominium creation through 
conversion of existing rental apartment 
buildings has been overtaking new con- 
struction of such units, he added. 

The highest incidence of conversions in 
the country has occurred in the metro- 
politan Washington, D.C., area, Schechter 
noted. A study' by the area’s Council of 
Governments showed that 15,102 condo- 
miniums were added there in the year 
ended last July 1. Of these, 79 percent, or 
11,922, were rental units that had been 
converted. 

THE CONVERSIONS work their 
greatest hardships on the previous tenants. 
On the average, about 60 percent of the 
pre-conversion tenants move rather than 
buy or remain as tenants, Schechter 
pointed out. A HUD survey showed that 
close to half of the former renters who 
did not purchase said they could not 
afford to do so. 

A high proportion of the non-purchas- 
ing movers were in the low-income group, 
were elderly or were families with three 
or more persons that generally need three 
or more bedrooms. 

For the owner of a rental housing 
property in a tight market, an oppor- 
tunity to sell to a converter is often quite 
advantageous, especially if the property 
is at an age when major repairs or equip- 
ment replacements are needed, Schechter 
noted. For the converters, there is an op- 
portunity to realise fat profits. The re- 
sult is not only added inflation, but 
further housing shortages. 


Budget Cuts Seen Destroying 
Incentives of Working Poor 


The combined effect of Reagan Admin- 
istration cutbacks in federal aid programs 
would reduce the income of the working 
poor and leave them little better off than 
those on welfare, thus destroying the in- 
centive to work, according to the Univer- 
sity of Chicago Center for the Study of 
Welfare Policy. 

The center studied the impact of pro- 
posed reductions on working and non- 
working poor families in 10 states. 

AFTER CONSIDERING the impact in 
Aid to Families with Dependent Children 
(AFDC), food stamps, Medicaid, public 
housing and emergency fuel assistance 
and job programs, the center concluded: 

“Taken alone, each cut seems to be 
small enough to allow a recipient to 
absorb it with other income. Taken to- 
gether, the effects of the cuts are great 
enough that many families will be unable 
to meet their monthly living expenses.” 


The Reagan Administration has held 
that the cuts will hurt low-income work- 
ers only modestly and, rather than reduc- 
ing the incentive to work, will encourage 
the working poor to work harder to make 
up the difference. This is a departure 
from the policy of a previous Administra- 




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tions and Congress to build work incen- 
tives into the welfare system by supple- 
menting the income of low-paid, poverty- 
level workers in order to increase differ- 
ences in disposable income between earn- 
ers and non-earners. 

THE CENTER’S comparisons between 
the monthly disposable incomes of low- 
paid working families and families who 
rely totally on public assistance were done 
using only the proposed changes in 
AFDC and food stamps. 

Changes in these programs proposed by 
the Administration include: no longer 
allowing deductions for work-related ex- 
penses such as transportation, social se- 
curity taxes and child care in calculating 
AFDC eligibility; counting the earned- 
income tax credit for workers earning less 
than $10,000 as part of income; and de- 
ducting free school lunches from food 
stamp allotments. 

In some states, the proposed budget 
reductions would make the differences in 
disposable income between earners and 
non-earners almost negligible, according 
to the center’s calculations. For example, 
based on average monthly income of a 
mother with two children, the difference 
between earners and non-earners would 
be reduced from $64 under the current 
system to no difference under the pro- 
posed changes. In Utah, the difference 
would be reduced from $116 to $8. In 
New York, the difference would drop 
from $162 to $15. 

CONGRESS MUST find “less onerous 
ways of reducing federal spending,” the 
study concluded, “without abandoning the 
commitments to ^economic and social 
justice which our nation has made.” 

The non-partisan center is directed by 
Thomas C. W. Joe, a former welfare 
official in the Nixon Administration. Joe 
was the principal author of the new s-tudy, 
which is intended to provide background 
material for considering the proposed 
changes in legislation made* by the 
Reagan Administration. 



CONCERNED RESPONSE of workers opposed to the Reagan budget can 
shrink congressional support for the proposed cuts, House Speaker Thomas P. 
O’Neill tells the national legislative conference of the Coalition of Labor Union 
Women in Washington. With O’Neill are, from left, Evelyn Dubrow, vice presi- 
dent of the Ladies’ Garment Workers; CLUW President Joyce Miller, a vice 
president of the Qothing & Textile Workers and of the AFL-CIO, and Clara 
Day, Teamsters representative. 


O’Neill Cites Impact of Mail 
In Shifting Mood of Congress 


Americans who oppose the Reagan bud- 
get cuts should write their legislators now 
to ask their support in fighting the cuts. 
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill urged 
the national legislative conference of the 
Coalition of Labor Union Women. 

The Massachusetts Democrat told the 
500 CLUW delegates that “members of 
Congress tend to follow the mood of the 
public, and for the moment they think 
that mood is a mandate to cut, cut, cut.” 

LEGISLATORS will be responsive to a 
shift in perception about what their con- 
stituents actually want because “they are 
concerned about the economy at home, 
they are concerned about the people at 
home, and they are concerned about the 
next election,” O’Neill said. 

He pointed to his own experience with 
what he called “a coming change” in the 
public attitude in defense of health, edu- 
cation and jobs programs. O’Neill told the 
conference that his own mail started out 
100-to-l in favor of the Administration’s 
program, then dropped to 10-to-l and is 
now running about 3-to-2 in favor. 

CLUW President Joyce Miller, an AFL- 
CIO vice president and a vice president 
of the Clothing & Textile Workers, said 
the conference theme, “Strategies for the 
’80s,” was chosen to highlight the need 
for working women and other Americans 
“to join hands with those who share our 
concerns and prepare for positive action 
to counter the threats to workers, men and 
women alike” posed by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s budget-cutting proposals. 

THE NEED to preserve social pro- 
grams in the budget is important to work- 
ing women. Miller stressed, because they 


stand “to be hit the hardest and for the 
longest time if we fail to win this fight.” 

The national policies and programs of 
concern to working women and others 
took many years to win and must not be 
allowed to be washed away now. Miller 
told the delegates who spent one after- 
noon of the conference in visits to mem- 
bers of Congress to seek support of budget 
positions. 

Miller agreed that all Americans must 
“pitch in” to fight economic problems, 
stressing that “the trade union women of 
this nation will work in our unions and 
with other groups to assure that the bur- 
den of sacrifice is borne equally. And that 
means not ‘pitching out’ equal employ- 
ment opportunity laws, sabotaging the 
minimum wage or denying legal sanctions 
for health and safety on the job.” 

THE VALUE and technique of build- 
ing coalitions to achieve legislative goals 
was also discussed by Rep. Margaret 
Heckler (R-Mass.), who heads the Con- 
gressional women’s caucus; Rep. Robert 
Garcia (D-N.Y.), chairman of the His- 
panic caucus; and Del. Walter Fauntroy 
(D-D.C.), chairman of the black caucus. 

Other speakers included Eleanor Smeal, 
president of the National Organization for 
Women; Dorothy Height, president of the 
National Council of Negro Women; Msgr. 
Francis J. Lally, secretary of the U.S. 
Catholic Conference’s Dept, of Social De- 
velopment and World Peace; Carl Green, 
networks director of the Congressional 
Black Caucus; Barbara Wertheimer, asso- 
ciate professor at the New York School of 
Industrial & Labor Relations; and Oscar 
Sanchez, secretary-treasurer of the Labor 
Council for Latin American Advancement. 


Government Poverty Line 
Rises to $8,450 for Family 

The federal government has boosted its official poverty-level guideline for 
family income by $1,000 to $8,450, the Labor Dept, reported. 

The guideline, which is used by numerous federal agencies to determine 
income eligibUity for programs that assist the poor, reflects increases in con- 
sumer prices over the past year. The change became effective on Mar. 11. 


Under the new guideline, an urban family of four living in the continental 
United States is considered below the poverty level if its income totals $8,450 a 
year or less. 

A ‘‘single-person” family would be considered poor under the revised guide- 
lines if income were below $3,680. That ceiling is $430 higher than a year earlier. 


The eligibility requirements for most programs under the Comprehensive Edu- 
cation & Training Act include the definition of “economically disadvantaged” 
person, which is based in part on the poverty-level guideline. 


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a Federal Aviation Administration plan for a rule change 
that would reduce the number of attendants required on 
commercial flights. (Story, Page 3.) 


FLIGHT ATTENDANTS picket and leaflet Washington 
National Airport to ask the traveling public to support their 
Campaign for Air Passenger Safety. The union is opposing 


^ No All-Out Challenge 

House Democrats Shape 
Milder Cuts in Budget 


Oil Decontrol 
Fuels New Rise 
In Energy Costs 

Prospects for any near-term improve- 
ment in wholesale prices remained clouded 
as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 
a 1.3 percent rise in its producer price 
index for March, about half of it due to 
surging energy costs following President 
Reagan’s decontrol of domestic petroleum 
prices. 

Food prices also rose, turning up by 
eight-tenths of 1 percent after several 
months of stable or slightly falling prices. 

FRESH AND dried vegetable prices 
soared 19.4 percent, and fish prices were 
up 4 percent over the month. Pork rose 
2.6 percent, although beef, veal, and 
processed poultry continued to decline. 

On the other hand, sugar prices plunged 
15.3 percent, and prices for Florida 
oranges declined 10.7 percent following a 
57 percent surge in February. 

The major factor in pushing producer 
(Continued on Page 3) 


The AFL-CIO accused the Reagan Ad- 
ministration of abusing the congressional 
budget process to force a rewriting of the 
nation’s laws and protested that harsh 
spending cuts, inequitable tax policies and 
hasty deregulation will worsen problems 
they are supposed to solve. 

Legislative Rep. Peggy Taylor presented 
the AFL-CIO’s alternative economic pro- 
posals to the Senate Budget Committee 
which is working on a resolution setting 
spending and revenue targets for the 1982 
fiscal year, which starts next October. 

THE SENATE has already approved, 
by a lopsided 88-10 vote, a resolution in- 
structing its committees to revise laws 
within their jurisdiction in order to achieve 
the spending reductions that would be re- 
quired by the Administration budget. On 
all key votes, the Senate’s Republican ma- 
jority had substantial support from con- 
servative Democrats. 

Taylor challenged the “simplistic notion 


House Democrats prepared to challenge 
the details but not the thrust of the Rea- 
gan Administration’s budget and tax pro- 
posals. 

The showdowns will not come until 
early May, after Congress returns from a 
two-week Easter recess. But the Demo- 
cratic alternatives are being put into final 
shape by the Budget Committee and the 
Ways & Means Committee, while the 
House Democratic Caucus has endeavored 
to build a party consensus around a state- 
ment of economic principles. 

DEMOCRATS HOLD a 242-191 ma- 
jority in the House. But the party leader- 
ship’s strategy has been shaped with pain- 
ful awareness that the 44-member Con- 
servative Democratic Forum has already 
publicly embraced the President’s program 
and may hold the balance of power in the 
House. 


that all of the nation’s problems would go 
away if our government would simply 
spend less, tax less and protect less.” 

Federal budget deficits didn’t create the 
problems, she said, and budget slashes 
won’t solve them. 

Budgets should be based on “the na- 
tion’s needs and circumstances,” Taylor 
stressed. But the Reagan budget rests in- 
stead “on economic theories that have no 
foundation in fact or logic,” she said. 

It represents “a corruption of the budg- 
etary process” that usurps the normal 
legislative function, Taylor charged. 

She said the Reagan budget would com- 
pel “revisions in laws without the benefit 
of careful, prudent considerations” and 
require “short-circuiting” of the legislative 
process. 

TAYLOR reiterated the AFL-CIO’s 
proposal for a more equitable and less 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Budget Committee Chairman Jim Jones 
(D-Okla.) is hopeful of holding the bulk of 
Democratic conservatives for the package 
he has put together for a budget resolu- 
tion setting both spending limits and reve- 
nue targets. Seventeen of the 18 commit- 
tee Democrats agreed in caucus to support 
the proposal. 

It would lessen the Administration’s 
proposed cuts in a broad range of domes- 
tic programs — restoring about 25 percent 
of the Reagan reductions. 

More than $1 billion would be added 
for Medicaid benefits through rejecting 
the Administration proposal to put a dol- 
lar ceiling on total outlays. 

, AN ADDITIONAL $2.8 billion would 
be allocated to a budget category that cov- 
ers education, employment and social 
services. 

Other additions to the Reagan budget 
would include funds for low-income fuel 
assistance, for aid to families with depen- 
dent children, and for legal aid to the 
poor. The minimum social security benefit 
would be gradually phased out, instead of 
abolished. 

The military spending increase would 
be kept under the Administration budget 
through cutting back a military pay in- 
crease, but this aspect of the package was 
still being debated in committee. 

DESPITE THE changes, the overall 
spending package* was close enough to the 
President’s proposals that Administration 
officials were relatively restrained in their 
criticism. 

Treasury Sec. Donald T. Regan termed 
the Democratic package “well-inten- 
tioned,” but he nevertheless insisted that 
Congress shouldn’t tamper with the Presi- 
dent’s programs because of the November 
election “mandate.” 

Further, any budget adopted by the 
House will eventually have to be compro- 
mised with the Senate version. And the 
Republican-controlled Senate up to now 
has given the President everything he has 
sought. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Budget, Tax Policies Seen 
Aggravating Economic Ills 


Identification 
Of Chemicals 
Called Vital 

The Reagan Administration showed pro- 
industry bias and a lack of concern for 
workers by scuttling an OSHA proposal 
to require identification of chemical haz- 
ards in workplaces, the AFL-CIO charged 
at House hearings. 

Workers have a “right-to-know” about 
the health risks they may encounter on 
the job, AFL-CIO Legislative Director 
Ray Denison insisted. 

THE HEARINGS, by an Education & 
Labor subcommittee, concern withdrawal 
of a hazard identification regulation that 
had been proposed by the Occupational 
Safety & Health Administration last Janu- 
ary and the cancellation of hearings at 
which interested parties were to have com- 
mented on the proposal. 

Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan an- 
nounced withdrawal of the OSHA pro- 
posal immediately after he took office, 
dismissing it as a “midnight regulation” 
of the outgoing Carter Administration. 

Denison, joined by AFL-CIO Safety 
Director George H. R. Taylor and Mar- 
garet Seminario, industrial hygienist for 
the federation, sharply disputed that view. 

Lack of knowledge about chemical in- 
gredients and hazards has caused “disease, 
injury and death,” he said. 

The OSHA proposal, which was more 
limited than labor had urged, was the out- 
growth of years of discussions and nego- 
tiations dating back to the Ford Adminis- 
tration, Denison noted. 

IT WAS abruptly withdrawn, he stressed, 
“before hearing from the labor movement 
. . . before an Assistant Secretary of La- 
bor for OSHA had been nominated, and 
with no review of the proposed regulation 
or consultation with OSHA staff familiar 
with the rule or its history.” 

The department’s action was politically 
motivated, Denison charged. 

Denison noted that less than a week 
before the withdrawal of the hazard iden- 
tification proposal, the Chemical Manu- 
facturers Association had written to top 
Administration officials, as well as to 
Donovan, to protest that the hazard dis- 
closure requirement would be costly and 
burdensome. 

The circumstances “suggest that politi- 
cal motivation was the sole basis for this 

(Continued on Page 8) 

Tax-Free Bonds 
Termed Costly 
Treasury Drain 

Tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds 
have been a windfall for companies that 
don’t need a subsidy and a costly drain on 
federal revenues that can no longer be 
justified, the AFL-CIO testified. 

A House Ways & Means subcommittee 
is looking into the program, and AFL- 
CIO Deputy Research Director Henry B. 
Schechter suggested that it be scrapped 
entirely. 

INSTEAD, he urged, Congress should 
target business tax assistance “to the in- 
dustries and areas where the needs are 
greatest” as part of an overall reindustrial- 
ization program. 

Schechter noted that labor’s criticisms 
of the “small-issue” industrial revenue 
bonds program has been documented in 
large part by a Congressional Budget 
Office study which pointed to windfalls 
from the program going “to firms that 
would have made the same investments 
without the tax benefits.” 

Enterprises financed through the tax- 
exempt bonds issued by state and local 
development agencies are supposed to 
serve a “public purpose.” But Schechter 

(Continued on Page 7) 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


‘Hold It! He’s Got the Right of Way!’ 



iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiii 

Graphics^ Historical Texts 
Salute Labor’s Centennial 

The AFL-CIO has produced a series of printed materials supporting activities 
related to the federation’s centennial observance this year. 

Prepared for use by affiliates, central bodies, local unions and individual union 
members, as well as by the news media, educators, and the interested public, the 
materials are now available in quantity, at reasonable prices, at AFL-CIO head- 
. quarters. They include; 

A Short History of American Labor — A 36-page, full-color, strikingly illus- 
trated booklet telling modem labor’s story from the founding of the Federation 
of Organized Trades & Labor Unions in 1881 (from which the AFL emerged) 
through years of struggle and strife, setbacks and achievements, up to the point 
where organized labor today enters its second' century as a central part of 
American democratic society. 

A Short History of American Labor — The shorter, 1 6-page version condens- 
ing the materials in the full-color booklet, using many of the historic illustra- 
tions. Reprinted from the March 1981 issue of the American Federationist. 

Centennial Poster — ^Four-color art combined with the famous words of Sam- 
uel Gompers on the question “What Does Labor Want?” this 17-by-28-inch 
poster also carries the centennial theme and the identifying logo created espe- 
cially for labor’s 100th birthday. 

Bumper Sticker — The centennial bumper sticker — sprinted in red, white and 
blue — carries the logo and theme, “A Century of Achievement, A Challenge for 
the Future.” Stickers are 4-by-15 inches and printed on pressure-sensitive stock 
that removes without tearing or splitting. 

Other Federationist Reprints: 


High Court Urged to Reject 
Delay on Cotton Dust Rule 


The AFL-CIO has petitioned the Su- 
preme Court to reject the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s request that the court shelve its 
review of the federal cotton dust standard. 

The Clothing & Textile Workers and 
the Industrial Union Dept, joined in the 
petition opposing the government’s attempt 
to short-circuit the high court’s pending 
decision on the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration regulation. 

ASSISTANT LABOR Sec. Thorne G. 
Auchter, who heads OSHA, is seeking 
withdrawal of the 1978 cotton dust stan- 
dard to conduct a so-called cost-benefit 
analysis in compliance with a Feb. 19 
presidential directive. 

In filing a memorandum with the court 
for the Labor Dept., the Solicitor General 
asked the justices to “refrain from further 
consideration of issues” involving the cot- 
ton dust standard which a federal appeals 
court upheld against an industry chal- 
lenge last year. 

The government also asked the justices 
to “vacate the judgment of the court of 
appeals” and remand the case back to 
the Labor Dept, “for further considera- 
tion and development.” 

WHEN THE case came before the Su- 
preme Court, both the government’s law- 
yers and union lawyers argued against 
the industry’s contention that the standard 
should undergo a cost-benefit study. They 
pointed out that the very principle of 
cost-benefit analysis was inconsistent with 
the intent of the 1970 OSHA law to ^pro- 
vide workers the safest possible workplace. 

The part of the standard under chal- 
lenge provides for installation of engineer- 
ing controls to cut down excessive levels 
of dust that cotton and textile workers 
are exposed to on the job. Exposure to 
high levels of cotton dust can lead to 
brown lung, a disabling respiratory dis- 
ease that can be fatal. 


By filing the “supplemental memoran- 
dum” with the court, the Labor Dept, has 
walked away from the position it took 
earlier in its arguments before the justices. 

THE QUESTION of law, the federation 
petition notes, is not one that depends on 
the view of any particular Administration. 

“Rather, the question turns solely on 
the meaning of the Act and intent of the 
Congress that passed the Act,” the petition 
states. 

It points out that remanding the issue 
back to the Labor Dept, would not ad- 
vance the resolution of the case and “could 
well lead to wasted administrative re- 
sources and . . . lengthy delays without 
serving the interests of any party.” 


Samuel Gompers vs. Horatio Alger — Contrasting views by two famous Amer- 
icans, who were contemporaries. The world of work and hardship in a hostile 
environment (as perceived through the eyes of labor’s founder) and the pipe- 
dreams of penniless youths yearning to be millionaires with the aid of a little 
pluck and luck (as disseminated to millions by the popular writer) are outlined 
with scholarship and wit by labor historian Stuart B. Kaufman. From a paper 
delivered at an AFL-CIO centennial seminar at the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies. 

Labor’s Centennial — 1881-1981— An editorial by AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland on the meaning and inspiration of the 100th anniversary of the found- 
ing of modern American labor. 

William Green: Guardian of the Middle Years — One of a series of features on 
labor’s leaders running in the American Federationist, this reprint brings back 
from labor’s archives a famous speech delivered by Green at the 1943 AFL 
convention, in defense of the contributions and sacrifices of American workers 
to the war effort. 

Order blanks and copies of all centennial material may be obtained from the 
AFL-CIO Pamphlet Division, 815 - 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. 
Quantity rates are available on all items. The last three items listed are free in 
reasonable quantity. 


'Guest Worker’ Scheme Called Disaster 


A task force of the labor-supported Na- 
tional Committee for Full Employment 
warned President Reagan that a new 
“guest worker” program between the 
United States and Mexico would be a 
“disaster” for both American and foreign 
workers. 

“It makes no sense to bring additional 
workers to the United States at a time 
when there are 8 million unemployed 
U.S. residents” the NCFE’s task force on 
immigration pointed out. 

It also cited the defunct “bracero” pro- 
gram as an example of how foreign work- 
ers could be severely exploited by U.S. 
employers. 

THE STATEMENT was released by 
the task force of labor, civil rights, His- 
panic and religious representatives follow- 
ing a comment by President Reagan, made 
during an interview with CBS News, that 
he was “intrigued” by a foreign worker 


Gen. Bradley Hailed as Humanitarian 


General of the Army Omar Bradley, 
who died Apr. 8 at the age of 88, was “a 
great leader who earned the gratitude of 
his country,” AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland said. 

Kirkland noted that Bradley “was the 
first person chosen to receive labor’s 
highest humanitarian honor, the Murray- 
Green Award for community service.” 

After World War II, Bradley was named 
by President Truman to head the vastly- 
enlarged Veterans Administration, and 
labor honored him for his outstanding ser- 
vices to veterans. 


Bradley’s “quiet but brilliant leadership 
in World War II” marked him as one of 
the finest soldiers in American history, 
Kirkland said. 

The general’s military skill, Kirkland 
noted, “was matched by his innate hatred 
of the inhumanity of war and his personal 
concern for those who are sent to fight 
and die. Those who served under him and 
with him sensed those feelings and knew 
that he wore his nickname, ‘the GI’s Gen- 
eral,’ as proudly as he wore his five stars,” 
Kirkland said. 


program proposed by several border state 
governors. 

Reagan told television commentator 
Walter Cronkite that he intended to dis- 
cuss a temporary worker visa program 
with Mexico’s President Jose Lopez 
Portillo at meetings scheduled for late 
April. 

“Let’s not make the same mistake 
twice,” the task force urged the President, 
pointing out that previous temporary 
worker programs have been “disasters.” 

THE GROUP, chaired by former 
Health, Education & Welfare Sec. Wilbur 
Cohen, pointed to the abuses of the 
bracero program which brought low-wage 
agricultural workers from Mexico into the 
United States from 1942 until its was 
scrubbed in 1965. 

While the bracero program provided “a 
windfall in the form of cheap, docile labor 
to a tiny minority of the nation’s farmers,” 
the statement said, “it depressed wages 
and working conditions for competing U.S. 
workers, postponed the rationalization of 
the agricultural labor market, exploited the 
Mexican farmworkers and caused endless, 
needless grief in U.S.-Mexico relations.” 

THE TASK FORCE was formed by 
NCFF in December 1980 to develop a 
common immigration policy among the 
traditional coalition of labor, religious and 
civil rights groups. 

Among its labor members are Howard 
Samuel, president of the AFL-CIO Indus- 
trial Union Dept.; Railway 'Clerks Vice 
President Jack Otero; Henry L. Lacayo, 
community action program director of the 
Auto Workers and national chairman of 
the Labor Council for Latin American 
Advancement; and Alfredo Montoya, 


LCLAA executive director. Former Labor 
Sec. Ray Marshall also serves on the 
board. 

The task force statement chided the 
President for ignoring the recommenda- 
tions of the final report released by the 
congressionally-mandated Select Commis- 
sion on Immigration & Refugee Policy 
which opposed any increases in temporary 
worker programs. 

Otero has served as a member of the 
commission, appointed by former Presi- 
dent Jimmy Carter. 

CITING THE problems experienced by 
European countries that have tried guest- 
worker programs, the task force empha- 
sized that even if the new Administration 
devised “less exploitative programs than 
the old bracero operation,” the evidence is 
that guest-worker programs “provide for 
less than equal rights” for the worker in- 
volved. 

The Administration’s recommendations 
on immigration policy are being prepared 
by its own task force headed by Atty. Gen. 
William French Smith with a report ex- 
pected in early May. 

Mexico has also voiced concern in in- 
ternational forums about exploitation of 
migrant workers. 

The NCFE group also pointed out that 
it is unclear whether Mexico itself wants 
a temporary worker system which could 
lead to the migration of its own badly- 
needed skilled workers. 

The NCFE, a coalition of labor, civil 
rights and religious organizations formed 
to promote full employment policies and 
opportunities, is co-chaired by Coretta 
Scott King and Clothing & Textile Work- 
ers President Murray H. Finley. Howard 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


Page TTiree 




I 


m 






If '■ 


Flight Crew 
Union Pushes 
Safety Issue 

The Association of Flight Attendants is 
generating a strong campaign for support 
in its battle against a proposed Federal 
Aviation Administration rule change that 
would reduce the number of attendants 
required on commercial flights. 

Under the proposal, published just be- 
fore President Carter left office, only one 
flight attendant would be required for 
every 50 ticketed passengers. Current 
regulations require one attendant for every 
50 seats on the aircraft. The rule change 
was originally suggested by the Air Trans- 
port Association, made up of the major 
commercial carriers. 

AFA PRESIDENT Linda A. Puchala 
said in a statement that the proposal “is 
both dangerous and foolish,” pointing out 
that flight attendants do more than serve 
drinks and meals. 

“We are trained safety professionals 
who, in the event of an air crash, must be 
relied upon to evacuate an aircraft in a 
matter of seconds,” Puchala said. “In 
order to accomplish this, we need an ade- 
quate, well-trained crew of professionals. 
Most people do not realize that we must 
deal with at least one emergency situation 
a month — emergencies that demand 
trained safety personnel. 

“Because of our deep concern for the 
safety of the traveling public, we call upon 
the FAA to withdraw this proposed rule.” 

TO RALLY support among the flying 
public, the union conducted informational 
picketing at 20 major airports across the 
country on Apr. 4. 

Two days later, at a hearing of a House 
Government Operations subcommittee 
chaired by Rep. John Burton (D-Calif.), 
a panel of flight attendants and Fire 
Fighters President John A. Gannon 
warned that the FAA plan risks passen- 
gers’ lives. 

In their testimony, the flight attendants 
cautipned that passengers need crew 
assistance in locating exits and safely 
evacuating a crashed aircraft. They 
stressed that the idea that flight attendants 
are merely ornamental must be dispelled. 

Burton, whose subcommittee is examin- 
ing the FAA proposal, said the agency 
should not move ahead with the idea until 
it has proof that passenger safety will not 
be adversely affected — sentiments shared 
by Chairman James King of the National 
Transportation Safety Board. 

“THE BOARD is extremely concerned 
that passenger safety may be further com- 
promised during emergency evacuation 
should large aircraft be permitted to op- 
erate with a reduced number of flight 
attendants when carrying a partial passen- 
ger load, even if the ratio of flight at- 
tendants to passengers is retained,” King 
testifled at the hearing. 

Puchala urged the traveling public to 
protest the rule change proposal to their 
congressional representatives and the 
FAA. Comments on the proposal will be 
accepted by the FAA until Apr. 20. 








r I 




I.U 

DRIVE TO ORGANIZE California state university edu- 
cators has the full support of the AFL-CIO, President Lane 
Kirkland declares at a press conference in San Francisco. 
The campaign has been launched by the 4,100-member 
United Professors of California, affiliated with the Teachers, 
which is seeking representation of more than 20,000 profes- 


m 


sors, lecturers, administrative and technical workers in the 
19-campus state university and college system. With Kirk- 
land and AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue are 
California AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. John F. Henning; UPC 
President Warren Kessler; Anne Peters, UPC vice president; 
and Jose Cuervo, UPC affirmative action chairman. 


Oil Decontrol 
Fuels New Rise 
In Energy Costs 

(Continued from Page 1) 

prices to their highest level since last July, 
however, was jump in energy prices. BLS 
Commissioner Janet L. Norwood told the 
Congressional Joint Economic Committee 
that the energy price climb “reflected the 
impact of price deregulation of domestic 
crude oil as well as increases in the prices 
of petroleum.” 

The Organization of Petroleum Export- 
ing Countries announced in December that 
it was raising its crude oil prices, and the 
latest round of passthrough prices con- 
tinued into March. 

ENERGY PRICES were up 6.1 per- 
cent over the month, with gasoline rising 
7.5 percent, home heating oil 9 percent, 
and natural gas 1.3 percent higher than 
the previous month. The huge increases 
marked the fifth consecutive large monthly 
advance in finished energy prices. 

The total March rise of 1.3 percent in 
the wholesale price index translates to 
15.6-percent annual increases before com- 
pounding. 

On a year-to-year basis, the producer 
price index was 10.5 percent above the 
March 1980 level. Last month’s increases 
compared with rises of eight-tenths of 1 
percent in February and nine-tenths of 1 
percent in January. 

BESIDES measuring the price of 
finished goods, BLS also measures the 
price of intermediate goods, such as sheet 
metal and fabrics used in the factory 
production of finished goods, and also 
the price of crude materials, such as iron 
scrap and raw cotton. Prices for inter- 
mediate goods rose 1.1 percent in March, 
while prices of crude goods fell by 1.3 
percent. 

Within the finished goods index, capital 
equipment prices went upon seven -tenths 
of 1 percent, slower than in recent months. 
Consumer durable goods such as cars in- 
creased by only one-tenth of 1 percent. 
Non-durables — luggage and small leather 
goods, for example — were up by 2.4 per- 
cent. 


R-T-W Bills Slapped Down 
In Two New England States 


Two New England states have handed 
rock-ribbed rebuffs to so-called right-to- 
work bills introduced in their state legis- 
latures. The anti-union proposal went 
down to a nearly two-to-one defeat in 
Vermont, and a series of open-shop bills 
was rejected in rapid succession by Maine’s 
legislators. 

A Mar. 31 vote in the Vermont house 
scuttled a “right-to-work” measure by a 
vote of 92 to 51 with 7 absentees, state 
AFL-CIO President Robert E. Clark re- 
ported. The rejection should bury the issue 
until at least 1983, Clark said. He cred- 
ited the victory to effective lobbying by 
local union officers and to the efforts of 
State COPE Director Tom Belville. 

Maine AFL-CIO President Charles 


O’Leary had similar praise for his state’s 
labor movement, which had urged the 
legislature to reject four compulsory open- 
shop bills in a flurry of activity in early 
April. 

A “right-to work” law for private in- 
dustry was routed 92 to 53 in the house, 
which also stopped a similar bill aimed at 
public employees by an 82 to 61 vote. A 
separate bill to eliminate exclusive repre- 
sentation rights for public employee unions 
was defeated 89 to 55. The state’s senate 
rejected all three measures by voice vote. 

An attempt to force a compulsory open 
shop on the University of Maine faculty 
was narrowly defeated 17 to 16 in the 
senate and 76 to 68 in the house. 


Kirkland Cites Budget Threat 
To College Education Hopes 


San Francisco — ^The chances for chil- 
dren from middle- and low-income families 
to go to college will be blighted if the 
Administration’s proposed budget cuts 
for higher education programs are 
adopted, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land warned. 

Kirkland criticized the proposed cuts 
during a press conference here to declare 
the AFL-CIO’s “full support” for the 
campaign of the United Professors of 
California to win the right to bargain for 
professionals in the state’s 19-campus uni- 
versity and college system. 

THE UPC, a coalition of local unions 
of the American Federation of Teachers 
on each campus, represents some 4,100 
professors, lecturers and administrative 
and technical workers. A mail-ballot elec- 
tion expected sometime in 1981 under the 
supervision of the state’s Public Employee 
Relations Board will determine represen- 
tation for all 20,000 professional employ- 
ees of the state’s 300,000-student higher 
education system. The UPC is opposed by 
the Congress of Faculty Organizations, an 
affiliate of the National Education Asso- 
ciation. 

Kirkland stressed that the AFT unit, as 
part of the mainstream of the labor move- 
ment, would have the strength of or- 
ganized labor behind it in the “hard times” 


that will result from the budget cuts as 
well as in their own efforts to restore the 
“purchasing power and status” of profes- 
sors. 

As many as 750,000 students could be 
pushed out of college and into a “for- 
bidding” labor market, Kirkland warned, 
if the proposed reductions in direct and 
indirect aid to higher education go 
through. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that the 
plan to make students pay interest on gov- 
ernment-guaranteed loans while they are 
still in school and to let rates on these 
loans float to market levels would “shut 
down” the system that now helps some 
two million students. 

The President’s call for a so-called ‘self- 
help’ contribution of $750 from the three 
million students receiving Basic Educa- 
tional Opportunity Grants will hurt low- 
income households, Kirkland said. He 
noted, too, that many of the 800,000 stu- 
dents receiving social security benefits be- 
cause their parents are dead, retired or 
disabled will have to quit school if that 
aid is cut off. 

“The AFL-CIO is convinced,” Kirk- 
land stressed, that “the benefits of public 
higher education are a precious natural 
resource, and that education is an invest- 
ment, not a drain, on our economy.” 


Rail Unions Prod Conrail 
On Faults of Management 


Railway labor leaders called on officials 
of the Consolidated Rail Corp. to “look 
inward” to see what management can do 
to improve the railroad’s efficiency before 
asking employees to eliminate work rules 
and freeze or cut their wages. 

“While we repeatedly hear how much 
the employees must be prepared to sacri- 
fice,” President Fred J. Kroll of the Rail- 
way Labor Executives’ Association told a 
House Energy & Commerce subcommittee, 
“not one word has been forthcoming from 
Conrail, the Dept, of Transportation, or 
the Interstate Commerce Commission . . . 
as to what Conrail management might do 
to improve its productivity in terms of ser- 
vice, supervision, employment of consul- 
tants, or anything else.” 

KROLL NOTED productivity expert 
Edward Deming’s observation that man- 
agement is usually 80 percent responsible 
for a bad productivity record, and added: 

“Employees, of course, are the easy, 
available target, but management controls 
when, how, and under what circumstances 
the work gets done.” 

The Administration, which proposes to 
sell the government-sponsored railroads, 
needs to weigh the full cost of permitting 
Conrail’s demise, Kroll said. 

“Removal of Conrail would not only 
cause unemployment for tens of thousands 
of Conrail employees and additional tens 
of thousands of wage earners who depend 
upon the existence of Conrail for their 
livelihoods, but it would steepen and 


hasten the overall economic decline of the 
entire northeastern United States with all 
the adverse tax and welfare consequences 
such a decline would effect,” he said. 

THE ADMINISTRATION’S plan calls 
for splitting up the railroad and selling 
its lines to other carriers. To make the 
sell-off more attractive to prospective buy- 
ers, it is seeking legislation to end a pro- 
gram — Title V of the Regional Rail Re- 
organization Act of 1973 — under which 
Conrail must compensate workers who 
lose their jobs because of the sale. 

President Fred A. Hardin of the United 
Transportation Union told the House 
panel, chaired by Rep. James J. Florio 
(D-N.J.), that UTU “does not see how 
cutting employees’ benefits will solve Con- 
rail’s underlying problem of inefficient op- 
erations.” He, too, asked what Conrail 
management was prepared to sacrifice 
while it asked workers to sacrifice their 
jobs. 

THE UTU AND other rail unions have 
submitted to Congress a plan to make 
recommendations for quality control and 
efficiency improvements in Conrail’s struc- 
ture and services. Kroll and Hardin told 
the Florio subcommittee that railroad 
workers have better protection guarantees 
on most other railroads, and that those 
lines manage to run with a profit. 

The unions are organizing a Washington 
rally Apr. 29 at which thousands of rail- 
road workers will march to the Capitol to 
make their views known to legislators. 




Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


A Xew Danger Signal 

^HE 6-0 VOTE by a House Ways & Means subcommittee to 
support legislation that would raise the basic social security 
retirement age from 65 to 68 raises a danger signal that should 
not be ignored. 

If enacted, it would be the equivalent of a pay cut for older 
workers. If they wanted to collect the full social security benefits 
to which they are now entitled at age 65, they would have to 
work three additional years. 

Under current law, a retired worker can draw reduced social 
security benefits at age 62. Under the proposed change, a person 
choosing to retire at age 65 would have to accept reduced benefits. 

EVEN IF WORKERS now within a few years of retirement 
are exempt from the change, the proposal is wrong on a number 
of counts and shoidd be firmly rejected. 

It is wrong because it would be a breach of contract with the 
bulk of people already in the workforce — the men and women 
who have had the social security tax deducted from their pay- 
checks each week, as required by law, and who should be entitled 
to the protections promised by law. 

It is wrong because it seeks to keep people in the workforce 
longer through financial pressure and not out of free choice. 

Nothing in the social security law compels a worker to retire 
at a set age, but inadequacy of benefits should not force postpone- 
ment of retirement. Not everyone approaching retirement is in a 
sedentary job with minimal physical demands. 

And it is wrong because it represents a panicky response to a 
scenario in which the next century will find a smaller number of 
people in the prime working ages obligated to support a larger 
number of retired senior citizens. 

IN FACT, the problems the social security system faces come 
more from unemployment and inflation than from changes in the 
birth rate. 

These funding problems are temporary and solvable with- the 
modest infusion of general revenue funds that the AFL-CIO has 
long urged. 

They do not justify a retirement age increase that the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council termed “tantamount to an across-the-board 
benefit reduction for millions of workers, particularly those who 
are forced into early retirement for reasons of poor health or 
unemployment.” 

The council called on the government to “keep its word” and 
warned that changing the terms of social security benefits “would 
constitute a breach of faith that would undermine public confir 
dence in social security.” 


‘Fm ’er Up?’ 



Trickle-Down Myth Runs Dry 


Oil Firms Spurn Output Boost 
To Expand Profit Margins 


SURVEYS HAVE found that about two-thirds of workers re- 
tire either because of poor health or because their jobs have been 
eliminated. 

These problems, certainly, will not go away if Congress chooses 
to punish those who retire before the edge of 68. Americans may 
live longer than their parents because of modem medicines and 
better hospital facilities. But longer life does not necessarily mean 
improved health. 

The House Ways & Means subcommittee is off on the wrong 
tack. 

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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 
Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 
Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, April 11, 1981 


No. 15 i 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
5 AFL-CIO. E 



By Gus Tyler 

T he story on how the oil companies have 
been buying up the mineral industry came at 
a bad time for those people who have been talking 
about how the enrichment of the rich will provide 
the necessary “capital” to expand output in Amer- 
ica, especially output in such vital fields as oil. 

The oil story tells us that the folk who have the 
capital, oodles of capital, will not necessarily in- 
vest in expanding production at all; they will 
simply use the surplus wealth to buy up other 
existing companies. 

OIL COMPANIES do have much capital. They 
account for one-third of all the profits of corporate 
America. 

If that is not enough evidence, then just take 
a look at all the expensive items they have been 
buying recently: copper companies, coal com- 
panies, metal and ore companies, rare earth com- 
panies, letter houses, newspapers, hotels, etc. — 
just to name a few. All that buying takes a big 
bankroll. 

Indeed, it was a sudden spate of just such buy- 
ing that spurred the stories on the takeovers of 
the biggies by the biggers. In one week. Standard 
Oil of California paid out $4 billion for Amax, 
Standard of Ohio paid out $1.77 billion for Ken- 
necott, and Joseph E. Seagram & Sons made a 
bid for St. Joe Minerals by using $2 billion 
realized from the sale of Seagram’s oil assets. 

The reaction to these takeovers stirred moral 
indignation in some quarters. An “energy expert 
in Congress” is quoted as saying, “These things 
don’t add a nickel’s worth of oil to our reserves.” 

He might also have added that these acquisi- 
tions do not create a single added job in the 
country, except perhaps for those lawyers who 
maneuver the mergers. 

BUT MORAL outrage directed against the oil 
companies is not only a useless exercise, it ac- 
tually pushes us into a wrong conclusion. We are 
too apt to decide that oil companies are run by 
evil people and that such sinful souls ought to be 
punished either here or in the hereafter. 

The truth of the matter is that oil companies 
are doing what everybody else does and what 
every corporation must do if it wishes to stay 


competitive. For all of them, there is only one 
bottom line: return on investment. 

That’s their bottom line hot because they are 
more materialistic than the rest of us but because 
that’s the way the system runs. “They say,” re- 
ports the New York Times, “that buying copper 
and other mineral companies affords their share- 
holders the best return on their investment. And 
that, they add, is why they are in business.” 

THEY ARE NOT in business to produce oil, 
copper, autos, liquor, medicine, or baby diapers 
to “serve” society; all that jazz is just incidental 
to the main theme: making money. And if they 
forget that cold cash calculation, investors will 
forget them. 

If that firm fact is remembered then all the talk 
about how the enrichment of the rich will expand 
our economy suddenly sounds silly. The name of 
the game is retura on investment and as we now 
know there is often more to be gained by playing 
speculative sports than by producing more prod- 
ucts — especially when the “speculation” can cre- 
ate monopolies to charge more for less. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Higher Education 
A Natural Resource 

The Administration’s proposed reductions in 
direct and indirect federal aid to higher edu- 
cation could push as many as 750,000 students 
out of college and into a forbidding labor 
market. 

The AFL-CIO is convinced that the benefits 
of public higher education are a precious 
natural resource and that education is an in- 
vestment, not a drain on our economy. 

Several cutbacks in government support for 
education will represent a failure to renew our 
human capital that threatens our prosperity at 
least as much as the failure to revitalize the 
economy through the modernization of physical 
plant and equipment. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at a 
press conference to support United Professors 
of California, Mar. 30, 1981, San Francisco. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNCTON, D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


Page Five 


Starvation, Sickness Rampant 

World Community Overlooks 
Suffering of Somali Refugees 


By Bayard Rustin 

S OMALIA, located in the strategically vital 
Horn of Africa, is one of the world’s poorest 
countries. Since October 1979 an average of 1,000 
refugees per day have been crossing that country’s 
borders, fleeing the disputed Ogaden region of 
Ethiopia. The overwhelming majority of these 
refugees are women and young children. 

In scale, the tragedy of Somalia rivals that of 
Indochina and its boat people. And yet the world 
community largely has been indifferent to the 
suffering of the unfortunate Somali victims of 
Ethiopian brutality. Moreover, little attention has 
been paid to this problem by the black community 
in the United States. 

Recently, I returned from Somalia, where, as 
part of an International Rescue Committee study 
group, I observed first-hand the dimensions of the 
refugee problem. 

IN ONE ARID refugee camp into which ap- 
proximately 65,000 Somali women and children 
have been crammed I observed a thin, sickly 
young mother taking her child to a nearly dried 
up river to feed her baby what she knew was 
poisonous water. Her desperate act was intended 
to provide temporary comfort for a child which 
she knew would ultimately die whether of dehy- 
dration or the muddied water’s poisons. 

In another instance, our small group was able 
to save the life of one child by transporting it by 
jeep to a make-shift hospital where an under- 
staffed medical team was able to help salvage an 
innocent life even as others were foredoomed to 
death. 

The unrelenting flood of refugees is taxing the 
resources of a drought-stricken, underdeveloped 
country with one of the world’s lowest standards 
of living. Yet Somalia’s indigent population has 
had to absorb close to 1 .5 million refugees into a 
country whose native population numbers 3.5 
million. When proportionally adjusted to Amer- 
ica’s population, this is as if our country had to 
absorb 70 million helpless and starving poor. 

THE SOMALI REFUGEES now live in make- 
shift encampments on barren territories carved 
out of the desert. Most of them live in ram- 
shackle huts or worse. Many of the children are 
deformed by the bloated stomachs which indicate 
starvation. 

Death is all pervasive in Somalia. The mon- 

SEIU in Joint Effort 


strous brutality of the pro-Soviet Ethiopian 
regime, coupled with a drought which is affecting 
all of East Africa, has resulted in widespread 
death and misery. 

While famine and drought are crucial contrib- 
uting factors to the steady stream of refugees, it 
does not help explain the reason why these refu- 
gees are streaming only in one direction: toward 
Somalia and away from Marxist-Leninist Ethi- 
opia. 

The roots of the Somalian tragedy derive in 
part from the historical decision to retain Africa’s 
colonial borders. As a consequence, many African 
ethnic grpups have been divided between several 
countries and are not allowed to live together in 
states which correspond territorially to historical 
and cultural traditions. 

THIS PAN-AFRICAN problem will result in 
continued upheaval in the decades ahead. And 
yet those who argue that ethnic peoples such as 
the Somalis should remain a divided nation, ig- 
nore the fact that national identity remains a prin-‘ 
cipal source of upheaval and discontent in Africa 
and throughout the world. 

Qearly, what is needed is a far-reaching nego- 
tiated solution to the struggle for control of the 
Ogaden. Yet such a solution appears to be very 
far off. What is needed immediately, however, is 
massive international humanitarian aid in the 
neighborhood of $500 million. Our International 
Rescue Committee mission has recommended that 
the United States commit itself to $150 million of 
such aid. 

Currently, the United States contributes one- 
third that amount through the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Refugees. Unless addi- 
tional support is forthcoming from the United 
States and the world community, hundreds of 
thousands of innocent Somalis will die. Blacks, 
and indeed all Americans, cannot renjain indif- 
ferent to the plight of the starving and drought- 
stricken Somalis. 

THE WORLD COMMUNITY responded with 
amazing generosity to the plight of Indochinese 
refugees. The world must respond with similar 
compassion to the horrors which plague Somalia. 

If we do not have the compassion to help the 
dying mothers and children from the Ogaden, 
then most certainly we will not have the compas- 
sion to solve the severe problems which affect 
minority and other poor Americans at home. 


New Coalition Focuses Drive 
On Non-Union Women Workers 


A COALITION formed by the Service Employ- 
ees and Working Women provides a new 
and unique formula for winning collective bar- 
gaining rights for the nation’s 20 million largely 
non-union secretarial and clerical workers, SEIU 
President John J. Sweeney said. 

Working Women is an association of office 
workers formed in 1977 which has a member- 
ship of 10,000 in 40 states. It is not a union and 
has no collective bargaining agreements. 

Sweeney said on Labor News Conference that 
the combination of special techniques developed 
by both organizations shapes an effective ap- 
proach through the machinery of a union con- 
tract. 

Full Measure of Quality ! 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CID 


Noting that the clerical and secretarial work- 
force is about 90 percent female, he said the 
coalition will “spotlight the need for day-care 
centers and greater upgrading opportunities and 
on-the-job dignity,” as well as the traditional 
workplace issues of wages, hours and working 
conditions. 

Prime targets of the new organizing effort will 
be in the insurance, banking and financial indus- 
tries, he said, where there are now few union 
contracts. There will also be a concentration on 
the clerical and secretarial areas of public em- 
ployment, health institutions and universities, 
where the SEIU already represents a large num- 
ber of administrative staff employees. 

SWEENEY REPORTED “a tremendous ex- 
pression of interest” since announcement of the 
coalition and the formation of SEIU District 925; 
which will be the nucleus of the union’s stepped- 
up effort among women workers. 

“Inquiries have come from all over the coun- 
try, not only regarding organizing opportunities, 
but also from volunteers who are interested in 
organizing unions in their areas,” he said. 

Reporters questioning Sweeney on the AFL- 
CIO produced public affairs program were Mar- 
tha Hamilton of the Washington Post and Philip 
Shabecoff of the New York Times. Labor News 
Conference is broadcast weekly on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates^ Inc. 

I N ASSERTING the right to organize and bargain collectively, 
the American labor movement throughout its history has en- 
countered stiff and sometimes brutal opposition from employers. 

Following the epic labor victories of the 1930s and the codi- 
fication of workers’ rights in the National Labor Relations Act, 
employer use of physical intimidation and violence subsided. 

Union-busting, however, has been undergoing a major resur- 
gence in recent years. But instead of goon squads, nightsticks and 
jailings, there is the well-manicured “labor relations consultant,” 
armed with a briefcase rather than brass knuckles. 

A recent report by a congressional labor-management relations 
subcommittee observed that the labor relations law’s “growing 
inability to protect in any meaningful way the right of employees 
to organize corresponds closely with the growth and spread of the 
consultant industry.” 

One consulting firm. Modem Management Methods, Inc., told 
the subcommittee that, during the years 1977-79, it assisted em- 
ployers in 696 imion organizing drives and defeated the union in 
647 instances, or 93 percent of the time. 

IT WAS ESTIMATED that management spends at least $500 
million a year on these outside specialists — ^putting imion-busting 
among the nation’s biggest growth industries. 

These are some of the ways the subcommittee found that con- 
sultants operate. They: 

# Advise employers to screen job applicants to weed out cer- 
tain individuals, and even ethnic and age groups, who might 
favor a union. The polygraph, or lie detector, is sometimes used. 

• Force supervisors to produce a personal profile on each 
worker and his or her attitude toward the union. Supervisors 
are carefully instructed on ways to pressure workers to vote 
against the union. 

• Recommend that union supporters be isolated from other 
workers, such as by transfer to remote work areas, to minimize 
their ability to present the union’s position. 

# Arrange captive audience meetings of employees where 
threats may be made to close the plant, or perhaps to thwart 
collective bargaining, if the union is voted in. 

• Orchestrate a constant drumbeat of anti-union propaganda, 
which might include a “Vote No” message on vending machines, 
coffee cups, napkins and matchbooks. 

The subcommittee was told that in one hospital organizing 
campaign, supervisors stopped nurses on their way to emergency 
calls. “They invade patients’ privacy by interrupting their baths to 
hand literature to the nurses. They tell you to read it right there,” 
a nurse testified. 

THE CONSULTANTS’ operations are usually clandestine and 
thus all the more difficult to combat. Despite the existence of the 
labor-management reporting disclosure section of the 1959 Lan- 
drum-Griffin Act, the subcommittee found that the law’s “employ- 
er and consulting reporting provisions have for the past 14 years 
been a virtual ‘dead letter,’ ignored by employers and consultants 
and unenforced by the Dept, of Labor” as well as by the NLRB 
and Justice Dept. 

The subcommittee recommended that these three agencies co- 
ordinate enforcement of the laws relating to consultants and also 
that Congress strengthen labor statutes to better protect workers 
seeking to organize. 

A hopeful action occurred recently when the NLRB brought 
unfair labor practice complaints against three consulting firms 
involved in organizing drives. 

It’s a beginning. But working people — organized and unorga- 
nized — need to turn up the heat against today’s union-busting 
experts and keep the fires lit under the government agencies re- 
sponsible for protecting the right to organize and bargain collec- 
tively. 



NEW FORMULA for winning bargaining rights for the nation’s 
20 million secretarial and clerical workers is seen in the newly 
formed coalition of the Service Employees and Working Women, 
a national office workers association, SEIU President John 
J. Sweeney, center, said on Labor News Conference. The AFL- 
CIO vice president was questioned by Martha Hamilton of the 
Washington Post and Philip Shabecoff of the New York Times. 








Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


Regional Sessions Explore Vital Issues 


COPE Director A1 Barkan and dele- 
gates hold an impromptu conference. 


Alan Kisder talked organizing 
six times a day in each city. 


Intensive discussions that touched all of American 
labor’s concerns marked the six AFL-CIO regional 
conferences held between Mar. 5 and Apr. 4. Labor 
representatives, primarily from state and local central, 
bodies, gathered for the conferences in Philadelphia, 
Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and Atlanta. 

Each conference had an attendance above 300 and 
some swelled to more than 400. Each had the same 
format — an opening night dinner and address by AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland, a full day of workshops 
in which each state delegation was visited by Kirkland, 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Hiomas R. Donahue and the 
federation’s directors of organizing, COPE and legis- 
lation. 

The closing half-day session offered Iwo workshops 
by other department directors, with delegates pre-reg- 
istering for any two, followed by a ^^summing up” 
session by Kirkland and Donahue. 

Thus, the only time all delegates were together in 
plenary session was for the opening and closing, with 
the emphasis on discussion and two-way communica- 
tion in the 14 intervening workshops. Various state 
delegations ranged from as few as six to more than 
100, with the large delegations split into two groups 
to facilitate discussion. 

The seventh and final conference will be held June 
4-5-6 in New Orleans for the states of Louisiana, 
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Missouri and 
Mississippi. 


President Kirkland briefs 
news reporters in l^oston. 


Civil Rights Director William 
Pollard conducts his workshop. 


Delegates talk with Kirkland during 
10-minute shuffle between sessions. 


Representatives of labor-supported 
groups join in organizing workshc^. 


The federal budget’s impact 
was always the topic for Re- 
search Director Rudy Oswald. 


Sec.-Treas. Donahue ^^sums up” the Philadelphia conference. 


Workshops featured free, open dis- 
cussions with federation officers. 


A pQot program on grass-roots lobbying was 
discussed by Legislative Director Ray Denison. 


Education Director Dorothy Shields 
answers questions from participants. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRlLr 11, 1981 


Page Seven 



CONTINUING EFFORTS to establish a formal national three years. Addressing the session is Msgr. George 
coalition were explored by the Religion & Labor Conference G. Higgins of Catholic University, who is co-chairman of 
at the AFL-CIO headquarters. The conference, comprising the conference along with Alan Kistler, the federation’s 
representatives from the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish organizing and field services director. AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
faiths, has been meeting on an ad hoc basis for the past Thomas R. Donahue also addressed the session. 

Union-Industry Effort Spurs 
Gains in Men’s Wear Field 


Budget, Tax 
Plans Scored 
As ‘Simplistic’ 

(Continued from Page 1) 

costly social security tax credit as an alter- 
native to the Administration plan to give 
the biggest benefits to those with the least 
need. 

When fully effective, the Administration 
plan would increase by 1.2 percent the 
after-tax income of a family dependent on 
$5-an-hour earnings, Taylor noted. But 
the value of the tax cut would be 9.2 per- 
cent at an income level of $50 an hour, 
she pointed out. 

No union would ever negotiate and seek 
ratification of such an inequitable division, 
she protested. 

Taylor also renewed the AFL-CIO’s call 
for selective credit controls and other tar- 
geted methods of bringing down inflation. 
But she stressed repeatedly that budget 
deficits in recent years have been a symp- 
tom and not a cause of the nation’s eco- 
nomic problems. 

“WE DO NOT believe the nation has 
been too generous in helping the poor, the 
disadvantaged or the unemployed,” she 
testified. Yet “the Reagan budget calls for 
huge reductions in a wide array of pro- 
grams that are essential to the health and 
welfare of the nation’s needs and provide 
a critical underpinning for the entire econ- 
omy,” she observed. 

Wiping out job and job training pro- 
grams will push more people on welfare, 
she said, and “cuts in the energy program 
are in direct conflict with the need to 
break OPEC’s stranglehold.” 

Especially at a time of budget slashing 
and austerity, Taylor said, the AFL-CIO 
sees “no justification” for huge tax wind- 
falls to corporations in the hope “that this 
largess will trickle down to workers and 
consumers.” 


Philadelphia — The nation’s men’s wear 
industry is becoming more efficient and 
more competitive thanks to a three-year- 
old labor-management project that devel- 
ops advanced technology for the industry 
and helps recruit and train new workers. 

The accomplishments of the program, 
known as Joint Job Training & Research 
Inc. (JTR), were outlined at a seminar 
held here by the project’s sponsors, the 
Clothing & Textile Workers and the 
Clothing Manufacturers Association. 

JTR WAS established in 1978 by the 
union and the industry group as a non- 
profit organization to coordinate research 
and development programs that would in- 
troduce advanced manufacturing tech- 
niques to men’s and boys’ clothing plants. 
Also, the project works to recruit and 
train new workers in the industry. It is 
funded by government grants. 

ACTWU President Murray H. Finley 


is chairman of JTR’s executive board, 
which includes the union’s Sec.-Treas. 
Jacob Sheinkman, Vice President Harry 
Lautman and three industry representa- 
tives. 

Sheinkman, in a speech opening the 
progress seminar, called the joint effort 
“the product of close cooperation between 
the union, the industry and the govern- 
ment” and called its successes “concrete 
evidence” that such joint efforts can work 
on “solid and real issues.” The program 
deserves continued government assistance, 
he emphasized. 

JTR is a successful result of the 1977 
negotiations between the union and the 
industry, CMA President Lawrence Ward 
told the meeting. Ward, who is head of 
Haspel Bros., pointed to the program as 
an example of how cooperation between 
labor and management can develop tech- 
nology to aid American industry. 


Tax-Free Bonds 
Called Costly 
Treasury Drain 

(Continued from Page 1) 

noted that state authorization laws only 
vaguely define the terms, and the result is 
that “almost any type of business” can 
qualify. 

LARGE RETAIL chain stores and 
units of big corporations have been among 
the beneficiaries. Many of them, the CBO 
report noted, would have been built in the 
same locations even if the tax-free bonds 
had not been available. 

Schechter stressed that the revenue the 
government loses has the same budget im- 
pact as money spent to fund government 
programs. 

He termed it “unconscionable that such 
tax expenditures be allowed to continue 
while cuts are made in programs such as 
food stamps, unemployment compensa- 
tion, Medicare, school lunches and low- 
income housing.” 


Senate Rollcalls on Key Budget Cutbacks 


The budget reconciliation bill that the Senate passed on 
Apr, 2 would compel drastic cutbacks in many labor-sup- 
ported programs, including trade adjustment assistance and 
unemployment compensation. 

Vote No. 1 shows the 69-29 defeat of a labor-endorsed 
amendment by Sen, Thomas F. Eagleton (D-Mo,) to restore 
$400 million of cuts to be made in trade adjustment assistance 
for workers whose jobs are wiped out by imports. 

Vote No. 2 is the 60-38 defeat of a labor-supported amend- 
ment by Sen, Donald W, Riegle, Jr, (D-Mich.) that sought to 
drop a requirement that states make their unemployment 
compensation eligibility standards tougher. The projected bud- 
get **savings** would come through requiring skilled workers 
unemployed more than 13 weeks to take any job that pays as 
much as the unemployment benefit as long as it is not less 
than the minimum wage. 

Vote No. 3 is the 88-10 vote to pass the labor-opposed 
legislation. 

On all three votes, R shows *'righf votes for labors posi- 
tion, W indicates wrong” votes and absentees are marked A , 



1 

2 

3 


1 

2 

3 

ALABAMA 



GEORGIA 



Denton (R) 

W 

W 

W 

Nunn (D) 

w 

W 

W 

Heflin (D) 

R 

R 

W 

Mattingly (R) 

w 

W 

W 

ALASKA 



HAWAH 



Murkowski (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Inouye (D) 

R 

R 

w 

Stevens (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Matsunaga (D) 

W 

R 

w 

ARIZONA 



IDAHO 



Goldwater (R) 

W 

W 

w 

McClure (R) 

W 

W 

w 

DeConcini (D) 

W 

R 

w 

Symms (R) 

W 

W 

w 

ARKANSAS 



ILLINOIS 



Bumpers (D) 

W 

R 

w 

Percy (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Pryor (D) 

W 

R 

w 

Dixon (D) 

R 

R 

w 

CALIFORNIA 



INDIANA 



Cranston (D) 

R 

R 

R 

Lugar (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Hayakawa (R) 

W 

W 

W 

Quayle (R) 

W 

W 

w 

COLORADO 



IOWA 



Hart (D) 

W 

R 

W 

Jepsen (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Armstrong (R) 

W 

W 

W 

Grassley (R) 

W 

W 

w 

CONNECTICUT 


KANSAS 



Weicker (R) 

W 

R 

R 

Dole (R) 

W 

W 

w 

Dodd (D) 

R 

R 

R 

Kassebaum (R) 

W 

W 

w 

DELAWARE 



KENTUCKY 



Roth (R) 

R 

W 

W 

Huddleston (D) 

W 

R 

w 

Biden (D) 

R 

R 

W 

Ford (D) 

R 

R 

w 

FLORIDA 



LOUISIANA 



Chiles (D) 

W 

W 

W 

Long (D) 

W 

W 

w 

Hawkins (R) 

W 

W 

W 

Johnston (D) 

W 

W 

w 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

MAINE 



OHIO 



Cohen (R) W 

W 

W 

Glenn (D) R 

R 

W 

Mitchell (D) R 

R 

W 

Metzenbaum (D) R 

R 

R 

MARYLAND 



OKLAHOMA 



Mathias (R) R 

R 

A 

Boren (D) W 

W 

W 

Sarbanes (D) R 

R 

R 

Nickles (R) W 

W 

W 

MASSACHUSETTS 


OREGON 



Kennedy (D) R 

R 

R 

Hatfield (R) W 

W 

W 

Tsongas (D) W 

R 

R 

Packwood (R) W 

W 

W 

MICHIGAN 



PENNSYLVANIA 


Riegle (D) R 

R 

W 

Heinz (R) R 

R 

W 

Levin (D) R 

R 

R 

Specter (R) R 

W 

W 

MINNESOTA 



RHODE ISLAND 


Durenberger (R) W 

W 

W 

Pell (D) R 

R 

R 

Boschwitz (R) W 

W 

W 

Chafee (R) W 

R 

W 

MISSISSIPPI 



SOUTH CAROLINA 


Stennis (D) W 

W 

W 

Thurmond (R) W 

W 

W 

Cochran (R) W 

W 

W 

Hollings (D) W 

W 

W 

MISSOURI 



SOUTH DAKOTA 


Eagleton (D) R 

R 

R 

Pressler (R) W 

W 

W 

Danforth (R) W 

W 

W 

Abdnor (R) W 

W 

W 

MONTANA 



TENNESSEE 



Melcher (D) R 

R 

W 

Baker (R) W 

W 

W 

Baucus (D) W 

R 

W 

Sasser (D) R 

R 

W 

NEBRASKA 



TEXAS 



Zorinsky (D) W 

W 

W 

Tower (R) A 

A 

W 

Exon (D) W 

W 

W 

Bentsen (D) W 

W 

W 

NEVADA 



UTAH 



Cannon (D) W 

R 

W 

Gam (R) W 

W 

W 

Laxalt (R) W 

W 

W 

Hatch (R) W 

W 

W 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 


VERMONT 



Humphrey (R) W 

W 

W 

Stafford (R) W 

W 

W 

Rudman (R) W 

W 

W 

Leahy (D) R 

R 

w 

NEW JERSEY 


VIRGINIA 



Williams (D) A 

A 

A 

Byrd (D) W 

W 

w 

Bradley (D) R 

R 

W 

Warner (R) W 

W 

w 

NEW MEXICO 


WASHINGTON 


Domenici (R) W 

W 

W 

Jackson (D) R 

R 

w 

Schmitt (R) W 

W 

W 

Gorton (R) W 

W 

w 

NEW YORK 



WEST VIRGINIA 


Moynihan (D) R 

R 

W 

Randolph (D) R 

R 

w 

D’ Amato (R) W 

W 

W 

Byrd (D) R 

R 

w 

NORTH CAROLINA 


WISCONSIN 



Helms (R) W 

W 

W 

Proxmire (D) W 

W 

w 

East (R) W 

W 

W 

Kasten (R) W 

W 

w 

NORTH DAKOTA 


WYOMING 



Burdick (D) R 

R 

W 

Wallop (R) W 

W 

w 

Andrews (R) W 

W 

W 

Simpson (R) W 

W 

w 


Surely, he suggested, the corporate bor- 
rowers are not among the “truly needy” 
who are supposed to be spared from the 
hardships of budget cuts. 

AN ATTACHMENT to the AFL-CIO 
testimony listed large corporations that 
have benefited from financing by the so- 
called “small issue” industrial revenue 
bonds. These corporations, Schechter said, 
have earnings running to hundreds of mil- 
lions of dollars annually, and most have 
had significant year-to-year increases in 
earnings and dividends paid. 

The effect of the revenue bonds, he 
suggested, has been to reallocate income 
“from the U.S. Treasury to large corpora- 
tions and their stockholders.” 

Transit Workers 
Voting on New 
Philadelphia Pact 

Philadelphia — Some 5,000 striking bus, 
trolley, and subway workers returned to 
their jobs after negotiators for Transport 
Workers Local 234 won agreement on a 
new contract with the Southeastern Penn- 
sylvania Transportation Authority. 

A membership vote on whether to ac- 
cept the tentative two-year settlement was 
set for Apr. 10. The accord was reached 
Apr. 2 on the 19th day of the walkout. 

THE MAIN stumbling block had been 
management’s demand for authority to 
hire part-time workers, an action prohib- 
ited under the old contract. Fred Allen, 
business agent for Local 234, said the 
ban on part-time hiring, as well as a no- 
layoff clause, will remain in force under 
the new agreement. 

Highlights of the agreement include a 
12.5 percent wage increase in the first 
year plus cost-of-living adjustments on 
Dec. 15 of this year and next. The COL 
clause calls for a 1-cent hourly increase 
for each rise of four-tenths of 1 percent in 
the federal consumer price index, up to a 
ceiling of 12 cents per year. The pact also 
improves pension and insurance benefits. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON^ D.C., APRIL 11, 1981 


OSHAffit 

For Retreat 
On Chemicals 


(Continued from Page 1) 

arbitrary decision,” Denison said. The La- 
bor Dept., he suggested, was responding 
to signals from the chemical industry “and 
orders by the Office of Management & 
Budget.” 

THE AFL-CIO witnesses stressed that 
the effect of the Administration action 
was to stifle public discussion and con- 
sideration of all aspects of the issue. After 
the hearings, the new OSHA assistant 
secretary would have been free to modify 
or rewrite the regulation. 

Denison told the House panel that fed- 
eral inaction “will not stop the working 
people of this country from seeking other 
means of gaining right-to-know protec- 
tions.” 

Five states — Maine, Michigan, Connec- 
ticut, California and New York — ^have al- 
ready enacted legislation to achieve this, 
he said. While the state laws vary in the 
scope of chemicals covered and the infor- 
mation required, Denison said, “they are 
based upon the same principle, the work- 
er’s right-to-know.” 

The AFL-CIO favors federal action 
over state requirements to assure uniform 
coverage and adequate enforcement of 
worker health and safety, Denison said. 

“BUT GIVEN the realities of the pres- 
ent federal regulatory environment,” he 
testified, “we have urged our members to 
use every means available — state legisla- 
tion, regulations and contract language — 
to gain information on workplace chemi- 
cals.” 

Until all workers have the information 
they need about the hazards of chemical 
substances, he warned, there will continue 
to be “unnecessary illness and death.” 

The hearings will resume after the 
Easter recess of Congress and other union 
representatives will be among those testify- 
ing. 



INDUSTRY PRESSURE led to withdrawal of OSHA’s proposal to require 
disclosure of chemical hazards in workplaces, the AFL-CIO charged at House 
hearings. At the witness table, from left. Safety Director George H. R. Taylor, 
Legislative Director Ray Denison and Margaret Seminario, industrial hygienist 
in the AFL-CIO Dept, of Occupational Safety & Health. 

New FTC Rule Gives Unions 
Voice in Antitrust Hearings 


Labor unions now have an automatic 
right to intervene in Federal Trade Com- 
mission antitrust cases where divestiture 
may be ordered with a resulting effect on 
employees’ jobs, the FTC announced. 

The commission voted 3 to 2 to change 
its rule of practice (Rule 3.14), which had 
been published for comment on Mar. 14, 
1980. While the agency always had a prac- 
tice of entertaining requests for permission 
to intervene from interested parties, in- 
cluding labor organizations, the rule 
change makes automatic the right of un- 
ions to intervene. 

THE DECISION emanates from a 
lengthy struggle of the Grain Millers and 
other unions, assisted by the AFL-CIO 
Food & Beverage Trades Dept., to pro- 
tect the rights of their members in the 
FTC’s pending divestiture case against the 
ready-to-eat cereal industry. 

Since 1972, the agency has sought to 


Kirkland Asks Swift Probe 
Of Grain Elevator Explosions 


The AFL-CIO has called for an im- 
mediate investigation of the grain elevator 
explosions in Corpus Christi, Tex., and 
Bellwood, Neb., that left at least seven 
dead and 36 injured. 

Federation President Lane Kirkland 
urged the Occupational Safety & Health 
Administration and the Agriculture Dept, 
to examine both incidents “swiftly and 
thoroughly” and to “accelerate the pace” 
of developing safety and health standards 
and enforcement procedures “to prevent 
the occurence of these needless tragedies 
in the future.” 

A SERIES of flaming explosions ripped 
through the 14-story waterfront elevator in 
Corpus Christi on Apr. 7, damaging 54 of 
153 silos in the city-owned facility. 

The explosions, which occured just be- 
fore a shift change with some 50 workers 
in the area, killed at least four workers, in- 
jured at least 33, including seven federal 
grain inspectors in the area on routine 


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business. Two more workers are missing 
and listed as dead. 

Only a few hours later, at least one other 
worker was killed and two injured in the 
Nebraska incident which demolished a 
farmers’ cooperative elevator. 

LOCAL AUTHORITIES worked 
through the night to drain thousands of 
gallons of propane gas from two nearby 
storage tanks threatened by the tilting re- 
mains of the elevator. 

Kirkland called the two accidents “a 
reminder of the needless destruction of life 
and property that has characterized this 
industry for years.” The explosions were 
the fifth and sixth since January. 

At least 99 workers have died and 187 
have been injured in grain elevator explo- 
sions since 1976, Kirkland said, pointing 
out that many more have been killed or 
seriously hurt by thousands of elevator 
fires during the same period. 

“The knowledge to prevent such trag- 
edies has existed for years,” Kirkland said, 
“and the time to use it is now.” Currently, 
no OSHA standard exists for controlling 
the amount of grain dust in and around 
elevators and mills. 

ROBERT F. HARBRANT, president of 
the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept., pointed to grain dust as “the fuel 
that powers these explosions.” Grain dust 
is nine times more explosive than coal 
dust, he said, stressing that although the 
United States has had the knowledge and 
many techniques for preventing dust ex- 
plosions for at least 60 years, the methods 
have not been adequately implemented. 

In 1 977 alone, Harbrant said, two major 
dust explosions destroyed more than 2.5 
percent of the nation’s grain export capa- 
city for that period. 


break up the industry, which it argues is 
noncompetitive because of the concentra- 
tion of four big firms — Kellogg Co., Gen- 
eral Mills, Inc., Quaker Oats Co., and 
General Foods Corp. 

When the Grain Millers attempted to 
intervene in August 1978 as a party in the 
FTC proceedings, it was turned down on 
the ground that its concern in the case 
was “wholly irrelevant” to the issues in- 
volved. .The union sought to be heard be- 
cause the proposed divestiture would have 
ousted 2,650 of its members from their 
jobs and destroyed its contracts. 

“Why then should we not have a voice 
in the case to protect the interests and 
contractual rights of these employees,” the 
union said in August 1979, as it pressed 
for the riglit to be heard. 

THE FTC HAD proposed spinning off 
five new cereal companies from the four 
major firms where the Grain Millers was 
the recognized bargaining agent under the 
National Labor Relations Act. If the FTC 
plan went into effect, the union contended, 
the new companies would be under no 
obligation to continue the master contracts 
already in place, “and it is quite conceiv- 
able that some or all of these new com- 
panies might decide to try to get by with- 
out a union.” 

Commenting in favor of the change 
permitting automatic union intervention, 
AFL-CIO affiliates argued that divestiture 
often has a serious impact on unions and 
their members as in the Grain Millers 
case. The FTC’s staff said the agency 
would review the decision on intervention 
in a year. 


Jobless Rate 
Holds at 7.3% 
During March 

The nation’s unemployment rate stuck 
for the second consecutive month at a sea- 
sonally adjusted 7.3 percent in March as 
new workers coninued to enter the labor 
force at the same pace that new jobs 
opened up. 

Both total employment and the labor 
force increased by about half a million 
last month, advancing to 98.4 million and 
106.2 million, respectively, the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics reported. Adult men ac- 
counted for over 70 percent of the over- 
the-month increase in each of the two 
categories. 

THE TOTAL NUMBER of unem- 
ployed workers in the country last month 
was 7,764,000, marginally above the 
7,754,000 of the previous month. The job- 
less level has been essentially unchanged 
since last summer. 

The unemployment rate for adult men 
last month dropped slightly to 5.9 percent 
from 6 percent in February. The rate for 
women rose to 6.6 percent from 6.5 per- 
cent. For whites, the rate declined to 6.5 
percent from 6.6 percent the month be- 
fore. The rate for blacks rbse to 13.7 per- 
cent from 13.1 percent, and the rate for 
Hispanics fell to 10.7 percent from 12 per- 
cent. Teenage unemployment fell to 19.1 
percent from 19.3 percent. 

THE NUMBER of “discouraged” 
workers — those who want jobs but do not 
look for work because they think none 
is available — showed an increase of 60,000 
in the first three months of 1981, BLS 
said. The 1.1 million level was 165,000 
higher than a year earlier. 

At an even 40 hours, the average fac- 
tory work week was at about the same 
level as the end of 1980. Manufacturing 
overtime, at 2.9 hours, was unchanged 
over the month. 

A survey of industry payroll employ- 
ment showed that manufacturing employ- 
ment remained at about 20.4 million in 
March. Factory jobs were still three-quar- 
ters of a million below the June 1979 pre- 
reqession high. 

EMPLOYMENT in construction and 
mining was unchanged over the month at 
4.5 and 1.1 million, respectively. The num- 
ber of construction jobs was about 230,000 
below the January 1980 peak. By con- 
trast, employment in mining, which had 
increased fairly steadily during 1980, was 
about 85,000 above the year-earlier level. 

In the service sector of the economy, 
only state and local government — down by 
55,000 — showed any substantial movement 
during March. This was largely offset by 
small gains in trade and services. 


House Democratic Proposal 
Would Soften Budget Slash 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The House appeared more likely to 
make substantive changes in the Adminis- 
tration’s tax proposals — an area where Re- 
publicans have been much more divided. 

House Ways & Means Committee 
Chairman Dan Rostenkowski has outlined 
what is generally considered a politically 
attractive policy — angled more to middle- 
income taxpayers than to the very rich 
who would profit most by the Administra- 
tion bill. But it would give wealthy in- 
vestors a benefit not proposed by the Ad- 
ministration — a ceiling of 50 percent tax 
on unearned income. 

WHILE THE budget battle will be 
largely along party lines, with the possi- 
bility of liberal amendments to try to im- 
prove the Budget Committee proposal, the 
lines may be more blurred on a tax bill. 
Rostenkowski has said his hope is to 
fashion a bipartisan measure. 

The statement adopted by the House 
Democratic Caucus — by voice vote on 
Apr. 8 — mingled liberal and conservative 
rhetoric in its search for a consensus. 


It sought to spell out basic differences 
between the two major parties, rejecting 
President Reagan’s contention that govern- 
ment is “the problem.” The Democratic 
t: view is that government is “a necessary 
instrument for achieving vital public 
goals.” 

The caucus termed it “foolhardy to try 
to combat inflation with a massive across- 
the-board tax cut whose immediate effect 
would be to make it worse.” 

BUT IT EMBRACED “a national con- 
sensus” for “reducing the size of govern- 
ment” and said regulations must be made 
more “cost-effective.” 

It said recipients of government assis- 
tance should be encouraged to work but 
promised to resist cuts “that would throw 
people out of work and onto welfare.” 

The caucus statement endorsed an “in- 
comes policy” based on “cooperation of 
government, labor and business.” 

The caucus promised “a lean federal 
budget, which puts us on the path to bal- 
ancing the budget and provides for the 
human needs of our people.” 





A tax bill that meets the AFL-CIO’s 
test of fairness to workers while targeting 
aid to advance reindustrialization goals 
has been introduced by Rep. Frank J. 
Guarini (D-N.J.). 

Guarini is a member of the House Ways 
& Means Committee, which has jurisdic- 
tion over tax legislation and later this 
month will start voting on the ingredients 
of a committee bill. 

THE MEASURE introduced by Guarini 
(H.R. 3218) includes the social security 
payroll tax credit the AFL-GIO had pro- 
posed as a more equitable and less costly 
alternative to the Reagan Administration’s 
percentage cut in federal income taxes. 

Under the Guarini bill, workers would 
have 20 percent of their social security tax 
refunded to them through tax credit, and 


employers would receive back 5 percent of 
their share of the payroll tax. 

The tax credit would be worth more to 
the majority of wage earners than the Rea- 
gan proposal, but the revenue drain would 
be less because the tax credit would top 


off at $395 for an individual worker while 
the Administration income tax would give 
substantially bigger payments to the very 
affluent. 

All employers would profit from their 
share of the social security tax credit, but 


those employing the largest number of 
workers would benefit most. 

The targeted business tax cut urged by 
the AFL-CIO and spelled out in H.R. 
3218 contrasts dramatically with the Ad- 
ministration proposal, which would give 
accelerated depreciation allowances and 
the full 10 percent investment tax credits 
to all business enterprises, regardless of 
need or economic benefit to the nation. 

The revenue loss to the government of 
the Reagan proposal, just from the faster 
depreciation, would rise from $9.7 billion 
in the next fiscal year to $60 billion when 
fully effective. 

AS PROPOSED by Guarini and urged 
by the AFL-CIO, aid to business apart 
from the 5 percent social security credit 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Budget Battle Hits Grass Roots 



BUDGET COALITION representatives are welcomed by plans to coordinate back-home opposition to federal budget 
AFL-CIO Sec. -Treas. Thomas R. Donahue to a meeting on cuts affecting all of the nation’s congressional districts. 


Labor Applauds Arrest 
In El Salvador Slayings 

By James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
commended the El Salvador government 
of Jose Napoleon Duarte and the FBI for 
the thoroughness of their investigation 
which led to the arrest of an El Salvador 
citizen in connection with the January 
murders of two American union advisers 
in San Salvador, the capital of the Latin 
American republic. 

The arrest of Hans Christ, about 30 
years old, followed intensive investigation 
and collaboration by U.S. and El Salvador 
authorities. 

THE SUSPECT, who has long been' 
identified with extreme right factions in 
El Salvador opposed to the ruling junta 
and the land reform program it began in 
March 1980, was taken into custody in 
Miami Beach on Apr. 15. A bond hearing 
was scheduled the following day. 

Christ has been accused of involvement 
in the shooting deaths of Michael P. Ham- 
mer, 42, of Potomac, Md., and Mark 
Pe^rlman, 36, of Seattle, both representa- 
tives of the American Institute for Free 
Labor Development (AIFLD), an interna- 
tional auxiliary of the AFL-CIO. 

The two were killed — along with Jose 
Rodolfo Viera, 43, head of the El Salvador 
government’s land-reform agency, the 
Institute Salvadoreno de Transformacion 
Agraria (ISTA) — in a hail of bullets as 
they sat in the coffee shop of a San Salva- 
dor hotel on Jan. 3. Witnesses said two 
men entered the room and sprayed the 
three with automatic pistol fire. 

PRESIDENT DUARTE said shortly 
after the killing of Hammer and Pearlman 
that, “in my opinion, it was almost cer- 
tainly an action by the extreme right.” 

The far-right forces have bitterly op- 
posed El Salvador’s agrarian reform pro- 
gram, which broke up many of the large 
estates and distributed the land to the 


peasants who actually worked it. Many 
landowners have sought to topple the 
Duarte government to regain the estates. 

Kirkland urged the El Salvador gov- 
ernment to continue its investigation of 
other possible suspects in the January 
killings, and to bring Christ and any other 
persons implicated in the murders to trial 
as promptly as possible. Similarly, he 
urged continuation of the investigation 
into the murders of other U.S. citizens in 
violence-plagued El Salvador and the 
speedy prosecution of those who are 
responsible. 

HAMMER, WHO had been with 
AIFLD for 17 years until the day of his 
death, had arrived in San Salvador the 
(Continued on Page 2) 

Cotton Dust 

By John R. Oravec 

The Reagan Administration attempt to 
dismantle the federal cotton dust standard 
would exact a heavy human toll as well 
as stiff economic costs of $5 billion, the 
Clothing & Textile Workers told a House 
Labor subcommittee. 

ACTWU’s warning came in testimony 
protesting the Labor Dept.’s directive or- 
dering a cost-benefit review of the three- 
year-old OSHA standard, which requires 
the industry to install engineering controls 
to reduce cotton dust levels in textile mills. 

SCOTT HOYMAN, ACTWU executive 
vice president, charged that Labor Sec. 
Raymond J. Donovan’s action is a “callous 
political ploy” to appease the “selfish in- 
terests of textile mill owners.” 

Hoyman said the attempt “to dismantle 
the standard constitutes a potential tragedy 
of immense proportions for the over half- 


Right to Bargain 
Over Shutdown 
Before Court 

The Supreme Court was urged to up- 
hold the right of a union to bargain with 
an employer in an effort to avoid a shut- 
down and thus save the jobs of workers 
it represents. 

A joint brief submitted by the AFL-CIO 
and the Auto Workers contends that an 
employer’s action that will result in aboli- 
tion of jobs clearly affects “conditions of 
employment” and thus is subject to the 
collective bargaining process under the 
National Labor Relations Act. 

THAT’S THE case whether or not the 
employer argues that the portion of his 
business being closed is a money-loser or 
(Continued on Page 2) 


million textile workers exposed to cotton 
dust on their jobs every day.” 

Prolonged exposure to high levels of 
cotton dust can cause brown lung, a de- 
bilitating respiratory disease that can be 
fatal. 

The scrapping of engineering controls, 
ACTWU warned, would greatly increase 
the risks of contracting brown lung dis- 
ease for some 50,000 textile workers. 

AS ABHORRENT as the translating of 
the human toll to economic terms is, Hoy- 
man said, he estimated that it would 
require $100,000 per victim in income 
support, medical expenses and administra- 
tive costs. 

On that basis, he observed, “the price 
tag for the proposed change in the stan- 
dard is $5 billion. This cost would have 
to be borne in large part by the federal 
Treasury, and does not even include the 


Labor ^ Allies 
Mount Drive 
In Districts 

By David L, Periman 

The trade union movement and its allies 
in the Budget Coalition activated affiliates 
in all congressional districts to demonstrate 
back-home support for needed federal pro- 
grams threatened by drastic budget slashes. 

The grass-roots lobbying was timed for 
the Easter recess, when nearly all mem- 
bers of Congress are in their home dis- 
tricts and available for meetings with 
constituents. 

ITS IMMEDIATE goal is vote commit- 
ments for liberal alternatives to the sorely 
inadequate budget ceilings proposed by the 
House Budget Committee — and the even 
more drastic funding slashes that House 
Republicans will propose as a substitute. 
The budget debate is expected to start Apr. 
30, a few days after Congress reconvenes. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue told representatives of more than 150 
cooperating organizations at a Budget Coa- 
lition meeting that the social gains of an 
entire generation could be wiped out in a 
few weeks through budget actions. 

He urged the participating groups to re- 
late the budget cuts to the concerns of their 
members — “to translate these issues into 
the language of your own constituency.” 

AFL-CIO central bodies will be avail- 
able as coordinating centers for arranging 
meetings with congressmen and for joint 
actions, Donahue said. 

The alliance of labor, social service, 
civil rights and public interest groups will 
be competing with home-state pressure on 
representatives and senators from business 
associations and conservative groups de- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


additional $382 million in workers’ com- 
pensation costs imposed on employers.” 

George Perkel, occupational health con- 
sultant who accompanied Hoyman at the 
hearings, noted that an Administration 
regulatory reform task force official had 
suggested that performance standards 
might be more cost effective than provi- 
sions requiring engineering controls. 

“THIS IS precisely what the textile in- 
dustry has been saying ever since the 
cotton dust standard was proposed,” Per- 
kel pointed out. 

Hoyman questioned the timing of the 
Labor Secretary’s action against the regu- 
lation since the Supreme Court has a de- 
cision pending on the standard. ACTWU, 
the AFL-CIO and the Industrial Union 
Dept, have asked the justices to reject the 
Labor Dept.’s request that the court shelve 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Retreat Sets High Price 



Page Two 



AFUCIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


Plant-Closing Test 


SPECIAL WELCOME to the AFL-CIO Union-Industries Show is extended to 
Baltimore Mayor William D. Schaeffer, center, with the presentation of a 
giant family admission ticket by show manager John S. Lutz, left, and Baltimore 
AFL-CIO President Henry Koellein, Jr. This year’s show, featuring some 300 
exhibits, will be at the Baltimore Convention Center May 8-13. The shows are 
produced annually by the AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Dept. 

Printers, Newspaper Guild 
Discontinue Merger Talks 


Court Asked to Uphold 
Bargaining on Shntdown 


The Newspaper Guild and the Typo- 
graphical Union announced jointly that 
“after exploring every avenue that might 
lead to permanent and effective organic 
merger,” the two unions have ended merg- 
er talks “without concluding a merger 
agreement.” 

At the same time, the unions pledged to 
“preserve and strengthen” their “good” 
relationships, to keep the “hot line” be- 
tween their respective headquarters “unob- 
structed and responsive,” and to continue 
and extend operations of longstanding task 
forces that have worked to encourage joint, 
coordinated and cooperative bargaining 
by locals of the two unions. The no-raiding 
agreement between the unions also remains 
in place, they said. 

THE UNIONS made the joint an- 
nouncement at the conclusion of a four- 
day meeting between their respective 
merger negotiation committees here. 

Formal merger talks between the unions 
began in November 1977 after conven- 

R. W. Macfarlane 
Dies, Headed 
Idaho AFL-CIO 

Boise, Idaho — Robert W. Macfarlane, 
president emeritus of the Idaho AFL-CIO, 
died Apr. 11 at his home here after a 
heart attack. 

Macfarlane, who was 70, had been 
president of the state labor federation 
from 1967 until his retirement in 1979. He 
was a longtime member of the Internation- 
al Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and 
worked throughout the United States and 
Canada as a cable splicer. Macfarlane was 
serving as president of IBEW Local 449 
in Pocatello when he was first elected to 
head the State AFL-CIO. 

During his tenure, Macfarlane led the 
labor federation’s 1971 fight for major 
improvements in Idaho’s workers’ com- 
pensation benefits and coverage and in 
defeating a 1977 campaign by anti-union 
forces for a “right-to-work” law. 

After retiring from active office, Mac- 
farlane continued to assist the State AFL- 
CIO in defeating another R-T-W drive and 
lobbied for senior citizens’ programs in the 
legislature for the past two years. 

Survivors include his wife, Hon, two 
children, five grandchildren and one great- 
grandchild. Services were held Apr. 14 in 
Boise. 


tions of both unions authorized them. 
Each subsequent annual convention of 
each union renewed the charge to the com- 
mittees to continue to seek to work out a 
proposal for merger. 

“Despite these efforts, hard work and 
the best will in the world,” the unions’ 
joint statement said, “it has not been pos- 
sible to resolve all the differences we have 
found in the existing structures, policies 
and practices of the two unions. 

“Thus, we reluctantly conclude that 
these discussions should cease until new 
and fresh looks and approaches can be 
brought to bear on our unresolved prob- 
lems.” 

AT THE SAME time, the unions de- 
clared that this conclusion does not lessen 
their belief “that unity of purpose and 
goals in the graphic arts and newspaper 
industries is vitally necessary — as is, one 
day,” merger of the unions that represent 
the industries’ employees. 

Pledging continued pursuit of those 
goals, the statement said the “failure to 
reach a merger agreement denigrates 
neither the efforts invested by both parties 
nor the way in which our respective unions 
conduct their business.” 

“The disappointment over this result 
is unlimited, but so is our determination to 
strengthen the bonds between our two- 
unions,” the statement concluded. 


The AFL-CIO urged Congress to rebuff 
attempts by anti-union groups to nullify 
a 1973 Supreme Court decision and make 
picket-line scuffles subject to the heavy 
criminal penalties of a federal anti-racke- 
teering law. 

In a letter to representatives and sen- 
ators, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison said state and local laws are ade- 
quate to deal with flareups of violence or 
harassment that might occur during the 
course of a strike. 

THE HOBBS ACT, dating to the 1950s, 
defined the circumstances when extortion 
or threats would be considered federal 
crimes. But Denison reminded the legisla- 
tors that the Supreme Court made clear 
that the law did not “put the federal gov- 
ernment in the business of policing the 
orderly conduct of strikes.” It ruled that 
the Hobbs Act does not apply to actions 
that might occur during legitimate strikes 


(Continued from Page 1) 

that he was motivated solely by business 
considerations, the brief insisted. 

Federal appellate courts have divided 
on the issue. But in the case being re- 
viewed by the Supreme Court, both the 
National Labor Relations Board and the 
2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed 
that the First National Maintenance Corp. 
violated federal labor law by its actions. 

The firm abruptly ended its mainte- 
nance service arrangement with a Brook- 
lyn nursing home, gave a three-day notice 
of dismissal to its 35 employees who 
worked full time at the institution, and 
refused to meet with representatives of 
District 1199 of the Retail, Wholesale & 
Dept. Store Union, which had recently 
been chosen as bargaining representative 
of the workers in an NLRB election. 

THE MAINTENANCE firm told the 
union the arrangement with the nursing 
home was being discontinued “because of 
financial reasons.” And an officer of the 
firm rejected a request for a meeting to 
discuss the situation with a brusque re- 
joinder, “We have nothing to discuss.” 

The AFL-CIO and the UAW maintain 
in their brief that the employer, indeed, 
has an obligation to join with the union 
in a good-faith effort to reach an agree- 
ment that would avoid the job loss. 

If an agreement is not possible, the em- 
ployer is then free to act unilaterally and 
the union has the right to take any legal 
“self-help” action that may be available 
to it, the brief noted. 

IT CITED the experience of the UAW 
and Chrysler as well as cases involving 
other unions in which various concessions 
agreed to by workers resulted in reducing 
costs to a company, thus enabling an op- 
eration that had been losing money to 
continue. 

“Experience demonstrates that labor and 
management can and do engage in pro- 
ductive negotiations over potential deci- 
sions to close plants and find ways to 
avert these closings, in a manner benefi- 
cial to the interests of each,” the brief 
stressed. 


(Continued from Page 1) 
day he was shot to consult with Viera on 
technical aspects of the land-redistribution 
program. Pearlman, who joined AIFLD 
only last May, was the resident American 
adviser to peasant unions involved in the 
agrarian reform. 

William C. Doherty, Jr., executive di- 


for legal goals such as higher wages or 
pension benefits. 

Denison protested that if the law is 
changed to apply the Hobbs Act to legiti- 
mate strikes, “almost any incident that 
occurs along a .picket line” could subject 
strikers or union officials to penalties of up 
to 20 years in prison and $10,000 fines. 

“The worker who threw a punch on the 
picket line or the striker who deflated the 
tires of his employer’s truck would be 
subject to federal prosecution,” he said. 

FURTHER, Denison noted, a strike- 
breaker who threw the first punch could 
only be prosecuted under state law, but a 
striker in similar circumstances could be 
charged under the anti-extortion law. 

Such a distinction is contrary to the 
basic labor law policy of “government 
neutrality and even-handedness” in en- 
forcement, Denison protested. 


“Frequently, ways to solve problems 
leading to closings are reached, but even 
if they are not, mutual understanding and 
trust are engendered.” 

The brief concluded that “free collec- 
tive bargaining in the plant closing con- 
text works, just as Congress judged it 
would. Or, at the very least, the chances 
that it will work are good enough to make 
bargaining worthwhile.” 

ON THE legal precedents, the union 
brief noted that a comparable Supreme 
Court decision under the Railway Labor 
Act, whose pertinent language is identical 
to that of the NLRA, upheld the right of 
the Railroad Telegraphers to bargain over 
the issue of stations and discontinuance 
of jobs. 

It would be a “cruel irony,” the brief 
suggested, if in this case the Supreme 
Court were to hold that workers who had 
voted for union representation were en- 
titled to negotiate with their employer over 
virtually all conditions of employment ex- 
cept for job security, which is often “their 
most pressing need.” 

OSHA Places Hold 
On Hearing Program 

The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has delayed until June 1 a 
hearing conservation program that was 
scheduled to go into effect Apr. 15 for 
workers subjected to high levels of noise 
on the job. 

Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. Auchter 
said the 47-day delay is needed to study 
numerous requests OSHA has received for 
interpretation, reconsideration and stay of 
the program. 

The program was promulgated Jan. 16 
by the outgoing Carter Administration as 
an amendment to the agency’s 90-decibel 
noise limit standard which is seldom en- 
forced. 

Under the new program, employers 
would be required to provide hearing pro- 
tectors, audiometric testing, training and 
monitoring for workers exposed to 85 
decibels of noise. 


rector of the Washington-based AIFLD, 
which sponsored the American rural labor 
advisory program, said that despite the 
deaths of the three men “the land reform 
process is continuing at an ever increasing 
rate.” 

ISTA, the El Salvadoran government 
agency in charge of administering the 
reform program, is now issuing titles to 
sharecroppers transferring the expropri- 
ated land to them, he said. 

DOHERTY NOTED that just last week, 
on Apr. 9 at a congress commemorating 
Viera, the Union Communal Salvadorena 
(UCS), the largest peasant union in El Sal- 
vador, ratified its support of the land-re- 
distribution program, and pressed the 
Duarte government to accelerate the re- 
form process. Viera headed UCS as well 
as ISTA at the time of his death. 

Doherty said that he was elated by news 
of Christ’s arrest, and gratified by the El 
Salvadoran government’s persistence in 
pursuing the case. 

“This is not a matter of revenge,” he 
said. “It is a matter of defending the 
agrarian reform against the right-wing ex- 
tremists who oppose a better deal for the 
peasants.” He said that the investigation 
was continuing, but could not provide 
further details at this time. “We don’t want 
to jeopardize the case,” he added. 

At the time of their deaths, Doherty 
said he believed that Hammer and Pearl- 
man were the first American trade union- 
ists killed in Latin America — possibly in 
the world — ^while carrying out their official 
duties abroad. 


Labor Fights Move to Apply 
Extortion Law to Picketing 


Kirkland, AIFLD Applaud 
Arrest in Salvador Slayings 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 




Page Three 


As House Showdown Nears 


Budget Coalition Drive 
Keyed to Grass Roots 


(Continued from Page 1) 

manding undeviating support of President 
Reagan’s program. 

With blunt frankness, the Conservative 
Political Action Committee explained why 
it was lavishly funding a series of televi- 
sion commercials attacking liberal Sen. 
Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) as a big spender. 

NCPAC CHAIRMAN John T. Donlan 
stressed at a news conference that the anti- 
Sarbanes commercials would be shown 
over Washington-area television stations. 
His organization expected they would be 
seen by other members of Congress who 
could “substitute their own names” for 
Sarbanes and perhaps have second 
throughts about voting against budget cuts. 

At the Budget Coalition meeting, the 
discussion focused on the human impact 
of the proposed funding slashes and the 
work the various groups have been doing 
— simultaneous press conferences in key 
cities by women’s groups, coordinated 
lobbying by Urban League affiliates, tar- 
geting of key congressional districts by 
Hispanic organizations, issue-oriented tele- 
vision commercials prepared by the State, 
County & Municipal Employees, research 
undertaken by Americans for Democratic 
Action, activities by the Catholic Charities, 
the National Council of Churches and 

Prevailing Wage 
Repealer Killed 

In New Mexico 

Albuquerque, N.M. — ^Anti- worker forces 
lost another round when Gov. Bruce 
King (D) vetoed a bill calling for repeal of 
the state prevailing wage law. The veto 
cannot be overridden because it was 
handed down 1 1 days after the final 
legislative session had ended. 

The measure to call back the state’s 
Public Workers Minimum Wage Law had 
been sent to Gov. King in mid-March but 
did not reach his desk within 72 hours of 
the Mar. 20 adjournment of the regular 
session. Although a special legislative ses- 
sion was called through Mar. 29, King by 
law had until mid-April to act. 

IN HIS VETO message, King, who had * 
earlier rejected a “right-to-work” bill, said 
he killed the prevailing wage repealer “be- 
cause I do not believe it would help the 
people of New Mexico, particularly our 
working men and women.” 

Also in March, a strong lobbying effort 
by Arkansas labor helped persuade the 
state house to bury a prevailing wage re- 
peal bill in committee, but in Utah non- 
union contractors were able to rally the 
overwhelmingly Republican legislature to 
override Gov. Scott Matheson’s veto of a 
repeal bill. 

Measures to weaken state prevailing 
wage laws have apparently failed in Idaho, 
Montana and Indiana, according to the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept. 

MISSOURI’S law withstood a constitu- 
tional challenge earlier this year, but pre- 
vailing wage repealers or weakening amend- 
ments have been introduced in Illinois, 
Kansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and 
Colorado, the BCTD said. 

Improvements in prevailing wage laws 
are being considered in Massachusetts, 
Minnesota, New York and Oregon. 

AFSCME Official Gets 
New York State Post 

New York — Lillian Roberts has been 
named New York State Industrial Com- 
missioner by Gov. Hugh Carey. Roberts 
is associate director of State, County & 
Municipal Employees District Council 37, 
the major union of city employees here. 

The nomination will go to the state 
senate’s labor committee for confirmation. 


Jewish groups, anti-hunger rallies and leg- 
islative conferences in Washington timed 
to have maximum impact on the budget 
votes. 

AFL-CIO LEGISLATIVE Director Ray 
Denison, in a letter to state and local 
central bodies, stressed that only “a mass 
outpouring of anger and opposition at the 
grassroots level in every congressional dis- 
trict” can turn the tide away from “eco- 
nomic disaster.” 

The Budget Coalition lobbying effort 
will stress that the Administration’s pro- 
posals “will accelerate inflation, destroy 
jobs, hurt the poor, the aged, children, the 
jobless and disadvantaged and preclude 
essential public investments and services 
that are needed to revitalize urban and 
rural areas as well as to create new jobs.” 

It will urge members of Congress to 
support amendments to restore funds for 
vital social and economic programs “so 
long as that amendment does not take 
funds from another program.” 

THE EXTENT to which amendments 
can be' proposed to the budget resolution 
will be determined by the House Rules 
Committee at its Apr. 28 meeting. 

The Senate, which got off to a fast start 
in budget-slashing by directing its legisla- 
tive committees to rewrite existing laws to 
eliminate some $37 billion in spending 
authority, got temporarily sidetracked by 
a Republican ideological split. 

The Senate Budget Committee had been 
expected to adopt a comprehensive budget 
resolution, based on Administration pro- 
jections of outlays and revenues, including 
the impact of the three-stage tax cut the 
President proposed. 

THREE OF THE most conservative 
Republican senators joined committee 
Democrats in voting against the budget 
because, they said, the President promised 
a balanced budget by 1 984. 

White House emissaries have been try- 
ing to persuade the GOP strays to change 
their votes and have promised that the 
Administration will at a later date pro- 
pose further spending cuts that will achieve 
the balanced budget. 

Despite the intra-party squabble, the 
corUtion of nearly all Republicans and a 
large bloc of conservative Democrats in 
the Senate has given the Reagan Adminis- 
tration virtually everything it has asked for. 


WIDE-RANGING ISSUES dealing with the pursuit of equal opportunities were 
explored at the annual five-day Civil Rights Institute at the George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies. Discussing the program during a break in sessions 
are, from left, AFL-CIO Civil Rights Director William E. Pollard, Carrie 
Wooden of the A. Philip Randolph Institute’s Memphis chapter. Prof. Roy 
Kirkley of Rutgers University and Kathy Krieger of the Carpenters legal staff. 

Kirkland Calls Budget Fight 
Civil Rights Issue of 1980s 


America’s painfully achieved progress 
towards social justice and equal opportu- 
nity is threatened by the Administration’s 
“new economics,” AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland warned. 

Kirkland challenged the rush to dis- 
mantle laws and programs without regard 
for the consequences in his keynote speech 
to a five-day AFL-CIO Civil Rights Con- 
ference held at the George Meany Center 
for Labor Studies. 

“IF YOU want to know what the civil 
rights issues of the 1980s are, look at the 
President’s budget proposals,” Kirkland 
suggested. “They add up to an attempt to 
reverse the social progress that has been 
won by legislative and economic action 
over the last 50 years.” 

Kirkland said the budget-dictated dis- 
mantling is being done “in the name of 
economic theories that defy experience and 
common sense, without any semblance of 
compassion or regard for the common 
welfare.” 

The Administration would sacrifice half 
a million public service jobs, Kirkland 
noted, along with “job training programs 
administered by the AFL-CIO’s Human 
Resources Development Institute and the 
employment and training arms of the 
Urban League and the NAACP.” 

He warned that “at a time when the 


OUTSTANDING EFFORTS of Eula Bingham to eliminate workplace health 
hazards while she headed the Occupational Safety & Health Administration 
were cited by the Urban Environment Conference. Presenting the conference’s 
Philip A. Hart Award to Bingham is Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride. 


Administration seeks to strengthen the role 
of America in the world, it risks dividing 
Americans at home.” 

Kirkland noted that the breakthrough 
civil rights laws of the 1960s were achieved 
largely through the coalition efforts of the 
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. 

Those groups are the heart of the Bud- 
get Coalition of 186 national organizations, 
Kirkland noted. “We have been joined by 
an extraordinary range of other voluntary 
organizations.” And the cooperation must 
be duplicated at the local level, he urged. 

“We need our local unions and central 
labor councils to take the lead in building 
the same coalition in their own commu- 
nities,” Kirkland said, “and to agitate, 
educate and organize until every union 
member, every member of the civil rights 
organizations, women’s organizations, 
every organization we can reach, is con- 
tributing to the struggle.” 

THE LABOR movement won’t be de- 
terred from a maximum effort by those 
who “tell us the odds are against us, that 
it’s a losing battle,” Kirkland stressed. 
“Since when do we consult the bookmakers 
on what is right and what is wrong, what 
serves the interests of American workers 
and what hurts them?” 

Unions, he urged, must “educate our 
members and their families to the issues 
that are at stake” and “enlist them as grass- 
roots lobbyists.” 

It’s the labor movement’s “plain duty,” 
he said, “to do our best to head off the 
disasters we see in the making.” 

High Cost Cited 
In OSHA Retreat 
On Cotton Dust 

(Continued from Page 1) 

its review of the standard as well as vacate 
an appeals court ruling that upheld the 
regulation. 

Hoyman said that Donovan’s action also 
“raises fundamental and disturbing ques- 
tions about the ability of the Executive 
Branch of government to usurp congres- 
sional authority.” 

By ordering a review of the engineering 
control provisions, Hoyman charged, 
Donovan “is determined to find a basis for 
tearing out the very heart of the standard.” 

THE CLEAR intent of the federal job 
safety law was to eliminate toxic sub- 
stances in the workplace, he stressed. 

“Never did Congress seek to create a 
workforce encased in respirators and gas 
masks. Nowhere did it ask the Secretary 
of Labor to try to put a price tag on 
human life. The Secretary’s efforts in that 
direction are a gross subversion of the 
legislative process,” he told the panel. 

The standard provides for the use of 
respirators until engineering controls are 
fully in place by Mar. 27, 1984. 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


Safety vs. Profits 


‘You’re Next!’ 


T he recent actions of the Labor Dept, to abrogate its 
responsibilities under the Occupational Safety & Health Act 
raise serious questions about the Reagan Administration’s under- 
standing of the functions of the Executive Branch of the govern- 
ment. 

Within the kst month, the Secretary of Labor has withdrawn 
OSHA’s proposed requirements for identification of hazardous 
chemicals used in the workplace and cancelled public hearings 
on the proposal. Ten years of painstaking study went into the 
development of the proposal which he dismissed, inaccurately, as 
a “midnight regulation.” 

The Secretary has turned back the clock on textile workers 
threatened by exposure to cotton dust by calling for new rule- 
making for a cotton dust standard to include “cost-benefit analy- 
sis,” abandoning a pending Supreme Court test of the issue. 

THE NEW ADMINISTRATOR of OSHA has issued an order 
withdrawing the agency’s pamphlets and films on brown lung 
disease, which he admitted he has not personally reviewed, on 
the curious ground that the materials “favor workers.” 

Each of these moves reflects industry objections to the law and 
to its enforcement. 

They show a fundamental misunderstanding of how our three- 
branch, representative system of government operates. 

Our elected Congress has asserted every worker’s right to a safe 
and healthful workplace. The law has been tested and upheld by 
the Judicial Branch. 

The Reagan Administration, as the Executive Branch, is di- 
rected by the Constitution to “take care that the laws be faithfully 
executed.” It cannot evade that responsibility because a business 
complains of the cost. 

THE OCCUPATIONAL Safety & Health Act was enacted to 
protect workers from avoidable job-related hazards. It is clearly 
within the kw’s intent that workers be made aware of the poten- 
tial risks of the substances they handle or breathe. 

The achievements and the goals of this excellent law should 
not be negated under the guise of business-school jargon such as 
cost-benefit analysis, a thinly disguised ploy ‘to cripple the effect 
of the law and the agency that administers it. 

The responsible elements of the American business community 
surely cannot agree that it is an acceptable practice to trade off 
specified amounts of human suffering in exchange for maximizing 
profits. 


THE AFL-CIO is committed to the effort to achieve strong 
federal standards that require industry to provide clear identifica- 
tion of hazardous substances, to provide textile workers with a 
clean, safe environment, and in general to provide for all working 
people the safe workplace that the law requires. 

Given the realities of the blatant bias with which worker safety 
and health are apparently going to be treated, however, we will 
urge our members to use every means available — state legislation, 
legal proceedings, and contract language — to assure that no Amer- 
ican worker must be forced to decide between a life and a pay- 
check. 

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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H‘. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
Dayid J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 

Kenneth T. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 

Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 

Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, AprU 18, 1981 No. 16 | 


= The AFLCIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 



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Equity in Suffering 

New Political Concept to End 
‘Discrimination’ Against Rich 

By Gus Tyler 


W ILSON HAD his New Freedom; Roosevelt 
had his New Deal; it may now be proper to 
propose a New Equality. 

The New Equality would deny favors to all, 
regardless of how rich or poor. It would wipe out 
discrimination between old and young, men and 
women. It would treat all alike. 

As yet, this concept has not been spelled out. 
But if some of the new egalitarians have their 
way in Washington, we may soon expect legisla- 
tion embodying a few of these leveling proposals: 

Both rich and poor shall be denied food 
stamps. 

No one is entitled to welfare, regardless of in- 
come. 

Both men and women shall be denied sick leave 
when they are pregnant. 

NO ONE SHALL be entitled to free legal ser- 
vices, no matter how affluent or non-affluent. 

No student in America shall be given financial 
aid for college, even if his or her parents are 
millionaires. 

Medicaid will be extended to all those who are 
prepared to pay 50 percent of the bill out of their 
own pocket or out of private insurance policies. 

All families will be taxed alike, a flat 30 percent 
of their income. But no one will be taxed at all — 
rich or poor — if he or she in any one year invests 
$1 million. 

THE SOCIAL security system shall be abol- 
ished since it gives one section of the population, 
those over 65, favored treatment over those who 
are younger. Age — like sex, race, religion, or in- 
come — should not be the basis of special benefits. 

Likewise, the unemployed should not receive 
jobless pay, since to do so would once more 
favor a few who are indulging their indolence. 

No one may join a union since to do so would 
allow one group in society to win benefits that are 
denied to those who prefer not to join a union. 

No one is entitled to rent supplements even if 
he or she pays $2,000 a month in rent. 

There shall be no minimum wage since it forces 
people to work at higher wages than they desire. 
To insist that a person earn at least $3.35 an 


hour when he or she prefers to work for 50 cents 
an hour is tyranny. 

THE BLIND, the handicapped, the disabled 
should not get special treatment since to do so 
is to discriminate against those who are not fortu- 
nate enough to .possess these traits. 

The government will supply no free lunch to 
any student, including those at Groton or Prince- 
ton. 

No one may beg or sleep in the city streets. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler columns 

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Indifference the Silent 
Crime of the Civilized^ 

I am deeply honored by this award. Yet, in 
all honesty, I must question my right to it. 

To have run the gauntlet of the two major 
tyrannies of our time is not in itself an achieve- 
ment. To be a victim is not to be a hero. 

I plead guilty to that for which I was con- 
demned by one regime: the offense of being 
Jewish. I was and am certainly guilty of that for 
which I was denounced and arrested by an<« 
other: the offense of holding and expressing 
opinions of my own. 

I am luckier than most such offenders of my 
time in finding a life where neither offense is a 
mortal crime, within reach of an all-powerful 
state. 

Who knows how many real or potential 
heroes there were among the 6 miUion Jews 
destroyed in Europe? Who knows how many 
real heroes have sunk to the bottom of the 
China Sea . . . perished in the African bush . • • 
been lost in the Caribbean . . . vanished into 
the Gulag? 

It is for them that I accept this award. And 
for those who survived only to find themselves 
rejected by the family of man. 

Indifference is the silent crime of the civil- 
ized, the refusal to recognize the human bond, 
the denial that another’s agony is our own. 

— From acceptance speech By Irena Kirkland 
at awards presentation dinner of the Interna- 
tional Rescue Committee, New York, Apr. 9, 
1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


Page Five 


Kirkland Stresses Link 

Freedom of Association Basic 
To Survival of Human Rights 


Excerpts from an address by AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland to the International Rescue 
Committee's awards dinner, New York, Apr, 9, 
1981, 

1 ABOR HAS NOT been content to give refuge 
^ to those escaping from jailer and killer states. 
We are engaged as well in refugee-prevention 
work. Wherever in the world we are asked or 
allowed to do so, we are trying to humanize 
societies by helping free and democratic trade 
unions to organize and develop their strength as 
shields against the abuse of public or private 
power. 

We are helping to create instruments through 
which workers can free themselves through the 
conquest of fear; through which they can effec- 
tively choose to stand their ground rather than 
take to flight. Without such a force, there is no 
choice but to fall or fly. 

AFTER THE Second World War, we helped to 
rebuild the shattered free labor movements of 
Western Europe, and to keep them out of the 
control of foreign totalitarian power. We aided 
the development of trade unions in the liberated 
former colonies, and from that base national 
leadership often emerged. In Latin America arid 
Asia, we have helped workers’ movements hang 
on for the future, through all the cycles of assorted 
autocratic political or military regimes. 

We have been criticized on many shifting 
grounds from many quarters. We have been 
chided for inciting simple workers to take risks, 
where an element of risk, knowingly faced, is 
their only chance for human dignity and a decent 
life. Where fear is the master, to give in or pander 
to fear is to conspire in the death of hope. 

Why, after all, should the Communist Party, 
for use where it suits its purposes, have exclusive 
title to that grand old slogan: “It is better to die 
on your feet than to live on your knees”? 

When the workers of Poland appealed publicly 
for essential material aid in the organization of 
an independent labor movement, our response 
was a natural one. Those workers do not seek to 
supplant the ruling party of that state, nor would 
we urge or encourage them to do so. They simply 
want their own independent trade union organi- 
zation, of, by and for the workers. 

THEY ARE PURSUING their version of an 
old biblical instruction: “Render unto Caesar that 
which is Caesar’s, and unto labor that which is 
labor’s.” 

That demand, to which the government of 
Poland committed itself as an obligation subject 
to international scrutiny when it ratified ILO 
Convention No. 87, and affirmed by written agree- 
ment with Solidarity last August, is the ultimate 
test of whether it is or ever will be possible to 
humanize a communist state. 

We acknowledge and recognize the odds and 
risks confronting Solidarity; but if the workers 
of Poland seek of their own volition to challenge 


those odds and accept those risks, we would be 
the last to dissuade them. We shall certainly not 
compound their risks or raise the odds by any 
failure on our part to meet their stated needs. 

The object is surely worthy of the odds, 
for if Solidarity endures and thrives the world will 
never be the same again, and that will be for the 
good of all. The abstract delusive question of the 
ownership of the tools of production will be dis- 
engaged, as it should be, from the over-riding 
issue of human freedom. All the channels of 
amity and commerce should be open to any regime 
where people who work can live in dignity and, 
in the words of George Meany, the “little guy 
can’t be pushed around.” 

THE ELEMENTS of a decent human life that 
flow with logical force from free trade union or- 
ganization in such a setting emerged quite clearly 
in the first meeting between Solidarity and the 
Polish government during the Gdnask strike last 
summer. 

The government said, in effect: “Let’s talk 
about wages and working conditions.” Solidarity 
replied: “No, let’s talk about freedom of asso- 
ciation, freedom of worship, a measure of press 
freedom, and freedom from arbitrary arrest and 
detention.” 

Any American can, of course, recognize in 
those demands the basic principles of our Bill 
of Rights. Any American trade unionist will sense 
the common strain with Samuel Gompers’s evoca- 
tion of the goals of labor, when he said: 

“What does labor want? It wants the earth and 
the fulness thereof. There is nothing too precious, 
there is nothing too beautiful, too lofty, too en- 
nobling, unless it is within the scope and compre- 
hension of labor’s aspirations and wants. . . . 
We want more constant work and less crime; 
more leisure and less greed; more justice and less 
revenge. ...” 

Recently when a journalist asked Lech Walesa 
whether Solidarity was not over-reaching so as 
to threaten international stability by going beyond 
pure “bread and butter” issues, he replied: “Life 
has forced us to become involved in these matters, 
because somebody has to be.” 

TODAY IN AMERICA there is a debate as 
to the role of government in the assertion abroad 
of policies in support of humaq rights — whether 
such a course should be pursued at all, or more 
consistently and forcefully, or simply abandoned. 
In all frankness, I cannot say that either the past 
or present government posture has properly ad- 
dressed the issue. 

I would strongly urge that the universal prin- 
ciple of freedom of independent association be 
made the cornerstone of a hutnan rights policy. 
The presence, absence or degree of that quality 
in a society should override considerations of 
whether one scoundrel or clique in control of the 
reins of state ought to be replaced by another 
scoundrel or clique. 


300,000 Face Layoff 

Proposed Cut in Jobs Program 
Threatens Key Public Services 


A dministration plans to drop 300,000 

" CETA-program workers pose a severe threat 
to the quality and level of state and local public 
services, and add new pressures to the nation’s 
already hard-pressed welfare and unemployment 
compensation systems, AFL-CIO Associate Legis- 
lative Director Robert McGlotten warned. 

Pointing out that large numbers of the workers 
targeted for layoff are working in child care and 
community development programs, as well as sup- 
port services for fire and police protection, Mc- 
Glotten said that many cities now face a hard 
choice between reducing needed public services or 
increase taxes. This is a grave problem for the 
cities, particularly the major cities of the North- 
east and Midwest, he declared. 

Questioned on the network radio interview 
Labor News Conference, McGlotten said the 


Administration’s plan to slash CETA jobs is “in- 
consistent with its call to cut back federal involve- 
ment in a number of social programs.” He said a 
recent University of Chicago analysis of the pro- 
posed CETA job cuts showed that at least “one- 
third of the people in public service jobs had 
previously been receiving other forms of public 
assistance,” and that when the layoffs come, 
“practically all of them will have, to go back on 
welfare.” 

McGlotten disagreed sharply with the 
contention of some Administration officials that 
the laid-off CETA workers will “move into other 
jobs quickly.” He stressed that with 7.8 million 
workers already on the jobless rolls, and with 
the nation’s industrial capacity operating at only 
80 percent of its potential, it is unlikely that 
private sector employers are going to expand pay- 
rolls. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he legislative gears of the 97th Congress should 
mesh very smoothly because they are very well oiled. 

According to an analysis by the National Committee for an 
Effective Congress, 190 oil and gas company political action com- 
mittees (PACs) poured $6 million into House and Senate races in 
the 1980 elections. 

In the view of NCEC Director Russell D. Hemenway, “This 
type of massive expenditure by a selfish special interest poses a 
real threat to our political process and the well-being of every 
American.” 

The fact is, he added, the oil and gas PACs outspent the na- 
tional Democratic Party committee. 

THE OIL COMPANIES may compete for the consumer’s 
dollar in their advertising, but they apparently worked in unison 
in channeling their political money. 

“Not only did the oil and gas crowd try to buy the influence 
and support of key committee members. They spent huge sums 
to defeat key progressive senators and congressmen who tried to 
protect the consumer and consistently voted in the best interest 
of all Americans,” Hemenway said. 

The NCEC analysis showed that 23 Republicans and five Demo- 
crats in Senate races received more than $20,000 each from oil 
and gas PACs. Standing alone in the six-digit class were four hard- 
line Republican conservatives who knocked off four liberal Demo- 
cratic senators. 

James Abdnor received $152,509 in defeating Sen. George 
McGovern in South Dakota. Charles Grassley got $177,880 to 
help him beat Sen. John Culver in Iowa. Dan Quayle received 
$134,534 and ousted Sen. Birch Bayh in Indiana. Steven Symms 
got $167,700 and beat four-term Sen. Frank Church in Idaho. 

The oil/gas PACs directed money into a large number of margi- 
nal House seats and in key House races in which one member 
above all that they marked for extinction. That was Rep. Bob 
Eckhardt of Texas, a fighter for consumer interests. The oil/gas 
PACs poured $102,91 1 into the coffers of challenger Jack Fields, 
by far the largest amount given to a House candidate and Eckhardt 
went down to defeat. 

THE NCEC STUDY showed that, of the House incumbents 
who received more than $5,000 from oil/gas PACs, 40 percent 
had committee or subcommittee assignments of major importance 
to the industry. That is, they were on Commerce and Energy, 
Interior or Ways & Means. Another 20 percent were on panels 
of secondary importance, such as Science and Technology, Mer- 
chant Marine or Public Works. 

In the 96th Congress, NCEC noted, these committees consid- 
ered such legislation as the windfall profits tax, the Alaskan Lands 
Act, the toxic waste superfund and the transport of natural gas. 

The Democratic Study Group, which includes most liberal and 
moderate Democrats in the House, recently issued a report on 
oil company profits which is mind boggling. 

THE DSG REPORT noted that, while the national economy 
showed no growth last year, the 20 biggest oil companies had a 
total net profit of more than $29 billion, a 30 percent jump over 
their record profits of 1979. 

The DSG quoted a Business Week magazine analysis which 
said the oil companies are on the verge of overwhelming the indus- 
trial economy. In 1972, oil firm profits made up only 15 percent of 
the profits of some 9,000 manufacturing corporations surveyed by 
the Federal Trade Commission. In 1978, this edged up to 18 
percent. But by mid- 1980, the oil company share of profits jumped 
to 40 percent and was rising in a generally stagnant economy. 

The DSG report said an analysis showed the top 20 oil com- 
panies spent only 38 percent of their “cash-flow” on exploration 
and production in 1979. The rest was spent on chemical produc- 
tion, marketing and buying up other companies. 



HARD CHOICE between reducing vital public services or 
boosting taxes faces many American cities if the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s plan to drop 300,000 CETA jobs gets congres- 
sional approval, AFL-CIO Associate Legislative Director Rob- 
ert McGlotten, center, warned on Labor News Conference. He 
was questioned by Robert Cooney, left, of Press Associates, Inc., 
and Doug Harbrecht of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


The RetM.ff4Bn BwBdffet 



pact on Public Employees 


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Government Workers Used 
As Scapegoats for Cutbacks 


DEMONSTRATING POSTAL WORKERS display the frustrations felt by 
million of government employees at all levels from cutbacks in funds for public 
services. The Reagan Administration’s “economic recovery” program would 
severely curtail the quality and amount of public services and increase the tax 
burden on middle-income and lower-income working Americans, the AFL-CIO 
Public Employee Dept, charges. 

Cost-Benefit Approach Aims 
To Wipe Out Public Services 


A significant aspect of President Rea- 
gan’s economic theories is the application 
of cost-benefit analysis to government reg- 
ulations, which ultimately will only benefit 
business and cost American consumers 
plenty. 

Like many other “Reaganomic” theo- 
ries, cost-benefit analysis is simple to un- 
derstand: just measure the cost to industry 
of complying with federal rules against the- 
benefits received by the people. If the 
costs outweigh the benefits, the regula- 
tions must be inflationary, right? 

BUT NO ECONOMIST has yet devel- 
oped cost figures for the human savings 
resulting from federal regulations applied 
to air and water, job safety and health or 
private sector pensions. 

Only after a disaster has occurred — one 
that might have been prevented by strong- 
er federal action — can the human suffering 
be counted. Examples are legendary: 
deaths from asbestos; injuries because of 
unsafe automobiles, deformed babies 
caused by dangerous drugs, and so on. 

Yet, a Presidential Task Force on Regu- 
latory Relief — consisting of the Vice Presi- 
dent and high-ranking cabinet officials — 
is now using cost-benefit analysis to re- 
view the entire government’s regulatory 
policies. So far, the benefits to industry, 
and the cost to workers, include: 

• Suspension of Occupational Safety 
& Health Administration rules that chemi- 
cals in the workplace be labeled and cot- 
ton dust standards be enforced. 

• Elimination of national energy effi- 
ciency standards for major household 
appliances. 

• Revocation of an extension of Davis- 
Bacon “prevailing wage” principles to 
timber sales, automatic data processing, 
and research and development firms under 
contract to the federal government. 

A comprehensive review is underway 
of the regulations of 14 “key” Executive 
Branch agencies, including the Depart- 
ments of Labor, Health & Human Ser- 
vices, Justice, Treasury and Agriculture. 

These departments administer laws 
ranging from mine, wage-hour, meat and 
food inspections, to consumer product, 
drug, job safety and civil rights protec- 
tions. Their effectiveness will be chal- 
lenged by the budget-cutters. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN also promises 
that “during the coming weeks and months 
agencies will be conducting intensive re- 
views of many existing and proposed regu- 
lations — at their own initiative, and in 


response to requests from the Task Force 
on Regulatory Relief.” 

The President’s support of the business- 
led attack on OSHA is an example of the 
regulatory review American workers can 
expect from the task force. 

The right-wing myth that government 
— and government workers — are the causes 
of all our domestic and international prob- 
lems is thus perpetuated. But American de- 
mand that public services be performed in 
response to needs that the private sector 
is either unwilling or unable to provide. 

ENERGY CONSERVATION, inflation 
and unemployment are a few of the na- 
tional problems requiring a response from 
the federal government. Mass transit aid, 
subsidies to the postal service and tech- 
nological research spending are examples 
of federal programs that do not cause 
inflation. 

Attacking public employees may sound 
heroic, but government is not the enemy 
of the people. The Reagan program prom- 
ises to get the government off the back of 
the corporations and the rich, while leav- 
ing working Americans to foot the bill. 


Although the poor and the elderly will 
suffer from President Reagan’s proposed 
budget* * cuts, millions of working Ameri- 
cans also will pay higher costs for public 
services they have come to expect and 
take for granted. 

Translating the impact of reduced or 
lost government services on the wallets of 
union members, in fact, is the biggest 
challenge union officials face. 

THE ADMINISTRATION and its 

supporters in Congress, unfortunately, are 
selling the notion that government and 
public employees are responsible for the 
sagging economy and runaway inflation. 

Federal and postal workers are sin- 
gled-out in particular by the conservative 
budget-cutters. About 15 percent of the 
cost of the President’s program will fall 
directly on them. 

More than 100,000 federal jobs will be 
cut in every non-defense agency by re- 
ductions-in-force over the next two years. 
What do these job cuts mean to industrial, 
service or construction workers? 

THE OCCUPATIONAL Safety & 
Health Administration is just one example. 
The $ 1 5 million proposed reduction in 
OSHA’s budget will result in 9,000 fewer 
on-the-job inspections. Similar cuts are 
projected in federal monitoring programs 
for such industries as food, and drugs, 
mine and grain inspections, and so on. 

In addition, Alfred M. Zuck, assistant 
secretary of labor for administration and 
management, has announced that there 
will be “some reductions” in inspections to 
enforce the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage 
law. Add to that list child labor, wage and 
hour, age and sex discrimination and a 
host of other federal protective labor laws. 

The U.S. Postal Service is widely rec- 
ognized as one of the most productive 
federal activities. But nearly $600 million 
in public service subsidies are slated to be 
eliminated. 

PRESIDENT MORRIS Biller of the 
Postal Workers warns that 40,000 postal 
jobs will be lost. The continued existence 
of small and rural post offices is threat- 
ened. 

The* end of six-day delivery, increased 
costs for charitable and labor publications 
and slower mail processing are harmful 
effects cited by Letter Carriers President 
Vincent Sombrotto. Mail Handlers Presi- 
dent Lonnie Johnson shares similar con- 
cerns. 

The list of other service reductions and 


examples of indirect costs to taxpayers of 
the Reagan program are numerous. But 
past experience has shown that personnel 
ceilings and federal job cuts have never 
really saved money for the government. 

MANY MEMBERS of the American 
Federation of Government Employees, for 
instance, employed in small social security 
district offices regularly work nine, ten or 
11 -hour days to meet processing demands. 
They report that most of the errors that 
create public dissatisfaction are caused by 
poorly trained part-time workers. 

Postal union leaders cite the same prob- 
lems of increased payroll costs resulting 
from overtime and unsatisfactory perfor- 
mance by part-time workers. 

The ultimate in senseless contracting-out 
was reached recently when Education Sec. 
Terrel H. Bell announced that 565 federal 
loan collectors will be laid off. Their rec- 

The material on this page analyzing 
the impact of the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s economic program on public ser- 
vices and government workers was pre- 
pared by the officers of the AFL-CIO 
Public Employee Dept It is one of a 
series planned by the AFL-CIO News. 

ord of collecting defaulted student loans 
is better than 90 percent. But their jobs 
will be contracted to the private sector, 
which normally charges 50 cents for every 
dollar collected. Federal workers returned 
$3 for every $1 in cost to tax payers. 

THE REAGAN Administration seems 
to have embarked on an all-out attack on 
the pay and fringe benefits of federal and 
postal workers. These plans include: 

• Slashing federal white-collor raises 
to about 4 percent. 

• Radically changing the retirement 
system, including a reduction in cost-of- 
living adjustments. 

• Wiping-out the current white-collar 
and blue-collar pay systems. 

• Drastically weakening the federal 
and postal employees injury compensation 
program. 

The AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
is warning that President Reagan is offer- 
ing the American people nothing more 
than the classic right-wing “Business 
Deal.” The fine print spells out the price 
the disadvantaged will pay, which means 
that an even greater financial burden will 
fall on millions of middle-income wage 
earners. 


President’s Plan Burdens Cities, Schools 


President Reagan’s so-called economic 
recovery program will result in a drastic 
shift of the tax burden on already hard- 
pressed middle-income and lower-income 
Americans for essential state and local 
government services. 

An analysis of the proposed federal 
budget cuts reveals that more than $35 
billion, about 65 percent, will fall on pro- 
grams that serve millions of working men 
and women through state or local govern- 
ments. 

But President Reagan’s program poses 
a particularly damaging threat to the qual- 
ity of education in this country. He is pro- 
posing to reduce aid to elementary and 
secondary schools by $2.2 billion out of 
the $7.2 billion now in the budget. 

FEDERAL GRANTS that go to local 
school districts and states to help the dis- 
advantaged, the handicapped and others 
will be cut $1.5 billion. Impact Aid oper- 
ating funds that now go to 4,500 school 
districts will be cut $474 million and will 
be available to only 300 districts. 

These cuts will mean a loss of $22 mil- 
lion to New York City alone, $4 million 
to Chicago, $3.5 million to Philadelphia, 
$5 million to Los Angeles, $1 million to 
Boston. 


Also recommended is a 25-percent cut, 
about $220 million, in funds for vocational 
education programs to train students for 
career jobs. 

The numbers represented by these 
budget cuts translate into larger classes, 
less help for poor learners and less atten- 
tion to the gifted. There will be fewer 
teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals and 
other school workers. 

IN ADDITION, President Reagan is 
planning to provide remaining federal, 
state and local aid through state “block” 
grants, with no restrictions or require- 
ments in their use. 

But wide-ranging reductions are planned 
in federal aid to cities: 

• A severe cutback in housing and fed- 
eral mortgage loan programs. 

• Elimination of the Economic Devel- 
opment Administration, which funds many 
public sector construction projects. 

• Elimination of more than 300,000 
public services jobs under the Compre- 
hensive Employment & Training Act. 

• A $ 1-billion cut in highway programs 
and larger cuts for Conrail and Amtrak. 

• Phaseout of mass transit operating 


subsidies, with a cut of $103 million in 
fiscal 1982 and a reduction of $950 mil- 
lion for bus purchases and other capital 
improvements. 

• A reduction of $1 billion in FY 1981 
and $3.6 billion the next fiscal year for 
water and sewer improvement projects 
funded by the Environmental Protection 
Agency. 

• Elimination of the Solar & Energy 
Conservation Bank, with a $1 billion cut 
in the programs it finances. 

• Elimination of the Urban Parks pro- 
gram. 

These are just a few of the programs 
that benefit working Americans and their 
children. Added to the list are the social 
programs for the unemployed, the poor, 
the elderly and disabled, and other politi- 
cally weak groups in society. 

As a consequence, Americans can ex- 
pect to pay more to commute to work, 
higher property taxes, user fees for ser- 
vices that were once free, increased costs 
for government inspection fees and so on. 

The ultimate effect of the Reagan pro- 
gram is that, one way or another, working 
people will end up paying the bill. 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


Page Seven 


High Jobless 
States Grow 
From 5 to 18 

The number of states with unemploy- 
ment rates of at least 8.5 percent more 
than tripled between February 1980 and 
February 1981, the Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics reported. 

Jobless rates were 8.5 percent or higher 
in 18 states last February, compared with 
five states a year earlier. The data are 
not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. The 
unadjusted national jobless rate for Febru- 
ary 1981 was 8 percent, or 1.2 percentage 
points above the year-earlier level. 

BL§ also reported that there were 83 
metropolitan areas with jobless rates of 8.5 
percent or higher in February 1981. 

Of the 1 8 states with jobless rates above 
8.5 percent, seven had rates higher than 10 
percent: Delaware, Michigan, Ohio, Ore- 
gon, West Virginia, Alaska, and Kentucky. 
Michigan posted the highest rate, 14.2 
percent, followed by West Virginia, 11.9 
percent, and Delaware, 11.1 percent. 

SEVEN STATES had jobless increases 
of at least 2 percentage points over the 
year — Delaware, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, 
West Virginia, South Carolina, and Wis- 
consin. 

“Employment declines in construction 
and durable and nondurable goods manu- 
facturing affected almost all of the seven 
states with large over-the-year unemploy- 
ment rate increases,” BLS said. “Smaller 
declines in transportation and public utili- 
ties and wholesale and retail trade also 
affected most of these states, especially 
Michigan and Ohio.” 

Jobless rates rose by 1 percentage point 
or more over the year in 117 of the 220 
metropolitan areas for which data were re- 
ported for both years, BLS said. Jobless 
rate increases of at least 2 percentage 
points occurred in 45 of those areas. 

The unemployment rate rose by more 
than 5 percentage points during the year 
in Kenosha and Racine, Wis.; Muskegon, 
Mich., and Youngstown-Warren, Ohio, as 
employment in durable goods industries 
continued to decline. Jobless rate decreases 
of 1 percentage point or more over the 
year were reported in five areas. 

New Tax Bill 
Meets Labor’s 
Fairness Test 

(Continued from Page 1) 

would be channeled through a reconsti- 
tuted Reconstruction Finance Corp. which 
would invest both public and private funds 
and guarantee loans to help strengthen the 
nation’s industrial base. 

Funds to help modernization or expan- 
sion would be provided when this would 
expand employment opportunities and pro- 
ductivity, strengthen the ability of domestic 
industries to compete with imports, or 
assist U.S. firms that have problems meet- 
ing government-imposed costs. 

The Guarini bill would authorize $5 
billion to the RFC for non-tax assistance, 
such as loans and interest subsidies, and 
provide another $5 billion in tax subsidies 
such as refundable investment tax credits 
and various depreciation allowances — but 
only to further the reindustrialization goal. 

IT WOULD include an “anti-pirating” 
safeguard so that federal aid would not be 
misused to subsidize the moving of pro- 
duction and jobs from one part of the 
country to another, plus Davis-Bacon Act 
safeguards. 

At House Ways & Means Committee 
hearings last month, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland protested that the Admin- 
istration plan would feed inflation and 
reduce the nation’s public resources by 
giving “huge benefits” to already prosper- 
ous firms without any assurance added rev- 
enues will go to productive investment. 

The added cash flow to business, he said, 
could just as easily be used “to buy up 
other companies” or to finance “reloca- 
tions that destroy jobs and blight local 
communities.” 



UNION ORGANIZERS sharpened their skills during a of Organization & Field Services. Leading the group discus- 
three-week session at the George Meany Center for Labor sions in this class is Dick Wilson of the federation’s organiz- 
Studies conducted in cooperation with the AFL-CIO Dept, ing staff. Twelve unions sent organizers. 


Randolph Memorial Fund 
Launched to Sustain Institute 


Organizers Hone 
Techniques at 
Studies Center 

Organizers from 11 AFL-CIO affiliates 
and the Auto Workers have completed 
three weeks of advanced training at the 
George Meany Center for Labor Studies. 

The institute sought to develop new, 
more effective methods of educating un- 
organized workers and helping them form 
unions and win recognition in the face of 
strong opposition from employers and the 
growing use of union-busting consultants. 

The class in advanced organizing tech- 
niques drew 25 experienced organizers as- 
signed to participate by their international 
unions and two AFL-CIO staff organizers. 

CO-SPONSORED by the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Organization & Field Services 
and the studies center, the class used as 
a learning device a detailed case history of 
an actual organizing campaign that took 
three years. Participants then wrote case 
histories based on their own experiences 
and detailed crucial events in the cam- 
paigns. 

The class heard presentations on suc- 
cessful organizing techniques for organiz- 
ing developed by the Mike Lucas of the 
International Brotherhood of Electrical 
Workers, Jack Howar of the Steelworkers, 
Richard Rothstein of the Clothing & Tex- 
tile Workers, Michael Wood of the Boiler- 
makers, Jeff Fiedler of the AFL-CIO Food 
& Beverage Trades Dept, and Robert 
Muehlenkamp of the National Union of 
Hospital & Health Care Employees, Local 
1199 of the Retail, Wholesale & Dept. 
Store Union. 

KATHY KRIEGER, assistant general 
counsel for the Carpenters, discussed Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board procedures 
and approaches in dealing with the board. 

Instructors included William Roehl and 
Dick Wilson of the AFL-CIO organizing 
staff, and Russell Allen, Harry Millstone, 
Marjorie Rachlin and Gordon Cole of the 
Meany Center. 


New York — ^Norman Hill, president of 
the A. Philip Randolph Institute, has an- 
nounced the establishment of an A. Philip 
Randolph Memorial Fund. Hill said the 
fund will serve to “keep alive the legacy 
of Mr. Randolph and to ensure that the 
organization which bears his name is able 
to successfully sustain and expand its work 
in the struggle for social justice.” 

The Randolph Memorial Fund will seek 
support for Randolph Institute activities in 
the areas of black voter participation, 
community affairs, and trade union in- 
volvement. It will solicit both individual 
and organizational support from sponsors 
who will be awarded certificates of partici- 
pation in return for their financial contri- 
butions, Hill said. 

FUND-RAISING activity will focus 
initially on generating support from the 
thousands of union locals whose members 
actively participate in the Randolph Insti- 
tute. 

Establishment of the memorial fund was 
announced Apr. 15 on what would have 


Low-income housing programs should 
be expanded, not cut back, the AFL-CIO 
urged at hearings held by a subcommittee 
of the House Banking, Finance & Urban 
Affairs Committee. 

Henry B. Schechter, director of the 
AFL-CIO Office of Housing & Monetary 
Policy, was sharply critical of Administra- 
tion proposals to reduce already inadequate 
program levels. 

THE ADMINISTRATION has asked 
Congress to rescind existing budget author- 
ity so as to reduce the number of low- 


been Randolph’s 92nd birthday. He helped 
to create the institute while serving as 
president of the Sleeping Car Porters and 
as an AFL-CIO vice president. 

“We can think of no more appropriate 
commemoration of Mr. Randolph’s birth- 
day than the establishment of a fund which 
will continue to promote increased black 
participation in the labor movement,” Hill 
stated. 

The A. Philip Randolph Institute is 
composed of some 18,000 trade unionists 
organized in more than 1 50 affiliates in 36 
states and the District of Columbia. The 
institute carries on a trade union intern 
program which trains blacks to assume 
leadership positions in the labor movement, 
publishes a bimonthly newsletter, sponsors 
an occupational safety and health program 
and conducts voter participation cam- 
paigns in electon years. 

Contributions to the fund may be sent 
to the A. Philip Randolph Memorial Fund, 
260 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 
10010. 


income rental units that could be supported 
in the present fiscal year from 255,000 to 
210,000, and to cut the fiscal 1982 funding 
level from 260,000 to 175,000 units. 

Schechter urged the panel to reject any 
cut in current budget authority. A bill by 
Subcommittee Chairman Henry Gonzalez 
(D-Tex.) to support 250,000 units in fiscal 
1982 is “a welcome step forward” from 
the Administration position, he said, but 
a 300,000 figure would be more adequate. 

The housing shortage has inflated home 
prices and rents, Schechter said, causing 
“hardship to families of limited income” 
who can’t afford high-priced homes and 
see rental units converted to expensive 
condominiums. About 1.5 million families 
are living doubled up with other house- 
holds, he noted. 

The AFL-CIO statement welcomed a 
section of the Gonzalez bill dealing with 
rural housing programs as “a substantial 
improvement over the Administration pro- 
posals.” 

Schechter also applauded Gonzalez for 
not going along with the Administration’s 
bpdget proposal that would require tenants 
of subsidized housing to pay 30 percent 
of their income instead of the current 25 
percent. 

“THIS WOULD directly affect the poor 
who are least able to cope with today’s 
high prices,” he said. “It would also create 
more rent collection and management 
problems in subsidized housing projects.” 

Schechter welcomed support in the 
Gonzalez bill for the Community Develop- 
ment Block Grant and Urban Development 
Action Grant programs. They are essen- 
tial to improvements in public facilities 
that are needed to support private eco- 
nomic development in areas suffering from 
high unemployment, he testified. 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiii 

Right-Wing TV Blitz Aims 
At Foes of Budget Slashes 

The National Conservative Political Action Committee, which pumped huge 
sums into ‘^negative campaigns’’ against liberal Democratic senators in the last 
election, has announced a new “hit list.” 

The right-wing group says it has budgeted $1 million for television com- 
mercials against Democratic critics of President Reagan’s economic programs. 

Its two chief targets are House Majority Leader Jim Wright of Texas, who 
will face a $450,000 media attack, and Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, the 
target of a $400,000 negative advertising budget. 

Sarbanes, who will be up for re-election next year, voted against the budget 
reconciliation bill that included the Reagan Administration program cuts, and 
one of the television commercials scheduled to be shown features the dis- 
approving reaction of a professional actor outfitted as a construction worker. 

Also targeted are House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dan Rosten- 
knowski of Illinois, whose tax cut proposal differs somewhat from that of the 
Administration, and House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Jones of Oklahoma 
who, ironically, has generally voted with the conservative wing of the party. 
But he, too, declined to rubber stamp Reagan’s proposals. 


Congress Urged to Reverse 
Cuts in Low-Income Housing 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 18, 1981 


Kirkland Urges Policy 

Free Association Seen 
As Test of Human Rights 


New York — ^The right to freedom of 
association should be made the corner- 
stone of America’s human-rights policy 
abroad, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land declared in a speech here. 

“Freedom of association should be open- 
ly and forcefully promoted through ap- 
propriate instruments and avenues,” said 
Kirkland, “and that should constitute the 
essential vehicle of social progress and the 
vital shielding and humanizing force be- 
tween men and master. 

“INDEPENDENT association is the 
means by which plain people gain and 
assert their rights as against the state and 
other strongholds of raw power in human 
society.” 

Kirkland’s remarks followed the Inter- 
national Rescue Committee’s 1981 Free- 
dom Award presentation by IRC Chair- 
man Leo Cherne to the AFL-CIO presi- 
dent and his wife, Irena, for their contri- 
butions toward relieving the plight of the 
world’s refugees and to the cause of hu- 
man freedom. 

The award cited Kirkland’s leadership 
and achievements over many years in be- 
half of refugees escaping from political, 
religious, and racial oppression. Mrs. 
Kirkland, herself a refugee from Czecho- 
slovakia, has had a significant role in sup- 
port of the refugee cause. Past Freedom 
Award recipients include Winston Church- 
hill, Gen. Lucius Clay, David Dubinsky, 
Hubert H. Humphrey, Gen. William B. 
Donovan, Jacob K. Javits, and Kirkland’s 
predecessor as AFL-CIO president, George 
Meany. 

KIRKLAND NOTED that there is a 
debate in America today as to the role of 
government in the assertion abroad of 
policies in support of human rights — 
whether such a course should be pursued 
at all, or more consistently and forcefully, 
or simply abandoned. Neither the past nor 
present government posture has properly 
addressed the issue, he said. 

“The presence, absence or degree of 
freedom of association in a particular 
society should override considerations of 
whether one scoundrel or clique in control 
of the reins of state ought to be replaced 
by another scoundrel or clique,” Kirkland 
declared. 

He noted that there is a more than 
ample legal basis for the aggressive pursuit 
of such a policy and practice, and “ILO 
Convention No. 87 on freedom of asso- 
ciation provides its most concrete and de- 
tailed expression.” 

THE WORKERS in Poland who struck 
last summer over rising meat prices sought 
to associate freely in trade unions that 
were genuinely responsive to their needs 
and grievances, Kirkland pointed out. 

“They are pursuing their version of an 
old biblical instruction: ‘Render unto 

Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto 
labor that which is labor’s,’ ” he said. 

“That demand, to which the government 
of Poland committed itself as an obliga- 
tion subject to international scrutiny when 
it ratified ILO Convention No. 87, and 
affirmed by written agreement with Soli- 


I8/8l/t^ 


darity last August, is the ultimate test of 
whether it is or ever will be possible to 
humanize a communist state.” 

ACKNOWLEDGING the odds and 
risks facing Solidarity, the new Polish 
independent labor federation, Kirkland 
said the American labor movement would 
“certainly not compound their risks or 
raise the odds by any failure on our part to 
meet their stated needs.” 

“For if Solidarity endures and thrives 
the world will never be the same again, 
and that will be for the good of all. The 
abstract delusive question of the owner- 
ship of the tools of production will be 
disengaged, as it should be, from the over- 
riding issue of human freedom.” 

Kirkland rejected any suggestion that 
the AFL-CIO’s open assistance to Solidar- 
ity, in the form of its Polish Workers Aid 
Fund, has been “provocative” — a term 
used in the recent past both in the United 
States and widely repeated by communist 
news organs. 

As for communist charges that the AFL- 
CIO’s support of Solidarity constitutes 
“outside interference,” Kirkland said that 
“it comes with a singular lack of grace 
or proportion for a regime that has placed 
its people in thrall, not just to Eastern 
power, but to Western capital, for the sake 
of over $25 billion in bank loans, to de- 
nounce as ‘interference’ a relative pittance 
of aid, with no strings attached, by West- 
ern labor to our Polish brothers and 
sisters.” 

IN HER REMARKS, Mrs. Kirkland 
said that she accepted the award in behalf 
of the “nameless millions” who have died 
as a result of tyranny. Imprisoned during 
both Nazi and Soviet occupation of her 
native Czechoslovakia, Mrs. Kirkland told 
of those experiences. 

“I plead guilty to that for which I was 
condemned by one regime: the offense of 
being Jewish. I was, and am, certainly 
guilty of that for which I was denounced 
and arrested by another: the offense of 
holding and expressing opinions of my 
own. 

“One offense is an accident of birth; the 
other is simply human. Neither is in itself 
worthy of exceptional note. I am merely 
luckier than most such offenders of my 
time in finding a life where neither offense 
is a mortal crime, within reach of an all- 
powerful state.” 

Ladies’ Garnient Workers President Sol 
Chaikin, who co-chaired the award pre- 
sentation with Ralph A. Pfeiffer, Jr., chair- 
man of IBM World Trade Americas/ Far 
East Corp., spoke of the American labor 
movement’s dedication and devotion to the 
drive for the full fruition of human rights. 



1981 FREEDOM AWARD of the International Rescue Committee is shared 
jointly by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and his wife Irena. IRC Chair- 
man Leo Cherne is shown with the Kirklands. The award cites their outstand- 
ing contributions to the cause of refugees and human freedom. 

Postal Unions Blast Move 
To Stall New Contract Talks 


The Letter Carriers and the Postal 
Workers charged Postmaster Gen. William 
F. Bolger with “contempt for the collec- 
tive bargaining process” in his 11th hour 
petition to the National Labor Relations 
Board for a new bargaining unit deter- 
mination before contract negotiations be- 
gin. 

Formal talks between the U.S. Postal 
Service and the unions representing its 
workers were scheduled to start Apr. 22, 
and Postal Workers President Moe Biller 
and NALC President Vincent Sombrotto 
said they will show up at the designated 
time in any event. 

AT A JOINT news conference. Biller 
and Sombrotto said that the management 
action “is designed to delay bargaining for 
months, if not years” and represents “a 
breach of faith” with union members who 
have been anticipating wage increases and 
other improvements in a contract that 
would have been effective on July 21. 

They also protested the Postmaster 
General’s action in sending letters to 
some 600,000 postal employees telling 
them of his decision to seek a bargaining 
unit determination and delay contract ne- 


gotiations before even notifying the unions , 
directly involved. 

The NALC and the Letter Carriers, 
which together represent the large major- 
ity of postal employees, had served notice 
of their intention to engage in joint bar- 
gaining. The two other unions with bar- 
gaining rights in the postal service, the 
Mail Handlers division of the Laborers 
ana the unaffiliated Rural Letter Carriers, 
had agreed to coordinate their bargaining. 

BOLGER INSISTED in his letter that 
such a bargaining structure is unworkable 
and said “animosities” between the two 
bargaining groups “reduce the possibility 
of reaching sound agreements.” 

Sombrotto and Biller retorted that the 
Rural Letter Carriers had bargained sep- 
arately during the last contract negotia- 
tions, three years ago, and that both 
public and private employers have reg- 
ularly bargained with a number of unions 
representing different groups of employers. 

They charged that the postmaster gen- 
eral’s action had “severely damaged labor- 
management relations” and termed it “the 
most deceitful act in the 10-year history 
of postal collective bargaining.” 


GE Slapped for Subtle Anti-Union Tactics 


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53 


The National Labor Relations Board 
upheld the findings of an NLRB adminis- 
trative law judge that General Electric Co. 
unlawfully used subtle questioning of em- 
ployees, surveying of worker attitudes, 
and other computer-age tactics to defeat 
the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers 
in a Winchester, Va., organizing cam- 
paign. 

The board declared the results of a 
1979 representation election at the GE 
plant in Winchester invalid, and ordered 
that a second election be held. 

lUE SEC.-TREAS. William H. By- 
water, who also serves as the union’s or- 
ganization director, called the NLRB 
decision “an important victory, the sig- 
nificance of which goes beyond lUE and 
the particular plant involved.” 

“The NLRB set a significant precedent 
for attacking the kind of sophisticated 
psychological tactics which are being used 
increasingly by GE and other corpora- 
tions in antiunion • campaigns,” Bywater 
said. “This decision takes away one of the 
tools promoted by slick union-busting con- 
sultants.” 


In upholding the decision of its admin- 
istrative law judge, Marvin Roth, the 
three-member NLRB panel headed by 
Chairman John H. Fanning said GE com- 
mitted unfair labor practices through: 
conducting an employee attitude survey 
and establishing an employee-management 
“sounding board” to deal with “problems” 
identified in the survey; urging employees 
to report on the union activities of others; 
surveillance of a union meeting; coercive 
interrogation of employees; disciplining an 
employee for “talking union” on the job 
to a fellow worker, and repeatedly threat- 
ening to take away a so-called open-door 
policy and other access to management if 
the union won the election. 

THE BOARD agreed with Roth that 
the company supervisors were “well 
trained in the uses of industrial psychol- 
ogy” and that, because of their training, 
they were unlikely to violate the law by 
asking employees “point blank” about 
their union sympathies and activities. In- 
stead, they “systematically talked to em- 
ployees” in ways “carefully calculated to 
draw out a spontaneous response” show- 
ing sentiment for or against the union. 


Roth and the board agreed that this de- 
vious computer-age approach was also 
illegal. 

The attitude survey and sounding board 
idea were part of GE’s unlawful strategy 
“to discourage support for the union,” 
Roth found. 

After the lUE filed for an election, the 
company said it would have to “discon- 
tinue plans of implementing the employee 
sounding board.” The company blamed 
the union for causing it to take this action 
to avoid “possible legal implications.” 

The board agreed with Roth that not 
only was establishment of the sounding 
board plan illegal, but discontinuance of 
it also was an unfair labor practice de- 
signed to discourage union support. 

HOWEVER, the NLRB panel overruled 
Roth’s order that the sounding board be 
reinstated, calling it “in large part respon- 
sible for destroying the laboratory con- 
ditions” at the time of the election. 

The election, held Nov. 16, 1979, re- 
sulted in a vote of 96 for lUE to 138 
for “no union” among 239 workers eli- 
gible to cast ballots. 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, April 25, 1981 


No. 17 


Budget for City Family 
Soars 12.8% Over Year 



POSTAL UNION NEGOTIATORS face empty chairs at the bargaining table as 
the Postal Service management representatives boycotted the opening session of 
contract talks with the Postal Workers and Letter Carriers. Seated are NALC 
Executive Vice President Tony Huerta and President Vincent R. Sombrotto, 
APWU President Moe Biller and attorney John O’Donnell. (Story, Page 3.) 

OSH A Backs Down 

Administration Assailed 
On Lead Safety Retreat 

By John R. Oravec 


Inflation Rate 
Slows but Pay 
Lag Persists 

The pace of inflation eased somewhat 
in March, temporarily stemming the ero- 
sion of worker paychecks. But despite a 
one-month improvement, the “real earn- 
ings” of America’s workers continued to 
lag substantially below the same period a 
year ago. 

Energy prices continue to be a pace- 
setter in the key inflation index for urban 
wage earners and clerical workers. 

THE 2,3 PERCENT March increase in 
gasoline prices and a 2.7 percent rise in 
fuel oil prices followed the even bigger 
price jumps of January and February, 
when the impact of President Reagan’s oil 
decontrol actions hit the marketplace. 

Rebates given by auto manufacturers 
cut new car prices and helped hold the 
March price rise to six-tenths of 1 per- 
cent, a compounded annual rate of 7.5 
percent. The March index was 10.5 per- 
cent higher than a year ago. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald said the month-to-month fluctuation 
in the cost-of-living index “clearly belies 
the notion that the inflation rate is related 
to changes in the federal budget deficit.” 

THE “PRIME MOVERS of the infla- 
tion index,” Oswald stressed, are specific 
non-budget factors affecting energy, food 
and housing. 

Real spendable earnings — the after-in- 
flation buying power of average weekly 
pay after social security and federal in- 
come taxes have been deducted — moved 
up three-tenths of 1 percent in March, 
ending three months of sharp declines. 

But over the year — the 12 months since 
March 1980 — the buying power of take- 
home pay was down 3.1 percent. 

THE ONE-MONTH improvement in 
real spendable earnings was helped by an 
increase of three-tenths of 1 percent in 
average weekly hours. There was no 
change in hours worked from a year ago. 

On an hourly basis, in constant dollars, 
purchasing power moved up two-tenths 
of 1 percent from February to March, but 
lagged 1 percent below a year ago. 

In the price index, food and beverages 
were up a relatively modest four-tenths 
of 1 percent, after having risen only two- 
tenths of 1 percent in February and having 
gone down two-tenths of 1 percent in 
January. 

Oswald said it is likely that both food 
and housing costs will move up at a faster 
rate in the months ahead. 

Increases in women’s and girls’ clothing 
were largely responsible for a rise of 
seven-tenths of 1 percent in apparel costs. 

MEDICAL CARE took a 1 -percent 
jump, continuing in the double-digit infla- 
tion pace. 

For the first three months of this year, 
the seasonally adjusted annual inflation 
(Continued on Page 6) 


By David L. Perlman 

The Reagan Administration is looking 
to conservative Democrats for the votes it 
needs to get its drastic budget slashes 
approved by the House. 

Its new strategy is to pin a bipartisan 
label on a slightly reshuffled version of 
the President’s program that has been co- 
sponsored by Rep. Delbert L. Latta (Ohio), 
the ranking Republican on the House 
Budget Committee, and Democrat Phil 
Gramm (Tex.), who has voted against 
labor’s position on 85 percent of COPE- 
rated issues during his tenure in Congress. 

THE WHITE HOUSE refers to the 
Latta-Gramm measure as “the Reagan bi- 
partisan budget bill.” Office of Manage- 
ment & Budget Director David A. Stock- 
man described it as “the Administration’s 
program with a few wrinkles.” And a 
White House press official told reporters 
it will “give us well over 100 percent of 


The Reagan Administration has widen- 
ed its campaign to hold up worker protec- 
tions under the federal job safety law by 
attempting to persuade the Supreme Court 
to vacate an appeals court decision up- 
holding the lead standard. 

Pursuing the same approach the Occu- 


what we asked for” in spending cuts. 

The Administration wants to get its bill 
passed as a substitute for the less extreme 
measure drawn up by the House Budget 
Committee. 

The committee bill would give the 
President about 75 percent of the cutbacks 
he has sought, which labor and its allies 
insist would badly shortchange the na- 
tion’s needs. 

A labor-led Budget Coalition has been 
using the Easter recess for home-district 
meetings with House members to urge 
higher funding levels than the Budget 
Committee proposed. 

ON APR. 28, after Congress recon- 
venes, the Rules Committee is expected to 
specify the amendments that can be con- 
sidered when the bill comes to the House 
floor later that week. 

Before voting on the committee bill, 
(Continued on Page 8) 


pational Safety & Health Administration 
took on the cotton dust standard late last 
month, the government has now asked the 
high court to put off consideration of an 
appeal on the lead exposure regulation 
and to remand the rulemaking record to 
OSHA so that the standard can be amend- 
ed. 

Like the cotton dust standard, the 
1978 lead exposure standard has been the 
target of employer groups challenging 
provisions for engineering controls and 
work practices that would sharply reduce 
worker exposure to hazardous substances. 

IN ANNOUNCING the OSHA action. 
Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. Auchter 
said he wants to submit the lead standard 
to a cost-benefit analysis and re-examine 
virtually all provisions of the regulation. 

George H. R. Taylor, the federation’s 
job safety director, said that “organized 
labor will oppose those and all other ef- 
forts to emasculate the requirement of the 
OSHA act that standards dealing with 
toxic substances be such that no em- 
ployee suffer impairment of health or 
capacity to function during the entire 
period of his working life.” 

Medical studies show that lead poison- 
ing, resulting from high levels of expo- 
sure to the metal, can result in anemia, 
kidney failure, nervous system disorders, 
brain damage and death. More than 800,- 
000 U.S. workers in some 40 industries 
are exposed to lead on the job. 

Auchter acknowledged in announc- 
ing the recall of the standard that “lead is 

(Continued on Page 3) 


$23,134 Cost 
Of Moderate 
Living Level 

By James M. Shevis 

The government’s hypothetical budget 
for a typical American family last year 
soared to $23,134, a 12.8 percent increase 
in 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics reported. 

The figure represents the before-tax in- 
come that an urban family of four needed 
last autumn just to maintain a middle- 
level standard of living. A similar family 
living at a lower, more austere level would 
have required $14,044, and a family on 
a higher budget affording a few luxuries 
would have needed $34,409. The amounts 
are nationwide averages, and were higher 
or lower depending on geography. 

THE LOW BUDGET was 11.6 percent 
higher than a year earlier, while the higher 
budget was 13.5 percent above the com- 
parable 1979 figure. The percentage jumps 
for all three budget levels were the largest 
increases since 1974, BLS said. 

BLS prepares the budgets by updating 
changes in prices of various goods and 
services for a precisely defined urban fam- 
ily in e^ch of the three budget categories. 
The budget levels reflect item costs as of 
last October. 

If brought up to the present time, by 
allowing for inflation since last fall, the 
budget totals would be even higher. AFL- 
CIO Economist Anne Draper calculates 
that consumer price increases from last 
October through March of this year, plus 
higher social security taxes since Jan. 1 
and more federal income taxes that would 
result from a higher gross pay, would 
mean that the middle-level living standard 
for families would require $24,461 today. 
Those on the lower budget would now 
need $14,831, while families at the upper 
level would require $36,760 today. 
(Continued on Page 6) 

Reagan Program 
To Lower Income 
For 20 Million 

The Reagan Administration’s proposed 
budget would compel more than half of 
the nation’s low-income households to re- 
duce their living standards, according to a 
Congressional Budget Office study. 

A “partial estimate” of the budget’s im- 
pact on the poor and the near-poor was 
made by the non-partisan Congressional 
Budget Office at the request of Sen. Ed- 
ward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House 
Budget Committee Chairman James R. 
Jones (D-Okla.). 

THE STUDY FOUND that about 51 
percent of all low-income households, 
comprising an estimated 20 million to 25 
million people including children and the 
elderly, would have less to live on as a 
result of cuts in 10 major assistance and 
employment programs. 

But the CBO said its analysis dealt 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Budget Slashers Recruit 
Conservative Democrats 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D C., APRIL 25, 1981 


Page Two 

Cement Union 
Sees New Pact 
Fixing Pattern 

St. Louis — The Cement, Lime & Gyp- 
sum Workers won wage increases totaling 
32 percent over three years and major 
pension improvements in a tentative con- 
tract renewal agreement with Lone Star 
Industries Inc., that is expected to set a 
pattern for some 17,000 American cement 
workers in the next few weeks. 

The settlement with Lone Star, the na- 
tion’s largest producer of portland ce- 
ment, ready-mixed concrete, sand and 
gravel, covers some 1,300 workers repre- 
sented by the CLGW at the firm’s 12 U.S. 
facilities. The company, based in Green- 
wich, Conn., produces about 9 percent of 
the country’s cement. 

Worked out in weeklong talks here, the 
Lone Star agreement would increase wages 
by 65 cents an hour across the board on 
May 1. The hourly rate will go up by 20 
cents more on Nov. 1, by 55 cents on May 
1, 1982, and another 50 cents on May 1, 
1983. 

In addition, the pact provides for a 
cost-of-living adjustment up to 12 per- 
cent as measured by the consumer price 
index and for increases in the CPI ex- 
ceeding 14 percent. Increases between the 
1 2 and 1 4 percent “corridor” are not 
covered. 

Among other benefits, the pension fac- 
tor that determines monthly benefits will 
rise $1 a year during the contract, reach- 
ing $20.50 for each year of credited ser- 
vice for normal retirement as of May 1, 
1983, and $21.50 for disability retirement 
on that date. This will mean a monthly 
pension of $717.50 for a 35-year retiree, 
CLGW President Thomas F. Miechur 
pointed out. 

Other contract provisions include in- 
surance and medical-benefit improvements 
such as an annual dental-coverage maxi- 
mum of $1,500 in 1983, replacement of 
artificial limbs \inder major-medical cov- 
erage, and increased major-medical bene- 
fits for future retirees up to $7,500. 

The agreement, which must be ratified 
by the workers involved, will replace a 
contract due to expire at the end of April. 

Collins Succeeds 
Hilbert as Head 
Of Dispatchers 

Berwyn, III. — Dan E. Collins, secretary- 
treasurer of the Train Dispatchers since 
1971, has been elected by the union’s joint 
board to succeed B. C. (Barney) Hilbert 
as president. 

Collins, 53, will assume his new post on 
May 1. Hilbert, 60, has headed the ADTA 
since 1976. 

Hilbert, in a retirement message to the 
board, said that he and his wife plan to 
return to the Pacific Northwest area. His 
railroad career has spanned 35 years, 
nearly evenly divided between active rail- 
road service and full-time union work. 

Collins began his railroad career in 
1 943 as a telegraph operator on the Louis- 
ville & Nashville. In 1945, he switched to 
the St. Louis Terminal Railroad. After 
two years of service in the Navy, he re- 
turned to St. Louis, where he worked as 
a train dispatcher. 

In 1963, Collins organized the dispatch- 
ers on the Terminal. He subsequently be- 
came a member of the ADTA board of 
trustees, assistant treasurer and general 
chairman, before becoming secretary- 
treasurer. 

Other new officers chosen by the union’s 
nine-member joint board were J. P. Erick- 
son, ADTA vice president who will suc- 
ceed Collins as secretary-treasurer; M. H. 
Kassera, senior trustee, who will become 
a vice president succeeding Erickson, and 
T. H. Eshelman, vice general chairman on 
the Santa Fe Railway who will become 
the new trustee. 

All will serve from May 1 through Oc- 
tober 1983, when the union will elect 
officers at its convention. 





-or * 






MINNESOTA ECONOMIC CRISIS Coalition attacked 
Reagan cutbacks in social programs at an all-day conference 
in St. Paul. Above, Alexander Allen, director of programs 


for the National Urban League, charges that budget cuts 
such as gutting of CETA job programs are actually a noose- 
tightening around the necks of the poor. 


Minnesota Coalition Warns Needy 
Will Bear Brunt of Program Cuts 


St. Paul, Minn. — A statewide coalition 
of civic, labor, consumer and other groups 
warned that reductions in essential social 
services proposed by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration and by Minnesota Gov. Albert H. 
Quie will only serve to wear the social 
fabric thinner for the poor, the jobless, 
and the elderly. 

David Roe, co-chairman of the Minne- 
sota Economic Crisis Coalition, charged 
that the “divide and conquer strategy” 
that lies behind the cuts will pit one group 
against another for scarce funds. 

ROE, WHO is president of the Minne- 
sota AFL-CIO, said the nation is sliding 
back to the discredited economic theory 
where “you take care of the rich and large 
corporations and think that prosperity will 
somehow trickle down to* the people.” 

But it doesn’t work that way; the people 
only get shortchanged, he observed. 

Roe said he fears that the combined 
effect of reductions in state social services 
proposed by Quie and federal cutbacks in 
funding will force cities in Minnesota to 
drop some essential services and fund oth- 
ers by raising property taxes as much as 
100 percent in the next few years. 

THE DAY-LONG conference was ad- 
dressed by more than a dozen speakers 
from state, local, and national organiza- 
tions. The Minnesota coalition is a state 
counterpart of the national Budget Coali- 
tion formed earlier this year under the 
leadership of the AFL-CIO. It is seeking 
to mobilize public opinion against harsh 
federal and state budget cuts. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald, in addressing the conference, ac- 
cused federal budget director David 
Stockman of shortcircuiting the budget 
process. Oswald stressed that balancing 
the federal budget would reduce the na- 
tion’s inflation rate by less than half of one 
percent. Furthermore, he said, the federal 
budget deficit is a symptom of economic 
adversity, not the cause. 

Oswald emphasized that the AFL-CIO 
is not against a balanced budget as such, 
but he said expansion of the economy is 
the more desirable route to follow, not re- 
ductions in social programs. Each one- 
percentage point reduction in the jobless 
rate would cut the federal deficit by $30 
billion, he pointed out. 

THE FEDERATION estimates that the 
Reagan budget cuts would cause the loss 
of more than 1.25 million jobs in the 1982 
fiscal year, while the President’s tax plan 
would give $12 in tax cuts to wealthy in- 
dividuals for every dollar the average wage 
earner receives. 


Alexander Allen, director of programs 
for the National Urban League, vowed 
that the battle over the budget is far from 
over. He called for the rejuvenation of the 
New Deal coalition of Franklin Roose- 
velt’s day. 

Besides the National Urban League’s 
St. Paul and Minnesota chapters and the 
Minnesota AFL-CIO, the coalition in- 
cludes branches of the Farmers Union, 
Council of Churches, Catholic Conference, 
United Handicapped Federation, Jewish 
Community Relations Council, Southern 
Minnesota Regional Legal Services, the 
UAW, Minnesota AFL-CIO Retirees 
Chapters, Coalition of Labor Union Wom- 
en, St. Paul and Minneapolis AFL-CIO 
central bodies, NAACP, Urban Coalition, 
and the Citizen/ Labor/Farmer/ Senior En- 
ergy Coalition. 

ALAN KISTLER, director of the AFL- 
CIO Dept, of Organization & Field Ser- 
vices, said that the proven job programs 
being eliminated by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration provide increased tax revenues that 
more than compensate for federal funding 
of the programs. He said that the Human 
Resources Development Institute — the fed- 
eration’s manpower arm — has found work 
in each of the last 10 years for 12,000 dis- 
advantaged persons and has developed 
20,000 jobs. 

Kistler said he wondered about the re- 


action to the budget cuts by the 340,000 
public service workers whose jobs would 
be eliminated, the 200,000 young people 
who would not get jobs, and the disabled 
persons who would not be helped by a 
scaled-back vocational rehabilitation pro- 
gram. 

“During the last major recession in 
1975, those public service employment 
programs helped cushion the effect of the 
economic downturn,” he said. “It just 
seems shortsighted now to give them the 
ax when the economy is in such an uncer- 
tain condition and unemployment is still 
above 7 percent.” 

ELECTED OFFICIALS in the Twin 
Cities metropolitan area also lambasted 
proposed reductions in government pro- 
grams. St. Paul Mayor George Latimer at- 
tacked Reagan’s lack of interest in energy 
conservation as reflected by the President’s 
decision to shrink funding for weatheriza- 
tion of homes and district heating projects. 

Minneapolis Mayor Don Fraser pointed 
out that while aid to cities contained in 
various federal programs amounted to 14 
percent of the present budget, two-thirds 
of Reagan’s budget cuts would be con- 
centrated in those programs. Fraser said 
that more meetings like the one sponsored 
by the Minnesota Economic Crisis Coali- 
tion are needed to see that government 
“functions with compassion.” 


Continued Start-Up Funding 
Urged for Group Health Units 


Health maintenance organizations 
(HMOs) should continue to receive federal 
encouragement and start-up aid, the AFL- 
CIO urged in a statement submitted to the 
subcommittee on health of the House En- 
ergy & Commerce Committee. 

The Health Maintenance Act expires 
this year and the subcommittee is consid- 
ering bills to continue the program for 
three more years with various changes. 

AFL-CIO LEGISLATIVE Director Ray 
Denison said non-profit HMOs that are in 
the process of being formed should con- 
tinue to be eligible for federal planning 
and development grants, and for loans to 
cover operational deficits in early stages. 

In this respect, he said, the AFL-CIO 
prefers the bill introduced by Subcommit- 
tee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D- 
Calif.) to a measure by Rep. Edward R. 
Madigan (R-Ill.) that would end the grant 
program immediately. But some other fea- 


tures of the Madigan bill are desirable and 
should be incorporated into the final mea- 
sure, Denison said. The bills were analyzed 
by the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security. 

The AFL-CIO statement opposed a pro- 
vision in both bills that would eliminate 
the present requirement that at least one- 
third of the members of the governing 
boards must be subscribers to the plan — 
the consumers of the health services. 

Denison urged continuation of the pres- 
ent requirement for HMOs to use com- 
munity rating systems to set charges. He 
also asked continuation of the present 
preference in federal assistance to HMOs 
that operate in “medically underserved 
areas.” 

The AFL-CIO statement strongly sup- 
ported the existing procedure for federal 
certification of HMOs as a prerequisite to 
being offered to workers by employers as 
one of the health insurance options. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 25, 1981 


Three 




Management Missing 


' - ‘-'l-'Ux, 


Postal Union Negotiators 
Faced by Empty Chairs 



'■ 1' " ’'ll': V ; 

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i 'W: ‘;,y y;j 



IMAGES OF LABOR, an exhibition of 32 original works by major American 
artists on themes from the lives of workers, debuted Apr. 1 5 at New York’s 
Gallery 1 1 99. The unique show is part of the “Bread and Roses” cultural project 
organized by District 1 1 99 of the Retail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. The 
exhibition will later travel to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution as part of 
a two-year national tour. Shown with the sculpture called “Mother Mary Jones” 
by Ed McGowin are, from left. District 1 1 99 Executive Sec. Moe Foner, artist 
Benny Andrews, actor Ossie Davis, poet Eve Merriam, and Harry Van Arsdale, 
president of the New York City AFL-CIO. 

Labor Educators Explore 
New Teaching Techniques 


Joint bargaining efforts of the Postal 
Workers and Letter Carriers for a new 
contract with the Postal Service broke off 
before talks got started when management 
representatives failed to show up for the 
scheduled opening session. 

After facing empty chairs at the bar- 
gaining table for nearly a half-hour, “ Letter 
Carriers President Vincent R. Sombrotto 
and Postal Workers President Moe Biller 
issued a joint statement: 

‘TT HAS NOW become clear that the 
U.S. Postal Service will not be in atten- 
dance at this collective bargaining session.” 

They said management’s failure to ap- 
pear at the previously agreed upon Apr. 
22 meeting “is a violation of the Postal 
Service’s legal duty to bargain collectively 
with duly authorized representatives of its 
employees.” 

The APWU and NALC represent about 
500,000 of the nation’s 600,000 postal 
workers whose current three-year con- 
tracts expire July 20. Separate talks also 
had been scheduled by the Mail Handlers 
division of the Laborers and the unaffili- 
ated Rural Letter Carriers, which repre- 
sent some 100,000 Postal Service emr 
ployees. 

SOMBROTTO AND Biller charged that 
Postmaster Gen. William F. Bolger was 
torpedoing the negotiations by his an- 
nouncement a week earlier that he would 
not bargain until the National Labor Re- 
lations Board acts on his petition to de- 
termine a new bargaining unit in the 
Postal Service. 

“We have already notified the Postmas- 
ter General and the board that we con- 
sider this petition to be without legal 
foundation,” Sombrotto and Biller said. 

“We have asked the board to dismiss 
the petition immediately to prevent the 


(Continued from Page 1) 

a serious industrial hazard against which 
workers must be protected.” He noted 
that many provisions of the standard are 
already in effect and would remain so 
during the agency’s review. 

The lead standard, which was issued 
Nov. 14, 1978, and went into effect Feb. 
1, 1979, is designed ultimately to limit 
worker exposure to 50 micrograms of 
lead per cubic meter of air averaged over 
an eight-hour shift. The previous limit 
was 200 micrograms per cubic meter of 
air. 

To ease the economic impact on indus- 
try, the Carter Administration provided 
for a 10-year phase-in — allowing some 
industries to reduce exposure levels grad- 
ually to 100 micrograms and eventually 
to 50. 

IN EARLY stages, the exposure limits 
could be achieved through the use of 
respirators by workers. In later stages, the 
limits would have to be achieved solely 
through engineering and work practice 
controls. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Dis- 
trict of Columbia upheld the standard last 
August, rejecting the industry challenge. 
Last December, the Supreme Court stayed 
certain parts of the standard dealing with 
engineering and work practice controls 
pending an industry appeal, but it refused 
to delay implementation of a rule require- 
ing employers to transfer workers who 
develop high levels of lead in their blood 
to other jobs without reduction in pay, 
seniority or other benefits. . 

However, when a new “trigger level” 
was to take effect Mar. 1 providing for 
medical removal after a worker’s lead 
absorption reached 60 micrograms per 
100 grams of blood, OSHA responded to 
an industry request for a one-year delay 
by pushing back the effective date to Apr. 


service from further interrupting the col- 
lective bargaining process.” 

A COUNTER-PETITION filed by the 
two unions with the NLRB states that 
Bolger’s petition did not meet the board’s 
time limitation for filing and that its in- 
tent was “in bad faith to impede and 
delay negotiations.” 

The NLRB has set a hearing for Apr. 
30 on the issue. 

The unions reported that they were 
subsequently notified by Bolger that the 
Postal Service would not attend any fu- 
ture bargaining sessions until the NLRB 
responds to its petition, but that it would 
be available May 4 to discuss extensions 
to the existing agreements. 

To that proposal, James J. LaPenta of 
Mail Handlers said, “we’re not buying 
that.” 

He pointed out that the Postal Reor- 
ganization Act which established the USPS 
carries no provision for the extension of 
contracts as a substitute for collective bar- 
gaining. He noted that the law clearly 
provides for a specified time frame for 
negotiations in relations to the expiration 
of the contracts which Bolger is ignoring. 

LaPenta also said the Mail Handlers, 
like the NALC and the APWU, will be 
challenging Bolger’s position at the NLRB 
hearings. 

THE UNIONS had considered an op- 
tion of filing an unfair labor practice 
charge against the Postal Service for re- 
fusal to bargain, but said that action 
would not be initiated at this time. 

Key contract goals outlined earlier by 
Biller include catch-up wages to restore 
lost purchasing power over the last three 
years, job security and improvements in 
job safety. 


1. Auchter has since ordered the delay 
extended to May 1. 

AUCHTER SAID the review of the 
lead standard would be made under a 
Feb. 17 presidenital order to assess the 
costs and benefits of all major regulations. 

Despite the extensive hearings that 
OSHA conducted in the mid-1970s on the 
proposed lead standard, Auchter contended 
that “the original rulemaking record was 
lacking in many respects.” He insisted 
that “the public had no chance to com- 
ment directly on the feasibility of the 50- 
microgram limit in some industries.” 

During the hearings, unions produced 
testimony supporting both the technologi- 
cal and economic feasibility of a 40- 
microgram exposure limit. 

Study Sees 20 

(Continued from Page 1) 

with the impact of only $5.3 billion out 
of the $15.4 billion in benefit reductions 
required by the Reagan budget. There- 
fore, “it considerably understates the mag- 
nitude,” the CBO said. 

The reason for the limitation, the re- 
port said, is that the bulk of the Admin- 
istration’s cutbacks in assistance to the 
needy would be achieved by consolidating 
a number of federal programs into block 
grants to the states. While the total amount 
available would be reduced, the impact 
could not be measured without knowing 
how the states would allocate the federal 
block grants among many possible uses. 

AMONG THE program cuts that were 
not measured by the CBO because of 
such uncertainties were low-income energy 
and housing assistance, Medicaid, unem- 
ployment insurance, trade adjustment as- 
sistance, and social security changes. Also 


San Francisco — New techniques that 
can help labor educators accomplish basic 
educational goals were explored in detail 
at the AFL-CIO’s annual education confer- 
ence here. 

Workshops at the meeting emphasized 
methods for planning education programs 
for groups within the labor movement 
with different needs and interests and on 
innovative techniques for teaching such 
union skills such as organizing, bargaining 
and servicing to union members, officers 
and staff. 

THE WEEK-LONG conference, which 
drew nearly 200 labor educators, was held 
jointly with the annual meeting of the 
University & College Labor Educators’ 
Association. 

AFL-CIO Education Director Dorothy 
Shields, who co-chaired the conference 
with UCLEA President Anne Nelson, 
called the renewal of interest in “basic 
labor education goals and grassroots edu- 
cation” coupled with new methods an 
appropriate theme in a year when orga- 
nized labor is celebrating its centennial 
and planning its programs for the future. 

In an example of how new approaches 
can be used, the conference featured a 
videotape address by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue who talked about the 
goals and results of the recent series of 
AFL-CIO regional conferences. 


excluded were the effects of “reductions in 
spending for programs in areas such as 
education and health, which tend to affect 
families with children but do not directly 
affect families’ financial resources.” 

With about two-thirds of the funding 
cuts excluded from the computation, the 
CBO said most of the income losses to the 
poor and the near-poor would be less than 
5 percent. But some 649,000 families re- 
ceiving help from more than one program 
would suffer an average income loss of 
19 percent. 

Within the limited budget cuts counted 
for the study, families with children head- 
ed by nonwhite women would be most 
likely to be affected, the CBO said. 

THE STUDY covered families with in- 
comes below the poverty level and up to 
50 percent above the poverty level. 

It took note of the fact that some of 


Donahue explained the federation’s pol- 
icies and planned activities on a variety 
of issues of importance to labor. The 
videotape was followed by a live question 
and answer session between the partici- 
pants and Donahue, who was in New 
York, by means of a telephone hook-up. 

CONFERENCE workshops, many of 
which were conducted by education direc- 
tors and staff from AFL-CIO unions, in- 
cluded discussions of successful methods 
for familiarizing new members and un- 
organized workers with unions and their 
functions as well as the development of 
local union education programs and pro- 
grams aimed at the needs of women and 
minorities. 

AMONG OTHER workshops were pre- 
sentations geared to developing labor edu- 
cation plans for union officers and staff. 
These discussions included ways to im- 
prove skills for communication with mem- 
bers, using the resources available through 
universities and colleges, and gaining ac- 
cess to the media. 

In a series of discussions highlighting 
the ways unions can solve problems by 
joint action, representatives of California 
labor, the AFL-CIO, youth organizations, 
senior citizens groups, and public interest 
organizations explained how they worked 
together to educate both union members 
and the public on vital issues. 


the working poor would have increased 
take-home pay if Congress enacted the 
Administration’s proposals for cutting per- 
sonal income taxes. 

But the impact of a tax cut would be 
received by the low-income population.” 

THE ARCHITECT of the Administra- 
tion’s budget, David A. Stockman, said 
the CBO study “demonstrates that the 
President’s safety net is still intact” since 
most of the low-income families would 
not experience what he termed “a serious 
reduction in their spendable income.” 

Sen. Kennedy, however, came to a quite 
different conclusion. He said it is “ironic 
and tragic that an Administration which 
proclaims itself to be pro-family has given 
us an anti-family budget which will put 
eVen more pressure on the family struc- 
ture of those already living at the eco- 
nomic margin.” 


OSHA Assailed for Retreat 
On Lead Exposure Standard 


Million Hurt by Reagan Cuts 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 25, 1981 


The Issues of the ^80s 


‘Live and Let Live! Right?’ 


RADE UNIONISM, by its yery nature and definition, requires 
a positive response to the question: “Am I my brother’s 
keeper?” 

From various quarters we are hearing that civil rights and 
human rights should be put on the back burner. Those voices do 
not speak for the American labor movement. They speak against 
the interests and the goals of workers and their unions — as well as 
against our allies among the civil rights and women’s groups, the 
senior citizens, and all others who look to their government for 
justice. 

The problem we face is clear to us all. The political friends of 
labor and its allies are out of power, and our opponents are in. 

Nobody can accuse them of singling out any particular group to 
discriminate againist. They are discrintinating against everybody — 
except the truly rich and the most deserving corporations. 

THEY CLAIM that their only goal is to cut back social pro- 
grams that have failed or outlived their usefulness. 

The programs we fought for did not fail. Teaching a youngster 
a trade he can take pride in and earn a living at is a triumph that 
brings benefits to the whole society. 

Seeing to it that children get the food and medical attention 
they need to grow up able to compete and pay their way is the 
cheapest and best insurance we can buy for our future. 

A whole generation of black youngsters has grown up without 
ever seeing the odious sign that says “No Negroes” or “Whites 
Only.” Is that a failure? I say it is an advance for civilization. 

Many of those youngsters will not now go to college because 
the Administration proposes to scotch the student loan program. 

If you want to know what the civil rights issues of the 1980s 
are, look at the President’s budget proposals. 

They add up to an effort to reverse the social progress that has 
been won by legislative and economic action over the last 50 years. 

ONE OF THE striking aspects of this assault is the frantic 
speed with which it is being carried out. 

None of the programs being scuttled was created overnight. 
Most were considered and debated for years until action became 
unavoidable, and then for years more while Congress explored 
methods and funding levels. 

Congress has not been asked or permitted to give the dismantling 
of these programs anything like the careful legislative deliberation 
that went into their creation. It has been asked to make, and in 
many cases already has made, drastic revisions in law without 
consideration or provision for millions of Americans who will be 
and are being injured in the process. 

Some people have advised us to sit back and ride out the next 
few years. They tell us there’s no point in resisting. They tell us 
the odds are against us — that it’s a losing battle. 

The labor movement isn’t a game of chance. We have an obliga- 
tion, a sacred trust, to do everything in our power to protect our 
people. We have a plain duty to do our best to head off the dis- 
asters we see in the making. And we intend to discharge that duty 
— ^win, lose, or draw. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at Civil Rights Confer- 
ence at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, Apr. 12, 1981. 


Ijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


Executive Council 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Emmet Andrews 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn 
John J. O’Donnell John DeConcini 
Robert F. Goss Dan V. Maroney 
Joyce D. Miller John J. Sweeney 
Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


s VoL XXVI 


Saturday, April 25, 1981 


No. 17 I 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
S ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for anv publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. _ 

illllllllllllllllllllillllilllllllllillllillllllllllllllllllillllllllllllilllillllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllin 




British Experience Cited 

Reagan Handout for Business 
Worthless Snake Oil Remedy 


By Gus Tyler 

I T’S ‘‘SNAKE OIL,” says the Economist, in 
writing about President Reagan’s proposed 
“investment incentives.” . 

Coming from anyone else, that sort of snotty 
talk could just be brushed off. But the Economist 
is not just another publication: it is the highly 
prestigious British publication, of fundamentally 
conservative bent, read by policy makers around 
the world for its insights into global economic 
trends. 

Hence, before this government rushes into this 
$165 billion giveaway to corporations that “pro- 
vides work for bureaucrats, money for tax law- 
yers, and precious few benefits for anyone else” 
except puffed up profiteers, it might be well for 
our President and Congress — both Democrats and 
Republicans — to take a look at the Mar. 21 issue 
of the Economist. 

DESPITE THE fact that just about everybody 
in Washington — liberal as well as conservative — 
is ready to embrace “incentives” as if they were 
motherhood or Dolly Parton, the Economist 
warns that “America may be about to follow 
Britain in finding out the hard way that acceler- 
ated depreciation has been oversold; that what 
gains it does bring are expensive; and that there 
are cheaper and more effective ways of increasing 
investment.” 

The big argument for swift write-offs is that 
this is a way to ease taxes for our overtaxed 
American corporations. But, says the Economist, 
“American companies are not over-taxed by inter- 
national standards. 

“A RECENT STUDY by accountants Price 
Waterhouse found that an investing company 
pays more tax in West Germany and Japan than 
in America. In West Germany the rule for most 
investments is straight-line depreciation over the 
asset’s whole life, and in Japan the rules are al- 
most as strict. Yet both countries devote a far 
larger share of gross domestic product to invest- 
ment than America does.” Britain “has the most 
generous depreciation rules” and little to show 
for it. 

The cost to Uncle Sam over the next five years 
would be $165 billion. This multi-billion expen- 
diture would be “an undisguised government 
handout for business and an inefficient carrot for 


boosting investment. Even at its present level, it 
often simply rewards investment that would have 
taken place anyway.” 

You don’t get business to invest just by giving 
it a rebate on investments, says the Economist. 
“Investment booms arise mainly from an encour- 
aging economic climate, not from accelerated de- 
preciation schemes.” 

TO ENCOURAGE that “climate,” the Econ- 
omist recommends applying the giveaway money 
to “reducing the federal deficit” or to “lower inter- 
est rates.” 

But how can we expect such actions when the 
Federal Reserve Board is determined to check 
growth with its high interest rates and the Reagan 
Administration is about to increase — yes, increase 
— the federal debt, despite its savings at the ex- 
pense of the poor, by giving away to corporations 
a sum equal to about a quarter of the federal 
budget? 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler columns 

iiiiiiimiiiiiiiimimiiiiiMiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiMiiMmiiiiiiiimiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiii 

Who Will Shoulder 
Society's Burdens? 

During his campaign. President Reagan 
talked about getting government off the backs 
of the American people. That is how opponents 
of social progress usually describe their objec- 
tives. 

Will the 340,000 men and women who will 
be laid off as a result of terminated CETA 
public service jobs programs breathe a sigh 
of relief at having government off their backs? 

Will the 200,000 men and women who 
would have been helped by CETA programs 
to get jobs in private industry rejoice that there 
will be no federal intrusion into their lives? 

What about the handicapped persons, some 
of them Vietnam veterans, who were being 
aided in the difficult task of moving from de- 
pendency to independence? 

Will they appreciate the removal of the 
‘heavy hand’ of government support? 

— Alan Kistler, director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Organization & Field Services, St. 
Paul, Minn., Apr. 14, 1981. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 25, 1981 


Page Five 


Secretaries Look to Unions 

Box of Candy No Compensation 
For Dead-End, Low-Pay Jobs 



By Gloria Johnson 

The following article is excerpted from Inter- 
face, the publication of the AFL-CIO Dept, for 
Professional Employees. The author is director of 
Education & Women's Activities for the Elec- 
trical, Radio & Machine Workers and treasurer 
of the Coalition of Labor Union Women. 

^T^HE AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional Em- 
ployees, the National Commission on Work- 
ing Women, and the Coalition of Labor Union 
Women, which formed an Ad Hoc Coalition for 
National Secretaries Week in 1980, seek to draw 
attention to the problems of unorganized white- 
collar working women during National Secretaries 
Week. 

Secretaries are editors, writers, travel agents, 
conference organizers, typists, office managers, 
receptionists, and more. Unfortunately, they re- 
ceive neither the recognition nor the wages they 
deserve. 

During National Secretaries Week, bosses will 
take their secretaries out for expensive lunches, 
buy them boxes of candy or send them flowers. 

But when the flowers wilt and the candy boxes 
are empty, those secretaries, all too often, will 
still be stuck in dead-end, low-paying jobs. 

Today, 98.6 percent of all secretaries are wom- 
en. They number 14.8 million. The myths de- 
scribing them and their jobs are many and need 
to be destroyed before change can occur. 

Some of these myths are contradictory in na- 
ture. For example: (1) Secretaries really are quite 
well paid. (2) Secretaries don’t need to be well- 
paid because they only work for extra “pin 
money.” 

IN FACT, the average pay of a secretary is 
among the lowest in the country — less than the 
average wage for every kind of blue-collar work. 
Also, 1980 Labor Dept, statistics show that 75 
percent of women work because of economic 
necessity, and not for “pin money.” 

Many of these women — many of these secre- 
taries are heads of households with full financial 
responsibility — many of these secretaries are 
mothers of pre-school children — and many of 
them are among the millions of workers whose 
income often determines whether or not a family 
will or will not rise out of poverty. 

Another myth is that secretaries remain in the 
same job year after year because they want to. 
The reality is that there is no career ladder for 
office workers. 

Secretaries are hampered by another myth 
which says that there no longer is wage discrimi- 
nation against office workers since passage of the 
Equal Pay Act of 1963. 

In Contract Talks 


Once again, the reality is somewhat different. 
Although the Equal Pay Act provides for “equal 
pay for equal work,” that promise is an empty one 
if there are no men performing the equal work. 
Job segregation is so severe in the secretarial field 
that there simply is no man doing the same job 
in the next office to whom the underpaid secretary 
might compare herself. 

IN ORDER for substantial changes to be made, 
secretaries must be recognized as professionals 
with rights. . 

They have the right to a comprehensive written 
job description which specifies their duties; they 
have a right to detailed information specifying the 
compensation, terms and benefits of their employ- 
ment. They have the right to compensation for 
overtime work and work not included in their job 
description. They have the right to regular salary 
reviews and cost-of-living increases. They have the 
right to benefits and pay equal to those of men in 
similar job categories and the right to promotion 
opportunities and on-the-job training programs. 

They have the right to organize into unions and 
bargain collectively to ensure that these rights are 
achieved. 

SUCH DEMANDS are hardly revolutionary; 
in fact, they are taken for granted by large num- 
bers in the workforce. They are basic and minimal 
rights which all workers have and which are es- 
sential protection against unfair treatment. 

Today more and more women office workers 
are recognizing that organizing is the key to 
change. The clerical workers movement, consist- 
ing of grass roots groups, national organizations, 
and unions, has taken office workers’ problems 
out of the realm of the isolated individual. 

Such groups are building networks of working 
women in offices to win specific changes, and they 
are filing charges and pressing government agen- 
cies to enforce equal opportunity laws. 

Their strategies include researching and docu- 
menting discriminatory practices, testifying before 
congresisonal committees and meeting with gov- 
ernment officials, adopting resolutions and insti- 
tuting programs to deal with special concerns of 
these women, and educating the public through 
the media about workplace discrimination, and 
developing training and upgrading programs. 

Increasingly women are learning that it is only 
with the unions and the union contract that they 
have a formal, ongoing structure through which 
changes can be instituted — child care, pregnancy 
disability, pay equity, family sick leave — and 
which provide for job descriptions, grievance pro- 
cedures, and wages which reflect the true value of 
the secretary’s worth. 


Restoration of Eroded Wages 
Major Goal of Postal Workers 


T he postal service can’t hide behind the 

Administration’s proposed budget cuts in sub- 
sidies to avoid agreement on a fair contract, Presi- 
dent Moe Biller of the Postal Workers declared 
on Labor News Conference. 

Biller pointed out that productivity of Amer- 
ican postal workers jumped 5.5 percent last year 
as the volume of mail increased from 100 billion 
pieces to 106.5 billion, according to the Post- 
master General’s annual report. Biller also noted 
that mail volume over the decade is up sharply 
even though USPS has 75,000 fewer workers. 

Biller stressed that inflation has seriously 
eroded wage rates negotiated three years ago. He 
said that in addition to a wage catch-up, job 
security and working conditions — especially job 
safety — will be among the top priorities in negoti- 
ations for a new contract. 

Questioned by reporters. Biller pointed out that 
the limited cost-of-living protection that postal 
workers won in the arbitration award that settled 
the 1978 contract talks is based on a formula that 
falls short of maintaining the purchasing power of 


negotiated wage rates. He said postal workers have 
lost more than one-third of the national CPI in- 
creases over the term of the contract and are 
determined to guard against further erosion of 
purchasing power. 

JOB SAFETY is “an intense issue” in the talks. 
Biller reported. Postal facilities have become “let- 
ter factories,” he said, with “monster machines, a 
block long, some 20 feet high, with 20 people 
working on them.” 

He said the growing incidence of job-related 
injuries and deaths points up the need for stronger 
safety standards and stronger OSHA enforcement 
authority, including the right to make unan- 
nounced inspections of postal facilities. He said 
that while the union supports fully bipartisan bills 
now before Congress that would beef up OSHA’s 
inspection and enforcement authority in the Postal 
Service, it would be much more effective to nego- 
tiate safety provisions into the contract. 

“Congress can eliminate” legislated protections, 
he pointed out, but “when you bargain something, 
only you can give it away.” 


By Press Associates, Inc. 

ASIDE FROM BASIC questions about the equity of the Reagan 
Administration’s budget and tax program, a growing array of 
economists has been expressing grave doubts about whether the 
program, if enacted, will achieve its stated goals. 

Robert J. Gordon, professor of economics at Northwestern 
University, says that “instead of the soaring output boom that the 
Reagan planners predict, and on which their budget assumptions 
are based, a more likely scenario is sluggish output growth, con- 
tinued high unemployment, and large budget deficits.” 

THE CONGRESSIONAL Budget Office reports that the Admin- 
istration’s underestimation of future unemployment throws off its 
budget deficit estimates by tens of billions of dollars since the 
government would take in less tax revenue and spend more for 
unemployment compensation and other support programs. 

Rather than the budget surplus by 1984 projected in the Admin- 
istration’s scenario, the result would be the nation’s first budget 
deficit of more than $ 1 00 billion, predicts a study by the Demo- 
cratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of Congress. 

In addition to staggering deficits in the mid-1980s, says the 
JEC study, there %vould be little change in inflation, unemployment 
and high interest rates. 

THE STUDY, said JEC Chairman Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.), 
“just confirms common sense. Big tax cuts and super-tight money, 
in a time of rampant inflation and raging interest rates, is only a 
prescription for disaster.” 

Walter W. Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic Ad- 
visers under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, said that a tight 
money policy will not increase the money supply sufficiently to 
support the investment which the large tax cuts are supposed to 
spur. Heller said the result would be greater competition for 
scarce credit, further driving up interest rates. 

“Tight credit and high interest rates are already stifling business 
investment and housing,” Heller noted, adding: “A new twisting 
of the monetary noose could strangle them.” 

WHEN MONEY is tight, a labor economist noted, investment 
is more likely to occur “in high yield but high risk ventures un- 
related to the needs of the economy,” such as company takeovers, 
condominium conversions, gambling casinos and speculation in 
commodities. 

While “supply-side economics” is often touted as a bold new 
approach to rescue the nation from the failures of old economic 
mcxlels, it bears a strong resemblance to the shop-worn “trickle- 
down” economics of past Republican administrations. 

Indeed, Reuss said the current GOP program “almost exactly 
parallels the Harding-Coolidge ‘Program for Economic Recovery’ 
of the 1920s.” Back then, he noted, taxes for the affluent were cut 
by more than two-thirds. Instead of investment, much of the sav- 
ings “went into luxury consumption goods and speculative invest- 
ment,” Reuss said. 

Also, the congressman pointed out, Harding-Coolidge budget 
cuts were accompanied by “regulatory reform, achieved by install- 
ing friends of regulated industries as the regulators.” 

“The redistribution of income away from the worker and 
farmer, and toward those at the top of the income scale,” Reuss 
pointed out, “produced the bust” known as the Great Depression. 

MORE RECENTLY, a program similar to the Administration’s 
has been tried — in Great Britain. The results have been dismal. 
The tight money and social spending cuts imposed by the Con- 
servative Thatcher government have produced the highest unem- 
ployment in Britain since the Depression. Business failures are 
epidemic. And inflation, the target of the policies, remains at 
double-digit levels. 

As some critics put it, the Reagan program is a high-risk gam- 
ble, with workers and the poor taking the risks and the wealthy 
as the only sure winners. 



TOP CONTRACT GOALS of the Postal Workers in scheduled 
negotiations with the Postal Service are catch-up wages, job 
security and improved safety, APWU President Moe Biller, 
center, said. He was questioned on Labor News Conference by 
Jerome Cahill, left, of the New York Daily News and Jeff Mills 
of the Associated Press. The program is produced by the AFL- 
CIO as a public service and is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 25, 1981 



PUBLIC CONCERT and sing-along session concluded a three-day Labor Songs 
and Labor Lore Institute at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. 
Songster Joe Glazer, right, leads the sing-along session. This year’s institute 
drew participants from 16 unions. 


Prepaid Group Health Care 
Held ‘Best Buy’ for Workers 


Hershey, Pa. — Health maintenance or- 
ganizations offer union members better 
care than conventional fee-for-service 
plans and unions should encourage their 
members to join them, AFL-CIO Social 
Security Director Bert Seidman told a 
conference on health care. • 

Seidman explained the federation’s 
strong support for prepaid group practice 
health care “as the best buy for the medi- 
cal care dollar” at a conference on Penn- 
sylvania health maintenance organizations 
called by Gov^Richard Thornburgh. 

PREPAID GROUPS, he said, provide 
higher quality and more efficient care. 
They select their doctors after rigorous 
screening, and physicians in health' care 
centers work as teams to provide full re- 
view of each case. 

Preventive health care and lifetime sur- 
veillance of health needs are also bene- 
ficial features of HMOs, Seidman pointed 
out, noting that the programs keep com- 

Scholarship Fund 
Set in Memory 
Of Ruben Levin 

A scholarship fund in memory of vet- 
eran labor editor Ruben Levin has been 
established by the Washington Area 
Friends of Histadrut. 

The executive board of Labor news- 
paper, which Levin edited until his death 
in January 1981, announced at its spring 
meeting that it will contribute $2,500 to 
the fund which will provide an annual 
scholarship to an Israeli journalism stu- 
dent chosen by Histadrut, the general la- 
bor federation of Israel. 

Labor is the national publication of 
14 rail, airline and related transport un- 
ions. 

The AFL-Cip International Labor Press 
Association and the Association of Rail- 
road Editors have also said they will make 
contributions to the scholarship fund. 

Levin, regarded by his colleagues as the 
dean of labor editors, joined Labor news- 
per in 1938 and became its editor in 1953. 
He was an active member of the Friends 
of Histadrut and a strong supporter of 
Israel. 

Contributions are being accepted by Len 
Lurie, treasurer, Washington Area Friends 
of Histadrut, 1719 Ladd St., Wheaton, 
Md. 20902. Checks should be made pay- 
able to the Ruben Levin Scholarship Fund. 


plete, readily available medical records. 

HMOs are a factor in lower health care 
costs, Seidman told the conference of la- 
bor and business leaders, because they 
deliver all the phases of care, outpatient 
and hospital, directly to the patient. 

“OVERALL COSTS for members, in- 
cluding both premiums and out-of-pocket 
costs, are 10 to 40 percent lower,” Seid- 
man pointed out. Because HMOs must 
provide care for the prepaid fee, they 
have an incentive to provide “necessary 
care in an appropriate setting” thus con- 
tributing to a lowering of hospital costs, 
he explained. 

In addition, he said, the single prepaid 
fee removes barriers to receiving needed 
treatment since members “do not have 
the worry about the cost.” 

The AFL-CIO supported the 1976 
amendments to the federal HMO law 
which give union bargaining agents the 
right to evaluate an HMO and decide 
whether to offer it to union members, but 
this was done only to protect the “integ- 
rity of the collective bargaining process,” 
not to lessen the federation’s support of 
HMOs, Seidman emphasized. 

UNION MEMBERS should have the 
right to a choice between health care sys- 
tems, he told the conference, stressing 
that the union should not be neutral if it 
believes an HMO is the best alternative 
for its members. Prepaid group plans also 
offer union members the opportunity to 
serve on their boards and influence policy, 
an advantage not possible in the fee-for- 
service sector, Seidman pointed out. 

If prepaid group plans are to have an 
impact on the health care system in Penn- 
sylvania, Seidman concluded, the groups 
must learn more about the needs and in- 
terests of unions and unions must learn 
more about the operations of HMOs. 

Inflation Rate Slows 
But Pay Lag Persists 

(Continued from Page 1) 

rate has been 9.4 percent — or 10.5 percent 
without seasonal allowances. 

The nation’s 36 million social security 
beneficiaries will receive an 11.2 percent 
cost-of-living insrease in July as a result 
of year-to-year changes in the Consumer 
Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a 
slightly different compilation. The social 
security rise reflects the inflation rate from 
the first quarter of 1980 to the first quarter 
of this year. 


$23^134 for Middle Level 

Budget for City Family 
Soars 12.8% Over Year 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Most American families were far 
short of the middle-level standard of liv- 
ing reflected by the intermediate budget. 
Indeed, the income of most families more 
closely approximated the lower budget 
level. The Census Bureau reports that the 
median income of all families with one 
wage earner in 1979 — the latest year for 
which it has statistics — ^was $15,652. 

BLS said the intermediate and higher 
budgets rose more than the lower budget 
in 1980 because of large increases in taxes 
and homeowner costs. In drawing up the 
budgets, BLS includes only rental housing 
in the lower budget. Both homeownership 
and rental housing are factored in the 
other budgets. 

Total consumption costs — the sum of 
outlays for shelter, food, transportation, 
clothing, personal and medical care, and 
miscellaneous items and services — rose 
about 10 percent in the lower budget and 

10.5 percent in the intermediate and high- 
er budgets, with the largest increase oc- 
curring in transportation. (See box, this 
page.) 

PERSONAL INCOME taxes in the 
three budgets include estimated 1980 fed- 
eral, state, and local tax payments, which 
went up 29.6 percent at the lower level, 
24.7 percent at the intermediate level, and 

24.6 percent at the highest level. BLS 
said that the large increases in taxes were 
the result of the federal income tax struc- 
tures of the federal government and many 
states, which call for higher tax rates as 
income rises. 

“While the percent increase in income 
taxes for the lower budget was higher 
than for the other levels, the impact of 
the increases is more pronounced at the 
higher levels because taxes constitute a 
larger share of the total budget at these 
levels,” BLS said. Changes in state tax 
codes occurred in a number of states, it 
pointed out. 

The social security contribution rate 
was unchanged at 6.13 percent from 1979 
to 1980, but the maximum income on 
which contributions are paid into the 
social security system increased from 
$22,900 to $25,900. As a result, social 
security deductions increased approxi- 
mately 13 percent at the lower level and 
14 percent at the other two levels. (The 
contribution rate rose last Jan. 1 to 6.65 
percent, while maximum income on which 
social security taxes may be charged went 
to $29,700.) 

AMONG CONSUMPTION costs, trans- 
portation expenses rose 15 percent for 
families on the austere budget, 14.3 per- 
cent for middle-level families, and 14.1 
percent for those at the higher level. 

Shelter showed an 8.2 percent increase 
in the lower budget and increases of about 
12 percent in the intermediate and higher 
budgets. BLS said the larger increases in 
the shelter component of the middle- and 
upper-level budgets were due to a combi- 


nation of higher mortgage-interest costs 
and large increases in fuel and utilities. 

Most other consumption costs rose at 
about the same rate for each budget level. 
Food costs increased 10.5 percent across 
the board. Clothing expense went up 4.7 
percent, personal care costs 10.8 percent, 
and medical care 10.8 percent for all 
families. 


THE BUDGETS do not represent how 
families actually do or should spend their 
money. Rather, they reflect certain as- 
sumptions about the manner of living at 
each of three relative standards of living. 
The budgets are prepared annually. 

The estimates are drawn up for a hypo- 
thetical family consisting of a 38-year-old 
man employed full time, his nonworking 
wife, and their 13-year-old boy and eight- 
year-old girl. The couple is assumed to 
have been married 15 years, the family 
settled in the community, and the hus- 
band an experienced worker. The family 
has, for each budget level, average inven- 
tories of clothing, house furnishings, ma- 
jor durables, and other equipment. 

The budgets are prepared for 24 metro- 
politan areas, defined as those with more 
than 1 million people, four non-metro- 
politan regions (populations between 2,500 
and 50,000), and Anchorage, Alaska. 
Nearly three-fourths of all Americans live 
in cities and metropolitan areas. 


FOR THE lower budget, autumn 1980 
costs were 6.5 percent higher in the metro- 
politan areas than in the non-metropolitan 
urban areas, BLS said. The difference was 
12 percent in the intermediate budget and 
17.9 percent in the higher budget. Total 
budget levels were lowest in small cities in 
the South. 


In a special note, BLS said that a com- 
prehensive revision of the family budget 
series is in the works and that a commit- 
tee of experts has completed a study of 
the methodology involved and recom- 
mended a completely new approach. The 
study and recommendations are being re- 
viewed by BLS as well as by a large num- 
ber of persons outside the bureau, it said. 


Two Unions Appoint 
New General Counsels 

Two AFL-CIO unions announced the 
appointment of new general counsels. 

The State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees named Winn Newman to head its 
legal staff after serving as general counsel 
for the Electrical, Radio & Machine Work- 
ers for the past 10 years. Newman, who 
previously was AFSCME general counsel 
1968-71, succeeds Larry Weinberg, who 
will remain with the union’s legal depart- 
ment. 

Newman is succeeded at lUE by Rob- 
ert Friedman, who has been the union’s 
associate general counsel for the past sev- 
eral years. Friedman joined the lUE legal 
staff in 1 967 as assistant general counsel. 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiin 

City Family Budget Costs 
At Three Levels of Living 


Summary of annual budgets for a four-person family at three levels of living, 
urban United States, autumn 1980. 



Lower 

Intermediate 

Higher 


budget 

budget 

budget 

Total budget 

. . . . $14,044 

$23,134 

$34,409 

Total family consumption 

11,243 

16,969 

23,266 

Food 


5,571 

7,024 

Housing 

2,608 

5,106 

7,747 

Transportation 

1,160 

2,116 

2,751 

Clothing 


1,292 

1,888 

Personal care 

352 

471 

668 

Medical care 


1,303 

1,359 

Other family consumption 

597 

1,109 

1,829 

Other items 


957 

1,610 

Social security and disability 

881 

1,427 

1,608 

Personal income taxes 

1,337 

3,781 

7,924 


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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, APRIL 25, 1981 


Page Seven 


The JieafftBn Budget 


Impact on the Metal Trades 


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Depletion of Skilled Crafts 
Threatened hy Cutbacks 


By Paul X«. Bumsky 

President, Metal Trades Dept. 

To hear some of my colleagues in the 
labor movement tell it, our department and 
its 22 affiliated international unions are the 
lucky beneficiaries of the Reagan Admin- 
istration. 

They’re only joking, of course, because 
they know better. But millions of Ameri- 
cans who know only that the Administra- 
tion plans to expand the Navy by 50 per- 
cent in the next 10 to 15 years can’t be 
blamed for assuming that the 250,000 
workers who build and maintain ships, and 
the many more in supplier firms, can look 
forward to long-term, full-time employ- 
ment. We wish it were so. 

SIMILARLY, our department and its 
affiliates represent more than 60,000 work- 
ers employed by Dept, of Energy contrac- 
tors. The Administration intends to wipe 
out that department. Such projects as 
synthetic fuels are already on the skids. 
The one segment of the department tagged 
for expansion is nuclear power, which 
happens to be the one where most of our 
energy people are concentrated. 

At best, this is a very mixed blessing. 

Let me first make the positive case for 
naval construction. We welcomed the 
modest Navy expansion program begun by 
President Carter near the end of his term. 
We are delighted that President Reagan 
proposes to broaden it substantially. This 
is only secondarily because shipbuilding 
creates jobs for our members. It is primar- 
ily because in any armed conflict short of 
a nuclear holocaust, adequate sea trans- 
port for men and materiel, adequately 
protected enroute, is indispensable to the 
defense of our country. 

BUT THE Reagan big-Navy program is 
missing the boat. It concentrates on war- 
ships and ignores — even discourages — 
merchant ships. Merchant ships become 
wartime transports, the precious vessels 
that fighting ships protect. Yet the Admin- 
istration wants to eliminate a subsidy 
covering the difference between U.S. and 
foreign construction costs, without which 
no ocean-going merchantmen at all would 
be built in this country. 

This could doom Navy expansion. It 
takes at least three and as many as 10 
years for a warship to progress from de- 
sign to construction. For the next several 
years, then, Navy building will be limited 
to proven craft. Without merchant ships 
— needed in themselves — to fill . the gap, 


shipyards will languish. The industry pre- 
dicts as many as 40,000 workers will be 
indefinitely laid off. Some of the 24 major 
privately-owned yards will close. 

EVERY ONE of those yards will be 
needed when the Navy’s crash program 
matures a few years from now. Even the 
eight naval shipyards, which now do most 
of the modernization, maintenance and 
repair work for the fleet, will be returned 
to new construction for the first time in 
decades. But there will be neither yards 
nor manpower enough if the work they 
ought to be doing in the meantime is 
denied to them. 

Less conspicuous but equally important 
is the erosion of suppliers. A shipyard is 
largely an assembly line. About half of 
what it puts together — steel, pipe, electrical 
equipment, valves, pumps — is manufac- 
tured elsewhere. But these things can’t be 
picked up in your neighborhood hardware 
store. They are specialized items, built to 
Navy specifications. And unless there’s a 
continuing demand for them, they are too 
much of a nuisance for most companies to 
make. 

Admittedly, up to now my indictment 
of the Reagan Administration’s maritime 
policies could have been — and often was — 
directed, with variations, at its peacetime 
predecessors. But there are differences. 

THE FIRST difference wipes out any 
credit the Administration may have earned 
as champion of an expanded Navy. Both 
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary 
of the Navy are “considering” building the 
U.S. fleet overseas. 

To be sure, this is not a clear and pres- 
ent danger. Even Sen. Jesse Helms might 
object to a new USS North Carolina being 
built in Liberia or Japan. But the other 
differences are not groundless fears but 
bleak realities. 

Here are some of them: 

MANPOWER POLICIES. Shipbuilding 
crafts range alphabetically from Asbestos 
Workers to Upholsterers, embracing along 
the line the Boilermakers, Carpenters, 
Electricians, Machinists, Painters, Plumb- 
ers and 14 more. What they do in the ship- 
yard requires special knowledge beyond 
the basics of their crafts. 

As a group these craftsmen are grow- 
ing older. Sporadic employment has driven 
away many younger workers and deterred 
others from replacing them. Government- 
supported apprenticeship and pre-appren- 
ticeship programs have helped in the past, 




ir V.- 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiitiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiim 

Department's Local Units 
Cover 650,000 Workers 

The Metal Trades Dept, is unique among the constitutional departments of 
the AFL-CIO in that it functions in part like an international union. 

Eighty local and regional Metal Trades Councils, from the East Coast to 
Hawaii, are certified bargaining agents for more than 650,000 workers in several 
hundred units, ranging from less than a dozen workers to more than 10,000. 

Eleven of the councils represent 70,000 federal employees, most of them in 
the eight Navy and two Coast Guard shipyards. Together with workers in almost 
300 private shipyards, large and small, they make MTD the nation’s largest 
union of shipbuilders. 

The other half-million workers for whom MTD councils bargain are found in 
a wide variety of operations, from atomic energy to petrochemicals to uranium 
mining. More than 30,000 work for Dept, of Energy contractors. (Affiliated 
unions of the department represent about the same number.) 

All Metal Trades Councils are formed from local unions of the department’s 
22 affiliates, although it is rare for all 22 to have locals in the same establishment. 
The workers are members of their respective locals and pay per capita to the 
parent union. They coUectively decide the additional dues that will be checked 
off to support the council, whose officers they elect. The council executive board 
is comprised of local union delegates. 

Workers covered by council collective bargaining agreements amount to less 
than 15 percent of the total membership of department affiliates. However, direct 
and indirect services to the councils make up the bulk of the department’s 
program. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



SKILLED CRAFTS working at shipyards like this Ingalls facility in Pasca- 
goula, Miss., face an uncertain future under the Reagan Administration’s pro- 
gram to expand Navy ship construction while ignoring the needs of the U.S.- 
flag merchant marine. Discouragement of merchant ship construction could cost 
the jobs of 40,000 shipyard workers represented by local councils of the AFL- 
CIO Metal Trades De^. 


but not nearly enough to keep up with the 
losses. Against this background: 

• There is no indication that the Ad- 
ministration is even aware of the impend- 
ing shipyard manpower problem, much 
less disposed to do anything about it. 

• Deep cuts in federal training pro- 
grams at all levels will reduce even fur- 
ther the prospects of finding replacements 
for aging shipyard craftsmen. Increasing 
the skilled workforce seems next to im- 
possible. 

This isn’t just a shipbuilding problem. 
Last year, 3,000 machinists were graduated 
from registered apprenticship programs. 
Manpower authorities say that 250,000 
more will be needed in five years. Yet the 
Reagan budget will force the dismissal of 
80 persons from the small staff of the 
Bureau of Apprenticeship & Training. 

• Cutbacks in unemployment compen- 
sation will be a further deterrent to pro- 
spective workers, and to those who have 
been laid off, during this period of un- 
certainty in the shipyard industry. They 
will go elsewhere now, and few will be 
available when the Navy needs them. 

In short, while the Navy worries in 
public about finding and keeping able 
crews to sail a bigger fleet, the Defense 
Dept, shows no concern about finding and 
keeping able workers to build it. 

Apparently the only hope is that the 
construction of merchant ships in Ameri- 
can yards will be stimulated rather than 
squelched, and that apprenticeship and 
other training will be enhanced rather than 
emasculated. The odds are poor. 

SAFETY AND HEALTH. Our mem- 
bers hold some of the most hazardous jobs 
in the nation. They work where the foot- 
ing is slippery, where the winds are strong, 
where the quarters are close, where the air 
is fetid, where the temperature is torrid or 
frigid. 

When the Reagan Administration ap- 
praises health and safety measures accord- 
ing to their “cost effectiveness,” our mem- 
bers’ lives are in the balance. There may 
be some workplaces, in some occupations, 
where OSHA regulations can be “eased” 
and OSHA inspections “relaxed.” None 
of our members works in them. 

• A ship under construction is a large, 
complex and specialized place. A proper 
health and safety inspection cannot be con- 
ducted by an outsider without guidance 
from a knowledgeable worker. Yet the 
Secretary of Labor has withdrawn a regu- 
lation requiring that the worker member 
of the inspection team be paid his regular 
rate while on that duty. 

• A move is afoot to exempt most sur- 
face miners except coal miners from the 
Mine Safety & Health Act. This would 
include our uranium miners. 

• The Longshoremen’s & Harbor 


Workers’ Compensation Act is also on the 
Administration’s hit list. 

What seems to bother the Administra- 
tion states-rights crowd is that a federal 
law works so much better and pays so 
much more realistic benefits than the 
worker compensation systems in many 
coastal states dominated by their allies. 

• The earliest casualty on this list may 
be OSHA protection for federal workers, 
for its effectiveness is the result of an 
Executive Order rather than an act of 
Congress. 

Soon after OSHA came into being, our 
Metal Trades Councils negotiated language 
in their federal shipyard contracts specify- 
ing conformity with OSHA standards and 
regulations. The language was impossible 
to enforce. In practical terms it was be- 
yond the reach of the grievance procedure, 
and of course the federal workers cannot 
strike. 

About a year ago President Carter cre- 
ated by Executive Order the Federal Ad- 
visory Council on Safety & Health, of 

This analysis of the impact of the 
Reagan Administration economic pro- 
gram on workers represented hy the 
AFL-CIO Metal Trades Dept, is one 
of a series by the AFL-CIp News as a 
follow-up to recommendations stemming 
from AFL-CIO regional conferences. 


which I am vice chairman. The council 
has been able to do what contract lan- 
guage could not. 

Now, however, there is a new head of 
the Office of Personnel Management who 
has other ideas. Health and safety, he told 
an interviewer, is “primarily a labor-man- 
agement issue,” not one for government — 
as though government is not “manage- 
ment” in a federal shipyard. Besides, he 
said, his general view is that “things are 
going to be difficult for government em- 
ployees.” He ought to know. 

An Executive Order survives only as 
long as the incumbent President wants 
it to. 

• Finally, we cannot help worrying 
about places like Oak Ridge and Hanford. 
We, like the AFL-CIO, believe nuclear 
power is and will continue to be, at least 
for many years, vital to our country. We 
believe it is safe. But in an Administration 
that judges health and safety measures on 
their “cost effectiveness,” will it be as safe 
as it has been in the past? 

I don’t in any way suggest there will be 
any deliberate neglect of the immeasure- 
ably important precautions required in nu- 
clear installations. But their application 
within an overall policy that health and 
safety have finite value, measureable in 
dollars, creates a faint glimmer of worry 
that should not exist at all. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 25, 1981 


Sex Discrimination Case 


Court Absolves Unions 
Of Liability for Bias Pay 


‘Tell Ya What I’m Gonna Do . . 


The Supreme Court unanimously re- 
buffed an airline’s attempt to make unions 
share the cost of back pay it owes to 
women flight attendants who won a class 
action sex discrimination lawsuit. 

Northwest Airlines had been found by 
a federal district court to have violated 
the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII 
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by paying 
its stewardesses less than male pursers for 
work requiring “equal skill, effort and 
responsibility . . . performed under simi- 
lar working conditions.” 

THE AIRLINE then sued the Air Line 
Pilots and the Transport Workers, the two 
unions which at different periods had rep- 
resented flight attendants. It said that since 
the unions were parties to collective bar- 
gaining agreements that incorporated dis- 
criminatory pay scales, they should share 

Budget Slashers 
Woo Right-Wing 
House Democrats 

(Continued from Page 1) 

the House will have a chance to act on 
the amendments that will be in order, 
including the Latta-Gramm substitute. 

The White House and its conservative 
organization allies have been doing their 
own lobbying during the Easter recess. 
President Reagan made a well-publicized 
phone call that was carried live by a 
Pennsylvania radio station to seek and 
apparently get the support of Democrat 
Eugene V. Atkinson for his budget pro- 
posal. And the President announced that 
he will address a joint session of Congress 
the day before the House is to act on the 
budget. 

A GROUP of Reagan-supporting gov- 
ernors promised to lobby their congres- 
sional delegations for his program, and 
the right-wing American Conservative Un- 
ion called on its followers to flood congres- 
sional offices with messages supporting the 
Reagan economic program. 

The Republican-controlled Senate has 
already adopted part of the President’s 
program through a reconciliation bill di- 
recting congressional committees to cut 
spending authority for programs in their 
jurisdiction. 


liability for back pay under a “right to 
contribution” legal doctrine. 

The stewardesses had not sued the un- 
ions and expressly stated in court pro- 
ceedings that they did not consider the 
union representing them responsible for 
the discrimination. 

In its 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court 
said the airline would not have a valid 
claim even if the unions were assumed to 
have been at least partially responsible for 
the violations of the law. 

IN BOTH LAWS, the Supreme Court 
noted, Congress carefully spelled out the 
remedies available to aggrieved workers 
and the means of enforcement. Therefore, 
the court concluded, “it would ba im- 
proper for us to add a right to contribu- 
tion to the statutory rights that Congress 
created in the Equal Pay Act and Title 
VII.” 

The Supreme Court decision was along 
lines, that had been urged in a joint brief 
filed by the AFL-CIO and the UAW, and 
in a brief filed by the federal Equal Em- 
ployment Opportunity Commission. 

The decision, written by Justice John 
Paul Stevens, made clear that denial of 
the “right of contribution” doctrine in the 
case of the two laws under consideration 
did not necessarily carry over to other 
laws that may be less carefully drawn. A 
case pending before the Supreme Court 
involving the right of contribution in anti- 
trust verdicts involves a different set of 
laws, the court noted. 

IN ANOTHER action of significance to 
unions, the Supreme Court declined to 
review and thus left standing a decision 
by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
District of Columbia involving a construc- 
tion site picketing ruling. 

The case involved a non-union electrical 
subcontractor in Florida who was being 
picketed by the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers at a residential 
construction site. The picketing was con- 
fined to the gate reserved for the non- 
union firm while other firms working on 
the project used a separate gate. How- 
ever, when electrical fixtures to be in- 
stalled by the subcontractor were deliv- 
ered through the “neutral gate,” the IBEW 
extended its picketing to that gate as well, 
and the National Labor Relations Board 
upheld the union’s right to do so. 

The appellate court upheld the NLRB, 
and the Supreme Court action ended the 
case. 



a/^’5 


Spurt in Economic Growth 
Seen Unlikely to Continue 


The nation’s economy grew at a sur- 
prising annual rate of 6.5 percent during 
the first three months of the year, accord- 
ing to a preliminary report by the Com- 
merce Dept. But AFL-CIO Research Di- 
rector Rudy Oswald warned that the 
economy will not be able to sustain such 
growth in the months ahead. 

“Even with the strong growth of sales,” 
Oswald noted, “unemployment remains at 
the very high plateau of 7.3 percent, with 
1.5 million more people out of work than 
a year and a half ago.” 

THE FIRST-QUARTER advance in 
“real” gross national product, the nation’s 
total output of goods and services, was 
the largest quarterly expansion in the 
economy since the 9 percent real growth 
rate in the second quarter of 1978. It 
compared with an annual growth rate of 
3.8 percent in 1980’s fourth quarter. 

Commerce Sec. Malcom Baldrige at- 
tributed much of the first-quarter strength 
to “the upward momentum of the econo- 
my during the fourth quarter.” He pre- 
dicted that the economic growth would 


West Virginia Legislature Buries R-T-W 


Charleston, W. Va. — The West Vir- 
ginia legislature buried an attempt to 
saddle the state with a so-called right-to- 
work law, becoming the sixth state to 
reject a compulsory open shop law this 
year. In the 1981 session just ended, the 
legislature also approved a series of im- 
portant labor-supported bills. 

The open shop bill, dubbed a “right to 
freeload” measure by State AFL-CIO 
President Joseph W. Powell, was intro- 
duced in the state senate following a 


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Statewide media and personal appearance 
blitz staged by officials of the National 
Right to Work Committee based in Ar- 
lington, Va. 

POWELL’S head-on rebuttals of the 
anti-union organization’s arguments and 
his testimony before the senate labor com- 
mittee contributed heavily to that com- 
mittee’s voice vote to postpone action on 
the bill indefinitely. 

“Right to work” measures were killed 
earlier this year in Maine, Vermont, New 
Mexico, Idaho and Montana. 

In another major success for labor, the 
state legislature approved a bill that will 
sharply tighten requirements on employers 
to identify hazardous chemicals in use in 
the workplace and disclose symptoms that 
can result from improper exposure to 
them. An attempt to cut out a section 
authorizing the state to monitor com- 
pliance was successfully beaten back. 

ALSO ENACTED was a compromise 
bill intended to restore solvency to the 
state’s unemployment compensation fund 
within two years through higher em- 
ployer taxes. Although the bill calls for 
elimination of benefits for workers who 
voluntarily quit or are fired for miscon- 
duct, labor was successful in keeping pro- 
visions that put the burden of proof on 
the employer when a worker charges that 
he or she was forced to quit. 


The State AFL-CIO strongly supported 
another new law that prohibits employers 
from eavesdropping on employee’s tele- 
phone conversations without their knowl- 
edge. The measure closes a loophole in 
a 1968 federal wiretap law that lets tele- 
phone company supervisors listen in on 
workers on the job without notice. 

The legislature voted to increase the 
state minimum wage as of Jan. 1, 198^, 
from $2.75 to $3.05 an hour. 

AMONG OTHER new legislation is a 
measure permitting the state labor com- 
missioner to require new construction or 
mining contractors to post bond covering 
one month’s wages and benefits. This is 
designed to protect workers from em- 
ployer bankruptcies or contractors who 
leave the state without paying wages. 

A backlog of pending workers’ compen- 
sation claims should be eliminated by a 
law requiring the compensation appeals 
board to meet monthly rather than every 
two months, the State AFL-CIO said. 

Powell credited the passage of the wide 
range of beneficial legislation to labor’s 
successful efforts in the 1980 primary 
elections to dump conservative legislators 
who had dominated the state senate for 
a number of years. The new senate presi- 
dent, he pointed out, has posted a 100- 
percent “right” voting record by COPE 
standards. 


“flatten out” in the current and third 
quarters of 1981. He cited the following 
recent developments to support this view: 
non-auto retail sales have slowed in the 
past few months; domestic new-car sales 
have slumped since late March; industrial 
production has been flat for the past two 
months, and the level of nonfarm payroll 
employment stopped growing at the end 
of the first quarter. 

BALDRIGE ALSO noted that con- 
sumer spending has been growing more 
rapidly than disposable income for three 
quarters. As a result, the personal savings 
rate declined to 4.7 percent of disposable 
income in the first quarter from 5.1 per- 
cent in the preceding quarter and 6.1 per- 
cent in the 1980 third quarter. He pre- 
dicted that there will be a “substantial 
slowing” in consumer spending growth in 
the months ahead. 

Meanwhile, the cost of money went 
back up a notch as most large U.S. banks 
-raised their prime lending rates to 17.5 
percent from 17 percent. 

In other economic reports, the Com- 
merce Dept, reported that housing starts 
climbed at a fairly mild annual rate of 
5.8 percent in March, not nearly enough 
to make up for the sharp slide of 26.9 
percent the month before. Many econo- 
mists see further declines in new housing 
construction ahead. 

THE COMMERCE DEPT, also report- 
ed that personal income rose only eight- 
tenths of 1 percent last month, another 
indication that the economy is slowing 
down. That followed increases of seven- 
tenths of 1 percent in February and 1.1 
percent in January. 

Separately, the Federal Reserve Board 
reported that the nation’s factories op- 
erated at a seasonally adjusted 79.5 per- 
cent of capacity in March, about the same 
as February’s 79.4 percent rate and still 
below January’s 80 percent. 

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Army Hit on Purchase 
Of Japanese Trucks 

A new program to help the automo- 
bile industry by accelerating planned 
government purchases of motor vehicles 
has no value if the vehicles are foreign 
made, AFL-CIO Research Director 
Rudy Oswald stressed in a letter to 
Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis. 

Oswald said labor’s concern stems 
from a recent purchase by the Dept, of 
the Army of 40 Japanese-built Datsun 
trucks for use at Ft. Devens, Mass. 

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VICTIMS VIGIL brings trade unionists and environmentalists to the steps of 
the U.S. Capitol to protest Reagan Administration attacks on job safety regula- 
tions and clean air standards. Addressing participants is Eula Bingham, head of 
OSHA during the Carter Administration. Other speakers included President 
Howard D. Samuel of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept., President Lloyd 
McBride of the Steelworkers and Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman of the Clothing 
& Textile Workers. The vigils will be conducted weekly. 

Attack on Davis-Bacon 
Hit as Pay-Cutting Tactic 


UAW Vote 
Clears Way to 
/ Reaffiliation 

Detroit — A resolution authorizing the 
executive board of the Auto Workers to 
“take the necessary steps” for reaffiliation 
with the AFL-CIO has been approved by 
62 percent of the union’s convention dele- 
gates, and UAW President Douglas A. 
Fraser termed the vote a message of 
solidarity. 

Fraser said the UAW leadership will 
“move quickly” to discuss with the AFL- 
CIO “the final terms and conditions of 
the reaffiliation so that we can consum- 
mate it without undue delay,” possibly at 
a UAW board meeting scheduled for June. 

THE EXECUTIVE board of the 1.2- 
million member union had i^ianimously 
recommended the reaffiliation resolution 
which was adopted. 

The votes were cast by delegates who 
had represented their locals at the UAW’s 
most recent triennial convention, held last 
June. To avoid the expense of bringing the 
flelegates to a single location, the balloting 
took place at regional meetings across the 
country. 

Ballots cast at the various locations were 
then combined and the resolution was 
adopted by a margin of 7,785 to 4,527. 

The UAW and its president, the late 
Walter P. Reuther, had a major role in 
the formation of the AFL-CIO in 1955. 

IT LEFT the federation in 1968. But in 
recent years, Fraser noted, the UAW and 
the AFL-CIO have worked closely on a 
number of important issues, including the 
campaign for comprehensive national 
health insurance and other union goals. 

“Having a unified labor center in this 
country can only strengthen the trade un- 
ion movement at a time when it is under 
severe attack from irresponsible corpora- 
tions and their political allies,” Fraser said. 

He said the union’s “rank-and-file con- 
vention delegates” have shown their de- 
sire “to work together and fight together 
with our brothers and sisters in the labor 
movement.” 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — A merger plan that 
would unite the Service Employees Inter- 
national Union and the Retail, Wholesale 
& Department Store Union has been en- 
dorsed by the executive boards of both 
unions. 

Their joint statement said the projected 
merger would unite 910,000 union mem- 
bers, including 95,000 in Canada. The 
SEIU now has 675,000 members and the 
RWDSU 235,000. 

Final action on the merger will be 
taken at separate conventions of the two 


Repeal of the Davis-Bacon prevailing 
wage law would give the construction in- 
dustry’s most unscrupulous employers pre- 
ference in the awarding of government 
contracts. Building & Construction Trades 
Dept. President Robert A. Georgine 


unions, to be held prior to June 30, 1982, 
Both SEIU President John J. Sweeney 
and RWDSU President Alvin E. Heaps 
stressed that merger will bring some 300,- 
000 health care workers under the same 
banner. The SEIU presently has some 
200,000 health care workers and the Na- 
tional Hospital division of the RWDSU 
represents about 1 00,000 workers. 

Under the merger plan, Sweeney will be 
president of the new organization and 
SEIU Sec.-Treas. Richard Cordtz will be 

(Continued on Page 3) 


warned at Senate Labor subcommittee 
hearings. 

Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), chairman 
of the panel, opened the hearings by call- 
ing for repeal of the law, which he termed 
“inflationary and wasteful.” The Labor 
Dept., he said, should not be “in the busi- 
ness of setting loc^al wage rates.” 

Georgine, who also testified on behalf 
of the AFL-CIO, countered that there is 
“still a compelling need” for the 50-year- 
old law which requires payment of com- 
munity wage scales and benefits on feder- 
ally financed construction projects. 

IN FACT, Georgine suggested, a failing 
has been inadequate enforcement of the 
law. Among many abuses that have sur- 
faced, Georgine noted, were contractors 
who falsified payroll data to conceal the 
fact that they were paying workers sub- 
stantially less than the Davis-Bacon wage. 
Other contractors have classified employees 
doing highly skilled work as laborers, pay- 
ing them the lower wages. Minority work- 
ers and workers without immigration docu- 

(Continued on Page 8) 


20,000 Join 
In March to 
Capitol Hill 

By James M. Shevis 

Nearly 20,000 angry railroad workers 
marched on the Capitol to let the country 
know that they are not passively going to 
accept devastating federal budget cuts that 
would destroy the railroad industry and 
take away their jobs. 

“We have fought long and hard for 
what we have,” Chairman Fred J. Kroll 
of the Railway Labor Executives’ Associa- 
tion told a noon rally on the Capitol’s West 
Front. “We will fight just as long and just 
as hard to preserve our rights, our working 
conditions, and our jobs.” 

THE DEEP budget cuts proposed by the 
Reagan Administration would turn Conrail, 
the federally subsidized freight railroad, 
into a mere skeleton, and eliminate its 
passenger counterpart, Amtrak, as a na- 
tionwide intercity system, he warned. 

The cutbacks would cost over 70,000 
jobs and, because the number of con- 
tributors to the Railroad Retirement Fund 
would be reduced roughly by a corre- 
sponding number, the railroad pension sys- 
tem would face almost certain bankruptcy 
by 1983, Kroll warned. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
who also addressed the rally, told the rail- 
road workers that “you can count on the 
full support of the AFL-CIO and all its 
unions” in the fight for economic justice 
against the budget cuts. He labeled Presi- 
dent Reagan’s proposed cutbacks “a pro- 
gram for disinvestment in America’s fu- 
ture,” and urged Congress to “stop it in its 
tracks.” 

“WE CANNOT let the future of our 
country be jeopardized by a misguided 
attempt to pinch pennies from the federal 
(Continued on Page 6) 

OSHA Facing 
New Assaults on 
10th Anniversary 

By John R. Oravec 

Unmet promises and grim prospects for 
improving the safety and health of Ameri- 
can workers marked the 10th anniversary 
of the Occupational Safety & Health Act. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue called for labor to commemorate the 
anniversary with a renewed commitment 
to defend OSHA against Reagan Admin- 
istration assaults. 

Addressing union members and envi- 
ronmentalists deeply concerned with Ad- 
ministration cutbacks, Donahue assailed 
“an outrageous and wholesale attempt to 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Service Employees, R WDS V 
Announce Plan for Merger 



I*age Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 



MERIT AWARD of the United Way of America is presented to President Peter 
Bommarito of the Rubber Workers by William Aramony, left, national executive 
of the organization. Bommarito is chairman of the AFL-CIO Community Ser- 
vices Committee and is a former member of the United Way board of governors. 

High Court Urged to Uphold 
Right to Leaflet Fairground 


For First Year 

New Major Contracts 
Boost Pay 9 Percent 


The constitutional guarantee of free 
speech that assures the right to distribute 
leaflets to passersby on city streets ap- 
plies equally to the streets of a state fair- 
ground, the AFL-CIO declared in a brief 
to the Supreme Court. 

At issue is the constitutionality of a Min- 
nesota state fair regulation prohibiting sale 
or distribution of any “printed or written 
material” except at booths rented from the 
state fair authorities. Under state law, vio- 
lation of a regulation imposed by the fair’s 
governing body is a misdemeanor. 

THE INTERNATIONAL Society for 
Krishna Consciousness challenged the re- 
striction as an infringement on religious 
freedom, and the Minnesota Supreme 

Pilots to Target 
New York Air^s 
Corporate Links 

The Air Line Pilots announced a major 
campaign to pin responsibility for the 
union-busting tactics of New York Air on 
its corporate siblings — ^Texas Air Corp. 
and Texas International Airlines Group. 

Its goal, the union said, is to have the 
chief executive of Texas Air, Frank Lo- 
renzo, recognize ALPA’s union represen- 
tation rights on New York Air through its 
existing contract with Texas International 
Airlines. 

“Frank Lorenzo and his airlines are out 
to break the unions, and we have to stop 
him in his tracks,” ALPA President John 
J. O’Donnell said. 

O’DONNELL announced that the union 
has retained Ray Rogers, who was involved 
in the corporate campaign strategy that the 
Clothing & Textile Workers used to help 
bring J. P. Stevens & Co. to the bargaining 
table. 

Rogers charged that New York Air, 
which has been operating non-union, is 
actually part of a company that is 85 per- 
cent organized “and that is making a well- 
planned, concerted effort to destroy these 
unions.” 

O’Donnell said Texas International 
“reneged on a contract settlement” with 
ALPA last year and the union still hasn’t 
been able to get a new contract. 

ULLICO Stockholders Elect 
Four Union Presidents 

Stockholders of the Union Labor Life 
Insurance Co. elected four labor leaders 
to the company’s board of directors at 
their 55th annual meeting. 

The four are President J. C. Turner of 
the Operating Engineers, President Robert 
A. Georgine of the AFL-CIO Building & 
Construction Trades Dept., Bricklayers 
President John T. Joyce, and President 
John DeConcini of the Bakery, Confec- 
tionery & Tobacco Workers. 


Court upheld the challenge in a split 
decision. 

That decision, which the U.S. Supreme 
Court agreed to review, held that the 
state’s interest in keeping order at the fair- 
grounds could be met without such a 
sweeping curb on solicitation and distri- 
bution. It said specific actions that disrupt 
traffic or fairgrounds activities could be 
dealt with if they occur, but the state had 
not shown the need for a broad prior 
restraint. 

While the Krishna group made its argu- 
ment on the right of religious freedom, 
the AFL-CIO brief focused on the free 
speech aspect of First Amendment guar- 
antees. 

LAWS RESTRICTING distribution and 
solicitation had been used against unions, 
especially during the 1930s and 1940s, 
until struck down by landmark Supreme 
Court decisions, the AFL-CIO noted. 

Past precedents are so clearcut, the 
AFL-CIO suggested, that “the only issue 
which even arguably presents an open 
question is whether the fact that this case 
concerns streets, roads and parks of a 
state’s fairgrounds rather than streets, 
roads and parks of a permanently-estab- 
lished town business district fundamentally 
alters the First Amendment analysis.” 

THE AFL-CIO brief disputed Minne- 
sota’s assertion that the governmental in- 
terest in avoiding possible annoyance to 
fairgoers is greater than that of a city 
with respect to pedestrians. 

The 125-acre fairground, with a net- 
work of roadways and walkways is differ- 
ent than a closed arena or a ballpark, the 
AFL-CIO insisted. The fairground is 
“closed only in the sense that a medieval 
walled city is closed,” the brief stressed, 
and fairgoers can easily avoid unwanted 
solicitations by simply “walking on” just 
as they can on a city street. 


Contracts negotiated by major bargain- 
ing units of 1 ,000 or more workers in the 
first quarter of 1981 provided average 
wage increases of 9 percent in the first year 
of the agreements and 7.7 percent annual- 
ly over the life of the pacts. 

The figures compare with an average 
first-year increase of 9.5 percent and a 7.1 
percent over-term annual increase averaged 
in contracts negotiated during all of 1980. 

The first-quarter data cover 58 settle- 
ments involving 202,000 workers — the 
smallest number of workers covered in a 
given quarter since the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics began issuing the series in 1968. 
The increases do not include estimated 
wage boosts under cost-of-living adjust- 
ment clauses. 

SETTLEMENTS in the first quarter 
were concentrated in non-manufacturing 
industries, with few contracts reached in 
manufacturing or construction industries, 
BLS said. 

Separately, BLS reported that produc- 
tivity in U.S. businesses increased sharply 
in the first quarter, reflecting the big jump 
in overall economic output for the period. 
Output per hour worked rose at a season- 
ally adjusted 3.6 percent annual rate in 
the January-March quarter, after declining 
at a four-tenths of 1 percent annual rate 
in the 1980 fourth quarter. 

In its report on major contracts, BLS 
said that key contracts covering 5,000 o** 
more workers each provided a 1 0.4 percent 
first-year increase in combined wage and 
benefit increases and a 7.3 percent yearly 
boost over the life of the agreements. 

THE FIGURES compare with increases 
of 10.4 percent and 7.1 percent, respec- 
tively, in contracts negotiated by large 
bargaining units during 1980. Settlements 
for large units covered only 88,000 work- 
ers in the first quarter. 

Other highlights of first-quarter bargain- 
ing: 

• Negotiated increases in pacts with 
cost-of-living provisions averaged 7.6 per- 
cent, compared with 9.9 percent for con- 
tracts without such clauses. Over the life 
of the contracts, the annual wages were 
6. 1 percent for contracts with COL clauses 
and 8.8 percent for those without. About 
41 percent of the workers under settle- 
ments reached in the January-March 
period were covered by contracts with 
COL clauses. 

• In manufacturing industries, nego- 
tiated wage increases averaged 9 percent 
in the first contract year and 6.7 percent 
over the life of the agreements. In 1980, 
the comparable figures were 7.4 percent 
and 5.4 percent. 

• In all non-manufacturing industries, 
the averages were 9 and 8.1 percent, re- 
spectively, compared to 10.9 and 8.3 per- 
cent respectively in 1980. 

• First-year raises in construction aver- 
aged 13.4 and 11.6 percent, respectively. 


compared to 13.6 and 11.5 percent in 

1980. 

• The average length of contracts ne- 
gotiated was 34.1 months, slightly lower 
than the 34.6 months when the same 
parties previously bargained. 

• Cost-of-living clauses were intro- 
duced or re-established in two agreements 
and dropped in four. Some 56 percent of 
the workers were covered by clauses with 
quarterly reviews and 35 percent with 
annual reviews. The most common formula 
provided adjustments of 1 cent an hour 
for each three-tenths of a point rise in the 
federal consumer price index. 

WAGE INCREASES actually paid out 
during the first quarter of 1981 — that is, 
current wage changes paid under 1981 
settlements, increases under contracts ne- 
gotiated in earlier years but deferred until 

1981, and adjustments under COL clauses 
— went to 3 million workers, BLS said. 
These effective wage increases averaged 
3.6 percent. 

BLS said that COL clauses triggering 
wage increases in the first quarter of 1981 
provided pay gains averaging 96 percent 
of the rise in the CPI during that same 
period. 

In the current April-June quarter, 320 
major agreements covering 962,000 work- 
ers, largely in the construction industry, 
are due to expire or may be reopened, 
BLS said. Also, at least 87 contracts cover- 
ing 733,000 workers expired prior to Apr. 

1 , but new agreements had not been 
reached or ratified by the end of the first 
quarter in those sectors, which included 
coal mining and railroads. 

Top Steelworker 
Officers Elected 
Without Contest 

Pittsburgh — Steelworkers President 
Lloyd McBride and the USWA’s four other 
international union officers have won new 
four-year terms as the nominating period 
ended with no other candidates qualifying 
for ballot spots. 

Under the union’s constitution, candi- 
dates without opponents are declared 
elected and do not appear on the May 28 
election ballot. 

The USWA leadership team, all first 
elected in 1977 and now chosen for an 
additional four-year term, includes Lynn 
Williams, secretary; Frank McKee, treas- 
urer; Joseph Odorcich, vice president for 
administration, and Leon Lynch, vice 
president for human affairs. 

Also elected unopposed were E. Gerard 
Docquier, the USWA Canadian national 
director, and 10 district directors. Con- 
tests are scheduled in 12 other USWA 
districts where from two to four candidates 
received sufficient local union nominations 
to qualify for ballot spots. 

Elected without opponents were Wil- 
liam Foley, Dist. 1; Len Stevens, Dist. 3; 
Clement Godbout, Dist. 5; Paul J. McHale, 
Dist. 9; Paul D. Rusen, Dist. 23; Frank 
Valenta, Dist. 28; Buddy W. Davis, Dist. 
34; Bruce Thrasher, Dist. 35; Thermon 
Phillips, Dist. 36 and Robert Petris, Dist. 
38. 

Grace Succeeds Stephens 
On Labor Press Council 

Mike Grace has been elected to the exec- 
utive council of the International Labor 
Press Association. Grace, 33, is director of 
public relations for the AFL-CIO Public 
Employee Dept, and editor of the depart- 
ment’s newspaper. In Public Service. 

Grace will fill the unexpired term of 
Bernard Stephens, who resigned from the 
ILPA Executive Council following his re- 
tirement as editor of Public Employee 
Press, the publication of State, County & 
Municipal Employees District 37 in New 
York. 


New Hampshire Rejects 
Revived Drive for R~T-W 

Concord, N.H. — Labor’s allies in the New Hampshire legislature handed 
‘‘right-to-work” advocates a stinging defeat as the House killed a measure to bar 
the union shop in the state, 189 to 160. 

Two years ago, the anti-labor legislation passed the House, 183 to 161, but 
subsequently went down to defeat in the Senate. Labor’s opposition, led by 
State AFL-CIO President Harland Eaton and former President Donald B. 
Cowette, who had to resign his post in the middle of the session for health 
reasons, was even more effective this year. 

Opponents of the bill won adoption of a measure prohibiting reintroduction 
of a right-to-work bill in this legislature, making it impossible for RTW forces 
to renew their attack before 1983. 

Labor now has won battles with the right-to-workers in seven states this year. 
Bills to do away with the union shop died in committee or on the legislative 
floor in Vermont, Maine, Idaho, West Virginia, and Maryland as well as in New 
Hampshire. In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Bruce King vetoed an RTW 
measure, as he did in 1979. 

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AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGtiON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 


Page TTiree 


Labor Fights to Save Law 


New Attacks on OSH A 
Mark 10th Anniversary 



TWELVE O’CLOCK POET Daniel Thompson reads verse outside Cleveland 
Arcade for lunch-hour passers-by and members of Carpenters Local 182 who 
have set up an informational picket line to protest the hiring of non-union 
workers and the failure to pay the prevailing wage for a Post Office project 
in the arcade. Thompson, a family counselor for Cuyahoga County social ser- 
vices, had treated shoppers at the downtown complex to regular poetry readings 
until the picket line went up. Then he moved outside with the pickets. 

CWAf Bell System Establish 
^Quality of Worklife ’ Guide 


(Continued from Page 1) 

undo everything that OSHA promises.” 
He said the attack on federal job safety 
standards “has come in the name of bal- 
anced budgets, regulatory reform and cost 
effectiveness.” 

LISTING A number of OSHA stan- 
dards and related programs that have 
fallen victim during the new administra- 
tion’s first 100 days, “it becomes quite 
clear that the federal government has 
switched sides,” Donahue said. 

“A law designed to protect workers has 
been twisted to say that the employer must 
be ‘protected’ from the workers’ quest for 
a safe and healthful workplace,” he said. 

The 10th anniversary observance began 
on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with the 
first in a series of “Victims Vigils” mobi- 
lized by the Industrial Union Dept, and 
environmental groups. Participants carried 
placards bearing the names of fellow trade 
unionists from New York state who were 
killed on the job or died of job-related 
disease. The vigil concluded with a dem- 
onstration outside the White House. 

President Lloyd McBride of the Steel- 
workers charged that the Administration — 
“in collusion with employer groups and 
certain members of Congress” — wants to 
destroy OSHA. 

“IN THE NAME of some half-baked 
economic theory called ‘cost-benefit analy- 
sis,’ the Reagan Administration has 
launched a blatant political effort to not 
only stop any future safety and health 
standards, but to dismantle those protec- 
tive standards already in place,” McBride 
told the vigil participants. 

One such move by the Administration 
that will have a deep impact on USWA 
members is the proposal to seriously weak- 
en the lead standard, he said. 

McBride welcomed the strengthening of 
ties between the environmentalists and la- 
bor, pointing out that, like OSHA, the 
Clean Air Act is coming under attack. 

“For our part,” he stressed, “we are 
not about to subject steelworkers, their 
families and their communities to polluted 
air which can kill and disease just as easily 
as lead exposure.” 

Eula Bingham, who headed OSHA dur- 
ing the Carter Administration, said she 
was “ashamed that our government is 
turning the clock back” on needed worker 
protections. 


Joseph T. Power, president of the Plas- 
terers & Cement Masons for the past 11 
years, died of cancer Apr. 27. He was 61. 

Power began his trade union career as 
an apprentice with OPCM Local 5 in Chi- 
cago. He served as vice president and pres- 
ident of the local in the 1950s and was 
elected executive vice president of the 
international in 1959. 


In mid- 1970, Power was appointed pres- 
ident of the OPCM and was elected to 



JOSEPH T. POWER 


To retreat on standards now, she ob- 
served, is to penalize employees who have 
improved conditions to comply with reg- 
ulations and to allow those who have not 
to compete unfairly in the market. 

Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman of the 
Clothing & Textile Workers warned that 
the Reagan pullback on the lead and cot- 
ton dust standards is the start of a cam- 
paign to wipe out other protections, in- 
cluding those against asbestos and vinyl 
chloride. 

As for the cotton dust standard, Sheink- 
man pointed out that 35,000 textile work- 
ers have already fallen victim to disabling 
brown lung disease. 

To reverse what little progress has been 
made would “condemn another generation 
of 50,000 American textile workers to the 
tortured wheezing and coughing which have 
struck down so many already,” Sheinkman 
stressed. 

He said the bottom line of the cost- 
benefit precept the Administration is im- 
posing is simply “lives versus dollars.” 

lUD PRESIDENT Howard D. Samuel 
announced that the “Victim Vigils” would 
be conducted regularly in Washington on 
Mondays in coming weeks. The May 4 
vigil at the Labor Dept, headquarters will 
focus on the concerns of ACTWU on the 
cotton dust pullback. Memorials for work- 
place victims from various states will fol- 
low: Pennsylvania, May 1 1 ; Ohio, May 
18, and Wisconsin June 1, with several 
other states scheduled to participate in sub- 
sequent weeks. 

Donahue noted that in addition to the 
gutting of safety and health standards, the 
new administration of OSHA has em- 
barked “on a new game — censorship.” 

He pointed out that publications, films 
and slide shows developed to inform work- 
ers of workplace hazards have been 
banned under orders of the agency’s new 
director. Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. 
Auchter. 

UNDER THE redesigned approach of 
OSHA, Donahue warned that worker pro- 
tections would be required only if they 
are economically efficient for employers. 

“Benefits must outweigh costs, and the 
cheapest method — regardless of its effec- 
tiveness — may well be good enough,” he 
said. “Instead of engineering problems out 
of the workplace, the new OSHA proposes 
redesigning the worker by slapping on a 
respirator” or other ineffective gadgets. 


his first full four-year term as president 
at the union’s convention the following 
year. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said that 
Power’s death is a loss shared by all union 
members. 

“JOE SET A model of personal integrity 
and dedication for the entire labor move- 
ment and those elected to lead it,” Kirk- 
land and Donahue said. 

“His warmth and sincerity were his hall- 
marks and refiected great credit on the 
union he loved and served so well. Those 
who were privileged to have known him 
and to have benefited from his counsel 
and friendship are richer today,” they de- 
clared. 

Power had been a vice president and 
member of the executive council of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept, since 1970 and had represented the 
federation as a worker delegate to the In- 
ternational Labor Organization. 

He is survived by his wife, Mary, and 
six children, including Kathryn Van Hel- 
den and Jay Power of the AFL-CIO staff. 
Services were held May 1 at St. Anthony’s 
Church in Falls Church, Va., and burial 
was in Arlington, Va. 


The Communications Workers and the 
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. an- 
nounced adoption of a joint statement of 
principles to guide efforts to improve the 
quality of worklife in the Bell System. 

The statement was drawn up by a 
CWA-AT&T committee on joint working 
conditions and service quality improve- 
ment established in national negotiations 
last August. The statement emphasizes that 
efforts to enhance the quality of worklife 
supplement collective bargaining, and that 
employee participation is voluntary. 

“The integrity of the collective bargain- 
ing process, the contractual rights of the 
parties, and the workings of the grievance 
procedure must be upheld and main- 
tained,” the parties observed. 

GOALS OF the program are “to em- 
ploy people in a profitable and efficient 
enterprise,” and to “create working con- 
ditions which are fulfilling by providing 
opportunities for employees and groups at 
levels to influence their working environ- 
ment.” CWA represents some 525,000 em- 
ployees of AT&T and its Bell System tele- 
communications network. 

CWA President Glenn E. Watts called 
the joint statement “an historic agreement 
that can have a significant impact far be- 
yond this one industry. The whole area 
of quality of worklife is of great concern 
to today’s workers — especially with the 
rapid introduction of advanced technology 
into the workplace. 

“It is a subject that unions and employ- 
ers will be dealing with at the bargaining 
table increasingly in future years.” 

THE JOINT statement of principles 
points out that innovations which result 
from the quality of worklife process will 
not result in layoffs or downgrading in pay 
or seniority of any worker, whether he or 
she is a participant in the process or not. 

The parties named union and company 
coordinators to oversee projects at each 
AT&T subsidiary. Representing CWA are 
Executive Vice President John C. Carroll, 

Donald Dotson Named 
For Labor Dept. Post 

Donald L. Dotson, a management law- 
yer and a former National Labor Rela- 
tions Board attorney, has been nominated 
by President Reagan to be Assistant Sec- 
retary of Labor for Labor-Management 
Relations. 

Dotson, 42, has been chief labor counsel 
at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. since 
1976. Previously he had been a labor at- 
torney for Western Electric and Westing- 
house. He was on the NLRB staff from 
1968 to 1973. 


Vice President W. C. Button, and Dina 
G. Beaumont, executive assistant to Watts. 

The company and the union expressed 
a commitment to “providing the necessary 
information and training” to make quality 
of work life projects successful, and estab- 
lished a subcommittee to begin developing 
a training program in this area. 

Carroll said that programs already are 
in place in the traffic department at Illinois 
Bell and in the plant department of Michi- 
gan Bell in Detroit. The major concern of 
the two projects, he said, is “how to make 
the work place a better place to work. 
Carroll predicted that programs would be 
established at every Bell company by the 
end of the union’s current contract with 
AT&T. 

SEIU, RWDSU 

Boards Announce 
Plan for Merger 

(Continued from Page 1) 

secretary-treasurer. A new position of ex- 
ecutive vice president would be filled by 
Heaps. 

The joint statement said the merged 
union’s leadership would also include 
RWDSU Sec.-Treas. Lenore Miller and 
Leon Davis, now head of the RWDSU 
hospital union division. 

Sweeney said the planned merger will 
“substantially” improve the bargaining 
power of workers in service-related fields 
that are traditionally low paying with 
many women and minority employees. 

“These are the people most in need of 
a strong union,” he said, “who stand to 
benefit most from the proposed merger.” 

HEAPS NOTED the past competition 
to organize health care workers and said 
“merger would mean that we could ap- 
proach the organization and representa- 
tion of workers in our jurisdiction from a 
position of unity and strength, instead of 
competitiveness.” 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, a former officer of the Service Em- 
ployees, addressed the two boards. 

The joint statement said the merger 
plan would geographically balance the un- 
ion and create two divisions from the 
combined membership. One division would 
serve workers employed in retail, whole- 
sale and department store jobs while the 
other division would serve the combined 
health care memberships of both the 
SEIU and the RWDSU. 


Joseph Power Dead at 61, 
Headed Plasterers Since ’70 



Pace Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 


The Intimidators 

T he newest weapon in the arsenal of the right wing is 
the politics of intimidation. 

Its goal is to squelch dissent by persuading members of Congress 
that the price of disagreement is unacceptably high. 

There is nothing surreptitious in the New Right’s tactics. Quite 
the opposite, in fact. The attempted intimidation is deliberately 
open. 

The National Conservative Political Action Committee didn’t 
try to conceal its million-dollar negative advertising campaign to 
portray one senator and three House members as big spenders and 
“obstructors” of the Administration program. It held a news con- 
ference to announce the fact. 

NOR WAS THERE any doubt as to why the campaign was 
being launched with a $400,000 television advertising blitz aimed 
at Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland. Sarbanes happens to be an 
exceptionally able senator. But he is relatively junior in seniority, 
his party is a minority in the Senate, and his vote is not likely to 
be decisive on many issues. 

It happens, however, that a populous segment of Maryland is 
in the Greater Washington area. Thus the anti-Sarbanes commer- 
cials will presumably be seen by other members of Congress — with 
the intended implication that they could be the next victims. 

Ironically, the NCPAC and other New Right groups have also 
targeted the chairman of the House Budget Committee, James R. 
Jones (D-Okla.), whose conservative credentials until now have 
been considered impeccable. 

The alternative budget that Jones supported was close to the 
Administration proposal. But the savage attack from the right 
carried a clear warning to House moderates and conservatives that 
no deviation will be tolerated. 

Such tactics are not just political overkill. They are repugnant 
to the spirit and nature of American government. 


• . . And Those Who Resist 

T here still are, fortunately, members of Congress who 
have held fast to principle and have resisted not merely overt 
intimidation but the much more common Capitol Hill failing of 
bowing to what is perceived as the prevailing political winds. Too 
often, the faintest breeze is mistaken for a gale. 

It is refreshing to the political debate when a stalwart such as 
Carl Perkins, the soft-spoken chairman of the House Education & 
Labor Committee, tells his colleagues bluntly that President 
Reagan’s proposed budget cuts “go beyond any rational equitable 
reduction.” 

If put into effect, the Kentucky congressman warned, “programs 
which have been developed and refined over decades of congres- 
sional review will be dismantled in days and weeks.” 







Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland. President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St.. N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, May 2, 1981 


No. 18 I 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-II85) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adyer- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

iimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiininniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiniiniiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 




High Interest Casualties 

Monopolies Manipulate Market 
As Smaller Firms Go Bankrupt 


By Gus Tyler 

ALMOST 3,000 COMPANIES went bankrupt 
in the first ten weeks of 1981. That’s a big 
number: It’s 63 percent more than for the same 
period last year which was, in turn, 53 percent 
more than in 1979. In other words, the number of 
firms that are going under is on the steady rise. 

For the country as a whole, the news isn’t good, 
of course. For the people whose business col- 
lapses, the failure is tragic. But there is still an- 
other party that suffers — that’s you. 

In a perverse way, these bankruptcies are in- 
flationary. It’s “perverse” because instinctively 
you may feel the contrary. If somebody goes out 
of business then that depressing fact should de- 
press prices as receivers rush to sell whatever is 
on hand and to do so for whatever they can get. 

BUT IT DOESNT quite work that way. The 
unloading of stock is a momentary occurrence. 
The more lasting impact on our economy is what 
happens to the whole structure of the business 
world as thousands of small and medium size 
firms disappear. 

We talk of “small and medium” firms because 
they are the ones who are dropping dead for lack 
of the capital they need to keep going. These 
lesser companies are always short on cash; they 
need ready credit to carry them for the slow days 
until they get paid by their customers. 

Such small business operations are being de- 
nied the kind of opportunities for short-term bor- 
rowing that they enjoyed in the past because of 
the high interest rates imposed on the country by 
the Federal Reserve Board. 

While they are pushed into bankruptcy, their 
giant competitors are able to survive and to 
occupy those places in the market they once 
shared with their lesser rivals. Times of bank- 
ruptcy* are, therefore, also times of concentration 
in business ownership — a very formal and polite 
way of describing growing monopoly. 

SUCH MONOPOLY empowers a handful of 
business monopolists to dominate the market 
place, to manipulate it, to withhold supply, to 
force up prices. In short, such a monopoly manu- 
factures inflation. 

The ability of such giants to survive while the 
dwarfs around them perish is inherent in the 
easier access of the big fellows to capital. Their 


reserves are greater; they can borrow at preferred 
rates from banks, even below the “prime rate;” 
they have officers of lending institutions on their 
boards. 

Also, as Larry Weinberg, president of Brooklyn 
Economic Developments, puts it: 

“Fortune 500 companies understand how to 
pass along the high cost of borrowing. They are 
sure enough of their market share that by raising 
their prices, they won’t be pricing themselves out 
of business.” 

So they pass on the costs — to you and me. 

The great irony here is that the high interest 
rates — set purposefully high by the Federal Re- 
serve Board — ^were supposed to check inflation. 
Instead, they do just the opposite by hastening 
monopolies that spur inflation. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler columns 

lllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllililllillllillllllllllllllllllllllll^ 

No Retreat on Labor's 
Commitment to Justice 

We have learned that there is no such thing 
as final victory or final defeat on any issue. 

We should be angered, but not surprised, by 
the current efforts to roll back the Voting Rights 
Act and to demolish affirmative action. 

The enemies of civil rights and the defenders 
of privilege are as enduring and as energetic as 
we are. We never thought that centuries of prej- 
udice and racism would vanish from our social 
life in a single generation. 

But we have resolved that discrimination as 
public policy, authorized by law or by the 
absence of law, has gone for good. We are re- 
solved that Congress shall make no law that 
permits the return of that ancient disgrace and 
repeal no law that prevents it. 

Nor do we believe that the American people, 
somehow, overnight, have lost their fundamen- 
tal sense of decency and abandoned their his- 
toric commitment to human rights, social and 
economic justice, and equal opportunity. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to the 
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Apr. 
29 , 1981 . 



Pagre Five 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 


Victim o£ Regulatory Reform 

Price-Tag Logic Supplants 
Nation’s Promise on OSHA 


Excerpts from an address by AFL-CIO Sec- 
Treas, Thomas R. Donahue to an Industrial 
Union Dept. ^'Victims Vigir function protesting 
sharp rollbacks in OSHA protections. 

T he 10th ANNIVERSARY of the landmark 
safety and health law should be the cause for 
celebration of gains made and plans laid for a 
future that would bring OSHA to its noble goal. 

Instead, we are facing a grim threat as we see 
the outline of an all-out attack on the law by the 
new OSHA administration. 

We assemble to resist that attack and we see 
clearly the lines of that struggle. It is our job to 
keep OSHA what it’s supposed to be — a guarantee 
to every American worker of safe and healthful 
conditions on the job. 

ANY FAITHFUL reading of the history of 
OSHA will reveal that we have never come close 
to that goal of safe and healthy worksites. Ad- 
ministered in its fledging years in a manner akin 
to sabotage, OSHA moved quickly into an era 
that might be called malignant attention. 

Throughout the 1970s there were repeated and 
concerted attempts in every forum — ^legislative, 
judicial and executive — to delay the achievement 
of that safe and healthful workplace. It took every 
form known to the devious mind of man: exemp- 
tions by size of workforce, a starving for funds, a 
limit of inspectors and inspections and a seemingly 
endless string of lawsuits and other methods of 
delay on even the most minimal of standards. 

In short, it was not until recent years that 
OSHA began to take the shape the 1970 law 
intended. That came about only because of the 
commitment of Labor Sec. Ray Marshall and the 
effectiveness of the American worker’s best friend 
in safety and health, Eula Bingham. 

Now, in 1981, another era has unfolded and it 
is, as you heard this morning, the worst so far — 
an outrageous and wholesale attempt to undo 
everything that OSHA promises. This attack has 
come in the name of balanced budgets, regulatory 
“reform” and cost effectiveness. 

IT IS OUR JOB to counter that with the fact 
that OSHA is not obligated to smooth the proc- 
esses of the corporate or federal office — ^but to 
the higher calling of saving workers’ lives. 

The purpose of the lUD’s weekly vigil is to re- 
call a few of the victims who have died because 
America has not fulfilled its 10-year-old commit- 
ment to the safe and healthful workplace. 

Let me read a different list of victims — ^the 
OSHA standards that have already been jettisoned 
in whole or in part in the first 100 days of the new 
OSHA administration: 

• Federal “right-to-know” hazards identifica- 
tion proposal: withdrawn. 

• Hearing conservation protections: illegally 
postponed. 

• Walkaround compensation: proposed that 
standard be revoked. 

For Minorities, Women 


• Conveyor standard: cancel rulemaking hear- 
ings, extend period for more “comment.” 

• Proposed withdrawal of Indiana State Plan: 
extend “comments,” withdraw complaints. 

• Proposed amendments on cancer policy: 
withdrawn. 

• Lead standard: petition Supreme Court to 
vacate lower court decision and reconsider entire 
standard on cost-benefit grounds. 

• Cotton dust: petition Supreme Court to de- 
fer decision, again on cost-benefit grounds. 

In addition to gutting standards, the Adminis- 
tration is trying its hand at a new game — censor- 
ship. Excellent worker education films, slide shows 
and publications produced by OSHA under Dr. 
Bingham have been ordered locked up or de- 
stroyed. Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne C. Auchter 
said OSHA cotton dust publications were biased 
because the cover showed a textile worker who 
had brown lung. Calling the picture “offensive,” 
Auchter ordered the publications destroyed. 

IT BECOMES quite clear that the federal gov- 
ernment has switched sides. A law designed to 
protect workers has been twisted to say that the 
employer must be “protected” from the workers’ 
quest for a safe and healthy workplace. Protection 
of workers will only be required if it’s economical- 
ly efficient for employers to do so. Benefits must 
outweigh costs and the cheapest method, regard- 
less of its effectiveness, may well be good enough. 

In other words, instead of engineering prob- 
lems out of the workplace, the new OSHA pro- 
poses redesigning the worker by slapping on a 
respirator. 

In the double-speak of 1981, that’s called 
“getting the government off our backs.” 

THE EVENTS of 1981 come as no surprise 
to us and instead serve only to cement our resolve 
that we will see OSHA do its intended job of help- 
ing workers to live healthy and productive lives. 

When we speak of people whose lives are not 
long enough, we are talking primarily about the 
exposed workers — about the 35,000 Americans 
who already have brown lung disease or the 800,- 
000 workers who are daily exposed to the dangers 
of lead, to mention only two of the latest and 
more devastating actions by the new OSHA Ad- 
ministration. 

But there are others whose lives are not long 
enough and they are not the victims, but part of 
the problem. They are the corporate and political 
figures whose frantic pursuit of their own goals — 
high short-term profits or re-election — leaves them 
far short of the frame of reference needed on 
issues so vital. It is left to us to see the longer view 
— and we play that role, too. That’s why all of us 
in the trade union movement have a special re- 
sponsibility to focus on the longer view and to 
insist upon humane government. That’s why we 
must speak out now against the Administration’s 
effort to put a price tag on the lives of American 
workers. 


Reagan Budget Cuts Threaten 
Skilled Trades Outreach Effort 


A pprentice outreach programs that 

have brought more than 100,000 women and 
minorities into the skilled trades in recent years 
will be wiped out or cut to little more than token 
levels if Congress approves the Administration’s 
budget, AFL-CIO Civil Rights Director William 
E. Pollard declared. 

Pollard pointed out that federal assistance for 
outreach programs has been supported by every 
President from John F. Kennedy through Jimmy 
Carter. He scored the Administration’s abrupt 
shift “at a time when the nation needs these pro- 
grams more than ever.” 

Noting that unemployment among black teen- 
agers is now over 40 percent, Pollard declared that 
the apprenticeship programs have given “young 
blacks, Hispanics and other minorities the im- 
portant ingredient of hope.” He also pointed out 


that the workers who have found careers through 
outreach apprenticeships “have, as taxpayers, 
brought more money into the government than the 
government Tias put into their training.” 

QUESTIONED BY reporters on Labor News 
Conference, Pollard said that as more light is 
thrown on the effect of various budget cuts at the 
local level, more people are responding against 
them. He said that groups that at first thought that 
they would not be touched by the Reagan budget 
cuts now realize that they will be affected. 

Pollard said that unemployment continues to be 
one of thq most acute problems in the minority 
community, but “we’re not going to put people to 
work by cutting the budget.” Where there is waste, 
that should be eliminated, he said, but “extremism 
in any form is not going to be helpful” in making 
the nation strong, viable and competitive. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

U NEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, or partial replacement of 
lost wages for workers who are out of a job through no fault 
of their own, has been regarded as a basic right in this country 
for more than 40 years. 

Nevertheless, this right is being chipped away. One of the last 
acts of the lameduck 96th Congress was to cut back certain job- 
less benefit protections, including the elimination of extended 
benefits for a worker who leaves his job “voluntarily,” and ending 
federal funding for benefits to workers whose CETA jobs are 
terminated. 

Now Congress is considering even more drastic changes, pro- 
posed by the Reagan Administration, which would deny or cut off 
jobless benefits for more than a million workers during the fiscal 
year beginning Oct. 1 . Hardest hit would be workers unemployed 
for long periods as a result of economic recession and of problems 
in particular industries such as auto. 

These hard-pressed workers will suffer even more if Congress 
goes along with proposals to slash and undermine the extended 
benefits program enacted in 1970 on a permanent basis. 

Further, the Administration proposes to extend to recipients of 
regular unemployment benefits a measure enacted by the lame- 
duck Congress which requires recipients of extended benefits to 
take jobs at the minimum wage level or at the level of their weekly 
benefit, whichever is higher. States would be forced to impose this 
requirement after a jobless worker’s 1 3th week of benefits. 

In 27 states, unemployment benefits are so low that every re- 
cipient would be forced into a minimum wage job or lose all 
entitlement to benefits. If the proposed requirement were now in 
effect, it is estimated that about one million experienced workers 
would have to take minimum wage jobs. 

NOT ONLY THAT, a basic tenet of the unemployment insur- 
ance system would be lost — that is, to preserve the skills of workers 
until they can find another suitable job. Lost skills and qualifica- 
tions would mean large losses in lifetime earnings which never 
could be recovered, a labor expert noted in recent testimony before 
a House Ways & Means subcommittee. 

In order to force jobless workers into minimum wage level jobs, 
the Administration — which has been striving mightily to change 
the meaning of words like “truly needy” and “safety net” — ^wants 
to change the meaning of the “suitable work” provision contained 
in most state unemployment insurance regulations. 

Lawrence E. Weatherford, the Labor Dept.’s new deputy assis- 
tant secretary for employment and training, freely acknowledged 
that the Administration proposal would redefine “suitable work” to 
mean any minimum wage job or jobless benefit level. 

IN CONGRESSIONAL testimony, the AFL-CIO pointed out 
how contradictory it is for the Reagan Administration, a self- 
proclaimed champion of transferring power from the federal 
government to the states, to propose using the mechanism of 
federal standards to “force states to withdraw the protections that 
unemployed workers now have.” 

It would be bitterly ironic, the federation asserted, if Con- 
gress — which has ignored repeated pleas of presidential commis- 
sions and of organized labor to enact minimum federal unemploy- 
ment benefit standards — takes further steps backward to force 
states to slash existing protections for the jobless. 

Instead of raising federal and state trigger levels for extended 
benefits. Congress should lower them, the federation said. 

Further, labor’s long-standing proposal for a permanent extend- 
ed benefit program which would extend coverage for up to 65 
weeks makes much sense today as workers struggle through the 
nation’s second highest jobless level since the Depression. 


To cushion the cruel effects of economic downturns and chang- 
ing employment patterns, the unemployment insurance system 
should be strengthened, not weakened. 



ONLY TOKEN LEVELS of outreach apprenticeships in the 
skilled trades can be expected if Congress approves the Admin- 
istration’s budget, AFJ.-CIO Civil Rights Director William 
Pollard, center, declared on Labor News Conference. Pollard 
was questioned by Warren Brown, left, of the Washington Post 
and Michael Posner of Reuters news agency. The AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 



RAIL LABOR RALLY on the Capitol’s West Front heard 
Chairman Fred Kroll of the Railway Labor Executives’ 
Association warn that President Reagan’s budget cuts will 
destroy Conrail and Amtrak, putting some 70,000 railroad 


workers out of jobs and threatening the railroad retirement 
system. The labor leaders near the rostrum include AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland. Other rallies and demonstra- 
tions were held across the United States. 


20,000 Rail Workers March, Rally 
In Capitol Hill Protest of Cutbacks 


(Continued from Page 1) 
budget at the expense of economic pros- 
perity,” he declared. “We are here to re- 
mind the Congress that how national reve- 
nues will be spent ultimately resides in the 
hands of the people.” 

Following the rally, which was coordi- 
nated with demonstrations and news con- 
ferences in major cities across the United 
States, the railroad unionists visited con- 
gressmen and senators from their home 
states to urge sufficient funding for con- 
tinued operation of Conrail, Amtrak, and 
the railroad retirement system. 

' EVEN AS the rail workers marched 
outside the Capitol, though, the Senate 
Commerce Committee voted to concur in 
the Administration’s reduced budget for 
Amtrak. Despite Democratic objections, 
the committee voted 10 to 4 to approve 
$613 million for the line’s operations in 
the 1982 fiscal year, exactly what President 
Reagan requested. 

Kroll told the rally that the shrunken 
budget, if eventually approved by Con- 
gress, would mean the immediate loss of 
11,000 jobs. The Amtrak funding plan 
would kill most of the nation’s passenger 
routes next fall, and allow Amtrak to 
negotiate with rail labor unions to cut 
labor protection payments — ^possibly sav- 
ing $75 million — by providing lump-sum 


New York — Labor Sec. Raymond J. 
Donovan got a first-hand look at sweat- 
shops where illegal aliens and sometimes 
young children toil for a fraction of the 
federal minimum wage, and voiced shock 
and anger at what he saw. 

The Secretary of Labor promised to 
meet with members of Congress to try to 
get “more teeth” put into the wage-hour 
law and “much more severe” punishments 
for violators. 

President Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies* 
Garment Workers suggested that as a 

Donovan Appoints Collyer 
To Key Labor Dept. Post 

Robert Burns Collyer was appointed 
Deputy Under Secretary of Labor for the 
Employment Standards Administration by 
Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan. 

Collyer will be responsible for the La- 
bor Dept.’s programs in the areas of work- 
ers’ compensation, wage and hour enforce- 
miint and federal contract compliance, 
among others. 


payments to laid-off workers. 

The Washington rally exceeded antici- 
pated turnout estimates of the sponsoring 
Railway Labor Executives’ Association, 
and was preceded by a half-hour, placard- 
waving parade from Union Station to the 
Capitol. Police said that the number of 
participants ranged between 15,000 and 
20 , 000 . 

AS THE MARCH got underway, with 
Kirkland, Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, 
and the heads of over a dozen affiliated 
unions in the lead, the demonstrators rolled 
their voices in unison as if preparing for 
the kick-off at a football game, and period- 
ically imitated the “whoo-whoo” of a train 
whistle. Many of the workers wore con- 
ductors’ or engineers’ caps, and carried 
picket signs or sported red-and-white Pol- 
ish “Solidarnosc” (Solidarity) buttons. 
Most of the railway employees came from 
the heavily traveled Northeast. 

“Upgrade, Don’t Degrade, Our Rail- 
roads,” one sign read. “A Strong Nation 
Needs a Strong Railroad,” another said. 
Members of Local 744 of the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 
Philadelphia admonished the President in 
another: “This Isn’t Hollywood & Vine. 
You Can Afford to Lose Your Job. But I 
Cannot Lose Mine. Investigate Conrail’s 
Management.” 


starter Donovan might do something to 
stop the scheduled cutback of more than 
30 employees in the New York regional 
office of the Labor Dept.’s wage-hour divi- 
sion. 

“IF THE SECRETARY of Labor and 
the Republican Administration are sincere 
in trying to root out the burgeoning new 
sweatshops in our major metropolitan 
areas,” Chaikin said, “it is strange that 
they are cutting the Dept, of Labor budget 
for inspectors whose job is to pinpoint 
wage-hour law violations.” 

Donovan accompanied a Labor Dept, 
“sweatshop* strike force team” on a raid 
in New York’s Chinatown and told a news 
conference that he found young children 
and old women working for $1 an hour 
and “bogus” employee time cards already 
punched out for the afternoon. 

Donovan urged “self-policing” of condi- 
tions by garment manufacturers and un- 
ions, and said that “if we can get this 
economy going, we could offer some hope 
to sweatshop workers for jobs that will pay 
them at least the minimum wage.” 


At a pre-rally session led by labor trou- 
badour Joe Glazer, the railroaders joined 
in singing “Solidarity Forever,” “This 
Land is Your Land,” and several of his 
improvised verses of the rally’s theme 
song, “I’ve Been Working on the Rail- 
road.” 

“And I want to keep on working on the 
railroad,” they sang. “Soon no one will 
be working on the railroad . . . and I’ll 
be singing those Amtrak blues.” 

President Fred A. Hardin of the United 
Transportation Union introduced Kirk- 
land, saying that the latter’s presence dem- 
onstrated that “not only is rail labor to- 
gether, but all of American labor is to- 
gether” on this issue. 

THE FIGHT to save America’s rail- 
roads and the jobs of American workers 
“is not a narrow trade union issue affect- 
ing only a small segment of our society,” 
Kirkland stressed. 

“This is not an exercise in nostalgia for 
the bygone days of Casey Jones and John 
Henry,” he said. “This is a rally about 
the future of our society. Today, even 
more than yesterday, a strong rail system 
is essential to meeting our most important 
national goals.” 

Every other industrialized country in 
the world recognizes its rail transportation 
as a basic national resource, Kirkland 
said. Germany, Japan, Great Britain, 
France and other nations support their 
rail systems through national budgets, 
“and maybe that’s one reason why they’re 
beating us in international competition,” 
he added. What the Administration is do- 
ing makes no sense, Kirkland said. 

Kroll, who also is president of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks, told the gathering 
that railroad workers today are confronted 
with the most anti-labor legislative threats 
in U.S. history. 

“TODAY’S BATTLE is not just one of 
a balanced budget and budget cuts,” he 
said. “It is one of a conservative ideology 
being forced upon the American people 
which, if successful, will create two classes 
in America — the poor and the very rich, 
the have-nots and the elitists.” 

In its proposals, the Administration 
wants to cut Amtrak passenger service to 
such an extent that all routes outside the 
Boston-Washington corridor would be 
eliminated, leaving hundreds of communi- 
ties without service and thousands of work- 
ers jobless. 

The Administration also wants to dis- 
mantle Conrail, selling off as many lines 
as possible to other carriers. Meanwhile, 
it would cut funding so that freight ser- 
vice to some communities would have to 
be done away with, jobs eliminated, and re- 
maining employees forced to give up wage 
increases, benefits, and job protections. 


ILG Prods Donovan on Cut 
In Wage-Hour Inspections 


Tax Proposals 
Seen Counter 
To Objectives 

Tax cuts to business under Reagan Ad- 
ministration proposals run counter to the 
goals of strengthening American industry, 
AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald 
told a House subcommittee. 

The proposed tax cuts would substan- 
tially distort business investment decisions, 
change relative tax burdens, and make 
reindustrialization of America’s economic 
base more difficult, Oswald declared. 

“Larger, more prosperous, capital-inten- 
sive firms would reap huge benefits while 
smaller, labor-intensive firms would bene- 
fit very little,” he said. 

As for the Administration’s proposed 
individual income tax reduction, Oswald 
said that the 10-percent a year, across-the- 
board cuts would not help some 1 5 million 
low-income working Americans. They 
would be among the first to feel the ad- 
verse impact of the Administration’s cuts 
in social programs, he said. 

Middle-income workers would receive 
token cuts and only the wealthiest would 
benefit significantly. “Clearly a scheme 
which gives more to those at the top — in 
absolute as well as relative terms — cannot 
be considered fair or even-handed,” Os- 
wald observed. 

THE SO-CALLED “supply side” notion 
that such cuts in marginal tax rates would 
entice more people into the labor force 
and encourage them to work harder ig- 
nores the fact that there are nearly eight 
million Americans looking for work, four 
million more on part-time schedules be- 
cause full-time work is not available, and 
over one million workers who have 
dropped out of the labor force because 
the search for jobs was futile, he added. 

In his appearance before the House 
Energy & Commerce subcommittee, Os- 
wald noted that while the need for an 
extensive reindustrialization effort has been 
widely recognized, there is no consensus 
on the policies needed to achieve this 
goal. This lack of consensus, he suggested, 
stems from different perceptions as to 
whether there is something wrong on the 
supply side of the economy. 

THE AFL-CKTS position is that there 
are sectoral and regional problems in the 
economy and that, if tax cuts are to play 
an efficient role in the nation’s reindus- 
trialization efforts, they must be targeted 
to those industries that are essential to an 
industrial economy and are in need of this 
assistance, Oswald said. 

He outlined the AFL-CIO’s proposal 
for a tripartite Reindustrialization Board 
to channel public and private funds into 
reindustrialization projects, especially in 
areas most in need. 

The board, made up of representatives 
of business, labor and government, would 
have initial authority to allocate $5 billion 
in tax expenditures and an additional $5 
billion in loans, loan guarantees and in- 
terest subsidies. Emphasis would be on 
basic industries, and allocation decisions 
would include factors such as eliminating 
capacity bottlenecks, helping new U.S. in- 
dustries with a high growth potential, and 
aiding firms that have difficulty competing 
because of unfair foreign trade practices. 

AFT Member Honored 
As Teacher of Year 

Jay Sommer, a foreign language teacher 
at New Rochelle High School in New 
York state, and a member of the American 
Federation of Teachers, was named 1981 
National Teacher of the Year. 

Sommer, who belongs to the Federa- 
tion of United School Employees, the 
New Rochelle AFT local, was honored 
at a White House ceremony. The 53-year- 
old native of Germany grew up in Czecho- 
slovakia, and spent the war years in a 
Nazi labor camp before emigrating to the 
United States in 1948. 

Sommer, who speaks 10 languages flu- 
ently, was selected from more than 150,- 
000 teachers. AFT President Albert Shan- 
ker observed that the honor was another 
indication that public schools are able to 
attract and keep teachers of high quality. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 


Page Seven 


Reversing 50 Years of History 


The real issue of the Reagan budget is 
not whether it will cure inflation, which 
it probably won’t, but what it does to the 
relationship between the American people 
and our government. 

According to our new Administration, 
the root of our economic trouble is the 
federal government. Get the government 
off our backs by reducing government pro- 
grams, the President says, and people will 
solve their problems on their own. 

FUNDAMENTALLY it is a denial of 
50 years of history. Almost a half-century 
ago, at the time of the Great Depression 
and the New Deal, America made two 
basic decisions: first, that we had a re- 
sponsibility to help those in need, and 
second, that we could best exercise that 
responsibility not through individual acts 
but through government programs. We 
made those decisions partly out of our 
humanitarian heritage, and partly out of 
the hard-won knowledge that all of us 
benefit from a healthier and happier so- 
ciety. 

^ ‘ No one today would claim that every 
government program is 100 percent on 
target or that there is not one ounce of 
waste in the government colossus. But on 


the other hand, no one should claim that 
the government itself is the problem, or 
that our needs will disappear if govern- 
ment activity is scaled down. 

The particular tragedy of the Reagan 
budget is that in reversing a half-century 
of experience, it takes special aim at the 
poor, the disadvantaged and the unem- 
ployed. 

THE LIST OF proposed cuts is long 
and dismal: job training, public service 
jobs, special jobs programs for youth, un- 
employment insurance; special educational 
programs for the disadvantaged, assistance 
to poor students; help for small business, 
cooperatives, housing rehabilitation, rural 
electrification, family farmers; food 
stamps, school lunches, certain social se- 
curity benefits, help for single-parent fam- 
ilies and for the disadvantaged, health 
services. 

The Reagan Administration economic 
program is an attempt to turn back the 
clock to the 1920s and earlier, and like 
all efforts to turn back the clock it is 
doomed to failure. 

The second issue is whether the budget 
cuts will cure inflation. Cut expenditures. 


This analysis of the impact of the 
Reagan Administration economic pro- 
gram was prepared by the AFL-CIO 
Industrial Union Dept It is one of a 
series by the AFL-CIO News as a fol- 
low-up to recommendations stemming 
from AFL-CIO regional conferences. 


balance the budget, end inflation — that’s 
the conservative pitch. It sounds reason- 
able, and according to the polls, it has 
obviously influenced a lot of Americans. 

THE TROUBLE is that it’s false. There 
is no evidence that an unbalanced budget 
causes inflation, or that a balanced budget 
will help cure it. In past years the United 
States has had unbalanced budgets without 
inflation — and we’ve had inflation with 
balanced budgets. The same thing has 
been true of other industrialized nations. 
Inflation and the government budget are 
not necessarily related. 

Administration spokesmen are fond of 
saying that if the typical American family 
planned its budget like the government, it 


would go broke. The fact is that few 
American families could survive on a bal- 
anced budget. If we couldn’t borrow mon- 
ey to buy houses and automobiles, most 
of us would be living in tents and walking 
to work. 

Instead of reducing inflation, some of 
the budget cuts could well fuel more infla- 
tion. Inflation is partially caused by the 
decline in productivity, which in turn can 
be traced to inadequate research, bad 
management and the deterioration of our 
industrial base, such as energy and trans- 
portation facilities. 

BY REDUCING support for railroads 
and mass transit, for urban reconstruction, 
low-cost housing, rural economic growth 
and the development of alternate energy 
and water resources, the Administration 
program will undermine our efforts to 
improve productivity. That could lead to 
more inflation. 

Then the Reagan program will be ex- 
posed for what it is, an effort to reallocate 
the nation’s resources away from those at 
the lower end of the economic ladder into 
the hands of special interests, big business 
and the wealthy. 


Enforcement Cut First Step 
To Dismantling of OSH A 


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U.S. market share shrinking at home ... and abroad. 


How much is it worth to protect a 
human life? When President Carter left 
office he proposed that the world’s wealth- 
iest nation spend $242.6 million next 
year on the Occupational Safety & Health 
Administration. That’s a little over $4 for 
each worker to be protected. 

President Reagan’s proposed budget 
provided somewhat less: $3.80 a worker 
($228 million). Now that the deregulators 
are running, they are out of control. Sen. 
Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who chairs the 
Senate Labor subcommittee that is sup- 
posed to protect the safety of workers, has 
persuaded his committee to set a new value 
on protecting human beings: $2.80 ($171 
million). 

THE REAGAN BUDGET would make 
those cuts by taking funds from New Di- 
rections grants and educational assistance 
to unions and even the employers, from 
standards setting and federal enforcement. 

By 1982, the OSHA staff would be cut 
by 250. In a Feb. 26 letter to OMB Di- 
rector David Stockman, Labor Sec. Ray- 
mond Donovan made very clear that most 
of the cuts would come from enforcement. 
He proposed 16,500 fewer federal inspec- 
tions for 1982. 

Reversing the mandate of the Act by 
administrative fiat, the Secretary is — in 
effect — calling for a dismantling of the 
federal safety effort and a return to the 
pre-OSHA days of state-by-state enforce- 
ment coupled with voluntary compliance. 

THE STATES are being asked to in- 
crease their responsibility for enforcement 
with virtually no federal monitoring. Don- 
ovan’s letter to Stockman goes further: “A 
major thrust of the 1982 OSHA budget is 
to reflect the agency’s intention to place 
emphasis on expanded voluntary compli- 
ance activities ... to achieve agency 
goals.” 

There is no evidence from any demon- 
stration now or in the past that voluntary 
compliance works. 

The Mine Safety & Health Administra- 
tion, also under Donovan’s protection, is 
being forced to accept proportionately 
larger cuts which will result in nearly 
20,000 fewer mine inspections, an action 
that would reverse the current downward 
trend of death and injury in the nation’s 
mines and mills. 

IN INDIANA, the new OSHA respond- 
ed to two successful lawsuits by beginning 
the process of withdrawing approval of the 
state plan. The AFL-CIO and the lUD 
sued the government to enforce the “as- 
effective-as” federal program provision of 
the law. 

The Reagan Administration’s OSHA not 
only has stopped the process of withdraw- 
ing federal approval of the ineffective In- 


diana plan, but has already shut down the 
OSHA offices in Ft. Wayne, Gary and 
Evansville, reducing the federal staff from 
40 to eight. OSHA earlier had found that 
after six years of operation the state has 
a “consistent pattern of poor performance 
in critical program areas.” 

Federal staff in the remaining states run- 
ning OSHA programs would be cut rough- 
ly in half. 

The other half of the federal safety and 
health program, the National Institute for 
Safety & Health, isn’t even mentioned by 
name in the Reagan budget. It got its 
budget slashed anyway (by a third). Always 
treated like a poor cousin, it is the only 
national institute that in fact is not a na- 
tional institute. NIOSH is responsible for 
research and professional training. But the 
Reagan Administration doesn’t want as 
many scientists looking under the rug of 
industrial decay. The Carter budget called 
for spending $81.5 million (less than $1.35 
per worker). The $59-million Reagan bud- 
get means spending less than a dollar per 
worker. 

The Reagan NIOSH budget cuts out 
all training funds, which means that all of 
the independent university programs 
(which cannot easily be controlled by 
Stockman’s “top down” style of manage- 
ment) are scheduled to be eliminated. 





U.S. Share of 
Domestic Sales 


L P»rc«it loM ky U.S. Mnfactann 




U.S. Shi^e of 
Mamifacturing Exports 
of tndusblalized Nations 


t2 ■« 
M MM ky U.S. 



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Trade Policies Would Cost 
U.S. Its Competitive Edge 


The Reagan Administration’s early in- 
itiatives in international trade reflect a lack 
of awareness about the seriousness of 
America’s international trade challenges. 

The plan to dismantle the already in- 
adequate Trade Adjustment Assistance 
(TAA) program reflects a callous disregard 
for the hundreds of thousands of Amer- 
ican workers who lose their jobs because 
of increased imports. The failure to pursue 
aggressively limitations on Japanese auto 
and parts imports reveals an underlying 
“free trade” philosophy that is simply un- 


Productivity Goals Retarded 
Under Budget Retrenchment 


Government programs to strengthen 
U.S. productivity gains will be eliminated 
or drastically curtailed under the federal 
budget proposals of President Reagan. 

Programs for developing new technolo- 
gies have been targeted for dramatic 
slashes, while support for industries with 
the highest rates of job creation and pro- 
ductivity growth is also being cut back. A 
worse future for American industry and 
American workers will result if these pro- 
posals are implemented. 

NEW TECHNOLOGY development 
will be dramatically curtailed by budget 
reductions in the National Science Founda- 
tion and National Aeronautics & Space 
Administration. 

The Office of Science & Technology is 
scheduled for elimination from the Com- 
merce Dept., while research and develop- 
ment support for new energy technologies 
— solar, geothermal, wind, biomass, shale 
oil and others — will be cut in the Dept, of 
Energy. 

America’s industrial strength has always 


been linked to technological advances of 
the kinds promoted by these government 
agencies. High-technology industries — 
from aerospace and computers to telecom- 
munications and modern textiles — have 
formed the backbone of our international 
competitive posture. These budget cuts will 
weaken industry and jobs prospects in just 
those industries where we normally have 
competed successfully. 

THE SAME pattern reappears in the 
cuts proposed for the Economic Develop- 
ment Administration, the Housing & Ur- 
ban Development Dept, and the Small 
Business Administration. These agencies 
provide support — through investment in 
roads, utilities, and site development — for 
new industries in our cities and in areas 
seeking to attract new industry after plant 
closings and other job losses. 

Small business, which provides almost 
all the job creation and a large share of 
the innovation in the U.S. manufacturing 
sector will be virtually stripped of much- 
needed support. 


realistic in today’s world, particularly in 
United States trade with Japan. 

AND THE PROPOSED weakening of 
government export financing through the 
Export-Import Bank will mean the loss of 
billions of dollars of export sales of big- 
ticket capital goods such as nuclear plants 
and telecommunications systems. 

Trade Adjustment Assistance is the main 
support that stands between American 
workers and disaster when imports take 
their jobs. More than 600,000 workers 
have been certified for TAA benefits since 
1975. And import-impacted workers have 
less skill, lower incomes, and are more 
likely to be older, minority and female. 
This means they have a harder readjust- 
ment burden. Reagan’s answer in a time 
of increasing import pressures is not to 
strengthen and improve the program, but 
to reduce it drastically. 

A MILLION American workers in the 
auto and parts industries have lost their 
jobs due to auto imports, primarily from 
Japan. Two months ago President Reagan’s 
Cabinet officers told us that limitations on 
Japanese auto imports were imminent. 
Now we hear that the government is re- 
luctant to ask the Japanese for such reduc- 
tions, preferring to wait for Japan to take 
action on its own initiative. The wait has 
already lasted three months. Nearly a mil- 
lion laid off auto and parts workers can’t 
afford that wait. 

The Export-Import Bank is America’s 
only weapon in a spreading export credits 
war. France, Japan, Germany and the 
United Kingdom each use subsidized gov- 
ernment credits to finance about 30 per- 
cent of their manufactured exports. The 
U.S. provides Ex-Im credits for only about 
4 percent of our manufactured exports. 
Just as we move toward international ne- 
gotiations next month to limit these gov- 
ernment export credit subsidies, the Rea- 
gan Administration has proposed a 25-per- 
cent cut in Ex-Im bank financing. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 2, 1981 


‘Budget Discrimination’ 
Challenged by Kirkland 


The Administration’s budget and tax pro- 
gram amounts to discrimination across the 
board — against everybody except the truly 
rich, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
charged in an address at the 31st annual 
meeting of the Leadership Conference on 
Civil Rights (LCCR). 

“Its entire economic program rests on 
the premise that budget cuts are needed to 
finance tax cuts that afflict the afflicted 
and comfort the comfortable,” Kirkland 
said at an award dinner honoring the AFL- 
CIO on the occasion of the 100th anniver- 
sary of the founding of the modem Amer- 
ican labor movement. 

“THERE IS NO income tax cut for 15 
million low-income wage earners who are 
paying higher social security taxes and who 
are expected to absorb the loss of the assis- 
tance they need from social programs fac- 
ing the budget axe,” Kirkland said. 

“Those in the middle are also short- 
changed. They will feel the cuts in school 
budgets and essential public services. They 
will pay far more to heat their homes and 
drive their cars than they will receive in 
income tax cuts, thanks to the Adminis- 
tration’s decontrol of oil and natural gas.” 

In accepting the LCCR’s 1981 Hubert 
H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award in be- 
half of the federation, Kirkland observed 
that labor misses the eloquent voice of the 
late Vice President and Democratic Sena- 
tor from Minnesota, particularly on Capi- 
tol Hill, where the Reagan budget battle is 
being waged. 

“THOSE WHO SHARE the goals of 
Hubert Humphrey are out of power, and 
the opponents of those goals are in,” said 
Kirkland. “We accept that as a natural haz- 
ard of the democratic process that has 
made our progress possible and, like Hu- 
bert Humphrey, the perennial happy war- 
rior, we look forward to the next round. 

“We are not strangers to legislative dis- 
appointment. It hardens our resolves. We 
have faced worse odds and more intran- 
sigent opposition than we face today.” 

The inscription on the award presented 
to Kirkland cited the AFL-CIO for “un- 
wavering support of equal rights, equal 
opportunity, and equal justice for all.” 

Founded in 1 950 by A. Philip Randolph, 


Roy Wilkins, and Arnold Aronson, the 
Leadership Conference is a coalition of 
150 national organizations representing 
blacks, Asian and Hispanic Americans, 
labor, the major religious groups, women, 
the elderly, the handicapped and minority 
businesses and professions seeking to ad- 
vance civil rights for all Americans through 
enactment and enforcement of federal leg- 
islation. 

Nineteen-eighty-one is the centennial 
year of American labor — the 100th anni- 
versary of the founding on Nov. 15, 1881, 
of the Federation of Organized Trade & 
Labor Unions, which became the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor five years later. 

KIRKLAND NOTED that labor’s old- 
est ally in the civil rights struggle, the 
NAACP, is about to turn 72 and that the 
LCCR itself — “the most effective and suc- 
cessful coalition in American history” — 
has been in business for nearly a third of 
a century. 

The 500 delegates to the LCCR legisla- 
tive strategy meeting also honored Eleanor 
Holmes Norton, former chairperson of 
the federal Equal Employment Opportu- 
nity Commission, and Clarence M. 
Mitchell, Jr., whose retirement as LCCR 
chairman was announced during the meet- 
ing. NAACP Exec. Director Benjamin L. 
Hooks was elected to fill out the remainder 
of Mitchell’s unexpired term. 

Sen. Charles McC. Mathias (R-Md.) and 
House Judiciary Committee Chairman 
Peter Rodino (D-N.J.) spoke on civil rights 
priorities in the 97th Congress. A panel 
followed on civil rights enforcement prob- 
lems and how they affect blacks, women, 
the aged, the handicapped and language 
minorities. 

Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), 
Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio), and UAW 
Legislative Director Richard Warden dis- 
cussed the Reagan budget cut proposals 
and their impact on the poor and minori- 
ties. 

A special tribute was paid to Marvin 
Caplan, legislative director of the AFL- 
CIO Industrial Union Dept, and former 
director of the Leadership Conference. 
President J. C. Turner of the Operating 
Engineers, an LCCR executive committee 
member, was master of ceremonies. 


Attack on Davis-Bacon Act 
Seen as Pay-Cutting Tactic 


(Continued from Page 1) 

ments are among the frequent victims, he 
noted. 

While these abuses are the exceptions 
now, Georgine warned that the exploita- 
tion would be done legally if the prevailing 
wage law were scuttled and contracts went 
regularly to the employer paying the low- 
est wages and providing the fewest bene- 
fits. 

Because of the Davis-Bacon Act, he 
stressed, efficiency and quality of work 
becomes the criterion for awarding con- 
tracts and the public interest is served. 

AS FOR CLAIMED savings to the gov- 
ernment in the cost of construction. 




Georgine reminded the panel of the ex- 
perience in 1971, when Davis-Bacon re- 
quirements were temporarily suspended by 
an Executive Order of President Nixon. 

During that period, rebids were directed 
on 1,263 projects that had originally been 
put out for bids under prevailing wage 
requirements. The “savings” came to only 
six-tenths of 1 percent, Georgine testified. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which 
has regularly opposed any increase in the 
basic federal minimum wage, attacked the 
Davis-Bacon Act as “a superminimum 
wage law” and urged its repeal. The busi- 
ness group also urged repeal of the Service 
Contract Act, which provides comparable 
safeguards on government service con- 
tracts. 

THE ADMINISTRATION has not sup- 
ported repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, so 
the -current hearings are not expected to 
result in floor action this year. But foes 
of prevailing wage laws, including open- 
shop contractors, have been pressing for 
administrative changes by the Labor Dept, 
in the law’s enforcement. 

Georgine noted, however, that a num- 
ber of local and national contractor 
organizations strongly support continued 
prevailing wage standards so that in order 
to win government contracts they won’t 
have to replace skilled and experienced 
construction workers with people willing 
to work for substandard wages. 

The law’s enforcement “should be 
strengthened,” Georgine said, “rather than 
being weakened.” 



LANE KIRKLAND accepts the 1981 Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award 
of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights from newly elected LCCR Chair- 
man Benjamin L. Hooks, left. Operating Engineers President J. C. Turner pre- 
sided at the program. 


House Pressed to Support 
Additional Budget Funding 


The AFL-CIO pressed House members 
to reject an Administration-supported 
budget resolution and support attempts to 
add funds for endangered programs. 

Legislative Director Ray Denison stressed 
the concern of the AFL-CIO and its Budget 
Coalition allies at “the massive cuts in 
services and the loss of more than one 
million jobs that will result” if the Reagan 
budget or the slightly reshuffled version 
supported by House Republicans should be 
enacted. 

“WE HAVE detailed our anger and our 
opposition before every possible public and 
congressional forum,” Denison wrote 
House members as the budget debate be- 
gan. His letter dealt with three principal 
options that are being put before the 
House under a restrictive rule allowing 
only specified amendments. 

The basic bill, supported by Budget 
Committee Chairman James R. Jones (D- 
Okla.), was described by Denison as “a 
small step in the right direction of lessen- 
ing the devastation and inequity contained 
in the Reagan Administration budget and 
tax proposals.” 

But the House may not ever get to a 
vote on that proposal, which is supported 
by the Democratic leadership. 

First it will vote on a substitute resolu- 
tion, sponsored by Rep. Delbert L. Latta 
(Ohio), the ranking Republican on the 
Budget Committee and co-sponsored by a 
conservative Democratic supporter of the 
Reagan program, Phil Gramm (Tex.). 

THIS IS the measure President Reagan 
called on the House to adopt in his tele- 
vised address to a joint session of Congress 
on Apr. 28. 

“We embrace and fully support” the 
Latta-Gramm substitute, Reagan said. “The 
old and comfortable way” of dealing with 
a budget is for Congress to “shave a little 
here and add a little there,” Reagan said. 
But “that way is no longer acceptable.” 

Denison wrote House members that the 
Republican substitute imperils “programs 
that train, employ, feed and house moder- 
ate and low-income workers and the poor, 
and which sustain economic development 
in the cities, towns and rural areas.” 

He urged adoption of the amendment 
that will be offered by Rep. David Obey 
(D-Wis.) to restore some of the worst dam- 
age of the Reagan proposals. 

The Obey substitute would add funds 
for programs including unemployment in- 
surance, low-income energy assistance, ed- 
ucation programs, Medicaid, programs for 
the elderly, housing programs, railroad 
funds, sewer treatment construction grants 
among others. 

Denison said the AFL-CIO supports all 
efforts to restore funds for jobs and pro- 
grams to help individuals and their com- 


munities “so long as those funds do not 
come at the expense of other areas in the 
budget.” 

House Republicans have been trying to 
woo Democratic votes for their measure by 
arguing that the President has a “mandate” 
from the voters for his program. 

Denison challenged that position. “There 
was no mandate from American voters to 
dismember programs past Congresses have 
carefully developed,” he wrote, or “to re- 
distribute income to the already wealthy 

The election’s mandate was “to repair 
an economic system torn by high inflation 
and high interest rates,” he suggested. But 
these problems are not dealt with by the 
Republican budget, Denison stressed. 

A scattering of moderate Republicans 
in the House are expected to break with 
the Administration on the budget votes. 
But Republicans are counting on a greater 
number of defections by conservative 
Democrats to tilt the decision the other 
way. 

iiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiim 

Postmaster Rebuffed 
On Bargaining Ploy 

The National Labor Relations 
Board’s regional director in Baltimore 
dismissed the petition of the U«S. 
Postal Service for a new bargaining 
unit determination, a move which the 
Postal Workers, Letter Carriers and 
Mail Handlers viewed as an 11th- 
hour maneuver to stall new contract 
talks. 

The regional director, Louis J. 
D’Amico, gave the USPS through 
May 13 to appeal the decision to the 
full board. In his finding, D’Amico 
said that the petition to determine a 
new bargaining unit did not meet the 
board’s requirements for seeking such 
an election. 

The three AFL-CIO unions, as well 
as the unaffiliated Rural Letter Car- 
riers, had filed counter-petitions with 
the NLRB charging that the manage- 
ment action was designed to delay 
bargaining for months, if not years, 
and accused Postmaster Gen. William 
Bolger with contempt for the collec- 
tive-bargaining process. 

The unions seek to renew contracts 
that expire on July 20. USPS nego- 
tiators boycotted the opening session 
of the contract talks on Apr. 22, say- 
ing they would not attend any bar- 
gaining session until the NLRB re- 
sponded to its petition. 

iltilllllllillltltlllllllllllllllililllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllil^ 




Council Scores Donovan Move 
To Wipe Out Labor Standards 



LABOR’S RESPONSE to the Reagan Administration’s retreat on needed social 
and worker protections is discussed by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at the 
Executive Council meeting. At left are Vice Presdent Murray H. Finley and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. Vice President Lloyd McBride is at right. 

Program Funds Slashed 

Conservatives in House 
Win Budget Showdown 


Interest Hike 
Puts Squeeze 
On Economy 

By James M. Shevis 

The Federal Reserve Board’s latest 
tightening of the nation’s money supply 
moves the economy closer to another re- 
cession, the AFL-CIO warned. 

The federal government will have to 
pay more for its borrowings and record 
interest rates will crimp the buying power 
of millions of Americans, AFL-CIO Re- 
search Director Rudy Oswald said. 

“PROSPECTIVE homeowners will be 
further squeezed on mortgages that are 
fast becoming short-term borrowings with 
variable interest charges. State and local 
governments are being squeezed out of 
the market by the high cost of money, 
thus postponing many urgent projects,” 
Oswald said. 

“And the United States further escalates 
the worldwide high interest war that ap- 
peals to speculators and high rollers.” 

With inflation 4 percentage points 
lower than its peak of a year ago, the 
Fed earlier this week announced a full 
1 -percent increase in its discount rate, 
bringing the bellwether rate to a new 
peak of 14 percent. In addition, the cen- 
tral bank hiked from 3 to 4 percent the 
penalty surcharge for banks that borrow 
frequently from its “discount window.” 

In announcing its discount-rate boost, 
the Fed said that it acted “in light of the 
current levels in short-term market in- 
terest rates” and “the need to maintain 
restraint in the monetary and credit ag- 
gregates.” 

THE FED’S move coincided with in- 
creases in the prime lending rate of most 
large commercial banks from 18 to 19 
percent. Treasury Sec. Donald T. Regan 
warned that the prime — the rate that 

(Continued on Page 8) 


America’s unions aren’t seeking “relief” 
from government regulations that protect 
workers, consumers and the environment, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in- 
formed a Cabinet-level task force headed 
by Vice President George Bush. 

Bush had asked union leaders for sug- 
gestions to achieve “the regulatory relief 
our economy desperately needs.” His letter 
included documents referring to “expen- 
sive” and “controversial” OSHA rules, to 
“stringent” civil rights requirements im- 
posed bn firms doing business with the 
government, and to the “escalation” of 
wages under the Davis-Bacon and Service 
Contract Acts. 

KIRKLAND TOLD the Vice President 
that the task force request had been con- 
sidered at a meeting of AFL-CIO affiliates. 


By David L. Perlman 

A bipartisan conservative coalition dem- 
onstrated its control of the House of Rep- 
resentatives by ramming through the 
drastic budget slashes that the Reagan 
Administration demanded. 

The House voted 25*3-176 for spending 
ceilings and program cutbacks that the 
AFL-CIO warned will imperil job and 
job-related training programs, thrust the 
needy deeper into poverty, curtail hous- 
ing assistance, reduce transportation ser- 


at which representatives of the unaffiliated 
Mine Workers and Auto Workers par- 
ticipated. Kirkland’s reply thus reflected 
“the position organized labor has de- 
veloped.” 

“We do not agree that our economy 
needs regulatory relief,” Kirkland wrote. 

BUT THE NATION does need “a vig- 
orous economy, a sound environment, 
equal employment opportunities, safe and 
healthy workplaces, decent labor-manage- 
ment relations, and fair and equitable 
treatment of consumers,” he said. 

Regulations to achieve these goals 
should be perfected, not scrapped, and 
then vigorously enforced, Kirkland 
stressed. 

(Continued on Page 7) 


vices and cut off economic development 
in cities and rural areas alike. 

FINAL DETAILS of the program cuts 
will be shaped in later congressional ac- 
tion, but the House-passed bill instructs 
its committees to cut back programs and 
rewrite laws so as to reduce spending by 
$36.6 billion in the fiscal year starting 
Oct. 1. Nearly half of that is to come 
from programs in the jurisdiction of the 
Education & Labor Committee. 

The 50-vote Democratic majority in the 
House evaporated under the White House 
“carrot-and-stick” lobbying tactics, and 
63 Democrats joined a solid lineup of 
Republicans. A handful of moderate Re- 
publicans swallowed their earlier criti- 
cism of the Reagan budget and bowed to 
party pressure to “go along” with the 
President. 

A less extreme budget package had 
been crafted by the House Budget Com- 
mittee and was supported by the Demo- 
cratic leadership. But it never got to a 
vote because the House substituted the 
Reagan-endorsed resolution which was co- 
sponsored by Republican Delbert L. Latta 
of Ohio and Democrat Phil Gramm of 
Texas. 

When that passed, the battle was over. 

A KEY TO the sentiment of the House 
came on an earlier vote on the alternative 
that was supported by the AFL-CIO and 
its allies in the Budget Coalition. 

As introduced by Rep. David R. Obey 
(D-Wis.), it included a group of relatively 
moderate “add-ons” to Budget Committee 

(Continued on Page 6) 


Assails Bid 
To Permit 
^Homework ’ 

By John M. Barry 

Baltimore — The AFL-CIO charged that 
Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan’s plan to 
scuttle the 40-year-old ban against indus- 
trial homework in the women’s apparel 
and other industries would resurrect 
“kitchen sweatshops” throughout the coun- 
try. 

The council, in a statement adopted at 
its two-day spring meeting here, warned 
that Donovan’s actions threaten “to under- 
mine and ultimately destroy traditional 
standards protecting workers, employers 
and consumers.” 

FEDERATION President Lane Kirk- 
land told reporters that Donovan’s May 1 
announcement of his proposal to lift the 
restrictions on homework came as a com- 
plete surprise to organized labor. 

“We were not consulted,” Kirkland said 
at a news conference during the council 
meeting. “We were not asked our opinion. 
We were not given the opportunity to ex- 
plain our side of the case.” 

He agreed, in response to a question, 
that although Donovan pledged when he 
took office that he would never “blind- 
side” organized labor, he ‘had in fact 
done so. 

KIRKLAND SAID that this and other 
actions Donovan has taken “are deeply 
disturbing to us. . . . They certainly do 
not reflect a thorough appreciation of the 
statutory role of the Secretary of Labor, 
which is to defend and advance the in- 
terests of working people. ... It seems 
apparent to me that he is defending and 
advancing interests quite in conflict with 
those of working people.” 

Kirkland accused the Reagan Adminis- 
tration of using the Labor Dept, “as one 
of the instruments for an attack on our 
basic Y^orking standards, particularly those 
in the case of brown lung and industrial 
homework, which protect some of the 
most underprivileged workers in this 
country.” 

He told reporters that the council had 
discussed plans for the federation to lead 
a rally later this year to protest the Ad- 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Unions Pledge 
Battle to Retain 
Cotton Dust Rule 

By John R. Oravec 

Brown lung victims and trade unionists 
put the Reagan Administration on notice 
that the federal cotton dust standard, or 
any other OSHA regulation meant to pro- 
tect the safety and health of American 
workers, would not be given up without a 
fight. 

“The right to a safe and healthful work- 
place is as basic as the right to freedom of 
speech, religion or a fair and speedy trial,” 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
several hundred demonstrators outside the 
Labor Dept, headquarters. Among the pro- 
testers were members of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers who have 'been disabled 
by the “brown lung” disease, byssinosis. 

“Tlie Bill of Rights is not predicated on 
cost-benefit analysis,” Kirkland stressed in 
referring to the Administration’s holdup 
of key cotton dust safeguards. 

The Washington rally was the focal 
point of ACTWU’s May 4 brown lung 

(Continued on Page 6) 


Labor Asks Enforcement^ 
Not Relief from Regulations 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 1981 





PENALTIES FOR EMPLOYERS who hire illegal aliens would bring a Rowing 
problem under control and enable the United States to pursue a “compassionate” 
legal immigration policy, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue testifies 
at joint House-Senate hearings. Legislative Director Ray Denison is at right. 

Unions Back Wage Deferrals 
In Move to Bolster Conrail 


Curbing Illegal Aliens 

Firm, Fair Approach 
Urged on Immigration 


Railway labor unions agreed tentatively 
to give up future worker wage increases 
totaling $200 million a year — about 10 
percent of the total payroll — to help the 
federally subsidized Conrail freight sys- 
tem become a viable private-sector rail- 
road within the next three years. 

Under the agreement, announced by 
Rep. James J. Florio (D-N.J.) at a Capitol 
Hill news conference, Conrail managers 
and supervisers would postpone $29 mil- 
lion in annual salary increases, an amount 
comparable to the deferral percentage 
agreed to by the unions. 

Florio, who is chairman of the House 
subcommittee on commerce, transporta- 
tion, and tourism, was instrumental in 
bringing about the accord. 

FRED J. KROLL, chairman of the 
Railway Labor Executives* Association, 
said that the agreement was “a giant step” 
toward the preservation of the ailing 
freight line. He told reporters that the 
agreement, which must be ratified by indi- 
vidual unions that make up the RLEA, 
will encourage Congress to support Florio’s 
bill to authorize further government as- 
sistance of about $600 million to Conrail 
over a two- or three-year period while the 
carrier makes the transition to the private 
sector. The federal aid would be tied to 
certain other goals that the railroad would 
have to meet besides the wage deferrals. 

“Two hundred million dollars is a hell 
of a lot of money from the workforce — a 
hell of a sacrifice,” Kroll said, that “we 
are confident . . . will create a viable Con- 
rail.” He said that presidents of 12 of 14 
RLEA member unions have signed the 
pact and that two other unions — the Sig- 
nalmen and the Locomotive Engineers — 
are reviewing the agreement with their 
attorneys. 

Kroll, who is also president of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks, led a mass worker 
rally in the nation’s capital a week earlier 
protesting proposed Administration budget 
cuts that would end all federal grants to 
Conrail after the 1981 fiscal year, and sell 
off much of the rail system to other com- 
panies. RLEA officials forecast that action 
would cost up to 50,000 jobs. 

KROLL SAID that the unions agreed 
to the wage deferrals to avoid the “hor- 
rendous social costs” if the road stopped 
operating. Some 70,000 Conrail employees 
affected by the deferrals “would receive 
preferred stock in lieu of what they give 
up” once the line becomes a private rail- 
road, he said. 

Florio explained that, under the agree- 
ment, workers would give up the money 
for two or three years, depending on the 
life of the overall railroad labor agree- 
ment now being negotiated. Thus, the 
agreement could save Conrail as much as 
$690 million in payroll costs. 

THE LABOR concessions mark “the 
first and most important step in seeing 
that Conrail reaches the point where it 
will no longer be dependent on the fed- 
eral government,” Florio said. “With this 
agreement, we can reach the Administra- 
tion’s goal of returning rail service in the 
region to the private sector. Without it, 
there would be no chance to reach the 


goal we all agree is necessary, the end of 
federal funding for Conrail.” 

Conrail — shorthand for Consolidated 
Rail Corp. — is a 17,000-mile federally 
planned and financed freight line in the 
northeast and midwest. It was created 
five years ago from the best lines of the 
Penn Central Railroad and six other bank- 
rupt, privately run railroads. Conrail cur- 
rently owes the government $3.3 billion. 

L. Stanley Crane, chairman and chief 
executive officer of the carrier, who joined 
Kroll and Florio at the news conference, 
said that the wage deferrals would enable 
Conrail to “get off the- federal dole and 
return to the private sector, which has 
been the objective all along. This labor 
agreement . . . was the absolute keystone 
to our future.” 

CONTINUED government funding of 
the line over the next two or three years 
“simply would not come unless Conrail 
can achieve savings,” Florio said. He noted 
that the Administration had reached its 
tentative decision to sell off Conrail “on 
the belief that this kind of concession 
could not take place.” There was no im- 
mediate reaction to the concession agree- 
ment from Reagan officials. 

Although the wage deferrals are aimed 
at preventing the breakup and sale of 
large segments of the freight line. Crane 
said that the private railroad that will 
eventually emerge probably would have 
“some shrinkage in terms of miles of 
track.” He said that he was unsure whether 
there would be any personnel cuts. 

The 12 unions that have agreed to the 
concessions are BRAC, the United Trans- 
portation Union, Boilermakers & Black- 
smiths, Maintenance of Way Employees, 
Firemen & Oilers, Carmen, Machinists, 
Transportation Workers Union, Train Dis- 
patchers, International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers, Machinists, Transport 
Workers, Yardmasters, and the American 
Railway Supervisors Association, which 
merged recently with BRAC. 


An employer can’t sue individual union 
members for losses resulting from an il- 
legal strike, whether or not the strike was 
authorized by the union, the Supreme 
Court ruled. 

Its 7-2 decision upheld the action of 
lower courts that dismissed an employer’s 
damage suit against members of the 
Teamsters who had taken part in an un- 
authorized “wildcat strike.” 

THE COURT said the employer could 
fire the strikers or otherwise discipline 
them for actions that violated the union 
contract, but he couldn’t collect money 
damages from them. 

The Supreme Court’s reasoning was 
based, as the AFL-CIO had urged, on the 
intent of Congress when it dealt with the 
issue of lawsuits against unions in the 
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The AFL-CIO 
filed a brief with the Supreme Court be- 
cause of the importance of the case, even 
though no AFL-CIO affiliate was directly 
involved. 


The United States should combine a 
“compassionate” immigration policy with 
effective steps to stem the flood of illegal 
aliens and prevent the undermining of 
labor standards, the AFL-CIO urged. 

Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue out- 
lined at joint House-Senate hearings a 10- 
point AFL-CIO program for a “firm, 
clear, consistent and fair” immigration 
policy. 

MANY OF ITS ingredients, he noted, 
were among the recommendations made 
last March by the Select Commission on 
Immigration & Refugee Policy. One of the 
commission’s four public members was 
J. F. Otero, vice president of the Railway 
& Airline Clerks. 

Donahue urged an immigration policy 
that would “foster reunification of families 
and offer haven for refugees from persecu- 
tion, while adhering to the principle of 
concern for the welfare of American 
workers.” 

The United States is “a pluralistic so- 
ciety” that is “a better nation” for the 
contributions of its millions of immigrants, 
he stressed. But because illegal immigra- 
tion “endangers jobs and labor standards,” 
Donahue said, the AFL-CIO supports 
legislation that would include: 

• Effective penalties for employers who 
hire illegal aliens, including criminal sanc- 
tions for repeaters. 

“The lure of jobs is what brings most 
illegal workers into the United States. The 
quickest and the best way to stop illegal 
immigration is to stop giving jobs to 
illegal immigrants,” the AFL-CIO said. 

• An identification system for w6rk 
purposes that can be checked by an em- 
ployer at the time of hiring. TTie social 
security card could be used if improved 
and made “counterfeit-proof.” 

• Stronger border controls and in- 
creased funding for the Immigration & 
Naturalization Service. The AFL-CIO 
urged “full restoration of the 1,355 IRS 
positions and $21.6 million which would 
be cut under the Reagan Administration’s 
budget plan.” 

• Better enforcement of labor stan- 
dards and anti-discrimination laws. “The 
Labor Dept, should step up enforcement 
of labor standards legislation in areas and 
industries where significant numbers of 
illegal aliens are employed,” and civil 
rights laws “must be rigidly enforced to 
eliminate any possibility that employers 
may discriminate against U.S. citizens.” 

• Ending dependence on temporary 
workers brought from other nations and 
eliminating one of the financial incentives 
for employers to use such workers by re- 
quiring them to pay social security and 
unemployment insurance taxes on them. 

• A continued requirement that the 
Labor Dept, must certify that U.S. workers 
are not available and that employment of 


In the Taft-Hartley Act, ^Congress stated 
clearly that while a union could be sued 
for damages resulting from a violation of 
a collective bargaining agreement, any 
money judgment could be enforced only 
against the union as an entity, and not 
against its individual members. 

A UNANIMOUS 1977 Supreme Court 
decision in a Mine Workers case, in which 
the AFL-CIO also had filed a brief, speci- 
fied that an international union cannot be 
held liable for an illegal strike by its local 
unions that it did not authorize or en- 
courage in any way. In that case, the 
Supreme Court voided damages that had 
been assessed against the international 
union and its district council but let stand 
the judgment against the local unions. 

The current case makes clear that an 
individual worker can’t be sued by his 
employer for violating the contract even if 
the union can’t be sued because it doesn’t 
bear responsibility for the wildcat strike. 

The opinion, written by Justice William 


temporary workers from abroad will not 
adversely affect the conditions of U.S. 
workers. The law should be administered 
from the viewpoint of protecting Ameri- 
can workers rather than better helping 
employers, the AFL-CIO urged. 

• Acting to legalize the status of aliens 
“with a demonstrated attachment to the 
community,” with consideration to the 
time an alien has lived in the United 
States and compassion for the families 
involved. But “the legalization process 
should not begin until the massive flows 
of illegal aliens into the United States 
have been stopped,” the AFL-CIO cau- 
tioned. Otherwise, “the legalization process 
would simply encourage additional flows 
of illegal aliens.” 

• Before considering expanded legal 
immigration, “there is a need to absorb 
the full effect of a decade of large-scale 
legal immigration and refugee flow and 
to regularize illegal aliens and their rela- 
tives.” The AFL-CIO, however, supports 
“continued emphasis on reunification of 
families and a humanitarian policy toward 
refugees,” Donahue said. 

• The United States “should continue 
to provide haven for refugees from po- 
litical persecution” but should not be ex- 
pected to do so alone. 

O.A. Knight Dies, 
Retired Leader 
Of Oil Workers 

Sun City, Ariz. — ^Funeral services were 
held here for O. A. (Jack) Knight, presi- 
dent of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Work- 
ers for 25 years until his retirement in 
1965. 

Knight, who was 78, died on Apr. 16 
at his retirement home here. He presided 
over OCAW during the period of its 
greatest growth. When he assumed the 
presidency in 1940, the union had a mem- 
bership of 18,000. At his retirement, it 
was up to 170,000. 

Born in New Hampton, la., Knight 
went to work for the Shell Oil Co. at its 
East Chicago, Ind., refinery in 1926, and 
was instrumental in organizing its workers 
there. He quit Shell in 1937 to work 
full time as an organizer for the Oil 
Workers International Union, OCAW’s 
predecessor. 

A vice president of the old Congress of 
Industrial Organizations, he represented 
the CIO on the unity committee that 
negotiated the merger with the American 
Federation of Labor. At the merger con-' 
vention in 1955, he was elected a vice 
president of the AFL-CIO and of the fed- 
eration’s new Industrial Union Dept. He 
leaves his wife, Evelyn, and three brothers. 


J. Brennan, Jr., noted, as had the AFL- 
CIO brief, that the debate in Congress 
reflected a determination to avoid any re- 
currence of the infamous Danbury Hatters 
decision early in the century. Then, a un- 
ion-inspired consumer boycott of a struck 
hat manufacturer resulted in a huge triple- 
damage judgment under the antitrust laws 
against the union and its members. Some 
had their homes seized to pay the fine. 

NATIONAL OUTRAGE at the deci- 
sion led to changes in the antitrust laws, 
and Brennan commented on the “deeply 
felt congressional reaction against the 
Danbury Hatters case” as voiced in the 
House and Senate debate on the Taft- 
Hartley Act. 

The dissenters in the case were Chief 
Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Wil- 
liam H. Rehnquist. They said making 
workers financially liable for their actions 
in violation of a contract would result in 
“fewer unauthorized strikes” and “greater 
industrial harmony.” 


Court Bars Suits Against Wildcat Strikers 



■ j ' 







AFI^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, MAY 9, 1981 


Page Three 


Council Blasts Bid 


(Continued from Page 1) 

ministration cutbacks in worker protec- 
tions and social programs and had au- 
thorized a committee to work out the 
arrangements. The committee includes 
Vice Presidents Charles Pillard, Lloyd 
McBride, Murray Finley, Albert Shanker 
and William Wynn. 

THE PURPOSE of the rally, Kirkland 
said, would be “to bear witness to the fact 
that there is a substantial part of the pop- 
ulation who do regard these programs as 
items of essential value and importance to 
the people and to the Republic.” He said 
there' would be no particular target in 
terms of numbers of participants, and the 
objective is to have ample representation 
from a broad cross-section of labor and 
its allies in the civil rights movement and 
the Budget Coalition. 

A report from the Standing Committee 
on Occupational Safety & Health, ap- 
proved by the council, reviewed the Labor 
Dept.’s retreat on a wide range of job 
safety issues. It charged that the Reagan 
Administration is twisting the federal act 
from a law designed to protect workers 
into “a law protecting employers from 
the obligation of providing a safe and 
healthful workplace.” 

The council meeting was held in con- 
junction with the 31st Union-Industries 
Show, sponsored annually by the AFL- 
CIO Union Label Service Trades Dept. 
Council members took part in the opening 
ceremonies and toured the show exhibits 
at the Baltimore Convention Center. 

In other statements, the council opposed 
the sale to Saudi Arabia of Airborne 
Warning & Control Systems (AW ACS) 
aircraft or equipment that would enhance 
the offensive capability of F-15 fighter 
planes previously sold to that country, 
called for changes in the 50-nation Multi- 
fiber Arrangement in the light of current 
international trade conditions, and urged 
the U.S. government to press both Britain 
and the Republic of Ireland to seek a last- 
ing political solution of the violent dispute 
wracking Northern Ireland. 

The council heard reports from Re- 


search Director Rudy Oswald on the 
condition of the U.S. economy and its 
dismal prospects under the Reagan Ad- 
ministration, from Legislative Director 
Ray Denison on the congressional outlook, 
and from Presidents Moe Biller of the 
Letter Carriers and Vincent Sombrotto of 
the Postal Workers on the current bargain- 
ing dispute with the U.S. Postal Service. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue gave an interim report on literature, 
graphics and other visual materials already 
available or being produced to mark the 
federation’s centennial observance this 
year. 

Kirkland presented an analysis of the 
regional AFL-CIO conferences held so 
far, and the council heard reports from 
other committees dealing with political 
activities, union mergers and international 
labor developments. 

The council also rendered decisions on 
a number of internal disputes findings by 
impartial umpires that' were appealed 
under Article XX of the AFL-CIO con- 
stitution. 

IN ITS STATEMENT on industrial 
homework, the council noted that such 
schemes were long a “scourge” of the 
labor-intensive apparel industries because 
much of the work can be done on simple 
sewing machines. The “horrors” of indus- 
trial homework — substandard wages, child 
labor, excessive working hours, unsafe 
and unhealthful working conditions — be- 
came so rampant that states began to reg- 
ulate homework more than 80 years ago. 
Forty years ago, the federal wage-hour 
authorities banned homework in seven 
industries — women’s apparel, knitted 
outerwear, embroidery, gloves and mittens, 
buttons and buckles, handkerchiefs and 
jewelry — except for elderly or disabled 
persons or those who care for them. 

Donovan’s announcement proposing that 
the ban be lifted followed within two 
weeks his highly publicized “raids” on 
garment industry sweatshops in New 
York’s Chinatown and in Chicago, where 
blatant wage-hour violations were found 


Revised Trade Pact Sought 
To Restrain Textile Imports 


Baltimore — Changes are needed in the 
50-nation Multifiber Arrangement to take 
account of the cumulative effect of im- 
ports on the American textile and ap- 
parel industries and their workers, the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council said. 

The council pointed out in a statement 
that these industries, already depressed, 
are being swamped by the flood of imports 
and thousands of jobs are being lost. 

IT NOTED that last year the United 
States recorded a $4-billion deficit in tex- 
tile and apparel trade, with imports of 
some apparel products now exceeding 
American production. 

“The future does not bode well if im- 
port levels continue to climb 8 percent 
annually, while the U.S. market grows at 
only 1 to 2 percent annually,” the state- 
ment observed. 

For 1978 alone, about 614,000 U.S. 
job opportunities were lost from both 
direct and indirect effects of imports — 
nearly a fourth of all jobs in the fiber, 
textile and apparel industries, the coun- 
cil reported. 

FURTHERMORE the council pointed 
out, the outlook for displaced workers is 
made even bleaker by the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s proposals for heavy cuts in the 
“already inadequate” Trade Adjustment 
Assistance program. 

Tlie Multifiber Arrangement (MFA), 
which was negotiated in 1973 and re- 
newed in 1977, has helped preserve many 
textile and apparel jobs, but it has not 
succeeded in containing “the relentless 
surge of imports,” the council said, as new 
suppliers add to the already high quotas 
of the major Asian exporting nations. 

Simply maintaining the existing MFA 
is not enough, the statement declared. It 
called on the U.S. government in the ne- 


gotiations now under way to seek these 
changes in a renewed MFA and in bilat- 
eral agreements: 

• Regulation of imports in line with 
production changes in the importing coun- 
tries. Specifically, the permitted annual 
growth rate for imports of 6 percent 
should be modified to reflect the growth 
rate of 1 to 2 percent that American in- 
dustry is experiencing. 

• Control of imports of specific prod- 
ucts in their entirety, rather than on a 
piecemeal basis. 

• Limiting nations with fully indus- 
trialized textile and apparel production 
to no growth in their quotas for the U.S. 
market. 

• Elimination of the flexibility pro- 
visions in the MFA to curb the instability 
of year-to-year surges in import quotas. 

• Expansion of the MFA to cover all 
apparel products, not just those made of 
wool, cotton or synthetic fiber. 

AWACS Sale 

Baltimore — the AFL-CIO warned that 
the sale of highly sophisticated AWACS 
aircraft and offensive equipment for F-15 
fighter planes to Saudi Arabia would be an 
act of irresponsibility and high potential 
risk to world peace. 

“The addition of AWACS to the Arab 
arsenal would destabilize the Middle East 
balance, to Israel’s disadvantage,” the 
Executive Council said in a statement 
issued at its spring meeting here. 

“The current fighting in Lebanon is a 
grim reminder of the ever-present threat 
of war in the Middle East.” 

AWACS aircraft are not only used 


to Scrap Standards 



REPORTERS COVERING the AFL-CIO Executive Council sessions question 
President Lane Kirkland at a news conference. The council meeting tied in with 
the AFL-CIO Union-Industries Show at the Baltimore Convention Center. 


along with large numbers of illegal aliens 
among the exploited workers. 

HE SAID the removal of restrictions on 
homework “will in no way mean a reduced 
commitment to ending workplace viola- 
tions wherever they occur — in factory 
sweatshops or in the home.” He said the 
action would open up job opportunities 
in many “cottage” industries and encour- 
age workers to report minimum wage vio- 
lations “without fear of losing their jobs.” 

The Executive Council pointed out, 
however, that the reason the restrictions 
were imposed in the first place was that - 
federal authorities found it impossible to 
enforce wage and hour standards in the 
home. 

Further, the enforcement problem will 
be compounded by the “drastic cutbacks” 
in enforcement staff that Donovan has 
announced, the council observed. 

IT CHARGED that the Secretary’s pro- 
posal would “turn back the clock and dis- 
regard the experience of many decades, 
bringing back the sweatshop to the kitch- 
ens of city tenements and country homes 
in all sections of the country.” 

Moreover, the council noted, the many 
illegal aliens currently caught up in home- 
work schemes are hardly likely to report 
minimum wage violations of their employ- 
ers because they fear deportation if they 
reveal themselves to the government. 

“Clearly, this will encourage employers 
to divert work from factories to unpro- 
tected workers working at home,” the 
council said. 

COMMENTING on Donovan’s claim 
that the easing of federal regulations fol- 
lows “a mandate” from the voters, Kirk- 
land called that “quite a bizarre construc- 
tion of the results of the last election.” No 
one on the winning side, he observed, 
campaigned on the basis of undermining 
work standards by placing workers back 
in the- kitchen at subminimum wages or 
reversing Labor Dept, policy on brown 
lung disease. 

Kirkland expressed sharp disagreement 
with the Reagan Administration’s sugges- 


tion that there is heavy support for its 
program among union members. 

“I think I’ve met more of the rank-and- 
file than he (Reagan) has and do so re- 
peatedly . . . and I see no sign of that,” 
Kirkland said. “We see the contrary: 
There’s deep concern.” 

THE AFL-CIO is convinced, he said, 
that the consequences of the Reagan bud- 
get cuts “are going to be profoundly ad- 
verse to the best interests of the country 
and its people, and we only regret that 
apparently very few people in the Con- 
gress are prepared to stand up and exhibit 
a ‘profile of courage’ and fight.” 

In response to other questions at this 
news conference, Kirkland said: 

• He is optimistic that the Auto Work- 
ers will reafliliate with the federation be- 
fore too long, in the light of their favor- 
able vote on that question, which would 
“enhance the solidarity of the trade union 
movement very greatly in these difficult 
times.” He plans to meet with UAW Pres- 
ident Douglas Fraser and the union’s ex- 
ecutive board later this month and hopes 
that reaffiliation will follow shortly. 

• The question of the reaffiliation of 
the Teamsters is now a matter for that 
union’s own internal deliberations, since 
the AFL-CIO has issued the invitation 
and has met with Teamsters officials on 
the subject. The death of IBT President 
Frank Fitzsimmons and the question of 
choosing his successor may have put the 
subject on the “back burner” for a time. 

THE COUNCIL approved a 1981-82 
budget for the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies totaling $2,736,565, a 
slight increase from last year. 

It also approved contributions to No 
Greater Love, the A. Philip Randolph 
Institute, the Full Employment Action 
Council, The Center for Welfare Policy, 
the African-Asian Institute, the New 
Leader, the Council on Crime & Delin- 
quency, and the Michael Hammer Schol- 
arship Fund. 

The next council meeting was scheduled 
for Chicago, Aug. 3-5. 


to Saudi Arabia Opposed 


for surveillance, but as a battle control 
station, the council observed. Used in 
conjunction with enhanced F-15s, AWACS 
is a potentially devastating offensive sys- 
tem, it added. 

“Legitimate U.S. interest in resisting 
Soviet encroachment in the. Middle East 
will not be served by providing this highly 
sophisticated aircraft to an unstable feudal 
monarchy which lacks the internal secur- 
ity required to prevent the top-secret 
AWACS technology from falling into 
hostile hands,” the council said. 

Saudi Arabia has declared a holy war 
against Israel, helps finance the terrorist 
activities of the Palestine Liberation Or- 


ganization, coordinates opposition to the 
Camp David peace process, and under- 
mines Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 
the AFL-CIO observed. 

Three years ago, the council opposed 
the sale of F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia. 
The sale nonetheless took place, with as- 
surances to Congress that the planes 
would not carry offensive equipment such 
as fuel tanks and bomb racks, which in- 
crease the aircraft range and firepower. 
The Administration is now considering 
providing the Saudis with this equipment, 
a move which can only weaken the credi- 
bility of U.S. commitments, the council 
warned. 




Pa^e Faor 


AFL^O NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 1981 


Tiiriiiiig Back tkc Clack 

rwiHE SECRETARY OF LABOR has proposed to wipe out the 
40-year-old ban against industrial homework in the women’s 
apparel, knitted outerwear, embroidery, glove and mitten, button 
and buckle, handkerchief and jewelry industries. 

This action threatens to open the way for the return of the 
sweatshop to the home and to undermine and ultimately destroy 
traditional standards protecting workers, employers and con- 
sumers. 

Industrial homework became a scourge of the apparel industries 
because they are highly labor-intensive and require only simple 
sewing machines to operate. 

THE HORRORS of industrial homework — substandard wages, 
child labor, long hours of work, unsafe and unhealthful working 
conditions — became so rampant that states began to regulate 
homework more than 80 years ago. 

Forty years ago^ the federal wage and hour authorities banned 
homework in these industries because it was clear that the en- 
forcement of federal wage and hour standards is impossible in the 
home. Thirty years ago. Congress ratified these bans on home- 
work. 

Now the Secretary of Labor proposes to turn back the clock 
and disregard the experience of many decades, bringing back the 
sweatshop to the kitchens of city tenements and country homes in 
all sections of the country. 

Moreover, since many people engaged in homework are illegal 
aliens, who work without records being kept and live in fear of 
any government authorities, violations of the minimum wage laws 
by their homework employers will go unreported by these work- 
ers for fear that they will be deported if they reveal themselves in 
complaints to the Labor Dept. 

CLEARLY, this will encourage employers to divert work from 
factories to unprotected workers working at home. 

At the same time, the Secretary of Labor has announced plans 
for drastic cutbacks in enforcement staff. This will compound 
the difficulty of enforcing wage and hour standards for all workers. 

The AFL-CIO strongly opposes the Secretary of Labor’s pro-, 
posal to end the 40-year-old federal regulations prohibiting home- 
work in the women’s apparel, knitted outerwear and five other 
related industries. 

We also urge the Secretary to reverse the proposed cuts in the 
Labor Dept.’s enforcement staff and provide for improved, not 
weakened, enforcement of the Wage & Hour Law. 

— Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, May 7, 1981, 
Baltimore, 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


S John H. Lyons 
E Frederick O’Neal 
i Al H. Chesser 
= Albert Shanker 
s Edward T. Hanley 
E William H.McClennan 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
S Alvin E. Heaps 
1 Fred J. Kroll 
s Wayne E. Glenn 
= William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason = 

S. Frank Raftery 1 

Murray H. Finley 1 

Sol C. Chaikin 1 

Charles H. Pillard | 

Lloyd McBride 1 

Emmet Andrews 1 

William H. Wynn = 

John DeConcini E 

Dan V. Maroney | 

John J. Sweeney E 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, May 9, 1981 No. 19 | 


The AFLCIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. 






Tracking the Economy 


Ist-Quarter Productivity Rise 
Confounds Economic ‘Experts 


I 


By Gus Tyler 

O FFICIAL ECONOMICS is embarrassed 
again. In the first quarter of this year, pro- 
ductivity leaped upward in a healthy bounce of 
3.6 percent. Whereupon Business Tonight re- 
ported that the event “confounds experts as com- 
panies produce more with less.” 

How shall we explain the confounded state of 
these “experts?” They are in the predicament of 
the sage who told everyone that the moon was 
made of green cheese. Then, one day, some 
astronaut came back from the moon to report that 
he found all kinds of things on the moon, but not 
an ounce of cheese. The expert wanted to know 
what happened to all that green cheese. 

A RISE IN “productivity” means that the 
hourly output of the average worker in America 
has risen. In the last nine months, productivity 
rose by 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 1980, 
fell by half a percent in the fourth quarter, and 
leaped upward again in the first quarter of this 
year. This behavior makes a mockery of all the 
nonsense emitting from he economic experts. 

They said, for instance, that productivity has 
been sliding because businesses do not have 
enough capital to invest in modernizing their 
production methods. If that’s so, why did pro- 
ductivity rise heftily in one quarter, sink badly in 
the next, leap upward in the following quarter? 
Obviously there were no such wild oscilliations in 
investments in new technologies. 

They said, for instance, that government regu- 
lations for safety and health are a drag on pro- 
ductivity. Why were they a drag in October to 
December of 1980 but not in the three months 
preceding and the three months following? 

THEY SAID, for instance, that workers ma- 
linger because they have too much union protec- 
tion. So why do workers “malinger” at year’s end 
and get busy with the new year? 

No, all those official theories about why pro- 
ductivity lagged in the 1970s are as valid as the 
nonsense about the moon being made of green 
cheese. 

Productivity in the 1970s lagged because it was 
White House policy to ‘^cool the economy” to 
curb inflation, and when the economy slows down 
so does productivity. When the economy picks 
up so does productivity. 


In the first quarter of 1981, our national output 
jumped upward by a substantial 6.5 percent. 
Productivity rose accordingly. 

When the economy is cooled, we are stuck with 
idle plant and personnel. Full-time supervisors 
have fewer to supervise; full-time salaried em- 
ployees have less work; even hourly wage workers 
slow down when there is less to do. When the 
economy picks up, supervisor and worker are 
busy and turn out more per hour. 

WHAT HAPPENED in the quarter — and in 
similar quarters — is proof that the best way to lift 
productivity is by uncooling the economy, by 
pushing for full employment. 

The facts are clear and have been for many 
years but the facts don’t seem to be enough for 
those economists who still think the economy is 
made of their brand of “green cheese.” 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler columns 

iiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

Back-Home Lobbying 
Gets Ear of Congress 

In the last Congress, when back-home union 
members told their legislators where they and 
their union stood on specific issues, labor’s 
positon usually prevailed. 

When union members remained silent, labor 
lost. 

Grass-roots lobbying makes the difference. 

Union members, as concerned citizens, must 
hold their elected officials accountable for their 
actions — not just at election time, but all year 
round. 

Unless workers take the time to write, call 
or visit their lawmakers, thanking and encour- 
aging them when they are right and criticizing 
them when they are wrong, the legislative in- 
terests of workers wOl suffer. 

If the voice of working people is not heard, 
then the needs of working people will be 
ignored. 

— AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Deni- 
son in foreword to The People's Lobby, a re- 
port on the 96th Congress, 


Page Five 


AFL^IO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 1981 


Putting a Price Tag on Life 

Retreat on OSHA Standards 
Denies Workers’ Basic Rights 


This article by Murray H. Finley, president of 
the Clothing & Textile Workers, is reprinted from 
the May 4 issue of the New York Times, 

P RESIDENT REAGAN has opened his war on 
health and safety protection with an attack on 
the Occupational Health & Safety Administration’s 
cotton dust standard. 

After years of suffering and struggle, textile 
workers finally won protection from crippling 
brown lung disease — its medical name is byssino- 
sis — when, in 1978, OSHA issued its cotton dust 
standard, which reduced the quantity of dust in 
factories. 

Now the Labor Dept, is trying to weaken or 
eliminate the protection that workers fought so 
hard to gain. It appears that the Administration is 
determined to find a basis for tearing out the heart 
of the standard: the requirement for engineering 
controls. 

TO TEXTILE WORKERS, who are exposed 
to cotton dust every working day, it is a question 
of life or death. Brown lung victims suffer a 
shortness of breath that grows progressively 
worse; the disease slowly cripples workers and 
finally leads to an agonizing death. 

In 1970, this country decided it had witnessed 
enough of this tragedy. 

Congress passed the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act, which Richard M. Nixon signed into 
law. Finally, workers were guaranteed what is 
morally due them: the right to a safe and healthful 
workplace, and the legal duty of employers to 
make it safe. 

Some employers — namely Burlington Indus- 
tries and J. P. Stevens, both textile manufacturers 
— already have largely complied with the stan- 
dard. So it is obvious that the standard is attain- 
able. 

Of course, we didn’t get the OSHA law without 
a struggle. The United States Chamber of Com- 
merce and industry associations fought the labor 
movement all the way. But the law was passed 
and textile workers thought they had won a vic- 
tory. That would settle the issue, one might be- 
lieve. 

A GOVERNMENT of law should live up to 
the law. It would seem incredible to even suggest 
that the government would stop enforcing the law, 
that officials that have sworn an oath to uphold 
the law would try to undermine it. 

Who could have guessed that Sec. of Labor 
Raymond J. Donovan would decide that employ- 
ers should be given the option of forcing their 
workers into respirators and gas masks instead 
of cleaning up factory air? 

Programs Face Curtailment 


It seems incredible that in 1981 anyone could 
seriously suggest trading lives for dollars, but that 
is exactly what workers are facing. By not en- 
forcing the standard, by stalling, the Administra- 
tion is giving the textile industry a license to kill. 

THAT IS WHY thousands of workers in 30 
cities across the country are demonstrating this 
week to oppose the Reagan attempt to dismantle 
the cotton dust standard. 

They are speaking out because for generations 
textile workers have died before their time, hus- 
bands and wives have wept for loved ones, and 
children have lost a parent. 

They are demonstrating because workers are 
killed, injured, and diseased on their jobs because 
their employers have failed to take precautions 
that can end this carnage. 

If the Occupational Safety & Health Act was 
intended to accomplish anything at all, it was to 
rid the workplace of toxic substances. Never did 
Congress seek to create a workforce encased in 
respirators and gas masks. Nowhere did it ask the 
Secretary of Labor to try to put a price tag on 
life. The current efforts in that direction subvert 
the legislative process. 

WHAT WOULD be the impact on textile 
workers, their families, and the nation as a whole? 

In 1979, the Labor Dept, reported to Congress 
that 74,000 workers would be spared the agony 
of brown lung disease by the requirements of 
the cotton dust standard. If Mr. Donovan is suc- 
cessful, he will deny that protection to 50,000 of 
those workers. 

The dimensions of that human tragedy are un- 
thinkable, not only for the afflicted workers but 
also for their families and their communities. 

The textile industry may save money, but 
workers and taxpayers will pay the costs. 

BY ALL reasonable estimates, it will cost the 
government $5 billion to provide disability bene- 
fits and medical care for brown lung victims. Each 
victim requires ,$100,000 in income support, 
medical expenses, and administrative costs. This 
does not even include the additional $378 million 
in workers’ compensation costs. 

While these figures themselves are sufficient to 
justify the retention of the existing standard, we 
must not allow ourselves to succumb to the game 
of numbers. Workers have a right to a clean 
workplace, free from recognized hazards. Con- 
gress declared this right in 1970, and it must be 
maintained today, no matter how fierce and heart- 
less are the cries for its subversion. 

We must remain a nation of law and a nation 
with compassion. 


School Children to Bear Brunt 
Of Reduced Aid to Education 


S CHOOL CHILDREN throughout the nation 
will feel the brunt of the cuts in the educa- 
tion budget that the Reagan Administration is 
urging Congress to approve, AFL-CIO Education 
Director Dorothy Shields warned in a network 
radio interview. 

The deep slashes in federal assistance that the 
Administration urges are more than “trimming.” 
She said the cuts, if approved, will force hard- 
pressed school districts to end or severely curtail 
programs aimed at educational equity, access, 
help for the handicapped and other children with 
special learning problems. School-related pro- 



UNIION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


grams in nutrition, child care, drug and alcohol 
abuse and additional tutoring in basic reading 
skills are also threatened, she said. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor News Con- 
ference, Shields said that while it is possible to do 
“a more efficient job with the funding available,” 
the Administration is rushing for congressional 
approval of cuts that are “measured only by the 
budget deficit — not measured by the pluses or 
minuses of the programs” that will be affected. 

SHE SCORED the effort to convert much of 
the remaining federal aid to schools to unre- 
stricted block grants that will let the states 
“choose among a number of very serious prob- 
lems that have to be addressed.” She added that 
“those most in need will be forced to compete 
for the least amount of funds,” which would be a 
“severe blow to the children who need help the 
most.” 

Reporters questioning Shields on the AFL-CIO 
produced public affairs program were Ann 
McFeatters of Scripps-Howard Newspapers and 
Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. The pro- 
gram is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

AMERICAN WORKERS won a historic victory in 1970 when 
Congress enacted the Occupational Safety & Health Act, 
thereby acknowledging for the first time that workers have a right 
to minimum standards of safety and health on the job. 

Long before the 10th anniversary of the law’s effective date — 
which labor is now commemorating — OSHA had become a work- 
place word because it touched the lives of so many. 

It is remembered that OSHA’s birth was not an easy one. It was 
the culmination of decades of struggle by organized labor as well 
as growing public awareness of and disgust with the yearly thou- 
sands of needless job-related deaths and injuries. 

Now, under the guise of regulatory reform, so-called cost-bene- 
fit analysis, and spending restraint, the Reagan Administration has 
begun to unravel the painstaking gains of a decade. 

A SAMPLE of the standards which the new OSHA administra- 
tion has killed, “postponed” or is trying to stall include cotton 
dust, lead, asbestos, cadmium, noise, toxic substance labeling and 
walk-around compensation. 

OSHA’s funding would be sharply cut by the Administration’s 
proposed budget and even more by a Senate Labor subcommittee. 
This would mean fewer OSHA inspections than the currently less 
than adequate on-site visits. “Voluntary compliance” would be 
emphasized. 

Also, the Administration proposes to chop by a third the budget 
of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, whose 
scientific testing provides the basis for OSHA regulations. The 
Administration already has fired the director of NIOSH. 

SUPPORTERS OF OSHA have exposed “cost-benefit” analysis 
not only as a cruel trade-off of human life and health for profits 
but also as a sham. This pseudo-scientific gimmick, they note, 
takes a proposed action to improve health or safety and subtracts 
arbitrarily selected costs in dollars from arbitrarily selected bene- 
fits in dollars. 

But as the OSHA-Environmental Network, a coalition of labor 
and environment groups, points out, this method, “when used to 
determine who and how many should die, cannot fairly incorporate 
the value of those lives to the victim, his family or his society; 
future human, economic and ecological effects and their value, 
and the public’s health care, welfare and productivity costs.” 

In setting forth rules or standards, OSHA already is required to 
consider their “feasibility” from both a technical and economic 
standpoint. These considerations have made it easy enough to err 
on the side of dollars before lives. 

REAGAN’S BOOKKEEPERS and deregulators conveniently 
ignore other factors in their false equations, such as the fact that 
health and safety regulations help stimulate the economy and cre- 
ate jobs by requiring improved technologies to be manufactured, 
installed and maintained. 

Although OSHA currently-is under its sharpest attack ever, 
there have been strong challenges by powerful interests all along. 

Every annual congressional appropriations bill for OSHA was 
threatened by pot-shot amendments, culminating in 1975 with the 
passage of a rider exempting employers of ten or fewer workers 
from OSHA requirements. 

AMENDMENTS TO CUT back OSHA’s funding were defeated 
in 1978 and 1979. Last year, pressure from organized labor helped 
to block the Schweiker proposal to exempt so-called “safe” work- 
places from major provisions of the law. 

One price of America’s industrial might is the awful toll of 4,950 
work-related deaths and 6 million job-connected injuries and ill- 
nesses each year. It is tragic and inhuman that, just at the time 
health and safety have become valued in the workplace, the 
Administration has chosen this area to “get the government off 
the backs of business.” 



STUDENTS FROM kindergarten to college will bear the brunt 
of the Reagan Administration’s education budget cuts, AFL- 
CIO Education Director Dorothy Shields, center, warned on 
Labor News Conference. Shields was questioned on the network 
radio interview by Ann McFeatters of Scripps-Howard News- 
papers and Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. The 
public affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. ^ 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 1981 



BROWN LUNG VICTIMS conduct a candlelight vigil in Washington to protest 
the Reagan Administration’s attempt to stall implementation of OSHA’s cotton 
dust standard. The Clothing & Textile Workers held protest demonstrations in 
35 other cities across the country on May 4. 

House Conservative Coalition 
Wins Showdown on Budget 


‘Victims’ Vigil’ Opens | 
All-Out Fight to Save 
Cotton Dust Standard 


(Continued from Page 1) 

recommendations for a variety of people- 
helping programs. And in fact it would 
have avoided the projected deficit of the 
rival budget proposals by deferring the 
revenue-losing tax cut another year. 

BUT THE Obey substitute was crushed, 
303-119. Only one Republican, James M. 
Jeffords of Vermont, voted for it. And 
117 Democrats joined 186 Republicans in 
defeating it. A proposal backed by the 
congressional Black Caucus to shift funds 
from defense to social programs was re- 
jected by an even bigger margin. 

The Republican-controlled Senate has 
up to now given the President everything 
he has requested on budget issues and the 
few relatively liberal Republican senators 
are more than balanced by conservative 
Democrats. 

Postal Service 
Pressed to End 
Bargaining Delay 

Baltimore — The AFL-CIO Executive 
Council urged the U.S. Postal Service to 
drop its maneuvers before the National 
Labor Relations Board, and begin to nego- 
tiate a new agreement with the unions that 
represent nearly 600,000 postal workers. 

In a wire to Postmaster Gen. William 
F. Bolger, Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land said that labor views “with great con- 
cern” Bolger’s refusal to sit down and 
negotiate with the Letter Carriers, the 
Postal Workers, the Mail Handlers divi- 
sion of the Laborers, and the unaffiliated 
National Rural Letter Carriers Associa- 
tion. He urged Bolger to join with the 
unions in “an honest and sincere effort” 
to reach agreement. 

Letter Carriers President Vincent R. 
Sombrotto and Postal Workers President 
Moe Biller reported to the Executive 
Council on the impasse with the Postal 
Service. Management shunned the opening 
session of the contract talks and petitioned 
the NLRB for a new bargaining unit de- 
termination. An NLRB regional director 
dismissed the petition last week, and gave 
the Postal Service until May 13 to appeal 
the decision. 

Arbitrators Report 
Record Caseload 

New York — ^Tlie American Arbitration 
Association reported that a record 17,062 
labor disputes were registered with its 24 
regional offices last year. 

The total is the highest number of labor 
filings in the organization’s 55-year-history. 
It compares with 16,669 in 1979. 


More than a month ago, it voted 
88-10 to direct its committees to reduce 
spending levels by $36.9 billion in fiscal 
1982, about the same as the House action. 

Now the Senate has before it a compre- 
hensive budget resolution, the counterpart 
of the measure the House has adopted. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Den- 
ison put senators on formal notice that 
labor is “in total disagreement” with the 
economic assumptions of the budget. 

“The AFL-CIO believes that the pro- 
posed spending reductions will do ir- 
reparable damage to human lives and com- 
munity economic well-being,” he wrote 
each senator. 

The federation, he said, considered the 
Administration’s tax proposals “inflation- 
ary and outrageously skewered toward 
bettering the economic position of the 
wealthy.” 

DENISON SAID labor sees “no justi- 
fication for throwing billions of dollars 
a year in federal tax cuts under the Kemp- 
Roth plan to the nation’s corporations 
and their stockholders and high income 
individuals” in the hope that benefits will 
“trickle down to workers and consumers.” 

In terms of congressional sentiment, 
there has been more dissent expressed to 
the Administration’s deficit-increasing tax- 
cut proposals than to its spending cuts. 

While both the House and Senate bud- 
get resolutions project revenue losses from 
tax cuts along the lines sought by the 
Administration, the estimates in this case 
are not binding and tax legislation will be 
dealt with separately from the budget 
process. 

New Poll Casts Doubt 
On Reagan Economics 

A national poll commissioned by the 
State, County & Municipal Employees re- 
vealed that President Reagan’s personal 
popularity doesn’t carry over into many 
of the details of his economic program. 

The poll, based on interviews in late 
April, found 63 percent rating Reagan’s 
record as good to excellent. But it also 
found only a minority wanting Congress 
to adopt his budget-cutting proposals 
intact. 

Depending on how the question was 
phrased, the majority opposed to Con- 
gress giving the President all he has pro- 
posed ranged from 53.2 to 81.9 percent. 

The poll, by Fingernut/ Granados Opin- 
ion Research, also found majority disagree- 
ment with the President’s budget cuts on 
specific issues. And only 34.5 percent of 
the group said they would support a tax 
program that would give the biggest bene- 
fits to the wealthy. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

victims’ vigil held in 36 cities across 
the country. It was one in a series of 
weekly demonstrations initiated by the 
Industrial Union Dept, and environmen- 
talists to protest attacks on federal safety 
and health regulations. 

Kirkland said the labor movement is 
tenaciously committed to the battle to 
save OSHA. 

“We will defend the health and safety 
of workers in any arena — the courts, state 
legislatures, bargaining, the streets if nec- 
essary, and wherever public opinion takes 
shape,” he declared. 

EARLIER, a delegation of 60 ACTWU 
representatives and brown lung victims — 
many in wheelchairs — tried to meet with 
Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan or As- 
sistant Sec. Thorne G. Auchter but were 
stopped by^ security guards. They were 
told Donovan was out of town and Auch- 
ter was quoted as telling a group of about 
20 reporters that the ACTWU delegation 
was too large for any “meaningful dia- 
logue” to take place. 

Before the rally, four top officers of 
ACTWU met with Vice President George 
Bush to tell him that the Administration’s 
cost-benefits study would further delay 
the installation of needed engineering con- 
trols and thereby extend the risk of textile 
workers in contracting brown lung dis- 
ease. Bush contended that workers could 
be adequately protected by wearing res- 
pirators, the union leaders reported. 

ACTWU’s President Murray H. Finley, 
Sec.-Treas. Jacob S. Sheinkman and Ex- 
ecutive Vice Presidents Sol Stetin and 
Scott Hoyman sought to convince Bush 
that the cotton dust standard should be 
kept intact. 

KIRKLAND NOTED that, after a 15- 
year struggle by textile unions to persuade 
the federal government that cotton dust 
kills, the Carter Administration issued a 
standard in 1978 that requires mill owners 
to install engineering controls, provide 
other safeguards and reduce the use of 
cumbersome respirators. 

But the Reagan Administration and big 
business interests decided they didn’t like 
it, Kirkland observed. 

“The way the facts on cotton dust and 
brown lung total up, they don’t like the 
numbers, so they will reopen the rule- 
making procedure until they get it right. 
Getting it right will mean in their par- 
lance ‘getting the government off our 
backs,’ ” he said. 


On the eve of the rally, a memorial 
service and candlelight vigil for brown 
lung victims were held at St. John’s Epis- 
copal Church next to the AFL-CIO head- 
quarters and a block from the White 
House. 

FEDERATION Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue described the service as a vigil 
not only for the dead and those suffering 
with the disease. 

“It is a memorial service as well for 
the living and for those even yet to be 
bom who nonetheless are condemned to 
die from this disease as long as cotton 
dust is permitted to accumulate in the 
lungs of textile workers,” Donahue said. 

In addressing the rally, held in a large 
tent erected on parkland across from the 
Labor Dept., Finley pledged: “We will not 
weaken, we will not retreat until there is 
no more brown lung disease in the mills 
of this country. We are determined to put 
some compassion back into government.” 

Senators Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.) and 
Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) also vowed 
in their addresses to fight for maintenance 
of effective OSHA regulations. Similar 
pledges were made in messages from Sen- 
ators Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and 
Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.). 

AMONG THE demonstrators confront- 
ed by police outside the Labor Dept, head- 
quarters was 80-year-old Inez Howland, 
who has been suffering from brown lung 
disease for the past 15 years. She was 
among a number of textile workers who 
were in wheelchairs because of their dis- 
abilities. 

ACTWU reports that there are 35,000 
brown lung victims totally and permanent- 
ly disabled by the disease. An estimated 
85,000 of the nation’s 560,000 textile mill 
workers suffer from some degree of bys- 
sinosis. 

Other demonstrations were held across 
the country, in New York, Chicago, Los 
Angeles and in smaller cities such as 
Scranton, Pa., Little Rock, Ark. and Man- 
chester, N.H. In Allentown, Pa., ACTWU 
members distributed OSHA booklets on 
the hazards of cotton dust which Auchter 
had ordered recalled because he deter- 
mined they were biased in favor of work- 
ers. 

The demonstration in Opelika, Ala., was 
held a day later so that the busload of 
ACTWU members and brown victims who 
participated in the Washington rally could 
take part on their return. 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiililii 

Schedule for May Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

Classes in organizing techniques and grievance arbitration highlight activities 
during May at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, Silver Spring, Md. 
The classes are open to full-time officers and staff members of AFL-CIO affiliates. 

Three national and international unions are using the campus facilities for their 
own training programs during the month, along with the Building & Construc- 
tion Trades Dept, and the American Institute for Free Labor Development 
(AIFLD). The schedule: 

Organizing Techniques, May 3-8 — An institute on the essentials of successful 
organizing campaigns and review of National Labor Relations Board procedures. 

Arbitration: Preparation & Presentation, May 17-22 — An opportunity to pre- 
pare a grievance case for hearing, argue it before a professional arbitrator, hear 
his comments and suggestions, and review the case on videotape. 

Unions using the campus for their own leadership development programs are 
the State, County & Municipal Employees, May 3-8; Communications Workers, 
May 10-13; Railway & Airline Clerks, May 10-15. 

The Building & Construction Trades Dept, is conducting a program for 
organizers. May 10-15. 

AIFLD is sponsoring two groups on campus beginning May 3 — 20 Portugese- 
speaking trade unionists from Brazil and 22 English-speaking union leaders 
from Caribbean countries. 

More information on these and other labor studies programs may be obtained 
from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive director, George Mearty Center, 10000 New 
Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD., 20903. Telephone: 301/431/6400. 


AFI^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 9, 1981 


Page Seven 


*Most SuccessfuT 

Labor Backs Extension 
Of Voting Rights Law 



MARVIN CAPLAN, legislative director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, 
and former director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, accepts a 
brief case from retiring LCCR Chairman Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., as a tribute 
to his service with the civil rights coalition. He was honored at the organization’s 
annual meeting in Washington. 

Reagan Bid to Cut Medicare 
Seen Costlier in Long Run 


The Voting Rights Act has been the 
nation’s “most successful” civil rights law 
and is still needed, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland testified at House hearings. 

- Kirkland expressed the AFL-CIO’s sup- 
port for a bill introduced by House Ju- 
diciary Committee Chairman Peter W. 
Rodino, Jr. (D-N.J.). It would extend the 
Voting Rights Act 10 years beyond its 
1982 expiration date and clarify a section 
dealing with standards for judging local 
and state voting laws. 

BECAUSE CIVIL rights legislation has 
frequently had to overcome Senate filibus- 
ters and other delaying tactics, a House 
subcommittee headed by Rep. Don Ed- 

Labor Stresses 
Need to Enforce 
Key Regulations 

(Continued from Page 1) 

“We do not believe that workers should 
wait indefinitely for protection against 
deafening noise,” he said, or be forced to 
wear respirators on the job to save the 
cost of engineering controls. 

Labor considers that the government 
has “an inescapable role” in protecting its 
citizens, Kirkland said. Experience teaches 
that without regulation, “manufacturers 
do not take care of the environment, em- 
ployers do not take care of workers and 
sellers do not take care of consumers.” 

Kirkland said the material furnished by 
Bush’s Task Force on Regulatory Relief 
indicates that the trade union movement 
is “fundamentally at odds” with the Ad- 
ministration approach. The Administration 
seems bent on “increasing corporate au- 
thority at the expense of environmental, 
worker and consumer protection,” he 
protested. 

THE LABOR MOVEMENT is willing 
to cooperate for constructive purposes, 
Kirkland wrote Bush, and labor recognizes 
that laws and regulations “do not always 
work perfectly.” 

Many union people “have direct ex- 
perience with the effects of government 
regulations,” Kirkland noted, and “we 
would be pleased to put that experience 
at your disposal.” 

But Kirkland emphasized that “given 
the trust imposed on us by our members, 
we can only cooperate in an effort to im- 
prove the regulatory process — to do a bet- 
ter job of cleaning the environment, pro- 
tecting worker health and safety and job 
rights, and assuring consumer protection.” 


wards (D-Calif.) has begun early hearings 
on the extension bill. 

Kirkland cited the long history of legal 
subterfuges and harassments that kept 
blacks and other minorities froni voting in 
many areas of the nation and warned 
against assuming that the danger of dis- 
crimination has been eradicated. 

“Our national history and the inevitable 
lingering consequences of that history 
made this law necessary,” Kirkland said, 
“and make its continuation essential.” 

THE LAW was first passed in 1965 and 
broadened in 1975 to extend its special 
protections to Hispanics and other lan- 
guage minorities. 

If opponents cannot prevent the law’s 
renewal, they are expected to seek to elim- 
inate a requirement that jurisdictions with 
a past history of discrimination must ob- 
tain Justice Dept, or federal court ap- 
proval for any change in their voting laws. 

Kirkland urged the continued need' for 
such safeguards, and supported a provi- 
sion in the Rodino bill that would make 
clear that a voting change cannot pass 
muster if the effect is to discriminate, 
even if there is no showing of an intent 
to discriminate. 

AS FOR the evidence of continued 
need, Kirkland cited the fact that more 
than 800 proposals for changes in voting 
laws have been rejected as discriminatory. 

“It is evident that there remains a 
solid determination in some quarters to 
block equality of voting rights,” Kirkland 
said. 

Citing attempts to dilute the law and 
make it applicable in all states and locali- 
ties, Kirkland questioned the motive for 
seeking to impose regulation where there 
is no evidence that it is needed. 

The framers of the original law, he 
noted, “took pains to devise an enforce- 
ment system that is simple and speedy. 
Under Section 5, the heart of the Act, a 
covered jurisdiction sends to the Attorney 
General a copy of the voting law that 
jurisdiction wishes to follow, and material 
on the law’s purpose and effect. 

‘•THE ATTORNEY General must re- 
ply within 120 days; if his response is that 
the law meets the Act’s requirements, 
that is the end of the matter.” 

Because the law is so effective and 
simple to administer, Kirkland said, blacks 
and other affected minorities “are now 
participating in political life in greatly 
increased numbers, both as voters and 
as candidates.” 

The burden of proof should be on those 
who would let the law lapse or change its 
provision, Kirkland insisted. 


Administration proposals to cut back on 
Medicare services could cost the govern- 
ment as well as the elderly more money in 
the long run, the AFL-CIO warned. 

Legislative Director Ray Denison 
stressed the false economy aspect in a 
statement submitted to a House Ways & 
Means subcommittee that is evaluating 
various budget cut proposals. 

LAST DECEMBER, in what was in- 
tended as a step that would result in long- 
term cost reductions. Congress approved 
legislation that removed the previous 100- 
visit limit on home health services under 
Medicare, and also expanded comprehen- 
sive outpatient rehabilitation services and 
allowed reimbursement for alcoholism 
treatment at a facility not connected with 
a hospital. 

Now the Administration wants to dis- 
card these provisions and make other bud- 
get-reducing cutbacks in health services. 

A congressional committee report that 
accompanied the legislation enacted last 
year predicted that the initial increase in 
costs would be more than made up in 
future years by eliminating the need for 
costly hospitalization and substituting less 
costly outpatient and home care. 

Denison also protested an Administra- 


tion proposal to end reimbursement for 
vaccination of the elderly against pneu- 
monia. “The cost of prevention is less than 
the cost of curing the disease after it has 
been contracted,” he said in testimony 
based on an analysis by the federation’s 
Dept, of Social Security. 

On other budget-cutting proposals being 
considered by the subcommittee, Denison 
said the AFL-CIO would strongly oppose: 

• Less frequent inspection of nursing 
home facilities that are eligible for Medi- 
care reimbursement. 

• Requiring employers with hospital 
insurance plans to pay for full hospital 
coverage for workers over 65 who are 
entitled to Medicare coverage. 

• Increasing deductions and co-insur- 
ance under Medicare as a means of hold- 
ing down costs. 

Fitzsimmons Role 
Cited in Building 
Teamsters’ Gains 

Teamsters’ President Frank Fitzsim- 
mons, who died of cancer May 6, “built 
a strong organization that was respected 
for its ability to represent the best inter- 
ests of its members,” AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue sa|jd. 

In a joint statement, the federation 
officers noted Fitzsimmons’s frequent co- 
operation with AFL-CIO affiliates “on 
issues of mutual concern to America’s 
working men and women.” An Industrial 
Union Dept, statement noted his coopera- 
tion with lUD’s coordinated bargaining 
programs. Fitzsimmons, 73, was under- 
going treatment for lung cancer at the 
Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. 

He was elected general vice president of 
the 2.3 million member unaffiliated union 
in 1966 and in 1967 took over the func- 
tions of then-president James R. Hoffa. 
Fitzsimmons was elected president in 
1971, and was re-elected in 1976. 

Fitzsimmons had been business manager 
of Local 299 in Detroit, and held offices 
with the Michigan Conference of Team- 
sters and Joint Council 43. He was elected 
vice president of the union in 1961. 

The Teamsters executive board is ex- 
pected to designate an acting president 
until the union’s convention, which opens 
June 1. 


Window Washer Takes On Tall Job 


New York — Jim Cook has been doing windows for years in London, but 
he’s long had the ambition to do the ultimate window-cleaning job — on Man- 
hattan’s Empire State Building. 

The 37-year-old Londoner realized that lofty desire recently when he 
climbed out on a ledge of the building 86 floors up as an honorary member of 
Window Cleaners Local 2, an affiliate of the Service Employees. 

HIS TRIP AND expenses were financed by Smirnoff’s vodka distillery as 
one of seven winners in a promotional “Great Dreams” contest. 

Arrangements for the ascent of the 102-story building were made with the 
help of SEIU President John J. Sweeney and Leonard Nork, president of the 
window cleaners local. Cook said he didn’t want to be a “glamor boy,” but 
preferred to be treated like a regular union worker. 

After arrangements were completed for his work permit, workers’ com- 
pensation insurance and other details, Cook trained alongside union window 
cleaners “to get the hang of things.” 

THE CLEANING of Empire State’s 6,500 windows is full-time work for a 
team of union members from Local 2. It takes the team three months to 
complete the job from top to bottom and start at the 102nd floor again. 

Cook, who lives with his wife Janet and their 16-month-old son in the 
Highbury section of London, said the cleaning job on the Empire State is 
much like it’s done at home, “except that in London we don’t have any imion 
and we get paid a lot less.” 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, MAY 9, 1981 


Interest Hike 
Puts Squeeze 
On Economy 

(Continued from Page 1) 

banks charge their best corporate cus- 
,tomers — would probably climb higher,, 
and that the country faces a possible 
business slowdown this summer and 
autumn. 

Many short-term interest rates surged 
in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve 
Board’s discount-rate increase. The Trea- 
sury Dept, auctioned $3 billion of three- 
year notes at an average annual yield of 
15.81 percent, the highest ever for notes 
of this term. That was up sharply from 
the average yield of 13.37 percent for 
comparable notes sold on Feb. 17. 

Meanwhile, an industry official warned 
that the housing industry is in for worse 
times because of the higher interest rates. 

“IF PRESENT interest rates . . . per- 
sist, housing units will plunge below 1 
million annualized starts in a few weeks,” 
President Herman Smith of the National 
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) 
told reporters. The NAHB lowered its 
current prediction of housing starts for 
1981 to an annual level of 1.2 million. 

Two federal agencies cited recent siz- 
able increases in both long-term and 
short-term interest rates as the reason for 
raising maximum rates under their govern- 
ment-insured mortgage programs to rec- 
ord levels this week. 

The Housing & Urban Development 
Dept.’s Federal Housing Administration 
and the Veterans Administration simul- 
taneously announced a full 1 percentage 
point increase, to 15.5 pefcent, on level 
mortgage payments for single-family 
homes and a similar rise, to 16 percent, on 
graduated mortgage payments for single- 
family homes, effective May 8. Maximum 
allowable rates on other government- 
insured housing programs also were in- 
creased — to as high as 19 percent in some 
instances. 

Political Solution 
Called Best Hope 
In North Ireland 

Baltimore — The death of Bobby Sands 
is a “tragic symbol of the senseless but 
inevitable violence that will continue to 
plague Northern Ireland until a political 
solution is reached,” the AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council said. 

A council resolution deplored the vio- 
lence and also “the refusal of the British 
government to deal with the causes of that 
violence — political, economic and religious 
discrimination.”- 

It called on Britain “to begin the pro- 
cess of negotiations with the Republic of 
Ireland” and to seek to reconcile the 
Protestant majority in the North “with the 
reality of the need for a lasting political 
solution that respects the rights and free- 
dom of all the Irish people. ’J 

The resolution asked the United States 
government to encourage mediation of the 
dispute so as to help achieve an end to 
violence. 


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‘You’re No Help!’ 



lUD Views Targeted Aid 
As Key to Industry Growth 


Philadelphia — ^A domestic reindustriali- 
zation program based on targeted solutions 
for particular industries is the key to eco- 
nomic recovery, the AFL-CIO Industrial 
Union Dept.’s executive council declared 
in a resolution. 

Instead, the lUD said, the Reagan Ad- 
ministration program is based on “the 
‘magic and mirrors’ of supply-side eco- 
nomics.” 

THE RESOLUTION, along with others 
on plant closings, workplace and commu- 
nity environment, and human rights in the 
United States, was adopted during a two- 
day meeting of the lUD council here. 

The lUD noted that every other ad- 
vanced industrialized democracy has a 
selective, coherent industrial economic 
policy. “The United States is the lone 
exception,” it said. “Over the past 15 
years we have witnessed a steady de- 
industrialization of the U.S. economy.” 

In a related resolution, the lUD re- 
iterated the need for legislation to protect 
workers against the threat of plant clos- 
ings. 

“Such legislation should include a pro- 
gram to reindustrialize American industry, 
to pursue sound international trade poli- 
cies, and to remove the tax incentives that 
foster plant closings decisions by manage- 
ment,” the lUD said. 

NEW LEGISLATION should specifi- 
cally provide for protections equivalent to 
those already enjoyed by workers in other 
countries, including mandatory advance 
notice of plant closings, higher levels of 
income support and for longer periods, 
for dislocated workers, actions to attract 
new industries to areas that have lost em- 
ployment due to plant closings and major 
layoffs, and rights of union successorship 
when an operation is closed and then re- 
opened under “new” management, the 
lUD said. 

A third resolution scored Administra- 
tion attempts to weaken the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act and the Clean Air 
Act of 1970, and called for preserving 
and strengthening them instead. 

Reagan budget cuts already have gptted 
OSHA’s standards and enforcement pro- 
gram, the directorship of the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety & Health 
has been politicized, and there have been 
delays, retractions or reinterpretations of 
OSHA rules according to management 
dictates, the lUD charged. 

BOTH OSHA and the Clean Air Act 
have powerful standards and enforcement 
language which, if implemented properly, 
help to promote the modernization of out- 
moded operations, it added. The resolu- 
tion warned against “amendments or ad- 


ministrative actions which weaken environ- 
mental and health and safety standards 
allegedly to meet economic need.” 

The department also reaffirmed its sup- 
port of the Equal Rights Amendment to 
the Constitution, and urged its affiliates 
to work for its ratification by three more 
states by June 30, 1982, the time limit for 
its approval. 

The lUD also urged Congress to extend 
all provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights 
Act for at least another 10 years, and to 
amend the law to overcome the weakening 
effect of a Supreme Court ruling by out- 
lawing practices that have a racially dis- 
criminatory effect, as well as those adopt- 
ed with discriminatory intent. 


The Bricklayers and the Mason Con- 
tractors Association have announced a co- 
operative effort to strengthen their indus- 
try through improved labor-management 
relations, research, training and promo- 
tion. 

“Labor and management in the United 
States are either at or near a dangerous 
crossroads,” Bricklayers President John T. 
Joyce told a press briefing in "Washington. 

THE TWO SIDES must move towards 
cooperation “or disintegrate into an en- 
emies relationship,” he added. 

Joyce and MCAA President Louis J. 
Helbert, Jr., discussed the decision oL their 
organizations: an expanded International 
Masonry Institute. 

First formed in 1970, the institute has 
carried out masonry promotion programs 
while training was conducted by an ap- 
prenticeship trust. 

The new IMI will absorb those two pro- 
grams and be responsible for two new 
ones: labor-management relations and re- 
search and development. 

THE LABOR-MANAGEMENT pro- 
gram will be funded directly by MCAA 
and the Bricklayers. The other three will 
be funded by collectively bargained con- 
tributions for each hour worked by brick- 
layers in the United States and Canada. 

Joyce and Helbert said their organiza- 
tions have begun a campaign to obtain 
contributions for the research fund. They 
said they hoped that in three to five years 
the contributions would provide the base 
for a multi-million-dollar-per-year research 
effort for the industry. 


Labor Scores 
Tariff Relief 
Plan for China 

Preferential tariff treatment for the 
People’s Republic of China would en- 
danger the U.S. economy and the well be- 
ing of American workers, taxpayers, and 
consumers, the AFL-CIO told the Inter- 
national Trade Commission. 

“At a time of a credit crunch in the 
United States and 7 percent unemploy- 
ment, it is particularly unwise to grant 
special tariff privileges to China so it can 
develop its industrial might,” the federa- 
tion’s research director, Rudy Oswald, said 
in testimony submitted to the panel. 

OSWALD URGED the commission to 
analyze the impact of preferential tariffs 
for the communist nation on U.S. indus- 
tries and American workers, already hurt- 
ing from a flood of foreign-produced goods 
into this country. 

“An extra tariff benefit will encourage 
imports in most manufacturing industries, 
at a time when the United States needs to 
revitalize its industrial base,” Oswald 
pointed out. 

“We do not believe that backdoor sub- 
sidization of foreign imports from a com- 
munist country is an appropriate form of 
foreign aid.” 

WHILE THE AFL-CIO has always be- 
lieved that the needy should receive ap- 
propriate foreign aid, it does not believe 
that subsidization of foreign imports fronj 
a communist country is an appropriate 
form of foreign aid, Oswald said. 

The United States already has begun 
to experience some of the effects of grant- 
ing market privileges on an unregulated 
basis to imports from China, a highly con- 
trolled, centrally planned economy, Oswald 
pointed out. In the textile industry, for ex- 
ample, the sudden in-rush of 100,000 doz- 
en sweaters from the PRC caused concern 
over possible market disruption. 

Adding more imports to the American 
economy from a closed, non-market so- 
ciety is especially unwise at a time when 
the federal budget is being restricted to 
assure that there will be no protection or 
help to workers displaced in various indus- 
tries, Oswald summed up. 


The masonry industry has receipts of 
about $5 billion annually and directly em- 
ploys about 500,000 people. All govern- 
ment research now adds up to only about 
$3.5 million, Joyce and Helbert said. 

MCAA HAS about 1,500 member em- 
ployers — all 100 percent union, Helbert 
said. The Bricklayers have 135,000 mem- 
bers. 

Joyce said the basic problem is that the 
individual contractors are too small to put 
sufficient funds into research. He said the 
industry faces the prospect of relative de- 
cline unless it finds ways to cope witli tech- 
nological trends, changing skill levels, 
competing materials and other problems. 

On the labor-management side, he said 
the institute will explore local binding arbi- 
tration, the need for better mediation ma- 
chinery, impediments to worker mobility 
nationally, and quality-of-worklife proj- 
ects. 

ASKED WHERE MCAA stands on the 
current drive by business to repeal the 
Davis-Bacon Act, Helbert replied: “I can- 
not see where the repeal of the Davis- 
Bacon Act would help our association as 
it exists today.” 

Joyce said the two groups “are not 
going to get into any areas that polarize.” 

Two Harvard University professors will 
be active in the expanded Masonry Insti- 
tute. John Dunlop, former Secretary of 
Labor, will be a public trustee, and D. 
Quinn Mills, veteran mediator, will chair 
the labor-management relations program. 
(PAD 


Union, Contractors Broaden 
Scope of Masonry Institute 




House and Senate committees voted to 
deny food stamp assistance to any family 
in which a member of the household is on 
strike and to slash total spending for the 
food stamp program below current levels 
and far below projected needs. 

The committee actions signalled the 
sharp shift to the right in this Congress. A 
total ban on food stamps for strikers has 
been a perennial conservative goal, even 
though relatively few strikers qualify for 
assistance. 

FAMILIES OF strikers have to meet 
the same means test that is imposed on 
other low-income households. Strike-re- 
lated assistance normally accounts for only 
about two-tenths of 1 percent of food 
stamp expenditures, although the ratio is 
somewhat higher now because of the coal 
mine dispute. 


In past years, the Senate has regularly 
defeated proposals to bar food stamps to 
strikers and their families. But the domi- 
nance of the conservative coalition in the 
new Republican-controlled Senate was 
demonstrated in a 13-3 vote by the Senate 


Agriculture Committee for the anti-striker 
amendment — even though the Administra- 
tion had not proposed it. 

The vote was closer in the House com- 
mittee — 25-16 for the anti-labor restric- 
tion. 


The House and Senate Agriculture Com- 
mittees did, however, reject the Adminis- 
tration proposal to deduct the value of 
free school lunches from a family’s food 
stamp allotment. But they made some 
other changes that will delay the start of 
food stamp eligibility for most families 
seeking assistance. 

THE BUDGET request of $10.5 billion 
for the 1982 fiscal year represents a re- 
duction of $1.8 billion from what would 
be needed to continue the present pro- 
gram. Changes to tighten eligibility 
standards are expected to knock about 1 
million persons off the program and cur- 
tail benefits to many of the remaining 19 
million persons in low-income households. 

The Reagan Administration admits that 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Reagan Ax Hits Social Security 



OFFICIAL OPENING of the 36th AFL-CIO Union-Industries Show in Balti- 
more is marked by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and Maryland Gov. 
Harry Hughes, second from left. Lending a hand at the ribbon cutting are, from 
left, Maryland & D.C. AFL-CIO President Thomas M. Bradley; Earl D. 
McDavid, secretary-treasurer of the Union Label & Service Trades Dept, which 
stages the show; Val Hamer; ULSTD President John E. Mara; and Henry 
Koellein, president of the Baltimore AFL-CIO. Hamer, 84, a member of the 
Glass Bottle Blowers and a Baltimore native, was honored for his appearances at 
every show since 1954. (Story, Page 2.) 

Reagan Budget Sweeps 
Through Senate Intact 


Kirkland Says Proposals 
Shatter Dreams of Elderly 

By David L. Perlman 


The Senate approved President Reagan’s 
budget proposals virtually intact, paving 
the way for follow-through action to cur- 
tail or do away with many of the programs 
the trade union movement has long sup- 
ported. 

Amendments that would have lessened 
the severity of program cutbacks were 
repeatedly voted down by a conservative 
coalition, and the final passage vote was a 
one-sided 78-20. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Prime Lending Rate 
Notched Up to 19.3% 

The squeeze on money tightened fur- 
ther this week as most major banks in 
the country raised their prime lending 
rate from 19 percent to 19.5. The banks 
cited increased costs of obtaining lend- 
able funds and a surge in loan demand. 

The increase, the fourth in about a 
month, was initiated by Chase Manhat- 
tan Bank of New York. All the 20 other 
largest banks posted similar increases 
soon after. Many economists expect an 
even higher prime rate to follow. 

The prime is the base lending rate on 
corporate loans, which influences other 
interest rates and thus pushes up the cost 
of housing, autos and other goods. It 
reached a record 21.5 percent shortly 
before last Christmas and fell to 17 per- 
. cent by Apr. 1. The rate began climbing 
again on Apr. 10. 

imiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 


The House had approved a similar 
Reagan-endorsed budget resolution the 
previous week, and House-Senate conferees 
quickly agreed on the final terms. The 
$695.4 billion budget ceiling for outlays 
is $43.9 billion less than the budget pro- 
posed by President Carter before he left 
office. But because of projected tax cuts, 
the Reagan deficit is more than $10 billion 
higher. 

In past years, this first budget resolution 
would be considered merely a target and 
would be substantially revised closer to the 
Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year. 

But both the House and Senate have 
directed their legislative committees to 
make immediate changes in programs 
within their jurisdiction so as to ac- 
complish the spending cuts called for in 
the budget. The committees have flexibility 
in where to make cuts, but not in the 
total amounts. 

MORE THAN one-third of the budget 
reductions voted by Congress will come 
from income-support programs for those 
below or just al^ve the poverty line. 

Unemployment insurance and trade ad- 
justment assistance would be reduced 
despite the Administration’s forecast of 
continued high unemployment. Job train- 
ing and public employment opportunities 
for those out of work and out of school 
would be drastically curtailed. 

Less money would be made available 
for job safety and occupational health, for 
enforcement of the wage-hour and Davis- 
Bacon Acts, for housing, transportation 
and veterans services. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Social security benefit cuts demanded 
by the Reagan Administration would shat- 
ter the retirement expectations of millions 
of workers and AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland pledged that unions “will do 
everything we can to prevent their enact- 
ment.” 

To hold down costs, the Administra- 
tion is asking Congress to reduce benefits 
for all future retirees and to impose 
stringent new curbs on disability pay- 
ments. 

BUT THE BIGGEST impact of the 
Reagan proposals would fall on workers 
who choose early retirement with a re- 
duced pension at age 62 instead of work- 
ing until 65 or later. 

By the Administration’s own calcula- 
tions, a worker entitled to the maximum 
social security benefit who retired next 
January would receive $159 a month less 
than under present law — $310.50 under 
the Reagan plan as compared with 
$469.60. 

Other changes in the benefit formula 
would continue to widen the difference. 
The Administration projects the maximum 
benefit for a person retiring at age 62 in 
1987 as $325.60 a month less than pres- 
ent law. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that a high 
percentage of those taking early retire- 
ment are persons “who have worked at 
hard, dirty jobs all their lives and simply 
are unable to work any longer, largely for 
health reasons that are not serious enough 


The unemployment rate for the nation 
remained at 7.3 percent in April for the 
third month in a row as the growth in 
jobs and in the size of the labor force 
closely approximated each other, the Bu- 
reau of Labor Statistics reported. 

The labor force increased by 545,000 to 
106,722,000 over the month, with gains 
registered by all three major worker 
groups — men, women, and teenagers. To- 
tal employment grew by 564,000 to 
98,976,000. 

BOTH THE unemployment rate and 
the number of unemployed workers, 7.7 
million, have remained relatively steady 
since last December, BLS noted. 

Among major worker groups, the big- 
gest change over the month occurred 
among Americans of Hispanic origin. 
Their jobless rate dropped 1.6 percent to 
9.1 percent in April. The rate for black 
workers fell five-tenths of 1 percent to 
13.2 percent while the rates for all other 


to qualify for disability benefits.” 

Ironically, Kirkland noted, the one sec- 
tion of the Administration proposal that 
would add to costs instead of reducing pay- 
ments will help “those who least need the 
protection of social security,” persons in 
relatively well-paying jobs who continue to 
work after 65. 

The Administration proposes to phase 
out over three years all earnings tests so 
that those persons would be able to collect 
full retirement benefits while continuing 
on the job after 65. 

CONSIDERING THE sharp cuts im- 
posed on the most needy social security 
recipients, Kirkland protested, “that is 
fiscally irresponsible and morally reprehen- 
sible.” 

Health & Human Services Sec. Richard 
S. Schweiker told a news conference that 
benefits must be cut back to keep the 
social security system “from going broke.” 

Schweiker held out the hope that the 
Administration’s cutbacks will avoid a so- 
cial security tax rate increase scheduled 
for 1985, with a possibility of a payroll 
tax reduction by 1 990 — if the economy 
performs as predicted. 

By its choices, the Administration re- 
jected the recommendations of numerous 
study groups for an injection of general 
treasury revenues to supplement the social 
security tax and for less drastic steps to 
deal with a largely short-term funding 
crisis stemming from a combination of 
prolonged high unemployment and high 
inflation. 


categories remained unchanged or dipped 
only slightly. 

Eight of the 10 most populous states 
showed a decline in the unemployment 
rate in April, with New Jersey’s down to 
7.9 percent from 8.6 percent in March. 
In New York and Pennsylvania, unem- 
ployment was up over the month, rising 
two-tenths of 1 percent to 8.4 percent in 
the former and one-tenth of 1 point to 
7.3 percent in the latter. 

Nonfarm payroll employment was 91.5 
million in April, down 220,000 from 
March, after seasonal adjustment. Most 
of the decline, however, was attributed to 
the coal miners’ strike. 

CONSTRUCTION JOBS declined by 
80,000, but were still 100,000 above last 
July’s recession low. Manufacturing em- 
ployment edged up over the month. 

BLS also reported that the average 
workweek for production workers was un- 
changed from March at 35.3 hours. 


(Continued on Page 3) 

Unemployment Rate Sticks 
At 7.3% for Third Month 



Page Two 


AFI^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 


Key Gains Set 
In Furniture 
Workers Pact 

Sumter, S.C. — Some 1,000 workers at 
Georgia-Pacific’s furniture plant here 
gained significant wage and fringe-benefit 
improvements in a new contract negotiated 
by their union. 

The pact raises hourly pay by a range 
of $1.37 to $1.65, depending on job skill, 
over a three-year period. Furniture Work- 
ers President Carl Scarbrough reported. 
Scarbrough, who directed negotiations, 
said that the vacation schedule also was 
liberalized, and insurance and pension 
benefits improved. 

ONE OF THE deepest causes of worker 
resentment — restroom facilities — was 
solved by the negotiations. The restrooms 
were in shocking conditions, and allowed 
almost no privacy, Scarbrough said. 
Furthermore, the company required work- 
ers to ask permission to use them. 

“That will no longer happen,” he said. 
Under the new contract, workers will not 
have to ask permission, and the company 
has agreed to renovate the facilities. 

“With this contract, there’s a new feel- 
ing among the Georgia-Pacific workers,” 
said UFWA Southern Vice President 
Willie Rudd, who assisted the plant bar- 
gaining committee. “It marks the end of 
an era of poverty wages and poor work- 
ing conditions. It’s the beginning of a time 
of dignity, decent wages, and greatly im- 
proved conditions on the job.” 

UNDER THE OLD contract, workers’ 
pay averaged $3.35 to $4.68 an hour. The 
new contract reduces the number of years 
required for a three-week vacation from 
18 to 15. Accident and sickness insurance 
benefits rise from $65 to $80 a week in 
the first year of the agreement, to $90 a 
week in the second year, and $100 in the 
third year. 

The campaign for a just contract settle- 
ment at Georgia-Pacific’s Sumter plant was 
highlighted by a march and rally attended 
by thousands. Speakers included Rev. 
Joseph E. Lowery, president of the South- 
ern Christian Leadership Conference; Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s son, Dexter, and 
South Carolina civil rights leader Mod- 
jeska Simpkins. 

The rally and bargaining effort had 
wide support from the labor movement 
and included participants from the Car- 
penters, Woodworkers, the South Carolina 
AFL-CIO, the AFL-CIO Union Label & 
Service Trades Dept, and the Industrial 
Union Dept., and UFWA locals from as 
far away as Memphis, Tenn. 

Interest Rates Boosted 
On U.S. Savings Bonds 

The Treasury Dept, has increased the 
interest rate on U.S. Series EE savings 
bonds from 8 to 9 percent, compounded 
semiannually, when the bonds are held 
to maturity. The term to maturity was 
shortened from 9 to 8 years. 

Also, interest on Series HH savings 
bonds was raised from 7.5 to 8.5 percent, 
with maturity remaining unchanged at 10 
years. The interest rate increases took 
effect on May 1. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

AFL-CIO Deplores 
Attack on the Pope 

Terrorism and violence victimize “not 
only those who stand in the lide of fire; 
civilization itself suffers irreparable 
wounds,” AFL-tiO President Lane 
Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue said in a statement deploring 
the attempted assassination of Pope 
John Paul II in Rome. 

The world Catholic leader is “a good 
and decent man whose sole cause is the 
cause of peace,” the federation’s officers 
said, calling for prayers for his recovery. 

“The Pope is more than the principal 
figure of a great religion; he is a symbol 
of peace and international good will as 
well as a strong advocate of worker 
rights,” the statement emphasized, 
iiiiiiiiiniinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinmniiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiniiiiiim 





MASS RALLY by fellow trade unionists helped members of 
Furniture Workers Local 273 win a fair contract settlement 
at the Georgia-Pacific plant in Sumter, S.C. Representatives 


of the Woodworkers, Carpenters, South Carolina AFL-CIO 
and UFWA members froni other areas, including Local 282 
of Memphis, Tenn., joined in the demonstrations. 


Union Label Show Draws 200,000^ 
Puts Spotlight on Labor Centennial 


By Susan Dunlop 

Baltimore — ^A special emphasis on the 
centennial of the organized labor move- 
ment was the highlight of the 36th AFL- 
CIO Union-Industries Show which opened 
at the Convention Center here May 8 for 
a six-day run. 

Nearly 200,000 visitors from the Balti- 
more area attended the show to see a 
colorful and informative exhibition of the 
skills, services and products of American 
union members and their employers. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland 
officially opened the show at ceremonies 
which drew local and state trade union 
leaders and included members of the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council which met in Bal- 
timore prior to the show. 

Kirkland called the show a demonstra- 
tion of labor’s “confidence in the impor- 
tance of the collective bargaining system 
and also in the strength of American in- 
dustry.” 

Stressing that “in a climate of mutual 
respect, labor, industry and government 
can work together to make our economy 
work,” Kirkland said the show tells “the 
best side” of the story of American indus- 
trial relations. 

THE PARTNERSHIP of labor and in- 
dustry pays off for both sides, he empha- 
sized, calling that partnership “a tribute 
to the give and take of the collective bar- 
gaining process as a mature, common 
sense means of forging agreement out of 
differences.” 

Maryland Gov. Harry Hughes called the 
good relations that exist in the state be- 
tween government and organized labor 
“one of the primary factors in our favor 
with which we can interest industry in 
investing in Maryland.” 

Baltimore Labor Commissioner Jeffrey 
Austin, representing Mayor William 
Schaefer, extended the city’s official wel- 
come to the show on its first return en- 
gagement in Baltimore since 1966. 

AUSTIN ALSO read a proclamation 
from the mayor declaring May 10 “Val 
Hamer Day” in the city. Hamer, 84, is a 
native of Baltimore and a veteran hand 
glass blower who has appeared in the 
Glass Bottle Blowers’ colorful demonstra- 
tion in every Union-Industries Show since 
1954. Hamer began working in a Balti- 
more glass factory at the age of 13 and 
was a glass blower and glass maker until 
his retirement in 1963. The Baltimore 
show will be his last appearance in the 
union’s exhibit. 

The doors to the show, which is pro- 
duced and managed by the AFL-CIO Un- 
ion Label & Service Trades Dept., swung 
open on more than 300 exhibits and dem- 
onstrations staged by AFL-CIO unions and 
their employers. An estimated $100,000 in 
prizes and free samples were given away 
to show visitors. 

The AFL-CIO’s own exhibit, prepared 
with the cooperation of the Baltimore In- 
dustrial Museum, focused on the centen- 
nial theme. In a display of “The Way We 
Worked,” the development of industry and 


labor in Baltimore was traced in a display 
that featured art and artifacts from the 
city’s port, mills and factories. 

IN EXHIBITS designed to educate the 
public as well as entertain, unions includ- 
ing the Machinists, the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and 
the Allied Industrial Workers displayed 
the broad range of the products they make 
and the services they perform. 

Highlights of every Union-Industries 
Show are the live craft and skill demon- 
strations, and union members from the 
divisions of the Food & Commercial 
Workers drew crowds to watch them at 
work and to win union-made food prod- 
ucts from union stores as prizes. 

The Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco 
Workers exhibit featured two of Balti- 
more’s most expert cake decorators, and 
visitors to the Graphic Arts exhibit could 
watch their souvenir, a sketch saluting 
organized labor’s support of the Boy 
Scouts of America, being printed while 
they waited. 

Men’s, women’s and children’s clothing 
— and the union labels they carry — ^were 
the focus of new and enlarged exhibits 
prepared by the Ladies’ Garment Workers 
and the Clothing & Textile Workers. The 
importance of the union label was high- 
lighted at the Allied Printing Trades booth 
which featured a touch of labor history 
in its giveaway — old-fashioned pressman’s 
caps made of newsprint. 

AN IMPORTANT element of the show 
is the opportunity it gives unions to re- 
mind the public of labor’s interest and 
involvement in community, economic and 
social issues. The AFL-CIO’s two newest 
affiliates took this approach, with the Pro- 
fessional Athletes promoting their “Unions 
for Youth” summer athletic camps and 
the International Union of Police Associa- 
tions urging participation in the national 
“Crime Stoppers” prevention program. 

The Seafarers booth explained the work 
of their acclaimed Harry Lundeberg 
School at Piney Point, Md. 

A new exhibit from the Operating Engi- 
neers combined information on apprentice- 
ship and training with background on the 
union’s community service programs. 
AFL-CIO railroad unions, including the 
Railway Clerks, the Carmen, the Signal- 
men and the Maintenance of Way Em- 
ployees, asked show visitors to “ride the 
train” while explalining their jobs and 
skills in the industry. 

IN ADDITION to a wide-ranging dis- 
play of the many products their members 
make, the Steelworkers exhibit focused 
attention on the union’s civil rights, senior 
citizens and workers’ rights programs. 

Other exhibitors also used their exhibits 
as a showcase for the many benefits of 
union membership, among them the Oil, 
Chemical & Atomic Workers and the 
Molders. A “wheel of fortune” operated 
by the Cement, Lime & Gypsum Workers, 
featuring union-won benefits as “winning 
numbers,” helped the union give away 
prizes to visitors while urging them to join 
and support unions. 


Important trade union issues were em- 
phasized at the Air Line Pilots exhibit 
where members asked show visitors not 
to patronize the union-busting New York 
Air service. At the Government Employ- 
ees’ booth, Baltimore citizens had the op- 
portunity to send post cards to Congress 
urging retention of the separate retirement 
program for federal workers. 

WHILE SOME of Baltimore’s best un- 
ion musicians entertained, show visitors 
enjoyed the Chemical Workers’ live “mag- 
ic of chemistry” demonstration or had a 
portrait made by the Painters’ caricaturist 
who explained the union’s various skills 
as he worked. 

Unions that combined a rare up-close 
look at their members’ work and special 
skills with information on training and 
apprenticeship included the Laborers, Car- 
penters, Sheet Metal Workers and Plaster- 
ers. 

Hands-on experience was the highlight 
of the Postal Workers and Letter Carriers 
booth, which included a working post 
office and a special cancel for letters 
mailed from the show. At the Bricklayers’ 
exhibit, visitors could try their hands at 
the art of wall-building. 

SHOW VISITORS were taken behind- 
the scenes of live theater and motion pic- 
ture projection both past and present at 
the Theatrical Stage Employees exhibit, 
and they enjoyed a look at modern-day 
television broadcasting at the see-yourself- 
on-TV demonstrations of the Broadcast 
Employees. 

Emphasizing the fact that consumers 
can find a union label on a wide variety 
of products were colorful displays by the 
Insurance Workers, Furniture Workers, 
Brick & Clay Workers and Distillery 
Workers. 

A unique look at their complex jobs 
was provided by union members such as 
the Communications Workers and the 
Fire Fighters, while the Plumbers & Pipe- 
fitters staged a large display that peeled 
away stages of the construction jobs mem- 
bers work on to emphasize the importance 
of using trained union labor at each level 
to be sure the job is done right the first 
time. 

A CENTRAL function of the Union- 
Industries Show is to explain to the public 
that union members are involved in all 
phases of the industrial and service econ- 
omy. The exhibits of unions such as the 
Aluminum Workers, the Upholsterers and 
the Flint Glass Workers showcase the 
many products union members make for 
use in the home. 

At the Service Employees booth, visitors 
could have their blood pressure checked 
while learning about the union’s organiz- 
ing activities in service industries from 
health care to office work, while exhibits 
like those of the Firemen & Oilers and the 
Boilermakers explained union members’ 
jobs in heavy industry. 

The Paperworkers combined their dis- 
play of the world’s smallest working paper- 
making machine with a series of prize 
drawings for sacks of products made by 
their members. 











--^■'j.'^ i- . ■- 




Page Three 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 


Reagan ’s Social Security Scheme 
Seen Shattering Hopes of Elderly 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Instead, the Administration proposed: 

• A two-way reduction in benefits for 
persons retiring at 62. The early retire- 
ment formula is now 80 percent of what 
a worker would receive if retiring at age 
65. The Reagan proposal is to reduce this 
to 55 percent of normal retirement. And 
the amount would be further reduced by 
injecting three years of no earnings into 
the wage calculation on which the benefits 
are based. 

• Changing the formula that relates 
benefits to average wages so that in future 
years persons retiring at any age would 
receive less than under present law. 

BASED ON Administration wage pro- 
jections, a person retiring in 1987 at age 
65 who was entitled to the maximum 
benefit would receive $82.50 less each 
month than under present law. 

• Limiting eligibility for disability 
benefits to persons completely unable to 
work for medical reasons, and whose 
anticipated period of disability is at least 
two years. 

Present law requires only a’ one-year 
prognosis of disability and also allows con- 
sideration of age and experience, as well 
as medical incapacity, in determining eli- 
gibility. The Administration said “more 
than one-third of disability cases age 60 to 
65 involve non-medical factors.” Thus, 
many fewer older workers would qualify 
for disability benefits in the future. This 
is, of course, the same age group so heav- 
ily penalized by the reduction in early 
retirement benefits. 

• Further restricting disability pay- 
ments by increasing the waiting period 


for benefits from five months to six 
months, requiring a prior history of em- 
ployment for 30 of the past 40 quarters, 
instead of 20, and tightening ceilings on 
maximum family benefits. 

• Restricting, in a manner not yet 
spelled out, the social security benefit that 
can be earned by a worker who gets a 
private-sector job after retiring from pub- 
lic employment covered by a civil service 
retirement plan. 

• Postponing for all persons on the 
social security rolls, not just those who 
retire after the law is changed, the date of 
the annual cost-of-living benefit adjust- 
ment. In 1982 and thereafter, benefits 
would be adjusted on Oct. 1 instead of 
July 1 . 

SCHWEIKER acknowledged under 
questioning that this appeared to con- 
tradict President Reagan’s campaign 
pledge not to tamper with the cost-of 
living provisions of the law, but suggested 
that it was little more than a housekeeping 
adjustment to the fiscal year the govern- 
ment now uses. 

Kirkland commented that recipients of 
social security benefit checks have already 
had their payments eroded by inflation and 
shouldn’t have to wait an additional three 
months for their adjustments. 

Among other “savings” proposed by the 
Administration are subjecting sick pay — 
now mostly exempt — to the social security 
tax and eliminating any children’s benefits 
for families of persons retiring before 65. 

THE PROPOSED change in the earn- 
ings test, which would add about $7 bil- 
lion to the cost of the program over five 
years, would allow earnings up to $10,000 


TV CAMPAIGN CENTERPIECE — a large cake representing the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s economic scheme — is cut up by President Jerry Wurf of the State, 
County & Municipal Employees. AFSCME is running a nationwide media effort 
to point up the inequities of “Reaganomics.” 

State-County Ad Campaign 
Slices Up Reagan Economics 


The State, County & Municipal Employ- 
ees is mounting a counter-offensive against 
Republican and industry promotions of the 
Reagan economic policies, AFSCME Pres- 
ident Jerry Wurf announced. 

AFSCME recently aired a series of 
hard-hitting television advertisements blast- 
ing the glaring injustice of President 
Reagan’s budget and tax-slashing program. 
It’s a part of a $1 million media effort by 
the union that also includes newspaper and 
radio ads. 

AFSCME said the purpose of its nation- 
wide ad campaign is to take the union’s 
message directly to the American people, 
urging them to contact their senators and 
representatives regarding the unfairness of 
the Reagan program. 

“Our ads point out that vital govern- 
ment services like school lunches, Medi- 
caid, mass transit and social security will 
be cut back sharply if Reagan’s plan gets 
final approval,” Wurf said. 


“The ads show how unfair and un- 
equally distributed Reagan’s tax cuts would 
be,” Wurf added. 

The “star” of the 60-second TV spot 
is a giant cake featuring the words, “Re- 
publican Economic Policy.” The ad shows 
the wealthy getting large chunks of cake, 
while workers and the poor end up with 
only tiny slices. 

The TV ad originally appeared on 
five Washington and New York stations, 
but four network-owned stations in the 
two cities refused to air the ad. All TV 
stations in two other cities — Albany and 
Des Moines — have also rejected it. The 
stations’ main objection, their executives 
say, is that the spots are “advocacy ads,” 
and it’s against station policy to run them. 

Other major markets where AFSCME’s 
television ads have appeared are Boston, 
Dayton, Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, St. 
Louis, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Hart- 
ford. 


before a reduction in benefits in 1983, 
$15,000 in 1984, $20,000 in 1985 and 
no limit thereafter. 

Present law allows up to $5,500 this 
year, with no limit after age 71 and next 
year is scheduled to allow $6,000 in earn- 
ings before deductions, with no limit after 
age 69. 

Kirkland noted that these proposals are 
in addition to cutbacks proposed earlier 
in President’s Reagan’s budget, including 
reduction in student benefits and elimina- 
tion of the minimum benefit. 

TOGETHER, he said, they constitute 
“the most severe reductions in social 
security protection ever suggested” by an 
Administration. 

National Council of Senior Citizens 
President Jacob dayman said Administra- ■ 
tion proposals amount to a “frontal attack” 
on the social security system and could 
lead to its ultimate destruction. 

dayman stressed that social security is 
the principal source of income for most 
retirees. The proposed cuts would be espe- 
cially “devastating,” he said, to persons 
forced to take an early retirement because 
of poor health or unemployment. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council last 
February urged the concept of general 
revenue financing to supplement — but not 
replace — the existing payroll tax. 

“Workers must not be denied the bene- 
fits they have worked for and paid for 
during their working lives,” the council 
stressed. “The government must keep its 
word,” and changing the terms “would 
constitute a breach of faith that would 
undermine public confidence in social 
security.” 


Social Security 
Benefits Compared 

Earnings Present Reagan 

Category Law Proposal 

Retirement In 1/82 at age 62 

Low $247.60 $163.90 

Average 372.80 246.80 

Maximum 469.60 310.50 

Retirement in 1/82 at age 65 

Low $355.30 $355.30 

Average 535.40 535.40 

Maximum 679.30 679.30 


Retirement in 1/87 at age 62 

Low $384.40 $225.20 

Average 


Maximum 


580.70 

755.60 


348.30 

430.00 


Retirement in 1/87 at age 65 

Low $477.10 $477.40 

Average 719.00 691.90 

Maximum 942.80 860.30 

Proposed benefits Include the effect of a 
55% benefit rate (instead of 80%) for re- 
tirement at age 62. Calculation of initial 
benefits in 1982-87 includes 50% of wage 
inflation factor; formula would revert to 
100 percent in 1988 but initial benefits then 
and later would remain lower than If cur- 
rent law (with 100 percent factor) remained 
in effect. 

Low earnings are defined as the federal 
minimum wage, average earnings as ttie 
average wage subject to social security pay- 
roll tax, and maximum earnings as tiiiose 
at or above the maximum subject to the 
payroll tax. 

Benefit amounts are for worker only, who 
is assumed to reach the exact age shovm in 
January. Other assumptions are that the 
worker entered covered employment in 
1956 and worked steadily thereafter and 
that future earnings for retirement in Janu- 
ary 1987 follow trend under intermediate 
assumptions in the 1980 Trustees Report 


AFL-CIO Protests Cutbacks 
In Federal Energy Programs 


The Administration’s proposals to cut 
back or dismantle some energy programs 
would undermine efforts to provide a 
sound energy policy, the AFL-CIO warned. 

In a statement submitted to the Energy 
Dept., Federation President Lane Kirkland 
urged the Administration instead to ex- 
pand and improve existing energy pro- 
grams. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN’S plan to re- 
duce programs that encourage the devel- 
opment of new energy sources, energy 
conservation and energy efficiency stan- 
dards along with decontrol of energy 
prices “makes the Administration appear 
to be abandoning a cogent, carefully de- 
veloped national energy program in favor 
of outmoded theories that will give high 
profits to oil companies and hardship to 
the American people,” Kirkland said. 

Energy research and development pro- 
grams outside the nuclear area and con- 
servation programs would be cut back 
sharply by the Administration. The cuts 
would seriously retard U.S. efforts to 
achieve energy independence and elimi- 
nate more than 118,000 jobs needed to 
make these programs work, Kirkland ob- 
served. 

Specific cutbacks include severe curtail- 
ment of the low-income energy assistance 
program. The Administration would fold 
this program in with several others and 
reduce total funding by about 27 percent. 
The program was funded at $1,850 million 
in 1981. The program helps needy families 
and elderly persons pay their heating bills, 
using a portion of the windfall profits tax 
to alleviate the inflationary impact of oil 
deregulation. 

OTHER ADMINISTRATION propos- 
als would cut $442 million, or 59 percent, 
from energy conservation programs; $789 
million in fiscal 1982 from synthetic fuels 
subsidies; one-fourth, or $196 million, for 
other energy supply programs, including 
significant reductions in funds for research 
and development for geothermal, hydro- 
power, electric energy systems and energy 
storage systems; one-half, or $321 million. 


of outlays for research and development 
in fossil fuels, and 69 percent, or $380 
million, in solar research, development, 
and demonstration projects. 

Kirkland stressed that an effective en- 
ergy policy is a necessary basis for a 
healthy economy with low unemployment 
and reduced inflation. The nation has 
made great progress in constructing an 
energy policy to enable it to meet those 
goals, he noted, but many shortcomings 
remain in U.S. energy policy. 

THERE IS A need for a government 
oil import authority to act as the sole 
importer of oil to enable the United States 
to deal with the Arab oil cartel as an 
equal, he said. 

He called also for expansion of energy 
conservation programs, especially the 
weatherization of schools, hospitals, pub- 
lic buildings and low-income housing. And 
requirements are needed to ensure that 
vital equipment for U.S. energy facilities 
is made in the United States rather than 
imported, he added. 

Food Stamp Slashes 
Hit Strikers’ Families 

(Continued from Page I) 

the cutbacks it is making in other programs 
will add to the number of people eligible 
for food stamps. But it says that the added 
costs would come to “only” $250 million 
next year while the Congressional Budget 
Office estimate is close to $1.5 billion. 

In either case, the money won’t be there 
under the House and Senate committee 
bills. Last year, when unexpectedly high 
unemployment and inflation pushed up 
food stamp costs, the Carter Administra- 
tion sought and Congress voted additional 
funds. 

But the Reagan Administration has 
said that it won’t ask for more money 
when the spending ceiling is reached. Un- 
der present law, the Agriculture Dept, can 
cut back benefits to avoid depletion of 
funds. 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 




Misreading tbe Mandate 

^T^HE NATIONAL CHARACTER of America includes a deep 
commitment to human rights, and to helping the needy, shar- 
ing our wealth with the deprived, the weak and the helpless. The 
ability and the eagerness to extend a strong helping hand is a 
mark of self-confident, independent character. 

The Administration is misreading the American people if it 
assumes that the last election signaled a change in that basic trait. 

What it did signify was a desire for action bom out of deep 
frustration with the seemingly insurmountable problems of high 
inflation, virtual energy bondage, eroding job opportunities, crip- 
pling interest rates, decaying cities — and with a government which 
appeared powerless to provide remedies. 

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE voted a call for action, but no- 
where in that call did they express the desire to see decades of 
social progress wiped out. 

In fact, Mr. Reagan never asked us to make that choice. Never 
during the election were the Reagan-Stockman budget cuts put on 
the block for the electorate to examine, debate and ultimately 
reject or accept. 

The budget-cutting mania will translate into the loss of over 
one million jobs — a curious position for an Administration which 
campaigned on a return to the work ethic and an end to high 
unemployment. 

The Reagan tax cut will hand more than 60 percent of the 
largess to the richest 20 percent of taxpayers and a most healthy 
slice of that to the top 1 percent — odd for an Administration 
which asked for votes on the promise of relief for the hard- 
pressed, middle-income American worker. 


THE CRY for regulatory reform extends only to the weakening 
of laws protecting health and job safety, the environment and con- 
sumers, laws which the majority of Americans would like to see 
strengthened — hard to square with an Administration which pur- 
ports to represent the prevalent points of view in our society. 

The majority of voters did not go to the polls to ask for a 
slash in the social security benefit, or a crackdown on aids to 
education, or radical surgery on health care programs, or taking 
the food off the tables of poor families. 

The Reagan philosophy and its policies, if extended to their 
logical conclusions, call for a basic lowering of the standard of 
living and of the hopes and expectations of the average American 
working person. 


HOW ELSE can one interpret a philosophy that is designed, 
for example, to do everything it can to force the unemployed, 
regardless of their skills and experience, to accept the first avail- 
able low-wage job or lose the wherewithal to feed their families? 

How else can one understand wholesale attacks on such vital 
job health and safety standards as those developed for cotton dust, 
toxic chernicals or lead, except in terms of a philosophy that be- 
lieves it is the workers’ place to be at the mercy of the all-powerful 
employer regardless of the personal price they must pay? 


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9 .-S' 


Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


E VoL XXVI 


Saturday, May 16, 1981 


No. 20 s 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.fV., Wash- 
5 ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. = 

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Fot Unscrupulous Employers 

Revival of Industrial Homework 
Opens Door to Past Abuses 


By Giis Tyler 

T ABOR SEC. Raymond J. Donovan wants to 
^ legalize industrial homework, a practice that 
was outlawed in this country some 40 years ago. 

The law was passed at that time because 
“homework” was wrecking major portions of 
American industry. Legitimate employers could 
not survive in competition with unscrupulous em- 
ployers who were having their work done in the 
homes of workers. 

t 

An employer using homeworkers does not have 
to provide space, machines, nor sanitary facilities: 
a big competitive edge. 

He does not have to pay the legal minimum 
wage because without check-in and check-out 
records there is no way to know how much a 
worker makes per hour. Hence, there can be no 
overtime pay nor enforcement of a 40- or even 
an 80-hour workweek. 

CHILD LABOR can be used indiscriminately. 
Since there is no account of who is working on 
the stuff at home, many of the workers — if not 
most — ^will go uncovered by social security, 
workers’ compensation, and unemployment in- 
surance. 

In short, an employer using homeworkers can 
live by the law of the lawless, imposing his 
bestial standards on the industrial jungle of his 
own making. 

This primitive practice can not be applied in 
all industry. Autos, battleships, steel ingots, and 
barrels of refined oil can not be turned out in 
homes. But apparel can, because both the fabric 
and the finished goods are portable and can be 
turned out on a simple sewing machine. 

The circumstance applying to garment factories 
also applies to junk jewelry, handkerchiefs, knit- 
wear, and hundreds of other occupations where 
no heavy machinery is involved. 

Because homework can devastate such indus- 
tries where several million workers are employed, 
America outlawed this destructive device almost 
half a century ago. 

IN HIS PUSH to restore this primitive practice, 
Donovan explains that it will “open up job oppor- 
tunities.” 

Indeed, it would. Women (and it will be mostly 
women) and their children, working at home, will 
find more employment. But for every one of the 


garments issuing from that “home” and sold in 
the market there will be one less garment sold 
that was manufactured in a legitimate factory. 

So employment would shift to homeworkers 
who labor under conditions recalling the darkest 
ages of industrial inhumanity while unemploy- 
ment (and bankruptcy) would stalk those factories 
that are operating under circumstances befitting 
modern times. 

IN THE PROCESS, not a single new job 
would be created. Unemployment would be re- 
distributed from better paying to poorer paying 
posts, from humane sites to inhuman pits. Bad 
jobs would drive out good jobs as a. Dickensian 
darkness would descend upon sectors of our 
economy that, after a hundred years of sweat and 
struggle, rebellion and reform, finally managed 
to bring a few rays of sunshine into the workplace. 

Commenting on Donovan’s proposal to return 
to the pestilence of the past, one wag suggests 
that the Cabinet member change his title to 
Secretary of Anti-Labor. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler columns 

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Standing Up to Tactics 
Of Fear and Innuendo 

The National Conservative Political Action 
Committee has declared war on a lot more than 
liberal politicians who are friends of labor. 

It is leveling a body blow to the concept of 
an aU-inclusive electorate making a reasoned, 
democratic decision. 

The weapon is fear, innuendo, the half-truth. 

We will use honorable measures to respond 
to this attack. 

We wUl register our members. We’ll inform 
them of the issues, the record and the candi- 
dates. 

We will make our political contributions 
openly, so there’s no mistake that we stand 
with our friends. 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue at COPE dinner honoring Sen. Paul S. 
Sarbanes, Baltimore, May 7, 1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 


Page Five 


For Basic Risrhis 

Similarities Noted in Struggle 
Of Polish Labor, U. S. Blacks 


By Bayard Rustin 

R ecently I returned from Poland where I 
was invited to lecture by a regional section 
of Solidarity, the independent trade union move- 
ment. 

What was most striking about that country was 
the sense of openness and frankness which was 
everywhere evident. Even people whom I did not 
know (cab drivers and waiters, for example) spoke 
openly and frankly about the problems their 
society faces. Criticism was openly voiced, and 
the bulk of that criticism was directed at the 
Polish government and at the Soviet Union. 

fV Among Poles there is of course the sober reali- 
zation that their country faces serious economic 
problems and there is the awareness of the threat 
of Soviet invasion. Yet there is also a spirit of 
quiet optimism among the people. Above aJl there 
is the absence of fear. 

POLES ARE AWARE that they are imple- 
menting a wide-ranging social trasformation of 
their society and they are going about it an order- 
ly fashion. The effects of this social transforma- 
tion are no less than revolutionary. 

The driving force behind the move to demo- 
cratize that totalitarian country is the 10-million 
strong Solidarity trade union movement. Solidar- 
ity is guided by a profound respect for the prin- 
ciple of disciplined nonviolence. Indeed, through- 
out the ten months of labor unrest there has not 
been a single act of violence committed by the 
Solidarity movement. 

Despite countless provocations. Solidarity’s 
responsible leadership has succeeded in develop- 
ing a movement that is restrained and disciplined. 
. Moreover, it is a movement that is united by four 
guiding principles: Christianity, democracy, 

socialism and equality. 

AS SOLIDARITY Chairman Lech Walesa 
indicated to me, the union does not wish to as- 
sume primary responsibility for Poland’s eco- 
nomic affairs. The union would prefer to maintain 
the traditional separation between management 
and labor. Solidarity’s attitude toward economic 
matters is perhaps best summarized in one of the 
union’s mottoes: “Nothing about us without us.” 

Solidarity’s activities clearly are not limited to 
those of trade unions as we know them in the 

All Government Levels 


United States. As Walesa told me, “Only one-fifth 
of what we do is of a trade union nature.” The 
union’s remaining activities center on such ques- 
tions as eliminating the vestiges of censorship, 
winning access to radio and television, safeguard- 
ing the independence of educational institutions, 
and defending unjustly political activists. 

What is particularly striking about the Polish 
Solidarity movement is its many similarities with 
the American civil rights movement of the 1950s 
and 1960s. In both movements dignity is a con- 
stant and all-pervasive theme. Both movements 
had strong religious roots. The American civil 
rights movement, like the Polish movement, was 
built upon a foundation of nondiscrimination and 
tolerance. And both movements have deeply 
rooted traditions of nonviolence. 

NOR IS THIS comparison merely superficial. 
A number of Poles I spoke with mentioned how 
inspiring the televising of Roots was. “It told us 
that you have to struggle to win your dignity,” 
one worker told me. Others mentioned having 
seen films on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr. “They were almost like an instruction manual 
on how to build a movement,” one Solidarity 
activist suggested. 

Clearly the dream of a free and just society is 
universal. It has lived and flowered in Selma and 
Montgomery. Today it lives and thrives among 
the workers of Poland. It can never be silenced 
by guns or tanks, for man’s will to freedom can 
never be fully suppressed. It is this will to free- 
dom that unites us in the West with those who 
are in the East. 

THE POLISH people are transforming and 
humanizing their society. Only the possibility of 
Soviet invasion looms as an obstacle to their 
progress. For this reason, it is incumbent on the 
democratic countries of Western Europe and 
North America to exert coordinated pressure upon 
the USSR to prevent the tragedy that would fol- 
low a Soviet invasion. 

Western firmness in the face of Soviet aggres- 
siveness throughout the world is one of the most 
important factors in safeguarding the promise of 
Solidarity. And Solidarity’s continued existence 
is one of mankind’s greatest hopes for lasting 
peace. 


Heavy Public Employee Losses 
Foreseen Under Reagan Plan 


P UBLIC EMPLOYEES will suffer a double 
blow from President Reagan’s budget: loss of 
jobs at various government levels and reduction of 
public services. Executive Director John F. Ley- 
den of the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
declared. 

Leyden said the ripple effects of the cutbacks 
that will erase more than 1.2 million jobs from 
the economy will eliminate some 40,000 jobs at 
the federal level alone. He said the “dramatic 
impact” of the job losses bears out the descrip- 
tion of the Reagan budget as “the most costly roll 
of the dice that has ever been proposed by the 
economic policy-makers of this country.” 

IF THE PROGRAMS and services are not re- 
stored, there are likely to be reductions in force 
“of a magnitude never before experienced” among 
public employees, he asserted on the network 
radio interview. Labor News Conference. 

' Leyden predicted that as the reduction of es- 
sential services performed by teachers, fire fight- 
ers, postal workers and police, other public em- 
ployees affects the local level, public support for 
the budget cuts will fall off. 

“I think people will rebel,” Leyden said. “I 
think that when they see that services that they 
expect to be continued are terminated, when they 
see a number of people who were working or had 
productive jobs displaced, they’re going to go to 
their congressmen and their senators any say, 
‘enough; the program hasn’t worked, and it’s time 
that we tried something else.’ ” 


He pointed to the turnaround in Massachu- 
setts, where voters supported Proposition 2 Vi, 
which covered real estate taxes, but are now 
growingly alarmed as they face a reduction of 
the quality and level of public services that “they 
didn’t anticipate when they voted for the mea- 
sure.” 

“Initially, people will support a cut, as they did 
in Massachusetts, when there was a proposed cut 
of real estate taxes,” Leyden observed. “The ser- 
vices that are lost as a result of those cuts will be 
similar to what we’re going to find to be the case 
when the federal budget cuts take place. Massa- 
chusetts lost fire service, police service, and other 
services that the public came to expect. . . . 

“I think it’s going to take six to eight months, if 
these cuts go through, for the rest of this country 
to understand the full significance — the magnitude 
— of the cuts and the services that they’re going 
to lose as a result of the cuts,” he said. 

LEYDEN SAID organized labor is trying to 
restore some of the budget cuts. One measure 
before Congress would save some 200,000 jobs. 

“We’re not satisfied that we can’t restore more 
but, being realistic, we’ll take that as a starting 
point and work from there to restore some of the 
other jobs,” he said. 

Leyden was questioned on the AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs program by Michael Arian 
of Government Employee Relations Report, a 
publication of the Bureau of National Affairs, and 
Alan Adams of Employment Relations Report. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

F or many brown lung victims, who traveled to Wash- 
ington to protest the Reagan Administration’s decision to 
stall cotton dust standards, the long bus ride from their homes 
in the Carolinas, Alabama and other textile states was especially 
arduous. 

These men and women have been affilicted with the disease 
called byssinosis, or brown lung, which has incapacitated or 
killed some 35,000 textile workers in this country. For these 
people, even routine chores often are too difficult because of 
the years and decades in dusty mills which robbed them of most 
of their ability to breathe. 

But they came to Washington not for themselves but for all 
those who still must toil inside unhealthy cotton mills. 

Here are some of their stories: 

• FRANK COX, 61, had to quit work at the J. P. Stevens 
mills in Spartanburg, S.C., three years ago because of what he 
came to know as brown lung. 

“I’d go to my job on Monday and I could hardly stand up. 

I could hardly breathe. It was like having a plastic bag over 
my head,” said Cox. 

“We didn’t know what caused it until it was too late. We like 
to work in the mill. We love our jobs. But we were just disabled. 

“I had always been healthy. I haven’t smoked in 27 years. 
1 went through World War II. Then I worked in the dust for 
3 1 years. That’s what did it.” 

• BLAN KILPATRICK, 71, left the mills in 1972 because of 
her disability. It was only two years ago that doctors properly 
diagnosed her ailment as brown lung. 

Kilpatrick worked for 35 years for Cannon mills in the com- 
pany town of Kannapolis, N.C. Her bosses and company doctors 
“never told me I was getting sick even after they knew it. I saw 
people die from it (byssinosis) before they even knew what it was.” 

Kilpatrick, who is active in the Carolina Brown Lung Associa- 
tion, regrets that she was never able to join a union in her tightly 
controlled company town. Nevertheless, she’s helping the Clothing 
& Textile Workers in a local organizing drive. 

“If they get rid of the cotton dust standard,” said Kilpatrick, 
“they will continue using workers and throwing them away like 
trash. We’re here to tell Reagan and Donovan and Auchter that 
we’re not trash.” 

• MOSES WEST, 63, worked in the Stevens mills in Roanoke 
Rapids, N.C., for 42 years before his growing disability forced 
him to retire in 1979. “The doctors told me to stop in 1970. 
I finally had to give it up. It got too hard.” 

West said he needed to keep working to put his three children 
through college. He’s now living on his social security retirement 
benefits. So far he has been turned down for social security 
disability and workers’ compensation benefits. 

To get these benefits, *said West, “you have to be almost dead. 
They don’t believe what the doctors say.” 

• VELMA BRANTLEY, 52, from Spartanburg, S.C., had to 
leave the mill in 1976 after working there for 25 years. It took 
her two years to get social security disability benefits. 

But it wasn’t until January of this year that she was diagnosed 
as having brown lung. “Tbe doctors told me I had chronic 
bronchitis and emphysema.” 

“At the time I came out of the mill, they didn’t even have 
breathing tests,” said Brantley. She added that she never was 
given even the slim protection of a face mask. 

“Today,” she said, “we have made people know we’re going 
to fight for what’s right. Generations to come can say, ‘our grand- 
mothers and grandfathers fought for us.’ ” 



DOUBLE BLOW of job losses at all government levels and 
reduction of public services will fall on public employees as a 
result of President Reagan’s budget. Executive Director John F. 
Leyden, center, of the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, de- 
clared on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by Alan 
Adams, left, of Employment Relations Report and Michael 
Arian of the Bureau of National Affairs. The AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 



House Rollcalls 


on Budget Slash 


The House rejected the labor-endorsed budget resolution, which 
was introduced by David R, Obey (D-Wis,), and adopted instead 
the drastic budget cuts urged by President Reagan and co-spon- 
sored by Delbert L. Latta (R-Ohio) and Phil Gramm (D-Tex,). 

Column 1 shows the 303-119 defeat of the Obey budget pro- 
posal, which would have lessened the severity of the funding cuts. 
Right votes (R) supporting the measure were cast on May 6 by 
118 Democrats and 1 Republican, Voting wrong (W) were 117 
Democrats and 186 Republicans, 

Column 2 shows the 253-176 votes on May 7 to adopt the 
drastic Latta-Gramm budget. Right votes opposed were cast by 
176 Democrats, Voting wrong were 63 Democrats and 190 Re- 
publicans, 

Numerals show congressional districts; A — absent, 

ALABAMA 


1 . Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

2. Dickinson (R) 

W 

W 

3. Nichols (D) 

A 

W 

4. Bevill (D) 

W 

W 

5. Flippo (D) 

W 

W 

6. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

7. Shelby (D) 

W 

W 

ALASKA 

AL Young (R) 

W 

W 

ARIZONA 

1. Rhodes (R) 

W 

W 

2. Udall (D) 

R 

R 

3. Stump (D) 

W 

W 

4. Rudd (R) 

W 

W 

ARKANSAS 

1. Alexander (D) 

W 

R 

2. Bethune (R) 

W 

W 

3. Hammerschmidt (R) 

W 

W 

4. Anthony (D) 

W 

W 

CALIFORNIA 

1. Chappie (R) 

W 

W 

2. Clausen (R) 

W 

W 

3. Matsui (D) 

R 

R 

4. Fazio (D) 

R 

R 

5, Burton, John (D) 

R 

R 

6. Burton, Phillip (D) 

R 

R 

7. Miller (D) 

R 

R 

8. Dellums (D) 

R 

R 

9. Stark (D) 

R 

R 

10. Edwards (D) 

R 

R 

11. Lantos(D) 

W 

R 

12. McCloskey (R) 

W 

W 

13. Mineta (D) 

R 

R 

14. Shumway (R) 

W 

W 

15. Coelho (D) 

W 

R 

16. Panetta (D) 

R 

R 

17. Pashayan (R) 

W 

W 

18. Thomas (R) 

W 

W 

19. Lagomarsino (R) 

W 

W 

20. Goldwater (R) 

W 

W 

21. Fiedler (R) 

W 

W 

22. Moorhead (R) 

A 

W 

23. Beilenson (D) 

R 

R 

24. Waxman (D) 

R 

R 

25. Roybal (D) 

R 

R 

26. Rousselot (R) 

W 

W 

27. Dornan (R) 

W 

W 

28. Dixon (D) 

R 

R 

29. Hawkins (D) 

R 

R 

30. Danielson (D) 

R 

R 

31. Dymally (D) 

R 

R 

32. Anderson (D) 

W 

R 

33. Grisham (R) 

W 

W 

34. Lungren (R) 

W 

W 

35. Dreier (R) 

W 

W 

36. Brown (D) 

R 

R 

37. Lewis (R) 

W 

W 

38. Patterson (D) 

R 

W 

39. Dannemeyer (R) 

W 

W 

40. Badham (R) 

A 

W 

41.yLowery (R) 

W 

W 

42. Hunter (R) 

W 

W 

43. Burgener (R) 

A 

W 

COLORADO 

1. Schroeder (D) 

R 

R 

2. Wirth (D) 

W 

R 

3. Kogovsek (D) 

R 

R 

4. Brown (R) 

W 

W 

5. Kramer (R) 

W 

W 

CONNECTICUT 
1. Cotter (D) A 

A 

2. Gejdenson (D) 

R 

R 

3. DeNardis (R) 

W 

W 

4. McKinney (R) 

W 

W 

5. Ratchford (D) 

R 

R 

6. Moffett (D) 

R 

R 

DELAWARE 

AL Evans (R) 

W 

W 

FLORIDA 

1. Hutto (D) 

W 

W 

2. Fuqua (D) 

W 

W 

3. Bennett (D) 

W 

W 

4. Chappell (D) 

W 

W 

5. McCollum (R) 

W 

W 

6. Young (R) 

W 

W 

7. Gibbons (D) 

W 

W 

8. Ireland (D) 

W 

W 

9. Nelson (D) 

W 

W 


10. Bafalis (R) 

W 

W 

1 1 . Mica (D) 

W 

w 

12. Shaw (R) 

w 

w 

13. Lehman (D) 

w 

R 

14, Pepper (D) 

R 

R 

15. Fascell (D) 

W 

R 

GEORGIA 

1. Ginn (D) 

W 

W 

2. Hatcher (D) 

W 

W 

3. Brinkley (D) 

W 

W 

4. Levitas (D) 

W 

W 

5. Fowler (D) 

R 

R 

6. Gingrich (R) 

W 

W 

7. McDonald (D) 

W 

W 

8. Evans (D) 

A 

W 

9. Jenkins (D) 

W 

W 

10. Barnard (D) 

W 

W 

HAWAH 

1. Heftel (D) 

w 

R 

2. Akaka (D) 

R 

R 

IDAHO 

1. Craig (R) 

W 

W 

2. Hansen (R) 

W 

W 

ILLINOIS 

1 . Washington (D) 

R 

R 

2. Savage (D) 

R 

R 

3. Russo (D) 

W 

R 

4. Derwinski (R) 

W 

W 

5. Fary (D) 

R 

R 

6. Hyde (R) 

W 

W 

7. Collins (D) 

R 

R 

8. Rostenkowski (D) 

W 

R 

9. Yates (D) 

R 

R 

1 0. Porter (R) 

W 

W 

11. Annunzio (D) 

R 

R 

12. Crane, Philip (R) 

W 

W 

13. McClory (R) 

W 

W 

14. Erlenborn (R) 

W 

W 

15. Corcoran (R) 

W 

W 

16. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

17. O’Brien (R) 

W 

W 

18. Michel (R) 

W 

W 

19. Railsback (R) 

W 

W 

20. Findley (R) 

' w 

W 

21. Madigan (R) 

w 

W 

22. Crane, Dan (R) 

w 

W 

23. Price (D) 

R 

R 

24. Simon (D) 

R 

R 

INDIANA 

1. Benjamin (D) 

R 

R 

2. Fithian (D) 

A 

R 

3. Hiler (R) 

W 

W 

4. Coats (R) 

W 

W 

5. Hillis (R) 

W 

W 

6. Evans (D) 

W 

W 

7. Myers (R) 

W 

W 

8. Deckard (R) 

W 

W 

9. Hamilton (D) 

W 

R 

10. Sharp (D) 

W 

R 

11. Jacobs (D) 

W 

W 

IOWA 

1. Leach (R) 

W 

W 

2. Tauke (R) 

W 

W 

3. Evans (R) 

W 

W 

4. Smith (D) 

W 

R 

5. Harkin (D) 

R 

R 

6. Bedell (D) 

W 

R 

KANSAS 

1 . Roberts (R) 

W 

W 

2. Jeffries (R) 

W 

W 

3. Winn (R) 

W 

W 

4. Glickman (D) 

W 

R 

5. Whittaker (R) 

W 

W 

KENTUCKY 

1. Hubbard (D) 

W 

R 

2. Natcher (D) 

W 

W 

3. Mazzoli (D) 

W 

W 

4. Snyder (R) 

W 

W 

5. Rogers (R) 

W 

W 

6. Hopkins (R) 

W 

W 

7. Perkins (D) 

R 

R 

LOUISIANA 

1. Livingston (R) 

W 

W 

2. Boggs (D) 

W 

R 

3. Tauzin (D) 

W 

W 

4. Roemer (D) 

W 

W 

5. Huckaby (D) 

W 

W 

6. Moore (R) 

W 

W 


7. Breaux (D) 

W 

W 

8. Long (D) 

W 

R 

MAINE 

1. Emery (R) 

w 

W 

2. Snowe (R) 

w 

W 

MARYLAND 

1. Dyson (D) 

w 

W 

2. Long (D) 

R 

W 

3. Mikulski (D) . 

R 

R 

4. Holt (R) 

W 

W 

5. Vacancy 

6. Byron (D) 

W 

W 

7. Mitchell (D) 

R 

R 

8. Barnes (D) 

R 

R 

MASSACHUSETTS 


1. Conte (R) 

W 

W 

2. Boland (D) 

R 

R 

3. Early (D) 

R 

R 

4. Frank (D) 

R 

R 

5. Shannon (D) 

R 

R 

6. Mavroules (D) 

R 

R 

7. Markey (D) 

R 

R 

8. O’Neill (D) 

Speaker 

9. Moakley (D) 

R 

R 

10. Heckler (R) 

W 

W 

11. Donnelly (D) 

R 

R 

12. Studds(D) 

R 

R 

MICHIGAN 

1. Conyers (D) 

R 

R 

2. Pursell (R) 

W 

W 

3. Wolpe (D) 

W 

R 

4. Siljander(R) 

W 

W 

5. Sawyer (R) 

W 

W 

6. Dunn (R) 

W 

W 

7. Kildee (D) 

R 

R 

8. Traxler (D) 

W 

R 

9. Vander Jagt (R) 

W 

W 

10. Albosta (D) 

W 

W 

1 1 . Davis (R) 

W 

W 

12. Bonior (D) 

R 

R 

13. Crockett (D) 

A 

R 

14. Hertel(D) 

R 

R 

15. Ford (D) 

R 

R 

16. Dingell (D) 

R 

R 

17. Brodhead (D). 

R 

R 

18. Blanchard (D) 

W 

R 

19. Broomfield (R) 

W 

W 

MINNESOTA 

1. Erdahl(R) 

W 

W 

2. Hagedorn (R) 

W 

W 

3. Frenzel (R) 

W 

W 

4. Vento (D) 

R 

R 

5. Sabo (D) 

R 

R 

6. Weber (R) 

W 

W 

7. Stangeland (R) 

W 

W 

8. Oberstar (D) 

R 

R 

MISSISSIPPI 

1. Whitten (D) 

W 

R 

2. Bowen (D) 

W 

W 

3. Montgomery (D) 

W 

W 

4. Vacancy 

5. Lott (R) 

W 

W 

MISSOURI 

1. Clay (D) 

R 

R 

2. Young (D) 

W 

W 

3. Gephardt (D) 

W 

R 

4. Skelton (D) 

W 

W 

5. Bolling (D) 

R 

R 

6. Coleman (R) 

W 

W 

7. Taylor (R) 

W 

W 

8. Bailey (R) 

W 

W 

9. Volkmer (D) 

W 

W 

10. Emerson (R) 

W 

W 

MONTANA 

1. Williams (D) 

R 

R 

2. Marlenee (R) 

W 

W 

NEBRASKA 

1. Bereuter (R) 

W 

W 

2. Daub(R) 

W 

W 

3. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

NEVADA 

AL Santini (D) 

W 

W 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 


1. D’ Amours (D) 

R 

R 

2. Gregg (R) 

W 

W 

NEW JERSEY 



1. Florio (D) 

R 

R 

2. Hughes (D) 

W 

R 

3. Howard (D) 

R 

R 

4. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

5. Fenwick (R) 

W 

W 

6. Forsythe (R) 

W 

W 

7. Roukema (R) 

W 

W 

8. Roe (D) 

R 

R 

9. Hollenbeck (R) 

W 

W 

10. Rodino (D) 

R 

R 

11. Minish (D) 

R 

R 

12. Rinaldo (R) 

W 

W 

13. Courier (R) 

W 

W 

14. Guarini (D) 

R 

R 

15. Dwyer (D) 

R 

R 


NEW MEXICO 


1. Lujan fR) 

W 

W 

2. Skeen (R) 

W 

W 

NEW YORK 

1 . Carney (R) 

w 

W 

2. Downey (D) 

R 

R 

3. Carman (R) 

W 

W 

4. Lent (R) 

W 

W 

.5. McGrath (R) 

W 

W 

6. LeBoutillier (R) 

W 

W 

7. Addabbo (D) 

R 

R 

8. Rosenthal (D) 

R 

R 

9. Ferraro (D) 

R 

R 

10. Biaggi (D) 

R 

R 

1 1. Scheuer (D) 

R 

R 

12. Chisholm (D) 

R 

R 

13. Solarz (D) 

R 

R 

14. Richmond (D) 

R 

R 

15. Zeferetti (D) 

R 

R 

16. Schumer(D) 

R 

R 

1 7. Molinari (R) 

W 

W 

18. Green (R) 

W 

W 

19. Rangel (D) 

R 

R 

20. Weiss (D) 

R 

R 

21. Garcia (D) 

R 

R 

22. Bingham (D) 

R 

R 

23. Peyser (D) 

R 

R 

24. Ottinger (D) 

R 

R 

25. Fish (R) 

W 

W 

26. Gilman (R) 

W 

W 

27. McHugh (D) 

R 

R 

28. Stratton (D) 

W 

R 

29. Solomon (R) 

W 

W 

30. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

31. Mitchell (R) 

W 

W 

32. Wortley(R) 

W 

W 

33. Lee (R) 

W 

W 

34. Horton (R) 

W 

W 

35. Conable fR) 

W 

W 

36. LaFalce (D) 

W 

R 

37. Nowak (D) 

W 

R 

38. Kemp (R) 

W 

W 

39. Lundine (D) 

W 

R 

NORTH CAROLINA 


1. Jones (D) 

W 

R 

2. Fountain (D) 

W 

W 

3. Whitley (D) 

W 

R 

4. Andrews fD) 

W 

W 

5. Neal (D) 

W 

R 

6. Johnston (R) 

W 

W 

7. Rose (D) 

W 

R 

8. Hefner (D) 

W 

R 

9. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

10. Broyhill (R) 

W 

W 

1 1 . Hendon (R) 

W 

W 

NORTH DAKOTA 


AL Dorgan (D) 

R 

R 

OHIO 

1. Gradison (R) 

W 

W 

2. Luken (D) 

W 

W 

3. Hall (D) 

W 

W 

4. Vacancy 

5. Latta (R) 

W 

W 

6. McEwen (R) 

W 

W 

7. Brown (R) 

W 

W 

8. Kindness (R) 

W 

W 

9. Weber (R) 

w 

W 

10. Miller (R) 

w 

W 

11. Stanton (R) 

w 

W 

1 2. Shamansky (D) 

w 

R 

13. Pease (D) 

R 

R 

14. Seiberling (D) 

R 

R 

15. Wylie (R) 

W 

W 

16. Regula (R) 

W 

W 

17. Ashbrook (R) 

W 

W 

18. Applegate (D) 

W 

R 

19. Williams (R) 

W 

W 

20. Oakar (D) 

R 

R 

21. Stokes (D) 

R 

R 

22. Eckart (D) 

R 

R 

23. Mottl (D) 

W 

W 

OKLAHOMA 

1. Jones (D) 

W 

R 

2. Synar (D) 

W 

R 

3. Watkins (D) 

W 

R 

4. McCurdy (D) 

W 

R 

5. Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

6. English (D) 

W 

W 

OREGON 

1. AuCoin (D) 

W 

R 

2. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

3. Wyden(D) 

R 

R 

4. Weaver (D) 

R 

R 

PENNSYLVANIA 


1 . Foglietta (D) 

R 

R 

2. Gray (D) 

R 

R 

3. Vacancy 

4. Dougherty (R) 

W 

W 

5. Schulze (R) 

W 

W 

6. Yatron (D) 

R 

W 

7. Edgar (D) 

R 

R 

8. Coyne, James (R) 

W 

W 

9. Shuster (R) 

W 

W 

10. McDade (R) 

W 

W 


11. Nelligan(R) 

W 

W 

12. Murtha (D) 

W 

R 

13. Coughlin (R) * 

w 

W 

14. Coyne, William (D) 

R 

R 

15. Ritter (R) 

W 

W 

16. Walker (R) 

W 

W 

17. Ertel (D) 

W 

R 

1 8. Walcren (D) 

W 

R 

19. Goodling (R) 

W 

W 

20. Gaydos (D) 

R 

R 

21. Bailey (D) 

R 

R 

22. Murphy (D) 

W 

R 

23. Clinger (R) 

W 

W 

24. Marks (R) 

W 

W 

25. Atkinson (D) 

W 

W 

RHODE ISLAND 


1. St Germain (D) 

W 

R 

2. Schneider (R) 

W 

W 

SOUTH CAROLINA 


1. Hartnett (R) 

W 

W 

2. Spence (R) 

W 

W 

3. Derrick (D) 

W 

W 

4. Campbell (R) 

W 

W 

5. Holland (D) 

W 

w 

6. Napier (R) 

W 

w 

SOUTH DAKOTA 


1. Daschle (D) 

W 

R 

2. Roberts (R) 

W 

W 

TENNESSEE 

1. Quillen (R) 

W 

W 

2. Duncan (R) 

w 

W 

3. Bouquard (D) 

w 

W 

4. Gore (D) 

R 

R 

5. Boner (D) 

W 

R 

6. Beard (R) 

W 

W 

7. Jones (D) 

W 

W 

8. Ford (D) 

R 

R 

TEXAS 

1. Hall, Sam (D) 

W 

W 

2. Wilson (D) 

W 

W 

3. Collins (R) 

W 

W 

4. Hall, Ralph (D) 

W 

W 

5. Mattox (D) 

W 

R 

6. Gramm (D) 

W 

W 

7. Archer (R) 

W 

W 

8. Fields (R) 

W 

W 

9. Brooks (D) 

W 

R 

10. Pickle (D) 

W 

R 

11. Leath (D) 

W 

W 

12. Wright (D) 

W 

R 

13. Hightower (D) 

w 

W 

14. Patman (D) 

w 

R 

15. de la Garza (D) 

w 

R 

16. White (D) 

w 

W 

17. Stenholm (D) 

w 

W 

18. Leland (D)- 

R 

R 

19. Hance (D) 

W 

W 

20. Gonzalez (D) 

R 

R 

21. Loeflfler (R) 

W 

W 

22. Paul (R) 

W 

W 

23. Kazen (D) 

W 

R 

24. Frost (D) 

W 

R 

UTAH 

1 . Hansen (R) 

W 

W 

2. Marriott (R) 

W 

W 

VERMONT 



AL Jeffords (R) 

R 

W., 

VIRGINIA 



1. Trible (R) 

W 

w 

2. Whitehurst (R) 

W 

w 

3. Bliley (R) 

W 

w 

4. Daniel, Robert (R) 

W 

w 

5. Daniel, Dan (D) 

W 

w 

6. Butler (R) 

W 

w 

7. Robinson (R) 

W 

w 

8. Parris (R) 

W 

w 

9. Wampler (R) 

W 

w 

10. Wolf(R) 

W 

w 

WASHINGTON 

1. Pritchard (R) 

w 

w 

2. Swift (D) 

w 

R 

3. Bonker (D) 

w 

R 

4. Morrison (R) 

w 

W 

5. Foley (D ) 

w 

R 

6. Dicks (D) 

w 

R 

7. Lowry (D) 

R 

R 

WEST VIRGINIA 


1. Mollohan (D) 

R 

R 

2. Benedict (R) 

W 

W 

3. Staton (R) 

W 

W 

4. Rahall (D) 

R 

R 

WISCONSIN 

1. Aspin (D) 

R 

R 

2. Kastenmeier (D) 

R 

R 

3. Gunderson (R) 

W 

W 

4. Zablocki (D) 

R 

R 

5. Reuss (D) 

R 

R 

6. Petri (R) 

W 

W 

7. Obey (D) 

R 

R 

8. Roth (R) 

W 

W 

9. Sensenbrenner (R) 

W 

W 

WYOMING 

\L Cheney (R 

W 

W 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 


Paflje Seven 





-c 





VIGIL FOR VICTIMS of industrial accidents and job standards and environmental safeguards. The weekly demon- 
health hazards in Pennsylvania is conducted at the White strations are being coordinated by the AFL-CIO Industrial 
House to protest the Administration’s rollback of OSHA Union Dept.’s OSHA/Environmental Network. 

Pennsylvanians Join Protest 
On Rollback of OSHA, EPA 


Price Surge 
At Wholesale 
Level Eases 

Inflation at the wholesale level moder- 
ated in April, but was still running at a 
near double-digit rate, the Bureau of La- 
bor Statistics reported. 

The seasonally adjusted rise in producer 
prices of eight-tenths of 1 percent, which 
translates to a 9.6 percent annual rate 
before compounding, compared to an in- 
crease of 1.3 percent in March. 

«THE DECELERATION in the fin- 
ished goods (wholesale) price index from 
■ the unusually high March advance was 
caused primarily by a considerably slower 
increase in finished energy prices,” BLS 
said. 

“Another moderating influence was 
the consumer foods index, which showed 
no change following an eight-tenths of 1 
percent rise in March.” 

On the other hand, BLS said, prices for 
finished goods other than food and energy 
moved up 1 percent, or twice as much as 
in March. Finished goods are products 
ready for sale at retail. 

During the 12 months ended in April 
the producer price index for finished goods 
climbed 10.6 percent. The wholesale price 
report usually provides a good indication 
of future price trends at the retail level. 
The April increase in wholesale prices 
was in line with price rises for finished 
goods in January and February. 

Prices for intermediate materials rose 
1.1 percent for the fourth time in the last 
five months. Crude material prices went 
up 1.5 percent, after falling 1.3 percent 
in March. 

i ENERGY COSTS in April rose 1.6 
percent at wholesale. In March, energy 
prices jumped 6.1 percent, reflecting in 
part President Reagan’s Jan. 28 oil-decon- 
trol order. 

Gasoline prices increased 1.3 percent 
over the month compared with 7.5 per- 
cent in March. Home heating oil prices 
were up 1.7 percent, compared with 9 
percent in the previous month. 

On the other hand, natural gas prices 
rose more rapidly than in March, 2 per- 
cent as compared with 1.3 percent. Price 
increases for finished lubricants also ac- 
celerated in April. 

Prices for consumer finished goods other 
than foods and energy reflected increases 
among a number of items, including pas- 
senger cars, which rose 1.4 percent after 
an increase of three-tenths of 1 percent 
. in March, and tobacco products, which 
soared 5.1 percent over the month, fol- 
lowing a year of generally small increases, 
BLS reported. 

Prices also were higher than in March 
for clothing, books, and alcoholic bever- 
ages. Gold jewelry prices were unchanged 
after falling rapidly for the past several 
months. 


Students Cited 
For Essays on 
Handicapped 

The labor movement works for the em- 
ployment of the handicapped through col- 
lective bargaining agreements and its over- 
all equal opportunity policies, Everett 
Lehman, director of special programs for 
the International Brotherhood of Electri- 
cal Workers told the winners of the na- 
tional “Ability Counts” essay contest for 
high school students. 

Lehman, representing AFL-CIO Vice 
President Charles H. Pillard who is vice 
chairman of the President’s Committee 
for Employment of the Handicapped, 
pointed out that the trade union movement 
long ago fought for and won the first in- 
dustrial safety laws and has been the 
leader in winning state workers’ compen- 
sation laws and in upgrading occupational 
safety and health legislation. 

The essay contest winners and their 
families were the guests of the AFL-CIO 
at a luncheon in their honor held during 
the annual meeting of the President’s com- 
mittee. Communications Workers Presi- 
dent Glenn E. Watts chairs the commit- 
tee’s labor panel. 

The students’ trips to Washington, D.C. 
for the awards ceremony were paid for by 
the federation and its state central bodies. 

THE FIVE national winners, along with 
36 other state winners, wrote on the 
theme “Mainstreaming of Disabled Stu- 
dents in My Community’s Schools.” The 
five top winners shared $5,500 in cash 
scholarships donated by the Disabled 
American Veterans. 

First prize of $2,000 went to Edna 
Elain Crawford of South Carolina. Second 
prize of $1,500 went to Robert Burns of 
Pennsylvania; third prize of $900 to Susan 
K. Anderson of Oregon; fourth prize of 
$600 to Michele Schmickle of Texas; and 
fifth prize of $500 to Charles Keller of 
Colorado. 


A delegation of Pennsylvania trade un- 
ionists and environmentalists came to 
Washington to protest the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s widening campaign to dismantle 
workplace safety and air quality laws. 

The group demonstrated at the White 
House and lobbied their representatives 
and senators on Capitol Hill as part of the 
weekly victims’ vigils for workers who 
have died as a result of occupational acci- 
dents and job-related disease. 

THE VIGILS are coordinated by the 
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Etept.’s 
OSHA/Environmental Network in an ef- 
fort to preserve the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act and the Clean Air Act. 

Mini-Strike Wins 
Gains for Guild 
At N.Y. Dailies 

New York — A 6!4-hour strike against 
the New York Times by the Newspaper 
Guild brought the union tentative, new 
three-year agreements with both the Times 
and the Daily News and appeared to re- 
move the possibility of another prolonged 
confrontation between the city’s news- 
paper unions and the two dailies. 

The Guild was the last of the city’s 
major newspaper unions to reach tentative 
agreements with the papers, which are bar- 
gaining jointly through the Publisher’s 
Association of New York. The Times and 
Daily News were shut down for three 
months in the fall of 1978 by a Pressmen’s 
strike. 

BARGAINING IS continuing at the 
New York Post, which broke with the 
publishers’ association during the 1978 
strike. 

While full details of the Guild settle- 
ments with the Times and the Daily News 
were not available pending membership 
ratification, it was clear that the wage in- 
crease provisions would raise the minimum 
rate for experienced reporters, photograph- 
ers and outside advertising sales persons 
to more than $750 a week at the Times 
and to more than $715 a week at the Daily 
News. 

Under contracts that expired Mar. 30, 
the minimum rates were $616.07 at the 
Times and $578.81 at the News. 

The wage increases, like those nego- 
tiated earlier by the printing crafts and 
the drivers’ union, average $51 a week 
retroactive to Mar. 31, $36 in the second 
year and $37 in the third year, plus cost- 
of-living increases in the second and third 
years matching any rise in the regional 
consumer price index that exceeds 6 per- 
cent. There also is an additional $6 in the 
second year for health and welfare im- 
provements. 

The Guild’s tentative agreements also 
would immediately eliminate a lower set 
of minimum wages for employees hired 
since Jan. 1, 1979, moving them to parity 
with more senior employees’ minimum 
rates. This was a central area of dispute 
in the talks. 


Participants of the Pennsylvania vigil 
expressed concerns over sharp budget re- 
ductions for OSHA enforcement programs 
and administrative actions to reduce the 
effectiveness of established and proposed 
regulations. 

Representatives of state environmental 
groups taking part in the demonstrations, 
including the Sierra Club and Trout Un- 
limited, cited a serious threat to public 
health posed by lack of effective controls 
of emissions from utility plants in the 
Ohio River Valley. They cited estimates 
by the Environmental Protection Agency 
that 54,000 pollution-related deaths could 
be averted by stricter controls. 

“THESE CONCERNED citizens have 
come to Washington to explain that we are 
not just talking about numbers and 
budgets, but also about human suffering, 
death and sorrow,” lUD President Howard 
D. Samuel said at a press conference. “We 
want the Congress and the Reagan Ad- 
ministration to realize that if they weaken 
OSHA or the Clean Air Act, they are 
literally threatening the lives of thousands 
of people.” 

Pledging a strong commitment to the 
fight, Samuel said “the health of workers 
and communities cannot be sacrificed on 
the altar of supply-side economics.” 

Sierra Club representative Brock Evans 
said workers must not be forced to make 
the choice of “it’s either dirty air or your 
job.” He noted that workers in other 
countries are not confronted with that 
kind of “blackmail.” 

Other environmentalists expressed con- 
cern over the increased amount of acid 
rain affecting Pennsylvania’s rivers and 
streams, which is killing off the state’s 
$1.6 billion per year sports fishing indus- 
try. 

Fish in streams are much like canaries 
in mines — to warn people of impending 
hazards, they pointed out. 

IN MEETING with congressional rep- 
resentatives, the vigil participants sought 
support in the effort to reverse the Admin- 
istration’s attempt to roll back OSHA 
regulations and proposals dealing with the 
labeling of toxic substances, hearing con- 
servation, cotton dust and exposure to 
lead, hearings on conveyor hazards, and 
walk-around compensation for workers 
participating in OSHA inspections. 

Sitting in on the meeting were Pennsyl- 
vania’s Republican Senators John Heinz 
and Arlen Spector and Democratic Rep- 
resentatives Don Bailey, Allen E. Ertel, 
William H. Gray, Doug Walgren and Gus 
Yatron. 

The Pennsylvania vigil was the third in 
the series of Monday demonstrations in 
Washington. Participating in coming vigils 
will be Ohio, May 18, and Wisconsin, 
June 1. 

FORMER TUC LEADER DIES 

London — Sir Vincent Tewson, general 
secretary of the British Trades Union Con- 
gress from 1946 to 1966, died May 2 at 
his home in Letchworth. He was 83. AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland sent a mes- 
sage of condolence to the TUC. 



NATIONAL WINNERS of the annual essay contest for high school students 
promoting the employment of the handicapped are congratulated by Harold 
Russell, left, chairman of the President’s Committee for Employment of the 
Handicapped, and Everett Lehman, director of special programs of the Interna- 
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The winners were Edna Crawford, 
South Carolina, second from right, first prize; Robert Burns, Pennsylvania, sec- 
ond prize, and Susan Anderson, Oregon, third prize. State winners were guests 
of the AFL-CIO during their visit to Washington for the awards ceremony. 








Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 1981 


Donahue Cites Dangers 


Cut-Rate Role for OSHA 
Poses High Human Cost 


Philadelphia — ^The Reagan Administra- 
tion’s bargain basement approach to 
OSHA standards is a primitive and un- 
reliable tool for ridding workplaces of 
hazards, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue warned in keynoting the Na- 
tional Safety Council’s regional congress 
here. 

For workers, the Administration’s cost- 
benefit concept on job safety and health 
regulations is a no-win proposition, 
Donahue said in pointing out that an esti- 
mated 100,000 die each year from occu- 
pational disease. 

DONAHUE NOTED that the Admin- 
istration is also embracing the “cost effec- 
tiveness” dogma that is keyed to resolving 
workplace problems through the least ex- 
pensive route for management which, in 
some cases, would require workers to use 
burdensome respirators rather than in- 
stalling engineering controls. 

“As a result, the workplace continues 
to be a time-bomb of toxic contaminants 
— and it continues to tick,” he warned. 

Organized labor finds the Administra- 
tion’s regulatory approach unacceptable 
and inhuman, he said in stressing that the 
AFL-CIO will continue to stick with its 
position that “the goals of the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Act are attainable 
without sacrificing workers’ lives and 
health or the economic viability of busi- 
ness.” 

For years, Donahue noted, conservative 
economists have been attempting to calcu- 


Postal Unions Press Bolger 
To Begin Talks on Contract 


The heads of two unions that together 
represent about 500,000 of the nearly 
600,000 Postal Service employees called 
on Postmaster Gen. William F. Bolger to 
accept the decision of a National Labor 
Relations Board regional director and be- 
gin negotiations on a new contract. 

“We are ready, willing, and able to meet . 
with the Postal Service, either formally or 
informally,” Letter Carriers President Vin- 
cent R. Sombrotto and Postal Workers 
President Moe Biller said in a letter to 
USPS chief negotiator Joseph F. Morris. 

“INDEED, YOU will recall that we had 
scheduled collective bargaining to begin 
Apr. 22, after a series of informal meet- 
ings with you, and it was only the uni- 
lateral refusal of the Postal Service to 
attend the scheduled bargaining session 
that led to the present, unfortunate situa- 
tion,” they observed. 

Separate talks also had been scheduled 
last month by the Mail Handlers division 
of the Laborers and the unaffiliated Rural 
Letter Carriers, which represent the bal- 
ance of the Postal Service workers cov- 
ered by union contracts. Bolger boycotted 
the April meetings, however, calling the 
structure under which the unions bargain 
independently of each other “unworkable.” 

Earlier, on Apr. 17, Bolger petitioned 


the NLRB to redefine the bargaining unit 
into a single unit. That petition was re- 
jected on Apr. 30 by the NLRB regional 
director in Baltimore, who gave USPS 
until May 13 to appeal the decision. The 
Postal Service later was given a five-day 
extension of the deadline, and Bolger said 
he would use the added time to seek an 
informal solution to the representation 
problem. 

BUT BILLER and Sombrotto told the 
House Post Office & Civil Service Com- 
mittee that the problem is of Bolger’s own 
making and that their unions would meet 
with the USPS only to begin negotiations 
on a new contract. 

The two smaller unions — the Mail Han- 
dlers and the Rural Letter Carriers — have 
said they would coordinate their bargain- 
ing with APWU and NALC but want a 
separate contract. 

Current three-year pacts with the USPS 
expire on July 20. The talks constitute the 
largest labor-management negotiations this 
year in terms of workers represented. 






late the dollar-cost of compliance with 
OSHA regulations. 

“THE CONCEPT that costs and bene- 
fits can be totally expressed in dollar terms 
has an intrinsic appeal because of its ap- 
parent common sense approach, like 
shopping around for the best bargains in 
grocery stores,” he said. 

Branding this a simplistic approach, 
Donahue pointed out that no one so far 
has been able to attach a dollar value to 
the human life. Yet, he noted, the Admin- 
istration is subjecting a number of OSHA 
standards and regulations to cost-benefit 
analysis. 

Under this approach it has withdrawn 
a proposed rule on identification of chemi- 
cal hazards, postponed the effective date 
of a hearing-conservation regulation, can- 
celled proposed hearings on a conveyor 
standard, asked the Supreme Court to set 
aside action on the cotton dust and lead 
standards^ and has withdrawn proposed 
amendments to OSHA’s cancer policy. 

“WHILE WE can’t offer an upbeat, 
optimistic forecast for the future success 
of safety and health efforts,” Donahue 
said, “neither will we raise a flag of sur- 
render to economists who evangelize the 
past as the future. 

“We refuse to deal in terms of so-called 
‘political realities’ because the only reality 
we know is the lives and health of our 
members,” Donahue told the conference 
participants. 






\- 




OUTGOING OFFICERS of the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurers’ Conference — 
Eugene Glover of the Machinists, left, and David S. Turner of the Sheet Metal 
Workers — are congratulated by Federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
at the annual meeting in Baltimore. For the past three years, Glover had been 
serving as conference chairman and Turner as treasurer. The new top officers 
of the conference are Chairman Louis B. Knecht of the Communications 
Workers, Vice Chairman Frank S. McKee of the Steelworkers and Treas. 
Charles F. Moran of the Boilermakers. 


Unions Seek Full Funding 
For Rail Safety Inspections 


Railroad unions have asked Congress to 
reject a Reagan Administration attempt 
to save money by reducing the size of the 
federal safety program in the industry for 
fiscal 1982. 

J. R. Snyder, safety committee chair- 
man of the Railway Labor Executives 
Association, told a House Appropriations 
subcommittee that, while recognizing the 
great pressure upon Congress to cut funds, 
“rail labor will not sit idly while rail safe- 
ty is in the process of being downgraded.” 

THE FEDERAL Railroad Administra- 
tion (FRA), which implements federal rail 
safety policy, has asked Congress to re- 
duce the number of federal rail inspectors 
by 41 positions. In addition, the FRA is 
requesting the same amount of money as 
last year — $1.8 million — for travel time 
for inspectors. 

Snyder, who is legislative director for 
the United Transportation Union, told the 
panel that “there are absolutely no positive 
aspects to the Administration’s rail safety 
program” for fiscal 1982. He said the re- 
ductions requested by the Administration 
will endanger the lives and safety of 
workers and increase the danger to the 
public through the possibility of increased 
rail accidents. 

Snyder pointed out that as of Apr. 1. 
1981, the FRA employed only 228 rail in- 
spectors to inspect approximately 309,000 
miles of track, 28,400 locomotives, 1.7 
million freight cars and 125,000 miles of 
signal systems. 

CITING THE 1980 record of 97 
deaths, 1,209 collisions and 6,468 derail- 
ments, Snyder questioned the effectiveness 
of the current federal rail safety enforce- 
ment capability. He said the “most critical 


18/91/s 


.<33 


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Donovan Sweatshop Raids 
Called '^Phony Theatrics^ 

The chairman of a House subcommittee has accused Labor Sec. Raymond 
Donovan of staging ‘Aphony theatrical stunts” to divert attention from Admin- 
istration moves to undermine worker protections. 

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) contrasted what he termed the “high-publicity” 
participation by Donovan in raids on two garment industry sweatshops that were 
violating the wage-hour law with the department’s subsequent proposal to lift 
its long-standing ban on industrial homework. 

The regulatory change would allow manufacturers in various apparel-related 
industries to farm out work to be performed in a worker’s home instead of in a 
factory or other central workplace that would be subject to regular inspections. 

Miller said his Subcommittee on Labor Standards of the House Education & 
Labor Committee will start hearings on the Administration’s regulatory actions 
May 19. 

The proposed change would breed new sweatshops, MiOer charged. He told 
his colleagues in the House that he intends to challenge any such move as “a 
clear abandonment of the Labor Dept.’s mandate to improve the working 
conditions of American working men and women.” 

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need is for enough FRA inspectors to en- 
force adequately the existing federal safety 
rules and regulatons.” 

Rail labor has estimated that the cost of 
50 additional inspectors, including salary 
and travel time expenses, would be $2.3 
million. Snyder compared this figure with 
the $15 million collected in fines last year 
.by safety inspectors and the $270 million 
in property , damage caused by rail acci- 
dents. 

Concerning the travel time appropria- 
tions, Snyder said FRA has underesti- 
mated the amount needed year after year. 
If the same amount of money is provided 
for travel expenses this year as last, Sny- 
der said, rail inspectors would only be 
able to travel 13 days per month. 

Reagan’s Budget 
Proposals Sail 
Through Senate 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Funds for scores of other federal 
programs would be lumped together in 
“block grants” to the states. But invari- 
ably, the total funds for block grants would 
be substantially less than the earmarked 
federal funds they are to replace. 

Before the Senate vote, the AFL-CIO 
wrote each senator protesting that the 
spending reductions that would be im- 
posed by the budget resolution would do 
“irreparable harm” to the nation. 

But the only modification made during 
four days of debate was an amendment 
approved by the Republican leadership to 
allow military and federal government re- 
tirees to get a scheduled cost-of-living 
raise. 

WITH A SOLID Republican majority 
in the Senate, the outcome of the budget 
vote was never in doubt. The only surprise 
was the magnitude of Democratic support. 
On final passage, 28 Democrats voted for 
the Republican budget and only 18 op- 
posed it. 

The previous week, the Democratic ma- 
jority in the House crumbled with 63 de- 
fections to the Reagan camp. (Rollcall on 
Page 6) 

The most controversial portion of the 
budget resolution, in terms of congres- 
sional sentiment, deals with revenue esti- 
mates which are based on an assumption 
that a tax cut of the magnitude proposed 
by the Administration will be enacted this 
year. 

Ironically, while the Senate was adopt- 
ing a budget forecasting a deficit of more 
than $50 billion in the next fiscal year, a 
Senate subcommittee endorsed a pro- 
posed constitutional amendment to require 
a balanced budget except in time of war. 







Social Security Cuts Stir Wide Protest 


Senate Vote 
DealsRebuff 
To President 



VoL XXVI 



Saturday, May 23, 1981 


No. 21 




Labor’s Tax Alternative 
Tied to Aid for Workers 



KirklandHits 
Reagan Plan 
As Unfair 


LABOR AND ART blend in the original, limited-edition lithograph created by 
internationally acclaimed American artist Robert Rauschenberg for the AFL- 
CIO’s centennial celebration. Rauschenberg, who signed and numbered all 300 
prints of the work, presents the first to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at 
the premier showing of the lithograph at federation headquarters. (Story, Page 2.) 

Unions, Employers Blast 
Bid to Revive Homework 


By James M. Shevis 

A storm of outrage over the Adminis- 
tration’s proposals to slash social security 
benefits swept the nation and organized 
labor mounted a major drive to head off 
the cuts. 

The Reagan plan, which has drawn a 
heavy flow of protest mail to Capitol Hill 
and the White House since it was unveiled 
May 13, would drastically curtail benefits 
for all workers who choose to retire at 62 
instead of 65, impose severe new restric- 
tions on disability retirement, and change 
the benefit formula to reduce payments to 
future retirees of alkages. 

SO STRONG was the grass-roots re- 
sentment that the Senate unanimously 
adopted a resolution promising not to 
make any “precipitous or unfair” reduc- 
tions in early retirement benefits. Only by 
a single vote did the Republican-controlled 
Senate stop a Democratic-sponsored reso- 
lution attacking the Administration plan 
as a “breach of faith.” 

At the White House, Acting Press Sec- 
retary Larry Speakes told reporters that 
the Administration is “certainly willing” 
to discuss changes in its proposal. 

When the Administration plans were 
unveiled, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land pledged that unions “will do every- 
thing we can to prevent their enactment.” 

AUTO WORKERS President Douglas 
Fraser said in a Detroit speech the UAW 
would conduct the largest lobbying cam- 
paign in its history to fight the Adminis- 
tration’s proposals. Union members will 
travel to Washington, and camp out on 
the doorsteps of lawmakers when the social 
security cuts come up for consideration 
in Congress, he said. 

“I don’t care if it takes weeks. I don’t 
care if it takes months,” Fraser declared. 
“We’re going to stay there until this 
atrocious legislation is defeated. 

“It’s really changing the rules in the 
middle of the game. It’s really double- 
crossing the people.” 

ON CAPITOL HILL, Senate Demo- 
crats caucused and unanimously adopted 
a resolution condemning the proposed re- 
ductions as “precipitous and severe,” and 
constituting “a breach of faith with those 
aging Americans who have contributed to 
the social security system and have 
planned for their retirement upon the 
promise of a specific level of social se- 
curity income.” 

Senate Minority Leader Robert C. 
Byrd (D-W.Va.) declared: “We’re going 
to oppose this proposal by the President 
to the last ditch, and we’ll use every rule 
in the Senate book to see that it doesn’t 
become law.” 

(Continued on Page 7) 


By David L. Perlman 

The Labor Dept, is considering regula- 
tory changes that would shrink the pre- 
vailing wage protections of the Davis- 
Bacon Act, cut back coverage of the Ser- 
vice Contract Act and lessen affirmative 
action obligations of federal contractors. 

All three programs are being scrutinized 
under the Reagan Administration’s cost- 
benefit test for government regulations. 
Labor Dept. Solicitor T. Timothy Ryan, 
Jr., told reporters at a news briefing. 

MODIFICATIONS in existing regula- 
tions had been proposed by the Carter 
Administration before it left office, but 
Ryan made clear that the revisions being 
drafted by the Labor Dept, go much 
deeper than consideration of the earlier 
proposals. 


Union and employer witnesses told a 
House Labor Standards subcommittee that 
there is no conceivable justification for the 
Administration’s plan to revoke long- 
standing regulations that prohibit indus- 
trial homework. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison stressed that the ban on farming 
out work was imposed years ago because 
h proved impossible to enforce the Fair 
Labor Standards Act in “kitchen sweat- 


That’s especially true of the Davis-Bacon 
Act, which requires construction contrac- 
tors to pay workers on federally-funded 
projects no less than local prevailing rates 
of pay and fringe benefits. 

Ryan’s list of “major issues under re- 
view” by the Labor Dept, covers virtually 
all the complaints that open-shop contrac- 
tors have made. 

A SPECIAL target is the so-called 30 
percent rule, which would have been un- 
changed in the Carter proposals. Under 
present regulations, the prevailing wage is 
the rate received by the largest number of 
workers in the job classification being sur- 
veyed, provided they constitute at least 30 
percent of all the workers in that classifi- 
cation. 

(Continued on Page 7) 


shops.” Yet the Labor Dept.’s “sole justifi- 
cation” for its proposal to repeal the ban is 
that the deregulation wouldn’t have any 
“significant economic impact,” Denison 
noted. 

Ladies’ Garment Workers President Sol 
C. Chaikin said he found it “simply in- 
credible” that any Secretary of Labor 
would propose such a backward step. 

He termed industrial homework the 
“worst form” of sweatshop the garment 
industry ever experienced. 

An employer spokesman agreed. Kurt 
Barnard, executive director of the Federa- 
tion of Apparel Manufacturers, said the 
Labor Dept.’s proposed action would 
mean “disaster” for fair employers. 

IT WOULD lead to “proliferation of 
at-home sweatshops” and “foster the ex- 
ploitation of unregistered aliens,” he 
warned. 

The costume jewelry industry is also 
one of those where industrial homework 
was banned because of flagrant abuses, 
and union representatives warned that 
conditions are ripe for a revival of social 
evils if the Labor Dept, goes through with 
its deregulations. 

Leon Swerdlove. director of the Jewelry' 
Workers Division of the Service Employ- 
ees, and Local 1-J President Joseph Ta- 
rantola said deregulation would have “a 
devastating impact on the wage's, hours 
and working conditions of jewelry work- 
ers.” 

It is difficult enough now to enforce 
(Continued on Page 3) 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
pressed Senate tax-writers to take a fresh 
look at labor’s proposal to link business 
assistance to the nation’s reindustrializa- 
tion goals and to use a payroll tax credit 
to alleviate inflation’s burden on Ameri- 
ca’s workers. 

Kirkland went before the Republican- 
led, conservative-dominated Senate Fi- 
nance Committee to challenge the Reagan 
Administration’s tax proposals as unfair, 
inflationary and wasteful. 

HE SCOFFED at the “supply-side” no- 
tion that giving substantially bigger tax 
savings to the wealthy will send them rush- 
ing to invest in new plant and equipment. 

And he protested business tax cuts that 
would heap unneeded windfalls on corpo- 
rations with the highest earnings, reward 
companies for purchasing equipment 
abroad and further shift the tax burden 
from corporations to individuals. 

Kirkland outlined the labor-supported 
alternative, which has Seen introduced in 
the House by two members of the Ways 
& Means Committee — Frank J. Guarini 
(D-N.J.) and William M. Brodhead (D- 
Mich.). 

IT WOULD give every wage and salary 
earner a tax refund equal to 20 percent 
of social security payroll deductions. For 
this year, the maximum tax reduction 
would be $395 for a one-earner house- 
hold and $790 for a two-worker family. 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Reagan’s Budget 
Cuts Get Final 
Congress Okay 

Congress gave final approval to the 
drastic budget cuts demanded by President 
Reagan, and its committees began chop- 
ping up federal programs in order to hold 
spending under the new budget ceilings. 

In the House Ways & Means Commit- 
tee and the Senate Finance Committee, the 
unemployed were among the first victims. 

BOTH PANELS agreed to end the na- 
tional extended unemployment benefits 
program that is triggered on by recession- 
level jobless rates. They also changed the 
formula for triggering state extended bene- 
fits entitlements, and sharply cut back 
jobless benefits for persons leaving mili- 
tary service. 

The trade adjustment assistance pro- 
gram would be reduced to a short-term 
extension of regular unemployment bene- 
fits with a job training entitlement. 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Labor Dept. Weighs Move 
To Trim Pay Protections 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 




WORK IN PROGRESS nears completion as top American celebration with Graphic Arts Union members at Prolith 
artist Robert Rauschenberg checks proofs of the limited International, Beltsville, Md. Reproductions of the print will 
edition lithograph he created for the AFL-CIO centennial be available in June. 


New Slide Show, Graphics 
Focus on Labor’s Centennial 


The AFL-CIO has added an educational 
slide show, a portable historical display and 
a reproduction of original art to the ma- 
terials available for use during the cele- 
bration of organized labor’s centennial 
year. 

Previewed by the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council at its spring meeting in Baltimore, 
the slide show, titled “Achievement and 
Challenge,” focuses on labor’s growth 
over the past 100 years. It contains a 
built-in soundtrack with special music and 
a professional narrator. 

The 11 -minute show, which involves the 

Hillman Awards 
Cite Outstanding 
Work in Media 

New York — Penny Lernoux, a reporter 
and Latin American affairs expert, re- 
ceived one of four Sidney Hillman Foun- 
dation awards in communications at a 
luncheon ceremony here honoring out- 
standing achievements in 1980 in the 
fields of newspaper reporting, radio and 
television documentaries, magazine arti- 
cles, and books. 

Lernoux’s award was for her book, 
“Cry of the People,” a study of the struggle 
for human rights in Latin America. Other 
winners at the 31st annual awards presen- 
tation were: 

• The Miami Herald, for an investiga- 
tive series of articles titled “Police Bru- 
tality” that dealt with tensions in Miami 
over racial problems. 

• Bill Moyers’ Journal, for a television 
documentary examining the influence of 
the New Right in national politics. Moyers 
won a similar award in 1977. 

• The MacNeil-Lehrer Report, which 
was given a special award for continued 
excellence in TV journalism. 

The winners each received scrolls and 
$750 checks. 

THE AWARDS are a memorial to 
Sidney Hillman, first president of the 
original Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
of America, which merged in 1976 with 
the Textile Workers Union of America to 
form the Amalgamated Clothing Tex- 
tile Workers. They were established to 
recognize those in the media who have 
the courage to report on any subject, no 
matter how controversial, in the hope of 
improving society as a whole. 

Judges for the 1980 awards were TV 
commentator Edwards P. Morgan, author 
and lecturer Harrison E. Salisbury, and 
columnist and television commentator Carl 
T. Rowan. 


use of two projectors, 4-track tape equip- 
ment, stereo speakers and a professional 
control deck, has been converted into %- 
inch videocassette form and 16 mm motion 
and local unions, central bodies, schools 
and others. Available now, the purchase 
price for the videocassette is $30; for the 
picture film to meet the needs of national 
film, $65. 

Also in production, for delivery in June, 
is a film strip version of the slide show. 
The price for the strip with accompanying 
soundtrack will be approximately $25. 

All versions will be available for rental 
through the AFL-CIO Dept, of Education. 

ALSO SHOWN at the council meeting 
was a set of three large historical panels’ 
suitable for display in union halls, at meet- 
ings, in schools and in public libraries. 

Through pictures symbolic of the ac- 
tivities and people of organized labor since 
1881, brief explanatory text and captions, 
the panels tell the story of labor’s struggle 
and service to union members and to the 
entire American public. Distribution will 
begin in June. 

The council viewed for the first time 
artist Robert Rauschenberg’s new work, a 
lithograph titled “AFL-CIO Centennial 
Commemorative Artwork.” 

CREATED FROM a montage of pho- 
tographs and graphic materials drawn 
from labor history, the 25-by-3 8-inch 
print was produced from nine plates under 
the personal supervision of the artist at 
Prolith International, a leading reproducer 
of art in the Washington metropolitan 
area, with the cooperation of the Graphic 
Arts International Union. 

The edition of 300 copies of the art- 
work was signed and numbered by the 
artist. The print is being readied now for 
reproduction in quantity and will be avail- 
able in June. 

Scheduled for completion around July 
1 is the centennial documentary film, a 27- 
minute motion picture to be called “A 
Time of Challenge.” 

“A Short History of American Labor,” 
the 36-page brochure issued in February, 
quickly went out of print due to demand. 
It has been reprinted in quantity and is 
once again available at the listed price 
of $1. 

THE CENTENNIAL poster featuring 
Samuel Gompers’ answer to the question, 
“What does labor want?” is also available 
through the AFL-CIO Pamphlet Division, 
in addition to reprints of articles and fea- 
tures from the American Federationist 
and the centennial bumper sticker. 

Order blanks for these materials are 
available from the AFL-CIO Pamphlet 
Division, 815 - 16th St. N.W., Washington, 
D.C. 20006. 


OPIC Renewal 
Fought on Jobs 
Export Issue 

The AFL-CIO urged Congress not to 
extend the life of the Overseas Private 
Investment Corp. (OPIC), which insures 
U.S. investors in 80 developing nations 
against losses from expropriation, war, 
revolution and blocked currency. 

In practice, OPIC has encouraged the 
export of U.S. capital, jobs and technol- 
ogy, AFL-CIO Economist Elizabeth R. 
Jager told a House Foreign Affairs sub- 
committee. 

She asked rejection of a bill to extend 
OPIC’s authorization an additional four 
years. The program encourages firms to 
invest abroad rather than in the United 
States. Its extension “would have the tax- 
payers continue to subsidize industry 
abroad, even those operations which pro- 
duce job-destroying imports,” she stressed. 

Jager said congressional attempts to cor- 
rect abuses in OPIC’s operations have not 
been successful and the program should 
be terminated “as soon as possible.” 

OPIC’s .1980 annual report, she noted, 
shows that the chief beneficiaries of its 
program were the same “giant firms and 
banks that have always benefited from 
them.” 


Budget Cuts 
Get Approval 
Of Congress 

(Continued from Page 1) 

After the House committee agreed to 
cut the $1.7 billion cost of the present 
program to $364 million for the fiscal year 
starting Oct. 1, Rep. Sam Gibbons (D- 
Fla.) said the effect was so close to a 
“sunset” provision ending a program that 
“you won’t be able to tell when the sun 
goes over the horizon.” 

THE HOUSE committee went on to 
chop $850 million out of the low-income 
energy assistance program, reduce welfare 
payments for families with dependent chil- 
dren by $760 million — which was less 
than the Senate committee had slashed — 
and cut $2.7 billion in social security pay- 
ments through phasing out college student 
benefits as the Administration had sought 
and deferring half of the July 1982 cost- 
of-living adjustment until October. 

In all, the Ways & Means Committee 
chopped $9.1 billion from programs in its 
jurisdiction and instructed its staff to come 
up with additional suggestions. 

AN EVEN more painful task of pro- 
gram-slashing faces the more liberal House 
Education & Labor Committee and the 
Senate Labor & Human Resources Com- 
mittee, now under Republican control. 

House Committee Chairman Carl D. 
Perkins (D-Ky.) made no secret of his 
distaste for the reconciliation instructions 
that would force the destruction of pro- 
grams the committee has initiated and 
considers still needed. His committee’s re- 
conciliation instructions are to achieve 
more than $10 billion in spending cuts. 

The budget resolution directs commit- 
tees to report their legislative changes to 
the House and Senate Budget Committees 
by June 12. The Budget Committee of 
each body will then bring to the floor a 
single bill that is supposed to achieve the 
budget targets. It can write additional cuts 
into the reconciliation bill if a legislative 
committee fails to meet its quota. 

OTHER COMMITTEES are also faced 
with multibillion-dollar spending cuts, 
threatening to wipe out the entire Eco- 
nomic Development Administration, cut 
back sharply on various forms of public 
works, slash food stamp entitlements, re- 
duce rail subsidies and shrink government 
services generally. 

The House-Senate conference agreement 
that included the reconciliation instruc- 
tions cleared the House by a 244-155 vote 
and passed the Senate, 76-20. 


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Illinois Legislature Swamps 
^Right-to- Work ’ Proposal 

Springfield, HI. — The Illinois House of Representatives voted 138 to 25 to 
kill a so-called right-to-work bill, dealing supporters of the anti-worker measure 
their eighth defeat this year. 

State AFL-CIO President Robert G. Gibson applauded the house action, 
declaring that ‘‘these 138 members weren’t fooled by the rhetoric. Right-to- 
work-for-less proposals have never guaranteed any worker a right to a job. 
Rather they are intended to destroy the effectiveness of the labor union move- 
ment in Illinois.” 

Gibson added that the 25 votes in favor of “right-to-work,” all cast by 
Republicans, were fewer than the number of sponsors listed on the bill. 

When the measure was reported out of the Republican-dominated House Labor 
Committee, it marked the first time such a bOl had reached the floor of the 
House in Illinois legislative history, Gibson said. 

The vote against the compulsory open shop, Gibson said, “puts this phony 
issue behind us.” He said Illinois labor will now concentrate its legislative 
efforts to seek defeat of a series of anti-worker proposals sent to the House floor 
by the same Labor Committee. 

Those measures include bills that would slash unemployment compensation 
by 40 percent, drastically cut workers’ compensation, repe^ certain safety laws 
covering work on hazardous construction sites, and cut wages paid on public 
construction projects. 

Bills to outlaw union shop contracts have been defeated since the first of the 
year by state legislatures in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Idaho, West 
Virginia and Maryland, as well as Illinois. A New Mexico measure was killed 
by the governor’s veto. 

iiiiiniiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiininii^ 












‘ ^v :, AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 


=i=a 


Pag^e Three 




1 ^*- 


•r. 


i 


W 


* Kitchen Sweatshops* ^ * 

Unions, Employers Blast 
Bid to Revive Homework 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the laws, they noted. In Rhode Island, 
where a large percentage of costume 
jewelry manufacture is concentrated, “most 
of the manufacturing is performed by 
small job shops.” Most are unorganized, 
employing “large numbers of aliens and 
minorities, including undocumented work^ 
ers.” Already, illegal homework opera- 
tions exist where families work until late 
at night “and truant officers in the state 
complain that children are being kept out 
of school to perform the work.” 

Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan de- 
clined an invitation to testify before the 
subcommittee, but Deputy Under Sec. of 
Labor Robert B. Collyer said the depart- 
ment would be better able to protect 
workers by repealing the ban on industrial 
homework and mounting a “strong en- 
forcement effort.” 

Subcommittee Chairman George Miller 
(D-Calif.) scoffed at the assertion and 
noted that the Reagan Administration 
budget required a substantial cutback in 
enforcement staff for the Fair Labor 
Standards Act. 

IN A SPEECH to business leaders later 
that day, Donovan said he will press for 
stiffer penalties for repeated violators of 
the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of 
a campaign against sweatshop operations. 

Donovan said the combination of mea- 
sures would result in “a regulatory frame- 
work that makes sense, penalizing the ex- 
ploitation of workers, wherever it exists, 
but not penalizing work.” 

Denison, testifying for the AFL-CIO, 
challenged the Secretary of Labor’s view 
that allowing homework in the industries 
where it has been prohibited would “open 
up job opportunities.” 

In practice, he warned, it would destroy 
jobs the economy needs, and the replace- 
ment “opportunities” are “an unacceptable 
tradeoff.” 

CONVENTIONS 

The Carpenters’ 1981 convention in 
Chicago will open Aug. 31 rather than 
Sept. 4 as previously listed. 

The Public Employee Dept, will hold its 
1981 convention June 11-12 in Washing- 
ton, D.C. 


THE REGULATIONS the Administra- 
tion proposes to revoke, Denison noted, 
allow homework in seven specified indus- 
tries to be performed “only by persons 
unable to adjust to factory work because 
of age or physical or mental disability, or 
by persons who must remain at home to 
care for an invalid.” The covered indus- 
tries are jewelry manufacturing, gloves 
and mittens, knitted outerwear, button and 
buckle manufacturing, women’s apparel, 
handkerchief manufacturing and embroid- 
eries. 

Chaikin told the subcommittee that in- 
dustrial homework gave employers a 
means of violating labor standards laws 
“with total impunity.” 

When laws made child labor illegal, he 
testified, employers shifted to homework 
for “obvious” reason. “When an employer 
farmed out work to an adult worker to 
be taken home to be finished, the em- 
ployer could readily disclaim responsibility 
if the woman who took the work home 
had her children work on the garments.” 

CHAIKIN NOTED also that when fac- 
tory laws compelled employers to meet 
standards for fire prevention and sanita- 
tion, many simply evaded the responsibil- 
ity by farming out work to be done in 
tenement “rat holes and fire traps.” 

A South Carolina dress manufacturer. 
Jack Davis, said legitimate business op- 
erations would be undercut by outfits 
using homeworkers. 

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said he 
supported an exemption that would allow 
a cottage knitting operation in rural Ver- 
mont to continue. But he said the prob- 
lem could have been dealt with by the 
Labor Dept, through more “carefully 
crafted” changes instead of repeal of the 
entire homework ban. 

SEN. DANIEL Patrick Moynihan (D- 
N.Y.) protested that the Labor Dept, was 
proposing to turn back the clock to evils 
that “we thought had disappeared like 
tuberculosis.” 

And for the National Consumers 
League, Ruth Jordan charged that the 
Labor Dept, is evading its obligation to 
maintain the integrity of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act by its proposal to legalize 
homework. 


Labor’s Tax Alternative 
Tied to Aid for Workers 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

Employers would be given a 5 percent tax 
credit on their share of the payroll tax. 

Business assistance would be channeled 
through a tripartite board to the goal of 
“revitalization and rehabilitation of the 
nation’s basic industries and economically 
distressed areas,” Kirkland said. 

“The alternative we support provides a 
greater share of tax relief to those low 
and middle-income families who need 
help now,” Kirkland told the committee. 

“IT PROVIDES tax relief for smaller, 
more labor-intensive companies ignored 
by the Reagan proposal. And it targets 
other business tax incentives to those areas 
and industries, new and old, that most 
need help.” 

Even members of Congress who have 
gone along with the Administration’s 
spending cut demands have questioned the 
President’s call for a three-year series of 
tax cuts, mounting to 30 percent. 

The AFL-CIO shares that concern 
“about the consequences of locking the 
economy into a three-year tax cut,”. Kirk- 
land said. Any further reductions, he 
urged, “should be based on experience, 
not guesswork.” 

SERVICE EMPLOYEES President 
John J. Sweeney also testified before the 
Senate panel in opposition to the Adminis- 
tration tax bill. 

“The President’s program will not pro- 


vide real tax relief for the overwhelming 
majority of service workers,” Sweeney 
said. “In fact, most of our members will 
be paying a larger share of their income 
in taxes under the plan because of infla- 
tion and increased payroll taxes.” 

But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 
testified that it “strongly supports” the Ad- 
ministration tax proposal. 



SWEATSHOP ERA would be brought back by a Labor Dept, plan to end the 
ban on industrial homework, Ladies’ Garment Workers President Sol C. Chaikin 
warned at House hearings. At left is ILGWU Counsel Max Zimny. 

Court Allows Pension Offset 
For Workers’ Compensation 


The Supreme Court has upheld the 
legality of provisions in private pension 
plans that reduce a retiree’s benefits by 
the amount of a state worker’s compen- 
sation award for job-related injuries. 

In an 8-to-O decision, the court ruled 
that Congress contemplated and approved 
such “offset” provisions when it enacted 
the 1974 Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act (ERISA) regulating private 
pension plans. 

THE OPINION by Justice Thurgood 
Marshall strikes down parts of a 1977 
New Jersey law prohibiting pension plans 
from deducting injury or disability awards 
from retirement benefits. Justice William 
J. Brennan took no part in the decision. 

The ruling stems from employee chal- 
lenges to pension plans maintained by 
General Motors Corp. and Raybestos-Man- 
hattan, Inc. Many pension plans contain 
provisions similar to those challenged. 

The suit against GM was filed in 1977 
by two workers in behalf of a class of re- 
tired employees who were receiving pen- 
sions under the GM plan when they col- 
lected workers’ compensation benefits. 
One worker received some $2,500 and 
the other $2,300. The full amount of the 
awards was then deducted by the employer 
from their pension benefits. 

SIX OTHER retirees filed a similar 
class action early in 1978 against Raybes- 
tos-Manhattan, when similar deductions 
were made from their pension benefits. 
Both lawsuits alleged violations of New 
Jersey state law. 

The employers removed the suits to 
federal district courts where judges in both 
cases held that the pension offset provi- 
sions violated New Jersey law, and that 
Congress had not intended ERISA to pre- 
empt such state laws. They also held that 



TAX CUTS proposed by the Reagan Administration are tilted toward the 
wealthy and would chiefly benefit businesses that are already most profitable, 
AFL-(ilO President Lane Kirkland testified. With him at Senate Finance Com- 
mittee hearings are Research Director Rudy Oswald, left, and Legislative Direc- 
tor Ray Denison. 


the offsets were barred by Section 203(a) 
of ERISA prohibiting forfeiture of vested 
pension rights. Section 203 states that 
“each pension plan shall provide that an 
employee’s right to his normal retirement 
benefits is nonforfeitable upon the attain- 
ment of normal retirement age.” 

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals re- 
versed both findings on Feb. 15, 1980, and 
the Supreme Court granted review of the 
matter last November. 

MARSHALL EXPLAINED in his opin- 
ion that the retirees’ argument based on 
Section 203 ignores the fact that except 
for certain restrictions imposed by ERISA, 
private parties are free to define the con- 
tent of the pension benefits that, once 
vested, cannot be forefeited. 

Prior to 1977, New Jersey had approved 
workers’ compensation offsets in collec- 
tively bargained pension agreements. In 
that year, the state legislature amended 
the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation 
Act to outlaw such offsets. 

Media Restraint 
Asked on Early 
Voting Projection 

The AFL-CIO has joined with the 
League of Women Voters and other con- 
cerned organizations in a letter urging 
radio and television networks and wire 
services not to project the winner of the 
presidential election while polls are still 
open on the West Coast. 

In last November’s election, many vot- 
ers didn’t bother to go to the p>olls be- 
cause projections based on results from 
states in earlier time zones pointed to a 
big Reagan victory. 

While the falloff in late voting did not 
affect the presidential outcome, it prob- 
ably influenced the results of several close 
contests for Congress and for state or local 
offices. 

THE LETTER to the news media 
stressed that voluntary restraint in pro- 
jecting early returns would not infringe 
on freedom of the press. 

“We do not believe that any news 
agency should refrain from full and fair 
reporting of actual and final counts when 
they become available,” the letter speci- 
fied. “But a projection, no matter how it 
is derived, is not the same as the actual 
results and can have the effect of in- 
fluencing those results.” 

The organizations joining in the request 
urged that there should be “one night 
every four years when the people should 
be allowed their full and fair opportunity 
to speak, when their voice should be 
heard and their story should be told as it 
unfolds.” 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 


A Facade of Equity 

ADMINISTRATION tax program is presented with a 
facade of “equity” for individuals and “neutrality” for cor- 
porations. It is neither. 

The bulk of the benefits of the individual tax cut go to those 
individuals in the highest income brackets — nearly 30 percent to 
the top 5 percent. By contrast, the program we support would 
give 60 percent of the benefit to the vast majority of taxpayers 
who earn less than $30,000 a year. 

It is neither equitable nor fair for the government to grant 
almost $17,000 in tax cuts over the next three years to an indi- 
vidual earning $100,000 a year, while those earning the median 
family annual income of $20,000 receive less than $1,500. 

BY THE SAME TOKEN, those corporations with the highest 
earnings — oil companies, the communications industry and other 
capital-intensive firms — would gain the lion’s share of the busi- 
ness tax cuts. Those industries facing the most critical needs — 
such as auto and steel — ^would get little benefit. 

With persistent high unemployment, the nation needs jobs. Yet 
the Administration proposal concentrates its benefits on larger, 
more prosperous, capital-intensive firms with little potential to 
increase employment. 

It seems to us a more prudent use of tax dollars to encourage 
investments that will increase employment opportunities, espe- 
cially in hard-pressed urban areas. The 10-5-3 depreciation al- 
lowance speed-up is not a program to encourage investment; it 
is a program to shift the tax burden from corporations onto the 
backs of individuals. 

Given the current state of the American economy, we see 
absolutely no reason why the government should reward any 
company for purchasing equipment from abroad. Speeding up 
depreciation allowances on Datsuns would only speed up the 
deterioration of the American automobile industry. 

Because we are also concerned about the consequences of lock- 
ing the economy into a three-year tax cut, the AFL-CIO supports 
a one-year tax cut. Any further changes should be based on 
experience, not guesswork. 

THE ALTERNATIVE we support provides a greater share 
of tax relief to those low and middle-income families who need 
help now. It provides tax relief for smaller, more labor-intensive 
companies ignored by the Reagan proposal. And it targets other 
business tax incentives to those areas and industries, new and 
old, that most need help. 


‘Hold It!’ 



Shifting the Burden 


Corporate Share of Tax Load 
Shows Steady Drop Since ’58 


This alternative recognizes that tax burdens are too high for 
many, but not all individuals; that some industries need tax relief, 
but not all. 

Most importantly, it also avoids the economic peril that could 
result from shackling the country to one set economic approach 
that, at best, is highly questionable. 

— From AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland*s testirnony before 
the Senate Finance Committee, May 20, 198 L 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 


American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


S John H. Lyons 
S Frederick O’Neal 
= A1 H. Chesser 
E Albert Shanker 
E Edward T. Hanley 
E William H.McCIennan 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
E Alvin E. Heaps 
I FredJ. Kroll 
E Wayne E. Glenn 
5 William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason E 

S. Frank Raftery = 

Murray H. Finley ^ 

Sol C. Chaikin s 

Charles H. Pillard 1 

Lloyd McBride = 

Emmet Andrews = 

William H. Wynn ^ 

John DeConcini = 

Dan V. Maroney e 

John J. Sweeney = 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 


Managing Editor: John M. Barry 


Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman Jaipes M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I VoL XXVI Saturday, May 23, 1981 No. 21 | 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week oj the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
~ Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. 



By Gus Tyler 

N OW LISTEN, all ye budget balancers, there 
really is a very simple way to do it. Just get 
corporations to pay their “proper share” and we 
could balance the budget and restore all those 
unkindly cuts. 

What’s a “proper share,” you ask. Just have 
the corporations carry the same share of federal 
taxes that they did in 1958 and all will be in 
balance. 

The proof can be found in the application of 
elementary arithmetic. Just try it: 

IN 1958, total receipts of the federal govern- 
ment were $78 billion of which about $18 bil- 
lion were from taxes on corporate profits. That 
means that corporations were then carrying about 
23 percent of the tax load and, if you please, doing 
very nicely with after-tax profits. 

But, as always, corporations complained that 
they were being taxed to death and that they 
needed relief in the form of this kind and that 
kind of shelter. As a consequence, corporations 
began to carry an ever lesser part of the load. 

By 1970, corporations were carrying about 17 
percent of the tax burden; by 1980, the corporate 
share had fallen to a mere 13.3 percent. By 1982, 
it is projected that corporations will pick up only 
10.8 percent of the federal tax total — which is 
less than half the share they carried in 1958. 

NOW LET’S DO our elementary calculations 
on what would happen if corporations in 1981 
were to carry their “proper share,” using the year 
1958 as a modest measure of “propriety.” 

The estimated total tax receipts for 1981 are 
$614 billion. Corporations are expected to pay 
$67.9 billion, a rate equal to 11 percent. 

But if the corporations paid at the 1958 rate 
of 23.3 percent, they would pay in $143 billion 
instead of a pallid $67.9 billion. 

THAT MEANS, if you simply subtract what 
they will pay in from what they should be paying 
in. Uncle Sam would end up $75 billion richer. 

That $75 billion would easily cover the deficit 
and would leave almost $30 billion to restore 
some of those vital services that the Administra- 
tion wants to chop down. 

But instead of raising the corporate share from 
13 percent in 1980 back up to -the good old 23 


percent that prevailed in 1958, it is proposed to 
lower the corporate portion from 13 to 11 to 10 
percent. 

OBVIOUSLY, the budget is going to be un- 
balanced if the corporations that once carried 
one-quarter of the responsibility are now carrying 
only one-tenth and are still pushing to be excused 
altogether from carrying any of the costs. 

The budget is unbalanced because the corpo- 
rations have unbalanced it by excusing themselves 
from the obligation of paying their “proper share” 
of the nation’s costs. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler’s Column 

illllllllilllillilllllllllilllllllilllillillllllllllllllllllillliiiliilllllllllllllliiilllllllllllllll^ 

White Collar Women 
Battle for Full Rights 

Women are changing the face of the work- 
force in the United States. The old picture of 
the average woman working only until she gets 
married doesn’t hold true today. 

The changes resulting from the tremendous 
number of women entering and re-entering the 
workforce are affecting how “equal employ- 
ment opportunity” is defined — ^by the govern- 
ment, unions and employers. 

This is especially true for women in white 
collar jobs. 

The “prestige” of a white collar job is no 
longer sufficient. What matters is that women’s 
jobs are recognized for their value and worth 
to the employer and the community, that non- 
glamorous health hazards such as office equip- 
ment fumes and stress are recognized for the 
contributions they are making to illness among 
white collar women, that responsibility for fam- 
ilies be shared, and that convenient, quality 
child care be available. 

What we must continue to fight for, through 
our unions and in our governments, is elimina- 
tion of continuing discrimination in our pay, 
our advancement opportunities, our benefits, 
and in the recognition of our contributions to 
our nations’ economies. 

— AFL-CIO Vice President Joyce D. Miller 
in welcome to delegates to the World Women* s 
Conference, Washington, D.C., May 13, 1981. 

iillllliillllltllliiiiilllllillllillllililllllliillllillilllllilillillllilllillillllilllllllllllll^^ 





Turning Back the Clock 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 


Page Five 


Homework Lets Employer Flout 
Labor Standards with Impunity 


The following is excerpted from testimony by 
President Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies' Garment 
Workers at a House Labor Standards subcom- 
mittee hearing, May 19, 1981. 

I NDUSTRIAL HOMEWORK has always been 
a way to violate the law with nearly total im- 
punity. For instance, when laws were passed pro- 
hibiting industrial employment of children below 
a certain age, employers shifted to homework. 

The reason was obvious. If children of illegal 
age were employed in the factory, either a gov- 
ernment inspector or the union or some worker 
could lodge a complaint. But when an employer 
farmed out work to an adult worker to be taken 
home to be finished, the employer could readily 
disclaim responsibility if the woman who took 
the work home had her children work on the 
garments. And that is precisely what happened. 

As that great American poet Edwin Markham 
wrote in 1907 — when homework was legal — 
“The children are called iii from play to drive 
and drudge beside their elders. The load falls 
upon the ones least able to bear it — upon the 
backs of the little children at the base of the 
labor pyramid.” 

AND WHO IS IT that calls the children “in 
from play?” It is the parent, of course — not the 
employer. Will this parent then turn herself in 
for violating the law by employing children? 

Another example. Various states passed fac- 
tory laws, especially after the gruesome Triangle 
Fire in our industry. The object was to reduce 
the danger of fire and unsanitary conditions. To 
evade those laws, employers turned to homework. 
If the work was done — as it was — in filthy kitch- 
ens, in rat holes, in firetraps, the employer could 
disclaim all responsibility. Are we to expect that 
the worker at home would register a complaint 
about her work environment when her work site 
is her home? 

So it went. A law was passed to counter abuses 
in the factory and the reflexive action of many 
employers was to use industrial homework as a 
way to evade the law. 

TO ARGUE — as the Secretary of Labor does 
— that legalization of homework would encourage 
enforcement of the law is to fly in the face of all 
experience and to reject the conclusions of com- 
mon sense. 

This is particularly true in the light of what 
happened during the period of the National Re- 
covery Act when a massive effort was made to 
establish standards by codes for separate indus- 
tries. The NRA codes sought to establish stan- 
dards by codes for separate industries. The NRA 
codes sought to establish standards affecting 
wages, hours, and child labor. Most codes in an 


industry where homework was widespread banned 
it because it was widely understood that if home- 
work were to be permitted and remain unregu- 
lated, it would not be possible to maintain the 
proper labor standards. 

The Bureau of Women & Children of the Penn- 
sylvania Dept, of Labor conducted an exhaustive 
study that concluded: “No matter how stringent 
the regulations, how honest the investigators, the 
sweatshop conditions will continue to exist until 
homework is abolished.” 

The Women’s Bureau did a study in Rhode 
Island, reaching the same conclusion: “The pre- 
vention of child labor is^ practically impossible 
under a system of industrial homework. It is a 
temptation in families that eke out their existence 
to increase their pitifully small earnings with the 
aid of even very small children.” 

IT IS important to note the two reasons why 
the National Recovery Administration concluded 
that it was necessary to abolish homework. First, 
homework made it impossible to enforce the in- 
dustrial codes regulating hours, wages and child 
labor. Second, homework had disastrous “com- 
petitive effects.” 

Employers using homeworkers paid less. They 
were able to undercut legitimate employers. In 
a kind of industrial Gresham’s Law where bad 
money drives out good money, bad employers 
drove out good employers. 

That’s why good employers — and, by that I 
mean employers who lived within the law — 
joined readily in the move to abolish homework. 

Homework is a simple way to violate the law 
without fear of punishment: no minimum wage, 
no overtime, no limit on hours, no health and 
safety measures, no taxes. To legalize such home- 
work is to multiply violations. 

THE WEIGHT of accumulated experience and 
the application of simple common sense make 
perfectly clear that homework is an evil that can 
not be “regulated” and that most certainly can 
not be cured by complaints from workers caught 
in the system. 

The reasons why homework must be restricted 
are as valid today as they ever were. In fact, in 
two respects they are even more valid. First, 
there is a huge body of illegal aliens who are the 
natural prey for such a system. Second, the cash 
economy is widespread today and payment off- 
the-books is a common practice. These two facts 
make homework more dangerous and difficult to 
regulate than ever before. 

All of the evidence — past and present — dem- 
onstrates the overwhelming need to maintain 
homework restrictions. Indeed, never has the 
need been so urgent. 


Major Cities Hit 

Health Funds Slash Threatens 
Hospital Closings, Job Losses 


T he REAGAN ADMINISTRATION’S severe 
cutback in funds for health care programs 
will affect large numbers of Americans who 
depend on medical and hospital services, Sec.- 
Treas. Richard W. Cordtz of the Service Em- 
ployees warned in a network radio interview. 

Cordtz said the adverse impact of these reduc- 
tions has already hit some of the nation’s major 
cities, particularly facilities that handle emergency 
cases and serve the elderly, poverty-level and low- 
income families. 

The Reagan budget will not only force many 
hospitals, clinics and long-term facilities to shut 
down, he said, but will reduce the number of 
doctors, nurses and other medical and health 
personnel needed to staff and operate those that 
jremain. 

Cordtz was questioned by reporters on Labor 
News Conference, the AFL-CIO public affairs 
program broadcast weekly by Mutual radio. 

Cordtz said that the health care cutbacks will 


cause “more than just a ripple” throughout the 
economy. He noted that hundreds of thousands 
of jobs are directly or indirectly involved in the 
health care industry. He cited the impact in 
Michigan — a high-unemployment state — ^where 
four institutions have already shut down their 
nursing programs, and health care professionals 
predict that within two years nearly half of the 
88 certified hospitals in the greater Detroit area 
will have closed their doors. 

THE PROJECTED layoffs will fall heavily on 
some of the nation’s lowest-paid workers, Cordtz 
stressed. He said that wages in the health care 
industry are far below the national average. 
Convalescent home workers, for example, earn 
only $6,000 to $6,700 a year, which is less than 
the government itself says is needed for survival- 
level living, Cordtz pointed out. 

He was questioned on Labor News Conference 
by Douglas Harbrecht of the Scripps-Howard 
Newspapers and Calvin Zon of Press Associates, 
Inc. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he UNITED STATES has nearly 8 million people actively 
seeking work and unable to find it. While the underlying 
economy is strong, high interest rates and reduced federal spending 
probably will add to the unemployment rolls in the period ahead. 

Against this background, the Reagan Administration is seriously 
considering a plan to import hundreds of thousands of Mexican 
nationals to work in America’s factories, mills, stores and offices. 

These new jobseekers would be called, in the euphemism of 
the times, “guestworkers.” 

THE AIM OF the White House is not to “soak up” the illegal 
or undocumented workers already in this country who are 
variously estimated to total 2 to 12 million. Rather, it is to de- 
velop a new program as part of a “North American Accord” to 
improve relations with Mexico. It also may give President Reagan 
a card to play when he discusses Mexican oil, gas and other 
matters when he meets with Mexico’s president in June. 

If domestic unemployment is not enough to dissuade the Ad- 
ministration, then it might learn something from the experience 
of western Europe. 

As Europe recovered from World War II and unemployment 
was near zero, many countries began importing foreign or “guest” 
workers for lower-paid menial jobs, ostensibly on a temporary 
basis. 

THE EUROPEAN migration grew to a total of some 30 million 
people. The members of the Common Market were the chief 
receivers, except for Ireland and Italy. The chief labor-supplying 
nations were Ireland and Italy, along with Portugal, Spain, Fin- 
land, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia. Algeria, Sudan and Morocco 
became labor exporters in the 1970s. 

The recruiting of “guest” workers stopped with the 1973-74 
energy crisis and rising unemployment. The problem then became 
one of trying to persuade the “guests” to go home while integrat- 
ing those who had settled. 

If the lessons of Europe, are too remote, there are experiences 
closer to home. 

A task force of the National Committee for Full Employment 
has urged the Reagan Administration not to repeat the “disasters” 
of past programs which exploited Mexican workers. 

The bracero program that operated from 1942 to 1963 brought 
hundreds of thousands of campesinos to work for U.S. agribusi- 
ness, the task force recalled, and it did not help U.S.-Mexican 
relations. 

Ernesto Galarza, in his classic “Merchants of Labor,” examined 
in fine detail how an efficient system of administered migration 
was developed by the United States and Mexico to supply labor 
to agribusiness. The Mexicans were docile, cheap and captive. 
Americans lost job opportunities, and farm labor unions were 
kept weak. There was corruption and collusion between growers 
and officials. It was a big success, but not worthy of a great 
democracy. 

IN THE 1950s, when Congress periodically considered what 
could be done about the bracero problem, Galarza proposed an 
ambitious bi-national Rio Grande Valley development program to 
absorb Mexico’s unemployed and build harmony between the two 
nations. That was never done and the United States remains the 
“safety valve'” for job-hungry Mexicans. 

Today, members of the Full Employment Committee’s Task 
Force are urging the Reagan Administration to act constructively 
on the “undocumented” worker problem instead of pursuing the 
“guestworker” plan. They would offer a two-layered amnesty 
plan: “green card” or commuter status for the more senior un- 
documented workers and H-2 or temporary job status for others. 

It is to be hoped that President Reagan will choose to work on 
the problem at hand rather than create new ones. 



HEALTH CARE CUTBACKS in the Reagan budget will leave 
large numbers of Americans without full-range medical and 
hospital services. Service Employees Sec.-Treas. Richard W. 
Cortdz, center, warned on Labor News Conference. Reporters 
questioning him were Calvin Zon, left, of Press Associates, Inc., 
and Douglas Harbrecht of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 




Prizes and giveaways help attract thousands to Food & Commercial Workers exhibit and show. 


Union-Industries Show a Hit 


A close-up look at union mem- 
bers’ skills in action, and how 
products are made and services de- 
livered, attracted some 200,000 
visitors to the 36th AFL-CIO Un- 
ion-Industries Show in Baltimore. 

The show, produced in a differ- 
ent city each year by the Union 
Label & Service Trades Dept., is 
the only labor-management exposi- 
tion of its kind in the United States. 

It is labor relations in action as 
visitors see the benefits to business 
and workers of the good labor- 
management relations that are fiie 
rule in the American system of col- 
lective bargaining. 

And they have fun in the pro- 
cess, with prizes and souvenirs to 
take home. 


Skills in action are a highlight of show for some 200,000 visitors. 



Val Hamer Day honors a Baltimore native son 
and 84-year-old Glass Bottle Blowers member 
who has displayed his craft at every show since 
1954. With Hamer are AFL-Cld President Lane 
Kirkland, GBBA President James Hatfield, left, 
and city Labor Commissioner Jeffrey Austin. 







AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue gets into training. 


Service employees members give free blood pressure tests and informa- 
tion on their union. 


Art show at Painters’ booth includes portraits-to-go. 


Mickey’s friend is ‘‘put through” at CWA exhibit. 


Magic oi chemistry and the lure of umon-made prizes entrance crowds at the Chemical Workers’ exhibit. 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 


Page Seven 


Storm Grows 
Over Social 
Security Cuts 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Senate Democratic Whip Alan Cranston 
of California said the vote <5n the caucus 
resolution marked the first time since Rea- 
gan took office that the Democrats, now 
in the minority in the Senate, have spoken 
with one voice. 

EARLIER, House Speaker Thorny P. 
O’Neill (D-Mass.) pledged he would fight 
the proposed social security cuts “every 
inch of the way . . . and 1 hope that will 
be the position of every member of my 
party.” 

O’Neill told reporters that telephones 
were “ringing off the hook” in congres- 
sional offices since the Reagan program 
was announced, adding that “people are 
enraged the President has broken his cam- 
paign pledge on social security.” 

Leaders of Save Our Security, a coali- 
tion of 83 groups representing the elderly 
and union members, held an emergency 
meeting in Washington to map a major 
drive against the Reagan cuts. The coali- 
tion, which successfully opposed the Car- 
ter Administration’s recommendations on 
social security two years ago, is headed 
by Wilbur J. Cohen, who was Secretary of 
Health, Education & Welfare in the John- 
son Administration, and Robert M. Ball, 
former Social Security Commissioner un- 
der three Presidents. 

COHEN TOLD a New York Times in- 
terviewer that four of the Reagan pro- 
posals would reduce social security bene- 
fits by a total of $81 .9 billion over the next 
five years if they were approved by Con- 
gress. He called the President’s program 
“a calamity, a tragedy, and a catastrophe,” 
which would “destroy people’s confidence 
in the institution of social security,” and 
make workers question whether they 
should continue to contribute to the social 
security fund. 

The Reagan proposal that provoked the 
greatest outrage — the cut in early-retire- 
ment benefits — would reduce monthly pay- 
ments for a person retiring at age 62 to 
55 percent of full benefits instead of 80 
percent as provided by current law. For a 
worker eligible for full retirement benefits 
choosing to retire at age 62 in January 
1982 that would mean a monthly benefit 
of only $310.50 compared with $469.60 
under current law. By January 1987, the 
figure would be $430 a month compared 
with $755.60. 

But Senate Finance Committee Chair- 
man Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said his talks with 
congressional collegues showed that Con- 
gress was “probably not going to do very 
much soon as far as early retirees are 
concerned. . . . Those who will turn 62 
in the next few years probably won’t have 
very much to worry about.” 

ON THE television program, “Face the 
Nation,” Dole also expressed surprise and 
dismay at the timing of the social security 
proposals. “We’ve got all we can do right 
now dealing with the budget and taxes,” 
he said. “We ought to clear the deck be- 
fore we bite the bullet on social security.” 

On the House side, Rep. Claude Pepper 
(D-Fla.) opened hearings on the proposed 
reductions before the House Committee 
on Aging, which he chairs. 

Maryland House Seat 
To Remain Democratic 

A labor-supported Democrat, Steny H. 
Hoyer, was elected to the House from 
Maryland’s 5th Congressional District 
despite a strong Administration effort for 
his opponent. 

Hoyer received 55.1 percent of the vote 
to defeat Audrey Scott in the district that 
Democrat Gladys Noon Spellman repre- 
sented since 1975. She has been hospital- 
ized in a semi-coma since last Ck:tober, 
and her seat was declared vacant. 

The district, primarily a suburb of 
Washington, D.C., has a Democratic 
registration majorky. But Vice President 
Bush campaigned ifor the Republican can- 
didate and President Reagan sent a letter 
on her behalf. 



EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES and appropriate wages 
are goals shared by women workers around the world who 
are turning in growing numbers to trade unions to achieve 
them, Food & Commercial Workers’ President William H. 
Wynn tells delegates to the World Women’s Conference. 


The meeting was sponsored by the International Federation 
of Commercial, Clerical, Professional & Technical Employ- 
ees (FIET) in Washington, D.C. Also shown are FIET Pres- 
ident Gunther Stephan; General Sec. Heribert Maier and 
UFCW Vice President Norma Steill. 


Women ’s Conference Keyed to Job Issues 


One of the most important challenges 
facing labor is the fight for equal oppor- 
tunity and equal treatment for women 
white-collar workers. 

This was the message that President 
William H. Wynn of the Food & Com- 
mercial Workers carried to some 250 dele- 
gates to the second World Women’s Con- 
ference in Washington. 

IT ALSO formed the theme of the three- 
day conference, which was hosted by the 
UFCW and sponsored by the International 
Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Pro- 
fessional & Technical Employees (FIET). 
More than 7 million white collar workers 
throughout the non-Communist world be- 
long to FIET, which has headquarters in 
Geneva. Three million of those members 
— about 43 percent — are women. 

From the rapid increase in the number 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Open-shop contractors have complained 
that this sometimes forces them to pay 
higher union wages and fringe benefits to 
non-union workers. 

Ryan said the regulation and its admin- 
istration will be scrutinized “to assess 
whether the rules’ benefits exceed their 
costs and whether the wage determina- 
tions issued under current practice accu- 
rately reflect locally prevailing wages.” 

HE SAID the department is also con- 
sidering contracting out the gathering of 
prevailing wage data to a private organiza- 
tion instead of using Labor Dept, employ- 
ees. 

Other issues being considered include 
whether to permit increased use of help- 
ers and trainees at lower wage rates on 
federal construction contracts, and possi- 
ble elimination of the requirement that 
contractors submit weekly payroll records 
for checking of wage rates. 

Ryan indicated that the Labor Dept, is 
in the final stages of making its decisions 
on regulatory changes. They will then be 
submitted for review to the Office of Man- 
agement & Budget and officially proposed 
before the end of June. Interested parties 
will then have an opportunity to comment 
before the regulations are made final. 

He said that earlier this month Labor 
Sec. Raymond J. Donovan had met “with 
affected interest groups to inform them of 
the department’s general notions about 
possible ways to improve the rules and to 
permit them to ask questions concerning 
the department’s approach.” 

THE LABOR DEPT, fact sheet on 
changes it is considering in the Service 
Contract Act regulations deals largely with 
jurisdiction of the law, which sets wage 
standards for contractors providing ser- 


of women in the U.S. workforce over the 
last three decades — from about 18 million 
in 1950 to more than 40 million in 1979 — 
“it would appear that American women 
have, at long last, gained equal access to 
the educational, economic, social and poli- 
tical rewards of our society,” Wynn ob- 
served. 

But while women are working, he said, 
a high proportion of them are still working 
in jobs “which have been aptly described 
as ‘the women’s ghetto.’ ” 

EVEN THOUGH some women have 
made inroads into traditionally male vo- 
cations and higher wage brackets, Wynn 
pointed out that the overall average of 
women’s salaries in the United States is 
only 59.1 percent of men’s wages. 

Joyce Miller, president of the Coalition 
of Labor Union Women and a vice presi- 


vices to government agencies. 

The new Administration is questioning 
whether to cover, as the Carter Adminis- 
tration intended, contracts for automated 
data processings and other “high tech- 
nology” equipment, timber sales and re- 
movals, research and development, equip- 
ment overhaul and modification. 

It also will look into the issue of cover- 
age of a part of a contract that involves 
services, even if that is not the principal 
purpose of the contract. And it will con- 
sider changes in the wage-determination 
procedures. 

The Carter Administration had pro- 
posed tightening some of the regulations 
involving affirmative action programs com- 
ing under the Office of Federal Contract 
Compliance. 

THE REAGAN Administration is con- 
sidering changes to loosen the regulations, 
including exemption of more small con- 
tractors. 

Among the points being considered, 
Ryan indicated, are: 

• Whether back pay is an appropriate 
remedy for violations. 

• How to address sex discrimination in 
the workplace. 

• Whether to specify numerical goals 
for minority and female participation in 
construction, whether non-federal con- 
struction work of covered contractors 
should be exempted, and whether contrac- 
tors should be required to develop affirma- 
tive action plans for their non-construc- 
tion employees. 

Ryan was asked how the Reagan Ad- 
ministration proposed to apply a cost- 
benefit test to the value of affirmative ac- 
tion programs in eliminating the effects of 
past discrimination. 

He responded that this could be done. 


dent of the Clothing & Textile Workers, 
told the delegates that the difference in 
women’s and men’s pay levels is due 
mainly to occupational segregation. 

Although women have “cracked the 
door” in almost all occupations. Miller 
noted that more than half of all working 
women hold white collar jobs and, out 
of these, over half are in low-paying 
clerical positions. 

MIILLER SAID the United States is 
ahead in policies and programs which 
promote equality in the workplace even 
though European countries have more 
laws guaranteeing equal opportunity and 
protection for women. She cited Title VII 
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission, 
federal employment and training programs. 
Title IX, and the Women’s Educational 
Equity Act as contributing to advances 
made by American women. 

However, Miller said “continued sup- 
port for these efforts under the present 
Administration does not look hopeful.” 

In addition, she said, gains made 
through these efforts are “unfortunately, 
not enough.” 

She emphasized, as did other speakers 
at the opening session, that organizing 
women white collar workers could pro- 
vide the impetus for achieving equal 
status in the workforce. Through nego- 
tiated wage increases and benefits, tradi- 
tionally female jobs can be upgraded to 
the point of making them more attractive 
to men. Miller pointed out, encouraging 
them to move into these occupations and 
ease occupational segregation. 

ANOTHER BENEFIT of organizing 
women. Miller said, is in the area of pay 
equity — equal pay for work of comparable 
value. Union strategies to achieve pay 
equity for members include studies of job 
classifications and wage rates, negotiated 
upgrading of traditional female jobs, 
grievance and arbitration procedures and 
court suits, she said. (PAD 

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Prime Lending Rate 
Back Up to 20% 

Most major banks lifted their prime 
lending rate another half-point to 20 
percent, the fifth increase in the rate in 
about five weeks. 

The key lending rate, the charge 
posted by banks on loans to their best 
corporate customers, is now at its 
highest level since Jan. 5. At that time, 
the rate was beginning to decline from 
December’s record 21.5 percent. The 
rate continued to fall until it bottomed 
out at 17 percent last month before 
turning upward again. 

The higher prime rate will inevitably 
mean higher interest rates on all borrow- 
ing, thus pushing up the cost of housing, 
autos and other consumer purchases. 

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New Rule Changes Weighed 
Cutting Worker Protections 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 23, 1981 




The nation’s economy grew at a sur- 
prisingly strong 8.4 percent annual rate 
after inflation in the first three months 
of 1981, the Commerce Dept, said in a 
revised estimate of* first-quarter “real” 
gross national product. 

But AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald pointed out that workers did not 
benefit much from^the expansion. 

“THE GROWTH of the economy dur- 
ing the first quarter was unusually robust, 
but did not result in any reduction in un- 
employment,” Oswald observed. During 
the period, the nation’s jobless rate re- 
mained high at either 7.3 or 7.4 percent. 

“Wages and salaries for all employees 
increased by 3.2 percent during the first 
quarter, while corporate profits rose by 
10.5 percent, reflecting the profit gains at- 
tained in current production with adjust- 
ments for inventory and depreciation 
charges,” Oswald added. 

In addition, the new government report 
contained figures showing that inflation is 
still in the double-digit range, and was 
particularly influenced last quarter by the 


Despite Fund Cutback 


HRDI to Press Training, 
Job Placement Activities 


The AFL-CIO Human Resources Devel- 
opment Institute will carry on its job train- 
ing and placement activities for disadvan- 
taged workers on a national scale, but 
sharp cuts in federal funds that its pro- 
grams depend on mean HRDI must 
tighten up its staff and activities for the 
rest of 1981. 

That appraisal of the status and future 
of the AFL-CIO’s employment and train- 
ing arm was made at special meetings of 
HRDPs executive staff and trustees follow- 
ing notification from the Labor Dept, that 
the institute’s contract for programs under 
the Comprehensive Employment & Train- 
ing Administration would be cut by some 
37 percent. 

HRDI “FULLY intends to carry out its 
mandate from the AFL-CIO to assist the 
unemployed and disadvantaged to obtain 
training and jobs,” HRDI President Alan 
Kistler reported to the board. He said the 
stiff cut in CETA grant funds means HRDI 
must reduce its staff and curtail its pro- 

‘Reforms’ Seen 
Adding to Delay 
In Rule-Setting 

Regulatory “reform” bills being con- 
sidered by House and Senate subcommit- 
tees would complicate rather than simplify 
"government rule-setting, the AFL-CIO 
protested. 

Labor would support legislation that 
would “cut red tape, weed out useless or 
duplicative regulations and improve the 
responsiveness of regulators to matters that 
affect workers,” Associate Legislative Di- 
rector Howard Marlowe testified. 

BUT MARLOWE told Judiciary sub- 
committees of both the House and Senate 
that the similar bills that are before them 
would result in “more complexity, more 
delay and more expense for the govern- 
ment and the participating parties.” The 
bills are sponsored by the chairmen of the 
subcommittees considering them — Sen. 
Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) and Rep. George E. 
Danielson (D-Calif.). 

Marlowe objected to imposition of a 
“cost-effectiveness” standard for govern- 
ment regulations, even if couched as a 
recommendation rather than a mandate. 

Despite the fact that the Reagan Ad- 
ministration has mandated a cost-benefit 
test of regulations, he said, there is no 
“universal calculus” for computing a dol- 
lar benefit on health, safety and environ- 
mental protections. 

AS FOR judicial review features in the 
pending bills, Marlowe said courts already 
have adequate powers to deal with regu- 
latory abuses, and enlargement of their 
role would not be justified or desirable. 

The House version would also allow 
Congress to overturn a regulation, subject 
to presidential veto. 

This would result in an additional delay 
of at least 60 days before a regulation 
could take effect, Marlowe protested. 


grams so that remaining funds can be used 
to continue services on a national scale un- 
til the end of fiscal 1981 on Oct. 1. 

Among those national activities, Kistler 
said, will be efforts to find private sector 
jobs for many of the 340,000 CETA pub- 
lic service employees about to be displaced 
by the dropping of that program. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, who 
serves as chairman of the 23 -member 
board, praised HRDPs successful training, 
placement and job-creating record in its 
13-year history. 

KIRKLAND emphasized that the na- 
ture of federally supported employment 
and training policies is unclear after CETA 
expires in 1982, but it is likely there will 
be “significant revisions” in the system. 

The AFL-CIO, with other concerned 
organizations, “will fight for a continuation 
of a national policy that would afford the 
most disadvantaged workers within our 
society the opportunity to obtain meaning- 
ful employment,” Kirkland said. What- 
ever new policies are set, he said, “the 
labor movement must continue to be an 
active partner and participant.” 

He stressed that with assistance from 
HRDI, the federation will be active in de- 
veloping proposals for future employment 
and training policy. 

THE CUTS in the federal budget will 
mean that as of May 22, HRDI will close 
25 of its 58 area offices, discontinue its 
veterans’ assistance program, and close five 
of its nine handicapped placement_offices. 
in addition, all 17 field associate represen- 
tative positions will be cut along with 10 
national office staff positions for a total 
of 89 jobs eliminated. Nine of HRDI’s 
25 targeted outreach programs, sponsored 
by local building trades councils, will be 
ended by June 30. 

Executive Director Michael M. Arnold 
explained to the board that the decisions on 
the closings took into account local com- 
munity needs, past performance, seniority, 
and HRDI’s structural needs to maintain 
a national presence and program. 

He said HRDI is working with state 
and local central bodies and building trades 
councils in the areas where its offices will 
close to help find local funding to keep the 
training and employment program going. 

Efforts are also under way to find em- 
ployment for HRDI employees whose jobs 
have been eliminated. Arnold stressed that 
these workers are experienced employment 
and training experts whose skills are valu- 
able to the labor movement. 


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VICE PRESIDENT George Bush is welcomed to the AFL-CIO headquarters 
by Federation President Lane Kirkland. Bush met with Kirkland and AFL-CIO 
Vice Presidents John H. Lyons, Sol C. Chaikin, Kenneth T. Blaylock and John 
J. Sweeney to discuss lines of communication between the Administration and 
the trade union movement. 


Gain 

Fails 


‘Alley Oop!’ 


in Economic Growth 
to Dent Joblessness 


Administration’s sudden decontrol of 
domestic oil prices. 

“The rapid growth of the first quarter 
is not expected to continue,” Oswald said, 
“and the economy may well turn down in 
the near future.” 

THE GOVERNMENT originally re- 
ported the first quarter gain in real GNP 
— the value of the total output of the na- 
tion’s goods and services after adjustment 
for inflation — at 6.5 percent. That was on 
Apr. 20 before all the data for the quar- 
ter were available. The new figure, based 
on more complete information, showed 
increases in a number of categories, in- 
cluding the value of inventories and net 
exports. 

After adjustment for inflation, GNP rose 
to a seasonally adjusted $1,516 trillion an- 
nual rate in the first quarter from a $1,486 
trillion pace in last year’s fourth quarter, 
the new Commerce Dept, report said. 

Real GNP last year increased at a 3.1 
percent rate in the first quarter, then 
plunged at a 9.9 percent clip in the second 
quarter, rose at a 2.4 percent rate in the 
third quarter, and increased 3.8 percent in 
the final quarter. 

THE REVISED figure of 8.4 percent 
was the biggest gain since the 9 percent 
increase recorded in the second quarter of 
1978. The revision was the largest on 
record. 

The report also said that prices during 
the first three months of the year, as 
measured by the GNP’s “implicit price de- 
flator,” went up at a 10 percent annual 
rate, rather than, the 7,8 percent pace 
reported last month. Most of the inflation 
adjustment reflected revisions in energy 
prices, the Commerce Dept. said. 

In its report on profits, the department 
said that after-tax corporate earnings in- 
creased 2.4 percent during the first quarter 
to a seasonally adjusted $ 168.3-billion an- 
nual rate. Before taxes, profits rose 3.7 
percent to an adjusted $258.1 -billion an- 
nual rate. 

PROFITS FROM current production, 
adjusted for the effect of inflation on in- 
ventory and capital values, rose 10.5 per- 
cent to an adjusted annual rate of $202.6 
billion, the biggest gain since the 13.2 per- 
cent increase in the second quarter of 
1978, the report said. 

Analysts inside and outside the govern- 
ment believe that GNP figures for the cur- 
rent April- June quarter will be well below 
those for the first quarter, and some are 
predicting an actual decline in inflation- 
adjusted output. 


^M-l 

Nme 



3-Year Study Rejects Youth Subminimum Wage 



A blue-ribbon commission established 
by Congress took a strong stand against a 
youth subminimum wage and proposed that 
the federal wage floor be indexed to 
changes in average hourly earnings. 

The Minimum Wage Study Commission 
also recommended ending most existing 
exemptions from overtime provisions of 
the law. It said the salary exemption tests 
for executives, administrative and profes- 
sional staffs should be set at higher, more 
realistic levels, and it urged better-targeted 
enforcement efforts. 

JAMES G. O’HARA, the former Mich- 
igan congressman who served as chairman 
of the commission, termed the three-year 
study “the most exhaustive inquiry” ever 
made into the controversial issues that are 

r 

regularly debated whenever Congress con- 


siders changes in the Fair Labor Standards 
Act. 

On the perennial proposal for a lower 
wage for teenagers covered by the law, 
O’Hara said an age differential of any sort 


clearly conflicts “with the basic purpose 
of the Act and the requirements of social 
justice.” 

Six of the eight commission members 
took a strong stand against a youth sub- 


minimum wage, and only one endorsed the 
concept. 

THE MAJORITY included O’Hara; 
William D. Byrum, a commercial farmer; 
Jay Foreman, vice president of the Food 
& Commercial Workers; Clara Schloss, 
minimum wage consultant to the AFL- 
CIO; Phyllis Wallace, professor at the 
Sloan School of Management of Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, and 
Sandra Willett, executive vice president of 
the National Consumers League. The lone 
dissenter on that issue was S. Warne Robin- 
son, board chairman of G. C. Murphy 
Co. 

Commission member Michael Wachter, 
a University of Pennsylvania economics 
professor, said he does not support a na- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Coalition Battles Pension Slash 


Bars '^Compromise ’ Cuts 
In Social Security Benefits 



POLISH TRADE UNION leader Mieczyslaw Gil presents a book on last 
summer’s Gdansk strike in Poland to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in 
recognition of the federation’s support of the Polish independent labor move- 
ment, Solidarity. Gil and three other Solidarity representatives were in the 
United States as observers at the 25th triennial World Congress of the Inter- 
national Metalworkers’ ’Federation. Also shown are IMF Gen. Sec. Herman 
Rebhan, second from left, and President Eugen Loderer. 

At Washington Meeting 

IMF’s W orld Congress 
Salutes Polish Workers 


By Janies M. Shevis 

The 25th World Congress of the Inter- 
national Metalworkers’ Federation, embrac- 
ing nearly 14 million free trade unionists, 
saluted the workers of Poland for their 
historic achievement in forming the inde- 
pendent labor movement. Solidarity, and 
pledged continuing support to the fledgling 
organization. 

Held outside Europe for the first time in 
the 88-year history of the Geneva-based 
labor secretariat, the congress unanimously 
approved a resolution expressing “deep ad- 
miration” for the Polish workers who de- 
fied the Polish Communist Party and struck 
over rising prices at great personal risk last 
summer. 

“WE WELCOME the creation of inde- 
pendent, democratically accountable and 
democratically controllable . trade union- 
ism in Poland as a major development for 
the working people of Poland and Polish 
society and a sign of hope to workers all 
over the world,” the resolution declared. 
“We are ready to help them in whatever 
manner they deem most appropriate.” 

At a press conference, four members 
of Solidarity who were granted visas ' to 
attend the week-long IMF conference in 
Washington as observers stressed that the 
greatest need of the Polish workers at this 
time is for moral support from the West — 
particularly Western labor unions. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland, 
lauding the Polish workers for their 
achievements since last year’s wave of 


strikes rolled over Poland, spoke of the 
unjust criticism heaped upon the Amer- 
ican labor movement for its aid to Solidar- 
ity, and assured the Poles that “we intend 
to continue our support as long as our 
fellow trade unionists in Poland need and 
desire it.” 

Like the IMF, Kirkland observed, the 
AFL-CIO has been accused of interfering 
in the internal affairs of Poland because of 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Consumer prices rose a modest four- 
tenths of 1 percent last month, or at an 
annual rate of just under 5 percent, but 
workers’ buying power fell again for the 
fifth straight month. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 
that the real spendable pay of production 
and non-supervisory workers declined by a 
seasonally adjusted one-tenth of 1 percent 
in April. Real spendable pay — wages 
minus taxes adjusted for the impact of in- 
flation — now stands *2.5 percent below 
what it was a year earlier. 

FEW ANALYSTS expect the price 
moderation reflected in the government’s 
April consumer price index to continue. 
Food prices, which remained at a stand- 
still last month, are generally projected to 
accelerate in the third quarter of the year, 
and the recent upturn in interest rates is 


By David L. Perlman 

A coalition representing tens of millions 
of Americans threatened by the Reagan 
Administration’s attack on social security 
served notice that it will resist any con- 
gressional “compromise” that involves 
cutting back on promised benefits. 

Two former social security commission- 
ers — Robert M. Ball and William Driver 
— joined leaders of union, senior citizen, 
religious and consumer groups at a news 
conference called by the Save Our Security 
coalition. 

BALL, WHO headed the Social Security 
Administration under Presidents Kennedy, 
Johnson and Nixon, stressed that the tem- 
porary imbalance in the funding mecha- 
nism can be overcome without reducing 
either present or future benefits. 

He suggested that the real danger of 
the “horrendous” Administration propos- 
als is that relief over their rejection might 
lessen public opposition to other substan- 
tial but less drastic cutbacks. 

Driver, who recently retired as commis- 
sioner, charged the Reagan Administration 
with trying to hammer a wedge between 
active workers still contributing to the sys- 
tem and persons receiving retirement or 
disability benefits. The SOS coalition, he 
stressed, includes about equal numbers of 
contributors and beneficiaries in the 35 
million to 40 million people its 90 affili- 
ated organizations represent. 

AFL-CIO VICE PRESIDENT Jerry 
Wurf, who represented the federation as 
well as the State, County & Municipal 
Employees, told the news conference that 
labor considers social security “a solemn 
contractual obligation.” 

Wurf sharply challenged President Rea- 
gan’s contention that the nation can’t af- 
ford to live up to its social security obliga- 
tions. At the same time Reagan is calling 
for severe benefit cuts, Wurf noted, “he 


also likely to further aggravate consumer 
price increases. 

Major banks around the country lifted 
their prime rate to 20.5 percent from 20 
percent, the second boost in the key lend- 
ing rate in a week. The prime — the interest 
rate banks charge their best corporate cus- 
tomers — influences other rates, including 
mortgage interest and other consumer bor- 
rowing costs. 

The April rise in the CPI brought the 
index 10 percent above what it was a year 
earlier. 

Besides the stability of food prices, 
other factors in the abatement in the CPI 
climb were a rise of only one-tenth of 1 
percent in energy prices and a modest 
pickup in homeownership costs to six- 
tenths of 1 percent. 

Over the year, food prices in April were 
up 9.4 percent, energy 14 percent, and 


proposes to give away $54 billion next 
year mainly to the wealthy and the big 
corporations through the Kemp-Roth tax 
proposals and business tax breaks.” 

Auto Workers President Douglas A. 
Fraser, whose union has launched a na- 
tional advertising campaign against the 
Administration proposal, termed social se- 
curity “the bedrock on which the well- 
being of virtually every worker and retiree 
depends.” 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR William R. 
Hutton of the National Council of Senior 
Citizens joined in warning against being 
taken in by the Administration’s declara- 
tion that it is willing to discuss a “compro- 
mise” of its original proposal. 

“Compromise to the Administration 
means cutting social security benefits any- 
way,” he warned. “If we give a hand, 
we’ll lose the whole arm — piece by piece.” 

Former Health, Education & Welfare 
Sec. Wilbur Cohen helped put the coali- 
tion together from a framework estab- 
lished during the Carter Administration 
when several less drastic proposals were 
rejected by Congress. The various affiliates 
are taking independent actions to further 
the common goal. The Senior Citizens, for 
example, are bringing thousands of mem- 
bers from all parts of the country to 
Washington for a July 20-22 legislative 
conference. 

NCSC PRESIDENT Jacob dayman 
said his organization considers the social 
security issue “the most important battle 
of the century.” 

Ball testified on behalf of the coalition 
before the House Select Committee on 
Aging, headed by Rep. Claude Pepper 
(D-Fla.). 

He termed the social security system “a 
compact between the contributing worker, 
his employer and the government,” with 

(Continued on Page 8) 


homeownership costs 10 percent. 

BLS said that while the average earnings 
of all workers in private non-farm jobs last 
month were $251.34 a week in current 
dollars, a worker earning the average who 
had a non-working spouse and two 
children, brought home “real” weekly pay 
adjusted for inflation of only $94.24, a 
9-cent drop from the previous month. 

GASOLINE PRICES fell 1.4 percent in 
April, and heating oil dropped four-tenths 
of 1 percent. Gas and electricity were up 
1.2 percent, however. Over the year, gaso- 
line prices were up 11.8 percent, fuel oil 
24.5 percent, and gas and electricity 14.6 
percent. 

Home purchase prices dropped by two- 
tenths of 1 percent, but mortgage interest 
rates rose 1 .7 percent. Rents advanced six- 
tenths of 1 percent. 


Real Earnings Down for 5th Month 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 30, 1981 



JAPANESE AND AMERICAN labor officials gather at for the federation while President Tadanobu Usami signs for 
AFL-CIO headquarters for the signing of a joint statement the Japanese Confederation of Labor (DOMEI). Represent- 
on issues of mutual interest. President Lane Kirkland signs atives of the two federations will meet in Tokyo next year. 


Japanese Unions^ AFL-CIO 
Concur on U.S. Job Needs 


Representatives of the AFL-CIO and 
the Japanese Confederation of Labor 
(DOMEI) agreed that a solution to the 
serious unemployment situation in the 
United States — particularly in the automo- 
bile industry — should be given the highest 
priority. 

In a joint statement signed by the two 
labor organizations in Washington follow- 
ing their 13th annual conference, DOMEI 
expressed appreciation for the voluntary 
restraints on exports by the Japanese auto 
industry. For its part, the AFL-CIO viewed 
the action as “a modest but positive first 
step,” saying that much more needs to be 
done in the United States to alleviate 
Detroit’s high joblessness. 

SPECIFICALLY, the AFL-CIO said 
that Japanese car producers should build 
plants and produce vehicles in the United 
States. 

Both organizations recognized that free 
and fair international trade contributes to 
economic growth and creates employment 
which in turn improve the standard of 
living of workers. 

Other mutual trade problems discussed 
at the four-day meeting included fishery 
rights, aviation agreements, and the pro- 
duction and export of auto parts, elec- 
tronics, lumber, and other goods. 

Delegates to the meeting took special 
note of the problems related to American 

NLRB Orders 
Runaway Firm to 
Honor Contracts 

Marine Optical, Inc., target of an AFL- 
ClO-backed consumer boycott, must 
honor its union contracts and bargain with 
its employees, the National Labor Rela- 
tions Board has ordered. 

The NLRB upheld the January decision 
of an administrative law judge that the 
runaway Massachusetts company was 
guilty of unfair labor practices in 1979 
when it shifted its operations from one 
plant to another 17 miles away, welched 
on its existing three-year contract with 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers Lo- 
cal 408 and refused to negotiate with the 
union despite a 25-year bargaining rela- 
tionship. 

The order also calls for reimbursement 
of lost pay and benefits to all affected 
workers plus interest over the period since 
the company’s move. 

The eyeglass-frame manufacturer vio- 
lated the National Labor Relations Act, 
the board ruled, when it refused to live up 
to the terms of its 1977-80 contract with 
the optical workers’ local, unilaterally 
changing wages and working conditions 
and refusing to negotiate a new agreement. 

The decision affirms the lUE’s position 
that it never lost representation rights for 
the company’s workers. Many workers 
had relocated at the new facility and were 
performing “the same work for the same 
company,” the lUE pointed out. 


and Japanese companies operating in each 
other’s country, noting that certain 
Japanese firms operating in the United 
States are resorting to anti-union tactics. 

THE TWO organizations reaffirmed their 
determination to press these companies to 
respect workers’ fundamental rights to 
form trade unions and engage in union 
activities. 

In other areas, the labor representatives 
expressed admiration for the struggle of 
Polish workers to assert their rights to 
form free unions under Convention 87 
of the International Labor Organization. 
They also expressed concern over the 
moves of various Asian governments to re- 
strict trade union participation in inter- 
national labor organizations. 

DOMEI said it welcomed the prospect 
of the return of the AFL-CIO to the In- 
ternational Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions, saying it would strengthen the 
cause of free trade unionism throughout 
the world. 

ALSO, THE two groups agreed to 
present the statement on trade unions is- 
sued by the Trade Union Advisory Com- 
mittee of the Organization for Economic 
Cooperation & Development to the heads 
of state in their respective countries prior 
to the OECD summit meeting in Ottawa, 
and to make that statement public. They 
further endorse a post-summit TUAC 
meeting. 

The two federations agreed to hold the 
next regular meeting of their representa- 
tives in Tokyo in 1982. 

Following the signing of the joint state- 
ment, DOMEI President Tadanobu Usami 
announced that the Japanese labor federa- 
tion would contribute $3,000 to a scholar- 
ship fund established early this year for the 
son of Michael Hammer, staff representa- 
tive of the American Institute for Free 
Labor Development killed in El Salvador. 

REPRESENTING the AFL-CIO at the 
conference were President Lane Kirkland 
and Vice Presidents Murray H. Finley, 
Charles H. Pillard and William H. Wynn; 
International Affairs Director Ernest S. 
Lee; Research Director Rudy Oswald; 
Dale Good, assistant to the AFL-CIO 
President; Economist Elizabeth Jager; In- 
ternational Affairs Rep. James N. Ellen- 
berger; Executive Director Morris Pala- 
dino of the Asian-American Free Labor 
Institute, and George Poulin, Vice Presi- 
dent of the Machinists. 

Robert Searby Named to 
International Labor Post 

Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
named Robert W. Searby, 34, a former 
management consultant, as deputy under 
secretary of labor for international affairs. 

Searby, a native of New York, will head 
the Labor Dept.’s Bureau of International 
Labor Affairs. The bureau assists in formu- 
lating international economic and trade 
policies affecting American workers. It 
also administers the trade adjustment 
assistance program under the 1974 
Trade Act, which provides special benefits 
for workers adversely affected by import 
competition. 


AIFLD Board 
Drafts Program, 
Elects Officers 

The board of directors of the American 
Institute for Free Labor Development ap- 
proved the institute’s 1981-82 program 
and elected officers at its annual meeting. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland con- 
tinues as president of the organization, the 
federation’s foreign-service arm in Latin 
America and the Caribbean area. Commu- 
nications Workers President Glenn E. 
Watts was re-elected secretary-treasurer, 
and Plumbers & Pipe Fitters President 
Martin J. Ward was chosen vice president. 

THE BOARD changed its bylaws to 
restructure the organization’s governing 
body. The change reduced the size of the 
board from 34 to 25 members, eliminating 
the positions of chairman and vice chair- 
man, and stipulated that the board be 
composed of only U.S. and Latin Ameri- 
can trade union representatives. 

Those from the business community who 
had previously served on the board re- 
ceived the AFL-CIO’s thanks, and out- 
going Chairman J. Peter Grace said that 
they would continue to perform in a 
“friendly and supportive capacity.” 

New members of the board are Teachers 
President Albert Shanker and Food & 
Commercial Workers President William 
Wynn.^ William C. Doherty, Jr., was re- 
elected AIFLD executive director. 

THE DIRECTORS unanimously ap- 
proved a resolution expressing AIFLD’s 
“shock and sorrow” over the deaths of 
staff members Michael Hammer and Mark 
Pearlman in El Salvador last January. The 
two AIFLD representatives were gunned 
down in San Salvador where they had been 
assigned to assist in El Salvador’s land re- 
distribution program. 

Regardless of what follows in El Sal- 
vador, the resolution said, “Mike’s and 
Mark’s real work, which is invested in the 
soul of the people they loved and helped, 
will endure.” 


Labor Press 
Threatened by 
Postage Costs 

The prospect of “sudden death” faces 
many labor newspapers if Congress does 
not continue the stretch-out of postal rate 
increases for non-profit publications. 

That warning was sounded by President 
James M. Cesnik of the International La- 
bor Press Association in testimony on the 
Reagan Administration’s budget proposals 
before the House Post Office & Civil Ser- 
vice Committee. 

CESNIK TOLD the committee that the 
postage paid by labor papers will more 
than double on Oct. 1 if Congress agrees 
with the Administration’s plans. That pro- 
posal would end the subsidies that support 
step-by-step postage increases for non- 
profit publications over a seven-year pe- 
riod. An end to the phasing will mean “un- 
bearable” rate hikes for labor publications, 
Cesnik said. 

Current law allows Congress to appro- 
priate funds to cover “revenue foregone” 
by the U.S. Postal Service for the period 
of the phasing. 

Cesnik, who is editor of the Guild Re- 
porter published by the Newspaper Guild, 

. pointed out that rates for second-class 
non-profit publications have already in- 
creased about 1,800 percent since 1971, 
the largest percentage increase for any 
class of mail. 

MANY LABOR publications have been 
forced to cut back sharply on frequency 
or cease publishing altogether, Cesnik 
noted, and this has meant a loss in volume 
to the Postal Service of some 65 million 
pieces of mail a year. About 100 million 
more pieces could drop out of the system 
if the rates force more unions to cut back 
their journals, he estimated. 

Publications searching for ways to stay 
afloat may also turn from second class to 
currently cheaper third-class rates, Cesnik 
said. Although delivery standards for both 
classes are identical, third class is more 
likely to be diverted or delayed, he noted. 

If the second class non-profit classifica- 
tion is destroyed, Cesnik said, “the class 
of mail Congress established for the free 
flow of information so vital to our demo- 
cracy will be beyond the financial means 
of non-profit publishers.” 

THE ILPA HAS represented the labor 
press in many proceedings before the 
Postal Rate Commission and the Commis- 
sion on the Postal Service, but these cases 
represent a financial drain of “immense 
proporations” on the limited resources of 
the association, Cesnik told the committee. 

The ILPA, whose members are publica- 
tions of AFL-CIO and Canadian Labor 
Congress organizations, was successful 
earlier this year in persuading the Postal 
Rate Commission to extend pre-sort dis- 
counts to non-profit mailers for the first 
time. 


iiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiimM 

Top Company Executives 
Average 13.8% Pay Boost 

Good times. Bad times. Bigwig businessmen seem to take home big pay 
regardless of the state of the economy. 

A Business Week magazine survey of 508 executives at 252 companies 
showed that total executive compensation last year rose 13.7 percent, with salary 
increases alone averaging 13.8 percent. 

Compensation tended to increase whether or not company performance was 
good, the study showed. Firms whose profits were down boosted executive com- 
pensation an average of 6.5 percent, while in companies with profit gains total 
compensation for executives increased an average of 17.3 percent. 

Of the 25 highest paid executives, none earned less than $1,455,000 in 1980, 
and six received more than $3 million each. 

Eleven of the top 25 executives on the 1980 list were with oil or oil-related 
companies. The majority of the earnings were, as last year, derived from stock 
options. 

Due to the flat market of recent years, however, companies are coming up 
with different plans to entice top executives and concentrate on long-range 
benefits such as bonuses and restricted stock plans based on internal objectives 
and employment time, the magazine pointed out. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 30, 1981 


Page Three 


Wage Floor Indexing Urged 


3 -Year Study Opposes 
Subminimum Youth Pay 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tional youth subminimum but would allow 
“local experimentation.” 

The commission was mandated by 
Congress in 1977, when the wage-hour 
law was last amended. Two members were 
appointed by each of four Cabinet mem- 
bers: the Secretaries of Health & Human 
Services, Labor, Commerce and Agricul- 
ture. 

Advocates of a youth subminimum wage 
have contended that such a step would 
reduce the high rate of teenage unemploy- 
ment, but the commission said any such 
impact would be small and would be 
balanced out by a more damaging increase 
in adult unemployment. 

WITH THE passing of the “baby boom” 
generation into adulthood, teenage unem- 
ployment is likely to lessen in any event, 
the panel noted. 

Further, the commission stressed, a 
youth differential would violate the prin- 
ciple of equal pay for equal work. 

“If suggestions were made that the very 
real employment problems of women or 
members of minority groups should be 
‘solved’ by paying them less for their labor, 
such a proposal would be rejected out of 
hand as fundamentally unjust. We can see 
no difference in principle between such 
proposals and those based on age,” the 
commission declared. 

The report noted the serious erosion of 
minimum wage standards by double-digit 
inflation and the economic problems when 
Congress tries to catch up through amend- 
ments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

AFTER CONSIDERING a number of 
studies of various types of indexing, the 
commission’s conclusion was that the 
minimum wage should be linked to aver- 
age hourly earnings in the private economy 
and adjusted each year on the basis of the 
previous year’s overall rate of change in 
the index. It recommended an index that 
would include farm wages. 

The commission found that “regular 
and predictable increases in the minimum 


wage would be non-inflationary and would 
be easier for business to adjust to than 
the irregular increases of the present sys- 
tem.” 

Statistically, the commission found that 
some 10.6 million workers had jobs at or 
below the minimum wage level last year, 
and 69 percent of them were not teen- 
agers. 

IT FOUND that 18 percent of female 
workers did not get paid more than the 
minimum wage, compared to 8 percent of 
all males. For blacks, 18 percent were at 
or below the minimum wage compared 
with 11 percent of white workers. By re- 
gion, the South had the highest, rate of 
low-paid workers, 15 percent. 

The commission recommended ending 
or phasing out exemptions for various 
groups, including cotton gin and sugar 
processing establishments, employees of 
small town radio and television stations, 
low-circulation newspapers and motion 
picture theaters, and of national park con- 
cessions. 

It took note of the fact that the salary 
test for exemption of executives and ad- 
ministrators from overtime pay require- 
ments is an unrealistically low $155 a 
week. A long-delayed adjustment to raise 
the cutoff to $225 a week was proposed 
by the Carter Administration but blocked 
by the Reagan Administration last Febru- 
ary. The commission said the overtime 
exemption salary test for managers should 
be raised to its earlier ratio of about twice 
the minimum wage, which currently would 
put it at $268 a week. 

The commission noted that compli- 
ance with the wage-hour law has been 
weakest in retail trades and services, ac- 
counting for almost two-thirds of all illegal 
minimum wage and overtime underpay- 
ments. ^ 

It termed the overall level of noncom- 
pliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act 
unacceptably high and recommended that 
Congress stiffen the penalties for viola- 
tions and allow class action suits by work- 
ers who have been shortchanged. 


Right to Franchise Agents 
Upheld for Actors ’ Equity 


The Supreme Court has unanimously 
upheld the right of Actors’ Equity to re- 
quire that theatrical agents representing 
Equity members must be franchised by 
the union. 

Equity’s franchising system, dating back 
to 1928, requires agents who seek to repre- 
sent its members to agree to limit their 
commissions to specified levels. 

One important requirement is that an 
agent’s commission can’t reduce the actor’s 


New Pamphlet Details 
Issues in Last Congress 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Legislation has 
compressed the record of the 96th Con- 
gress on issues affecting labor into a 107- 
page pamphlet. The People’s Lobby, which 
includes tabulations of the voting records 
of House and Senate members. 

An introduction by Legislative Director 
Ray Denison stresses the importance of 
“grass-roots lobbying” by union members. 

“Unless workers take the time to write, 
call or visit their lawmakers, thanking and 
encouraging them when they are right and 
criticizing them when they are wrong, the 
legislative interests of workers will suffer,” 
Denison warns. 

The report covers both the 1979 and 
1980 sessions of Congress. Copies of The 
People’s Lobby, Publication No. 77U, are 
$1 each or $90 for 100, from the Pamphlet 
Division, AFL-CIO Dept, of Information, 
8X5 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 
20006. 


net salary below Equity’s negotiated mini- 
mum scale. 

A GROUP OF dissident agents chal- 
lenged the franchising system in court as 
a violation of federal antitrust laws, but 
lost both in federal district court and in 
the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. 

The AFL-CIO supported the union’s 
position before the Supreme Court, arguing 
that the conduct being challenged is a 
legitimate exercise of union discipline in- 
tended to prevent a form of wage under- 
cutting. 

The Supreme Court agreed. The deci- 
sion by Justice Potter Stewart noted: “The 
peculiar structure of the legitimate theater 
industry, where work is intermittent, where 
it is customary if not essential for union 
members to secure employment through 
agents, and where agents’ fees are calcu- 
lated as a percentage of a member’s wage, 
makes it impossible for the union to de- 
fend even the integrity of the minimum 
wages it has negotiated without regulation 
of agency fees.” 

BUT THE COURT struck down a re- 
quirement that licensed agents pay the 
union a franchising fee, even though the 
fee merely covered the union’s cost of 
» administering the program. 

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., joined 
in part by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger 
and Justice Thurgood Marshall, differed 
on that point. Brennan said he agreed 
with the appellate court’s conclusion that 
the approximately $12,000 a year that 
Equity collects in fees from agents is rea- 
sonable in view of the need for a full-time 
employee to administer the system. 



UPDATED LEAFLET on state workers’ compensation and unemployment 
insurance laws is reviewed by Associate Director Larry Smedley and Arleen 
Gilliam of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security. Gilliam, who recently joined 
the department’s staff, specializes in workers’ compensation and jobless benefits. 


Surge in TV Imports Poses 
New Threat to Output, Jobs 


A steep rise in Japanese television set 
imports during the first quarter of 1981 is 
posing a new threat to domestic TV makers 
and workers, a union-industry coalition 
warned in a brief filed with the Interna- 
tional Trade Commission. 

The Committee to Preserve American 
Color Television (COMPACT) cited Com- 
merce Dept, data showing that completed 
TV sets from Japan flowed into the United 
States at an annual rate of 960,000 units, 
an increase of nearly 170 percent from 
the first three months of 1980. 

AT THE SAME time, picture tube im- 
ports from Japan jumped 120 percent over 
the year-ago quarter, COMPACT pointed 
out. 

The coalition also charged in a letter 
to U.S. Trade Rep. William E. Brock that 
the new surge in shipments from Japan 
violates an “informal understanding” that 
the imports would be held to 400,000 units 
a year. 

That understanding was negotiated last 
year when the United States allowed an 
orderly marketing agreement (OMA) with 
Japan to expire. 

“WE ARE concerned that the Japanese 
are not living up to the understanding 
which was reached last summer,” the coali- 
tion said in its letter to Brock. “This is 
particularly important since the Korean 
and Taiwanese DMAs were based in part 
upon their expectations as to Japanese 
imports.” 

The original OMA with Japan was ne- 
gotiated by the Carter Administration in 
1977 when import penetration in the U.S. 
color TV market approached 50 percent. 


causing a series of plant closings and ex- 
tensive layoffs. Subsequent surges in im- 
ports from Korea and Taiwan resulted in 
OMAs with those two countries last year. 

COMPACT, which is composed of 1 1 
labor organizations and four U.S. televi- 
sion set and component makers, contends 
that the OMAs would not have been 
necessary had government enforced the 
1971 dumping finding that Japanese sets 
were being sold in the United States well 
below their price in Japan. 

THE U.S. Customs Service estimated in 
1978 that dumping duties owed by 
Japanese manufacturers and their Ameri- 
can importers then totalled $400 million 
and COMPACT says these have since 
risen to $600 million. 

But only a fraction of the duties have 
been collected, and the Commerce Dept, 
sought in April 1980 to wipe out more 
than 80 percent of the fines with a $68 
million settlement. Two court injunctions 
blocked the Commerce Dept.’s proposal. 

The Trade Commission is expected to 
rule by June 21 on a petition by Japanese 
TV makers to set aside the 1971 dumping 
finding. 

COMPACT members include the AFL- 
CIO Industrial Union Dept., Allied In- 
dustrial Workers, Communications Work- 
ers, Flint Glass Workers, Furniture Work- 
ers, Glass Bottle Blowers, International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, 
Machinists, Steelworkers and the un- 
affiliated Radionic Workers, along with 
Corning Glass Works, Owens-Illinois, Inc., 
Sprague Electric Co. and Wells-Gardner 
Electronics Corp. 


Court Ruling Permits Suit 
Over Fair Representation 


The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that 
a worker fired for misconduct can sue 
both his employer and his union under 
certain conditions without first seeking 
redress through the union’s internal ap- 
peals procedure. 

The majority’s reasoning, in the case 
decided by the court, was that since the 
worker who brought the suit couldn’t get 
his job back through the union appeals 
system, he could not be required to use 
that system. 

IN THE SPECIFIC case, the UAW 
represented a worker who had been fired 
for violating a company rule against in- 
decent behavior and decided that the facts 
did not justify taking the dismissal to 
arbitration. 

The court majority held that because the 
15-day time limit for bringing a grievance 
to arbitration had run out, the worker had 
a right to file a suit both against the em- 
ployer charging wrongful dismissal and 
against the union charging that it breached 


its legal obligation to provide him fair rep- 
resentation. It reversed two lower courts in 
doing so. 

However, a footnote to the Supreme 
Court opinion by Justice William J. Bren- 
nan, Jr., indicated that a worker could be 
required to exhaust an internal union ap- 
peals procedure if the union’s contract 
with his employer specified that a griev- 
ance could be reactivated on the basis of 
a decision by a union appeals board. 

THE AFL-CIO had filed a brief in the 
case contending that the issue of a union’s 
statutory duty of fair representation could 
not arise because the union’s action could 
not be considered final so long as there 
was an opportunity for reversal through 
union procedures. 

Two of the dissenters, Justice Lewis F. 
Powell, Jr., and Chief Justice Warren E. 
Burger, said the AFL-CIO brief presented 
a solution “that is consistent both with 
national labor policy and relevant prece- 
dents.” 


t*age Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 30, 1981 


Social Security Sabotage 


‘Have a Nice Day!’ 


I T DIDNTT TAKE long for the Reagan Administration to dis- 
cover that it had stung grass-roots America out of complacency 
with the enormity of its proposed cutbacks in social security 
protection. 

A unanimous Senate quickly declared its opposition to the 
chief ingredients of the Administration plan, differing only on how 
strongly to word the resolution of rebuke. In the House, even the 
President’s most faithful supporters moved to dissociate themselves 
from the Administration position and reassure worried constituents. 

All this is good news — to a point. 

It means that millions of Americans now have experienced first 
hand the Reagan Administration’s approach to social issues. Per- 
haps they and their representatives in Congress will take a closer, 
more critical look at the Administration’s harsh budget decisions. 

IT HAS GIVEN a strong stimulus to the broad-based Save Our 
Security coalition, whose leaders have the intimate knowledge of 
the social security system that is needed by advocates in the legis- 
lative battles still ahead. 

As the coalition realizes, it is far too early to declare victory 
and fold the tents. 

Congress may have made clear that it isn’t immediately going 
to slash benefits of those who retire at age 62 by some 40 percent. 
But it has made no commitments not to cut back on benefits, not 
to further toughen eligibility for disability payments, not to change 
the formula for computing benefits so as to reduce everyone’s pay- 
ments in the future. It has not even committed itself not to wipe 
out a meager burial expense allowance. 


SO WHEN the White House sends word to Capitol Hill that 
it is ready to talk “compromise” on social security changes, it 
should be clear that this will not be a message of surrender. 

To the Administration, compromise means something between 
the social security rights that workers and retirees now have and 
the horrendous reductions the President originally sought. 

In any such “compromise,” persons counting on social security 
protection can only lose. 

As the SOS coalition has demonstrated in congressional testi- 
mony and statements, the social security system is not in imminent 
danger of financial collapse as the Administration scare tactics 
would have us believe. If fact, there would not even have been the 
short-term imbalance the trust funds face if the unemployment rate 
in recent years had been at normal rather than recession levels, 
and if wages had kept pace with price advances. 

Even with this imbalance, the immediate funding problem 
can be alleviated with modest changes in the allocation of the 
social security payroll tax, and the system can be strengthened 
over the long term by any of a variety of proposals to supplement 
the payroll tax with general revenue funds. 


This, clearly, is what Congress should do. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenri E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, May 30, 1981 


No. 22 i 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adyer- 
S Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

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Troubles Mount for Urbanites 

Reagan Cuts Push More Cities 
Toward Brink of Bankruptcy 


By Gus Tyler 

I F YOU LIVE in a city of more than 10,000, 
the chances are that you are in for big trouble. 
It will be your money or your life and maybe 
both. 

It all starts with what looks like the smart 
thing to do: cutting the budget in Washington to 
reduce federal assistance to local governments. 
The idea is to save money, to cut down borrow- 
ing, to reduce taxes. 

But nothing of the kind is likely to happen, 
according to data gathered by the Joint Economic 
Committee of Congress in the first extensive sur- 
vey of the financial plight of America’s cities. 

RIGHT NOW, more than half the cities with 
populations of 10,000 or more are running in the 
red, spending more than they are taking in for 
operating expenses. When President Reagan’s 
proposed budget cut goes through, says the sur- 
vey, it will put more municipal governments “on 
the brink of bankruptcy.” 

Now what are the ways in which these local 
governments can avoid going broke? 

They can cut services; they can ask for money 
from the states; they can raise your taxes, or 
they can borrow. Now let’s see how each of these 
will affect you: 

Cut services. To balance its budget. New York 
City — to take one instance — cut its police force. 
Result: burglary complaints rose last year but 
arrests fell. Citizens lost $339.6 million and only 
6.7 percent of burglary cases were closed. Cutting 
services is cutting your income and maybe your 
throat. 

Get aid from the state. But the states are 
“themselves fiscally strained and incapable of 
providing the necessary revenues,” says the sur- 
vey. 

SO THE CITIES will have to increase local 
taxes to make ends meet. This means that what- 
ever you expect to gain through a reduction in 
federal taxes — if you really get a reduction — will 
be lost through an increase in local taxes. 

In some cases, you will pay a higher local tax 
without even knowing it. You will be charged for 
services that were once free. 


The cities might try borrowing. Here there are 
many pitfalls. 

First, if a city is in financial trouble, it does 
not find it easy to get loans. And when it does, 
the interest rate is high because the risk is high. 
As a consequence, a city that borrows when it is 
in trouble just borrows more trouble. 

Second, if a city borrows, that borrowing has 
the same impact on the nation’s finances as when 
the federal government borrows. If it is unwise 
for a government to go into debt, then what 
difference does it make if that government is in 
Washington or in your backyard? 

For the city dweller, things look “grim,” says 
the survey. “Short of imperiling the health and 
safety of its residents, cities will have to raise 
taxes, user charges and fees to compensate for 
diminished federal assistance.” 

It’s your money or your life. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler’s Column 

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An IMF Salute to the 
Workers of Poland 

We, the representatives of nearly 14 million 
metalworkers, place on record our deep ad- 
miration for the workers of Poland in their 
historic achievement in forming the independent 
self-governing union. Solidarity* 

We welcome the creation of independent, 
democratically accountable and democratically 
controllable trade unionism in Poland as a 
major development for the working people of 
Poland and Polish society and a sign of hope 
to workers all over the world. 

We now pledge our continuing support for 
the workers of Poland. We are ready to help 
them in whatever manner they deem most 
appropriate. 

We salute the workers of Poland and wish 
them every success in the historic task they 
have embarked upon. 

— From a resolution adopted by the 25th 
World Congress of the International Metal- 
workers' Federation, Washington, D.C., May 
26,1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D,C., MAY 30, 1981 


Page Five 


Kirkland Tells IMF 

Labor Committed to Advancing 
Basic Interest of All Workers 


The following is from an address by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland to the 25th Congress of 
the International Metalworkers* Federation, Wash- 
ington, D.C., May 25, 1981 , 

1 IKE THE INTERNATIONAL Metalworkers’ 
^ Federation, the AFL-CIO has been accused 
of interfering in the internal affairs of Poland 
because of our response to Solidarity’s appeal for 
fraternal assistance. 

We have been catching it from all directions — 
both from those in the Soviet bloc who accuse us 
of seeking to contaminate the purity of Marxist 
thought in Poland, and from some of our own 
countrymen who worry that too much freedom 
among workers may undermine Poland’s ability 
to repay its massive debts to western banks. 

Our efforts have nothing to do with political or 
economic theories. We care very little about who 
nominally owns the means of production. We 
care very much about who owns the unions. 

IT IS THE mission of the trade union move- 
ment to humanize the society in which it finds 
itself, to seek justice and equity for individual 
workers from their employers, no matter whether 
the employer is a corporation or a government, 
and to obtain for them a fair share of available 
resources, whether those resources are large or 
small. 

We have not been asked by our brothers and 
sisters in Poland for political advice or economic 
guidance, and we have offered none. We have 
been asked for tangible things — for office equip- 
ment, printing and reproduction machines, and 
even for paper to write on — and we have supplied 
them. 

We have been asked for moral support and 
that, in concert with the IMF and the rest of the 
international free trade union movement, we have 
supplied with enthusiasm. We intend to continue 
our support as long as our fellow trade unionists 
in Poland need and desire it. 

For the same reasons, we will continue the 
trade union support that has been asked of us by 
our brothers and sisters in »E1 Salvador. 

THE WORKERS of that country, who have 
asked for and received our support, are victims 
caught in a crossfire from both left and right. 
They are terrorized by upholders of ancient privi- 
lege, monopoly ownership and class rule on the 
one hand, and by doctrinaire revolutionists who 
thrive on social turmoil and economic chaos on 
the other. 

Both sides are determined to rule or ruin. Both 
sides use equally brutal and inhuman methods. 
Both sides look upon a free trade union move- 
ment as an obstacle that must be destroyed at any 
cost. 

The gunmen who last December murdered two 
representatives of the AFL-CIO, Michael Ham- 
mer and Mark Pearlman, and the president of the 

Reagan Reneges on Promise 


Salvadoran farmworkers’ union, Jose Rodolfo 
Viera, proved to be agents of the right. But the 
distinction is immaterial. 

THEY WERE murdered beacuse the land re- 
form on which they were working is designed to 
improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of 
farm families and to lay the foundations of a 
stable, democratic society that can resist any and 
all slavemasters. And that is why the AFL-CIO 
will continue to support this program. 

Our role in such matters is by no means a new 
departure for us. From the beginning, we have 
reached out to our brothers and sisters in other 
lands. 

We are proud of the work of our three over- 
seas arms, the African-American Labor Center, 
the Asian-American Free Labor Institute, and the 
American Institute for Free Labor Development. 

OUR PRIDE in these activities arises from our 
conviction that trade unionism, in and of itself, 
is a positive good in the world, a force for eco- 
nomic and social justice, for individual liberty 
and self-respect, and ultimately for more peaceful 
relations both within and among nations. 

We are well aware of the shortcomings of our 
own society and of the need to pursue the fight 
for justice in the legislative halls and at the bar- 
gaining table. 

In its one-hundredth year, the American labor 
movement is challenged to prevent the wholesale 
destruction of a wide range of vital social pro- 
grams that have been slowly and painfully de- 
veloped over the last half-century. 

We are told that the forces ranged against 
us are irresistible, that we may as well save our 
energy, sit back, and wait for ^ change in the 
political weather. We have no intention of doing 
that. 

The AFL-CIO was built for the long haul. The 
handful of hopeful and determined trade union- 
ists who gathered in Pittsburgh in November 
1881 to lay its foundations knew what they were 
doing. They were crafting an instrument for the 
assertion of basic human rights and for the de- 
fense and enlargement of those rights. 

WE ARE NO strangers to adversity. Many 
times over the last century, we have faced worse 
odds and more intransigent opposition than we 
see today. Our instrument has not only survived, 
it has grown and it is today, in most of the ways 
that matter, sturdier, more flexible, and more 
capable than ever before. 

Busy as we are defending the interests of work- 
ers here at home, we have no intention of turning 
inward and withdrawing from our obligation to 
participate in the work of the international free 
trade union movement. 

We intend to make ourselves heard on every 
issue that affects workers in this country and all 
countries. And we have every confidence that the 
IMF and its affiliates will do the same. 


Attack on Social Security Dims 
Workers’ Retirement Outlook 


R etirement plans of every working 
American will suffer a sharp setback if the 
Reagan Administration’s drive succeeds in making 
sweeping changes in the social security program, 
AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert Seidman 
warned on Labor News Conference. 

The broad cuts that the President is urging 
Congress to approve would reduce the benefits of 
all future retirees with the most drastic slashes 
zeroed-in on workers who, because of poor health 
or job displacement, are forced to retire before 
age 65, Seidman stressed. He pointed out that 
the pensions of early retirees would be cut nearly 
in half, “from the present 80 percent of a normal 
benefit to less than 50 percent.” 

Reagan “is going back on a promise that he 
made during the campaign not to touch the social 
security system,” Seidman said. He noted that 
the abrupt switch has drawn “a violent outcry” 


from both active workers and retirees as they see 
the protections they have worked for and paid for 
threatened by unnecessarily harsh steps to correct 
financing problems. 

Seidman charged that the Administration’s as- 
sault on social security is part of its attempts to 
manipulate the federal budget. Social security is 
intended to “provide protection for people over 
the long term,” he asserted, and major decisions 
affecting the system “ought not to be made on the 
basis of short-term budget considerations.” 

He renewed the call for partial financing of 
social security from general federal revenues, 
which would deal with both the immediate and 
future problems. He said that a measure now be- 
fore Congress to pay for half of the Medicare 
program with general revenues and the rest 
through payroll taxes, which is strongly supported 
by the AFL-CIO, would be a major step toward 
that goal. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

F or all those who might be wondering, the tooth fairy is 
alive and well and advising the Secretary of Labor. 

That’s the only explanation for the recent proposal to legalize 
industrial homework and revive “cottage” industries. 

According to the Ladies’ Garment Workers, the last decade has 
seen a resurgence of the sweatshop in cities such as Los Angeles, 
New York, Chicago and Miami, as well as in New Jersey and 
along the Mexican border. Hard-won union gains are being eroded 
and undermined as more and more work moves from the factory 
into the home. 

THIS IS HOW the ILGWU describes the situation: 

“Homeworkers receive no benefits or social security. They 
absorb the costs of electricity and rent. The employer supplies 
them with work, but not with a sewing machine. 

“Homeworkers are alone and isolated, unable to compare their 
earnings or conditions with those of other workers, powerless to 
protest against low piece rates of ‘bad’ (poorly cut) goods, on their 
own if an accident should occur. 

“Employers are in a position to dictate the price to be paid to 
individual homeworkers, and can hire and fire at will.” 

What’s more, the union points out, homework and child labor 
go hand in hand. Working long hours, homeworkers often let a 
child or teenager relieve them while they rest or take care of other 
chores. 

THE ABUSES are the traditional abuses. Homeworkers are 
cheated on the amount of work done, fake deductions are made 
from their pay and there is no recourse. 

The Jewelry Workers Division of the Service Employees also 
reports a high incidence of illegal homework, especially in Rhode 
Island where costume jewelry manufacturing is concentrated. 

A full day’s work can be transported in a shopping bag and 
jewelry homeworkers on piece rates make about $1 to $2 an hour 
while working long hours, the union said. 

At the turn of the century, immigrant families were exploited 
so badly in their sweatshop tenements that several states stepped 
in to regulate homework. 

A FEDERAL ROLE was created with passage of the Fair 
Labor Standards Act of 1938, the wage-hour law. Because home- 
work threatened to undermine the minimum wage, in the early 
1940s homework was prohibited in seven light industries: women’s 
apparel, knitted outerwear, embroideries, buttons and buckles, 
gloves and mittens, handkerchiefs, and jewelry. Exceptions were 
provided for the elderly or disabled, however. 

The FLSA amendments adopted by Congress in 1949 incor- 
porated the homework regulatory authority into federal law. 

On May 1, Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan suddenly announced 
he planned to lift the restrictions against homework in the seven 
industries. Donovan saw this as opening up job opportunities in 
many “cottage” industries and encouraging homeworkers to report 
minimum wage violations “without fear of losing their jobs.” 

THE PROBLEM of sweatshops in the home and their devastat- 
ing effect on legitimate business operations remain a problem 
of the cities and the exploitation of immigrants, legal and illegal. 

With the Administration cutting back on wage-hour enforce- 
ment and with its inability or unwillingness to enforce the law 
against homework, Donovan is saying that what is now illegal 
shall be made legal. Problem solved. 

To talk about opening up jobs in “cottage” industries is 
romantic nonsense. To expect exploited and vulnerable home- 
workers to turn in their outside employers is naive in the extreme. 

The ILGWU believes Donovan is violating federal law in 
removing the prohibition on homework. Donovan believes he has 
the authority to do so. And that’s where the issue stands. 



SWEEPING CHANGES in social security pushed by the 
Reagan Administration could wreck the retirement plans of 
every working American, AFL-CIO Social Security Director 
Bert Seidman, center, warned on Labor News Conference. He 
was questioned by William Steif, left, of the Scripps-Howard 
Newspapers and Ben Rathbun of Daily Labor Report. The 
public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 





Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 30, 1981 



LABOR OF LOVE is presented by its maker, 93-year-old Rose Lapidus, to 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland during a celebration honoring labor’s 100th 
anniversary at the Workmen’s Circle Home & Infirmary for the Aged. A resident 
of the home, she is a long-time member of the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 
Joining the presentation are ILGWU President Sol C. Chaikin and Clothing & 
Textile Workers Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman. Ceremonies at the Bronx, N.Y., 
facility included dedication of a pavilion named in honor of George Meany. 

Kirkland Challenges Claim 
Of Voter Mandate for Cuts 


New York — AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland took sharp exception to the Rea- 
gan Administration’s claim of a popular 
“mandate” that justifies its deep cuts in 
aid and protections for workers and the 
needy. 

Kirkland, speaking at the Workmen’s 
Circle Home & Infirmary for the Aged, 
said the signal from the voters in the last 
election was for change, but change that 
moves “forward, not backward.” 

The labor movement respects the past, 
“but we have no desire to relive it.” he 
told guests at the geriatric care facility’s 
celebration of organized labor’s centennial. 

THE EVENT included the dedication of 
a pavilion at the home named in memory 
of George Meany, who was born in the 
Bronx near the site of the facility. 

Kirkland scored the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s proposed cutbacks in social security, 
pointing out that at no time during the 
campaign did Reagan promise the voters 
that “if he were elected President, millions 
of Americans and their dependents who 
have been counting on social security 

Continued U.S. Share 
Of Food Cargo Urged 

The AFL-CIO has urged members of 
the House Foreign Affairs Committee to 
reject an amendment that would abolish 
the cargo preference provision of the 
Food for Peace program. 

Under present law, half of U.S. food 
assistance to other nations must be shipped 
in American-flag vessels. When the House 
Foreign Affairs Committee takes up legis- 
lation to renew the foreign assistance pro- 
gram, Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-NJ.) is 
expected to offer an amendment to repeal 
the cargo preference. 

In a letter to committee members, 
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Deni- 
son warned that such action would fur- 
ther weaken the nation’s merchant fleet. 

Denison said it would “increase our 
dependency on foreign nations for U.S. 
overseas commerce and result in layoffs 
of thousands of workers at a time of 
already high domestic unemployment.” 

He also noted that “similar cargo pref- 
erence requirements are routinely imposed 
by most other nations.” 


benefits — particularly those forced to take 
early retirement because of illness or other 
forces beyond their control — would find 
their benefits cut, their hopes dashed.” 

Nor were voters ever given a choice on 
the Administration’s efforts to dismantle 
the unemployment compensation, system, 
worker safety and health laws or other 
protective legislation such as the prohibi- 
tion against industrial home work, Kirk- 
land stressed. 

“I DO NOT believe that the American 
people voted for this kind of ‘change,’ ' 
he said. “I do not believe they were re- 
jecting the life’s work of George Meany.” 

Meany was “more than a trade union 
leader, he was spokesman for American 
workers whether they carried a union card 
or not,” Kirkland averred, “and he spoke 
for the poor, the underprivileged, the op- 
pressed and for any people in any nation 
who were fighting for dignity, justice and 
freedom.” 

Chairing the ceremonies, Sec.-Treas. 
Jacob Sheinkman of the Clothing & Tex- 
tile Workers pointed to the long history of 
cooperation between the Workmen’s Cir- 
cle and organized labor and called for a 
strengthening of that bond. 

DESCRIBING THE work of the home 
in caring for the elderly pioneers of the 
labor movement, Sheinkman said: 

“The problem of the proper care of our 
aged will not be fully answered by this 
home. Nor will it, in all probability, be 
answered fully in our lifetime. We will, in 
the end, be judged by what physical, cul- 
tural, emotional sustenance we provide 
those who sustained us when we were 
young. We will be judged by the quality 
of life we afford those who provided us 
with life.” 

President Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers reminded the audience 
that “the labor movement in each genera- 
tion had added to the well-being of work- 
ers and their families. And the Workmen’s 
Circle, a mutual self-help group, has been 
a willing and eager partner.” 

Among other speakers were Frank 
Brown, organizational director of Auto 
Workers District 65; ACTWU Vice Presi- 
dent Murray Goldstein, chairman of the 
trade union council for the home, and 
ACTWU Regional Director Jerry Land- 
/uan, president of the home. 


Convention Boosts Per Capita 

Novelty Workers Shape 
Membership Program 


Miami Beach, Fla. — A program to 
muster labor’s strength to meet the major 
challenges of the 1 980s was given top pri- 
ority by delegates to the Novelty Produc- 
tion Workers’ convention here along with 
a per capita increase to finance it. 

President Julius Isaacson, underscoring 
the need for legislation to strengthen and 
protect workers’ rights, took the Reagan 
Administration to task for policies “hell- 
bent to destroy labor’s gains.” Isaacson 
pointed to the recent attacks on job safety 
and health regulations, wage and hour pro- 
tections, social security and the rights of 
women and minorities. 

DELEGATES approved a series of res- 
olutions calling for stepped-up bargaining 
for voluntary COPE contribution check- 
offs, tougher successorship agreement laws, 
improved protections for workers affected 
by plant closings and imports, all-out ef- 
forts against “right-to-work” laws, prohi- 
bitions on the use of lie detector tests and 
strikebreakers, and retention of prevailing 
wage laws. 

Appealing for intensified organizing ef- 
forts, Isaacson reported that despite con- 
tinued problems with imports and runaway 
shops, 40,000-member union had posted a 
20 percent growth in membership and 
significant contract gains in wages and 
benefits since its last convention in 1976. 

The 335 delegates approved an increase 
in the monthly per capita payment to the 
international from $1.85 to $2. Local 
unions were authorized to increase month- 
ly dues from $8 to $10. Both actions take 
effect in June. 


to combat the damage done to workers 
and industries by imports and dumping. 
The union, formerly called the Doll & Toy 
Workers, was one of the first to be severely 
hurt by imported products, he pointed out. 

“What has happened to baseball,” Isaac- 
son said, “dramatizes the effect of imports. 
Our great American pastime is played with 
balls from Haiti, shoes from Spain, uni- 
forms from Japan and even under Amer- 
ican flags made with textiles from Japan.” 

Seafarers’ President Frank Drozak told 
the delegates many government officials 
“seem to have a religious hang-up on the 
idea of free trade, yet when it is time to 
protect American workers from foreign 
imports, we have yet to see our govern- 
ment hold out much of a social safety net.” 

AMONG THE 48 resolutions adopted 
during the convention were measures sup- 
porting passage of the Equal Rights 
Amendment, a fair immigration policy, a 
consistent national energy policy, a rein- 
dustrialization program for American in- 
dustry and congressional investigation of 
the activities of union-busting consultants. 

The delegates called on the Reagan Ad- 
ministration and the Federal Reserve 
Board to back away from monetary poli- 
cies that drive up interest rates, and they 
scored the Administration for tax policies 
that will “require more sacrifice from 
those who have little to give more to those 
who already have much.” 

Hofstra Law School Chair 
Dedicated for Carlough 


ISAACSON AND Sec.-Treas. John Ser- 
pico were elected by acclamation to their 
second full five-year terms. The union’s 
five vice presidents and 12 executive board 
members were also unanimously re-elected. 

In his remarks to the delegates, Isaacson 
called for a comprehensive national policy 


Hempstead, N.Y. — Hofstra University 
Law School has dedicated the Edward F. 
Carlough Chair of Labor Law in honor 
of the Sheet Metal Workers’ president- 
emeritus. 

Carlough served as president of the un- 
ion from 1959 until his retirement in 1970. 


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Schedule for June Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 


Institutes on plant closings, labor law and public communications highlight 
activities at the Silver Spring, Md., campus of the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies in June. The programs are open to officers and staff members of 
AFL-CIO affiliates. 

The Industrial Union Dept., the American Institute for Free Labor Devel- 
opment (AIFLD), the African-American Labor Center and the Labor Council 
for Latin American Advancement will use the studies center’s facilities for their 
own training programs during the month as will five unions. The schedule: 

Plant Closings Institute, May 31 -June 3 — A three-day session on the union’s 
role when a plant closes, including government programs to help workers, 
employers and communities. 

Labor Law, June 7-12 — A review of labor laws governing internal union 
affairs, organizing, collective bargaining, fair representation and equal oppor- 
tunity. 

Public Communications for Public Employee Unions, June 14-29 — ^A work- 
shop cosponsored by the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, on techniques of 
using the electronic and print media to build support for public employee 
programs. 

Union leadership development programs include: Graphic Arts International 
Union, June 7-12; Operating Engineers, June 14-19; Theatrical Stage Employ- 
ees, June 14-19; Communications Workers, June 25. 

The lUD will host a semi-annual meeting of trustees of its National Indus- 
trial Group Pension Plan, June 1-2. 

The AIFLD and the AALC are cosponsoring a class for 20 labor leaders 
from French-speaking African and Caribbean countries. May 31-June 12. The 
AIFLD will graduate classes of 22 English-speaking Caribbean and 20 Por- 
tuguese-speaking union officers from Brazil in June 12. They will be succeeded 
on June 22 by 40 Spanish-speaking women trade unionists from Latin American 
countries. 


The center will sponsor a final conference June 28-30 to provide informa- 
tion for community colleges and unions interested in its Tripartite Program for 
Apprenticeship & Associate of Arts Degrees. 

One off-campus session for union officers and staff members is scheduled 
June 8-9 at Cleveland on the AFL-CIO pension investment study and rec- 
ommendations. 


More information on these and other labor studies programs can be obtained 
from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive director, George Meany Center, 10000 
New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone 301/431-6400. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 30, 1981 


Page Seven 


Free World Unions Hail Poland’s ‘^Solidarity 


(Continued from Page 1) 

its response to Solidarity’s appeal to the 
West for fraternal assistance. 

“We have been catching it from all 
directions — both from those in the Soviet 
bloc who accuse us of seeking to contami- 
nate the purity of Marxist thought in 
Poland, and from some of our own coun- 
trymen who worry that too much freedom 
among workers may undermine Poland’s 
ability to repay its massive debts to West- 
ern banks,” Kirkland said. 

“OUR EFFORTS have nothing to do 
with political or economic theories. We 
care very little about who nominally owns 
the means of production. We care very 
much about who owns the unions. . . . 

“We have not been asked by our broth- 
ers and sisters in Poland for political ad- 
vice or economic guidance, and we have 
offered none. We have been asked for tan- 
gible things — for office equipment, printing 
and reproduction machines, and even for 
paper to write on, and we have supplied 
them. 

“We have been asked for moral support 
and that, in concert with the IMF and the 
rest of the international free trade-union 
movement, we have supplied with enthu- 
siasm.” 

In an opening-day address to the con- 
gress, Mieczyslaw Gil, a steelworker who 
is a Solidarity regional president based in 
Cracow, told the 500 delegates: 

“WE ARE interested in contacts and 
exchanges of opinions with all trade union 
movements. Above all, we are interested 
in examining the best ways of maintaining 
the independence, the working-class na- 
ture, and democratic self-governing of our 
union.” 

Taking note that the conference was 
being held in America, Gil, who is also a 


member of Solidarity’s top governing body, 
its National Coordinating Commission, 
thanked the working people of the United 
States for their support of Solidarity dur- 
ing its building stage, and spoke warmly 
of Polish-American ties. 

“Over many years, Poles have been ac- 
cepted here, especially in hard times, and 
have contributed to the development of 
American industry and civilization,” Gil 
observed. “We also know and appreciate 
the fact that Polish workers are a very 
important segment of the American trade- 
union movement.” 

DURING AMERICA’S colonial days, 
he noted, Polish workers at Jamestown, 
Va., protesting against being denied the 
right to vote, organized an action that has 
been labeled the first strike ever in the 
New World. 

Another member of the Solidarity dele- 
gation, Szbigniew Przydial, told reporters 
that he was impressed with the respect and 
interest shown by the IMF delegates in the 
new Polish labor federation. 

“We will take our impressions back to 
our fellow members in Poland,” said 
Przydial, a shipyard worker and member 
of Solidarity’s Wroclaw regional executive 
board. “We saw how representatives of 
working people in Tunisia, elsewhere in 
Africa, and in other countries were ac- 
cepted here, and treated in an equal way 
regardless of race or color or religion. 

“WE ARE very grateful for this lesson 
in solidarity in the free world.” 

Other Solidarity representatives at the 
meeting — the largest international trade 
union assembly ever held in the United 
States — were Jacek Kurczewski, a Warsaw 
University staff member, who serves as an 
adviser to the labor federation, and Anna 
Maksyniuk, an interpreter from the or- 
ganization’s press and information bureau 


in Gdansk. The congress is the IMF’s high- 
est policy-making body, and until this year 
had always been held in a European city. 
IMF’s central and executive committees 
have met in Asia, the Middle East and 
North and South America. 

While the metalworkers’ conference 
focused on a number of issues under the 
banner of the overall theme, “Peace, Jus- 
tice, Jobs,” the feat- of the Poles in estab- 
lishing the first genuinely independent free 
trade unions in the communist world was 
clearly on the minds of most delegates as 
well as speakers. Although Solidarity has 
no formal ties with the IMF, the composi- 
tion of its larger national unions is in steel, 
shipbuilding, the electrical industry, and 
other sectors represented by the trade sec- 
retariat. 

THE POLISH Workers Aid Fund, 
launched last September by the AFL-CIO 
General Board, has raised about a quarter 
of a million dollars. The funds are chan- 
neled to Solidarity in the form of needed 
equipment and supplies, and constitute the 
largest single source of support for the 
Polish labor organization in the West. 

The IMF, also an early supporter of the 
Polish workers’ union, will continue to sup- 
port metalworkers wherever and whenever 
they are in need of help, IMF Gen. Sec. 
Herman Rebhan told delegates. 

“We will be accused of interference,” he 
pointed out. “When we lend support to 
strikers in South Africa or in Argentina, 
those governments say we are meddling in 
internal affairs. When we send aid to 
Poland, again there are those who say that 
this is outside interference. 

“WE REJECT these accusations,” said 
the Polish-born Rebhan, who grew up in 
Germany but fled during the Nazi perse- 
cution of the Jews and arrived penniless in 
the United States in 1938. “We stand for 


international working-class solidarity that 
recognizes no frontiers — that sees only 
workers who need our help. 

“As the workers of Poland have shown, 
the urge for independent trade unions will 
never die,” said Rebhan, a former Detroit 
auto worker, who worked his way up 
through the UAW to become the union’s 
international affairs director. 

Also saluting the Polish workers were 
IMF President Eugen Loderer, president 
of the 2.7-million member West German 
metalworkers’ union, IG Metall; UAW 
President Douglas A. Fraser, and Sen. 
Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). 

“THEIR BRAVE struggle reminds us 
how precious liberty is,” Kennedy ob- 
served. “It reaffirms the universal appeal 
of free trade unions everywhere.” 

Fraser, speaking on behalf of the 11 
North American unions that are affiliated 
with the IMF, said that the Polish workers 
“have given us new hope in our own 
struggles. It is ironic to note that while 
the Wall Street Journal was praising the 
right of Polish workers to organize — one 
of the few correct positions they’ve ever 
taken editorially — the leaders of big busi- 
ness in the United States still were spend- 
ing millions of dollars a year figuring out 
ways to stop American workers from or- 
ganizing.” 

In addition to the UAW, 10 AFL-CIO 
unions are affiliated with the IMF, the 
international trade secretariat that links 
some 1 70 metalworkers’ unions in 70 
countries of the non-communist world. 
They are the Machinists, Steelworkers, 
Molders, Sheet Metal Workers, Boiler- 
makers, Aluminum Workers, International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Op- 
erating Engineers, Allied Industrial Work- 
ers, and the Electrical, Radio & Machine 
Workers. IMF’s North American mem- 
bership is about 3.6 million. 


Newspaper Guild Asks Study 
Of Health Risk in VDT Use 



NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE hiring practices discriminate against 
blacks in the selection of assistant and head coaches, a citizens’ fact-finding 
panel charged after reviewing a study commissioned by the NFL Players- Asso- 
ciation. Panel Chairman William E. Pollard, left, is shown with two other 
members of the unit, NFLPA Executive Director Edward Garvey, center, and 
Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Calif.). Pollard is director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Civil Rights. 

Citizens Panel Presses NFL 
To Hire More Black Coaches 


The Newspaper Guild has called on 
Congress to fund a long-term study of 
workers who operate video, display termi- 
nals (VDTs) to determine whether they 
are developing cataracts or other health 
damage attributable to radiation in num- 
bers significantly higher than other office 
employees. 

The proposal was advanced by Guild 
President Charles A. Perlik, Jr., as the 
lead-off witness in two days of hearings 
on the potential effects on health of VDTs 
and radio-frequency heaters and scalers by 
a House Science & Technology subcom- 
mittee. 

IT IS ESTIMATED that five to seven 
million of the devices currently are in use 
by office workers in the United States — 
more than 23,000 of them in the news, 
advertising, circulation and business offices 
of newspapers — and that number is ex- 
pected to more than double within the next 
five years. VDTs are television-like screens 
attached to typewriter-like keyboards that 
replace typewriters and paper for a variety 
of office functions. 

Perlik told the subcommittee that the 

Bid to Oust Inspectors 
On Imports Assailed 

Monitoring imports for compliance with 
U.S. laws is a job for trained specialists, 
not computers, the AFL-CIO told a Sen- 
ate Finance subcommittee. 

The statement protested Administration 
budget proposals that would eliminate jobs 
of import specialists capable of assuring 
that products brought into the United 
States comply with U.S. safety, consumer 
protection, patent, copyright and trade- 
mark laws. 

Computerized tally of imports cannot 
substitute for the type of knowledgeable 
inspection that should be undertaken, the 
AFL-CIO said. 

The federation noted also that customs 
inspections normally return many times 
their cost in additional revenues and there- 
fore the claim of savings through reduc- 
tion of inspections is “unrealistic.” 


Guild feels “attention has been concen- 
trated for too long exclusively on the 
presence or absence of radiation in rela- 
tion ... to standards that are subject to 
revision and dispute and to health effects 
whose nature and range are far from being 
fully explored.” 

Reports to date by various arms of the 
government’s health establishment repeat- 
edly seek to reassure workers and their 
unions that there is no radiant-energy haz- 
ard at the low levels emitted by the ma- 
chines according to existing standards, 
Perlik noted. 

BUT, HE pointed out, a recent report 
by the Bureau of Radiological Health 
“states the matter a bit more pointedly, 
to wit: ‘Research information on bioeffects 
for the frequency range 15 kilohertz to 
125 kilohertz is lacking, so empirical esti- 
mates of injury are not possible.’ ” 

Within the Guild’s own experience, he 
pointed to reported cases of ten persons 
developing cataracts within' the last five 
years after going to work on the machines 
— five of them in the last year alone — and 
to birth defects in children born within a 
month to four women working on VDTs 
at the Toronto Star. 

Studies of the cataract and birth de- 
fect cases have not established a link be- 
tween the phenomena and the work envi- 
ronments, but have established no other 
reason for the occurrences, either, Perlik 
pointed out. 

RESEARCH INTO the possibility of 
long-range biological effects from exposure 
to radiation at the low levels emitted by 
VDTs seems to be in order, Perlik told the 
panel. 

He called on the subcommittee, chaired 
by Rep. Albert Gore, Jr. (D-Tenn.), him- 
self a former newspaper reporter, to seek 
such a study “either conducted or funded 
by the National Institute for Occupational 
Safety & Health” and to do what it can 
to see that NIOSH gets enough funds to 
conduct all of the research “so sorely 
needed to assure the protection of Ameri- 
can workers from radiation and other oc- 
cupational hazards.” 


A citizens’ factfinding panel headed by 
AFL-CIO Civil Rights Director William 
E. Pollard called on the National Football 
League to eliminate a “pattern of racial 
discrimination” in its hiring practices that 
denies coaching position to blacks. 

The charges of racial discrimination 
came in a study commissioned by the NFL 
Players Association and conducted by 
Johns Hopkins University sociologist 
Jomills Braddock. The study found that 
while more than 50 percent of the league’s 
active players are black, opportunities for 
them in coaching positions are worsening. 

“DESPITE A 28-percent increase in the 
number of coaching positions in the NFL 
over the last seven years,” the study noted, 
“there has been a net decline in the pro- 
portion of blacks holding assistant coach- 
ing positions.” 

The Panel on Equity in the National 
Football League includes representatives 


of labor and civil rights organizations. 
Representing labor, besides Pollard, are 
Operating Engineers President J. C. 
Turner, UAW President Douglas Fraser, 
NFLPA Executive Director Edward Gar- 
vey, and Garvey’s assistant. Brig Owens. 

POLLARD CALLED ON the league to 
undertake an affirmative action program in 
the hiring of coaches by its member clubs. 
The panel also urged NFL Commissioner 
Pete Rozelle to meet with it for a discus- 
sion of the issue. 

If the NFL continues to refuse to meet 
with the group, “it may have to express its 
views to a committee of the Congress,” 
warned Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D- 
Calif.), a member of the panel and chair- 
man of the employment opportunities sub- 
committee of the House Education & La- 
bor Committee. Hawkins’s subcommittee 
has the authority to subpoena witnesses 
and conduct oversight hearings on institu- 
tional discrimination in the NFL, he noted. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON^ D.C., MAY 30, 1981 




Congressional Study Finds 


Fund Slashes Worsen 
Crisis of Nation’s Cities 


A study prepared for the congressional 
Joint Economic Committee painted a 
bleak outlook for the nation’s cities as a 
result of President Reagan’s proposed 
budget cuts. 

The budget reductions expected to take 
effect in the fall will exacerbate the already 
serious fiscal problems of many munici- 
palities, the stLidyJound. 

“The number and proportion of cities 
which reported deficits . . . surpassed even 
the most pessimistic projections,” the re- 
port observed. “And it should be noted 
that cities with deficits are not confined 
to any one region or size. 

“THUS, IN LIGHT of the seemingly 
intractable high rate of inflation facing 
the nation and the proposed reductions in 
federal intergovernmental assistance, the 
outlook for cities is bleak.” 

The study is based on a survey of 275 
cities around the country. The data used 
in the report were collected before the an- 
nouncement of the Reagan budget pro- 
posals in February, and “are probably 
optimistic,” the authors of the JEC report 
said. 

Questionnaires were sent to 594 cities. 
Of the cities that responded, 79 percent 
indicated that their operating expenditures 
were expected to exceed revenues during 
the current fiscal year, compared with 50 
percent of those responding to a similar 
survey last year and 55 percent in 1979. 

THE REPORT said the federal govern- 
ment “may have to develop a policy for 
dealing with municipal default on other 
than an ad hoc basis,” as it did in New 
York’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s. 

Other major findings of the study: 

• For all cities responding to the sur- 
vey, the average increase in both revenues 
and expenditures was below the rate of 
inflation in 1979-80. For 1981, all cities 


are anticipating that revenue increases will 
be significantly below expenditures in- 
creases. 

• All cities experienced large reduc- 
tions in their CETA (Comprehensive Edu- 
cation & Training Act) workforces in 
1980. For 1981, all cities are predicting 
additional steep CETA declines. 

• Wage and salary increases for police, 
fire, and sanitation workers were fre- 
quently below the rate of inflation. In the 
largest cities, the shortfall was dramatic. 
For 1981, the report observed, wage and 
salary increases proposed in the largest 
cities are below the increases projected by 
other size cities for all services. 

The eventual way out of the financial 
crises shaping up for the cities, the re- 
port suggested, is to build a new economic 
bases. 

“THE RESULTS of this study strongly 
support the need for reindustrialization 
policies, given the severe fiscal conse- 
quences to cities of declining middle-class 
populations and private sector jobs,” the 
report said. “The study also shows the 
danger of too-heavy reliance on federal 
assistance. 

“Even reindustrialization, which will 
undoubtedly help many cities, is a long- 
run solution. In the near term, short of 
imperiling the health and safety of its 
residents, cities will have to raise taxes, 
user charges, and fees to compensate for 
diminished federal assistance.” 

Because of the magnitude of the pro- 
posed federal budget cuts and the abrupt- 
ness with which they will likely be im- 
plemented, the study concluded, “many 
economic development initiatives will be 
reversed, the population of many cities 
will be forced to forego certain services 
and to pay more for others, and an in- 
creasing number of cities will find them- 
selves on the brink of collapse.” 


Workers Boost Averages 
With Bat Strike Settlement 


Clarksville, Ind. — ^Big league baseball 
players have one less thing to worry about 
these days. They won’t be running out of 
Louisville Sluggers now that the firm that 
makes their favorite bat has settled on a 
new contract with its union-represented 
workers. 

The Slugger, manufactured just across 
the Ohio River here from the bat’s Ken- 
tucky namesame, is very popular with ma- 
jor league players. About 90 percent of 
the bats used in the big leagues are Louis- 
ville Sluggers. 

WHILE MOST clubs already had or- 
dered the bulk of their bats for the season 
before last month’s strike against Hillerich 
& Bradsby began, the longer the strike 
continued the greater the likelihood in- 
creased that hitters would start swinging 
the competition’s timber — an Adirondack 
or one of those bats made in Japan. 

Members of Steelworkers Local 3931 
struck the firm on Apr. 12 just after the 
start of the baseball season. The main 


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BRISK PACE is set by Rubber Workers’ President Peter Bommarito in the 
March of Dimes fund-raiser in Akron, Ohio. Bommarito, in the white jacket, 
was joined in leading the march by Jack W. Johnson, chief negotiator for B. F. 
Goodrich Co.; W. G. Brant, labor program director for the march, and Akron 
Mayor Roy L. Ray. Bommarito had challenged the chairmen of the major 
rubber companies to sponsor his walk with contributions so he could make the 
“long hike” they always wanted him to take. The event raised $60,000. 

NLRB Sleeks Court Order 
Against Baseball Owners 


issues were wages and seniority rights. 
The union members, who ^Iso turn out 
metal golf club shafts, metal bats, softball 
and little league bats for the conipany, 
ended the dispute with ratification of a 
contract providing hourly wage^ increases 
of $1 .80 over three years. 

THE 340 WORKERS also won im- 
proved health insurance and pension bene- 
fits and a new dental plan and retained 
the right of senior employees to choose 
their secondary job assignments. When 
one line of the factory shuts down — for 
example, the line making baseball bats — 
a senior bat line worker can choose where 
he wants to work in another area of the 
plant. 


Baseball’s dispute over unfair labor 
practice charges against team owners 
spilled into federal district court in New 
York, where the National Labor Relations 
Board sought a temporary restraining 
order that could keep the 1981 season go- 
ing for another 30 days at least. 

Injunctive relief, sought by NLRB Gen- 
eral Counsel William A. Lubbers on behalf 
of the players’ union, the Major League 
Players Association, would mean the ball- 
players would not have to strike on or be- 
fore June 1 to prevent the club owners 
from unilaterally imposing their free-agent 
compensation plan. 

THE BOARD authorized Lubbers on 
May 27 to seek the temporary restraining 
order and then, if granted, a full injunc- 
tion. Many observers felt that an in- 
junction would eliminate the possibility of 
a strike, but the players said they were 
keeping their options open. The union was 
to have started the first mid-season strike 
in baseball history at the conclusion of 
games scheduled on May 28. 

The board’s action followed the issuance 
by Lubbers of an unfair labor practice 
complaint accusing the owners of refusing 
to bargain in good faith. The players 
charged that management had refused to 
give them the financial data they need to 
continue good-faith bargaining on the free 
agent question. 

Under the agreement that averted a 
strike last year, the free agent issue was 
put aside while the rest of the contract was 
settled. That contract allowed the owners 
to put their free agent compensation plan 
into effect June 1, 1981, unless agreement 




SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS proposed by the Reagan Administration would 
break “a solemn contractual obligation” to American workers, AFL-CIO Vice 
President Jerry Wurf charged at a news conference called by the Save Our 
Security coalition. Organizations representing more than 35 million members 
are fighting benefit cutbacks. 


on* the issue was reached. The players 
would have to strike before that date to 
prevent the imposition of the plan. 

THE OWNERS’ plan would allow a 
team that lost a “ranking” free agent in 
the re-entry draft to receive compensation 
from the player’s new team in the form of 
a major-league player. 

The players point out that this would 
severely limit free agency and that the 
proposal is the same one management put 
forth when negotiations started 16 months 
ago. Because a number of owners have 
claimed that the plan is necessary to avoid 
heavy financial burdens on their teams, 
the players have called on the owners to 
open their books to justify these arguments. 

When the owners refused to do so. Lub- 
bers issued the refusal-to-bargain complaint. 

THE NLRB SAID it would continue to 
review the unfair labor practice charge. 
While the injunctive relief would block the 
compensation plan at least temporarily, it 
would not necessarily call for the owners to 
furnish the financial data to the union. 

But the players would be free to con- 
tinue the season without jeopardizing their 
position while the board considered the 
merits of the charge. 

Coalition Seeks 
To Bar All Cuts 
In Social Security 

(Continued from Page 1) ^ 

benefits related to past earnings and con- 
tributions. 

“It is not surprising that the country is 
reacting with outrage to proposals that 
would violate the compact,” he testified. 

BALL OUTLINED for the committee 
a variety of steps that could be taken to 
shore up the funding of the program, 
from temporary shifting of income from 
one trust fund to another as a short-term 
minimal step to the more “desirable” ap- 
proach of starting to make general reve- 
nue contributions to the program. 

“Eventual government contributions to 
social security were a part of the original 
design for the program,” Ball reminded 
the committee. 

Ball and other coalition representatives 
noted at the SOS news conference that the 
social security funding problem would not 
have arisen under a healthy economy. 

If unemployment had been in the 4-to-5 
percent range and inflation had not out- 
stripped wages. Ball said in response to a 
question, there would have been ample 
money to meet benefit obligations. 




OSHA Scraps ^Walkaround Pay’ on Inspections 



By Jahn R. Oravec 

The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has revoked its “walkaround 
pay” rule which unions regard as essen- 
tial for worker participation in job site 
inspections and for effective enforcement 
of OSHA standards. 

Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. Auch- 
ter said the regulation was being rescinded 
because it was not needed to carry out 
OSHA’s programs. The rule required em- 
ployers to fully compensate workers for 
the time they spend accompanying OSHA 
compliance officers durihg inspections. 

OSHA ALSO announced new delays in 
implementing a “trigger” provision in the 
lead exposure standard requiring the trans- 
fer of affected workers to less-hazardous 
jobs and the effective date of a hearing 


conservation program for workers exposed 
to high levels of noise. Employer groups 
have strongly opposed both safeguards. 

The original walkaround rule, issued in 
1977, was sidetracked by a federal ap- 


peals court on a technicality last July 
after a challenge by the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce. A new rule was issued in 
January by the outgoing Carter Adminis- 
tration, but its effective date was post- 


poned under orders of President Reagan. 

The Chamber of Commerce also chal- 
lenged the reissued rule, contending that 
the time workers spend on inspections 
does not constitute “time worked” within 
the provisions of the Fair Labor Stan- 
dards Act. 

AUCHTER, who is the director of 
OSHA, insisted in revoking the rule that 
“the issue of walkaround pay is best left 
to voluntary arrangements between em- 
ployers and employees.” 

AFL-CIO Safety Director George H. R. 
Taylor warned that the revocation threat- 
ens to lock workers out of the inspection 
process by creating a closed relationship 
between OSHA and the employer. He said 

(Continued on Page 2) 



THREE FORMER COMMISSIONERS of the Social Security Administration 
testify at House hearings on the severe impact the Reagan Administration’s be{^- 
efit cuts would have on women. From left, Robert M. Ball, Stanford G. Ross 
and William Driver. 

"^Catastrophic^ Impact 

Women Biggest Losers 
In Social Security Slash 


Davis -Bacon Foes 
Linked to Revival 
Of W age Chiseling 


America’s women would be the biggest 
losers if Congress agreed to the Reagan 
Administration’s social security proposals, 
a House task force discovered. 

The task force, set up by the House 
Select Committee on Aging, found that 
women are already clustered at the bottom 
of the social security benefit structure and 
are disproportionately vulnerable to the 
cutbacks the Administration has sought. 

REP. MARY ROSE OAKAR (D-Ohio), 
who heads the task force and presided at 
its hearings, said the Administration plan 
would have a “catastrophic” impact on 
older women especially. 

Witnesses at the hearings included for- 
mer Social Security Commissioner Robert 
M. Ball, who testified for the Save Our 
Security coalition that is fighting the Rea- 
gan cuts. 


for welfare with its test of income and 
assets.” 

Cuts in disability benefits and tougher 
qualification standards would apply to men 
and women alike. But Ball said the stricter 
test of recent employment proposed by the 
Administration would disqualify propor- 
tionately more women than men because 
women workers are more likely to have 
had gaps in their working years, “particu- 
larly because of child rearing.” 

Ball reminded the panel that disability 
protection was substantially cut back last 
year, that 70 percent of all applications 
for disability insurance are disallowed, and 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Government contracts shouldn’t be a 
prize to employers who pay the lowest 
wages and provide the least benefits, the 
AFL-CIO told a Senate Labor Committee. 

The federation stressed that prevailing 
wage protections are still needed and 
should be strengthened rather than weak- 
ened. 

The AFL-CIO statement responded to 
attacks on the Davis-Bacon Act and other 
wage protection laws that were made dur- 
ing hearings earlier this spring. Subcom- 
mittee Chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla.) 
had opened the hearings by branding 
Davis-Bacon “inflationary” and calling for 
its repeal. 

THE DAVIS-BACON ACT, adopted in 
1931 during the Hoover Administration, 
has been the chief target of open-shop em- 
ployers. It requires payment of local pre- 
vailing wages and benefits on federally 
funded construction contracts. 

Also under fire have been the 1936 
Walsh-Healey Act which requires industry 
minimums for government procurement 
contracts and the 1956 Service Contract 
Act, which has sought to prevent wage- 
cutting on service contracts. 

The “underlying theory” of the three 
laws, the AFL-CIO said, “is that compe- 
tition for government contracts should be 
based on managerial ability — ^the ability to 
perform the contract, manage the work- 
force and use technological innovations — 
not on the basis of who can exploit their 
workers the most.” 

DAVIS-BACON wage determinations re- 
flect union wage scales only in communi- 
ties where the union scale is predominant, 
the AFL-CIO noted. And in those com- 
munities, especially, the law “has civil 
rights implications,” it stressed. 

Union apprenticeship programs have a 


much higher percentage of minority par- 
ticipation than non-union programs, the 
federation testified. “It would be a tremen- 
dous disservice to these minority workers 
if the federal government were to now 
turn on them and seek to drive down 
their wages through encouraging wage- 
busting and chiseling.” 

The AFL-CIO suggested that “some fine- 
tuning” could improve the administration 
of the law and the procedure for determin- 
ing prevailing wage rates. A ^und starting 
point, the federation said, would be to 
put into effect the regulations that the Ad- 
ministration has withdrawn while it con- 
siders more drastic revisions that have 
been urged by employer groups. 

Senate Cuts Back 
Public Housing, 
Ups Rent Charge 

The Senate’s Republican majority voted 
to cut public housing programs below 
even President Reagan’s budget request 
and to make people living in them pay a 
bigger share of their income for rent. 

An earlier budget action had reduced 
the number of rental units authorized for 
the current fiscal year from the 250,000 
level voted by the previous Congress to 
210,000. 

THE OUTGOING Carter Administra- 
tion had proposed 260,000 new units for 
the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 1981. The 
AFL-CIO, in Senate testimony last April, 
had urged that this be raised to 300,000 
units because of the slump in unsubsidized 

(Continued on Page 7) 

Tax Credit 


Labor Opposes Tuition 


He was on a panel with two other for- 
mer heads of the Social Security Adminis- 
tration, William Driver and Stanford G. 
Ross. 

Ball cited as an example the effect of 
the Administration’s proposal to eliminate 
the minimum social security benefit — the 
floor under benefits that now goes to some 
3 million persons. Three-fourths of them 
are women. Ball pointed out. 

He challenged the Administration’s 
claim that the “truly needy” wouldn’t be 
hurt because they could apply for SSI pay- 
ments — the Supplemental Security Income 
available to the aged poor. 

BUT SSI IS available only to persons 
over 65, Ball said, and many of the women 
affected have had to retire at age 62 “be- 
cause- they had no alternative.” Further, 
SSI is available only to those with less 
than $1,500 in personal assets, and many 
older people “just do not want to apply 


Tuition tax credits for students in pri- 
vate schools would undermine quality 
public education in America, AFL-CIO 
Education Director Dorothy Shields 
warned at Senate hearings. 

Shields called the proposal to provide 
a refundable tax credit for students in pri- 
vate colleges, vocational and elementary 
and secondary schools a “threat to public 
education” and a “poor, regressive tax 
policy” that would mean “an open-ended 
revenue loss for the federal treasury.” 

TESTIFYING BEFORE the Subcom- 
mittee on Taxation of the Senate Finance 
Committee, Shields stressed that the tax 
credits would weaken public school sys- 
tems already hurt by declining enrollments 
and cutbacks in state and federal aid. She 
pointed out that the proposal would cost 
billions of dollars in federal revenues at a 
time when Congress and the Administra- 
tion ^re trying to balance the budget and 


cut federal programs, “including a huge 
30-percent cut in federal aid to educa- 
tion.” 

Shields reminded the committee that the 
labor movement had led the fight for free 
universal public education for American 
children. TTie AFL-CIO still supports the 
idea that public education for workers and 
their children “is a priority consideration 
in the improved quality of life to which 
we all aspire,” she said. Shields told the 
subcommittee, that the tuition tax credit 
proposal would restructure federal aid to 
education to give private schools the ad- 
vantage over the public school system. 

THE PROPOSED bill would give tax- 
payers a credit equal to 50 percent of 
education expenses up to $250 the first 
year and $500 per year thereafter. 

Shields noted that the benefits would 
apply not only to dependent children but 
could be applied to taxpayers and their 


spouses and a wide range of other de- 
I>endents as defined under current tax 
codes. Graduate students and part-time 
students would eventually be eligible under 
the terms of the proposed bill. 

The result. Shields told the committee, 
will amount to “another open-ended tax 
exj>enditure item that is not subject to 
normal processes of authorization and ap- 
propriations.” This could lead to increases 
in other taxes or to forced reductions in 
many direct educational aid programs, 
she warned. 

. THE ADVANTAGES turned over to 
the private education system will drain 
public education in a number of ways. 
Shields explained. An “educational caste 
system” would be created as advantaged 
children shift from the public schools, 
leaving behind the handicapped, the learn- 
ing disabled and the poor. A reverse in the 

(Continued on Page 8) 



Page Two 

OSHA Scraps 
Walkaround 
Pay Provision 

(Continued from Page 1) 

that non-union , workers who have no con- 
tractual protection on job safety matters 
would be particularly affected by the loss 
of the walkaround pay provision. 

UNIONS HAD been fighting for walk- 
around coverage since the early 1970s to 
assure that workers would not be docked 
for time spent off their regular jobs to 
take part in the inspections. Extensive in- 
spections of large plants in hazardous in- 
dustries can take several weeks. 

In issuing the original rule in 1977, 
OSHA directed that employers must pay 
workers for the walkaround time or be 
charged with discrimination under Section 
11 (c) of the 1970 job safety law. A fed- 
eral district court upheld the rule, but the 
appeals court vacated it on the ground that 
OSHA had not provided for public com- 
ment before the rule was put into effect. 

Under the lead exposure standard, 
OSHA has postponed implementation of 
a new “trigger level” for medical removal 
of workers for the third time in the pri- 
mary and secondary smelter industries. 

INDUSTRY GROUPS have been push- 
ing for a one-year delay in the regulation, 
which had been scheduled to take effect 
Mar. 1. 

OSHA delayed until May 15 lowering 
the trigger level from 70 micrograms of 
lead per 100 grams of blood to 60 micro- 
grams of lead for all industries except the 
primary and secondary smelters. At that 
time it exempted the smelters until June 1 . 
Now, the effective date has been pushed 
back to July 1. 

On the noise regulation, the new hear- 
ing conservation program was to have 
taken effect Apr. 16, but OSHA had or- 
dered a delay until June 1. The effective 
date has now been postponed to Aug. 1. 

Court Weighs 
Against Major 

Rochester, N.Y. — A federal judge prom- 
ised a decision within 48 hours after final 
arguments here on a National Labor Re- 
lations Board request for an injunction 
against major league baseball club own- 
ers blocking their free-agent compensation 
plan. 

U.S. District Judge Henry F. Werker 
heard closing argurnents in the complex 
case on June 4. If he refuses to grant the 
injunction, the players could strike 24 to 
48 hours after his decision. If the injunc- 
tion is granted, the status quo would be 

Postal Workers 
Choose Holbrook 
For Key Office 

Douglas C. Holbrook has been chosen 
to succeed Chester W. Parrish as secre- 
tary-treasurer of the Postal Workers on 
the latter’s retirement. 

Holbrook, president of the APWU local 
in Detroit since 1966, was confirmed by 
the union’s executive board to complete 
Parrish’s current three-year term to which 
he was re-elected last fall. Holbrook is 47. 

Parrish, 56, retired May 29 to close a 
35-year career with the APWU and the 
Post Office Motor Vehicle Employees, one 
of five unions that merged in 1971 to form 
the Postal Workers. Parrish had held a 
number of key offices with the Motor Ve- 
hicle Employees and was president of the 
union at the time of the merger. He was 
president of APWU’s motor vehicle craft 
division until his election as secretary- 
treasurer in 1977. 

In addition to heading the APWU De- 
troit local for 1 5 years, Holbrook also has 
served on the executive board of the De- 
troit AFL-CIO. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 

liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiin^ 

Administration Witness 
Trips Over Own Words 

An Administration witness tripped on his own rhetoric at House hearings 
on President Reagan’s proposed social security cutbacks. 

Deputy Social Security Commissioner Robert J. Myers told a task force of 
the House Select Committee on Aging that the cuts are needed because the 
program “is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.” He insisted that “we are fac- 
ing the most serious crisis in the 46-year history of the social security system.” 

Then it was the turn of former Social Security Commissioner Robert M. Ball 
to testify on behalf of the Save Our Security coalition which is fighting the 
cutbacks. 

Ball happened to have with him the previous month’s issue of OASIS, the 
Social Security Administration’s own magazine, and it featured prominently 
“An Interview with Deputy Commissioner Myers.” 

The social security system is “here to stay,” Myers stressed in the interview. 

As for its financial problems, “they can be solved readily. Many of the head- 
lines of gloom and inevitable bankruptcy just are not valid,” he said. 

liilliillllliiilliiiiilllliiliilliiliiiiiliiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiililiiilllliiiiiliiliilillliiilliiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiililiilliiiliiililiiliiiiiiiiliiiii^ 

Government Employees Map 
Protests Over Budget Cuts 


A plan for escalating protests against 
the Reagan Administration’s “disastrous 
budget cuts” was adopted by the American 
Federation of Government Employees at 
an emergency strategy conference. 

AFGE President Kenneth T. Blaylock 
said the 400 local and district leaders who 
came to Washington for the sessions 
agreed on a summer-long schedule of pro- 
gressively more militant actions, including 
demonstrations, marches and other forms 
of protest. 

NEXT SEPTEMBER, he said, AFGE 
members will be asked to vote on a pro- 
posal to authorize the union’s officers to 
call “whatever action is required.” 

Blaylock said the union’s strategy in- 
volves efforts to increase public awareness 

Injunction Bid 
League Clubs 

maintained while hearings are held on the 
Players’ Association’s unfair labor prac- 
tice charge against the owners. 

THE COURT hearing followed a May 
28 agreement by both sides before Werker 
in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that 
extended the deadline by which the players 
had to strike before the owners’ compen- 
sation plan would take effect this season. 

Under questioning here, Ray Grebey, 
director of the owners’ Player Relations 
Committtee, acknowledged that the 26 ma- 
jor league clubs had purchased $50 million 
in strike insurance at a cost of $2 million. 
That coverage will expire Dec. 31, and 
Grebey expressed doubt that it could be 
replaced. 

Other witnesses included baseball com- 
missioner Bowie Kuhn and Marvin Miller, 
exceutive director of the Major League 
Players Association. Miller was the leadoff 
witness for the NLRB, and testified on the 
history of the thorny free-agent issue. 

THE NLRB HAS issued a complaint 
that the owners have failed to bargain in 
good faith by refusing to provide the 
Players’ Association the financial data it 
needs to bargain on the issue. An NLRB 
administrative law judge is scheduled to 
hear the board’s case against the owners 
beginning June 15 in New York. 

If Werker grants the injunction as re- 
quested by the NLRB, the owners would 
not be able to implement their compen- 
sation proposal until next year, between 
Feb. 15 and 20. The players, as they did 
this year, would have to decide by Mar. 1 
whether to accept the proposal or strike. If 
they decided to strike, they would have 
to do so by June 1 . 

The owners’ plan would allow a team 
that lost a “ranking” free agent in the 
re-entry draft to receive compensation 
from the players’ new team in the form 
of a major league player. 


of the impact of budget cuts in such areas 
as social security, veterans benefits, hous- 
ing, aid to the poor,- the elderly and chil- 
dren, job training, labor standards enforce- 
ment and consumer protections among 
others. 

He said the union will work to strength- 
en its political action capability in each 
congressional district and will mount pub- 
lic education campaigns on the cuts. 

The AFGE will also work with other 
labor and community organizations, both 
locally and nationally, to form broad coa- 
litions to oppose Administration proposals 
that “will penalize America’s middle class 
and poor in favor of the wealthy and 
powerful,” Blaylock said. 

HE CHARGED that the “obvious in- 
tent” of the Administration is “to sys- 
tematically dismantle government.” The 
AFGE will work to dispel the Administra- 
tion’s smokescreen and show “an undis- 
torted picture of what is happening,” he 
said. 

The union hopes to “forge a bond” with 
taxpayers to “restore sanity and compas- 
sion to America’s governmental programs,” 
he said. 

The leadership conference delegates pro- 
posed that if ‘the measures to be under- 
taken over the next few months do not 
bring results, the AFGE should conduct 
a national membership vote on a proposal 
to authorize the union’s executive council 
“to call whatever action is required.” 

A SUBSEQUENT AFGE executive 
council statement endorsed the leadership 
conference program and affirmed the un- 
ion’s “total commitment” to its recom- 
mendations. 

A council statement charged that the 
Administration’s actions, supposedly de- 
signed to “get the government off the 
backs of the people,” are destroying “pro- 
grams which were intended to keep large 
segments of America on their feet and off 
their backs.” 

It noted that government workers in- 
volved in these threatened programs “see 
what the politicians and managers do not 
see — the infirm, the hungry, the old and 
the powerless” who are the real victims 
of the budget cuts. 

Maritime Award 
To Honor Paul Hall 

New York — ^The late Paul Hall, presi- 
dent of the Seafarers and an AFL-CIO 
vice president, has been named the 1981 
recipient of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea 
Award, the maritime industry’s highest 
honor. 

The award is given annually by the 
United Seamen’s Service to individuals in 
maritime labor, industry, or government 
for outstanding contributions to the Amer- 
ican merchant marine. Hall’s widow. Rose, 
and Frank Drozak, who succeeded him as 
SIU president, will accept the award in his 
behalf at a Sept. 25 dinner here chaired 
by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. 


Women Face 
Biggest Loss 
In Benefit Cut 

(Continued from Page 1) 

that “this part of the social security sys- 
tem does not have a financing problem.” 

Another task force witness. President 
Eleanor C. Smeal of the National Organi- 
zation for Women, testified that curtail- 
ment of age 62 early retirement benefits 
would be especially harmful to women. 

Because of the earnings gap between 
men and women, she noted, women are 
already at the lower benefit levels. The 
Administration plan would drop the age 
62 retirement benefit from the present 
level of 80 percent of age 65 payments to 
55 percent. 

But “a higher proportion of women than 
men retire before age 65, primarily due to 
ill health and loss of jobs,” Sneal testified. 
Minority women, she said, will be espe- 
cially penalized. 

OTHER WITNESSES cited the high 
portion of elderly, single women dependent 
on social security payments as their chief 
income. 

Oakar noted that Congress has already 
taken a big step to reducing social security 
benefits by setting budget ceilings that al- 
most compel adoption of some of the 
Administration cutbacks. 

“Those of us in Congress who have 
been working to make social security more 
equitable and adequate for women were 
shocked, dismayed and deeply disturbed 
by the Administration’s proposals,” she 
said. “They will undermine the very con- 
cept of social security as a social insurance 
program for our nation’s workers and their 
families.” 

AN ADMINISTRATION witness, Dep- 
qty Social Security Commissioner Robert 
J. Myers, argued that the proposed cuts 
“apply equally to men and women.” 

Myers acknowledged the point that 
women might come out worse than men 
under the Administration proposal. But 
this reflects “discrimination in the work- 
place and cultural differences between the 
life-styles of men and women,” he insist- 
ed, and these “are not problems which 
social security can solve.” 

CWA Tops Vote 
For New Jersey 
Units of 32,000 

Trenton, N.J. — The Communications 
Workers won bargaining rights for all 

32.000 New Jersey state white-collar 
workers in the nation’s largest union rep- 
resentation election since 1977. 

CWA swept the balloting in three run- 
off elections among 20,700 state workers, 
the New Jersey Public Employee Rela- 
tions Commission reported. 

In March, CWA won a three-way con- 
test with the State, County & Municipal 
Employees and the American Federation 
of Teachers to win representation rights 
for some 1 1 ,500 administrative and cleri- 
cal workers of the state. At that time, 
CWA led in voting among professional 
employees and two units of supervisory 
workers but lacked a clear majority in 
the three-way contest. 

The tally of mail ballots in the runoff 
with AFSCME showed CWA with 53 per- 
cent of the 10,500-member professional 
employees unit, 59 percent among the 

9.000 first-level supervisors, and 54 per- 
cent among the 1,200 higher-level super- 
visors. 

The state white-collar workers at one 
time were represented by two independent 
associations, but their joint bargaining 
relationship crumbled in the fall of 1979. 

CWA now represents over 40,000 gov- 
ernment employees overall in New Jersey. 
Besides the state white-collar workers, the 
union represents about 4,000 case workers 
and other employees of 22 county welfare 
boards and about 6,000 county and mu- 
nicipal department workers. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 


Page Tlircc 


ACTWV Convention 


Reagan Scored on Drive 
To Cancel Worker Gains 


Detroit — Clothing & Textile Workers 
President Murray H. Finley defnounced 
the Reagan Administration’s efforts “to 
turn back 50 years of government that is 
concerned with the people.” 

In his keynote address to some 3,000 
delegates and alternates to ACTWU’s 
second constitutional convention, Finley 
declared that “51 percent is not an over- 
whelming mandate for anyone . . . and 
surely not a mandate to impeach former 
Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 
Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and 
Lyndon Johnson” by destroying all they 
stood for and accomplished. 

FINLEY REMINDED the delegates 
that the American people did not — as he 
said the Reagan Administration would 
have the nation believe— vote to cut so- 
cial security benefits, do away with the 
Trade Adjustment Assistance Act to help 
workers left jobless by imports, cut unem- 
ployment compensation or cut the Occu- 
pational Safety & Health Act in the inter- 
ests of balancing the budget. 

He said that the labor movement does 
not “seek a confrontation” with the Rea- 
gan Administration, but it will be “in the 
forefront of the fight for the concern of 
all the people of this country.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
stressed in an address to the delegates that 
the American labor movement currently 
has “two large jobs ... to defend social 
programs and do everything in our power 
to see that our friends are returned to 
Capitol Hill.” Kirkland pledged that “late 
or soon, we shall prevail simply because we 
have not ever, we will never, we do not 
and will not quit.’’ 

IN fflS SPEECH Kirkland outlined the 
attack by the Reagan Administration on 
workers that is making “our country into 
a two-class society with great wealth on 
one side, enjoying all the largess and bless- 
ings of government, and privation and in- 
security and neglect on the other. 

“Workers must see we are not fighting 
abstractions,” Kirkland said. “It is their 
hospitals that will close, their schools, 
their jobs, their families that will suffer. 
Our job is to bring these facts home to our 
fellow citizens.” 

ACTWU Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman, 
in his report to the convention, said that 
“the issue between us working men and 
women and the Reagan Administration 
was drawn clearly and honestly in the first 
economic speech of the President. He 
made a ringing declaration . . . that the 
taxing power of government must not be 
used to regulate the economy and bring 
about social change.” 

TAKING SHARP issue with that posi- 
tion, Sheinkman recalled that social se- 
curity, “one of the most profound social 
and economic changes in American his- 
tory, was brought about by using the tax- 
ing powers of government.” 

Deploring the Administration’s moves 
to cut social programs and to make OSHA 
regulations — such as the cotton dust stan- 
dard to conquer the hazard of brown lung 
disease in textile mills — ^more “cost effi- 
cient” for big business, Sheinkman de- 
clared: “We reject any cost analysis which 
places a dollar value on our lives . . . and 
any administration that says cost efficiency 
is a factor in measuring the worth of our 
lives. . . . We do not believe that the peo- 
ple who are the worst off should be' 
squeezed the most.” 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
drew applause from the delegates as he 
issued a challenge to the “New Right” and 
pledged that he will run for re-election to 
the Senate and continue to fight repressive 

David Lewis Dies at 71, 

NDP Founder, Union Counsel 

Ottawa — David Lewis, a founder of 
Canada’s New Democratic Party and a 
former member of the Canadian parlia- 
ment, died of leukemia May 24. 

Lewis, who was 71, also had served as 
the Canadian legal counsel for a number 
of AFL-CIO affiliates. 


legislation designed to weaken the labor 
movement’s ability to protect the benefits 
workers have gained over the years. 

ACKNOWLEDGING that he is “the 
number one target of the radical right and 
the Moral Majority,” he pledged to “fight 
back.” 

“And with your help and assistance,” 
he said, “I intend to return to the United 
States Senate and continue to stand with 
all of you in the fights for the future that 
we have yet to win.” 

Blasting “those who came to power in 
Washington in 1980” as the “most anti- 
labor administration and the most anti- 
worker Congress in half a century,” Ken- 
nedy pledged to do all he can in Congress 
to prevent any socially repressive measures 
from ever reaching President Reagan’s 
desk. 

ACTWU SENIOR Executive Vice Pres- 
ident Sol Stetin castigated the Administra- 
tion for its OSHA cutbacks that he said 
will jeopardize the lives of millions of 
workers. He also scored Reagan’s pro- 
posals for heavy reductions in social se- 
curity benefits while leaving untouched 
the tax write-offs “that put billions into 
the treasuries of the big oil companies 
every year.” 

President Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers told the convention 
that the number one problem on the 
agenda for both ACTWU and the ILGWU 
“has to be the evolution of a rational 
policy of fair trade. Our unions will not 
be able to survive many years into the 
future if every year, year after year, we 
report to our members that the amount 
of imports of every type and description 
in the softgoods industry has increased by 
leaps and bounds.” 

HE CALLED for a renewed effort to 
tell labor’s story to the people. 

“We have failed,” he said, “because as 
we have moved we have failed to take 
the story with us and to educate our 
friends and neighbors to the recent history 
of the trade union movement. And while 
we fight this rearguard action that we will 
continue to fight as long as Reagan is in 
office, we have to think of our own agenda 
going forward and getting this across.” 

The convention unanimously adopted a 
resolution calling on the federal govern- 
ment to set up a federal task force to 
investigate the unsolved murders of 30 
children and young adults in Atlanta and 
offering full help and support to officials 
and the people of Atlanta. 



STRONG CHALLENGE was thrown down by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy CD- 
Mass.) to those who introduee legislation in Congress to curb gains made by 
workers and society. Kennedy told 3,000 delegates to the Clothing & Textile 
Workers convention he will fight “New Right” efforts to reverse social progress. 
Also on the dais are ACTWU Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman, left, and President 
Murray H. Finley. 


Economic Index Signals 
Further Slowdown Ahead 


The government’s index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators rose a modest four-tenths 
of 1 percent in April, largely reflecting an 
increase in the nation’s money supply. 

The increase in the index — a measure 
designed to forecast economic trends — was 
the second straight following three month- 
ly declines. But the lackluster April show- 
ing indicated to many economists that the 
economy was slowing rather than pick- 
ing up. 

NEWLY NOMINATED Council of 
Economic Advisers member Jerry Jordan 
said that “a slowdown in real growth” is 
expected in the current quarter. “We are 
entering a period where we could see a 
decline in real gross national product,” he 
said. Real GNP is the value of the nation’s 
total output of goods and services. 

Besides an increase in the money sup- 
ply, other indicators that made positive 
contributions to the April index included 
length of the average workweek, new 
manufacturing orders for consumer goods, 
vendor performance, building permits, 
producers’ prices, and stock prices. The 
rise in building permits — an important 
barometer of future housing construction 
activity — was the first monthly increase in 
this indicator since last November. 

The layoff rate in manufacturing indus- 




‘It’s Your Postgraduate Course!’ 

'^CWOL~OF 
HAI?P KHoc!^ 




U^Jl\/ef?$lTy OF 





' 5 


tries was unchanged from March, and the 
two remaining April indicators — contrac- 
tors and orders for plant and equipment 
and change in total liquid assets — made 
negative contributions to the index. 

In another government report, the Com- 
merce Dept, said the nation’s merchandise 
trade deficit grew to $3.46 billion in April. 
A $1. 4-billion increase in petroleum im- 
ports over the month was the largest con- 
tributor to the overall worsening of the 
trade balance. 

The report showed the value of im- 
ported vehicles declined $28 million to a 
total of $1.17 billion in April. Auto ex- 
ports also fell, but by a lesser amount, 
$11 million, to a total of $63 million. 

MEANWHILE, several big banks fol- 
lowed the lead of New York’s Chase Man- 
hattan in lowering their prime lending 
rates to 20 percent from 20.5 percent, but 
most analysts believed that it was too 
early to say whether the key interest rate 
would continue to decline. 

Chase, the nation’s third largest bank 
after the Bank of America and Citibank, 
said it lowered its rate “in response to the 
recent drop in the cost of our raw ma- 
terial, money.” The prime, nominally the 
rate on short-term loans for banks’ best 
corporate customers, is the base rate that 
banks use to compute interest charges for 
everyone, from business customers to con- 
sumers. 

Rising mortgage interest rates played a 
major role in the 13.5 percent drop in 
April home sales reported by the Depart- 
ments of Commerce and Housing & Urban 
Development. The decline in sales of new, 
single-family houses was the biggest in a 
year. 

Robert Sheehan, an economist with the 
National Association of Home Builders, 
said that sales may have fallen even more 
last month because “May is when interest 
rates really took off.” 

Union Support Urged 
For Vietnam Memorial 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has 
urged federation affiliates and their mem- 
bers to support fund-raising efforts in be- 
half of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 
the nation’s capital. 

The memorial, planned for a two-acre 
site near the Lincoln Memorial already 
authorized by Congress, “will constitute a 
long overdue expression of appreciation” 
for the sacrifices of those Americans who 
served in Vietnam, Kirkland said in a 
letter to presidents of AFL-CIO unions. 

Contributions should be mailed to Viet- 
nam Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 37240, 
Washington, D.C. 20013. Dedication of 
the memorial is planned for November 
1982. 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 


A Time for Unity 

rriHIS IS A TIME when our movement needs the highest mea- 
sure of unity, the strongest degree of understanding and sup- 
port from those for whom we speak, and all the reliable allies that 
we can possibly find. 

We have two broad and very large jobs on our hands. 

One is to defend as best we can the social programs that rein- 
force this comparatively humane, society that we have helped to 
build over the last half-century, and to resist the effort to divide 
and polarize our country into a two-class society with great wealth 
on one side, enjoying all of the largess and blessings of govern- 
ment, and privation and insecurity and neglect on the other. 

The second, and certainly vital to the first, is to do everything 
in our power before the next election to see that our friends are 
returned to Capitol Hill, joined by others, and that our opponents 
are retired to that private and tranquil life which they so richly 
deserve. 

TO DO THAT, the working people of America must see and 
they must understand that we are not fighting over abstractions, 
that it is their health that is being put at hazard by the crippling of 
OSHA and the rollback and dismantling of protective regulations. 

It is their hospitals that will close, and it is their children’s 
schools that will deteriorate. It is their neighbors whose jobs will 
be destroyed by the strangulation of federal aid to the states and 
cities and the dismantling of training and job opportunity pro- 
grams. 

It is their neighborhoods that are threatened with decay and 
blight. They are the consumers who are no longer to have protec- 
tion from unscrupulous manufacturers who believe that anything 
goes for a buck. 

It is their parents in their retirement years, and themselves in 
years to come, who are to be sold out in the assault upon the 
social security system in this Administration’s drive to force that 
vital asset under the general budget chopping block. 

OUR JOB IS to bring these facts home in the most human 
terms to our fellow citizens, those who have not yet seen through 
the rhetoric. 


‘Crank ‘Er Up!’ 



Our job is to make the law-makers understand that the budge- 
tary knife does not just slice pieces of paper with numbers on 
them, that it draws blood and impairs the flesh, wounds the flesh 
of human beings like themselves. 

There are some welcome signs that the American people, and 
at least some of their elected officials, are beginning to become a 
little bit uneasy about the human costs behind the dollar-savings 
proposals. 


We still have some friends in Congress — timid though they be. 

We need them and they need us. And they need all the support 
that we can muster in their home states and in their districts to 
put some iron in their backbones. 


— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to the convention of the 
Clothing & Textile Workers, Detroit, June 2, 1981. 

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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McCIennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Goof on Social Security 

Senate’s 96-0 Rebuff of Reagan 
Is One for the Record Books . 


By Gus Tyler 

A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT proposed 
changes in the social security law. A Repub- 
lican-dominated Senate, by a vote of 96 to 0, 
adopted a resolution that disavowed the most 
drastic of the Administration’s proposals. 

The event belongs in the Ginness Book of 
Records. It never happened before. 

Presidents have lost out in battles with House 
or Senate or both even when the Congress was 
controlled by their own party. But for a President 
to lose the game in a shutout in a contest with a 
house controlled by his own team is a historic 
first. Not a single Republican — not one— would 
stand up for Reagan. 

HOW COULD this ever come to pass? Bad 
politics, worse arithmetic, and incredible incom- 
petence. 

Rumor hath it that some Democrat was prepar- 
ing a bill to cut back on social security. The White 
House panicked. They did not want the Demo- 
crats to get “the credit.” They put pressure on 
their Secretary of Health & Human Resources, 
Richard Schweiker, to come forward with his 
long-delayed recommendations on the security 
system. 

So, in the heat of haste, he laid his egg. It was 
passed from hand to hand and, it is said, even the 
President had a chance to glance at the product 
produced in a hurry. They rushed it to the Senate 
to make sure that the Democrats did not get the 
“credit.” 


itics and the messy mathematics is the sheer 
incompetence of an Administration that is so out 
of touch with the leadership of its own party that 
it is unable to muster a single vote for a Presi- 
dent’s proposal. 

THE PRESIDENT could hardly say that he 
was acting as he did because he had a “mandate” 
from the electorate. If he had a “mandate” it was 
quite to the contrary, because Reagan was quite 
explicit during the election that he would leave 
social security untouched. 

So what happened? Some say that the Admin- 
istration was drunk with success over its budget 
victory; others say that the White House was tak- 
ing the Senate for granted. Still others say that the 
staff bypassed the boss in these days of Reagan’s 
remarkable recovery. 

But whatever the explanation, it is clear that 
the Republicans at one end of Pennsylvania Ave- 
nue did not talk with Republicans at the other end 
of the same avenue over a major matter. And 
that’s plain incompetence. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimiiniiiiiiimim 

Enough Work ior All 
On This Small Planet 

We share a small planet. We share the po- 
litical and economic maladies experienced on 
that planet. And most of the solutions we seek 
within national parameters can be found only 
in international forums. 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, June 6, 1981 No. 23 | 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
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= AFL-CIO. _ 



APPARENTLY nobody stopped to ask: “why 
• not give the Democrats the credit for cutting down 
on social security?” It might be dirty pool but it 
wouljl have been damn good politics. 

Arithmetically, any member of the Senate who 
could add and subtract had to know that the 
President’s proposal would add billions to the 
federal deficit. 

If the President’s plan resulted in postponing re- 
tirement by, let’s say, one million workers, that 
would save the security system about $4 billion. 
If that meant that one million workers who might 
have filled the vacancies of the retired remained 
jobless, that would cost Uncle Sam $20 billion 
out of the treasury. The net loss would have been 
at least $16 billion for one year. 

More incredible, however, than the poor pol- 


We here in this congress are fortunate people 
indeed. We are beholden to metalworkers 
wherever they work. 

We espouse the cause of universal brother- 
hood. 

We are an oi^anization which confronts in- 
justice by all the means we have. 

We insist that the work to be done on this 
globe is more than sufficient to employ every 
man and woman — to provide wages sufficient 
for families to live in good health and in dignity 
— while they work and in retirement. 

— Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride at 
the 25th World Congress of the International 
Metalworkers' Federation, May 27, 198 L 

llillllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllilllliillllllllliilillllllllllilllllllilllllllllM 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 


Less Coverage, Soaring Costs 

California Failure Discredits 
Reagan Health Plan for Nation 


The following article appeared in the New York 
Times on May 29, 1981. It was written by Philip 
R. Lee, professor of social medicine at the Univer- 
sity of California, San Francisco, and Barry 
Esminger, a visiting scholar at the university. 

P RESIDENT REAGAN’S budgetary policies 
would end 50 years of increasing federal re- 
sponsibility for health. Before Congress moves 
precipitously to enact his health program, it should 
examine California’s experience under Ronald 
Reagan as governor. 

Under President Reagan’s program, federal 
Medicaid payments would be capped and cut by 
$1 Million in fiscal 1982, $5 billion in 1985; 26 
public health programs would be cut 25 percent 
and consolidated into state block grants; regula- 
tory efforts to control spiraling medical costs 
through health planning, limits on unnecessary 
services by physicians, and promotion of health- 
maintenance organizations would be abandoned. 
Within several years, we are promised, there 
would be comprehensive health reform based on 
a newly revitalized private market. 

In return for immediate cutbacks, the Admin- 
istration offers states added “flexibility to target 
services to the truly needed.” But half of Amer- 
ica’s poor are ineligible for Medicaid, and millions 
more have little or no private insurance. This year, 
25 states have proposed further Medicaid reduc- 
tions, and strapped municipalities are cutting pub- 
lic hospitals and clinics even as more uninsured 
patients seek care. 

BEFORE 1971, California financed a broad 
range of medical services to welfare clients. In- 
digents who failed to qualify were treated in 
county hospitals and clinics, with the state paying 
most costs above 1965 county outlays for health. 
Medicaid and state supplements alleviated the 
local burden of medical care of indigents. Pro- 
gressive income taxes replaced regressive property 
taxes. Counties upgraded old facilities and under- 
staffed programs; access and the quality of care 
improved. 

Then, in 1971 Gov. Reagan proposed, and the 
legislature passed, far-reaching Medicaid “re- 
form.” Like his 1981 proposal, it reversed the 
trend toward more equitable financing. The local 
medical cost pass-through was eliminated and re- 
placed with restrictive state eligibility guidelines. 
In effect, state responsibility was “capped.” Sud- 
denly, counties were faced with many sick patients 
ineligible for state payments. 

STATE COSTS were reduced but local health 
expenditures soared. Counties began painful re- 

Reagan Budget Impact 


trenchment: More than 20 public hospitals closed, 
basic clinical services were curtailed, strict billing 
of near-poor families was instituted. A 1978 state 
health department report concluded: “Medical re- 
cipients, medical indigents, and the working poor 
have often been left with no place at all to go for 
medical or hospital care.” 

Still, costs rose. Los Angeles County alone 
experienced an eight-fold increase over 10 years 
despite stringent reductions in service. 

THE CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCE teaches 
that the quick fix of federal funding cuts will re- 
duce access to services and shift costs rather than 
reduce overall government spending. Americans 
believe in essential medical care, but someone 
must pay the bill for those who cannot. It can be 
paid by hard-pressed states and near-bankrupt 
cities, or it can be shared by all of us. We should 
follow all other industrialized nations and federal- 
ize these expenses. 

What of rapidly rising medical costs? In pro- 
posing a return to the marketplace, Reagan for- 
gets that Medicaid and Medicare were enacted 
because of market failure. He forgets that existing 
controls on costs, beds, and services were insti- 
tuted after well-documented abuses by private 
providers. 

Yet, we are confidently assured that the Rea- 
gan solution, based on large numbers of cost- 
conscious consumers enrolling in competing pre- 
paid health plans, will work better. Once before, 
Reagan relied on the rapid, unregulated develop- 
ment of prepaid plans to reduce costs. The results 
were an unmitigated disaster. 

HIS 1971 “REFORM” authorized state Medi- 
caid contracts with prepaid health plans to deliver 
care for a fixed monthly sum. Little attention was 
paid to quality, competence, even honesty. Door- 
to-door solicitors enrolled recipients, often through 
misrepresentation. Many medical entrepreneurs got 
rich, but when people were sick doctors were fre- 
quently unavailable. Investigations and indict- 
ments followed. Reputable health maintenance 
organizations suffered guilt by association. Com- 
plex new regulations were issued to control 
abuses. 

Understandably, the nation is frightened by 
high inflation and widespread unemployment. Be- 
fore swallowing the Reagan health prescription 
for our economic sickness. Congress and the pub- 
lic should consider the past. Hasty action promises 
fewer services to sick and needy people, a whole- 
sale shift of costs onto state and local taxpayers, 
and soaring new health bills. The prospects could 
hardly be worse. 


Transfer of Federal Programs 
Adds to Burden on States, Cities 


S TATE AND LOCAL governments face new 
financial strains as the Reagan budget shifts 
the administration and operation of programs now 
handled by various federal agencies. President 
Kenneth T. Blaylock of the AFL-CIO Public 
Employee Dept. said. 

The quality of essential services will suffer, 
Blaylock said, not because state and local govern- 
ments are inept, but because they are already 
bumping against the. limits of their taxing ability. 
He said the so-called tax rebellion of California’s 
Proposition 13 and Proposition in Massa- 
chusetts is likely to spread as states and cities try 
to raise the funds to carry out these new respon- 
sibilities. 



UMION Ulf L AND SiRVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Blaylock 
stressed that many of the affected programs were 
consolidated at the federal level to ease the burden 
of “total administrative capability” for the pro- 
grams in “several thousand jurisdictions.” The 
Reagan budget cuts now force a return to frag- 
mented responsibility and couple it with a 25- 
percent funding cutback, he pointed out. 

Blaylock, who is president of the American 
Federation of Government Employees and a vice 
president of the AFL-CIO, said the Administra- 
tion’s budget-cutters could have saved billions of 
federal dollars by improving “poorly designed and 
poorly managed” federal programs rather than 
making across-the-board funding slashes. 

HE SAID he has little faith in the President’s 
call for inspectors general who are “meaner than 
junkyard dogs,” pointing out that they will have 
“a very close relationship with each agency,” and 
“junkyard dogs protect their own territory.” 

Reporters questioning Blaylock on the AFL- 
CIO produced public affairs interview, aired over 
the Mutual Broadcasting System, were Michael 
Causey of the Washington Post and Robert Coo- 
ney of Press Associates, Inc. 


Page Five 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he civil rights and voter registration campaigns of the 
1950s and 1960s focused national attention on the fact that 
millions of Americans still were barred from exercising one of 
their most fundamental rights — the right to vote. 

A turning point came in early 1965, when Alabama Gov. 
George Wallace’s state troopers clubbed and tear-gassed peaceful 
demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr., to halt a march 
from Selma, Ala., to the state capital. 

Ten days later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a dramatic 
address to the nation, proposed the landmark Voting Rights Act 
of 1965. After a long filibuster, it became law. 

OVER THE NEXT seven years, more than a million black 
citizens were added to the voting rolls. In Mississippi, fewer than 
7 percent of the state’s eligible black voters had been registered 
the year before the Voting Rights Act was passed. By 1976, 67.4 
percent were registered. 

In addition, hundreds of thousands of poor whites were able 
to register because of the act’s abolition of the literacy test and 
the poll tax, which were widely used in the South. 

Congress extended the act in 1970 and again in 1975. Yet, 
what has been hailed as the most effective civil rights law in recent 
history is in danger of being lost or crippled by amendments. 
Most of the act’s provisions will expire in August 1982 unless 
Congress extends the law. 

IRONICALLY, the Voting Rights Act could become a victim 
of its success, since its critics argue that it is no longer needed. 
These critics also use the standard line about federal “meddling” 
in state and local matters. 

While the Voting Rights Act did away with such blatantly dis- 
criminatory voting restrictions as the literacy test and made it a 
federal crime to intimidate anyone from voting, some local and 
state officials have been ingenious in devising new methods to 
accomplish the same objective. 

These methods dilute minority voting strength by racial gerry- 
mandering, annexations by a city or county, and switching from 
ward-type systems to at-large voting. 

Under the Voting Rights law’s “preclearance” section, the 
Justice Dept, has disapproved more than 800 local and state 
voting changes, most of them of the more subtle variety. 

EVEN WITH the act, some cities, counties and states, espe- 
cially in the Deep South, have continued to circumvent preclear- 
ance by failing to submit changes or by implementing changes 
which had been disapproved. 

A notable example is Edgefield County, S.C., the home county 
of Sen. Strom Thurmond, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Com- 
mittee, which handles the Voting Rights Act. No black person has 
been elected there in this century despite its black majority pop- 
ulation. 

Thurmond and other legislators, most of them from the South 
and Southwest, want to eliminate preclearance, the heart of the 
Voting Rights Act. 

A SO-CALLED compromise bill, introduced by Rep. Henry 
Hyde (R-Ill.), ranking Republican on the constitutional rights sub- 
committee, would abolish preclearance unless a federal judge 
could be persuaded there had been a current pattern of abuses. 

Civil rights advocates pointed out that the Hyde amendment 
would put the burden of proof on the victims of discrimination and 
necessitate the tedious, case-by-case litigation which was the 
practice prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act. 

Legislation introduced in the House by Rep. Peter W. Rodino, 
Jr. (D-N.J.) and in the Senate by Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R- 
Md.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), would extend the Act 
until 1992. It thus would protect minority voting strength in the 
course of the redistricting which will follow the 1990 Census. 



NEW FINANCIAL STRAINS lie ahead for state and local 
governments as the Reagan budget shifts the operation and 
administration of programs now handled by various federal 
agencies. President Kenneth T. Blaylock, center, of the AFL- 
CIO Public Employee Dept, warned on Labor News Confer- 
ence. He was questioned by Robert Cooney, left, of Press Asso- 
ciates, Inc., and Michael Causey of the Washington Post. 



Page Six 


AFL^IO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 



REAGAN BUDGET CUTBACKS threaten sharp curtailment of federal safety 
programs to deal with the hazardous jobs in the nation’s food processing indus- 


tries. Grain elevator explosions thus far in 1981 have claimed 10 lives, while 
meat packing plants average 35 injuries a year per 100 workers. 


Cutting Where It Truly Hurts 


Hermelinda Delgadillo pleaded with her 
husband, Pedro, last Apr. 7 to stay home 
from his job at the Corpus Christi, Tex., 
public grain elevator. 

“He hadn’t missed a day of work in 15 
years,” Mrs. Delgadillo said. “I said, ‘Why 
don’t you take Tuesday off?’ But he didn’t 
want to.” 

THE NEXT DAY, his body was found 
in the rubble left by explosions and fire at 
the grain elevator. Five of his fellow work- 
ers also were killed, and 33 others 
suffered serious injuries or burns. 

So far this year, grain elevator explo- 
sions have caused ten deaths; the annual 
average is 60 fatalities. 

The explosions result when the highly 
combustible mixture of grain dust and 
air in the elevators is ignited. A small 
spark can set off the elevator much as a 
match would a stick of dynamite. 

But most explosions could be avoided 
with the installation of protective equip- 
ment. Exhaust systems, for example, would 
lower the concentration of dust in the air 
and shields over moving parts on ma- 
chinery would reduce the risk of sparks. 

THESE AND OTHER preventive mea- 
sures were included last year in proposals 
for a grain dust standard to be developed 
by the Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration. It would have required grain 
elevator owners to keep dust levels low. 


Shortly after taking office, however, the 
Reagan Administration pulled back a num- 
ber of OSHA standards for “cost-effective” 
review. 

The effect is to put a price tag on human 
lives and limbs by measuring their loss 
against the cost to industry of meeting 
protective standards. OSHA’s new adminis- 
trator, Thorne G. Auchter, said the agency 
must “demonstrate clear and concise ob- 
jectivity.” He said “an analysis of costs 
and benefits” will indicate to OSHA what 
approach should be used in making policy 
decisions. 

But the cost to workers represented by 
unions in the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage 
Trades Dept, is already too high. They 
have been and will continue to be hurt, 
literally, by the reduction in funds for 
safety and health. 

MANY OF THE department’s members 
work in food processing — cutting meat, 
packaging poultry and canning vegetables 
and fruits. While on the surface these jobs 
don’t seem hazardous, a Bureau of Labor 
Statistics study of 1975-77 illness and in- 
jury occurrences found 1 8-food-related oc- 
cupations with rates above the national 
average. The injury and fatality statistics 
show meatpacking to be among the most 
dangerous occupations. 

Funding cuts for OSHA programs will 
undermine efforts to reduce these injury 
and illness rates in several ways. 


This analysis of the impact of the 
Reagan Administration economic pro- 
gram was prepared by the AFL-CIO 
Food & Beverage Trades Dept It is one 
of a series by the AFL-CIO News as a 
follow-up to recommendations stemming 
from AFL-CIO regional conferences. 


FIRST, funds for New Directions grants 
are expected to be cut by $1.6 million. 
These grants underwrite the effort to alert 
workers to their job hazards. Through this 
program, workers are taught how to 
identify problems (and avoid injuries) as 
well as how to notify OSHA when employ- 
ers neglect to correct dangerous workplace 
conditions. Where labor-management rela- 
tions are congenial, workers and employ- 
ers are encouraged to cooperate and cor- 
rect unsafe situations on the spot without 
involving OSHA. 

The health and safety of workers in the 
food and beverage trades will also be 
affected by cutbacks in the number of fed- 
eral workplace inspectors. The number of 
trained inspectors is already insufficient. It 
is estimated, for example, that it would 
take until the year 2020 before each of 
the nation’s five million workplaces could 
be inspected once by the present staff. 
The Reagan Administration’s budget cuts 
are expected to cost OSHA about 130 
permanent fulLtime inspectors through 
fiscal year 1982. 

THE OSHA cutbacks also will have a 
ripple effect on other safety efforts. The 
oversight of state enforcement plans, 
notoriously weak, will be drastically cur- 
tailed. And in the face of a weakened 
OSHA, the “voluntary compliance” touted 
by the Administration could shrink even 
faster than the OSHA budget. 

In another area affecting FBTD mem- 
bers, the Administration’s 25-percent re- 
duction in subsidies for federally funded 
community medical centers will pose seri- 
ous problems for both the patients served 
by the centers and the workers who staff 
them. 

Created in the mid-1960s during the 
Johnson Administration’s “war on pov- 
erty,” the medical centers are situated in 
poor inner-city areas or isolated farming 
communities where many residents cannot 
afford private physicians or health clinics. 
These areas have long found it difficult to 
attract trained personnel or pay for expen- 
sive equipment and facilities, and they are 
thus underserved by conventional medical 
care. But the federal subsidies have en- 
abled many of them to offer awnparable 
salaries for competent doctors, nurses and 
laboratory technicians. 

THE 960 MEDICAL centers across the 
United States serve more than four mil- 
lion patients a year and employ nearly 
10,000 health care workers. Tbe Admin- 
istration’s 25-percent reduction in the 


medical center grants would mean that 445 
centers would be forced to close, millions 
would be denied necessary health care and 
4,500 workers performing health services 
would lose their jobs. 

Ironically, the Administration’s attempt 
to save money in this area will, in the long 
run, cost taxpayers as much as five times 
more in the form of Medicaid payments. 
Forty-three percent of all community 
medical center patients are eligible for 
Medicaid, which pays for most of their 
health care, such as doctors visits and lab 
fees, no matter what the cost. 

In areas without medical centers, poor 
residents rely on hospital emergency room 
service when health care is needed, and 
the fees for such service run as much as 
five times the cost of a community medi- 
cal center visit. The centers cut down on 
emergency room usage significantly. A 
1979-80 government health study showed 
that in areas served by the centers, hos- 
pital admissions dropped by as much as 60 
percent. 

ANOTHER PROBLEM area for work- 
ers represented by FBTD unions is created 
by the Administration’s plan to slash fed- 
eral funding for Conrail and Amtrak. 

Subsidies for Amtrak, the national rail 
passenger service, would be slashed 38 per- 
cent and those for Conrail eliminated 
altogether. About 72,000 railroad work- 
ers would lose their jobs on both systems. 
Remaining employees would be forced to 
make concessions in wages, benefits and 
job protections. Contributions to the al- 
ready underfunded Railroad Retirement 
System will be diminished, threatening the 
ability to pay the one million senior citi- 
zens who are current recipients. 

Ironically, these cutbacks are coming at 
a time when both Amtrak and Conrail 
are making strong efforts to attract more 
business. Amtrak has replaced its original 
fleet of aging cars with 1,600 new or 
completely refurbished electric cars. Sta- 
tions have been upgraded and 650 miles 
of right-of-way purchased. Ridership has 
increased steadily over the last several 
years. 

IN THE FIVE years since Congress 
created Conrail from the remains of bank- 
rupt carriers, the railroad has made 
dramatic improvements. Track and equip- 
ment have been repaired and labor costs 
reduced. Operating losses have declined 
steadily. 

Studies indicate that if Amtrak service 
is cut, more than half the passengers 
would resort to travel by automobile. Thus 
the demand for gasoline and other petro- 
leum products would be heightened at a 
time when this country is trying to de- 
crease its dependence on foreign oil. A 
comparison of energy consumption rates 
indicates that trains can operate 125 
passenger miles per gallon of fuel against 
only 52 for automobiles. 


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Job Injury^ Illness Rates 
In Food-Beverage Trades 

% CHANGE 


INDUSTRY 

1975 

1976 

1977 

1975 to 19 

Food and Kindred Products 

18.3 

19.3 

19.5 

+6.6% 

Meat Packing Plants 

Flour & Other Grain Mill 

31.2 

34.7 

33.6 

+7.7 

Products 

15.4 

14.8 

15.3 

-0.6 

Cereal Breakfast Foods 

16.3 

15.5 

16.5 

+ 1.2 

Rice Milling 

19.9 

20.7 

18.3 

-8.0 

Blended & Prepared Flour 

17.4 

16.4 

15.0 

-13.8 

Wet Com Milling 

9.9 

10.2 

10.4 

+5.5 

Dog, Cat & Other Pet Food . . . . 

16.2 

18.0 

17.7 

+9.25 

Prepared Feeds 

15.6 

15.4 

14.2 

-0.9 

Bakery Products 

12.9 

13.6 

14.2 

+ 10.1 

Sugar & Confectionery 

15.1 

15.3 

15.0 

-0.7 

Distilled Liquor, Except Brandy. 

14.7 

16.1 

16.0 

+8.8 

Wines, Brandy, Brandy Spirits . . 

19.5 

18.6 

19.1 

-2.0 

Food Stores 

10.2 

10.8 

11.4 

+ 11.8 

Flat Glass 

16.1 

17.8 

19.4 

+20.5 

Glassware 

14.5 

14.5 

15.0 

+3.4 

NATIONAL AVERAGE 

9.1 

9.2 

9.3 

+2.2 


The injury and illness rates are per 100 workers in the industries listed. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. 

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Page Seven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 



GEORGE MEANY PLAZA is dedicated in Jerusalem in memory of the late 
AFL-CIO president. Participating in the dedication are, from left, Israeli Labor 
Party leader Shimon Perez, Federation President Lane Kirkland and Vice Presi- 
dent John H. Lyons, Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek and Gen. Sec. Yerucham 
Meshel of Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation. 

GE Ordered to Pay Union 
For Costs of Sex Bias Suit 


Rental Charges Boosted 

Senate Votes 
Housing Aid 

(Continued from Page 1) 

housing construction and the growing 
number of moderate-income households 
displaced by condominium conversion. 

The Reagan Administration budget 
sought a reduction to 175,000 units, but 
the Senate bill dropped the authorization 
to 150,000 to hold down budget costs. 

The Senate did, however, approve an 
Administration proposal that would make 
public housing tenants pay up to 30 per- 
cent of their income for rent instead of 
the present 25 percent limit. The step-up 
would be phased in over five years. 

IN ANOTHER move opposed by the 
AFL-CIO, the Senate bill would compel 
communities that now have rent control 
laws to repeal or modify them in order to 
qualify for federal housing funds. The re- 
striction would affect an estimated 200 
communities, including New York City 
and Washington, D.C. 

The Senate bill also cut back on some 
other housing-related programs and fol- 
lows the Administration doctrine of lump- 
ing together various programs into a 
“block grant” to states and then slashing 
the total amount available. 

Democrats were unable to improve the 
housing bill through Senate amendments, 

AFSCME Wins 
23,000 -Member 
Group in Florida 

Tallahassee, Fla. — The State, County 
& Municipal Employees won representa- 
tion rights for some 23,000 Florida state 
clerical and administrative employees in 
an election that gave the union 77 percent 
of the vote. No other union was involved. 

AFSCME’s Florida Council 79, which 
the state employees now join, is the largest 
union in the state and already represents 
some 90,000 state, county, city, and school 
employees. 

-. Council 79 President Tom Fitzpatrick 
said the AFSCME victory “will strengthen 
the union’s clout at the bargaining table 
and in the legislature where important 
public employee issues are voted upon.” 

In coming weeks, Fitzpatrick said, state 
clerical and administrative workers will 
begin holding meetings throughout the 
state to draw up contract proposals and 
elect a negotiating committee. That com- 
mittee will then begin negotiating with the 
state on a variety of workplace issues, 
cost-of-living issues, and career opportuni- 
ties, he said. 


New jet aircraft technology increases 
pilot workload substantially and makes a 
three-member crew a vital margin for 
safety, Air Line Pilots President J. J. 
O’Donnell told a presidential task force. 
The independent panel is investigating 
whether new high technology passenger 
airliners require a two or three-member 
cockpit crew for maximum safety. 

In his opening statement, O’Donnell 
stressed that the union’s main concern in 
the issue is air passenger safety. He said 
technological improvements are welcomed 
by pilots, but they have so far been de- 
signed to increase the efficiency and 
usability of the equipment rather than add 
to human capabilities. 

“NEW TECHNOLOGY should not be 
given credit for a particular advantage such 
as workload reduction if its actual use in 
operations does not produce workload re- 
duction,” O’Donnell said, rejecting indus- 
try claims that new aircraft such as the 
McDonnell Douglas Super 80 and the 
Boeing 757 and 767 are so advanced they 
can be safely flown by only two pilots. 

O’Donnell called for a “revamping” of 


to Slash 
Programs 

but they did successfully put pressure on 
the Republican leadership to head off a 
threatened amendment to exclude federal- 
ly-funded housing from prevailing wage 
requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act. 

SEVERAL REPUBLICAN senators 
had indicated they might push for such 
an amendment, even though the Adminis- 
tration is in the process of using its regu- 
latory authority to shrink the law’s pro- 
tection. 

But the Republican leadership was 
anxious to move the housing bill through 
and a hint of a filibuster proved effective. 
The Democratic leadership passed the 
word that there could be no agreement on 
a time limit for debate if a Davis-Bacon 
amendment were proposed. The GOP 
leadership got the message, and no at- 
tempt was made to tie a Davis-Bacon re- 
pealer to the bill, which then passed 65-24. 

In the House, a subcommittee has ap- 
proved a bill that would provide 250,000 
units of assisted housing. But the full 
committee has held up action on it pend- 
ing completion of the budget reconciliation. 

In other congressional developments: 

• A House-Senate conference stripped 
two labor-opposed amendments from a 
supplemental appropriations bill. 

It dropped a House-passed provision 
that would have banned a government 
contribution to any future health insurance 
plan for federal or postal employees that 
covered abortions. The fight against the 
restriction was led by Sen. Mark O. Hat- 
field (R-Ore.), who is a strong foe of abor- 
tions but told the Senate that Congress 
would be injecting itself into labor-man- 
agement relations by dictating the form of 
health plan workers could negotiate. 

It also deleted a House provision bar- 
ring federal funds in connection with 
affirmative action programs involving nu- 
merical guidelines or goals. 

• The House unanimously passed a 
Vietnam veterans bill that was opposed 
by the Reagan Administration. It directs 
the Veterans Administration to expand a 
study of health hazards associated with ex- 
posure to Agent Orange and other toxic 
chemicals used to defoliate Vietnamese 
jungles. And it extended for three years 
the program of store-front readjustment 
counseling centers for Vietnam veterans 
that the Administration sought to abolish. 

• Political skirmishing over the nature 
of tax cut legislation continued with the 
White House alternating between carrot 
and stick tactics to pressure Democrats to 
agree to a “compromise” that would close- 
ly resemble the President’s three-year pack- 
age of business tax credits and a percentage 
cut in individual taxs heavily weighted to- 
ward the highest income brackets. 


the Federal Aviation Administration’s 
certification procedure for new aircraft. 
He told the panel that the union’s attempts 
in the past to participate in the certifica- 
tion process “received superficial treatment 
and then were ignored” by the FAA which 
dealt only with the manufacturers and air 
carriers. 

In addition to increased cockpit work- 
load, O’Donnell pointed out, the growth 
in air traffic expected to take place in the 
next 10 to 15 years will complicate the 
“hostile environment” in which airline 
pilots must operate. 

THE FACT THAT airport safety facili- 
ties, air traffic control equipment and col- 
lision avoidance systems are not likely to 
keep up with increased demands on flight 
crews underscores the need for the third 
crew member in “Monitoring, cross-check- 
ing, visual surveillance and pilot redun- 
dancy,” O’Donnell testified. 

O’Donnell, whose union represents 
33,000 pilots, pointed to studies of re- 
ported near-accidents and other safety 
hazards which show that “flight crew dis- 
traction is the most frequently reported 


Cleveland — A federal judge has ruled 
that General Electric Co. must pay the 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers 
more than $80,000 in legal expenses in- 
curred by the union while it was repre- 
senting its members in a sex discrimina- 
tion suit settled in 1979. 

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge 
John M. Manos is the first to make clear 
a union’s right to ask for reimbursement 
of legal fees under provisions of Title VII 
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 
Equal Pay Act when the union wins a 
discrimination case for workers, accord- 
ing to Winn Newman, who handled the 
case as lUE’s general counsel. 

THE COURT ordered GE to pay $80,- 
641 for lUE’s legal costs and lawyers’ 
fees accumulated during the course of a 
sex discrimination suit first filed in 1972 
by lUE, its Local 707 and individual 
union members at GE’s Cleveland lamp- 
making facility. 

In 1979, a settlement was worked out 
between the company and the union which 
was approved by the same district court. 
In the settlement, GE agreed to provide 
$130,500 in back pay to male and female 
workers harmed by discrimination, to end 
discriminatory practices against women 
workers and to improve wage rates. 

Although lUE attorneys had initially 
represented all the plaintiffs, Newman 
explained, the court had ordered separate 
counsel for each individual in the suit, 
and GE did agree to pay those legal fees 
under the provisions of the rights laws 
that allow payment of “a reasonable at- 
torney’s fee” at the discretion of the court 


human factor” in the documented records. 

He said the data prove the value of the 
third crew member in “screening distrac- 
tions, reducing task overloads, and moni- 
toring the actions of other crew members” 
in the vast matrix of communications 
and demands that pilots face routinely on 
the flight deck. 

“FLYING THE line in commercial 
transportation demands a professionalism 
which is unremitting,” O’Connell empha- 
sized. “There is no room for missed items 
in a checklist,” he said.” There is no place 
for inattention at any point in our hostile 
environment.” 

The panel was named by President 
Reagan in late February in response to a 
nationwide air safety publicity campaign 
mounted by the ALPA which had sched- 
uled a work stoppage to dramatize the 
crew complement safety issue. 

The panel is to report its findings by 
early July. It is chaired by former FAA 
Administrator John McLucas and includes 
Fred J. Drinkwater, a physicist and former 
Marine pilot, and Lt. Gen. Howard W. 
Leaf, inspector general of the Air Force. 


to the party that wins. 

The company refused to reimburse 
lUE’s own expenses, claiming that that 
union had not shown it was representing 
its members in the suits, that it was not in 
itself harmed, that reimbursing a union 
would violate congressional intent, and that 
because unions are parties to collective 
bargaining agreements, they could be in- 
volved in the conditions that lead to such 
suits. 

The court rejected the company’s argu- 
ments, agreeing that lUE did show that 
it was representing the interests of its 
members through a wide variety of ac- 
tions. 

Mine Workers 
Balloting on New 
Coal Agreement 

Striking miners are voting on a new 
contract with the soft-coal industry that 
would boost their hourly earings $3.60 
over the life of the agreement. 

If ratified, the 40-month accord would 
end a walkout that has closed bituminous 
mines in eastern and midwestern states 
since Mar. 27, when the old agreement ex- 
pired. The contract covers some 160,000 
members of the unaffiliated United Mine 
Workers. 

UMW PRESIDENT Sam Church, Jr., 
told newsmen the settlement with the 
Bituminous Coal Operators’ Association 
was “a very good contract.” He expressed 
optimism that members of the union, who 
voted 2 to 1 against an earlier agreement, 
would approve it. Ratification would end 
the strike on June 8 — 73 days after it 
began. 

The latest settlement, on May 29, re- 
moves most of the points of objection in 
the initial pact. 

The new contract provides a 37.5-per- 
cent increase in wages and fringe-benefit 
improvements over the next three and 
one-half years. Wages for most top-scale 
miners would rise to $14.16 an hour from 
the current $10.56. 

AMONG THE agreement’s key provi- 
sions is a clause restoring welfare-fund 
royalties on non-union coal purchases by 
union-operated mines. Elimination of the 
old $1.90 per-ton fee in the initial agree- 
ment had been cited as a principal cause 
of its rejection by rank-and-file members. 
The contract also drops a 45-day proba- 
tionary period for new employees and 
tightens rules governing the use of non- 
UMW subcontractors at mine sites. 

The agreement had the strong endorse- 
ment of the union’s 39-member bargain- 
ing council, which with only two dis- 
senting votes cleared the propK>sed contract 
for ratification by the miners. 


Pilots Stress Safety Factor in Crew Size 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 6, 1981 


Metalworker Delegates 
Stress Solidarity as Key 
To Peace, Justice, Jobs 



POLISH STEELWORKER Mieczyslaw Gil expresses gratitude for the moral 
and material support given Poland’s new, independent labor federation, Soli- 
darity, by western unions. Gil was part of a Solidarity delegation attending the 
25th World Congress of the International Metalworkers’ Federation in Wash- 
ington. With him above are Szbigniew Przydial, center, and Jacek Kurczewski. 

Stronger Standby Authority 
Sought to Remedy Oil Crises 


By James M. Shevis 

The International Metalworkers’ Federa- 
tion, at its 25th World Congress in Wash- 
ington, renewed its commitment to inter- 
national labor solidarity as the primary 
instrument for achieving peace, justice, and 
jobs. 

“Workers and their unions want peace 
because this is the prerequisite for social 
welfare and progress,” declared IMF 
President Eugen Loderer. “We want social 
justice. That means the promotion and 
realization everywhere in the world of 
human and trade union rights. 

“WE SEE OUR most important politi- 
cal task, however, in combating unemploy- 
ment and creating jobs for the millions of 
unemployed and underemployed people.” 

The 500 delegates from 70 countries 
adopted a wide-ranging series of resolu- 
tions pledging themselves to economic, 
social, and political programs to attain 
their goals, thereby improving the lot of 
the nearly 14 million workers represented 
by the federation. The Geneva-based orga- 
nization functions as a coordinating body 
for 170 unions representing auto work- 
ers, steelworkers, aerospace, shipbuilding, 
and other metal trades employees in the 
non-communist world. Eleven of the un- 
ions, representing about 3.6 million work- 
ers, are AFL-CIO affiliates. 

In a report on world economic develop- 
ment, the IMF warned that the world 
economy is at a crossroads “with disquiet- 
ing indications of settling into a long, 
deep, and disastrous recession.” 

The report said that sharp attacks on 
socially progressive forces are underway 
in several nations. “Some economists and 
politicians in western industrialized coun- 
tries are returning to theories which were 
discredited during the world crisis of the 
Twenties and the Thirties through mone- 
tarism, wage cuts, and general deflation 
policies,” the report said, adding: 

“This reactionary wave is challenging 
the concept that governments can and 
should seek to guide economic forces for 
the benefit of society as a whole.” 

THE SUREST signs of the world’s poor 
economic health are rapidly increasing 
joblessness generally and a new surge of 
unemployment in industrialized countries 
to a level unprecedented in the past 40 
years, the IMF said. 

Unemployment in the less developed 
countries is virtually impossible to mea- 
sure, but estimates of between 20 and 40 
percent for many individual nations are 
common, and underemployment often af- 
fects another 25 to 30 percent of the labor 
force, the federation said. 

In the 23 industrialized nations that 
make up the Organization for Economic 
Cooperation & Development, total regis- 
tered unemployment is likely to exceed 
23.5 niillion in 1981, the IMF pointed out. 
By mid- 1982, another 2.5 million unem- 
ployed workers are anticipated so that 
joblessness will reach 26 million. This will 
mean an increase in the average unemploy- 
ment rate in the industrialized countries 
from 6.5 to 7 percent, the IMF observed. 



As one means of creating jobs, the 
IMF reiterated its call for a substantial 
reduction in working time without reduc- 
tion in income. It set a goal of a maximum 
40-hour workweek worldwide and a 35- 
hour week in the more advanced nations. 

IMF GEN. SEC. Herman Rebhan re- 
ported to the congress that the federation’s 
campaign for a reduction in working time 
— launched two years ago at a world con- 
ference in Geneva — ^had already achieved 
positive results. In Britain, 2 million engi- 
neers won a 39-hour week. In Australia, 
there has been a move toward the 35-hour 
week and a “nine-day fortnight.” And, he 
noted, many IMF affiliates in the United 
States have secured more holidays and 
personal time off for their members. 

Rebhan and other speakers at the week- 
long conference laid heavy emphasis on 
the need for unions to increase their inter- 
national roles to cope with developments 
in the world economy and trade. 

“THE SPIRIT of trade unionism must 
be more than ever based on international- 
ism,” said Rebhan. “The lives and pros- 
perity of all our members are now based 
on an international economic inter- 
dependence that makes a mockery of na- 
tional frontiers.” 

In every case of plant closure reported 
to the IMF in the past year, he said, a 
key factor involved a corporation or a 
raw material or an equivalent but lower- 
priced product that was based or originated 
outside the country of the closed plant. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
delegates that the problems of working 
people are too vast for any nation or na- 
tional labor movement to deal with alone. 

“Labor must internationalize to the 
extent that industry has done so,” he said. 
“In today’s world, if the IMF did not 
already exist, it would be a matter of the 
greatest urgency to invent it.” 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride, 
whose union is one of IMF’s largest 
affiliates, noted that the labor secretariat 
“espouses the cause of universal brother- 
hood” and “confronts injustice by all the 
means” at its disposal. 

AMONG THE 19 resolutions approved 
by the congress were a pledge of solidarity 
with black metalworkers’ unions in South 
Africa and a condemnation of the Soviet 
Union for its invasion of Afghanistan and 
its war of nerves with the Polish free labor 
federation. Solidarity. Another resolution 
deplored the “growing attacks on trade 
union rights, even in the advanced coun- 
tries.” 

The delegates, holding their first con- 
gress outside Europe since the IMF’s 
founding in 1893, voted to hold the next 
congress in Tokyo in 1985. 


(Continued from Page I) 

gains made toward school integration is 
another likely result. Shields testified. 

Taxpayers would be hit twice, she 
pointed out, once to finance public schools 
“and the second time to subsidize a tax 
credit for non-public schools.” 

Shields argued that the tax credits 
would provide four times as much aid 
per pupil for private school education as 
now goes to public education. About 59 
percent of the credits would go to families 
with incomes over $25,000 with the share 
of benefits at both elementary and sec- 
ondary levels increasing as family incomes 
grow higher, she said. 

THE AFL-CIO is not opposed to fed- 
eral aid to private schools such as that 
provided under the Elementary & Sec- 
ondary Education Act and other federal 
programs. Shields emphasized. 


Congress was urged by the AFL-CIO 
to renew and strengthen the President’s 
standby powers to control oil prices, allo- 
cate scarce petroleum supplies and impose 
gasoline rationing. 

Most of the President’s existing standby 
authority will end when the Emergency 
Petroleum Allocation Act expires on Sept. 
30. The emergency powers should be pre- 
served through permanent law rather than 
a stop-gap extension, AFL-CIO Associate 
Legislative Director Howard Marlowe said. 

MARLOWE TOLD the Senate Energy 
& Natural Resources Committee that leav- 
ing allocation of petroleum products to the 
marketplace during periods of shortages 
“is to invite economic chaos.” 

Without government allocation powers, 
he warned, prices would soar and people 
who need cars to go to work or who rely 
on oil to heat their homes would be hard- 
est hit. He cited estimates that a 20-per- 
cent shortfall of crude oil supply in a free 
market would push the price of a gallon 
of gasoline to over $7. 

Marlowe urged the committee not to as- 
sume that the present “worldwide glut of 
oil” will continue. “When the United States 
and other industrial countries restore their 
economies to a condition of sustained 
growth, petroleum shortages will again be- 
come the prevailing condition,” he said. 

“THE UNITED STATES should not 
wait for a catastrophe,” he urged. And it 
should have in place a program for ration- 
ing gasoline that could be implemented 
when needed. Present law authorizes gaso- 
line rationing when supplies are at least 
20 percent less than demand. Rationing 
should be allowed at even a 10 percent 
shortfall, Marlowe urged. 


Federal aid that helps buy books and 
instructional materials, provides library 
resources, guidance and testing and spe- 
cialized education programs should con- 
tinue, Shields told the committee. 

Tuition tax credits, however, would be 
“a wide departure” from the concept of 
the federal government’s role in education 
as spelled out in ESEA which targets fed- 
eral aid, she asserted. 

Shields also noted that because the ma- 
jority of students in private schools attend 
church-affiliated institutions, giving tuition 
tax credits to those students could raise 
constitutional questions involving the sepa- 
ration of church and state. 

The tuition tax proposal, she said, could 
lead to the undermining “of one of the 
greatest achievements of American democ- 
racy: a school system for all children which 
will provide them with the educartion to 
realize their maximum potential.” 


He recommended a two-tier plan that 
the AFL-CIO has proposed. 

The first tier would provide for free 
ration coupons, half based on the number 
of registered vehicles and. half on the num- 
ber of licensed drivers. Consumers could 
sell or trade these coupons without penalty. 

IF THERE ARE additional supplies of 
gasoline, the government would sell cou- 
pons on the open market at a fixed price. 

Marlowe stressed that the AFL-CIO’s 
support for gasoline rationing “stems from 
our conviction that rationing is an equita- 
ble alternative to price increases as a means 
of dealing with emergency shortages as 
well as longer term conservation goals.” 

The AFL-CIO’s assumption, he said, is 
that a rationing program would operate 
“in tandem with controls on gasoline 
prices.” That link should be made “an 
explicit part” of whatever standby ration- 
ing program is submitted to Congress. 

Healey Elected 
New President of 
Plate Printers 

Delegates to the 79th convention of the 
Plate Printers, Die Stampers & Engravers 
in Washington elected Neil Healey of Lo- 
cal 58, New York, to a two-year term as 
the union’s president. 

Healey succeeds Angelo LoVecchio, 69, 
who retired after serving two terms as 
president. 

Sec.-Treas. James Donegan, Jr., of 
Philadelphia was re-elected to his sixth 
term. 

Elected to their first terms were Harold 
Ryan of Local 29, New York, who will be 
first vice president, and Ed, Majors of Lo- 
cal 6, Ottawa, who will serve as second 
vice president. 

Also re-elected to the union’s executive 
council were William Hoyt of Local 1, 
New York, and Robert Vass of Local 2, 
Washington. They will be joined on the 
council by Frank Leone, Local 24, Wash- 
ington; Al Merkh, Local 25, New Jersey; 
Ben DeCaito, Local 26, New Jersey; Mike 
Ryan, Local 28, New York; and Marty F. 
Freda, Local 58, New York. 

The convention voiced the union’s firm 
opposition to proposals in the printing in- 
dustry to introduce a variety of flexible 
time schedules so as to keep presses oper- 
ating seven days a week. Such arrange- 
ments could force unwanted weekend 
work and irregular schedules on many 
workers in their industry, the delegates 
agreed. 

The union’s members in the United 
States and Canada specialize in the print- 
ing of U.S., Canadian and foreign curren- 
cies, stock certificates, bonds, bank notes, 
food coupons and other types of high- 
quality printed material. 


Tuition Tax Credit Protested 
As Blow to Public Education 



Unemployment Rate Climbs to 7.6% 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, June 13, 1981 


No. 24 




Senate Food Stamp Cut 
Bars Strikers’ Families 



NEWSPAPER GUILD members seeking a fair settlement on a new contract 
with the Associated Press were joined on an informational picket line in Los 
Angeles by actor Ed Asner, a television series newspaper editor, and “Cheap 
Chicken,” the Guild’s symbol for AP’s wage proposal. 


37 Groups Assail Blow 
To Affirmative Action 


8.2 Million 
Seek Chance 
For Work 

By James M. Shevis 

Unemployment in the United States — 
now at nearly 8.2 million — shot to its 
highest level since last October, the result 
of slower job creation and layoffs in con- 
struction and in some manufacturing in- 
dustries, the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
reported. 

After holding steady for several months, 
the nation’s jobless rate rose three-tenths 
of 1 percent to 7.6 percent in May, the 
largest one-month jump since May 1980. 
The sharpest increase occurred among 
adult men. Their jobless rate climbed to 

6.3 percent, from 5.8 percent the month 
before. 

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS were 
particularly hard hit. Their jobless rate 
rose from 14.4 to 16.3 percent last month. 
The construction industry is suffering 
from high mortgage interest rates, which 
are choking demand and making it more 
expensive to finance new homes and 
buildings. 

There was also a high number of lay- 
offs in the auto manufacturing and re- 
lated industries as car sales turned down 
after surging early in the year. 

BLS Commissioner Janet L. Norwood, 
appearing before the congressional Joint 
Economic Committee, said that the size of 
the May increase in joblessness was “sig- 
nificant,” but added that employment is 
still growing although at a relatively weak 
pace. 

“The labor force, which increased very 
little in 1980, has grown rapidly over the 
last few months,” she said. “Employment 
in May did not keep up with the pace of 
labor force growth, and unemployment 
rose.” 

TOTAL EMPLOYMENT in May 

“grew more than expected at this time of 
year,” Norwood said. The number of jobs 
in the economy increased by 259,000 to 
99.2 million. At the same time, however, 
the work force expanded by 684,000 to 
107.4 million, thus increasing unemploy- 
ment by 425,000. The figures were ad- 
justed to eliminate the effects of seasonal 
economic fluctuations. 

Unemployment increased among all 
worker groups in May. For women, the 
rate went to 6.8 percent, from 6.6 percent. 
The rates for full-time workers, teenagers, 
and blacks each rose by four-tenths of 1 
percent, to 7.3, 19.5, and 13.6 percent, 
respectively. White unemployment in- 
creased to 6.8 percent from 6.6 percent, 
and joblessness among Hispanics increased 
to 10.2 percent, from 9.1 percent. 

The labor force participation rate, 
which is the civilian labor force as a per- 
centage of the total population, climbed to 
64.6 percent in May, its highest rate ever. 
Last month’s 64.3 percent participation 
rate was the previous all-time high. 

The decline in construction jobs last 
(Continued on Page 6) 


Detroit — ^The executive board of the 
Auto Workers has voted unanimously for 
reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO, a move 
that both UAW President Douglas A. 
Fraser and AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land said will strengthen the labor move- 
ment in a critical period. 

The unity move had been authorized by 
UAW convention delegates earlier this year 
and Fraser said the UAW officers had “a 
successful exchange of views” with Kirk- 
land and AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue at a recent meeting. They then 
recommended that the UAW board “move 
promptly on reaffiliation.” 

The final formality after the UAW 


By Susan Dunlop 

Labor Dept, proposals to water down 
affirmative action obligations tied to fed- 
eral contracts will set back the progress 
of women and minorities toward equal 
employment goals, the AFL-CIO, civil 
rights and women’s groups warned the 
Reagan Administration. 

Thirty-seven organizations endorsed a 
letter signed by AFL-CIO President Lane 


reaffiliation letter is received will be ap- 
proval by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, 
which will be sought in a telegraph poll. 
The UAW’s 1.2 million member in the 
United States will be affiliated with the 
AFL-CIO and its Canadian membership 
continues to be affiliated with the Cana- 
dian Labor Congress. 

Fraser said the UAW, as part of the 
AFL-CIO, will work with the federation 
and other affiliates in resisting President 
Reagan’s proposed cuts in social security 
benefits, pressing for lower interest rates 
and for an end to “recessionary economic 
policies.” 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Kirkland and sent to David Stockman, 
director of the Office of Management & 
Budget, urging the Administration to re- 
consider its proposed “drastic changes” in 
contract compliance. 

THE GROUPS charged that if the fed- 
eral government backs away from making 
affirmative action a firm requirement for 
letting its contracts, it could mean “the 
death knell for the federal contract com- 
pliance program, for 40 years a vital ele- 
ment in the national effort to provide 
equal employment opportunity.” 

Kirkland’s letter stressed that women 
and minorities continue to experience dis- 
crimination in employment, and that 
“more vigorous equal employment oppor- 
tunity enforcement” is needed. 

The Labor Dept.’s proposed changes in 
its rules include substituting “self-monitor- 
ing” by contractors for much of the en- 
forcement. Such a policy, Kirkland said, 
would be taken as a “signal for backslid- 
ing” by contractors. 

“Discrimination cannot be remedied by 
depending on voluntary efforts by the 
very contractors whose unlawful discrim- 
inatory practices continue to bring them 
unjust enrichment,” the letter charged. 
Compliance rules assure that the govern- 
ment does not reward or participate in 
discrimination, Kirkland pointed out. 

Organizations joining in the letter in- 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Changes Hit 
Low-Income 
Households 

By David L. Perlman 

The Senate voted to cut back food stamp 
assistance to low-income households and 
prohibit food assistance to the family of a 
worker who goes on strike, regardless of 
need. 

Its actions will reduce the food allotment 
to most of the 22 million persons now be- 
ing helped and drop an estimated 1 million 
from the rolls entirely. Households of 
strikers normally make up only a fraction 
of 1 percent of food stamp recipients. The 
chief losers from the Senate bill will be 
low-paid workers whose paychecks aren’t 
enough to meet family needs. 

ANTI-STRIKER amendments have been 
regularly proposed over the years, even 
though increasingly tight eligibility stan- 
dards for all food stamp recipients meant 
that a striker’s family would have to ex- 
haust virtually all its resources before 
qualifying for assistance. 

In the Carter Administration, the Senate 
voted down an anti-striker amendment to 
a food stamp bill by a decisive 48-26 mar- 
gin. But this time around, in the Republi- 
can-controlled Senate, a ban on food 
stamps to strikers or their families was 
included in the bill sent to the floor by the 
Agriculture Committee and routinely ap- 
proved without a separate vote. 

The only fights, in fact, were over right- 
wing attempts to slash the food stamp pro- 
gram still further. The Agriculture Com- 
mittee had already cut the program’s costs 
below the Reagan Administration budget, 
so the committee bill survived intact. 

(Continued on Page 8) 

Supreme Court 
Upholds Suit on 
Sex Bias Claim 

The Supreme Court ruled that women 
may sue under the Civil Rights Act to 
remedy illegal pay discrimination without 
basing their claim on an employer’s re- 
fusal to pay equal wages to men and 
women doing substantially equal work. 

Its 5-4 decision concluded that Title VII 
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave women 
workers more grounds to challenge pay 
discrimination than they already had un- 
der the Equal Pay Act of 1963. That’s the 
conclusion the AFL-CIO and other labor 
groups had urged in a brief to the Supreme 
Court earlier this year. 

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., writing 
for the majority, stressed that the issue 
before the court did not involve what he 

(Continued on Page 3) 


UAW Executive Board Vote 
Unanimous for ReaffiUation 





Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 



CAUCUS OF worker delegates to the International Labor Organization confer- 
ence in Geneva included, from left: Morris Paladino, director of the Asian 
American Free Labor Institute; AFL-CIO Assistant International Affairs Direc- 
tor Michael Boggs, and Irving Brown, AFL-CIO international representative 
and the U.S. worker delegate to the ILO. 

Firemen-Oilers Convention 
•Elects Francisco President 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Delegates to the 
Firemen & Oilers’ 30th convention here 
elected Sec.-Treas. George J. Francisco 
by acclamation to assume the union’s pres- 
idency for the next five years. 

Francisco, who has held a wide variety 
of positions in the Firemen & Oilers, suc- 
ceeds John J. McNamara, who announced 
his retirement. McNamara became presi- 
dent in 1975 and will serve as president- 
emeritus. 

FRANCISCO HAS served as president 
of the union’s Local 520 in Buffalo, N.Y., 
as vice chairman of New York State Coun- 
cil, and as international representative of 
the union’s commercial division in the 
Buffalo area. 

In 1975, he was appointed to the sec- 
retary-treasurer’s post and a year later 
elected to a full five-year term. During his 
career, he has represented the Firemen & 
Oilers in negotiations with the railroad 
industry. 

Elected to succeed Francisco as secre- 
tary-treasurer was First Vice President 
Michael Matz of Philadelphia Local 473. 

Sal Hoffmann Dies 
At 82 , President 
Of Upholsterers 

Philadelphia — Sal B. Hoffmann, presi- 
dent of the Upholsterers for the past 44 
years, died June 9 at his home here. He 
was 82. 

Hoffmann began his trade union career 
as a member of UIU Local 77 in Phila- 
delphia in 1 920. He held a number of key 
elected positions with the local during the 
’20s and ’30s and as an international or- 
ganizer. 

Hoffmann was first elected UIU presi- 
dent in 1937 and was re-elected at each 
subsequent union convention. His most 
recent four-year term began in 1978. 

In a letter to Hoffmann’s family, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland and Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue praised his 
“distinguished career” as a leader of the 
union. They added that “his long and pro- 
ductive life was dedicated to serving work- 
ing men and women, and his long tenure 
as president is proof enough of the mem- 
bers’ respect and affection.” 

Under Hoffmann’s leadership, the UIU 
established a health and welfare fund in 
1944 and a national pension plan in 1953. 
He served as chairman of both funds at 
the time of his death. 

Survivors include three children and 10 
grandchildren. His wife Frances died last 
year. Services were held at Assumption 
Church in Philadelphia June 1 1 and inter- 
ment was at Whitemarsh Memorial Park 
in Prospectville, Pa. 


An executive board member of the inter- 
national the past 12 years, Matz is also 
vice president of the Philadelphia Council 
of the AFL-CIO and of the Philadelphia 
Maritime Port Council. 

THE 400 DELEGATES re-elected five 
vice presidents and elected a new vice pres- 
ident, William McDevitt of Philadelphia, 
to fill the vacancy created by Matz’s ele- 
vation. 

Delegates also adopted a number of con- 
stitutional changes, including a per capita 
increase to strengthen the union’s financial 
position for the struggles ahead. 

Current per capita for members of the 
Firemen & Oilers division is $3 a month 
and $3.50 a month for members of the 
union’s commercial division. As of Aug. 
1 , the per capita for both divisions will go 
up $1 a month. Another 50-cent increase 
takes effect on Aug. 1, 1983, and an addi- 
tional 50-cent boost on Aug. 1, 1984. 

THE CONVENTION approved salary 
increases from $44,000 to $50,000 for the 
president and from $38,000 to $44,600 
for the secretary-treasurer. 

In his opening remarks to the delegates, 
McNamara warned of the difficult times 
facing organized labor today. 

“Everywhere we turn, it seems, we face 
relentless pressures — the elimination of 
jobs, loss of membership, and a renewed 
barrage of attacks by anti-union forces,” 
he said, urging that labor begin now to 
prevent gains by conservatives in Congress 
next year. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas Donahue 
charged that the Reagan Administration 
seeks to sweep away 50 years of social 
progress with its budget cuts. 

Under the budget reductions, “we’re the 
ones who will pay the price of social 
security cuts, and at the gas pumps,” he 
said. “The brazen attempts to cripple the 
Occupational Safety & Health Act and 
turn back the clock on worker protections 
clearly endanger human lives and chal- 
lenge human dignity. 

“WE FOUGHT too hard and have come 
too far to let anyone take that away from 
us now.” 

President Jacob dayman of the Na- 
tional Council of Senior Citizens told dele- 
gates of the massive mail and telephone 
protests that greeted the Administration’s 
announcement on proposed changes in the 
social security system. “These protests led 
to a unanimous, 96-0, bipartisan vote in 
the Senate to disapprove the recommenda- 
tions,” he said. 

Resolutions adopted by the convention 
included a dall on Congress to stand up to 
the threat to hard-won, social reforms and 
defend programs of proven value. Dele- 
gates called for the mandatory use of coal 
as a primary fuel in all commercial power 
plants, and supported Poland’s independent 
labor federation. Solidarity. 


W alesa Acclaimed 



ILO Delegates Applaud 


Spirit of Polish Labor 


Geneva — Lech Walesa, leader of Po- 
land’s independent labor federation Soli- 
darity, gave his fight for free trade union- 
ism in a country living under the shadow 
of the Soviet Union a global dimension 
in an address that electrified the annual 
assembly of the 145-nation International 
Labor Organization. 

“I want to stress our solidarity with 
workers everywhere,” he proclaimed as the 
first free trade unionist from a country 
trapped in the Soviet orbit to address the 
ILO conference as an official worker 
delegate. 

THE SOVIET delegation remained 
frozen as applause exploded in the huge 
assembly hall, packed with some 1,800 
trade unionists, government officials and 
business executives, when Walesa finished 
speaking. 

Before the former Polish shipyard work- 
er could leave the platform the confer- 
ence’s president, Senegal’s labor minister 
Alioune Diagne, interrupted the waves of 
applause. 

He told Walesa: 

“The religious silence with which you 
were heard and the loud and prolonged 
applause that greeted your address prove, 
if such proof was still needed, the intense 
interest with which the world is following 
your efforts and those of your union Soli- 
darity.” 

Shunning oratorical flourishes, Walesa 
had told the assembly that the social and 
political reform movement that Solidarity 
had triggered by the use of labor’s “tradi- 
tional weapons of strikes and demonstra- 
tions” was irreversible. And in a clear 
allusion to the Soviet Union to keep hands 
off he warned that “no outside interference 
should attempt to halt the process” of 
democratic change under way in his coun- 
try. % 

WHEN PROCLAIMING the solidarity 
of his union with workers everywhere, 
Walesa said it joined in the fight of all real 
trade unions for the “protection of the 
social interests of workers, for the dignity 
of labor and for the defense of human 
rights wherever they are violated.” 

AFL-CIO International Rep. Irving 
Brown observed that Walesa, in his simple 
and direct approach before the ILO, “has 
identified the struggle for free trade union- 
ism in Poland with the international strug- 
gle for free trade unionism everywhere.” 

“What is particularly important about 
Walesa,” the U.S. worker delegate con- 
tinued, “is that he has demonstrated in a 
country where no one believed it could be 
done that free trade unionism is the aspira- 
tion of all workers.” 

Brown joined other free workers in 


sponsoring a resolution outlining action 
the ILO should take to assist the Third 
World to meet the ILO standards on liv- 
ing and working conditions. 

Other resolutions proposed by the free 
workers call for an intensification of 
training programs and of* planning to en- 
sure that workers benefit rather than suffer 
from the introduction of new technologies 
into the economy. 

The ILO is a unique tripartite orga- 
nization with each member nation rep- 
resented by worker, employer and govern- 
ment delegates. 


Wholesale Index 
Increase Slows 


As Prices Ease 


Steady food prices and the first drop in 
fuel prices in over three years combined 
to hold producer-level inflation to four- 
tenths of 1 percent in May, the smallest 
monthly rise this year. 

Last month’s rise in prices of finished 
consumer goods was only half as large as 
that of April, and compared with a 1.3 
percent increase in March. The finished 
consumer-goods component of the gov- 
ernment’s producer price index excludes 
capital goods, and is the one that econo- 
mists find most useful in projecting retail 
price changes. 

The finished goods index now stands at 
268.9 percent of its 1967 base, which 
means that goods that cost $10 then now 
cost $26.89. 


THE BUREAU of Labor Statistics, 
which reported the price changes, said that 
the index for intermediate goods such as 
flour and cloth rose five-tenths of 1 per- 
cent following a 1.1 percent increase in 
April. 

The index for crude goods such as 
wheat and cotton, fell by that amount 
after rising 1.5 percent in April. 

BLS said that the five- tenths of 1 per- 
cent decline in finished energy prices was 
the first decrease since February 1978. 

Consumer food prices were unchanged 
for the second month in a row. 


Everything besides food and energy 
went up six-tenths of 1 percent at the 
dealer’s level. 


Prices of gasoline, which is now in sig- 
nificant over-supply, fell 1.8 percent dur- 
ing May while home-heating oil prices fell 
1.2 percent. Natural gas, however, rose in 
price. 


AT SENATE HEARINGS, AFL-CIO Education Director Dorothy Shields 
warned that tuition tax credits for students in private schools and colleges would 
weaken the nation’s public education system and drain needed federal revenues. 
Assistant Research Director Arnold Cantor and Legislative Rep. Stephen Koplan 
joined in presenting the AFL-CIO’s position. 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Illinois Unions Rally Against Anti-Labor Bills 


Page Three 



ILLINOIS TRADE UNIONISTS rally at the state capitol anti-labor measures. The turnout of 20,000 union members 
in Springfield to protest attempts by the legislature to enact was the largest demonstration ever held at the capitol. 


Decision in Pay Discrimination Case 
Provides New Legal Tools for Women 


20,000 March 
In Protest at 
State Capitol 

Springfield, 111. — Some 20,000 union 
members from throughout the state 
jammed the capitol grounds here to pro- 
test attempts to enact anti-labor legislation. 

The Labor Lobby Day rally was called 
by the Illinois AFL-CIO and other labor 
groups around the state after the Repub- 
lican-controlled House Labor Committee 
had approved a so-called “right-to-work” 
bill. 

Labor’s campaign against the measure 
was so intense that it was defeated over- 
whelmingly when it came up on the House 
floor for a vote, 138 to 25. 

“ ‘RIGHT-TO-WORK’ was defeated 
here, and do you know why?” State AFL- 
CIO President Robert G. Gibson asked. 
“That union-busting measure went down 
because they knew you were coming. 

“We are here to say to those who voted 
for the phony ‘right-to-work-for-less’ bill 
that they should be ashamed. They and 
others who scorn labor, who vote against 
the poor and the defenseless, these are the 
people we’ll be meeting at the ballot box 
in 1982.” 

Gov. James R. Thompson, the only Re- 
publican to address the rally, pledged not 
to let any anti-union bills get past his desk. 
He praised the labor movement for its uni- 
fied effort, and declared: “Right-to-work 
is dead in Illinois, and it will never be 
alive in this state again.” 

Jerry Hawkins, Mine Workers legisla- 
tive director in Illinois, told the anti-union 
members of the General Assembly: “We 
are keeping score, and we have long mem- 
ories. Business may have the money, but 
we have the numbers.” 

SINCE THE November elections. Re- 
publican members of the House — now a 
majority of the membership with 91 rep- 
resentatives, compared to 85 Democrats — 
have espoused a series of anti-labor mea- 
sures. 

Such bills have provided for a reduc- 
tion in jobless benefits, a virtual destruc- 
tion of workers’ compensation benefits, 
and repeal of the prevailing wage act and 
the safe scaffolding law. Another bill calls 
for a year’s notice before a union can 
strike. 

New Coal Pact 
Approved by 
2-to-l Margin 

Soft-coal miners in eastern and mid- 
western states ended their 10- week strike 
after voting overwhelmingly to ratify a 
new agreement, but stalled contract talks 
between mine construction workers and 
the industry delayed the reopening of some 
mines. 

Members of the unaffiliated - United 
Mine Workers approved the pact by the 
same 2-to-l ratio that they rejected an 
earlier proposal. The new contract raises 
wages and benefits for about 160,000 min- 
ers by 38 percent over 40 months. 

THE MINERS’ cpntract with the Bitumi- 
nous Coal Operators’ Association ended a 
walkout that began Mar. 27 when the old 
agreement expired. Nearly 11,000 UMW 
construction workers who bargain sepa- 
rately with the Association of Bituminous 
Coal Contractors left their jobs on the 
same date to honor the underground work- 
ers’ picket lines, even though their con- 
tract did not expire until Apr. 6. 

Over the contract’s 40-month life, hour- 
ly wages are to rise by $3.60, to $14.30, 
for miners at top scale. The pact also re- 
stores a pension fund royalty that the coal 
companies must pay on coal they buy from 
non-union mines. 

Loss of the royalty was one of the major 
issues cited by the miners when they turned 
down the initial agreement. 


(Continued from Page 1) 
termed “the controversial concept of com- 
parable worth.” The comparable worth 
theory would test for sex discrimination 
by matching the pay of jobs that are com- 
parable in skill, effort and responsibility. 

THE CASE that reached the Supreme 
Court was brought by a group of matrons 
at a county jail in Oregon who charged 
that sex discrimination was largely respon- 
sible for the big gap between their pay 
and the pay of male employees with a 
number of the same duties. 

A federal district judge ruled against 
the matrons, holding that their claim did 
not meet the equal work test of the Equal 
Pay Act. He interpreted an amendment 
that the Senate added to the Civil Rights 
Act as barring pay claims that would not 
be upheld under the Equal Pay Act. 

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 
agreed that the suit could not be sustained 
on the basis of the Equal Pay Act. But it 
said that the women employees should 
have an opportunity in court to prove their 
contention that their lower pay is the result 
of sex discrimination and therefore vio- 
lates the Civil Rights Act. 

BRENNAN NOTED that the matrons 
claim in their lawsuit that the county had 
concluded after a job evaluation study 
that the women were entitled to a pay rate 
only 5 percent below that of the male of- 
ficers, but nevertheless paid them 30 per- 
cent less than male employees. 

He agreed with the appellate court con- 
clusion that the case should be sent back 
to the district court to hear further evi- 
dence on whether the wage disparity was 
the result of sex discrimination. 

Joining in the majority decision were 
Justices Byron R. White, Thurgood Mar- 
shall, Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul 
Stevens. 

A dissent by Justice William H. Rehn- 
quist contended that there is no evidence 
Congress intended to go beyond the “equal 

Melvin Roots Picked 
To Head Plasterers 

Melvin H. Roots, executive vice pres- 
ident of the Plasterers & Cement Masons 
since 1970, has been chosen president of 
the union, succeeding the late Joseph T. 
Power. 

Roots, 57, was named by the union’s 
executive board and will serve until the 
convention in 1984. The board named Vice 
President James J. Boyle of Washington, 
D.C., to succeed Roots as executive vice 
president. 

An Oakland, Calif., native. Roots joined 
the OPCM in 1945, served as president of 
OPCM Local 1 12 in Oakland and as head 
of the union’s California state conference. 
He was an organizer before his election 
as a vice president of the international in 
1956. 


pay for equal work” criterion when it 
passed the Civil Rights Act. He com- 
plained that the narrow grounds of the 
majority decision will have little applica- 
tion to other cases. 

IN ANOTHER decision, the Supreme 
Court ruled that employers are not re- 
quired to pay unemployment and social 
security payroll taxes on the value of food 
and lodging they provide workers on re- 
mote job sites, such as offshore oil rigs. 
Employees are not taxed on these fringe 
benefits because they are provided “for 


The AFL-CIO asked the Supreme Court 
to take a fresh look at the legislative his- 
tory of the Taft-Hartley Act and reverse 
two appellate court decisions that would 
lead to the exclusion of thousands of work- 
ers from the protection of federal labor 
law. 

At issue is whether the National Labor 
Relations Act covers employees whose 
work gives them access to business infor- 
mation their employer considers confiden- 
tial. 

UNDER LONGSTANDING National 
Labor Relations Board policy, otherwise 
eligible employees dealing with confiden- 
tial data are excluded from a bargaining 
unit only if their work involves sensitive 
labor-management matters. Thus, the 
NLRB would exclude the secretary to a 
company’s industrial relations director but 
not the secretary of, the firm’s sales man- 
ager. 

In the cases being reviewed by the 
Supreme Court, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court 
of Appeals adopted a much broader ex- 
clusion policy: 

• One case involved a rural electric 
cooperative in Hendricks County, Ind. 
The general manager fired his secretary 
after she had joined other employees in 
signing a petition asking for the reinstate- 
ment of a worker who had suffered the 
loss of an arm in an on-the-job accident 
and was denied re-employment after his 
recovery. 

The NLRB found that the secretary, 
Mary Weatherman, was not involved in 
labor relations matters and therefore was 
protected when she joined with other em- 
ployees in a lawful “concerted activity.” 
But the appellate court refused to enforce 
the NLRB’s reinstatement and back pay 
order. 

• The other case involved employees of 
the Malleable Iron Range Co. in Beaver 
Dam, Wis., who had voted for representa- 
tion by Local 39 of the Office & Profes- 
sional Employees. 

The company refused to bargain, claim- 


the convenience of the employer.” 

The Supreme Court declined to review 
and thus made final a ruling by the U.S. 
5th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board erred in not 
counting a ballot cast in a union repre- 
sentation election in which the voter wrote 
the word “No” on the back of the ballot 
instead of marking an “X” in the box on 
the face of the ballot. The appellate court 
reasoned that since the election was a 
simple choice between one union or no 
union, the employee’s intent was clear. 


ing that 18 of the 64 employees in the 
unit should have been excluded because 
they had access to confidential business 
information. Those the company wanted 
excluded included a $3.50 an hour ship- 
ping clerk and a $6,400-a-year clerk 
who handled correspondence dealing with 
defective merchandise. The appellate court 
refused to enforce the NLRB’s order to 
bargain with the union. 

In both cases, the appellate court relied 
on language in a 1974 Supreme Court de- 
cision involving the status of managerial 
employees of the Bell Aerospace Co. The 
Supreme Court’s assumption, in the section 
quoted, appeared to be that Congress had 
intended a broad exclusion of “confiden- 
tial” employees when it enacted the Taft- 
Hartley amendments to the National Labor 
Relations Act in 1947. 

THE AFL-CIO brief urged the Supreme 
Court to correct its “dictum” in the 1974 
case, stressing that this can be done with- 
out affecting the Bell Aerospace outcome 
or the reasoning that led to it. 

The legislative intent issue bearing on 
confidential employees had never been 
fully presented to the court, the AFL-CIO 
contended, and therefore should not be 
controlling as a decided point of law. 

The brief notes that the House passed 
a bill that excluded confidential employees 
generally, but the Senate version did not, 
and the House language was deleted in 
conference. 

AS FOR THE statements made by the 
conferees when the final version was be- 
fore the House and Senate, the AFL-CIO 
brief notes that the most that can be read 
on the issue was that Congress was in ac- 
cord with the still-prevailing NLRB policy. 

To come to a different conclusion, the 
AFL-CIO contended, the courts would 
have to assume that Congress misunder- 
stood an NLRB policy that had been con- 
sistently applied in dozens of cases and 
that it intended to freeze its misunder- 
standing into law. But the facts indicate 
otherwise, the federation maintained. 


High Court Asked to Uphold 
Confidential Employee Rights 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Bntehering the Constitution 

AN UNWISE and clearly unworkable constitutional amendment 
has been endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It 
would compel Congress to balance the federal budget each year, 
except in a national emergency. 

Just last year, an almost identical proposal was defeated in 
committee. But so far has the political pendulum swung that the 
present Judiciary Committee voted 11-5 to clear the proposed 
amendment for the Senate floor. 

Congress already has the ability to control the federal budget, 
as has become painfully apparent in recent weeks. But the deep 
cuts made to conform to the Reagan Administration’s concept 
of the role of government would have been a bloodbath if such 
an amendment had been written into the U.S. Constitution. 

IN PRACTICE, of course, budget deficit and surpluses are the 
more often result of economic conditions rather than spending 
levels. 

Even while the present budget resolution was moving through 
the House and Senate, projections of budget deficits continued to 
change because of changed expectations of tax revenues and 
inflation’s effect on interest rates and cost-of-living adjustments. 

The constitutional amendment cleared by the Judiciary Com- 
mittee would allow an exception to the balanced budget require- 
ment by a three-fifths vote of the House and the Senate. 

But this “concession” undermines the concept of majority rule. 
It would give a minority of Congress effective control over the 
appropriations process. 

Budget deficits normally are unavoidable — and properly so — 
during recessions. But if Congress were to unwisely put itself into 
a constitutional straitjacket, unemployment would feed on un- 
employment and recessions would grow into depressions. A study 
by the congressional Joint Economic Committee several years ago 
pointed to such a conclusion. 

Another study, by the Council of Economic Advisers in the 
last Administration, concluded that a balanced budget in the 1975 
recession would have pushed total production 12 percent below 
pre-recession levels and pushed up unemployment by 50 percent. 

AND IN HISTORIC terms, there is a compelling argument 
against changing the U.S. Constitution from a framework for 
democratic government into a repository of economic and social 
theories quickly outdated by shifting political trends. 

There are, certainly, enough members of Congress who are 
aware of the pitfalls to prevent adoption of a balanced budget 
amendment. 

The real question is whether there are enough in this period of 
political running for cover to vote their convictions and stop once 
and for all a reckless assault on the Constitution. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


= VoL XXVI 


Saturday, June 13, 1981 


No. 24 I 


= The AFL-CIO ^ews (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. S 




Investments vs. Hamburgers 

Reagan’s Chief ‘Supply-Sider’ 
Miscalculates Speed of Money 


By Gus Tyler 

HAT MAKES money run? 

Yes, money does run. In economics, the 
speed is called “velocity.” It’s a measure of how 
fast the buck passes from hand to hand. 

The subject came up in a very sophisticated de- 
bate between Murray Weidenbaum, the chairman 
of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 
and George Perry, an economist at the Brookings 
Institution, on the subject of “supply-side” eco- 
noniics. 

PERRY SAID the Administration was caught 
in a contradiction. How could it increase invest- 
ment to swell “supply” while, at the same time, 
backing the Federal Reserve Board in its strategy 
to limit the money supply? 

Weidenbaum answered with one word: velocity. 
That meant that while there would be fewer 
dollars, each dollar would race around at greater 
speed. 

Perry raised two objections: first, if the buck 
were to run fast enough to expand the economy 
as Weidenbaum projected in spite of restricted 
money supply, the buck would have to break all 
world records, moving about four times faster 
than ever in history; second, if money started 
moving that fast, it would again be “inflationary” 
and would induce the Federal Reserve to restrict 
the money supply even further. 

Weidenbaum did not seem to have an effective 
answer in this debate that appeared at length in 
the New York Times back on April 19. 

BEHIND HIS SILENCE lurks the real agenda 
of the Administration: the redistribution of nation- 
al income from the lower tiers to the top tier of 
the nation. 

There is only one way to get more money for 
“investment” while curtailing the money supply. 
The way is to transfer income to the top, to the 
relatively small portion of the population that lives 
primarily, sometimes exclusively, on its invest- 
ments. 

Here’s how it can be done. McDonald Corp., 
the fast food outfit, has — according to a recent 
report — 350,000 employees. Assume about half 
of these are the kids you meet face to face when 
you buy a hamburger. If this Administration puts 
through a youth subminimum wage, most of the 


youngsters will get 85 cents less per hour. This 
means that McDonald’s will profit by about 
$150,000 an hour. 

THIS MULTI-MILLION dollar transfer pay- 
ment from the kids to the corporation is but one 
slight example of the overall policy that goes 
under the deceptive name of “supply-side” eco- 
nomics. Taking away school lunches, child nutri- 
tion or legal aid while giving sizable tax reduc- 
tions to the most affluent are other examples. 

Putting fairness aside, will this enrichment of 
the rich increase the supply? Most unlikely. Mc- 
Donald’s might have the money to turn out more 
hamburgers, but if all that money is up there in 
the hands of the “investing” class, who will buy 
the hamburgers? 

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Social Justice Linked 
To Freedom's Cause 


The defense of freedom in the world must 
go hand in hand with the continuing struggle 
for social and economic justice at home. 

Democracy is not likely to win either the 
ideological or the power struggle if this coun- 
try, its strongest champion, appears to the 
world as the advocate of an economic philoso- ; 
phy that embraces injustice and urges a return ' 
to 19th Century concepts of laissez-faire and 
the survival of the richest. 


We do not subscribe to the notion that a 
promise of economic security is equal in value 
or an alternative to human freedom and human 
rights. Nevertheless, high unemployment, infla- 
tion, idle resources, and declining social ser- 
vices do poor service to the case for democracy 
and undermine the economic base for the ma- 
terial defense of democracy’s interests. . . . 

A just society does not fall into place of its 
own accord. It is the product of sacrifice and 
struggle. No one knows that lesson better than 
the labor movement and its allies. It is they 
who have done the sacrificing and the strug- 
gling to construct, piece by piece, the elements 
of a more compassionate and fair society. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at a 
Social Democrats U.S. A., dinner honoring 
Longshoremen's President Thomas W. Glea- 
son, June 2, 1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Page Five 


The Thatcher Experiment 

Reagan-Style Economic Policy 
Tilts Britain into Deeper Skid 


The following article is excerpted from the cur- 
rent issue of the American Federationist, the 
AFL-CIO*s monthly magazine. The author is Bill 
Callaghan, who heads the economic department 
of the British Trades Union Congress, 

M uch of the U.S. economic plan unveiled 
by President Reagan in early 1981 has a 
familiar ring to British ears because Prime Min- 
ister Jylargaret Thatcher has pursued much the 
same course in England in the last two years. In 
those two years, output has slumped, unemploy- 
ment has doubled and inflation is still above what 
it was when Mrs. Thatcher took office and set out 
to correct an inflation rate of less than 10 per- 
cent. 

Unemployment has not spared any segment of 
the United Kingdom. In every region, including 
the previously prosperous Southeast and West 
Midlands, registered unemployment far outstrips 
registered vacancies. No matter how mobile Brit- 
ish workers and their families are, they will find 
it difficult to get a job in any region they move to. 

The irony of the policies pursued by the United 
Kingdom over the past two years is that they have 
actually made inflation higher rather than lower. 

The simple fact is that the United Kingdom 
Government has deflated the economy. The 
Government was pinning all its hopes on the new 
incentives it thought it was creating by the cuts 
in income tax. Like President Reagan, Mrs. 
Thatcher seems to believe in the “Laffer” curve. 
Unfortunately for both of them, no evidence has 
been proved to show this curve exists. 

BIG BUSINESS in Britain was clamoring be- 
fore the 1979 election for cuts in income tax 
rates. They were duly rewarded . when the first 
budget introduced by the Conservative Govern- 
ment slashed income tax rates, particularly for 
those on high incomes. 

For most ordinary people the income tax cuts 
were more than offset by a near doubling of the 
UK sales tax (value added tax) and by the cuts 
in public expenditure. But the people lucky 
enough to earn 50,000 pounds (or $110,000) a 
year, top managers and executives, were given a 
50 percent increase in their take-home pay. But 
these tax cuts did not make them work harder or 
put new life into the economy because of the 
added incentives. And the overall economic en- 
vironment is so harmful and interest rates so high 
that there is little room for private initiative or 
enterprise. 

A CENTRAL ELEMENT of Mrs. Thatcher’s 
policy has been to pursue tight money and high 
interest rates. The monetarist argument is full of 
flaws. First, it is quite clear that there is no strong 
causal link between increases in the money supply 
and increases in the rate of inflation. All the mo- 
netarists can say is that there is an impact of 
changes in the money supply on inflation after a 


Unfortunately no one can agree how long that 
time lag is: some say 18 months; some say two 
years; and some say five years. This is hardly the 
basis for a well-worked out policy of economic 
management. 

Secondly, there is no proven connection be- 
tween changes in the budget balance and changes 
in the money supply. In Britain, debate has cen- 
tered on the public sector deficit known as the 
public sector borrowing requirement (PSBR). De- 
spite the lack of any proven connection between 
the PSBR and the money supply, the main atten- 
tion given by this Government has been to reduc- 
ing the PSBR. But it has failed, and it has failed 
miserably. 

THE UK GOVERNMENT has made clear its 
determination not to change from its course, but 
the reality is that in certain areas the Government 
has been forced to modify and sometimes change 
its plans. 

Recently it has been forced to provide extra 
financing for the coal and steel industries, as part 
of a belated recognition that these two core sec- 
tors cannot be left to the whims of market forces. 
Forcing short-term financial viability on these 
industries can in fact mean long-run decline. 

These belated signs of repentance are welcome, 
but they do not add up to a change of strategy. 
As it nears the end of its second year in office, 
the Thatcher Government has been forced to rec- 
ognize some elements of political and economic 
reality — ^but a much more significant shift in 
policy will be necessary if the economy is going 
to be put on the road to recovery. 

ALL AMERICANS should study the British 
economic experiment. It is rather uncomfortable 
being inside the test tube, but outside observers 
should recognize the experiment has not been a 
success. Of course, some will always blame the 
failure on government not applying the mone- 
tarist discipline tightly enough. 

Indeed, U.S. Professor Milton Friedman, one 
of Mrs. Thatcher’s economic gurus, has already 
criticized the Bank of England for not applying 
the monetary screws even tighter. The cost to the 
British economy of the present policies has been 
enormous. The cost of an even tighter fiscal and 
monetary policy is beyond belief. Unemployment 
and bankruptcies would have been higher still. 
It’s possible that government, in adopting such a 
draconian policy, might cure the disease of infla- 
tion, but in doing so kill the patient, the British 
economy. 

Both the UK and U.S. economies have tremen- 
dous potential, which if properly harnessed can 
bring benefits to British and American workers, 
as well as workers in the less developed countries 
of the Third World. But if President Reagan is 
going to adopt Mrs. Thatcher’s economic policies, 
then American workers are in for a rough ride. 


In Strike Skirmishes 

Union Rights Periled in Drive 
To Tag Extortion Law on Pickets 


T he campaign to subject workers striking 
for better wages or conditions to the penalties 
of the federal extortion law is an attempt to deny 
union members their lawful rights, not to improve 
the level of law enforcement, AFL-CIO Associate 
Legislative Director Howard Marlowe declared. 

Acts of violence, “whether they be on the 
picket line or at a ballgame,” should be prose- 
cuted by state and local authorities, Marlowe 
said. He added that the obvious aim of the cam- 
paign mounted by the National Right to Work 
Committee and other anti-union groups is “to 
intimidate workers from striking for their legiti- 
mate rights.” He pointed out that the measure 
sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) 
would reverse the 1973 Supreme Court ruling 
that actual or relative picket line disturbances are 
not extortion under the terms of the Hobbs Act. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Marlowe re- 
jected the contention of those pushing the mea- 


sure that it would also make “violence on the 
part of employers” a federal crime. 

‘EXTORTION MEANS that you want to take 
something material that somebody else has,” he 
noted, and since a struck employer isn’t seeking 
to take something material from the strikers, 
“there is no way he can extort from an employee,” 
and would therefore be exempt from the Hobbs 
Act. 

“In effect, if an employer or his agent went out 
to the picket line and threw a punch, he would 
be subject to state and local prosecution, whereas 
an employee who hit back would be subject to 
federal prosecution” and far greater penalties, 
Marlowe stressed. 

Reporters questioning Marlowe were Jerome 
Cahill of the New York Daily News and Dale 
McFeatters, of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 
The program is produced by the AFL-CIO as a 
public service and is broadcast weekly on the 
Mutual radio network. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

F or those who live in urban areas, the Reagan Administra- 
tion proposals to slash social spending and to fold targeted aid 
programs into block grants to the states at reduced levels is bad 
news. 

These are some of the things the cutbacks would mean: An 
acceleration of municipal bankruptcies; higher taxes and fees; 
reduced services ranging from public education to mass transit; 
more layoffs of city employees, including teachers; less subsidized 
housing construction, and higher rents for public housing tenants. 

Although nearly all municipalities would be adversely affected 
hardest hit would be the large cities in the East and Midwest. The 
financial base of the cities has been eroded by recent high levels 
of unemployment and the exodus in past years of businesses, jobs 
and middle-income people to the suburbs and outlying areas. And 
within these cities, low-income and elderly people will be the ones 
to suffer most. 

THESE GRIM REALITIES are described in four recent studies 
and surveys — ^by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the 
House Democratic Study Group, the U.S. Conference of Mayors 
and the American Federation of Teachers. 

The JEC study, which surveyed 275 cities around the nation, 
stated that even without the Reagan budget cuts, the situation of 
most municipalities is “bleak.” 

“Because of the magnitude of the proposed federal cuts and the 
abruptness with which they are likely to be implemented,” said 
the JEC report, “many economic development initiatives will be 
reversed, the population of many cities will be forced to forgo 
certain services and to pay more for others, and an increasing 
number of cities will find themselves on the brink of fiscal col- 
lapse.” 

Among the 36 large cities surveyed, 70 percent were in deficit 
in fiscal 1980, and all but four anticipated deficits in the current 
fiscal year. 

Wage increases of municipal workers — sometimes used as a 
scapegoat for cities’ fiscal problems — almost always lagged behind 
inflation in recent years, the JEC survey acknowledged. 

As a long-range solution for the urban crisis, “the results of 
this study strongly support the need for reindustrialization poli- 
cies,” said the JEC survey. 

THE REPORT by the House Democratic Study Group is stark 
in its conclusions. The Reagan cuts, taking $20 billion from urban 
programs in fiscal 1982, “will bring efforts to revitalize cities to a 
standstill,” it states. 

“The loss of thousands of jobs and reduced services for the 
poor and disadvantaged will compound existing urban problems 
and increase dissatisfaction and unrest in the nation’s cities,” 
predicts the DSG report. 

The Reagan program, touted as a plan for “economic recovery,” 
reads more like a prescription for disaster, the DSG said. 

The Conference of Mayors surveyed 1 00 cities of various sizes 
and found that the block grant consolidation would have “an 
adverse affect on 87 percent of the cities.” The survey said city 
officials were concerned about cuts in services and “about antici- 
pated problems caused by state administration of funds.” 

The Teachers union, in its 1981 survey of the 30 largest cities, 
looked at the key indices of financial health and found seven cities 
under “very high stress”: Washington, D.C., New York City, 
Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baljimore and Cleveland. Under 
“high stress” were: Detroit, St. Louis, San Francisco, Chicago and 
Nashville. 

Instead of moving backwards. Congress — which now is in the 
process of acting on the Administration’s program — should provide 
the resources needed to revitalize the cities instead of permitting 
them to slide further into decay and despair. 



INTIMIDATION OF strikers, not improved law enforcement, 
is the aim of anti-union groups that are trying to classify 
picket line disturbances as extortion under the Hobbs Act, 
AFL-CIO Associate Director Howard Marlowe, center, de- 
clared. He was questioned on Labor News Conference by 
Jerome Cahill, left, of the New York Daily News and Dale 
McFeatters of Scripps-Howard Newspapers. The AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Race Car No, 31 Carries lAM Colors 



MACHINISTS PIT CREW at the Indianapolis 500 scrambles to get the union’s 
Penske-Cosworth race car refueled and back into the running. The lAM’s 
No. 31 racer came in 18th in the Memorial Day classic and collected $30,600 
in prize money. 


Fund Cuts Seen Threatening 
Role of Public Broadcasting 


Race car No. 31 is carrying the Ma- 
chinists’ union emblem in this year’s 
championship class circuit. 

The red, white and blue machine is the 
centerpiece of the lAM’s racing team 
which has a respectable showing in the 
Indianapolis 500 and the Gould Rex Mays 
150-mile race — two major events in 
USAC (U.S. Auto Club) and CART 
(Championship Auto Racing Team) com- 
petition. 

THE lAM TEAM hit the big time this 
year with its new Penske-Cosworth car 
after running an experimental season in 
1980 with another machine that was re- 
fitted with a new engine and now serves 
as the backup car for No. 31. 

With driver Lay Dickson behind the 
wheel, the union’s P-C-7 finished 18th in 
the Indy Memorial Day classic and im- 
proved its standing by finishing 1 0th at the 
Wisconsin State Fair Speedway on June 8 
in the Gould Rex Mays. For the year, the 
I AM team ranks 17 th among the 105 
teams on the big car circuit. 

Dickson, the only three-time USAC 
sprint car champion, will again be driving 
No, 31 in the next major CART race — the 
Atlanta Twin 125 on June 28. 

Dickson had to drop out of the Indy 
500 after completing 165 laps when the 
car’s turbocharger blew. Even so, the lAM 
racing team was awarded $30,600 in prize 
money for its finish in a field of 33 entries 
and collected $6,000 in the Wisconsin race. 

Number 3 1 is powered with a Cos worth/ 
Ford engine that develops about 700 
horsepower at 10,200 revolutions per 
minute. The car was clocked at speeds of 
more than 230 miles an hour at Indi- 
anapolis. 

KEEPING THE machine in top run- 
ning order , are chief mechanic Howard 
Millican, assistant Chuck Swearengin and 
journeyman machinist Anita Millican, the 
chief mechanic’s wife. She is the only 
woman machinist on the major race car 
circuit. 

Chief mechanic Millican built the first 
gas-power turbine car used at Indianapolis 
in 1 969, and the following year con- 
structed the first rear-engine Offenhauser 
that raced in the Indy. 

The racing team is expected to log 
20,000 miles this year hauling its race 
cars — the P-C-7 No. 31 and the No. 30 
backup car — to USAC and CART events. 
The cars and support equipment are trans- 
ported in a tractor-trailer rig bearing a 
giant Machinists union racing team logo. 
The rig was purchased with the help of 
many lAM automotive local unions and 
district councils, the union reported. 

Jobless Rate Up 
Sharply in May 
To 7.6 Percent 

(Continued from Page 1) 

month totaled 125,000, and primarily re- 
flected the industry’s continuing deteri- 
oration, BLS said. After posting increases 
throughout the last half of 1980, con- 
struction employment has decreased 
steadily since last January. 

Job growth continued in the services 
industry, however, as employment rose 
by 90,000 over the month. Retail trade 
employment increased by 75,000, recover- 
ing most of the job loss posted between 
March and April. Elsewhere in the service 
sector, there were slight gains in finance, 
insurance and real estate while govern- 
ment employment edged down. 

In an analysis of the composition of the 
nation’s unemployed workers. Commis- 
sioner Norwood said that 43 percent of the 
8.2 million jobless last month were men, 
35 percent women, and the remaining 22 
percent teenagers. 

Half of the unemployed in May had 
lost their last job, she noted. Of these, 
about one-third were on layoff status, ex- 
pecting recall at some future date, and 
the other two-thirds had been permanently 
separated from their former employer. 
Voluntary departure from the last job ac- 
counted for 12 percent of the unemployed. 


If public broadcasting is to perform its 
role, adequate public funding must be 
made available to keep it insulated as 
much as possible from outside political 
influences, the AFL-CIO Dept, for Profes- 
sional Employees told Congress. 

Bills substantially reducing the already 
inadequate funding for public broadcast- 
ing are now before lawmakers and threat- 
en to exacerbate the problem. Dept. Di- 
rector Jack Golodner warned in testimony 
before a House Energy & Commerce 
Committee. 

“PUBLIC BROADCASTING was 

called into being to provide a communica- 
tions medium governed by different con- 
cerns in the belief that different voices 
would find a place there,” he said. “This 
is a vital role in a democracy. 

“By and large, we find that public 
broadcasting officials are very much aware 
of the unique role they must play and they 
share our concern that it be done well — 
without deviation. But money is a prob- 
lem. 

“Supporting the democratic dialogue in 
a time of infinitely complex communica- 
tion modes does not come cheaply. 
Though feeding our souls in a democracy 
is not quite as expensive as saving our 
skins, it does require some financial sacri- 
fice.” 

The House bills call for a steady reduc- 
tion in funds for the Corporation for Pub- 
lic Broadcasting between 1984 and 1986. 
One bill, introduced by Rep. James Col- 
lins (R-Tex.), the ranking minority mem- 
ber of the House Telecommunications 

Chain Store Workers 
Affiliate with UFCW 

Scranton, Pa. — The Giant Markets Em- 
ployees Association, which, has represent- 
ed workers at a chain of 15 stores in the 
Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area for 35 years, 
formally voted to affiliate with the Food 
& Commercial Workers. Giant employs 
725. 

Frank Colella, president of the associ- 
ation, said the vote to affiliate was over- 
whelming, and that possible sale of the 
stores may have persuaded the Giant 
workers that they could no longer stand 
alone but needed representation from an 
experienced AFL-CIO union. 


subcommittee, would authorize the appro- 
priation of only $100 million each foi 
fiscal years 1984 and 1985 and $90 mil- 
lion for 1986. The bill also would cut 
back funds already appropriated to the 
CPB for fiscal years 1982 and 1983. 

A BILL introduced by Rep. Tim Wirth 
(D-Colo.) would authorize CPB appropria- 
tions of $160 million in 1984, $145 mil- 
lion in 1985, and $130 million in 1986, 
and allow public broadcasters to use their 
facilities for other revenue producing pur- 
poses. 

The Collins bill, the more stringent 
measure, also would reduce the member- 
ship on CPB’s board of directors from 15 
to 7, a move opposed by the AFL-CIO. 


Miami Beach — Delegates to the Insur- 
ance Workers 12th biennial convention 
drafted plans for expanding the union’s 
membership by organizing clerical work- 
ers in companies under IWIU contract. 

More than 90 percent of the IWIU’s 
present membership is made up of insur- 
ance agents, and the resolution calling for 
the campaign to bring in other white-collar 
workers in the insurance industry was un- 
animously adopted by the 325 delegates 
as vital to “consolidate the union’s gains 
and strength.” 

THE CONVENTION also called on the 
union’s leadership to continue to pursue 
a merger in “all possible haste” with a 
larger union while enabling the IWIU to 
retain its identity. 

During the past two years, IWIU offi- 
cials have conducted merger discussions 
with the Office & Professional Employees 
and the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 

In his opening remarks to the con- 
vention, IWIU President Joseph Pollack 
told delegates that economic conditions, 
changes in insurance merchandising sys- 
tems and anti-union campaigns by certain 
companies have affected the union’s mem- 
bership. 

Pollack reported that during the two 
years since the last convention, IWIU won 
46 and lost 52 representation elections. 


Regulation on 
Toxic Labels 
Held Essential 

Workers have a “right-to-know” about 
the health hazards they encounter at work, 
the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers de- 
clared at House hearings. 

Legislative Director Nolan W. Hancock 
and other OCAW witnesses voiced the 
union’s disagreement with the decision of 
the Reagan Administration to withdraw a 
proposal by the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration dealing with label- 
ing of hazardous substances. 

THE RULEMAKING procedure had 
just begun, Hancock stressed, and the 
chemical industry would have had ample 
time to make its case. In fact, he noted, 
withdrawal of the proposal also cancelled 
scheduled hearings at which interested 
parties were to have commented. 

The only possible reason for the Ad- 
ministration’s “hurried” action, Hancock 
suggested, is its “eagerness to please the 
chemical industry.” 

Nolan and OCAW Occupational Health 
Specialist Sylvia Krekel testified that with- 
out the added force of federal regulation, 
the union must constantly battle to obtain 
from employers the specific information 
needed to evaluate hazards and avoid over- 
exposure. 

The industry concept of adequate warn- 
ing labels, the union witnesses testified, is 
along the lines of posting a “do not inhale” 
warning on a drum of chemicals or using 
a letter and number code to identify a 
product instead of a label carrying the 
chemical name. 

THE “COST-BENEFIT” analyses that 
the Reagan Administration has said it will 
use to judge the need for regulations ig- 
nores the social costs of occupational dis- 
ease, the OCAW said. While employers 
may save some money through lack of 
regulation, “the workers bear the costs, the 
deaths and disease,” the union observed. 

Earlier, the AFL-CIO charged that the 
Labor Dept, had withdrawn the OSHA 
proposal in response to political pressure 
jfrom the chemical industry “and orders by 
the Office of Management & Budget.” The 
House hearings were conducted by an Ed- 
ucation & Labor subcommittee headed by 
Rep. Joseph M. Gaydos (D-Pa.). 

The Reagan Administration has moved 
against a number of other OSHA protec- 
tions initiated by the Carter Administra- 
tion, including walkaround compensation, 
cotton dust and lead exposure standards 
and a hearing conservation program. 


AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Do- 
nahue told the delegates that the labor 
movement’s programs face a stiff chal- 
lenge from the Reagan Administration 
and the Republican-dominated Senate. 

“The Reaganites are delivering the worst 
attacks on the rights of working people, on 
consumers and on the standard of living 
of the average American in 50 years,” 
Donahue said. 

One of the biggest tasks that labor 
faces, he stressed, is to mount a strong 
defense of social programs that have be- 
come a prime target of the Administration 
and its political allies. 

The convention approved a two-step in- 
crease in monthly dues, which will rise 
from the current $9.50 to $10 next Aug. 1 
and to $11 on Aug. 1, 1982. The entire 
50-cent increase of the first step and 25 
cents of the second step will go to local 
unions. The international will increase its 
per capita share of the dues by 75 cents 
as in the second step. The union’s per 
capita payment is currently $7.25. 

Delegates re-elected Pollack to a new 
two-year term. Also re-elected by acclama- 
tion were Sec.-Treas. Nicholas M. Ran- 
gione and Vice Presidents Lawrence Pelle- 
grini, Andre B. Henault and Patrick Mc- 
Grogan. Twenty-one incumbents and three 
new members were elected to the union’s 
executive board. 


Insurance Union to Step Up 
Drive for Clerical Workers 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Page Seven 


Per Capita Tied to Wages 

Clothing -Textile Union 
Charts Organizing Plan 



PROTEST SIGNS carried by Colorado union members greeted participants in 
the Denver seminar by management consultant Charles Hughes on “Making 
Unions Unnecessary.” Similar informational picketing took place at other cities 
where union-busting seminars were held. 

Pickets Greet Participants 
In Union-Busting Seminars 


Detroit — Delegates to the Clothing & 
Textile Workers convention backed up a 
resolution assigning “priority” to organiz- 
ing activities with a constitutional amend- 
ment to shore up the union’s finances. 

After a spirited floor discussion in which 
a cross-section of the 3,000 ACTWU dele- 
gates participated, the convention ap- 
proved a proposal to link future per capita 
dues increases to union-negotiated wage 
increases. Starting next October, the per 
capita will go up each year by the same 
percentage that wages went up in ACTWU 
contracts. 

^ EXECUTIVE VICE President Scott 
Hoyman spoke to the delegates of the 
heavy penalty that all textile workers pay 
for the large segment of the industry that 
is still unorganized. 

37 Groups Assail 
Plan to Scuttle 
Minority Goals 

(Continued from Page 1) 

eluded the UAW, Mine Workers, NAACP, 
League of Women Voters, National Urban 
League, Coalition of Labor Union Women 
and Hispanic groups. 

The organizations questioned the Labor 
Dept.’s claim that changes in the com- 
pliance regulations are necessary because 
it cannot enforce the rules with its present 
resources. 

THE AFL-CIO and the other organi- 
zations “will assist in every way possible 
during the budget process” to secure the 
resources for a strong enforcement pro- 
gram, Kirkland said. 

Texts of the proposed changes, which 
also include weakening of the Davis-Bacon 
prevailing wage law and the Service Con- 
tract Act, have not been published. Labor 
Sec. Raymond Donovan and other depart- 
ment officials have outlined the changes in 
briefings. 

Modifications in the rules suggested by 
the Carter Administration before it left 
office included some tightening of the 
regulations involving affirmative action 
programs and an expansion of the role 
unions could play in the exercise of pro- 
grams under the Office of Federal Con- 
tract Compliance. 

The Carter regulations were scheduled 
to go into effect Jan. 29, but were frozen 
by the Reagan Administration. 

IN RELATED ACTION, attorneys for 
the AFL-CIO, the Auto Workers, Steel- 
workers, State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees, Laborers, International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers and Electrical, 
Radio & Machine Workers wrote Dono- 
van earlier objecting to the freeze that 
reverted unions to the status of “observers” 
in OFCCP actions and investigations. 

“The department should encourage, not 
thwart, union efforts to further equal em- 
ployment opportunity through approaches 
consistent with trade union principles,” 
the attorneys stressed. 

AMONG THE CHANGES in affirma- 
tive action policy being studied by the 
Labor Dept, are the exemption of more 
small contractors from compliance, and a 
policy of permitting employers to indicate 
they Iiave made “reasonable good faith 
efforts” to meet goals rather than docu- 
ment specific compliance. 

Other points that were to be dealt with 
in the new regulations include: 

• The appropriateness of back pay as 
a remedy for violations. 

• Whether to set numerical goals for 
minority and female participation in con- 
struction. 

• Whether non-federal work done by 
covered contractors should be exempted. 

• Whether contractors must develop 
affirmative action plans for their non-con- 
struction employees. 


He cited advanced new technology that 
has “given a big boost to the profits of 
the industry” — and the failure of employ- 
ers to share the fruits of that productivity 
increase with their workers. Hoyman said 
a survey of 23,000 textile workers in 
North Carolina this year found that work- 
ers in unorganized companies are paid no 
more for running new weaving machines 
than they previously made. 

All textile workers are affected by such 
practices, he stressed. “The only way tex- 
tile workers can achieve good wage stan- 
dards is to help unorganized workers to 
organize.” 

Successful organizing is “not cheap” 
and in the face of employer hostility is 
seldom quick, Hoyman said, but experi- 
ence has demonstrated that it “is possible.” 

DRAMATIC EVIDENCE was in the 
presence at the convention of delegates 
from 10 J. P. Stevens locals that now 
have union contracts. 

At the opening of the convention, 
ACTWU President Murray H. Finley and 
Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman had sharply 
challenged Reagan Administration retreats 
from social justice, and a series of resolu- 
tions reinforced the criticism. 

The delegates, representing 450,000 
members in the United States and Canada, 
condemned the Reagan Administration’s 
reliance on so-called “cost-benefit analy- 
sis” . for regulations to protect workers 
and denounced its “flagrant attack on 
safety and health standards and workers’ 
rights.” 

THE CONVENTION urged passage of 
legislation to require advanced notice to 
workers and their communities of plant 
closings. 

Among other resolutions adopted were 
a strong affirmation of the equality of 
women in the workplace and in all phases 
of union and national life, reiterated con- 
cern over imports from low-wage areas, 
and an expression of thanks for the orga- 
nizing efforts of the AFL-CIO, the Indus- 
trial Union Dept, and the Canadian La- 
bor Congress. 

National Urban League President Ver- 
non Jordan proposed a series of “alterna- 
tives” to President Reagan’s proposals to 
cut food stamps, Medicaid and other pro- 
grams for the poor. lUD President How- 
ard D. Samuel, COPE Director A1 Barkan 
and Americans for Democratic Action 
President Patsy Mink were among other 
convention speakers. 


The first in a series of college textbooks 
on labor studies subjects for use in a de- 
gree program at the George Meany Center 
for Labor Studies has been published by 
the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., in 
Washington. 

The book, Survey of Labor Relations 
by Dr. Lee Balliet, will be used in college 
courses dealing with the labor movement 
and by union officers, shop stewards, and 
union members who seek a clear under- 
standing of the history and operations of 
American trade unions. 

BALLIET’S WORK was commissioned 
by the Studies Center’s Tripartite Program 
for Apprenticeship & Associate Degree in 
Labor Studies. The program offers union 
members an opportunity to earn college 
credits for apprenticeship training while 
working toward a two-year associate of 
arts degree in labor studies. 

Balliet, of Morgantown, W. Va., is a 
consultant and teacher of economics and 
industrial relations. He has served as assis- 
tant professor at the University of Wiscon- 
sin School for Workers, at West Virginia 
University Institute for Labor Studies, and 
as associate director for Labor Education 
& Research at the University of Kentucky. 


Union members and picket signs urging 
“union-busters go home” met management 
consultant Charles Hughes at almost every 
turn on his recent swing through the West 
to conduct his seminars on “Making Un- 
ions Unnecessary.” 

State and local central labor bodies or- 
ganized demonstrations and informational 
picket lines in Denver, Dallas and Edina, 
Minn., in April and May to spotlight the 
union-busting content of the seminars for 
management executives staked by Hughes’s 
company^ Executive Enterprises, Inc. 

MORE THAN 300 union members 
took part in two days of picketing in Den- 
ver at the downtown hotel where Hughes’s 
session was held. The demonstrations, 
which received wide press coverage, were 
a joint project of the Colorado AFL-CIO’s 
organizing committee and the AFL-CIO’s 
regional office in Denver. 

It was the second time since February 
that the management consultant’s presence 
in Denver was met by union members car- 
rying signs declaring “Union-busters Are 
Not Welcome in Colorado.” 

Lunchtime demonstrations protesting the 
seminar were swelled by union members 


His book covers union development and 
behavior, the historical and legal founda- 
tions of labor-management relations in the 
United States, the structure and functions 
of unions, and the personalities and poli- 
tics that helped shape the movement. 

Collective bargaining and contract ad- 
ministration are treated historically with a 
description and discussion of major prob- 
lems. The textbook also deals with dis- 
crimination against women and minorities, 
the consequences of technological change, 
conglomerate and multinational expan- 
sion, the workings of unions in other 
countries, and the prospect for U.S. trade 
unions. 

PARTICIPATING IN the center’s Tri- 
partite Program, which is financed by a 
Labor Dept, grant, are Bunker Hill Com- 
munity College, Charlestown, Mass.; Col- 
lege of the Mainland, Texas City, Tex.; 
Des Moines Area Community College, 
Des Moines, la., and Rhode Island Junior 
College, in Warwick. 

More information on the program may 
be obtained from the Apprenticeship & 
Associate Degree Program, George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies, 10000 New 
Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. 


working on a number of nearby construc- 
tion sites, AFL-CIO Representative Steve 
Beiringer said. 

IN DALLAS, where Hughes’s company 
is based, over 500 union members turned 
out for demonstrations organized by the 
Dallas AFL-CIO and Tarrant County Cen- 
tral Labor Council. 

A local television talk show, filmed the 
same day, pitted Hughes in a debate with 
Texas AFL-CIO President Harry Hubbard. 
The show was flooded with calls from un- 
ion members questioning Hughes on the 
anti-union topics covered in his seminars 
and accompanying series of books. 

Dallas AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Willie 
Chapman told reporters at a news confer- 
ence that the union demonstrations were 
not directed against Hughes alone but at 
the entire union-busting consultant indus- 
try. He termed the consultant firms “para- 
sitic organizations feeding off employer 
fear of the employee’s capacity for good 
judgment.” 

CHAPMAN POINTED out that man- 
agers paid $550 each to attend the Execu- 
tive Enterprises* seminar. The demonstra- 
tions were meant “to raise public aware- 
ness that eliminating unions is big business 
in America,” he said. 

Some 200 trade unionists met Hughes 
and employers arriving at his seminar in 
Edina, Minn., near Minneapolis, with ban- 
ners urging, “Union Busters Go Home.” 

State AFL-CIO President David K. Roe 
said the demonstration was organized to 
shed light on the tactics, legal and illegal, 
advocated by Hughes and other manage- 
ment consultants to “delay and frustrate 
the legal rights of employees to choose by 
majority vote without coercion to join or 
not join a union.” 

QUOTING FROM topics listed in ad- 
vertising for Executive Enterprises* sem- 
inars and from chapter headings in 
Hughes’s books. Roe asserted that the 
consultants’ techniques for thwarting un- 
ion organization by creating a “happy” 
workforce are in fact a thinly disguised 
“new form of industrial paternalism.” 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization & 
Field Services, which keeps tabs on the 
activities of union-busting firms, has called 
Hughes and Executive Enterprises “pi- 
oneers” in the lucrative seminar field. 

One three-day seminar, attended by 60 
employers and employer representatives, 
brought in $27,000, Charles McDonald, 
assistant director of the organizing depart- 
ment, said. Hughes schedules about 20 
seminars a year, McDonald said, and the 
company also sells an array of books and 
literature giving advice on techniques for 
union avoidance and employee control. 


New Textbook Developed 
For Labor Study Courses 


Page 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 13, 1981 


Reagan Attacks Assailed 

Social Security Promise 
Termed ‘Earned Right’ 


New York — American workers have an 
“earned right” to the social security system 
as the foundation to their retirement se- 
curity, AFL-CIO Vice President Sol C. 
Chaikin testified at hearings here. 

The Administration’s threats to cut so- 
cial security protections violate a “moral 
compact between the government and its 
citizens” under which workers contribute 
to the system expecting to receive benefits 
from it when they are unable to work, 
Chaikin said. He testified as chairman of 
the AFL-CIO Social Security Committee 
before a subcommittee of the House Select 
Committee on Aging. 

Chaikin, who is also president of the 
Ladies’ Garment Workers, warned that the 
Reagan Administration’s proposals to cut 
social security by nearly $82 billion by 
1987 are so “horrendous” they may shock 
the American people into negotiating for 
what still amount to “major cuts.” 

CONGRESS SHOULD NOT look to 
benefit cuts to meet the problems of the 
social security system, he urged. It must 
protect both the system’s financial integrity 
and its commitments, Chaikin said. 

Eisenberg Named to 
Equity Executive Post 

New York — Alan D. Eisenberg, a Wash- 
ington attorney who specializes in labor 
law, has been named to succeed Willard 
Swire as executive secretary of Actors’ 
Equity next Oct. 1. 

Eisenberg, 46, has been representing a 
number of local unions in the Washing- 
ton area since 1972. He is a senior part- 
ner with the firm of Spelman, Eisenberg, 
Paul & Wagner. Before going into private 
practice, Eisenberg had been on the staff 
of the National Labor Relations Board. 

Swire, formerly assistant executive sec- 
retary of Equity, has been serving as exec- 
utive secretary on an interim basis since 
last October. 


The AFL-CIO proposal, Chaikin said, 
is to use general revenues to partially fi- 
nance all the system’s programs. 

A first step, he suggested, could be to 
finance up to 50 percent of Medicare 
from general revenues, a move acceptable 
to many who otherwise oppose such ac- 
tions since Medicare benefits are not relat- 
ed to wages or contributions paid. 

In addition, Chaikin testified, the AFL- 
CIO supports programs to avert the sys- 
tem’s short-term financing problems in- 
cluding: 

• Interfund borrowing when there is 
a temporary surplus in one social security 
trust fund and a shortage in another. 

• Government contributions to the 
trust funds to make up for declines in in- 
come during periods of high unemploy- 
ment and economic downturns. 

• Change in the social security law to 
ensure that benefits would be paid from 
general revenues if payroll taxes are insuffi- 
cient, a provision that was part of the law 
from 1944 to 1950. 

Chaikin calle^d the Administration’s pro- 
posed cuts in social security “wrecking on 
a massive scale.” 

He pointed out that the suggested cut 
in benefits to workers taking early retire- 
ment ignores the fact that more than 70 
percent of all workers who retire before 
65 do so because of poor health, layoffs, 
or discontinuation of jobs. Further, he said, 
80 percent of those who apply for dis- 
ability benefits and are denied eligibility 
never find regular jobs again. 

THE AFL-CIO OPPOSES all compro- 
mises that would raise the age of retire- 
ment, increase the amount of actuarial 
reduction or otherwise tamper with the 
early retirement provisions of the law, 
Chaikin said. 

Such proposals would also have a “pro- 
found impact on collectively bargained 
pension plans and would devastate the 
value of their early retirement provisions,’’ 
he warned. 


Senate Food Stamp Changes 
Hit Low-Income Households 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Its projected savings come from such 
steps as changing the rules to bring 
eligibility standards closer to the poverty 
level, reducing the amount of deductions 
from earnings allowed for medical or de- 
pendent-care expenses, lengthening the dis- 
qualification of persons who voluntarily 
quit a job from 60 to 90 days, and post- 
poning cost-of-living adjustments. The bill 
also would allow states to require re- 
cipients to work off the value of their 
stamps. 

The Senate bill does not, however, in- 
clude the Administration proposal to re- 
duce a needy family’s food stamp allot- 
ment by the value of the free school 
lunches a child might receive. 

IN BOTH the Senate and House, com- 
mittees were struggling with varying de- 


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grees of pain to cut programs within their 
jurisdiction sufficiently to meet the targets 
imposed in the budget that Congress 
adopted. 

In the House, especially, there will be 
a strong effort to push up the budget ceil- 
ings to lessen the severity of some of the 
cuts that otherwise would be required. 

Thus, the House Education & Labor 
Committee complied with the directive to 
slash $12.1 billion from its programs, but 
Chairman Carl D. Perkins (D-Ky.) said he 
will seek to restore part of the funds when 
the Budget, Committee brings its “recon- 
ciliation bill” to the House floor. That’s 
the bill that will encompass all of the pro- 
gram cuts made by the legislative com- 
mittees. 

PERKINS SAID the committee had 
acted reluctantly, “with a gun pointed at 
our heads” to wipe out nearly one-third 
of the funds that otherwise would be spent 
next year “for the nation’s poor, handi- 
capped, elderly and students.” 

On the Senate side, a coalition of Dem- 
ocrats and the more moderate Republicans 
on the Labor & Human Resources Com- 
mittee sought to assure that such programs 
as federal funding of aid to disadvantaged 
elementary and secondary students and 
community health centers will be main- 
tained and not left to the uncertainties of 
the block grant approach the Administra- 
tion has favored. 


Other committees were seeking in va- 
il rious ways to save the nation’s passenger 
£ and freight railroad system from complete 
gw dismemberment, to assure funding of need- 
ed housing programs and to protect cost- 
as of-living Adjustments for retired federal 
and postal workers. Congress was having 
some second thoughts about the budget. 



AT WINDUP of the coast-to-coast series of AFL-CIO regional conferences, a 
television news team interviews AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in New 
Orleans. The goal of the conferences was an interchange of views at all levels 
of the labor movement. 


Retirement^ Disability Cuts 
Not in Election ’s Mandate 


By Rex Hardesty 

New Orleans — The AFL-CIO series of 
seven 1981 regional conferences closed 
here with President Lane Kirkland declar- 
ing that when President Reagan proposes 
deep cuts in social security, he “is not ful- 
filling a mandate. He is breaking a promise.” 

Kirkland quoted Reagan’s promise in the 
nationally televised debate of October 1980 
that no one on social security would have 
“the rug pulled from under them.” 

Retired and disabled Americans who 
voted for Reagan obviously did not know 
that “they voted to cut their social security 
benefits by 23 percent,” Kirkland said. 

THE NEW ORLEANS conference was 
for the seven states of Louisiana, Missis- 
sippi, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas 
and Arkansas. It followed the same format 
as the other six conferences, which were 
held between March 5 and April 4 in Phila- 
delphia, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, 
Denver and Atlanta. 

In each region the conference delega- 
tion comprised principal leadership from 
the state AFL-CIOs, central bodies and 
regional officers or representatives sent by 
international unions in response to a Jan- 
uary 1981 invitation from Kirkland. 

KIRKLAND STRESSED in New Or- 
leans, as elsewhere, that he, Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, and the 10 federa- 
tion department directors conducting work- 
shops “came to listen,” and said, “We are 
not assembled to adopt new goals and poli- 
cies — to do the work of constitutional con- 
ventions or the Executive Council.” 

Instead, Kirkland said, “we are here to 
discuss ways to more effectively carry out 
federation policy and achieve our goals. 

“It is our job to enhance the well-being 
of our members through any educational, 
political, legislative or community activities 
that can advance the cause of workers.” 

He promised the participants that “the 
points that you have made will be brought 
to the attention of the appropriate bodies 
and committees of the Executive Council 
that are examining these issues and prob- 
lems.” 

Seafarers Back Shift 
Of Maritime Agency 

The Seafarers support the Reagan Ad-* 
ministration’s plan to transfer the Mari- 
time Administration from the Commerce 
Dept, to the Transportation Dept., SIU 
President Frank Drozak announced. 

Drozak, who is also president of the 
AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept., said he 
was assured by Transportation Dept. Sec. 
Drew Lewis that the agency will receive 
“proper representation in the Transporta- 
tion Dept, and to the White House.” 

The transfer, which must be approved 
by Congress, will put all federal transpor- 
tation agencies under one department. 


In his detailed “summing up” of the 
conferences, Donahue traced conference 
topics as disparate as higher local union 
affiliation with state and central bodies and 
a request for the federation to provide 
more material on the resurgence of the 
Ku Klux Klan and other far-right groups. 

DONAHUE NOTED that the issues — 
from six one-hour workshops the first day 
and two more sessions the final morning — 
closely parallel the issues which are dis- 
cussed “in any trade union forum, most 
notably the Executive Council.” 

“I don’t think there’s anything new 
about an effort to revitalize this move- 
ment,” Donahue said. “In my local union 
in the early 1950s, we struggled with an 
extensive shop steward training because we 
knew that even a 16-year-old institution 
had to be continually revitalized.” 

Donahue noted, however, that the Amer- 
ican labor movement’s greatest strength, 
“our democratic nature,” can lead to frus- 
tration because “it creates a very untidy 
system. It is not neat. It is hard to execute 
programs in .democratic institutions.” _ 

Kirkland also noted that “we, as trade 
unionists, do aspire to far higher goals and 
more selfless purposes than any other ele- 
ment of human society. The challenge is 
great. It will be with us for a long time, 
but our common burden will be made all 
the lighter to the extent that we all shoulder 
it together. Our calling will then continue 
to be the most rewarding in spirit and cer- 
tainly the happiest trade within the gift of 
the people that we serve.” 

Unanimous Vote 
By UAW Board 
Backs Affiliation 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

The UAW will also continue to work 
with the AFL-CIO “to save important 
governmental programs that are being 
callously slashed in Washington.” 

Fraser said UAW units at the state and 
local level will make their own decisions 
on affiliation with AFL-CIO central bodies. 
The UAW has set up a committee to study 
the question of affiliation with the Indus- 
trial Union Dept., Fraser added. 

THE UAW and its late president, 
Walter P. Reuther, had a major role in the 
formation of the AFL-CIO in 1955. It left 
the federation in 1968 but in recent years 
has worked closely with the AFL-CIO on 
legislation and other union goals. 

At the recent AFL-CIO Executive Coun- ' 
cil meetiog in Baltimore, Kirkland said at 
a news conference that the UAW’s reaf- 
filiation would be greeted “with rejoicing 
on the part of the affiliates and members of 
the AFL-CIO” and would “enhance the 
solidarity of the trade union movement in 
these difficult times.” 



Solidarity Day Set Sept. 19 to Rally Labor ^ Allies 



The AFL-CIO will sponsor a Solidarity 
Day demonstration in Washington on Sept. 
19 to protest the Reagan Administration’s 
attack on vital social programs and to spot- 
light “demands for jobs and justice.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
called on affiliates for “a maximum effort” 
and invited the participation of labor’s 
allies in the Budget Coalition. 

“A DEMONSTRATION of grass-roots, 
rank-and-file support” for social justice 
goals “will be the most effective response 
to the Administration’s claim that it speaks 
for the working people of America,” Kirk- 
land said in letters to affiliates and central 
bodies. 

In the labor federation’s centennial year, 
he added. Solidarity Day will reaffirm “the 
historic commitment of the labor move- 
ment to social and economic progress.” 


The concept of the demonstration was 
approved by the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council at its May meeting, and a com- 
mittee was set up to work out the details. 
It includes Vice Presidents Charles H. Pil- 
lard, Lloyd McBride, Murray H. Finley, 


Albert Shanker and William H. Wynn. 

Kirkland designated John Perkins, as- 
sociate director of COPE, as the AFL- 
CIO’s coordinator for Solidarity Day. He 
asked each affiliate and participating or- 
ganization to appoint a Solidarity Day co- 


ordinator to work with Perkins for the 
biggest possible turnout for the Saturday 
demonstration. 

The Budget Coalition organizations in- 
vited to participate include leading civil 
rights organizations, senior citizen groups 
and dozens of public interest organizations 
concerned over the severity of the Admin- 
istration cutbacks. 

A SUCCESSFUL demonstration, Kirk- 
land wrote the coalition groups, can “re- 
focus the nation’s attention on our goals 
of social and economic justice for all.” 

Details of the Solidarity Day program 
are being worked out and will be an- 
nounced later. Kirkland said at a news 
conference after the Executive Council 
meeting that the goal is to bring to Wash- 
ington a broad cross-section of the trade 
union movement and allied groups. 


Court Bars Cost Tests by OSH A 



POSTAL SERVICE contract talks covering nearly 600,000 unions, the Postal Workers and the Letter Carriers, left, 
workers were formally initiated with the exchange of initial are shown at the opening meeting with USPS management 

proposals by the parties. Representatives of the two biggest officials. Current contracts expire July 20. 


Initial Proposals Exchanged 

Postal Unions Kick Off 
Bargaining for 600,000 


Labor Dept. Hit 
On Move to Sap 
Pay Protection 

Labor Dept, proposals to narrow the 
protections of the Service Contract Act 
will unleash wage-slashing competition and 
undercut fair employers, the AFL-CIO 
charged. 

The federation’s ad hoc Service Con- 
tract Committee, meeting at AFL-CIO 
headquarters, issued the warning amid re- 
ports from the Labor Dept, that it will 
seek changes in the rules to curtail juris- 
diction and enforcement of the 1965 law. 
The Service Contract Act requires employ- 
ers who provide services to federal agen- 
cies to pay locally prevailing wages deter- 
mined by the Secretary of Labor. It affects 
more workers than any other prevailing 
wage law. 

TAKING PART in the meeting to dis- 
cuss strategies for fighting the proposed 
changes were representatives of the Boiler- 
makers, Carpenters, International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers, Government 
Employees, Laborers, Machinists, Marine 
Engineers, Painters, Postal Workers, Sea- 
farers, Service Employees and Theatrical 
Stage Employees as well as the AFL-CIO. 
The work their members perform for 
government ranges from cleaning and 
maintaining buildings to clerical work and 
technical support for the space program. 

New rules to improve the administration 
and enforcement of the Service Contract 
Act were issued by the Carter Administra- 
tion, but these regulations were pulled 
back for “further study” by the Reagan 
Administration. Labor Sec. Raymond 
Donovan said the regulations would be re- 
evaluated and subjected to cost-benefit 
analysis. 

NOTICE THAT the Labor Dept, was 
considering changes in the law unfavorable 
to the workers it was designed to protect 
came at a May 7 “informal briefing” by 

(Continued on Page 8) 


The Postal Service and the two biggest 
unions representing about 500,000 of the 
agency’s nearly 600,000 workers kicked 
off negotiations for a new contract by 
exchanging initial contract proposals. 

In a joint statement. President Moo 
Biller of the Postal Workers and President 
Vincent R. Sombrotto of the Letter Car- 
riers said they knew of “no reason why, if 
both parties work hard, we cannot hammer' 
out a sound, acceptable contract” before 
the current three-year agreement expires 
on July 20. 

“THE MAJOR ISSUE in these contract 
talks can be easily predicted,” Biller and 
Sombrotto said, “for they represent the 
aspirations of working men and women 
everywhere: improvements in our wages 
and fringe benefits, improved safety condi- 
tions in postal facilities, and the impact of 
automation on job security. 

“In sum, we expect to reap the rewards 
we have earned as both the most produc- 
tive workers in the American economy last 
year and as the world’s most productive 
postal workers.” 

The unions pointed out that produc- 
tivity in the USPS last year rose 5.5 per- 
cent over the previous year. 

EARLIER IN THE day, USPS nego- 
tiators opened talks with a third postal 
union, the unaffiliated National Rural 
Letter Carriers’ Association, and set June 
1 9 as the first meeting date with the Mail 
Handlers Division of the Laborers. The 
two unions represent about 100,000 postal 
employees. 

The postal talks are the biggest set of 
labor negotiations on this year's bargain- 
ing agenda. The four unions and postal 
management planned to open talks on 
Apr. 22, but the USPS delayed the initial 


session until the National Labor Relations 
Board settled a question of union repre- 
sentation. The matter was resolved June 
1 1 when the NLRB rejected Postmaster 
Gen. William Bolger’s bid aimed at having 
the bargaining done by a single union. 

BOLGER, WHO did not attend the 
opening bargaining session, said in a state- 
ment that the USPS was determined to 
“bargain hard and long” to reach an agree- 
ment by July 20. 

“We make no pretense that these nego- 
tiations will be easy,” he said. “They will 
not be.” 


Labor Hails 
Decision on 

Cotton Dust 

By John R. Oravec 

The Supreme Court rejected all attempts 
to apply restrictive cost tests to job safety 
and health protections as it upheld the 
federal standard on worker exposure to 
cotton dust. 

The 5-3 decision, hailed as a major vic- 
tory by the AFL-CIO, was a direct rebuff 
to the Reagan Administration’s hard-nosed 
strategy of dismantling OSHA regulations. 

CITING THE intent of Congress in en- 
acting the 1970 job safety law, the court 
held that feasibility should be the only 
limitation for providing safe and healthful 
workplaces. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, commenting on the court’s cotton 
dust decision, said it not only upholds the 
safety law as Congress had intended, but 
also “vindicates the approach to enforcing 
OSHA taken by the labor movement and 
by the last Administration, and repudiates 
the efforts of the Reagan Administration to 
block a Supreme Court decision and to 
water down the act.” 

The high court’s majority decision, writ- 
ten by Justice William J. Brennan, declared 
that “Congress itself defined the basic rela- 
tionship between costs and benefits by 
placing the ‘benefit’ of worker health above 
all other considerations, save those making 
attainment of this ‘benefit’ unachievable.” 

BRENNAN WARNED that “any stan- 
dard that strikes a different balance than 
that struck by Congress would be incon- 
sistent with the command set forth” in the 
section of the law that covers the develop- 
ment of OSHA standards. 

In another decision critical to worker 


(Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 3) 

lilllllllllllllllillllllllllllillllllllllllllilllilllilllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliilllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllilllH 

Unanimous Council Vote 
Clears U AW Reaffiliation 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council has unanimously approved the reaffiliation 
of the UAW, effective July 1. 

As of that date, UAW President Douglas A. Fraser said in a letter to AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland, the union will be affiliating ‘^our entire member- 
ship in the United States,’’ which over the past year has averaged 1.12 million. 
Another 120,000 UAW^ members are affiliated with the Canadian Labor 
Congress. 

Kirkland expressed his “personal appreciation” to Fraser and the UAW 
board for their leadership in ending a 13-year breach and securing reafhliation. 

‘T am confident that both the AFL-CIO and the UAW will be strengthened 
and thus able to do a better job of representing the interests of America’s 
working men and women,” Kirkland wrote. 

The certificate of affiliation will carry the UAW’s full name, the International 
Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of 
America. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 





Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 


Labor Panel Presses OECD on Jobs 


The Trade Union Advisory Committee 
to the Organization for Economic Coop- 
eration & Development issued a strong 
attack on the restrictive economic policies 
of the major industrial countries and called 
instead for vigorous efforts to create jobs. 

The continuing reliance of major west- 
ern nations on restrictive, monetarist poli- 
cies “implies an acceptance of a further 
rise of unemployment,” TUAC warned in 
a report to the OECD governing council 
and to the participants of the upcoming 
Economic Summit meeting in Ottawa. 

“RESTRICTIVE POLICIES are under- 
mining employment and investment, creat- 
ing new sources of inflation instead of 
tackling the basic underlying problems,” 
the TUAC statement charged. 

“The very high nominal interest rates, 
used as a policy instrument, stimulate 
capital movements away from socially use- 
ful and productive investments into specu- 
lative financial activities. They force coun- 
tries which have been more successful in 
containing inflation either to import in- 
flation through a devaluation of their cur- 
rency or adopt restrictive, monetarist poli- 
cies, and thereby choke off economic ac- 
tivity.” 

Copies of the statement, drawn up in 
Paris at a meeting of high-level trade 
unionists from the free world have been 
forwarded to Reagan Administration offi- 
cials as recommended by TUAC. AFL- 
CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas Donahue partici- 
pated in the Paris deliberations. 


Rising unemployment was the central 
concern of the trade union leaders, who 
were sharply critical of past OECD steps 
to reverse the trend. 

For some years now, the TUAC state- 
ment observed, the OECD’s ministerial 
council — the nominal governing body of 
the 23-nation organization — has held that 
its^policies would reduce unemployment 
and inflation, promote stable economic 
growth and balanced trade, and solve the 
problems of energy. 

Approaching the next annual meeting of 
the council and the Ottawa summit, sched- 
uled in July, the OECD governments are 
apparently giving up all hope for any real 
recovery, the trade unionists pointed out. 

“IN FACT, the word ‘recovery’ has 
been increasingly used to describe a state 
where unemployment remains stable but 
at higher levels than before, where infla- 
tion is some 10 percent, and economic 
growth is around 1 to 2 percent. The 
promised recovery has become a mirage in 
the eyes of policy planners and makers, 
too.” 

Mass unemployment such as that in 
OECD-member countries, where the num- 
ber of jobless is approaching 30 million, 
threatens to tear apart the fabric of west- 
ern society, the TUAC statement warned. 
Half of the unemployed are young people, 
it noted. 

Practitioners of monetarist policies ex- 
pect a recovery through productivity in- 
creases in technologically advanced sectors. 



STAND 


HAIL AND FAREWELL to officers of the Firemen & Oilers are offered by 
-^EL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue at the union’s convention in Bal 
Harbour, Fla. Delegates elected by acclamation Sec.-Treas. George J. Francisco, 
right, as the union’s president to succeed retiring John J. McNamara, left, who 
had been president since 1975. McNamara was named president emeritus. 


Supreme Court Rebuffs Watt 
In Upholding Strip Mine Law 


A unanimous Supreme Court upheld the 
constitutionality of a strip mining law that 
the AFL-CIO had strongly supported and 
that the present Secretary of the Interior 
had tried to overturn. 

The 1977 law requires operators of sur- 
face coal mines to restore the land they 
tear up to environmentally acceptable 
standards. It prohibits strip mining of land 
that can’t be restored, and it imposes a 
tonnage tax on coal to pay for reclamation 
of abandoned mines. 

THE HIGH COURT’S decision was an 
important victory for the government, up- 
holding federal regulatory authority against 
a states’ rights challenge. But Interior Sec. 
James G. Watt, whose department enforces 
the law, wasn’t doing any celebrating. 

Watt was head of the conservative 
Mountain States Legal Foundation when 
briefs in the strip mining case were sub- 
mitted to the Supreme Court last Novem- 
ber. Lower courts in Virginia and Indiana 
had held portions of the law unconstitu- 
tional, and President Carter’s Secretary of 
the Interior, Cecil D. Andrus, had directed 
an appeal to the Supreme Court. 

Watt, who had not yet been chosen for 


the Reagan Cabinet, submitted a brief on 
behalf of the coal mine operators contend- 
ing that the strip mining law “usurped 
government functions” and represented a 
“trend toward centralized decision-making 
that threatens to destroy the federal struc- 
ture of government in America.” 

Justice Thurgood Marshall, writing for 
the Supreme Court, said it would be a 
“radical departure from long-established 
precedent” if the Supreme Court voided 
the law. 

BEFORE THE Supreme Court de- 
cision, Watt had sharply criticized the 
Interior Dept, administration of the law 
in a speech to a coal industry trade asso- 
ciation and had ordered immediate aboli- 
tion of two regional offices of the Federal 
Office of Surface Mining in a speedup of 
a previously announced reorganization 
plan. 

Passage of the strip mining law was 
declared a priority goal of the AFL-CIO 
in the 1977 session of Congress. Similar 
legislation had twice been vetoed by 
former President Gerald Ford. The bill 
that finally became law passed the House 
by a 325-68 margin and the Senate on an 
85-8 vote. 


the statement observed. However, it 
pointed out, as the recession coincides with 
demographic and social trends that result 
in large increases in the number of young 
people and women looking for jobs, the 
most likely result is even higher unemploy- 
ment among these hard-hit groups. 

“AT THE SAME time, with the in- 
crease of long duration unemployment, 
more attention has to be paid to the prob- 
lems of older workers,” the TUAC state- 
ment added. 

Instead of restrictive policies, TUAC 
called for steps to promote full employ- 
ment, price stability, investment and ade- 
quate growth while coping with energy 
needs and technological change. Spe- 
cifically, it recommended: . 

• Active employment and labor market 
policies, including direct job creation, 
which release resources now increasingly 
tied up in unemployment benefits. 

• A targeted investment policy aimed 
both at improving public services to meet 
unfulfilled needs and stimulating private 
investments in economically and socially 
useful sectors. 

• A policy aimed at the shortening of 
working time without reduction of income. 
The form in which the reduction takes 
place should be determined through nego- 
tiations which, in turn, are influenced by 
national circumstances. 

• A policy to fight inflation through an 
attack on its main underlying factors — 
high interest rates, bverdependence on im- 

House Budget 
Reagan Gripe 

By David L. Perlman 

President Reagan complained at a tele- 
vised news conference of congressional 
delay in enacting the huge spending and 
program cuts demanded by the Adminis- 
tration, but he was flogging a dead horse. 

Even as the President spoke. House 
Democrats had backed down on most of 
the budget issues in dispute, and the Re- 
publican-controlled Senate Budget Com- 
mittee put the finishing touches on spend- 
ing cuts even deeper than the $35 billion 
target that Congress set last month. 

WITHIN A WEEK, both the House and 
Senate are scheduled to act on budget 
reconciliation bills, comprising hundreds 
of pages of legislative changes made by 
congressional committees to bring pro- 
grams in their jurisdiction within the new 
spending limits. 

The Senate version hews closely to the 
blueprint drawn by Office of Management 
& Budget Director David A. Stockman, 
the architect of the Reagan budget. 

The House version strays, more from 
the OMB dictate and in some cases pre- 
serves programs the Administration wants 
to eliminate. But the spending totals are 
well within the ceilings set in the budget 
resolution and additions in some areas 
have been counterbalanced by deeper cuts 
elsewhere. 

A short-lived rebellion was launched in 
the House by the staunchly liberal Edu- 
cation & Labor Committee, which sought 
to devise a strategy that would get the 
House to lift the spending dbiling a few 
notches. But the committee backed off 
when it became evident that a conserva- 
tive coalition so dominated the House 
that the effort to lessen the hardships of 
the budget cuts was likely to boomerang. 

THE HOUSE Budget Committee bill 
does differ from the Administration blue- 
print in one major area. 

The White House has sought to scrap a 
large array of federal programs and sub- 
stitute instead “block grants” to the states 
to use as they wish, virtually free of fed- 
eral oversight. Total funding for these 
programs would be cut by 25 percent on 
the excuse that there would be less red 
tape and administrative costs. 

The Senate balked at a number of the 
consolidations, especially in education 
programs. And House committees flatly 
rejected the concept. 


ported oil, market controlling forces, 
obsolescence of productive capacity, de- 
fective income distribution, and unem- 
ployment itself. 

• A global approach to the prices and 
supplies of all forms of energy, also in the 
context of collective negotiations between 
oil-producing and oil-consuming countries. 

• An internationally coordinated reduc- 
tion of interest rates and reforms in the 
international monetary system to facilitate 
the recycling of balance-of-payment sur- 
pluses of some oil-producing countries. 

“ANTI-INFLATION policies that are 
consistent with Employment growth are a 
priority for trade unions,” the TUAC 
statement observed. “Trade unions are 
prepared to enter into dialogue with gov- 
ernments on the full range of economic 
issues, including price rises, active employ- 
ment policies and problems of income dis- 
tribution, with a view to bringing about a 
greater degree of convergence in expecta- 
tions about economic performance.” 

The statement also noted that current 
restrictive policies carry the often, unpro- 
nounced motivation of breaking allegedly 
“excessive” union power. But, it warned, 
“weakening trade unions also means in- 
creasing social unrest and closing the door 
to one way out of the crisis — that is, nego- 
tiated solutions among all parties con- 
cerned. This should not be the time for 
confrontation but for cooperation, to bring 
about jointly agreed policies.” 

Cuts Refute 
at Congress 

The clearly expressed concern of the 
committees that have jurisdiction over 
these programs was that the shift to block 
grants would just be the first step toward 
ending all federal funding. 

IRONICALLY, the exaggeration of 
President Reagan’s press conference as- 
sertions and his dismissal of criticism of 
the Administration by Speaker Thomas P. 
O’Neill, Jr., as “sheer demagoguery” has 
at least temporarily ruptured the conserva- 
tive coalition that has dominated the 
House. 

Key members of the Conservative Dem- 
ocratic Forum have voiced resentment at 
the President’s attacks on budget deci- 
sions they helped shape and passed the 
word, as one member put it, “that we were 
tired of being manipulated by the White 
House.” 

Reagan sought to repair some of the 
political wounds with a concilatory tele- 
phone call to O’Neill. But for the moment 
at least, House Democrats were closing 
ranks. 

STILL TO BE decided were the parlia- 
mentary rules under which the budget re- 
conciliation bill will be considered by the 
House — and whether any amendments or 
substitute proposals will be allowed. 

There will be no restriction on Senate 
amendments to its reconciliation bill. But 
the political tilt of the Senate is so con- 
servative that any changes would most 
likely make the spending cuts even more 
stringent. 

Postal Bargaining 
Opens for 600,000 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Biller has said that the unions want a 
“clearer statement of an employee’s right 
to refuse work under unsafe conditions” 
and wider protection against layoffs due to 
USPS’s stepped-up use of automated 
equipment. He said the initial proposals 
did not cover wage and fringe benefits, 
and a separate economic package will be 
submitted later in the bargaining. 

The union negotiating team consisted of 
some 60 headquarters and district officials 
of the unions. Besides letter carriers, the 
bargaining covers workers in specific crafts 
represented by the APWU — clerks, motor 
vehicle operators, special delivery mes- 
sengers, and maintenance personnel. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 


Page n»ree 


Cotton Dust Standard Upheld 


Court Bars Cost Tests 
On Safety, Health Rules ^ 


(Continued from Page 1) 

safety, the court ruled 8 to 1 that federal 
mine inspectors do not have to obtain a 
search warrant before inspecting stone 
quarries. 

Donahue noted that a six-year struggle 
has been waged for an effective cotton dust 
regulation by the Clothing & Textile Work- 
ers, the AFL-CIO and the Industrial Union 
Dept. ► 

“WE HAVE fought mill-owners, the 
Council of Economic Advisers, the Coun- 
cil on Wage & Price Stability and, since 
March, the Labor Dept, itself,” he ob- 
served. 

“We are heartened by the outcome of 
our efforts, not for ourselves, but for the 
affected workers. For thousands of victims 
already suffering the debilitating effects of 
brown lung, today’s decision is probably 
too late. But for the half-million active 
textile workers, it comes not a minute too 
soon.” 

ACTWU President Murray H. Finley 
and Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman rein- 
forced Donahue’s comments, noting that 
the decision is a welcome development for 
all workers who encounter serious health 
hazards on the job. 

“WE CALL UPON the Secretary of 
Labor to vigorously enforce this standard 
and to immediately cease his recent ef- 
forts to weaken OSH A standards,” they 
said. 

The cotton dust standard was developed 
by the Carter Administration in 1978 in 
an effort to eliminate the “brown lung” 
hazard that textile workers face. But it was 
challenged by employer groups on the 
ground that the installation of required 
engineering controls would be too costly. 

In an unusual maneuver, the Reagan 
Administration asked the high court two 
months after oral arguments were present- 
ed in the case to delay its pending ruling 
until OSHA conducted a cost-benefit study 
of the standard. The court pointedly re- 
fused to do so. 

Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donavan and 
OSHA Director Thorne G. Auchter have 
also maneuvered to stall several other safe- 
ty and health standards developed by the 
Carter Administration through implemen- 
tation of an order by President Reagan to 
apply cost-benefit analysis to federal regu- 
lation. 

BRENNAN’S DECISION incorporates 
a number of points contained in the AFL- 
CIO’s brief and oral arguments delivered 
by Atty. George H. Cohen on the cotton 
dust case. 

In reviewing reports and debates on the 
safety bill when it was before the House 
and Senate, Brennan noted that “perhaps 
most telling is the absence of any indica- 
tion whatsoever that Congress intended 


OSHA to conduct its own cost-benefit 
analysis before promulgating a toxic ma- 
terial or harmful physical agent standard.” 

WHILE UPHOLDING the essence of 
the cotton dust standard, the court vacated 
a section of the regulation dealing with 
wage and job guarantees for workers 
transferred to less hazardous jobs for med- 
ical reasons. 

The standard requires employers to 
transfer workers who cannot use respira- 
tors to lessen their exposure to excessive 
levels of cotton dust. But the court said 
that OSHA had not proved the need for 
the wage guarantees and remanded that 
section back to the federal appelate court, 
which had earlier affirmed the full stan- 
dard, for further hearings. 

However, the need for respirators 
should end by Mar. 27, 1984, the dead- 
line for employers to have engineering 
controls fully operational. 

ACCORDING TO an industry survey 
cited by ACTWU Safety Director Eric 
Frumin, about 75 percent of the nation’s 
spinning and weaving mills already have 
engineering controls in place to meet re- 
duced exposure limits. 

The standard limits worker exposure 
over an eight-hour workday to 200 micro- 
grams of respirable cotton dust per cubic 
meter of air in yarn manufacturing, 500 
micrograms in textile production and 750 
micrograms in slashing and weaving. 

Dissenting opinions in the cotton dust 
case were issued by Justices Potter Stew- 
art and William H. Rehnquist, who was 
joined by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. 

ON THE MINE SAFETY inspection 
access decision, the court held that the 
Fourth Amendment is not violated when 
inspectors from the Mine Safety & Health 
Administration enter a stone quarry with- 
out a court warrant. 

The majority decision by Justice Thur- 
good Marshall concludes that the inspec- 
tion program under the 1977 mine safety 
law “in terms of certainty and regularity 
of its application, provides a constitution- 
ally adequate substitute for a warrant. ’’ 

In its finding, the court distinguished 
the MSHA inspection program from the 
OSHA provision for more “random” war- 
rantless inspections which the Supreme 
Court overturned in 1979. 

The mine inspection case involved a 
Wisconsin quarry owner who refused to 
allow a federal inspector to conduct a 
follow-up inspection to determine if vio- 
lations had been corrected. 

Donahue said the two decisions rein- 
force the federal government’s “responsi- 
bility to protect the lives, health and safety 
of workers.” 





FIVE DECADES OF CARTOONS by Bernard Seaman, whose work appears 
regularly in the AFL-CIO News and other labor publications, are on display at 
the State, County & Municipal Employees headquarters in Washington through 
Aug. 16. The show is sponsored by AFSCME and the Electrical, Radio & 
Machine Workers. From left, AFSCME Sec.-Treas. William Lucy, lUE Presi- 
dent David J. Fitzmaurice and AFSCME President Jerry Wurf. 


Federal Bases Ruled Immune 
To State ‘Right-to-Work’ Law 


Atlanta — A state “right-to-work” law 
banning union shop agreements is invalid 
in a federal “enclave” within that state, the 
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. 

Its decision upheld the validity of the 
union shop-agency shop contract between 
RCA International Service Corp. and a 
local of the International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers, which represents RCA 
employees at various Air Force and aero- 
space installations in Florida. 

IT REJECTED the argument by the 
National Right to Work Legal Defense 
Foundation, on behalf of eight employees 
in the bargaining unit, that Florida’s law 
prohibiting a union shop was binding on 
the federal properties. The “right-to-work” 
argument was that there was no conflict be- 
tween federal and state law since Section 
14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act specifically 
allows states to prohibit a union shop. 

The appellate court panel, by a 2-1 
margin, also rejected a federal district 
court’s finding, which both sides had ap- 
pealed. 

The district court held that applicability 
of the “right-to-work” law depended on 
when the property had been ceded to the 
federal government. Under this reasoning, 
it ruled that the union shop agreement 
could be enforced at the Patrick Air Force 
Base, because that property had been 
ceded to the federal government in 1940, 
before the state “right-to-work” law was 
passed. But the district judge held that a 
union shop or agency shop couldn’t be 
enforced at Cape Canaveral Air Force 
Station because the state ban had been in 
effect before the property was transferred 
to the federal government. 


Brown Returns to Seat on ILO Council 


Geneva — A sweeping victory of the free 
workers at the International Labor Or- 
ganization’s assembly here returned 
AFL-CIO International Rep. Irving Brown 
to the seat he resigned on the agency’s 
Governing Body when the United States 
temporarily withdrew from the ILO in 
1978. 

Brown, the U.S. worker delegate to the 
ILO, was on the ticket sponsored jointly 
by the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions and the Organization of 
African Trade Union Unity. 

IN ACCORDANCE with the ILO’s 
“tripartite” structure that gives labor and 
employers independent voices alongside 
their governments in the 145-nation orga- 
nization, the workers met in caucus to elect 
their 14 representatives for a three-year 
term on the Governing Body, the ILO’s 
executive council. 

The free workers captured the 13 seats 
they sought. Among those re-elected in the 
victory were Gerd Muhr of West Ger- 
many’s Confederation of Trade Unions; 
Shirley Carr, executive vice president of 
the Canadian Labor Congress; Glynn 


Lloyd of Britain’s Trades Union Congress; 
Sanchez Madariaga of the Mexican Fed- 
eration of Labor, and Moussa Sow of 
Mauritania, vice president of the African 
Trade Union Unity Orgazination. 

Another significant development was the 
re-election of Gideon Ben-Israel of His- 
tadrut among the 14 worker representa- 
tives on the Governing Body. While 
backed by the ICFTU, the Israeli labor 
spokesman was not officially endorsed by 
the African group. 

HIS RE-ELECTION in the absence of 
this endorsement was a clear indication 
that many African worker delegates voted 
for him for their own trade union reasons 
despite the pressure exerted by the Arab 
bloc to retain African support for its anti- 
Israel policy. 

This policy has been marked in the ILO 
session’s general debate by calls from the 
Arab governments for the designation of 
a “Day of Solidarity” for the Palestinians’ 
“relentless struggle against racism and dis- 
crimination,” as Kuwait’s labor minister, 
Hamad al-Rujaib, put it. The proposal has 
gathered little support. 


Addressing the 1,800 trade unionists, 
employers and government officials attend- 
ing the assembly. President Luis Herrera 
Campins of Venezuela listed the right to 
organize 'and bargain collectively as an 
“essential and irreplaceable condition” for 
justice in Jiuman relations. He announced 
that his government is making a $770,000 
special contribution to the ILO’s voca- 
tional training program in the Caribbean 
and Central American regions. 

MEANWHILE, the session got down to 
the ILO’s basic task by preparing in com- 
mittee new international standards, which 
can have the force of treaties, on the pro- 
tection of workers’ health and safety on 
the job. Similar work is under way on 
measures to insure that workers, whether 
men or women, are not denied job oppor- 
tunities or advancement simply because 
they have family responsibilities. 

A committee is also drafting a recom- 
mendation that the assembly will make 
to governments on the steps they should 
take in consultation with unions and em- 
ployer organizations to make collective 
bargaining a reality. 


The dissenting appellate judge agreed 
with that reasoning. But the majority de- 
cision, by Circuit Court Robert S. Vance, 
held that federal and state labor policy 
was in conflict because union shop agree- 
ments are specifically allowed under the 
National Labor Relations Act. Therefore, 
the federal position would govern, 
munications Workers. 

A similar conclusion had been reached 
in an earlier case decided in the 4th Circuit 
Court of Appeals, which the Supreme 
Court declined to review and thus left final. 
But. that case did not involve the issue of 
whether a state “right-to-work” law had 
been in effect at the time of the crea- 
tion of the federal enclave. 

Air Controllers 
Rap FAA Policy, 
Call Strike Vote 

Negotiators for the Professional Air 
Traffic Controllers Association unani- 
mously rejected a new contract proposal 
by their employer, the Federal Aviation 
Administration, and set a strike vote for 
June 21. 

Unless a reasonable, ratifiable offer is 
made to PATCO bargainers by that date, 
the union said it would determine member 
support for a walkout, which it is planning 
for June 22 at 7 a.m. Members authorized 
a strike vote in February just before bar- 
gaining began. 

PATCO President Robert Poli, who 
heads the nine-member union negotiating 
team, criticized the FAA for failing to bar- 
gain on the issues. The union’s main con- 
cerns are wages, working hours, and retire- 
ment benefits, which are up to Congress 
to approve. But Poli says the FAA “won’t 
even bargain on issues (such as working 
conditions) which it can bargain on.” 

PATCO’s old contract expired on Mar. 
15. Formal talks broke off Apr. 28, and 
the two sides have met informally a num- 
ber of times since then, frequently with 
the presence of a federal mediator. 

PATCO, an affiliate of the Marine Engi- 
neers’ Beneficial Association, represents 
over 14,000 of the nation’s 17,000 air 
traffic controllers. 

United Way’s Beime Award 
Cites Rhode Island Leader 

San Francisco — Edwin C. Brown, sec- 
retary-treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL- 
CIO, is the 1981 recipient of United Way’s 
Joseph A. Beirne Community Service 
Award. 

Brown, a member of the Machinists, 
has been involved in United Way programs 
for the past 25 years in Rhode Island and 
New England. 

The award is presented annually in 
memory of the late president of the Com- 
munications Workers. 


Page Fonr 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 


The Broken Promise 


T he social security program was born in the midst of an 
economic crisis and it has survived many challenges through 
the years. But there has been no time when there has been so 
direct and dangerous a challenge to the program as now. The 
Reagan Administration’s proposals would have a devastating 
impact on the economic security of the American people and their 
confidence in the program. 

Workers have paid their share in the expectation of an earned 
right to social security benefits. The government must not break 
its compact with American workers. 

The President advanced these proposals under the guise of 
dealing with social security’s financial difficulties. But the cuts far 
exceed what is necessary to deal with these problems. 

Workers electing or forced into early retirement at age 62 now 
receive 80 percent of their full benefit paid at age 65. The Presi- 
dent’s proposal would reduce this to 55 percent at age 62. Other 
proposed changes would actually reduce the amount to well below 
50 percent of the full benefits. 

Roughly 70 percent of workers who retire early do so for two 
reasons — ill health and inability to find a job. If the President’s 
proposal is adopted, in 1982, no retiree age 62, single or couple, 
would receive a benefit as high as the official poverty threshold. 

THE PRESIDENT made no attempt to provide liberalized dis- 
ability benefits to compensate for the crushing impact of the early 
reductions on the majority of workers who retire early because of 
ill health. On the contrary, he proposes to make eligibility much 
more restrictive and to cut the overall program by one-third. 

The Administration proposes to reduce future benefits by a 
technical change in the computation formula and eliminate bene- 
fits to federal, state and local retirees who qualify for social security 
from other employment. 

All of this from a President who during his campaign said “the 
benefits of those now receiving, or looking forward to receiving, 
social security must be protected.” 

A DANGER exists that the Administration’s proposals are so 
extreme that it may increase the willingness of some Americans 
to accept cuts they would not have otherwise tolerated. This 
appears to be the Administration’s new fail-back strategy since 
they have now indicated a willingness to “compromise.” They may 
be willing to do so, but the AFL-CIO is not. 

We will not be intimidated by politically motivated exaggera- 
tions. As with any problem, there is more than one solution. The 
Administration’s is the worst. 

The AFL-CIO believes that interfund borrowing, partial general 
revenue financing and income tax credits for social security taxes 
paid are much fairer alternatives. With the adoption of these 
alternatives. Congress will have met the problem head on and 
will have met its obligation to protect the system’s and, indeed, 
the government’s integrity by honoring the commitments made to 
American workers. 

— From AFL-CIO statement to House Ways & Means Sub- 
committee on Social Security, June 12, J98I, 


|[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiin 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637.5032 


I VoL XXVI 


Saturday, June 20, 1981 


No. 25 I 


S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= W ashington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for anv publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimminiiiiiiiiimiii 




e Have Met the Enemy!’ 


Face-Saving Insurance 

‘Mushiness Index’ of Pollsters 
Reflects Uncertainties of Life 


By Gus Tyler 

I N THIS AGE of uncertainty, it was inevitable 
that someone at some moment would further 
shake our certainty by telling us that all those 
opinion polls, with their seemingly firm facts, are 
not quite as firm as we were led to believe. And 
now the “research” firm of Yankelovitch, Skelly & 
White has officially said so. 

On March 20, notes a press release from 
YS&W, a “mushiness index” was “unveiled at a 
conference.” From now on, promises the com- 
pany, no poll will be completed without its 
measurement of mush. 

THE PUSH TO MUSH appears to have been 
prompted by the embarrassment of pollsters in the 
last go-around before the 1980 elections. The 
modem oracles erred in predicting a close election 
that was not close. Now YS&W attributes this to 
“a last minute switch to President Reagan — a 
switch that some critics feel public opinion sur- 
veys did not properly signal.” 

The “mushiness index” will help to avoid any 
future appearance of infallability. By foretelling 
the outcome and then by recording just how soft 
the statistics really are, the seers will be taking 
out insurance against failure. If the forecast comes 
out otherwise, then the pollster can point to the 
mush mash to claim honor anyhow. 

It is a tribute to the polling industry and es- 
pecially to YS&W that they have been able to 
turn lemons into lemonade. The industry did goof. 
But instead of saying, “I’m sorry,” it now says, 
“now we are greater than ever.” 

YS&W is ready to share its discovery of mush 
with others. “Our firm is making a commitment,” 
they say, “to use the index whenever we survey 
attitudes on public policy issues, and we are de- 
lighted to share it with anyone who cares to use 
it.” 

THE DISCOVERY that things are not quite as 
predictable as we would like them to be comes 
rather belatedly to the polling business. More 
than half a century ago, the Principle of Uncer- 
tainty was enunciated in a discipline where cer- 
tainty was always assumed; namely, in the field 
' of physics, an exact science. 

It was Werner Heisenberg who concluded that 
those sub-atomic particles called electrons be- 
haved in ways we could not foretell, despite those 
“immutable” laws of nature. At the core of the 


universe, in the innards of the atom, there was a 
mushiness. 

In our daily lives, of course, we are constantly 
reminded of the principle of uncertainty. The 
other day, I was told at the railroad station that 
there would be delays of up to 20 minutes on my 
line; when the train arrived, half the doors did 
not open; in the overcrowded car, the air-condi- 
tioning did not work; two people fainted; the 
escalator to carry us to the street floor was in- 
operative. 

WHEN I GOT to my appointed place an hour 
late, the elevator door would not open at my floor; 
I pushed buttons and rang, bells and began to 
move, only to get stuck in between floors. When 
I finally climbed out and made it, . I was told that 
someone had tried to assassinate the President but 
that Reagan had not been hit; Haig was wounded 
in the head. And so it went. 

Maybe Heisenberg, YS&W, and my dizzying 
day are all on the same wave length, just sub- 
particles within a civilizational atom that is turn- 
ing mushy. 

Copyright 1981 , Gus Tyler Columns 

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Attack on Government 
Blow to All Workers 

Six months ago, the Reagan Administration 
came out of its comer swinging. It promised to 
deliver the punch that would solve this coun- 
try’s undeniably tough economic problems. 

So far, all we have seen is a series of blows 
to the rights of working Americans. 

Government spending is the root of all evil 
according to the gospel preached by the new 
Administration. 

The Reagan Administration is listening only 
to itself if it seriously believes that the Ameri- 
can people gave it carte blanche to dismantle 
the government of the United States and the 
services it provides. 

Surely, the intense public outrage over the 
social security cuts should give them a hint. 

— Kenneth Young, executive assistant to 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, at Public 
Employee Dept, convention, Washington, D.C., 
June 12, 1981. 

IlllllllllllllllllltllllilllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllUi^ 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 


Page Five 


Analysis of Issues, Goals 

New Approach Sought to Solve 
Lag in Civil Rights Progress 


By Bayard Rustin 

I T IS WIDELY recognized that the struggle to 
improve the social and economic life of black 
Americans and poor people in the United States 
has reached an impasse. While we are fully aware 
of the impending problems and hardships we face, 
too little thought has been given to three impor- 
tant questions: 

• What economic changes have occurred in 
the 1970s and 1980s which require changes in 
the strategies and tactics used so successfully in 
the ’60s? 

• Why do we appear to have lost the support 
of those allies who stood so firmly alongside us 
in the 1960s? 

• Why do so many of the major objectives and 
programs we in the civil rights movement earlier 
espoused appear to have lost support even within 
much of the black community: integrated schools 
and housing, busing, etc.? 

TO INTELLIGENTLY answer these questions 
we must ask others: 

# To what degree has race declined as the 
dominant factor in the continuing inequality of 
the races, and in what areas is this development 
most apparent? 

• Which problems have not traditionally re- 
ceived significant attention by black leaders, but 
require their attention today? 

• Can we develop a strategy to deal with the 
decline in black political participation? This ques- 
tion involves both the role of blacks in the elec- 
toral process (political party participation, regis- 
tration levels, voter participation rates) and the 
relationship of blacks to such grass-roots forces 
as community groups, business, the trade union 
movement, and the like. 

• Can new approaches to affirmative action be 
devised which can win the support of a consensus 
of those groups which once comprised the civil 
rights coalition? Here it would be essential to 
look carefully at whether a course of action based 
on economic and class criteria or on ethnic, re- 
ligious, racial, and sexual criteria should be pur- 
sued. 


• An examination of the process by which 
blacks can achieve further economic and social 
progress. 

• An assessment of the differences between 
the social and economic programs of the tradi- 
tional civil rights organizations and those of the 
black political leadership, with a view toward 
creating a common program for the future. 

• The attitudes and relations of American 
blacks toward refugees and undocumented aliens 
who are perceived to be in competition with 
blacks for jobs and social services, and how these 
attitudes and relations affect the process of coali- 
tion building. 

• The role of heightened racial identity as a 
motivating force toward progress and, simultane- 
ously, the role of race consciousness as an im-- 
pediment towards the development of effective 
strategy and tactics. 

• How can the educational process be modi- 
fied to meet the changing needs of the job market? 

• Can new careers be created to meet the 
needs of the poor? Can the very nature of work 
be redefined? 

THERE IS A NEED to bring together the most 
creative minds in America to explore these ques- 
tions. Such a group must try to develop a new 
social policy for the 1980s, founded upon the 
results of their philosophical, sociological, and 
intellectual exploration. 

This group, or institute, would need to examine 
both domestic and foreign policy issues which 
affect minorities, women, and the poor. For in- 
stance, it is imperative to recognize that blacks 
may lose a vast number of American jobs, not 
because of discrimination, but because of the 
shift of labor intensive industry abroad — a fact 
largely ignored by the black community. There is 
a clear and urgent need to respond to this and 
similar developments. 

A broad range of very important issues require 
from us a serious analysis and the formulation of 
new objectives. If we in the civil rights community 
do not make such an effort, we will continue to 
hold on to those policies, programs and strategies 
of the past which demonstrably are failing. 


Donovan Proposal Assailed 

Move to Lift Ban on Homework 
Would Revive Sweatshop Era 


I IFTING THE 40-year-old ban on industrial 
^ homework would cancel out the Labor Dept.’s 
drive against the growing number of sweatshop 
apparel plants. Vice President Evelyn Dubrow of 
the Ladies’ Garment Workers warned on Labor 
News Conference. 

Worse yet, Dubrow declared, ending the re- 
strictions laid down by Congress in 1949 would 
clear the way for unscrupulous employers to shift 
their operations to tenements, barrios and ghettos 
of urban and rural America, where the already 
high incidence of wage, hour, safety and health 
violations would be even harder to detect. She 
rejected the notion suggested by some advocates 
of the industrial homework scheme that the work 
would be performed in “pleasant suburban sur- 
roundings” and that mothers could take care of 
their children while they earn a little money. 

Immigrants and undocumented workers would 
be the most likely to become “victims of uncon- 
scionable employers who want to make more 
money on them than fair employers would,” 
Dubrow asserted. 

Dubrow said that employers and consumer 
groups have joined with the labor movement in 
opposition to Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan’s 
plan to lift the homework ban. “It’s unfair to 


\mmAHE mm/ym 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


employers who have to pay taxes, who have to 
pay for the upkeep of machinery, who have to 
pay for the lights, who have to keep their work- 
places in good, healthful and safe condition,” she 
stressed. 

Dubrow pointed out that the ^ homework re- 
strictions were adopted to help eliminate the very 
kind of “kitchen sweatshops” and child labor that 
would return if the Administration’s plan is ap- 
proved. 

“THERE IS NO way of guaranteeing that all 
of the family isn’t working on industrial home- 
work,” she said. “They can work 24 hours a day, 
because there’s just no way of policing the situa- 
tion,” she pointed out. 

Dubrow said that many employers are just as 
concerned as organized labor about the Adminis- 
tration’s attempt to lift the restrictions on home- 
work. 

“They find that if they have to compete with 
employers who are encouraging homework, they 
can’t possibly meet the wage scale they have to 
pay. They can’t meet their expenses because they 
are the victims of unfair competition.” 

The ILGWU leader noted that “there’s a dif- 
ference between industrial homework and what 
is known as a “cottage industry,” which is done 
because a region has a particular kind of industry 
that more or less deals with their folklife. That’s 
an entirely different situation.” 

Dubrow, who is legislative director of the 
ILGWU, was questioned by Ann McFeatters of 
the Scripps-Howard Newspapers and Drew Von 
Bergen, United Press International. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

O NE OF THE FIRST things Dwight Eisenhower did when he 
became president in 1953 was to appoint a blue-ribbon com- 
mission to find out why the federal government was growing, osten- 
sibly at the expense of the states. 

The panel reported back that federal programs were being 
created because of the inability or unwillingness of the individual 
states to meet people’s needs. 

Today, the durable advocates of “states’ rights” finally have one 
of their own in the White House. 

The Republican Party’s view of history, as laid out in its 1980 
platform, is that the Democratic Party brought about “Big Govern- 
ment” and did it “under the guise of providing for the common 
good.” 

TO TURN THINGS around, President Reagan has proposed a 
“new federalism” which would convert scores of specific programs 
into “block grants” and turn them over to the states^ — ^whether they 
want them or not, whether they are able to administer them or not. 

At the same time, federal funding for these consolidated health, 
education, community development and social service programs 
would be cut 25 percent initially, or at least 35 percent if inflation 
is figured in. 

A coalition of 63 national organizations — including civic 
action, civil rights, consumer, senior citizen, religious and labor 
groups — recently held a briefing on Capitol Hill to explain what 
block grants would mean to their various constituencies. 

The categorical grant programs, it was recalled, weren’t set up 
at the whim of Washington bureaucrats, as critics imply. They 
evolved after years of study and debate out of real needs which 
were not being addressed by the states. 

Some examples are the Title I program to help educationally 
deprived children, aid to handicapped students, legal services for 
the needy, low-income energy assistance, community and mental 
health services, and clinics for migrants and black lung victims. 

Under the block grant proposal, federal money would be handed 
over to the states to use as they please under broad, undefined areas 
of eduucation, health and the like. 

There are no standards nor requirements for adequate record- 
keeping and reporting, and thus no way for Congress or anyone 
else to evaluate how programs are working. 

There is no requirement that these federal funds not be used to 
substitute for state funds that would otherwise be used for the same 
purpose. 

As a coalition member observed, the Reagan block grant ap- 
proach would turn the competition for public funds over “to a 
brutal political struggle where the most vulnerable and least power- 
ful groups are almost certain losers.” 

As he sees it, “the handicapped will be pitted against the aged, 
foster care parents against child care advocates, and black lung 
victims against mental health patients.” 

THE BLOCK GRANTS, if enacted, would “set the stage for 
even deeper cuts and less accountability in the future,” it was 
predicted. It was noted that Reagan said in March that “block 
grants are only the intermediate steps” in his so-called “new fed- 
eralism.” 

Congressional committees in both houses recently have taken a 
skeptical look at the Reagan block grant package and have re- 
jected many parts of it. 

However, further battles on the issue loom in committees and 
on the floor of the House and Senate. More citizen education and 
vigilance is needed to get the message to Congress that the federal 
government must not abandon to the states its responsibilities to 
the needy and the powerless. 



A GREEN LIGHT for sweatshop apparel plants is seen in 
Labor Sec. Donovan’s push to scrap the 40-year-old ban on 
industrial homework. Ladies’ Garment Workers Vice President 
Evelyn Dubrow, center, warned on Labor News Conference. 
She was questioned by Drew Von Bergen of United Press Inter- 
national and Ann McFeatters of the Scripps-Howard News- 
papers. The AFL-CIO produced interview is aired weekly on 
the Mutual radio network. 



Pag^e Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, DX., JUNE 20, 1981 



WORKER FATHER of the Year is 
Richard Vande Sande, a member of 
Glass Bottle Blowers Local 226 in 
Burlington, Wis. Vande Sande, se- 
lected for the honor by the National 
Father’s Day Committee, was cited 
for church, civic and labor activities. 
He is shown at home with his family 
— son Matthew, daughter Heather 
and wife Judy — and is congratulated 
by fellow workers on the job. Vande 
Sande has served as city council pres- 
ident, a member of various city com- 
missions, and vice president and fi- 
nancial secretary of his local union 
as well as captain of a volunteer fire 
company. He also holds the George 
Meany Award for 36 years of service 
to scouting. 



lUD Legislative Conference 
Focuses on Program Cuts 


2 Unions Reach 
Settlements with 
Associated Press 

New York — The Newspaper Guild and 
the Telegraph Workers reached tentative 
agreements with the Associated Press on 
new contracts that provide substantial 
wage and benefit improvements. 

The agreements, which are subject to 
ratification by members of both unions 
through mail referendums, cover 1 ,200 
Wire Service Guild members and 450 
members of UTW’s Division 14. The 
Guild’s old contract with the AP expired 
last December and the UTW’s pact ran 
out on June 1. 

The Guild agreement provides for wage 
improvements for both editorial and non- 
editorial employees averaging about 1 8 
percent over the term of the contract which 
expires Dec. 31, 1982. A cost-of-living 
clause was dropped. 

The UTW reported that wage and bene- 
fit improvements for top-scale employees 
will average about $100 a week over the 
next two years. 

Both unions won improvements in com- 
pany-paid health insurance, dental plans 
and pensions. 


Flagstaff, Ariz. — Delegates to the Ari- 
zona State AFL-CIO’s annual convention 
here elected William Yaeger of Phoenix 
as president and returned Sec.-Treas. Dar- 
win Aycock for his eighth term. 

Pete McGee of the Plumbers & Pipe 
Fitters was elected first vice president, the 
post formerly held by Yaeger. The 250 
delegates to the three-day meeting also 
elected Fermin Martinez of the Laborers 
and Norman Rudd of the Operating Engi- 
neers as second and third vice presidents. 

YAEGER, WHO is with the Machin- 
ists, succeeds Fred J. Brown who was 
named president emeritus. 

Resolutions adopted by the convention 
assailed the Reagan Administration’s pro- 
posals to undermine federal laws that pro- 
tect workers, including weakening the pro- 
tections of prevailing wage laws and the 
Occupational Safety & Health Act. 

Another measure expressed firm oppo- 
sition to the Administration’s plan to cut 


The annual legislative conference of the 
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, focused 
on the Reagan Administration’s budget 
and tax cuts, its attacks on safety and 
health protections, and a new round of 
anti-labor legislation. 

The conference was addressed by three 
liberal members of Congress and culmi- 
nated in an afternoon of lobbying on Capi- 
tol Hill by the 350 conference delegates. 

IN VISITING congressional offices, 
delegates urged senators and representa- 
tives to work for adequate funding for 
safety and health as well as job training, 
education and public health programs 
benefiting workers and the poor. 

The legislators were urged to support 
the Guarini-Brodhead bill, which targets 
tax relief to the individuals and industries 
that need it most. It includes the AFL- 
CIO’s proposal for an income tax credit 
on social security payroll deductions. 

Also, delegates lobbied against anti- 
labor bills, including legislation to deny 
food stamps to strikers and their families. 


social security benefits, and the delegates 
renewed the state federation’s long-stand- 
ing demand for a state program to aid 
medically indigent citizens. Arizona is the 
only state without a Medicaid plan. 

A special resolution of appreciation for 
service “to the labor movement and to 
the nation” was voted for AFL-CIO COPE 
Director A1 Barkan. 

THE DELEGATES also expressed sup- 
port for the Polish workers and their 
union. Solidarity, and they commemorated 
the 25th anniversary of the merger of the 
AFL and the CIO in the state, including 
recognition of all delegates present who 
had also attended the state federation’s 
first merged convention. 

Speakers included Sen. Dennis DeCon- 
cini (D-Ariz.) and Gov. Bruce Babbitt, 
AFL-CIO Regional Director James Baker, 
Area COPE Director LaMar Gulbransen, 
AFL-CIO Rep. Grace Carroll, and COPE 
Western Region VIP Director Jane Adams. 


to amend the 1946 Hobbs Act so that any 
incident of violence on a picket line would 
be made a federal crime, and to repeal 
the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage act. 

Addressing the conference were Repre- 
sentatives David R. Obey (D-Wis.), and 
George Miller (D-Calif.), and Sen. Howard 
M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio). 

OBEY, a member of the House Budget 
Committee, predicted that the Reagan 
budget and tax proposals, if enacted, 
would produce four years of large deficits, 
more inflation, higher interest rates and 
lower productivity. 

The Reagan across-the-board tax cut, 
which benefits “high-income taxpayers at 
the expense of middle-income and poor” 
people, is based on “the old trickle-down 
theory,” said Obey. “It didn’t work under 
Herbert Hoover and it won’t work under 
Ronald Reagan.” 

He said Administration budget cuts 
were economically shortsighted in such 
areas as job training, scientific research 
and health care. 

“WE SPEND less on job training than 
any other industrial society, but Reagan 
is cutting the guts out of this,” he said. 

Obey urged the delegates “to go home 
and explain what the cuts mean in your 
shops and communities. The only way to 
turn this town around is to start raising 
hell back home where it counts.” 

Miller, a member of the House Educa- 
tion & Labor Committee, charged that 
“the Dept, of Labor has launched the 
most systematic attack on the rights of 
working people since the 1920s” in its 
assault on occupational health and safety 
regulations. 

THE MESSAGE is, he said, “that after 
30 years on the job, you get a watch and 
you also get cancer.” 

He said the department’s actions reflect 
“an agenda of anti-labor extremists who 
are in favor of labor unions in Poland but 
seem intent on destroying the labor move- 
ment in this country.” 

Metzenbaum predicted that after bud- 
get and tax issues are disposed of, the 
Administration and conservatives in Con- 
gress will begin “to move in full force 
against the labor movement.” (PAI) * 


Labor Board 
Hearing Set in 
Baseball Case 

New York — The National Labor Rela- 
tions Board moved ahead with plans for 
a hearing on unfair practice charges 
against major league baseball club owners 
as negotiations in the week-old baseball 
players’ strike resumed with no discernible 
progress. 

An NLRB administrative law judge 
was to have opened hearings on the com- 
plaint against the owners on June 15, but 
Daniel Silverman, New York regional di- 
rector of the NLRB, delayed the hearing 
a week to give the parties time to nego- 
tiate. 

THE COMPLAINT, based on charges 
by the Major League Players Association, 
wasi filed against the owners by NLRB 
Gen. Counsel William Lubbers. It accuses 
management of failing to bargain in good 
faith by refusing to give the union the 
financial data it says it needs to assess the 
owners’ claim that financial hardship re- 
quires a change in player free-agency rules. 

Compensation to teams that lose 
premium players to free agency is the sole 
issue in the strike that got under way June 
12 following the denial of an injunction 
against the owners. The injunction, re- 
quested by the NLRB, would have blocked 
management from implementing its contro- 
versial free-agent compensation plan. 

Under an agreement that the two sides 
reached in averting a regular-season walk- 
out last year, the owners had the right to 
put their compensation plan into effect by 
Feb. 20 and the players had the right to 
strike in response by June 1. That strike 
deadline was extended while the NLRB at- 
tempted to obtain the injunction against 
the owners that would have set aside the 
compensation issue until next year. 

NEGOTIATORS for both parties met 
June 16 but the compensation issue was 
not directly discussed. Federal Mediator 
Kenneth E. Moffett said that, instead, “we 
explored the past history of how we got 
into the situation we’re in right now.” 

Moffett described the talks as “amicable 
but without progress toward the end of 
a strike.” 

The strike affects 650 major league 
players on the 26 teams in the two major 
leagues. 

Reagan Appoints 
EEOC Chairman, 
Wage-Hour Chief 

President Reagan appointed a chairman 
of the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission and a wage-hour administra- 
tor. But other high-level posts of special 
interest to the trade union movement re- 
mained unfilled six months after the Ad- 
ministration took office. 

The new EEOC chairman is William 
M. Bell, 55, who has operated a Detroit 
personnel consulting firm that specialized 
in placement of minorities. 

Bell had served as a consultant to the 
EEOC chairman during the Ford Admin- 
istration and will succeed Eleanor Holmes 
Norton. Another EEOC vacancy remains 
to be filled. 

William M. Otter, 58-year-old Kentucky 
attorney who has represented manage- 
ment in collective bargaining, has been 
picked to head the Labor Dept.’s Wage & 
Hour Division. 

He is a former director of the Kentucky 
Dept, of Labor and was a consultant to 
the Occupational Safety & Health Admin- 
istration in 1971-76. 

Both Bell and Otter must be confirmed 
by the Senate. 

The President has still not appointed an 
under secretary of labor, the department’s 
second-ranking position. Also vacant are 
the posts of assistant secretary for policy, 
evaluation and research and the director 
of the Women’s Bureau. 


Yaeger Elected President 
Of Arizona State AFL-CIO 


Page Seven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 


At PED Convention 

Public Sector Unions Hit 
Attacks on Government 



PUBLI 







He urged Congress to delete the sur- 
charge from the formula setting maximum 
interest rates, and called for reduction of 
the 5-point spread above the discount rate 
since banks can and do make loans with 
a much smaller spread above their current 
new money costs. 


By Susan Dunlop 

Delegates to the fifth biennial conven- 
tion of the AFL-CIO Public Employee 
Dept, approved restructuring of the depart- 
ment, a per capita tax increase and a series 
of resolutions condemning attempts to 
slash the budgets for public services and 
make public workers scapegoats for the 
nation’s economic ills. 

PED President Kenneth Blaylock told 
the 130 delegates to the Washington meet- 
ing that the convention’s job was to 
strengthen the department’s ability to deal 
with the “seriousness of the attacks on 
government and the people who work for 
government.” 

BLAYLOCK, WHO is president of the 
American Federation of Government Em- 
ployees, urged the delegates to improve 
communications with the public and 
among their members to counter attempts 
to pit public employees “against the public 
instead of showing ourselves as the friends 
of the public we really are.” 

Public workers must build coalitions 
with “natural allies” in the labor movement 
and among its supporters, Blaylock said. 

The delegates approved changes in the 
department’s constitution to provide for an 
elected president, secretary-treasurer, two 
executive vice presidents and nine vice 
presidents as well as an appointed execu- 
tive director. Previously, the PED leader- 
ship structure had consisted of the two top 
elected officers and a 34-member executive 
board with an appointed executive direc- 
tor. 

Blaylock was elected to his first full 
term as president, and Teachers President 
Albert Shanker was elected secretary- 
treasurer. Blaylock had been serving out 
the term of William H. McClennan who 
retired from office in February. 

JOHN SWEENEY, president of the 
Service Employees, and Vincent Som- 
brotto, president of the Letter Carriers, 
were elected executive vice presidents of 
the department. 

Elected as vice presidents were Ande 
Abbott, Boilermakers; William Boarman, 
Typographical Union; John A. Gannon, 
Fire Fighters; J. C. Turner, Operating 
Engineers; Rodney Bower, Professional & 
Technical Engineers; Sol Fishko, Printing 
& Graphic Communications Union; An- 
gelo Fosco, Laborers; Moe Biller, Postal 
Workers; and Dan V. Maroney, Jr., 
Amalgamated Transit Union. 

F. E. Dubois Named Head 
Of Mine Safety Agency 

President Reagan has nominated F. E. 
Dubois III as an assistant secretary of labor 
to head the Mine Safety & Health Admin- 
istration. 

Dubois, a former manager of a mine ex- 
ploration company, has been in charge of 
Nevada’s mine enforcement and complb 
ance activities since 1975. 


The 13 officers will serve as the depart- 
ment’s executive committee which will 
meet four times a year. The full executive 
board will continue to consist of repre- 
sentatives from the department’s 34 
affiliates and will meet once a year. John 
Leyden is the department’s executive di- 
rector. 

The delegates approved a per capita tax 
increase on a sliding scale which Blaylock 
said “will give PED the opportunity to 
respond to the threats to government and 
its workers.” 

AFFILIATED UNIONS will pay 4 
cents per member per month on the first 
1 00,000 members and 2.25 cents on mem- 
bership over 100,000, an average of 3.2 
cents. The previous per capita, unchanged 
for six years, was 2 cents per month. 

In an address to the delegates, Kenneth 
Young, executive assistant to AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland, scored the Rea- 
gan Administration’s budget-cutting pro- 
posals as a “short-changing of American 
workers” that will “translate directly” into 
closed doors on public services and lost 
jobs in both the public and private sector. 

Public workers have the support of the 
AFL-CIO, Young pledged, in the fight to 
maintain a fair budget and to stave off 
“union-busting tactics” such as those em- 
ployed against the Postal Workers and Air 
Traffic Controllers to delay negotiations for 
decent contracts. 

THE AFL-CIO and public workers’ un- 
ions must seek to “prove to Congress that 
the labor movement and its allies do not 
give up their principles and to prove to 
scoffers and enemies of labor that we do 
speak for the interests and beliefs of the 
rank and file,” Young stressed. 

Among the 43 resolutions adopted by 
the delegates were measures condemning 
the Administration’s plans to slash 83 
federal programs and destroy more than a 
million jobs. The delegates called for 
passage of the AFL-CIO’s tax cut proposal 
as a more equitable alternative to the Ad- 
ministration’s plan. 

Other resolutions called for extension of 
federal safety and health protections to the 
public sector, full collective bargaining 
rights for public workers at all levels, com- 
pliance with the law establishing pay for 
federal workers at levels comparable to the 
private sector. 

The convention expressed firm opposi- 
tion to mandatory social security coverage 
of federal workers, to the tuition tax credit 
proposal, to relaxation of the postal 
Private Express Statutes and to the con- 
tracting-out of federal jobs. 

THE CONVENTION honored one of 
the former hostages held by Iran, William 
Royer, a member of AFGE Local 1812, 
now based in Washington with the U.S. 
International Communication Agency. 

Other speakers at the meeting included 
Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.), Sen. Ted 
Stevens (R-Alaska), and Rep. William D. 
Ford (D-Mich.). 


PROGRESS REPORT of the Asian-American Free Labor 
Institute is discussed at the annual meeting of the AAFLI 
board of trustees. The report was presented by AAFLI 
Executive Director Morris Paladino, seated to the left of 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. AAFLI was created 
by the federation in 1968. It sponsors programs in a number 
of Asian countries designed to promote the development of 
free trade unionism. 


Schechter also urged a statutory limit on 
how much the interest rate may be raised 
on adjustable rate mortgages. Recently is- 
sued regulations of the Comptroller of the 
Currency and the Federal Home Loan 
Bank Board place no limit on the rate. 


FAIR TREATMENT for public workers has been left off the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s agenda, Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) told delegates to the convention 
of the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, in Washington. The convention called 
for preservation of public service programs and jobs in the federal budget and 
an equitable tax cut plan. 


Coast Guard Fee Proposal 
Branded Unfair Tax Burden 


The imposition of user fees for U.S. 
Coast Guard services would put an un- 
fair tax burden on the maritime industry, 
Seafarers President Frank Drozak told 
Congress. 

Drozak opposed the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s proposals to charge for services in 
testimony before the Coast Guard sub- 
committee of the House Merchant Marine 
& Fisheries Committee. The panel is hold- 
ing hearings on the Administration’s re- 
quest for statutory authority to charge 
most vessels entering U.S. waters for a 
broad range of port and maritime ser- 
vices. Pleasure and fishing boats would 
also have to pay an annual flat fee. 

THE ADMINISTRATION plan is a 
tax, Drozak charged, because it is “a 
method of raising revenues for the dis- 
charge of governmental functions.” This 
plan would “essentially delegate the legis- 
lative power to tax to the Executive 
Branch” by giving the Secretary of 
Transportation “substantially unrestricted 
power” to decide who would be charged 
for which services and how much, Drozak 
warned. 

As outlined, the Administration plan 
calls for charges for certain inspection, 
licensing and certification services, but the 
proposal to Congress was not accompanied 
by a specific schedule of such services, 
Drozak pointed out. 

By delegating such broad revenue-rais- 
ing authority to the Executive Branch, 
Drozak stressed, “an uncertain and added 
burden” would be placed on the U.S. mer- 
chant fleet “due to the absence of a fixed 
fee schedule and the probability of future 


expansion” of the range of charges. 

“The Administration’s proposals,” Dro- 
zak said, “are based on the premise that 
some Coast Guard services are of benefit 
only to particular segments of the popu- 
lation and that fairness dictates these ser- 
vices be subject to ‘user fee’.” 

HE SUGGESTED, however, that be- 
cause the Coast Guard is a “multi-mis- 
sion” agency performing many functions 
in the public interest, it is difficult to deter- 
mine who are the “sole beneficiaries” of 
any of its services. 

Drozak told the committee that “a 
safely maintained and operated vessel, 
manned by a qualified and trained crew, 
accrues benefits to the public” well beyond 
the inspection, documentation, crew li- 
censing and certification services provided 
by the Coast Guard to the owners. 

Congress Urged 
To Enact Limits 
On Interest Rates 

Recent laws and regulations have re- 
moved restraints on interest rate charges 
on loans to such an extent that businesses, 
consumers, and the economy as a whole 
stand to suffer serious injury, the AFL- 
CIO warned Congress. 

Henry Schechter, director of the fed- 
eration’s Office of Housing & Monetary 
Policy, urged that appropriate statutory 
limits on interest charges be enacted im- 
mediately. 

Interest on commercial and farm loans 
now may not exceed the higher of either 
the maximum rate permitted by state law 
or a rate 5 percentage points above the 
Federal Reserve discount rate, plus what- 
ever surcharge there might be. 

“Since surcharges are paid only by the 
relatively few banks who make excessive 
use of the discount window, it is a phan- 
tom cost for most banks,” Schechter told 
the Senate Banking Committee. 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 1981 




(Continued from Page 1) 

Donovan and at a press briefing by Labor 
Dept. Solicitor T. Timothy Ryan. Cutbacks 
in Davis-Bacon Act wage protections and 
weakened affirmative action obligations for 
federal contractors were outlined at the 
same time. The Labor Dept, is expected 
to issue its formal proposals by the end of 
June. 

Among the changes being considered is 
one that would limit the prevailing wage 
protections to contracts that are “prin- 
cipally for services.” This loose definition 
could strip protection from about half the 
workers now covered under the law’s ap- 
plication to contracts that contain substan- 
tial portions of service work. 

As an example, the committee said that 
a contractor who sells the government 
office machines and provides repair and 
maintenance service would become exempt 
from wage requirement for service work- 
ers since the principal purpose of the con- 
tract would be deemed sales rather than 
service. 

THE ADMINISTRATION is also ques- 
tioning whether to exempt whole classes 
of service contracts and industries includ- 
ing automated data processing and other 
“high technology” services, overhaul and 
modification, services associated with tim- 
ber sales and removal, and research and 
development. 

The committee charged that the pro- 
posals for these exemptions are a result of 
heavy industry pressure. It pointed out 


that a 1974 amendment to the Service 
Contract Act sharply limits the Secretary’s 
authority to grant any exemptions from 
coverage. 

Another proposed change, “two-stage 
bidding,” has been strongly and success- 
fully opposed by the AFL-CIO in the past, 
the committee noted. 

The practice would permit the Labor 
Dept, to base wage determinations for 
some service contracts on scales from the 
lowest-paid areas of the country, under- 
cutting the ability of contractors in areas 
with higher standards to compete. 

AFL-CIO ECONOMIST John Zalusky, 
a member of the committee, described the 
tactic as a way to shift jobs from higher- 
wage states to areas where wages are tradi- 
tionally low and union organization is 
sparse. 

The committee also warned that the 
Labor Dept, would permit “reconfigura- 
tion” of contracts so as to undermine the 
successorship provisions of the law. 

These now require that, when a gov- 
ernment contract is relet, the wages and 
benefits negotiated with the previous con- 
tractor must be considered the prevailing 
standards. The Administration’s proposals 
could allow minor rewriting of the contract 
terms so that it could be labelled “new 
work.” 

The Labor Dept.’s proposals “raise the 
spectre of union contracts being over- 
turned by the government contracting 
process,” Zalusky said. 


THREAT TO FAIR WAGES is posed by Labor Dept, proposals to weaken the 
protections of the Service Contract Act requiring payment of prevailing wages 
for services performed for the government. Strategies to preserve strong com- 
pliance rules and enforcement of the law are discussed by the AFL-CIO’s ad 
hoc Service Contract Committee. 

Donovan Asked to Withdraw 
Industrial Homework Plan 


Eula Bingham Finds Reagan 
Hazard to Workers’ Health 


The Reagan Administration is hazardous 
to the health and safety of America’s 
workers, Eula Bingham charged at a la- 
bor issues seminar held at the George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies. 

Bingham, who headed the Occupational 
Safety & Health Administration during the 
Carter Administration, told union mem- 
bers who had battled to enact job safety 
legislation that the Reagan appointees “are 
destroying your law.” 

SHE SAID withdrawal and rescinding 
of OSH A regulations “are bound to kill 
workers.” 

Responding to a question on cost-bene- 
fit tests for OSHA standards, Bingham 
challenged the assumption that a dollar 
value can be put on a worker’s life or 
health. How does the “cash value” of a 
21 -year-old white male compare with that 
of a 62-year-old black woman, she asked. 

If the federal government retreats from 
enforcement of the law, Bingham suggest- 
ed, states and cities will have to move in 
to fill the gap, as some have already done 
on the labelling of toxic chemicals. 

EVEN AFFECTED industries are now 
asking the Dept, of Labor “to have a 
second look” at its decision to withdraw 
a hazard-labeling standard, she told the 
Labor Studies Center audience. It may be, 
she said, that they realize that “it’s not too 


cost-effective to have a different standard 
in every state and city across this land.” 

Bingham expressed concern that the new 
Administration’s attitude toward job safe- 
ty and health regulations is leading to an 
exodus of qualified professionals from 
OSHA who will be difficult to replace. 

Bingham said, however, that she has 
been encouraged by the growing expertise 
of the trade union movement on occupa- 
tional health and safety matters, and the 
increasing protection being written into 
union contracts. 

Unions now have their own industrial 
hygienists, safety specialists and physician 
consultants, she noted, and that is making 
workplaces less hazardous. 


All seven Democrats on the House Sub- 
committee on Labor Standards called on 
the Reagan Administration to withdraw its 
proposal to scrap federal sanctions against 
industrial homework in the apparel in- 
dustry. 

The subcommittee members warned in a 
letter to Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
that revocation of the 40-year-old ban on 
industrial homework would encourage 
wage-hour violations and inhibit the Labor 
Dept.’s ability to enforce the law. 

NONE OF THE five Republican mem- 
bers of the panel signed the letter. 

The letter urged Donovan to defer fur- 
ther consideration of administrative action 
until legislation on his proposed amend- 
ments to the Fair Labor Standards Act is 
developed. 

“In that matter, we will be in a better 
position to prepare a coordinated legisla- 
tive response to the serious problem of 
sweatshops with the cooperation of indus- 
try labor and others who share our mutual 
desires for strict enforcement of the law,” 
the letter said. 

IT POINTED OUT that both labor and 
industry representatives who testified at 
subcommittee hearings last month opposed 
lifting the ban, and that only Labor Dept. 


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representatives favored the change. 

Even so, “it is the opinion of federal and 
state enforcement personnel that abolition 
of the ban on industrial homework will 
exacerbate the horrible working standards 
of tens of thousands of garment workers,” 
the panel’s letter noted. 

“No case was presented to the subcom- 
mittee which indicated that revocation 
would improve enforcement capability,” 
the panel stressed. “Nor were your repre- 
sentatives at the hearing able to identify 
a single individual or organization which 
' had either requested or supported the con- 
cept of eliminating the homework restric- 
tion.” 

CITING THE response of both labor 
and industry, as well as the Labor Dept.’s 
inability to specify any urgent basis to rush 
through the rule change, the panel said 
there is adequate reason to suspend fur- 
ther consideration of the proposal. 

“With this controversial and divisive 
action deferred, we feel we will be in an 
improved situation to develop a mutually 
acceptable bill and a general enforcement 
strategy to support your department’s ef- 
fort to attack the scourge of sweatshops,” 
the subcommittee members told Donovan. 

The June 1 letter was signed by Repre- 
sentatives George Miller (Calif.), subcom- 
mittee chairman; Phillip Burton (Calif.), 
William Patchford (Conn.), Austin J. 
Murphy (Pa.), Pat Williams (Mont.), Dale 
E. Kildee (Mich.) and Carl Perkins (Ky.), 
chairman of the House Labor Committee. 

The Labor Dept, recently extended to 
July 4 the comment period on the proposal 
to revoke the ban on homework. 

Staffing, Funds Urged 
For Immigration Agency 

The AFL-CIO has called for full resto- 
ration of 1,355 positions and $21.6 million 
for the Immigration & Naturalization 
Service that would be cut under Reagan 
budget proposals. 

In a letter to Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli 
(D-Ky,), chairman of the House Judiciary 
subcommittee on immigration. Legislative 
Director Ray Denison observed that the 
elimination of positions and overtime of 
INS workers would only serve the cos- 
metic image of achieving savings in gov- 
ernment. 

“As we have in the past, the AFL-CIO 
urges that the funding and staffing of the 
INS be increased to the point where this 
government agency may perform its im- 
portant mission of providing a system of 
orderly immigration to the United States, 
while protecting the American workforce 
from unfair competition of illegal foreign 
labor,” Denison said. 


Service Contract Act 


Labor Hits New Move 
To Undermine Wages 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, June 27, 1981 


No. 26 


'/,„ ® o\\'' 


Labor Hits 'Giveaways’ 
To Business in Tax Bill 



CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK decontrol of natural gas prices is announced at a news 
conference in the AFL-CIO building by Machinists President William W. 
Winpisinger in his role as president of the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition of 
some 200 organizations. A study warned of serious job losses from the sharp 
rise in utility bills and industrial costs that decontrol would bring. 

3.4 Million Jobs at Stake 

Natural Gas Decontrol 
Labor, Coalition Battle 


Real Earnings 
Continue Skid 
As CPI Rises 

Inflation, as measured by the govern- 
ment’s consumer price index, increased six- 
tenths of 1 percent in May, lowering work- 
ers’ purchasing power by yet another 
notch. 

The May CPI rise exceeded the increase 
of four-tenths of 1 percent recorded by 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics for April, 
and was the same as in March. On a 
year-to-year basis, the index still hovered 
at a near double-digit level, 9.8 percent. 

THE EFFECT of the May price surge, 
which BLS attributed mainly to the soar- 
ing cost of home mortgages, was to force 
another decline in real spendable earnings 
over the month. Real spendable pay, or 
wages minus taxes adjusted for the im- 
pact of inflation, fell four-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in May and was down 2 percent from 
1 2 months earlier. 

BLS said that while the average earn- 
ings of all workers in the private, non- 
farm sector last month were $253.10 a 
week in current dollars, a worker earning 
the average who had a non-working spouse 
and two children brought home “real” 
weekly pay of only $94.30 expressed in 
1967 dollars, a 34-cent drop from the 
previous month. 

The housing component of the CPI rose 

I. 3 percent in May, and accounted for 
over four-fifths of the entire monthly in- 
crease, BLS said. Home financing costs 
rose 3 percent, reflecting a 2.1 -percent in- 
crease in mortgage interest rates and a 1 
percent increase in house prices. Prices of 
fuels and utility charges were up eight- 
tenths of 1 percent, despite a decrease in 
fuel oil prices as charges for gas and elec- 
tricity rose 1.5 percent. 

FOOD PRICES dropped two-tenths of 
1 percent, with grocery store prices falling 
five-tenths of 1 percent. Beef prices rose 
for the first time this year, however, in- 
creasing seven-tenths of 1 percent over 
the month. Prices for many fruits and 
other fresh produce declined sharply. 

There are signs that food prices will not 
behave as well when the June price in- 
creases are reported. Sugar prices have 
begun to climb, and the Agriculture Dept, 
reports pork is likely to be in shorter sup- 
ply later this year. 

As in the past, the four basic budget 
items that affect most American families — 
food, housing, transportation, and medical 
care — ^have accounted for practically all of 
the nation’s inflation over the past 12 
months. Transportation charges are up 

II. 6 percent since May 1980, housing 10.1 
percent, medical care 9.8 percent, and 
food 8.7 percent. 

Transportation charges were up three- 
tenths of 1 percent, chiefly because of 
increases in new car prices and automobile 
financing charges. New car prices jumped 
2.6 percent in May, while used car prices 
rose only two-tenths of 1 percent. 

Health care costs were up seven-tenths 
of 1 percent, largely due to a sharp rise 
of 1.3 percent in medical care commodi- 
ties. The cost of entertainment overall went 
up one-half a percent. 


The Senate obediently went along with 
the Reagan Administration’s insistence on 
wiping out the minimum social security 
benefit of $122 a month. But for a change, 
nearly all Democrats and a small handful 
of moderate Republicans stood up in 
opposition. 

The 53-45 vote defeated an attempt by 
Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) to restore 
the minimum retirement benefit by amend- 
ing the budget reconciliation bill — a pack- 
age of nearly $40 billion in “savings” that 
are achieved by rewriting laws and cutting 
back programs. 

RIEGLE SOUGHT to eliminate a $925- 
million budget cut that would be achieved 
by ending the existing guarantee that no 
one eligible for social security benefits 


The AFL-CIO has joined with the 
Citizen/ Labor Energy Coalition in a na- 
tionwide campaign to block decontrol of 
natural gas prices and avert a chain reac- 
tion of inflation and job losses. 

Decontrol would double heating bills 
of households using natural gas, shift $260 
billion from consumer spending to the 
profits of the oil and gas companies over 
the next four years, and wipe out some 3 
million jobs, according to a study commis- 
sioned by the coalition. 

MACHINISTS President William W. 
Winpisinger, who heads the 200-organiza- 


would receive less than $122 a month. 

If the House goes along with the Senate 
action, some 3 million persons would have 
their social security checks cut. A House 
Ways & Means Committee staff found that 
at least 86 percent of those whose income 
would be reduced are women, mostly el- 
derly, including 500,000 over the age of 
80. “Many of these elderly women have 
been living for years in or near poverty 
on their social security benefit, plus what- 
ever savings or other small income they 
might have,” the study found. 

Forty-one Democrats and four Republi- 
cans voted to restore funds for the mini- 
mum benefit. But they were outvoted by a 
lineup of 48 Republicans and five Demo- 
crats. 

(Continued on Page 6) 


tion Energy Coalition, told a news confer- 
ence that it will seek written pledges by 
members of Congress to oppose any at- 
tempt to repeal natural gas controls or 
speed up the existing timetable for gradual 
decontrol of “new” natural gas wells. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Den- 
ison said the federation will urge members 
of Congress to make such a pledge and 
will work with the coalition and allied 
senior citizen, farm and consumer groups 
“in a nationwide grass roots education and 
lobbying campaign to stop natural gas de- 
control.” 

Decontrol would hurt every American 
household, undercut the competitive posi- 
tion of American industry, and inflict new 
hardships on moderate-income families de- 
pendent on natural gas. “There is no argu- 
ment, save greed, for decontrol,” Denison 
told the news conference. 

WILLIAM HUTTON, executive direc- 
tor of the National Council of Senior Citi- 
zens and secretary-treasurer of the Energy 
Coalition, said NCSC’s 4,000 local clubs 
will work with other coalition participants 
to get the message to members of Congress 
that “no one in your district will benefit 
from decontrol.” 

Last January, soon after taking office. 
President Reagan decontrolled oil and 
gasoline prices with an Executive Order. 
But lifting of controls on natural gas would 
require legislation and touch off a major 
battle in Congress. 

Energy Sec. James B. Edwards has made 
clear the Administration is opposed to 
continued controls, and it is in anticipation 
of the congressional battle that the coali- 
tion has launched its campaign. 

The study of the impact of decon- 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Kirkland Cites 
Heavier Load 
For Workers 

Corporate tax cuts tentatively approved 
by the House Ways & Means Committee 
would force America’s workers to carry a 
bigger share of the nation’s tax burden, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland pro- 
tested. 

Kirkland urged the committee to recon- 
sider its decisions, which would cost the 
Treasury more than $180 billion in lost 
revenues over the next five years. New tax 
breaks for business, he said, should be 
linked to the goal of shoring up the na- 
tion’s industrial base. 

TH^ DEMOCRATIC majority on the 
Ways & Means Committee has been vying 
with the Reagan Administration to come 
up with the most generous package of tax 
reductions for business, with middle- 
income wage and salary earners the obvi- 
ous losers in the competition. The “bipar- 
tisan giveaways” will come close to wiping 
out the corporation income tax entirely, 
Kirkland warned. 

One committee action would drop the 
maximum corporation income tax rate 
from 46 percent to 34 percent over five 
years, which would lower the “effective” 
corporate rate from 29 percent to only 
14 percent. 

Combined with other committee-en- 
dorsed business tax cuts, Kirkland noted, 
the corporate share of the cost of govern- 
ment would fall to a mere 7 percent. 
That’s a 70-percent drop from the 1970 
ratio, he pointed out. 

THE WAYS & MEANS Committee 
went a big step further than the Reagan 
Administration in liberalizing the deprecia- 
tion tax writeoffs businesses can take on 

(Continued on Page 8) 

Maritime Unions 
Win Bargaining 
Gains for 45,000 

Three maritime unions have negotiated 
new three-year agreements with U.S.-flag 
ship owners for more than 45,000 crew 
members on deep sea vessels. 

The settlements provide basic annual 
wage increases of 7.5 percent as well as 
three cost-of-living adjustments and marked 
improvements in pension benefits. 

THE CONTRACTS, retroactive to June 
16, cover 20,000 members of the National 
Maritime Union, 14,000 Seafarers and 
11,000 active members and retirees of the 
Marine Engineers. 

Members of both the SIU and NMU 
overwhelmingly ratified the agreements, 
the unions reported. MEBA said a ratifi- 
cation vote is pending. 

The Masters, Mates & Pilots continued 
bargaining with the ship owners after ex- 
tending old agreements for 30 days beyond 
the June 15 expiration date. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Senate GOP Blocks Move 
To Preserve Pension Floor 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 







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STEELWORKERS^ legislative con- 
ference delegates moved from the 
Labor Dept, to the Capitol to con- 
vey what USWA President Lloyd . 
McBride termed a “sense of outrage” 
at the Reagan Administration’s poli- 
cies. Above, USWA Legislative Di- 
rector John J. Sheehan uses a bull- 
horn to speak to delegates demon- 
strating at the Labor Dept, in sup- 
port of OSHA, the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act, and MSHA, the 
law that covers mine safety and 
health. At right, McBride welcomes 
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, 
Jr., who told the delegates that the 
Administration’s economic program 
is “for the selfish, for the greedy and 
for the affluent.” McBride said Con- 
gress must hear from constituents “the 
kind of anger” aroused by the attempt 
to slash social security. 


Court Denies Right to Bargain 
Over Partial Business Shutdowns 


The Supreme Court ruled that a com- 
pany doesn’t have to bargain with a union 
representing its workers before closing 
down a part of its business — provided 
that the shutdown is solely for economic 
or business reasons and not to “chill” 
unionism. 

Its 7-2 decision rejected the position 
taken by the National Labor Relations 
Board in a case involving a company that 
provided maintenance services for a num- 
ber of nursing homes. The NLRB posi- 
tion was that a partial shutdown clearly 
affected conditions of employment and 
therefore is a mandatory subject for col- 
lective bargaining until a genuine impasse 
is reached. 

A BRIEF supporting the NLRB, filed 
jointly by the AFL-CIO and the UAW, 
had cited examples of union-management 
negotiations over a seemingly unavoidable 
economic shutdown that resulted in coop- 
erative labor-management actions which 
reduced costs and preserved jobs. 

The Supreme Court majority suggested 
that management would have an incen- 
tive to bargain voluntarily with the union 
where labor costs were a factor in a shut- 
down decision^ But it insisted that the de- 
cision should rest with management alone 
since there might be situations where any 
delay in closing down would be costly or 
otherwise burdensome. 

The court did reiterate that manage- 
ment remained obligated to bargain with 
a union over the effects of a shutdown. 
And it noted that federal labor law “pro- 
hibits partial closings motivated by anti- 
union animus.” The NLRB “may inquire 
into the motivations behind a partial clos- 
ing,” the court said, and “an employer 
may not simply shut down part of its 
business and mask its desire to weaken 
and circumvent the union by labeling its 
decision ‘purely economic.’ ” 

A DISSENTING opinion by Justice 
William J. Brennan, Jr., joined by Thur- 
good Marshall, said mandatory bargaining 
might not be required in all cases of par- 
tial closings, but the NLRB was in a better 
position to judge the situation than the 
courts. The dissenters complained that the 
court majority had taken into account 
“only the interests of management” and 


had failed to consider “the legitimate in- 
terests of the workers and their union.” 

The Supreme Court also differed from 
the AFL-CIO position in a case testing 
the constitutionality of a Minnesota state 
fair regulation prohibiting sale or distri- 
bution of any “printed or written material” 
at the fairgrounds except at booths rented 
from state fair authorities. 

The restriction had been challenged by 
the Krishna Society as an infringement of 
religious freedom, but an AFL-CIO brief 
focused on the free speech aspect, citing 
parallels with laws used to restrict distri- 
bution of union leaflets that had been held 
unconstitutional in earlier Supreme Court 
decisions. 

THE AFL-CIO contended that the vast 
fairground with its network of roads and 
walkways was akin to a city. But the 
court, in an opinion by Justice Byron R. 
White, held that “there are significant 
differences between a street and the fair- 
grounds.” 

While the court was unanimous in al- 
lowing limitations on literature sales and 
fund solicitations, four justices would have 
allowed distribution of free copies of litera- 
ture by persons moving about in the fair- 
grounds crowds. 

Still another Supreme Court decision 
handed down on June 22 upheld the posi- 
tion taken by the Plumbers & Pipe Fitters 
as to federal jurisdiction over a suit by a 
local union against its parent organization 
based on the international union constitu- 
tion. 

THE CASE arose when the interna- 
tional union used its authority under the 
union constitution to compel a merger of 
a group of local unions after the locals in- 
volved had failed to reach a voluntary 
agreement. A New Jersey local sued in 
state court to block the merger. 

The international union then acted to 
transfer the case to a federal district court, 
which upheld its position on several legal 
grounds. On appeal, the 3rd Circuit U.S. 
Court of Appeals nullified the district 
court’s action and said the case should 
have been left for the state courts since 
the dispute would not have a “significant 
impact on labor-management relations or 
industrial peace.” 


In a 6-3 decision written by Justice 
Brennan, the Supreme Court rejected the 
appellate court interpretation and upheld 
the federal district court’s jurisdiction over 
the case. 

IN ANOTHER AREA of interest to 
labor, the Supreme Court agreed to decide 
whether employees of the Long Island 
Railroad, a commuter line, are covered 
by the no-strike provisions of New York 
State’s Taylor Law or by the federal Rail- 
way Labor Act. 

The state took over the railroad in 
1966 and sought to block a 1979 strike 
by the United Transportation Union by 
invoking the Taylor Act. 

A federal district court held that the 
union members had the right to strike 
under the Railway Labor Act since the 
railroad was a necessary link with other 
carriers in the movement of interstate 
freight. 

THE 2ND CIRCUIT U.S. Court of 
Appeals ruled that the state law overrides 
the Railway Labor Act on the theory that 
the state interest in assuring passenger ser- 
vice for a large body of commuters is para- 
mount. Arguments in the case will be 
heard in the fall. 

By refusing to review another appellate 
decision, the Supreme Court gave the 
green light to a future court test of the 
“comparable worth” argument in a sex 
discrimination case involving the pay of 
men and women workers. 

The Electrical, Radio & Machine Work- 
ers (lUE) had charged that Westinghouse 
violated the Civil Rights Act by paying 
women employees at its Trenton, N.J., 
plant less than men for jobs that under 
the company’s own job evaluation re- 
quired at least equal knowledge, training, 
skill and responsibility. 

A federal district court dismissed the 
suit as outside the scope of the law. But 
the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 
sent the case back to be heard on its 
merits. The Equal Employment Opportu- 
nity Commission had supported the lUE 
position before the appellate court. The 
Supreme Court denial of review makes 
the appellate ruling final. 


Employment 
Goals Pushed 
Under CETA 

The AFL-CIO reminded Congress of its 
full employment obligations and cautioned 
against “unrealistic” reliance on the pri- 
vate sector to provide jobs and training in 
a slow-growing economy. 

Associate Legislative Director Robert 
McGlotten, testifying at Senate hearings 
on employment and training issues, urged 
a continued mix of programs under the 
Comprehensive Employment & Training 
Act (CETA) and other laws. 

CETA HAS helped the disadvantaged 
develop basic skills needed to find and 
keep jobs, McGlotten noted. It has helped 
workers raise on-the-job skill levels, pre- 
pared minority youth for apprenticeship 
through labor-supported outreach pro- 
grams, and provided public service jobs 
to take up the slack of recession unem- 
ployment, he pointed out. 

“Full employment is essential to eco- 
nomic recovery and, economic growth,” 
McGlotten insisted. 

It should be the goal of overall eco- 
nomic policy and of “direct, specific, tar- 
geted employment and training programs,” 
he said. “Targeted jobs programs tailored 
to the specific needs of unemployed work- 
ers and to specific social needs are two to 
four times more effective in creating jobs 
than are generalized tax cuts,” McGlotten 
testified. 

HE STRESSED, however, that “em- 
ployment and training programs should 
not be used to subsidize low-wage, sub- 
standard employers, to subsidize high la- 
bor turnover or jobs which do not require 
training, or to aid runaway industries.” 

The AFL-CIO strongly supports the 
concept of a “counter-cyclical jobs pro- 
gram” which would fund public service 
jobs when the unemployment rate is high, 
McGlotten said. And it supports funding 
of nationally-developed programs, such as 
the AFL-CIO’s Human Resources Devel- 
opment Institute, as well as community 
programs operated by local governments 
or other non-profit “prime sponsors.” 

Cleveland Unions 
Undertake Study 
On Plant Closings 

Cleveland — ^The Cleveland AFL-CIO 
has launched a survey among its local un- 
ions in an attempt to learn why factories 
are leaving the city or closing. 

A questionnaire prepared by the cen- 
tral body has been sent to the locals 
querying them about closings, planned 
closings, proposed layoffs, shorter work 
weeks and the physical condition of 
factories. 

Questions also deal with whether man- 
agement has been keeping up with tech- 
nological change. 

IF THERE have been closings or run- 
away shops, the central body survey tries 
to determine if the reason given by the 
owners was one of 26. These include 
foreign competition, flight to “develop- 
ing” countries, lack of city support, flight 
to Sunbelt, high taxes, lack of capital, 
wages and high energy cost. 

The Cleveland AFL-CIO got involved 
when Mayor George V. Voinovich said 
he believed that labor officials and staff, 
who service the union members, might 
know more about the problem then any- 
one else in the city. 

Central Body President Martin J. 
Hughes of the Communications Workers 
expressed the hope that the survey results 
will help labor deal more effectively with 
mounting economic problems afflicting 
older cities in the East and Midwest like 
Cleveland. 

Executive Sec. Sebastian Lupica noted 
that there have been many plant closings 
in the city and we have suffered in mem- 
bership loss and we must find new ways to 
deal with it, correct information is the 
starting point.” 


I 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 


Pa^ Three 


U.S. Workers Support 
ILO Attack on Apartheid, 
Government Abstains 


Geneva — ^The AFL-CIO broke with the 
government members of the U.S. delega- 
tion by voting for a declaration by the 
International Labor Organization denounc- 
ing the “degrading, criminal and inhuman 
racial policies” of the South African gov- 
ernment. 

The declaration was adopted by the 
ILO’s annual assembly without a dissent- 
ing vote, but the U.S. government was 
among the seven delegates abstaining. It 
expressed technical reservations on some 
of the action proposed in the fight against 
apartheid. 

Speaking for the U.S. worker delegation, 
Patrick O’Farrell, executive director of the 
African-American Labor Center, assured 
the assembly that the U.S. worker vote in 
favor of the declaration, rather than the 
government’s abstention, had expressed 
the “true feeling of the majority of the 
people of our country.” 

IN THE EARLIER discussion, O’Far- 
rell had recalled that the AFL-CIO had its 
own policy, independent of the govern- 
ment’s, in support of the black and other 
South African trade unions struggling 
against discrimination. 

“We reject at this juncture the calls for 
armed struggle and for war as the only 
means of ending apartheid,” he said. But 
if more drastic measures than those now 
contemplated should become necessary 
“we would be prepared to consider such 
measures at that time,” O’Farrell said. 

The AFL-CIO delegation also broke 
with the government by voting in favor of 
an ILO budget for the two years 1982-83 
of $230 million, a 5.1 percent increase 
over the preceding two years. 

Gerd Muhr, West German chairman 
of the worker delegates, expressed the 
satisfaction of the group at the importance 
given in the budget to the ILO’s work in 
favor of labor standards and human rights. 

WHILE RECOGNIZING the ILO’s ef- 
fort to economize, the U.S. government 
delegates abstained in the vote approving 
the budget to underscore the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s clampdown on expenditures. 

The 34 votes against the budget were all 
cast by the Soviet bloc to protest what it 
claimed to be a failure to take into account 
its program proposals. 

However, Poland’s Solidarity trade un- 
ion delegation showed its independence 
by casting the only Eastern European vote 
in favor of the budget. 

In a major address to the assembly, 
AFL-CIO International Rep. Irving Brown 
warned that the job and social standards 
established by the ILO must not be side- 
tracked in the effort to speed tht develop- 
ment of the world’s poorer countries. 

“Economic growth is not the whole 
story of development,” Brown stressed in 
his address to the 1,800 worker, govern- 
ment and employer delegates and their 
advisers. “Economic development,” he 
continued, “must provide for the satisfac- 
tion of the economic and social needs of 
man.” 

Comeaux Appointed 
To Region IV Post 

Robert L. Comeaux, an international 
representative with the Food & Commer- 
cial Workers, has been appointed assistant 
director of AFL-CIO Region IV effective 
July 6. 

Comeaux had been coordinator of the 
UFCW’s national boycott against Winn- 
Dixie, which led to an agreement with the 
southern supermarket chain a year ago. 
He also has served on the staffs of the 
UFCW Texas district council and UFCW 
Local 455 in Houston since 1972. 

Region IV, based in Arlington, Tex., 
covers the states of Colorado, Louisiana, 
New Mexico and Texas. Nicholas Kurko 
is director. 


Brown, as the U.S. worker delegate to 
the ILO, heads an AFL-CIO team that 
was reinforced in the course of the three- 
week session by the arrival of Federation 
President Lane Kirkland and UAW Presi- 
dent Douglas A. Fraser. 

Noting that the need to assist Third 
World development is now a major pre- 
occupation of all international organiza- 
tions, Brown called on the ILO to insure 
that its standards for bettering the life of 
workers are applied in all “international 
actions and programs.” 

“The promotion of standards is the ma- 
jor job of the ILO,” he said. 

BROWN RECALLED the AFL-CIO’s 
“constant concern for the disabled” in con- 
nection with the UN decision to focus 
world attention this year on the problems 
of the handicapped. 

ILO Director Gen. Francis Blanchard 
underscored in his report to the confer- 
ence the AFL-CIO’s “well-defined policy” 
in favor of the disabled. 

Brown stressed that this policy for 
“bringing disabled workers into the world 
of productive employment is also part of 
the struggle against discrimination in em- 
ployment.” 

He noted that a London newspaper re- 
cently reported that a founder of a move- 
ment in the Soviet Union in defense of the 
handicapped nad been threatened with in- 
ternment in a mental hospital as a dissi- 
dent. 

“It is this kind of treatment that must 
be exposed and eliminated,” Brown said 
as he expressed satisfaction that the 1983 
ILO session will examine ways to insure 
that the handicapped hold their rightful 
place in society. 

AS IT NEARED the final week of the 
session, the assembly also adopted, despite 
some government and employer hesitation, 
an international standard by which gov- 
ernments are called upon to “encourage 
and promote the development of collec- 
tive bargaining.” 

Robert Wholey of the Asian-American 
Free Labor Institute was the member of 
the AFL-CIO delegation who helped draft 
the convention that makes action manda- 
tory for governments that ratify it. 

The convention stipulates that trade un- 
ions and employer groups should first be 
consulted and their agreement sought be- 
fore any measures are taken. 



IN GENEVA, at the International Labor Organization’s assembly, Auto Work- 
ers Pfesident Douglas A. Fraser and AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
bolstered the U.S. worker delegation during discussion and debate on standards 
and issues affecting workers throughout the world. 

Key Interest Rate Edges Up, 
New Housing Starts Plummet 


Two major New York banks raised 
their prime lending rates to 20 percent, 
making that the prevailing rate among 
the nation’s largest banks despite an eas- 
ing in the money supply. 

The actions by Chemical Bank and 
Citibank reversed declines posted by the 
two banks a week earlier. Chemical had 
lowered its prime, or base, rate on corpo- 
rate loans to 19 percent on June 15. The 
following day. Citibank cut its prime rate 
to 19.5 percent. A similar move to the 20 
percent level was made June 19 by Bank- 
ers Trust & Marine Midland, which with 
Citibank had lowered its prime to 19.5 
percent. 

MEANWHILE, the Federal Reserve 
Board reported a modest increase in the 
nation’s money supply after three weeks 
of decline, which normally would signal 
lower interest rates. But the federal funds 
rate, which banks charge one another for 
loans, has remained high, and analysts 
say that interest rates will not decline until 
it eases substantially. 

The prime lending rate generally tends 
to influence other short-term lending 
rates, including consumer rates such as 


Reagan Fills NLRB Posts, 
Designates New Chairman 


President Reagan has named a man- 
agement consultant and the chief counsel 
of the Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee to fill the two vacancies on the 
National Labor Relations Board. 

Reagan announced he will nominate 
John R. Van de Water to serve the re- 
mainder of the term expiring on Aug. 27, 
1981, from which John A. Penello re- 
signed on Jan. 14, and for the ensuing 
five-year term expiring in 1986. The pres- 
ident said he would also designate Van de 
Water to replace John H. Fanning, a 
Democrat, as chairman of the NLRB. 
Fanning, whose term expires in Decem- 
ber 1982, would continue as a member 
of the board. 

TO FILL THE second vacancy, held 
until last Jan. 26 by John C. Truesdale 
under an interim appointment, Reagan 
named Robert P. Hunter, 41, who cur- 
rently is chief counsel and chief of staff 
for the Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee. 

The AFL-CIO is checking with those 
familiar with Van de Water’s work in 
order to analyze his record on labor-man- 
agement issues. Similarly, while the fede- 
ration is familiar with Hunter’s record on 
Capitol Hill, his writings on labor-man- 


agement issues are being studied. 

Before the Republicans took control of 
the Senate this year. Hunter had served as 
counsel to minority members of the com- 
mittee, including the present chairman, 
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). He previously 
had been an attorney with NLRB regional 
offices in Buffalo and Cincinnati. 

Van de Water, 64, has headed his own 
management consulting firm. Van de 
Water Associates, since 1949. He also is 
executive vice president of Promanent In- 
ternational Inc., which specializes in audio- 
visual materials for management develop- 
ment programs. 

HE HAS served as a management rep- 
resentative for both the Ford Motor Co. 
and North American Aviation, Inc., and 
has served on the Labor Relations Com- 
mittee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 
Van de Water also has been on the man- 
agement and industrial relations faculties 
of both UCLA and the University of 
Southern California. 

Both nominations require Senate con- 
firmation. 

The remaining members of the board 
are Howard Jenkins, Jr., and Don A. 
Zimmerman. 


those charged for home mortgages. 

Higher interest rates have been largely 
responsible for the growing sluggishness 
in the economy, which both Administra- 
tion and private analysts expect to show 
little growth during the current and third 
quarters of the year. 

HOUSING STARTS plummeted 14 
percent last month to the lowest level since 
the depths of the housing depression one 
year ago, the Commerce Dept, reported. 
The falloff was due in large part to high 
mortgage rates averaging 1 6 percent 
across the country. 

New home construction in May de- 
clined to a seasonally adjusted annual 
rate of 1.15 million units, the lowest level 
since the 938,000 starts a year earlier. 
The May decrease was the first and the 
largest since February, when starts 
plunged 26.8 percent. 

The issuance of building permits, a 
sign of future housing construction, fell 
a slight three-tenths of 1 percent to a 
seasonally adjusted annual, rate of 1.82 
million units. The level was 37 percent 
above the very low rate of 864,000 per- 
mits in May 1980. 

OTHER GOVERNMENT reports re- 
vealed equally poor performance in other 
sectors of the economy. Output of the 
nation’s factories, mines, and utilities in- 
creased a modest three-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in May, the Federal Reserve Board 
reported. The board said the increase was 
concentrated in the production of motor 
vehicles and parts. 

Autos were assembled at an annual rate 
of 7.3 million units last month, up from a 
6.8-million unit rate in April. But this 
reflected a buildup of inventories in antic- 
ipation of plant closings in the summer. 
Another factor was the introduction of the 
new General Motors “J” cars. 

Factory output increased four-tenths of 
1 percent following similar rises in April 
and March. But output of construction 
supplies continued downward for the 
second month dropping seven-tenths of 1 
percent. Output of business and defense 
equipment continued to expand, and ma- 
terials output increased three-tenths of 1 
percent. 

SEPARATELY, the Fed reported that 
the nation’s factories operated at 80.1 
percent of capacity in May, up a slight 
one-tenth of 1 percent from April. 

In another government report, the 
Commerce Dept, said that Americans’ 
personal income increased a slight six- 
tenths of 1 percent in May, barely enough 
to cover the current rate of inflation. It 
was the same percentage increase as in 
April. 


Page Four 


AFL^O NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 19SI 


The JNatural Gas Grab 

TP HE AFL-CIO opposes the decontrol of natural gas prices. 

Decontrol of natural gas will hurt all American workers and 
their families by stealing from their paychecks through inflation, 
and by robbing millions of Americans of their jobs. The massive 
increase in prices for natural gas will cost an estimated 3.4 million 
Americans their jobs by 1985 as the result of price accelerati(m of 
products and services to a point where they can no longer be 
afforded. 

The increased production costs in such key industries as chem- 
icals, food processing, textile and clothing manufacture, steel and 
other primary metals, fabricated metal products, and transporta- 
tion equipment will undercut the competitive position of American 
industries and cost more American workers their jobs. 

DECONTROL WILL inflict severe hardships on low-income 
and middle-income families who heat their homes with natural gas. 
The poor and senior citizens are already paying as much as 35 to 
50 percent of their incomes for energy and cannot afford gas bills 
double or triple what they now pay. 

There is no argument, save greed, for decontrol. 

Decontrol will not increase incentives to explore for new natural 
gas supplies. Instead, decontrol will allow the oil companies to 
take windfall profits on natural gas discovered years ago. At the 
same time, decontrol will destroy the special price incentives for 
new and hard-to-find gas which were put in place by the Natural 
Gas Policy Act. 

The natural gas decontrol issue is of critical importance to the 
AFL-CIO’s 13 million members, and to consumers across the 
nation. The corrosive effects of natural gas decontrol on inflation, 
unemployment and falling standards of living are enormous and 
have a heavy impact on the stability of America’s collective bar- 
gaining process. 

THESE ADVERSE effects far outweigh any monetary advan- 
tage that might come from individual and business tax cuts now 
being proposed in the Congress. While we think these tax cuts 
need to be redirected and are an unconscionable run on the U.S. 
Treasury, it would be doubly cruel and cynical for the Administra- 
tion to allow the oil companies to take away from American work- 
ers and businesses more than has been promised in the proposed 
tax cuts. 

The AFL-CIO will work with the Citizen/Labor Energy Coali- 
tion, senior citizens, farmers, and consumer groups in a nationwide 
grass roots education and lobbying campaign to stop natural gas 
decontrol. 

We urge members of Congress to pledge their opposition to 
accelerated or total decontrol of natural gas prices. 

— Statement by AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison 
at news conference sponsored by Citizen/ Labor Energy Coalition, 
June 24, 1981, Washington, D,C. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


= Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, June 27, 1981 


No. 26 I 


S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver-. 

= thing in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. _ 

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‘It’s Enough to Make Me Sick!’ 





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Hidden Giveaways 

Tax Expenditures’ a Program 
Of Relief for the Truly Wealthy 


By Gus Tyler 

T ax expenditures. Everytime I use that 
expression in one of these columns I get 
letters — even phone calls — ^from readers asking, 
“what are tax expenditures?” Occasionally, I am 
even charged with a misprint. How can you have 
a “tax,” which is money you take in, called an 
“expenditure,” which is money you pay out? 

The answer is that a “tax expenditure” is 
money you pay out when you collect the tax: 
that’s why it’s called a “tax expenditure.” Tricky, 
eh? Yes, it is. 

SOMEDAY somebody ought to popularize 
another name for these self-contradictory items 
in our national budget and tax system. I would 
call them the “hidden giveaways.” 

They are “giveaways” from Uncle Sam to spe- 
cial interest groups in America. Certain indi- 
viduals and certain institutions, the largest being 
the biggest corporations, are “given” tax breaks. 
Taxes that they would normally pay, they do not 
pay, because somebody wrote an obscure item 
into the tax code or because some bureaucrat or 
court made some interpretation of some item in 
the law that makes it legal to pay less or pay 
nothing, if you are one of these favored parties. 

This kind of “giveaway” is hidden, unlike other 
“giveaways” that are out in the open. If Uncle 
Same gives food stamps to a poor family, that 
“expenditure” is on the record. But when Uncle 
Sam gives away $300 billion in tax expenditures 
in any one year — as he will this year — that does 
not appear on the books as an expense. It is 
“hidden.” 

YES, THE SUM is roughly $300 billion. If 
“tax expenditures” were included in our budget 
— as food stamps, school lunches, defense ex- 
penditures, or scholarship loans are — then “tax 
expenditures” would be the single biggest item in 
the budget. It is also the most rapidly growing. 

But we hear no caterwauling, complaining, and 
crying about this “expenditure,” alongside of 
which outlays for the poor are petty peanuts. 

Here we are in the midst of an emotional de- 
bate on the budget. Everybody is at everybody 
else’s throat to have or to hold a piece of the pie. 
Yet, nobody talks about that biggest single 
chunk of the pie — ^tax expenditures — ^because it 
is hidden. 


Soon we will be deep in the debate over taxes. 
How do we raise enough money to pay our bills? 
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam will be losing $300 billion 
in income this year through “tax expenditures” 
that will be larger this year than ever. 

I’M NOT SAYING that Uncle Sam should not 
excuse some people or some companies from pay- 
ing some taxes — if that is in the national interest. 
But why not do it in the open? Let’s tax and 
then let us — ^by public action recorded on the 
books — give back some of that tax money to per- 
sons or corporations if we want to. 

Then, at least, we would know who is really 
“on relief.” We will discover, at long last, that 
the biggest receivers of relief are not the poorest, 
but the rest of us, especially the richest. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Labor Welcomes 
Challenge to Role 

These are trying times for us today in many 
respects. But what we in die American labor 
movement face and have faced for years is not 
a passing period of acute crisis. Rather we face 
a permanent challenge to our basic role in 
American life. 

We are, by the nature of our duties, con- 
tinually subject to attack from many quarters. 
Our warts are magnified and distorted, and all 
of our weaknesses are continually preyed and 
exploited when found. We are exposed to more 
searching and critical scrutiny and are held to 
a higher standard of ethics and performance 
than any other element of our society. 

We do not complain of that, nor do we, in 
fact, wish it were any other way. It’s what we 
all signed on for. We welcome that challenge. 

The fact is that we, as trade unionists, do as- 
pire to far higher goals and more selfless pur- 
poses than any other element of human so- 
ciety. The challenge is great. It will be with us 
for a long time, but our common burden will be 
made all the lighter to the extent fliat we all 
shoulder it together. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at fed- 
eration's regional conference in New Orleans, 
June 6, 1981. 

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Supreme Court Decision 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 


Fmge FItc 


OSH A Puts Preeminent Value 
On Safe, Healthful Workplace 


The following is excerpted from the Supreme 
Court decision upholding the Occupational Safety 
& Health Administration's cotton dust standard. 
The majority decision, written by Justice William 
/. Brennan, Jr,, held that OSHA is not required 
to conduct cost-benefit studies in developing safe- 
ty and health standards, 

C ONGRESS ENACTED the Occupational Safe- 
ty & Health Act of 1970 “to assure so far as 
possible every working man and woman in the 
nation safe and healthful working conditions.” 
The act authorizes the Secretary of Labor to es- 
tablish, after notice and opportunity to comment, 
mandatory nationwide standards governing health 
and safety in the workplace. 

In 1978, the Secretary, acting through the Oc- 
cupational Safety & Health Administration 
(OSHA), promulgated a standard limiting occu- 
pational exposure to cotton dust, an airborne 
particle byproduct of the preparation and manu- 
facture of cotton products, exposure to which 
induces a “constellation of respiratory effects” 
known as “byssinosis.” 

Byssinosis, known in its more severe manifesta- 
tions as “brown lung” disease, is a serious and 
potentially disabling respiratory disease primarily 
caused by the inhalation of cotton dust. 

ESTIMATES INDICATE that at least 35,000 
employed and retired cotton mill workers, or one 
in 12 such workers, suffers from the most dis- 
abling form of byssinosis. The Senate report ac- 
companying the act cited estimates that 100,000 
active and retired workers suffer from some grade 
of the disease. One study found that over 25 
percent of a sample of active cotton preparation 
and yam manufacturing workers suffer at least 
some form of the disease at a dust exposure level 
common prior to adoption of the current standard. 

Petitioners representing the interests of the 
cotton industry, challenged the validity of the 
“Cotton Dust Standard” in the Court of Appeals 
for the District of Columbia Circuit. They con- 
tend that the act requires OSHA to demonstrate 
that its standard reflects a reasonable relationship 
between the costs and benefits associated with the 
standard. 

Respondents, the Secretary of Labor and two 
(sic) labor organizations [the AFL-CIO, the In- 
dustrial Union Dept, and the Clothing & Textile 
Workers] counter that Congress balanced the costs 
and benefits in the act itself, and that the act 
should therefore be construed not to require 
OSHA to do so. 

THEY INTERPRET the act as mandating that 
OSHA enact the most protective standard possible 
to eliminate a significant risk of material health 
impairment, subject to the constraints of eco- 
nomic and technological feasibility. The Court of 
Appeals held that the act did not require OSHA 
to compare costs and benefits. 

To resolve this debate, we must turn to the 
language, structure, and legislative history of the 
act. The starting point of our analysis is the Ian- 

Smaller Share for Business 


guage of the statute itself. Section 6(b)(5) of the 
act provides: 

“The Secretary, in promulgating standards deal- 
ing with toxic materials or harmful physical agents 
under this subsection, shall set the standard which 
most adequately assures, to the extent feasible, 
on the basis of the best available evidence, that no 
employee will suffer material impairment of health 
or functional capacity even if such employee has 
regular exposure to the hazard dealt with by such 
standard for the period of his working life.” 

Although their interpretations differ, all parties 
agree that the phrase “to the extent feasible” con- 
tains the critical language for purposes of this case. 

THE PLAIN MEANING of the word “feas- 
ible” supports respondents’ interpretation of the 
statute. According to Webster’s Dictionary “feas- 
ible” means “capable of being done. . . .” 

Thus, the act directs the Secretary to issue the 
standard that “most adequately assures . . . that 
no employee will suffer material impairment of 
health,” limited only by the extent to which this is 
“capable of being done.” 

In effect then, as the Court of Appeals held. 
Congress itself defined the basic relationship be- 
tween costs and benefits, by placing the “benefit” 
of workers health above all other considerations 
save those making attainment of this “benefit” 
unachievable. 

ANY STANDARD based on a balancing of 
costs and benefits by the Secretary that strikes a 
different balance than that struck by Congress 
would be inconsistent with the command set forth 
in the act. Thus, cost-benefit analysis by OSHA 
is not required by the statute because feasibility 
analysis is. 

The legislative history of the act, while conced- 
edly not crystal clear, provides general support 
for respondents interpretation. The congressional 
reports and debates certainly confirm that Con- 
gress meant “feasible” and nothing else in using 
that term. Congress was concerned that the act 
might be thought to require achievement of abso- 
lute safety, an impossible standard, and therefore 
insisted that health and safety goals be capable 
of economic and technological accomplishment. 

PERHAPS MOST TELLING is the absence 
of any indication whatsoever that Congress in- 
tended OSHA to conduct its own cost-benefit 
analysis before promulgating a toxic material or 
harmful physical agent standard. The legislative 
history demonstrates conclusively that Congress 
was fully aware that the act would impose real 
and substantial costs of compliance on industry, 
and believed that such costs were part of the cost 
of doing business. 

When Congress passed the act in 1970, it chose 
to place preeminent value on assuring employees 
a safe and healthful working environment, limited 
only by the feasibility of achieving such an envi- 
ronment. We must measure the validity of the 
Secretary’s actions against the requirements of 
that act. 


Tax Cut Proposals Would Add 
To Heavy Burden on Workers 


T he sharp business tax cuts shaped by 
the House Ways & Means Committee would 
shift more than one-third of the total corporate 
tax share to the already heavy burden carried by 
workers, AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald charged in a network radio interview. 

Pointing out that under current law, corpora- 
tions pay only 11 percent of the total tax bill, 
Oswald said that “the Democrats have outdone 
the Republicans” by allowing even faster depre- 
ciation and business expense writeoffs than the 
Administration had proposed. He said that as a 
result, the corporate share of total taxes would 
be slashed to less than 7 percent. 

“Somebody else has to pay those taxes — 
they’re not going to disappear — and that some- 
body else is going to be the workers of America,” 


he asserted on Labor News Conference, broadcast 
weekly by the Mutual radio network. 

OSWALD SAID the business tax cuts proposed 
by the Ways & Means Committee would largely 
benefit the biggest and wealthiest corporations, 
but would do little or nothing to help the new 
and struggling companies that most need relief. 
He said the specifically targeted business tax re- 
ductions urged by the AFL-CIO would provide 
the kind of help that the hardest-hit industries 
and areas of the country need. 

That kind of plan, he pointed out, “would 
not provide windfalls to large corporations . . . 
would not shift the tax burden onto individual 
taxpayers,” but would help lagging industries re- 
built their strength and compete effectively. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 


F ree and equal public education was one of the basic de- 
mands of working people 150 years ago. Today, the public 
school system remains one of labor’s — and democracy’s — greatest 
achievements. 

As almost every parent and neighborhood knows, the public 
school again is being forced to adapt under the pressures of de- 
clining enrollment, tight budgets and population shifts. 

As if public education systems did not have enough problems 
to deal with, the revival of the tuition tax credit proposals in Con- 
gress poses a direct and very dangerous threat to the aspirations of 
millions of people. For the tuition tax credit would finance private 
schools to the disadvantage of public schools, shift aid from work- 
ing class families to the rich and create a caste-like system of edu- 
cation. 

The public schools have survived through the upheavals of the 
Depression, World War II, the civil rights revolution, the baby 
boom and slump, and population shifts. 

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS may not survive the tuition tax credit, 
which would provide up to $500 a year for each child in a private 
college, vocational, elementary or secondary school. The eventual 
cost would be $4.7 billion a year and the money probably would 
be shifted from public schools in need to high-income families. 

Chairman Robert Dole (R-Kan.) of the Senate Finance Com- 
mittee stated the “thorny issues” fairly when hearings opened in 
early June on the tax credit and whether it might become part of 
the second tax bill later this year. 

Because about 85 percent of the private elementary and secon- 
dary schools are religiously affiliated, there is the argument that 
tuition payments violate the First Amendment ban on establish- 
ment of religion. Others argue that tax credits would drain brighter 
students from public to private schools. 

Others, Dole said, argue that in a time of fiscal restraint, it is 
hardly the time to cut federal aid to public education while granting 
a tax subsidy to parents of private schoolchildren. 

ON THE OTHER side. Dole added, proponents argue that edu- 
cation is best served by the diversity of educational philosophies 
and institutions found in healthy private and parochial schools. 

Grace Baisinger, a past president of the National PTA, testified 
as chairperson of the labor-backed National Coalition for Public 
Education. She said tax credits would be “bad economic policy, 
bad education policy and bad public policy.” 

Nancy Neuman of the League of Women Voters cited findings 
by sociologist James Coleman that families with incomes above 
$38,000 a year are more than four times as likely to send their 
kids to private schools than families with incomes under $7,000. 
Tax credits would lead toward an “educational caste system,” she 
asserted. 

Neuman also observed that “segregation academies” would be 
aided by such tax credits and quality integrated education would 
be undermined. 

WHEN A LABOR panel made up of the AFL-CIO, the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers and the National Education Associa- 
tion testified, tuition tax credit sponsor Sen. Daniel Patrick Moyni- 
han (D-N.Y.) lost his temper. 

It was a performance unworthy of a senator from a liberal 
state. Moynihan browbeat the witnesses and, in a statement carried 
on national TV, charged that the witnesses “dragged slime into 
this hearing room.” In fact, the labor testimony was similar or 
identical to that of others opposing the bill. 

Moynihan’s intemperate remarks recalled the old rule of trial 
lawyers. If the facts are on your side, argue the facts; if the law is 
on your side, argue the law; if you have neither the facts nor the 
law on your side, yell like hell. 



MORE THAN A THIRD of the corporate tax share will shift 
to the already heavy burden carried by workers if sharp busi- 
ness tax cuts shaped by the House Ways & Means Committee 
are adopted, AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald, cen- 
ter, charged. He was questioned on Labor News Conference by 
Frank Swoboda, left, of the Washington Post and Robert 
Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. The AFL-CIO produced pub- 
lic affairs program is aired weekly on the Mutual radio network. 


Page Six AFI^CIO NEWS, VASHINCTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 

Union Contracts Prove Value to Workers, Nation 


The union contract produced by col- 
lective bargaining represents a solid in- 
vestment for both workers and the nation, 
union economists Markley Roberts and 
William Bittle point out in the American 
Federationist. 

-Unionized workers not only earn more 
than non-union workers in similar occupa- 
tions and industries but also are more pro- 
ductive than their non-union counterparts, 
they note. 

The article in the AFL-CIO monthly 
magazine cites abundant evidence that 
unionization raises productivity to such a 
point that unionized employers can better 
afford to give higher pay and more fringe 
benefits to their workers. 

“TAKEN TOGETHER, higher earn- 
ings and higher productivity provide a 
sound basis for a growing, expanding U.S. 
economy with widely dispersed and rising 
mass consumer buying power and high- 
volume, cost-cutting mass production of 
the goods and services America’s people 
need and want for a rising standard of 
living,” the authors observe. Roberts is an 
economist for the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Economic Research and Bittle for the 
Machinists. 

No single study or statistical series gives 
the full story on relative wages of simi- 
larly situated workers on the basis of 
whether they are covered by a collective 
bargaining agreement, they note. Yet, the 
available information adds up to an over- 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The outcome was described by Na- 
tional Council of Senior Citizens President 
Jacob dayman as “vicious and cruel treat- 
ment of older people by the Administration 
and by all those in the Senate who sup- 
ported the Administration proposal.” 

Another Democratic-sponsored attempt 
at fund restoration was beaten by an al- 
most identical 52-46 vote, even though the 
amount of money involved is much smaller. 
It came on a motion to add $80 million to 
avoid cuts in federal funds for foster care 
and adoptive services. The Senate recon- 

Labor Film, Art 
Programs Slated 
For Smithsonian 

A labor film festival and a major art 
exhibit sponsored by two AFL-CIO unions 
and the Smithsonian Institution will be 
feature attractions in Washington, D.C., 
during July and August. 

The film festival, developed by the Ser- 
vice Employees, will run July 18 to Aug. 
17. It will include the public premiere of 
the AFL-CIO’s film, “A Time of Chal- 
lenge,” produced as part of the federa- 
tion’s celebration of the centennial of or- 
ganized labor in America. 

THE SMITHSONIAN also will host 
from July 16 to Aug. 21 “Images of La- 
bor,” an exhibit of 32 original works of 
art commissioned as part of the Bread & 
Roses cultural project of the Retail, 
Wholesale & Dept. Store Union’s District 
1199. 

SEIU’s festival will include among its 
24 offerings classic labor films and four 
new productions by the Steelworkers, Ma- 
chinists, Auto Workers and District 1199. 
Films will be shown free at the Smith- 
sonian’s Museum of American History. 

The same museum will house the art 
exhibit which includes paintings and sculp- 
ture by major American artists, each based 
on a quotation about the lives of working 
people. The Washington show is the first 
leg of a two-year national tour of the 
exhibit conducted under the auspices of 
the Smithsonian. 

A schedule of the titles and screening 
dates of the films is available from Lyn 
Goldfarb, SEIU, 2020 K St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. 


whelming case for the wage advantage of 
unionized workers. 

The most recent Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics report on “earnings and other char- 
acteristics of organized workers,” based 
on a May 1977 survey, found that union- 
ized blue-collar workers had usual weekly 
earnings averaging $266, or $72 higher 
than non-union, blue-collar workers’ earn- 
ings. 

Unionized service workers had usual 
weekly earnings averaging $212 a week, 
compared to the $135 a week earnings of 
non-union service workers. 

ON AN INDUSTRY basis, the overall 
union advantage was 19 percent — $262 
average weekly earnings for unionized 
workers compared to $221 for non-union 
workers. The biggest union differential 
was 49 percent for workers in the con- 
struction industry. 

More evidence is cited in unpublished 
BLS data from the May 1978 Current 
Population Survey which add industry, 
occupation and geographic details to the 
general union/ non-union pay picture. 
Earnings by occupation of workers paid 
on an hourly basis showed a big differen- 
tial in favor of union workers over non- 
union workers. 

Unionized blue-collar workers made 58 
percent more than non-union blue-collar 
workers, the data show. Unionized white- 
collar workers made 51 percent more than 
their non-union counterparts and union- 


ciliation bill would lump funding in with 
other programs as “block grants” to states 
and cut the total amount 25 percent. 

The block grant issue is one of the most 
important the House was to deal with as it 
took up a Democratic-crafted version of 
the reconciliation bill. 

CUTS IN THE House bill were almost 
as horrendous as the Senate version in 
terms of labor’s concerns, but the differ- 
ences were significant enough that the 
AFL-CIO legislative staff was actively 
lobbying against changes sought by the 
Administration. 

The further spending cuts Republicans 
were trying to add to the reconciliation 
bill through a substitute bill would affect 
student loans, child nutrition, social secu- 
rity, family welfare, housing, food stamps 
and federal employee retirement. 

In a letter to House members, AFL-CIO 
Legislative Director Ray Denison termed 
the GOP proposals “unmerited and unnec- 
essary” to stay within the budget ceilings. 

HE URGED especially rejection of a 
Republican attempt to wipe out a number 
of separate programs and lump them with 
reduced funding into block grants for the 
states to spend as they wish. 

“Passage of block grants is the beginning 
of a very short road to the total elimina- 
tion of federal funding for these essential 
and comprehensive education, health, en- 
ergy, social service and community de- 
velopment programs.” 

The House and Senate were both sched- 
uled to complete action on budget recon- 
ciliation before recessing until after the 
Fourth of July weekend. Differences be- 
tween the two measures must then be re- 
solved in a House-Senate conference. 

MOST ATTENTION in the House fo- 
cused on the political battle being waged 
by the White House to repeat President 
Reagan’s victory on the original budget 
resolution, when a large body of con- 
servative Democrats broke with the party 
leadership. 

House Republicans, supported by 3 1 
conservative Democrats, won a first-round 
victory on the budget reconciliation bill. 
On a 217-210 procedural vote, they won 
the right to package their amendments into 
a single substitute bill that would be easier 
to pass than a series of amendments. The 
vote was a political victory for President 
Reagan but the narrow margin showed a 
slippage in the conservative coalition 
strength. 


ized service workers held a 62-percent 
differential. 

ON A REGIONAL basis, earnings of 
unionized hourly paid workers exceeded 
non-union earnings in every U.S. region, 
with the highest differential, 81 percent, 
in the Rocky Mountain states, and the 
lowest, 46 percent, in the New England 
states. For the nation as a whole, as in 
the industry and occupation breakdown, 
the union advantage in pay was 66 per- 
cent. 

Union workers also do better than 
non-union workers with respect to fringe 
benefits, Roberts and Bittle observe. Un- 
published BLS data collected for a 1980 
report on “employee compensation in the 
private, non-farm economy” show that the 
$2.75 value of total benefits on an hourly 
basis for unionized workers exceeded the 
$1.13 value of total benefits for non- 
union workers by 143 ^percent. On an an- 
nual basis, the fringe benefit advantage 
for union workers was $3,300. 

UNIONS MAKE an important contri- 
bution to the efficient utilization of 
human capital, too, the authors point out, 
adding that more and more studies are 
now showing that union workers are much 
more productive than their non-union 
counterparts. 

One significant study, “Trade Unions 
in the Production Process” by Charles 
Brown of the University of Maryland and 
James Medoff of Harvard University, in 

iiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 

Social Security COLA 
Due in July Checks 

The social security checks for some 
36 million beneficiaries will be 11.2 per- 
cent higher in July, when a 12-month 
cost-of-living adjustment is put into 
effect 

The average monthly payment of 
$337 will rise to $374, reflecting the rise 
in the consumer price index from the 
first quarter of 1980 to the same period 
in 1981. Persons receiving railroad re- 
tirement benefits will get comparable 
increases. 

The percentage raise will also go to 
some 4 million low-income recipients re- 
ceiving Supplemental Security Income 
(SSI) payments, which are made out of 
general treasury revenues and not the 
social security trust funds. The maxi- 
mum SSI payment for an individual will 
go to $264.70. 

All increases will show up on checks 
that normally are delivered on July 3. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

AFL-CIO Calls for 
Bar to Commodity 
‘Tax Straddles’ 

Congress should take the profit out of 
a billion-dollar tax avoidance scheme in- 
stead of “slashing programs in the name 
of budget balancing,” the AFL-CIO said. 

The federation strongly endorsed a bill 
being considered by two Senate Finance 
subcommittees that would close the “tax 
straddle” loophole used by wealthy in- 
vestors and corporations to generate arti- 
ficial losses for tax purposes from com- 
modity transactions that have very little 
economic risk. 

Such straddles usually involve contracts 
for future purchases and sales of com- 
modities. By holding buy and sell con- 
tracts of equal amounts for different de- 
livery dates, speculators can take advan- 
tage of market movements to show paper 
losses while deferring taxes on actual gains. 

ENDING THIS tax avoidance scheme, 
the AFL-CIO noted, would bring in an 
additional $1.3 billion in revenues in 1982. 

At a time when tax policy should be 
used to promote economic growth and 
generate employment opportunities, “Con- 
gress can ill afford to ignore a tax shelter 
gimmick that serves to drive up the price 
of commodities, adds to the deficit and 
serves absolutely no economic purpose,” 
the federation declared. 


the 1978 Journal of Political Economy, 
found unionized establishments about 22 
percent more productive than non-union 
establishments — and union productivity 
advantage could even be as high as 30 
percent. 

Brown and Medoff give several reasons 
why unionized firms are more productive, 
with labor turnover among the principal 
factors. 

“Unionized workers have lower turn- 
over rates than do otherwise comparable 
workers in the non-union portion of the 
industry,” they observe. 

“HIGH TURNOVER can reduce pro- 
ductivity of a workforce through both a 
reduction of investment and a loss of firm 
specific training, interference with the 
functioning of a work group and the costs 
(e.g., personnel) of securing the requisite 
amount of labor.” 

The authors also say that the seniority 
system put in place by the union can raise 
productivity: “. . . Seniority can greatly 
weaken the feeling of rivalry among 
workers. This can increase the amount of 
informal training and assistance that 
workers are willing to provide others.” 

In light of the accumulating evidence 
that unionized workers produce more as 
well as earn more than non-union work- 
ers, Roberts and Bittle sum up, employers 
and American society in general should 
take a much more positive approach to 
unionism and collective bargaining. 

Oil Workers Put 
Job Security High 
On Contract List 

Denver — Guarantees against layoffs and 
plant closings are high on the list of 
priorities outlined by the Oil, Chemical & 
Atomic Workers for coming negotiations 
with the oil industry. 

The collective bargaining goals drafted 
by the union’s 12-member National Bar- 
gaining Policy Committee also call for a 
two-year contract providing substantial 
wage improvements and employer con- 
tributions to a supplemental pension plan. 

CURRENT OCAW agreements with 
the industry covering about 55,000 oil and 
petrochemical workers will expire next 
Jan. 7. 

OCAW President Robert F. Goss, who 
chairs the committee, reported that the 
eight specific proposals will be presented 
to the companies in November after they 
are ratified by the union’s oil industry 
bargaining units. 

The committee’s concerns for job se- 
curity were prompted by impending shut- 
downs of plants and refineries that employ 
OCAW members. Current agreements 
provide for a six-month notice by the em- 
ployer prior to plant shutdown. 

IN ADDITION to the guarantees 
against layoffs, the key goals are for: 

• A two-year agreement expiring Jan. 
7, 1984. 

• No regression in existing terms and 
conditions covering pensions, job health 
and safety clauses and pay differentials. 

• A substantial wage increase in each 
of the two years. The basic national rate 
for OCAW members is currently $11.60 
an hour. 

• A $24-per-week contribution for 
each OCAW-represented worker to the 
OCAW Union-Industry Pension Plan as a 
supplement to existing company pension 
plans. 

• “Premium-free” health care cover- 
age for all OCAW-represented workers, 
retirees, spouses and dependents. Com- 
panies have increased health plan con- 
tributions by $36.50 in the past two years, 
which has resulted in full employer pay- 
ments at some companies. Current cover- 
age for retirees varies widely in OCAW’s 
400 contracts with the oil industry. 

• Increasing vacations to seven weeks 
after 25 years of service from the current 
six weeks after 30 years. 

• An additional paid holiday, to be 
determined by the bargaining unit, for a 
total of 11. 


Senate GOP Blocks Move 
To Preserve Pension Floor 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 


Page Seven 


At AFL-CIO Conference 

Role of Unions Pressed 
In Safety Enforcement 



GEORGE MEANY PORTRAIT will hang at the elementary school in the 
Bronx, N.Y., that now bears his name. The framed picture was presented at 
dedication ceremonies to school principal Daniel N. Portelles, second from left, 
by AFL-CIO Regional Director Michael Mann. Present for the dedication were 
Mrs. Eileen Lee, left, Meany’s daughter, and his sisters, Mrs. Ann Cassin and 
Mrs. Helen Fitzpatrick, right. The school is in Meany’s boyhood neighborhood, 
a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. 

Drive Launched to Block 
Decontrol of Natural Gas 


Unions must step up their involvement 
in the government’s decision-making pro- 
cess on employer-contested job safety and 
health violations to assure that workers’ 
interests are protected. 

That message was stressed at a two- 
day AFL-CIO conference exploring the 
role and activities of the Occupational 
Safety & Health Review Commission. A 
major purpose of the meeting was to set 
forth practical ways for unions to better 
represent their members in the process. 

THE THREE-MEMBER commission 
was established by the 1970 job safety 
law to review contested citations imposed 
on employers by OSHA. 

Participants were greeted on the open- 
ing day of the conference by the landmark 
legal victory in the Supreme Court’s de- 
cision upholding the OSHA cotton dust 
standard. The justices blocked attempts 
by the Reagan Administration to require 
cost-benefit studies in the development of 
occupational safety and health standards. 

The 80 conference participants, repre- 
senting r AFL-CIO constitutional depart- 
ments, affiliates and state federations, were 
told that the OSHRC adjudication pro- 
cess is taking on added importance as the 

1 

Performer Unions 
Plan Protest on 
Arts Funding Cut 

New York — Delegates to the Actors & 
Artistes’ 10th biennial convention an- 
nounced plans for a “Save the Arts” rally 
here July 18 to protest President Reagan’s 
proposed cuts in funding for the National 
Endowment for the Arts and the National 
Endowment for the Humanities. 

The union and its constituent member 
organizations will coordinate the rally, 
which will take place at the Lincoln Cen- 
ter plaza. Similar demonstrations will be 
held in major cities across the country. 

The Actors & Artistes — a federation of 
nine AFL-CIO performer unions — has ap- 
pealed to Congress to save arts and hu- 
manities programs that would be severely 
crippled by the Administration’s budget 
cuts. 

In other action, the union re-elected 
Frederick O’Neal to his sixth straight two- 
year term as president. Also re-elected were 
Treasurer Harold M. Hoffman and Vice 
Presidents Chester Migden, DeLloyd 
Tibbs, H. O’Neill Shanks, Alan J. Nelson, 
and Executive Sec. Sanford I. Wolff. Wil- 
lard Swire was elected to replace Donald 
Grody, who is now with the Federation of 
Professional Athletes. 

The 4-As, as the union is commonly 
called, embraces Actors’ Equity, the Tele- 
vision & Radio Artists, Musical Artists, 
Variety Artists, Hebrew Actors, Italian 
Actors, Screen Actors, Screen Extras, and 
Puerto Rican Artists & Technicians. 


New York — Recorded illness and injury 
rates in the chemical industry declined 
23 percent over an eight-year period fol- 
lowing the adoption of OSHA regulations 
at a cost to companies of only $140 a year 
per worker, according to a study released 
by the Council on Economic Priorities. 

The study, Occupational Safety & 
Health in the Chemical Industry by Ran- 
dall Higgins and Ruth Ruttenberg, esti- 
mates that nearly 90,000 injuries and ill- 
nesses were averted because of the im- 
provements from 1972 through 1979. 

EVEN SO, the public interest group 
which evaluates the social responsibility 
performance of U.S. corporations, noted 
that the chemical industry has a rate of 
violations per OSHA inspection nearly 
three times the national average. The 
study points out that the severity of vio- 


volume of the commission’s caseload 
grows. 

THE NUMBER of the employer-con- 
tested OSHA citations has nearly doubled 
over the past seven years — increasing from 
3,901 in 1973 to 7,386 in 1980. 

During that period, the nature of the 
appeals process has changed in ways that 
fundamentally affect the rights of workers 
under the federal job safety law, AFL-CIO 
Vice President William H. McClennan 
observed in announcing the conference. 

“Eighty-nine percent of contested OSHA 
citations are being settled ‘out of court’ 
by negotiated agreements between employ- 
ers and Labor Dept, lawyers — often with 
no notice to and participation by union 
representatives,” McClennan noted. He 
also cited recent OSHRC and appellate 
court decisions that are causing unions 
problems in the adjudication procedures. 

“THESE DEVELOPMENTS make it 
more and more important for unions to 
become involved, to exercise their rights 
before the Review Commission and to 
protect the interests of the members they 
represent,” he stressed. 

“This means that union staffs should 
become more skilled and more knowledge- 
able in the exercise of their rights in this 
area of OSHA enforcement.” 

OSHRC Commissioner Bertram R. Cot- 
tine told the participants that while the 
nation has made progress in job safety 
and health over the years, much remains 
to be done in “the national effort to pro- 
tect human life and preserve human dig- 
nity.” 

COTTINE SAID that OSHRC has 
steadfastly upheld the right of worker rep- 
resentatives to participate in negotiations 
for the settlement of contested citations. 

“Obviously, the right to be heard does 
not compel a favorable result,” he ob- 
served. “But it does guarantee an oppor- 
tunity to actively participate in govern- 
ment decisions that vitally affect one’s 
health and safety.” 

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) warned 
the conference that the Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s government deregulation drive in- 
cludes an all-out attempt to undermine the 
safety and health protections of Ameri- 
can workers. 

HE SAID that the attacks on OSHA are 
an attempt to subsidize industry at the 
expense of workers, with workers and their 
families paying the price when they be- 
come victims of job injuries and disease. 

Miller called on unions to use all pos- 
sible means — court actions, protests, over- 
sight hearings, political campaigns — to 
make up for the lack of action by many 
Democrats in Congress to counter the 
Reagan Administration’s tactics. 

President Reagan has nominated Robert 
A. Rowland to a six-year term on the com- 
mission for the seat that has been vacant 
since Frank Bamako’s term expired Apr. 
28. Rowland, a former Texas assistant at- 
torney general, was vice chairman of the 
Reagan election committee in Texas. 


lations by chemical firms exceeds all other 
industries except mining. 

The 147-page study also rates the safety 
and health performance of the eight major 
chemical firms based on an extensive ex- 
amination of OSHA inspection records. 

Other key findings: 

• The general schedule of OSHA in- 
spections, singled out for criticism by the 
Reagan Administration and some members 
of Congress, has evidently played a posi- 
tive role in reducing health and safety 
hazards in the chemical industry. 

• Health inspections, a small fraction 
of OSHA’s operations during the agency’s 
early years, now constitute nearly one- 
third of all federal inspections in the 
chemical industry. 

• Health problems were numerous and 


(Continued from Page 1). 
trol, done by Employment Research Asso- 
ciates of Lansing, Mich., warned that the 
windfall profits from natural gas decontrol 
would quickly translate into a further in- 
crease in the already huge political power 
of the oil and gas companies. 

In the 1980 elections, “large sums were 
given to those whom the industry wanted 
to re-elect and to the opponents of mem- 
bers whom the industry wanted to defeat,” 
the study found. 

UNDER EXISTING law, the price of 
natural gas discovered after April 1977 is 
allowed to rise with inflation plus an addi- 
tional percentage that is supposed to bring 
it to the level of decontrolled oil prices 
by 1985. Gas found before April 1977 
would remain controlled unless the law 
were changed. 

Oil prices have gone up so rapidly that 
immediate decontrol of new gas would 
have a staggering effect on the economy. 
The estimate of a $260-billion price rise 
over four years and the loss of some 3.4 
million jobs are based on an assumption of 
an accelerated schedule of decontrol. 

An AFL-CIO Executive Council state- 
ment last February urged Congress to re- 
ject any speedup in the decontrol of nat- 
ural gas prices that would in effect allow 
the OPEC cartel to dictate the price that 
Americans pay for natural gas produced 
in this country as well as the price of oil. 

A NUMBER OF unions taking an ac- 
tive part in the coalition effort issued 
statements backing the campaign against 
decontrol. The UAW warned that “the 
auto industry could lose tens of thousands 
of jobs” because of loss of consumer buy- 
ing power, while higher costs for the in- 
gredients of automobiles would make it 
harder to compete with foreign auto mak- 
ers. 

President William H. Wynn of the Food 
& Commercial Workers said the higher 
consumer costs would have their most se- 


significant during the eight-year study, as 
only 17.6 percent of safety violations were 
classified serious, compared with 51 per- 
cent of the health violations. 

• Worker complaints prompted nearly 
41 percent of the OSHA inspections of 
the eight companies, compared with 27.3 
percent for the entire industry. 

# Worker-initiated inspections brought 
twice the average number of serious vio- 
lations per inspection as general inspec- 
tions. 

The study points out that although 
OSHA has been charged by some sectors 
as an agency that over-regulates business 
with unimportant regulations, no factual 
basis exists for the charges. The authors 
note that OSHA discarded 900 standards 
in 1977 that jt considered unrelated to 
safety and health protections for workers. 


vere job impact on the retail trade and 
food industries where the union’s mem- 
bers work. 

The State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees, Service Employees, Communica- 
tions Workers were among the large- 
membership groups expressing concern at 
the Energy Coalition’s news conference. 
And the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Work- 
ers made clear its commitment to the cam- 
paign to stop decontrol. OCAW members 
and their families are consumers as well 
as workers in the oil and gas industry and 
would be hurt by decontrol, the union said. 

Idaho AFL-CIO 
Elects Jim Kerns 
For Full Term 

Burley, Ida. — Jim Kerns, secretary- 
treasurer of the Idaho AFL-CIO for the 
past 1 2 years and its interim president 
since April, was elected to a full two-year 
term as president at the state labor fed- 
eration’s 23rd annual convention. 

The 1 83 convention delegates also elect- 
ed D. V. Maynard as secretary-treasurer 
and four new executive board members — 
Louis Foruria of the Carpenters, Jon 
Walters of the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers, Verlow Hadden of 
the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers and 
Tom Harn of the United Transportation 
Union. 

KERNS, A MEMBER of the Food & 
Commercial Workers, became interim 
president after Robert C. Kinghorn re- 
signed to become a regional director for 
the Operating Engineers. 

In setting priorities for the coming ses- 
sion of the state legislature which opens 
next January, the convention called for 
legislation to provide collective bargain- 
ing rights for all public employees in 
Idaho. Only fire fighters and teachers are 
currently covered by bargaining provi- 
sions, Kerns noted. 

Delegates also stressed the need to pro- 
tect worker safeguards from new attacks. 
In the last session of the legislature, at- 
tempts were made to repeal Idaho’s pre- 
vailing wage and to enact a “right-to-work” 
bill. Both measures were defeated. 

Gov. John V. Evans said in an address 
to delegates that even if the RTW bill 
been adopted, he would have vetoed it. 
The Senate rejected the measure 20-15 

after it cleared the House, 49-to-21. 

♦ 

PLANS FOR A statewide media cam- 
paign to promote organized labor were 
unveiled at the convention. The effort 
includes a series of television commer- 
cials beginning on Labor .Day to be fol- 
lowed by radio ads and press releases. 
The state federation is also launching a 
quarterly publication to expand its com- 
munications with union members. 


OSHA Found Effective in Chemical Industry 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 27, 1981 


For Docks, Shipyards 

Unions Defend Benefits 
Under Job Injury Law 



AFL-CIO WITNESSES at Senate hearings urge rejection of a bill that would 
cut back benefits and coverage of the Longshoremen’s & Harbor Workers’ Com- 
pensation Act. From left, Arleen Gilliam, workers’ compensation specialist in 
the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security; Legislative Rep. Jay Power, who pre- 
sented the testimony, and Associate Social Security Director Larry Smedley. 

Air Controllers Avert Strike, 
Vote on Contract Settlement 


The AFL-CIO and unions representing 
workers directly affected urged a Senate 
subcommittee to reject employer-sought 
cutbacks in the Longshoremen’s & Harbor 
Workers’ Compensation Act. 

The 1972 law, which governs workers’ 
compensation for injuries in shipyards as 
well as on the docks, also covers private 
employment in the District of Columbia. 
AFL-CIO Legislative Rep. Jay Power 
described it as a model law that should 
be emulated in other workers’ compen- 
sation programs. Its benefits, which em- 
ployers and insurance companies have 
attacked as too generous, “should be ex- 
tended to all workers,” he urged. 

POWER AND OTHER union wit- 
nesses reminded the Senate subcommittee 
that the 1972 law was a compromise that 
included important concessions to employ- 
ers that relieved them of liability under 
third-party suits. 

“Now they seek to back out of their 
part of the agreement,” Power protested. 

Bills introduced by Subcommittee 
Chairman Don Nickles (R-Okla.) and in 
the House by Rep. John Erlenbom (R- 
111.) seek to reform the law by limiting 
benefit increases, ending free choice of 
physicians and restricting eligibility. 

INDUSTRY AND insurance company 
witnesses urged its adoption, union repre- 
sentatives testified against the measure, 
and the Labor Dept. — ^which had origi- 
nally been scheduled to present the Ad- 
ministration’s position — cancelled its ap- 
pearance because its planned testimony 
had not yet been cleared by the Office of 
Management & Budget. 

Patrick Sullivan, legislative director of 
the Longshoremen, said insurance costs 
are high because of unsafe working con- 
ditions and because of pressure by ship- 
ping company operators to cut corners to 
reduce loading time so as to keep their 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the cost of new equipment and machinery. 
After a phase-in period, the committee bill 
would allow the entire cost to be written 
off in a single year. 

“Equally disturbing,” Kirkland said, “is 
the bipartisan support for other costly and 
long-resisted attempts to raid the U.S. 
Treasury, including the virtual elimination 
of estate and gift taxes, added breaks for 
oil royalty owners, slashes in the top tax 
rate on unearned income, and a variety 
of inequitable devices touted as savings 
incentives.” 

The AFL-CIO’s concern is that much 
of the tax savings to business would be 
used for speculative purposes, to buy other 
companies, invest overseas or finance shut- 
downs and relocations that destroy jobs, 
Kirkland said. 

EVEN A SOMEWHAT more equitable 
individual income tax cut than the Admin- 
istration has proposed would leave middle- 
income and moderate-income households 


vessels at sea as long as possible. 

He told the panel that the ILA supports 
steps to halt fraud in accident claims, but 
he charged that employers “begin with 
the unwarranted presumption that claims 
are fraudulent unless proven otherwise.” 

ONE WAY to cut down on claims, 
Sullivan suggested, is to have clear label- 
ing of toxic substances being transported 
and laws to protect longshoremen who 
might be endangered by leaks or spills. 

Steelworkers Legislative Director John 
J. Sheehan, whose union represents some 
17,000 shipbuilding and ship repair work- 
ers covered by the law, protested that the 
proposed cutbacks of jurisdiction would 
return the industry to conditions that 
existed before the 1972 law. Under the 
previous law, an injury over water was 
covered but state workers’ compensation 
laws would apply if a worker on the same 
job were hurt on land. 

If workers are building a ship, he said, 
“it should make no difference as to 
whether they are building it on land or 
over the water. The hazards are the same 
. . . and the compensation system should 
be the same.” 

Testifying along with Power were 
Frances Zwenig for the AFL-CIO Build- 
ing & Construction Trades Dept, and 
Ande Abbott for the Boilermakers. 

ABBOTT SUGGESTED that over- 
charging by the insurance industry may 
be responsible for some of the cost rises 
that employers attribute to passage of the 
1972 law. 

Zwenig reminded the subcommittee that 
workers’ compensation laws are intended 
for the protection of injured employees 
and complained that all the charges being 
proposed by the Nichols bill “seem de- 
signed to promote only the interest of 
employers and insurance carriers.” 


with a bigger share of the tax burden, 
Kjrkland noted. 

He urged the Ways & Means Committee 
to consider anew the concept of a social 
security tax credit coupled with targeted 
assistance to economically distressed in- 
dustries and other tax decisions to encour- 
age economic growth, job gains and pro- 
ductivity improvements. Two committee 
members, Frank J. Guarini (D-N.J.) and 
William M. Brodhead (D-Mich.), have in- 
troduced bills encompassing the AFL- 
CIO’s proposals. 

By contrast, Kirkland said, either the 
Reagan Administration’s corporate tax cut 
proposals or the version tentatively agreed 
to by the Ways & Means Committee 
“would destroy whatever fairness now ex- 
ists in the tax structure . . . relegating to 
the scrap heap the principle of a progres- 
sive tax system based on ability to pay.” 


The Air Traffic Controllers canceled 
their plans for a nationwide strike after 
the union’s negotiators reached a tentative 
agreement with the Federal Aviation Ad- 
ministration that would mean an average 
pay raise this year of $4,000 for the 
1 7,000 controllers who coordinate landings 
and takeoffs at large and small airports 
across the country. 

The pay boost, which must be ap- 
proved by Congress as well as PATCO 
members, includes a 6.6 percent increase 
— about $2,300 — under the terms of the 
settlement, plus the Administration’s 
planned 4.8 percent wage increase for all 
federal workers this October. 

THE UNION said mail ballots will be 
sent to members beginning June 29, and 
are expected to be counted at PATCO 
headquarters in Washington around the 
middle of July. 

PATCO President Robert Poli, who 
described the agreement as “a fair con- 
tract,” said he would recommend that 
members ratify its terms. If ratified, im- 
plementing legislation will be introduced 
in the House and Senate. 

Announcement of the settlement came 
at the end of a marathon negotiating ses- 
sion that extended five hours past the 
strike deadline of midnight, June 21, that 
had been set by the union a month earlier. 
The last contract with the FAA, the con- 
trollers’ employer, expired on Mar. 15. 

BESIDES WAGE increases, the pack- 
age gives PATCO members the right to 
participate in formulation of procedures 
to handle air traffic safely and efficiently 
and to make recommendations on new 
equipment. 

Other highlights of the 42-month settle- 
ment: 

• Relaxation of the previous limita- 
tion on premium pay to permit time-and- 
a-half after 36 hours. The controllers 
would still be required to work 40 hours a 
week, however. The effect would be to 
give controllers 42 hours’ pay for 40 hours 
of work. 


• An increase in the night pay differ- 
ential to 15 percent from the present 10 
percent. 

• Up to 14 weeks of severance pay 
for experienced controllers who must quit 
for medical reasons. 

POLI SAID the biggest change in the 
new agreement is that, through contract 
language, the government recognizes the 
air traffic controllers as unique federal 
employees with special needs. 

PATCO is affiliated with the Marine 
Engineers’ Beneficial Association and rep- 
resents about 14,000 of the nation’s 17,000 
air traffic controllers. 

Maritime Unions 
Win Bargaining 
Gains for 45,000 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Meanwhile, the Longshoremen nego- 
tiated a contract supplement for ILA 
members at Atlantic and Gulf Coast ma- 
rine terminals that establishes a $10 mil- 
lion incentive plan to help stimulate con- 
tainer handling work. 

The NMU agreements with the Mari- 
time Services Committee and the Tanker 
Services Committee provide for COL ad- 
justments every six months starting in 
December 1982. The SIU contracts with 
the same employer groups as well as the 
American Maritime Association and in- 
dependent ship owners have similar cost- 
of-living adjustments. 

Both unions put special emphasis on 
improving medical and dental insurance 
plans because of threatened cutbacks in 
the U.S. Public Health Service hospitals 
resulting from the Reagan Administration’s 
budget slashes. 

PENSION BENEFITS were increased 
$25 per month for regular retirees and 
seamen on disability retirement, the NMU 
reported. 

The SIU contracts provide for a paid 
holiday on Aug. 20, the birthday of the 
late Seafarers’ president, Paul Hall, while 
dropping the Lincoln’s birthday holiday. 

The new ILA supplemental agreement 
with port operators was attached to the 
union’s master agreement that runs 
through Sept. 30, 1983. 

THE SUPPLEMENT is designed to in- 
crease the availability of work for ILA 
members. It provides for the establish- 
ment of an emergency hearing panel to 
determine whether employers have com- 
mitted violations by diverting their cargo 
handling operations away from the docks. 

The issue developed after a federal 
court issued an injunction on behalf of 
the National Labor Relations Board sus- 
pending the use of contract rules protect- 
ing union work on container cargoes. 



Kirkland Blasts Tax Plan 
On ^Giveaways ’ to Business 



NAACP to Join Labor’s Solidarity Day Protest 



Denver — ^The NAACP voted enthusi- 
astic endorsement of the AFL-CIO’s Sol- 
idarity Day demonstration and called on 
more than 2,200 local branches to take 
part in the Sept. 19 rally in Washington 
“for jobs, justice and equity.” 

Nearly 5,000 delegates to the 72nd an- 
nual convention of the nation’s oldest civil 
rights organization applauded and adopted 
a Solidarity Day “emergency resolution” 
that was brought to the floor at the open- 
ing session of the convention. 

OTHER SPECIAL resolutions adopted 
at the same session with the support of the 
NAACP board sharply criticized Reagan 
Administration budget cuts and pressed for 
renewal of the Voting Rights Act, A few 
hours later, delegates sat politely but silent- 
ly through a speech by President Reagan. 


The Solidarity Day resolution and a 
message from AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland stressed the long and close alli- 
ance between the trade union and civil 
rights movements. 


In endorsing Solidarity Day, the 
NAACP cited the attempts by the Reagan 
Administration to “diminish or destroy” 
programs to help “the aged, the poor and 
the disadvantaged.” 


The resolution, adopted by voice vote 
without dissent, welcomed the initiative 
taken by the AFL-CIO and the federa- 
tion’s invitation to the NAACP and other 
concerned organizations “to participate in 
this timely demonstration.” 

UAW President Douglas A. Fraser, one 
of the speakers at a labor luncheon held 
during the convention, said his union is 
going all out to make Solidarity Day a 
success. 

“LET’S MAKE this the greatest dem- 
onstration since people of all walks of life 
and all colors marched in Washington in 
support of civil rights in 1963,” Fraser 
urged. 

Kirkland’s letter to NAACP Executive 
(Continued on Page 3) 


Right Wing Targets 8-Hour Day 



STALLING TACTICS by Postmaster Gen. William F. for a nationwide protest June 25. In Washington, APWU 
Bolger in contract talks covering 600,000 postal workers President Moe Biller and NALC Executive Vice President 
brought out thousands of members of the Letter Carriers, Tony Huerta are shown addressing the rally. Union con- 
Postal Workers and Mail Handlers division of the Laborers tracts with the Postal Service expire July 20. (Story, Page 8) 

Reagan ’s Budget Cuts 
Sweep Through House 

By David L. Perlman 


The House adopted a $38 billion pack- 
age of budget cuts and program changes 
sought by the Reagan Administration, ap- 
proving almost sight unseen a substitute 
budget reconciliation bill hundreds of 
pages long and pockmarked with scores 
of last-minute changes. 

On the showdown, a key 217-210 vote, 
29 conservative Democrats broke with 
their party’s leadership to support Reagan. 
On the other side of the aisle, the White 
House kept all Republicans in line, in- 

OSHA Standard 
On Lead Clears 
High Court Test 

By John R. Oravec 

The Supreme Court rejected challenges 
by the lead industry and the Reagan Ad- 
ministration to an OSHA standard that 
sharply reduces the hazard of lead poison- 
ing for more than 800,000 workers. 

Coming on the heels of a decision 12 
days earlier upholding the federal cotton 
dust regulation, the high court’s action 
reinforced its ruling against Administra- 
tion . attempts to impose cost-benefit tests 
by OSHA in developing safeguards on 
worker exposure to toxic substances. 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride, 
whose union represents a large segment 
of the lead industry’s workers, called on 
employers to move quickly to install en- 

(Continued on Page 7) 


eluding GOP “moderates” who in the past 
have crossed party lines to support pro- 
gressive programs. 

THE CUTS made by the conservative 
coalition were in most cases deeper than 
was required to comply with the stringent 
spending ceilings Congress had set in a 
budget resolution adopted last May. That 
resolution had directe(d 15 legislative com- 
mittees to reshape programs in their juris- 
diction to achieve the “savings” needed to 
meet the budget targets. 

By adopting the Republican substitute, 
the House scrapped the actions taken by 
its committees. At the bidding of the White 
House, it imposed deeper cuts in student 
loans, child nutrition, social security bene- 
fits, welfare, subsidized housing, food 
stamps and federal employee retirement 
benefits, among others. 

PERHAPS EVEN more far-reaching 
were portions of the Republican substitute 
bill that eliminated separate funding of a 
number of education and health programs. 
They would be replaced, with less total 
fun<iing, by general purpose “block grants” 
to the states. 

In a letter to House members before 
the vote, AFL-CIO Legislative Director 


RoUcall Vote on Page 6 


Ray Denison warned that the Administra- 
tion sees the switch to block grants as “the 
beginning of a very short road to the total 
elimination of federal funding for these 
essential and comprehensive education, 
health, energy, social service and commu- 
nity development programs.” 

President Reagan personally called all 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Job Loss Seen 
As Curbs Expire 
On Shoe Imports 

President Reagan’s decision to end im- 
port restrictions on certain kinds of foot- 
wear from Taiwan and South Korea will 
cause further job losses for American shoe 
workers already suffering from over 15- 
percent unemployment, union and industry 
leaders warned. 

Reagan’s action is “insensitive to the 
needs of these workers for jobs,” said 
Murray Finley, president of the Clothing 
& Textile Workers, and Jacob Sheinkman, 
the union’s secretary-treasurer. 

WILLIAM H. WYNN, president of the 
Food & Commercial Workers, said the 
President’s decision “flies in the face of the 
International Trade Commission’s finding 
that the domestic shoe industry was still 
being injured by imports” from the two 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Bill to Scuttle 
Rule Backed 
By Donovan 

The Reagan Administration is support- 
ing a Senate bill to repeal the eight-hour 
day standard for employees of federal 
contractors and has signaled approval of 
other legislative and administrative changes 
sought by employer and right-wing groups 
but strongly opposed by unions. 

Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan formally 
endorsed a bill to end the present require- 
ment or the Walsh-Healey Act and the 
Contract Work Hours & Safety Standards 
Act that overtime rates of time-and-one- 
half must be paid after eight hours in a 
day to workers employed on federal con- 
tracts, whether for procurement of goods, 
for services or on construction contracts. 
The bill, by Sen. William L. Armstrong 
(R-Colo.), would allow straight-time pay 
for 10 hours a day for persons employed 
on a work-week of four 10-hour days. 

DONOVAN wrote Senate Labor Com- 
mittee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) 
that the Administration supports the bill 
because the present overtime pay require- 
ment is a “disincentive” to the use of “un- 
conventional worktime arrangements” that 
could increase both job satisfaction and 
productivity. 

In testimony before the Senate commit- 
tee last March, the AFL-CIO noted that 
less than 1 percent of workers are on a 
10-hour day, 40-hour week schedule and 
that a high proportion of union contracts 
require at least time-and-one-half overtime 
rates after eight hours, with an increasing 
number specifying premium pay after a 
seven-hour day. The Armstrong bill “is 
moving in the wrong direction,” the fed- 
eration said. 

In the works, Donovan indicated, is for- 
mal Administration support for a submini- 
mum youth wage, a perennial demand of 
employer groups. 

EARLIER THIS year, Donovan said he 
wanted to wait on the report of the Mini- 
mum Wage Study Commission, a blue- 
(Continued on Page 8) 


llllllllllllilllllllilllllllilllllllllllllilllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ 

General Board Meeting Aug. 6 
To Mobilize for Solidarity Day 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has called an Aug. 6 meeting of the 
federation’s General Board, comprising the president or principal officer of each 
of the 102 affiliated unions, to discuss plans for the Sept. 19 “Solidarity Day” 
protest demonstration in Washington. 

The meeting vtill be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago following 
sessions of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, Aug. 3-5. 

“The American labor movement must provide national leadership in the 
present strug^e to protect and advance our country’s social and economic 
progress,” Kirkland said in a letter to General Board members. The meeting will 
examine “how best to mobilize our efforts in behalf of union members and those 
who share our concerns for a more just society,” he added. 

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Pape Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 4, 1981 


ILO Bids Soviet Union 
Take ‘Concrete’ Action 
To Assure Union Rights 


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Schedule for July Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

A workshop on newswriting and editing, an institute on organizing tech- 
niques, and a seminar on workers’ compensation highlight activities at the George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies, Silver Spring, Md., during July. 

In addition, nearly 100 trade unionists working for college degrees of Bachelor 
of Arts in Labor studies will spend the week of July 26-31 in residence, attend- 
ing classes and preparing for their next six months of home study. 

Four AFL-CIO affiliates will run their own staff training programs on campus 
during the month. The schedule: 

Organizing Techniques, July 6-10 — An institute on the essentials of successful 
organizing campaigns. Labor Board procedure will be reviewed. 

Workers’ Compensation, July 22-24 — ^A seminar for principal officers of state 
central bodies to explore in detail problems in state workers’ compensation pro- 
grams and legislative developments at the state and federal levels. This seminar 
is co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security. 

Newswriting & Editing for Union Publications, July 26-31 — An opportunity 
for union editors to sharpen their skills in news and headline writing, makeup, 
and editing for readability and credibility. This workshop is co-sponsored by the 
International Labor Press Association. 

Unions using the campus for their own leadership training are the Electrical, 
Radio & Machine Workers, July 5-10; School Administrators, July 12-17; Flight 
Attendants, July 12-17; Molders, July 19-24. 

The American Institute for Free Labor Development is conducting classes for 
40 Spanish-speaking women trade unionists from Latin American countries who 
are on campus all month. 

More information on these or other labor studies programs may be obtained 
from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., director, George Meany Center, 10000 New 
Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone 301/431-6400. 

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Kirkland Warns NIOSH Shift 
Could Weaken Agency’s Role 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
warned that the role of the National Insti- 
tute for Occupational Safety & Health may 
be seriously weakened by shifting the in- 
stitute’s headquarters from the Washing- 
ton area to Atlanta. He urged Health & 
Human Services Sec. Richard S. Schwei- 
ker to reconsider the move. 

In a letter to Schweiker, Kirkland ex- 
pressed concern that such a shift could 
impair the effectiveness of NIOSH’s re- 
search and investigation program, which 
ultimately would damage the effort to im- 
prove job safety and health conditions. 

HHS ANNOUNCED the planned shift 
of NIOSH headquarters with the naming 
of Dr. J. Donald Millar as the new director 
of operations. Millar had been director of 
the federal environmental health center at 
the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease 
Control. 

Kirkland said the transfer “could make 
it difficult for NIOSH to preserve its iden- 


The Voting Rights Act has been dra- 
matically successful and should be con- 
tinued, Steelworkers President Lloyd Mc- 
Bride and Auto Workers Vice President 
Marc Stepp testified at House hearings. 

Because of a history of Senate filibusters 
and delaying tactics on civil rights legisla- 
tion, a House Judiciary subcommittee 
headed by Rep. Don Edwards (D-Calif.) 
is taking up an extension bill more than 
a year before the Aug. 6, 1982, deadline. 

“VOTING DISCRIMINATION in this 
country has not ended,” McBride warned. 
“Instead it takes more subtle and more 
sophisticated forms” such as gerrymander- 
ing districts to nullify the impact of mi- 
nority votes. 

“When minority voting rights are 
abridged, all Americans suffer,” McBride 
stressed. 

Stepp termed it “essential” to continue 
the . national ban on literacy tests and the 
requirement for Justice Dept, approval of 
changes in political districts in parts of the 
nation where fewer than 50 percent of 
blacks or language minorities had been 
registered to vote. 

He cited the “great strides” taken since 


tity as an institute for the protection of 
workers’ health and safety by subordinat- 
ing its mission to that of the Centers for 
Disease Control.” 

He noted also that the move would be 
costly, resulting in a drain on the institute’s 
financial resources and a loss of highly 
qualified staff members who can’t make 
the move. About 1 07 key NIOSH positions 
will be transferred to Atlanta and another 
50 to Cincinnati. 

“In addition, the physical separation 
will endanger the close working relation- 
ship NIOSH must have with OSHA and 
EPA, as well as with union health and 
safety experts,” Kirkland pointed out. 

While expressing disappointment that 
affected groups and individuals were not 
consulted on the shift, Kirkland said la- 
bor’s primary concern is for the future 
ability of NIOSH to carry out its role in 
protecting the health and safety of Amer- 
ican workers. 


1965, when the Voting Rights Act was 
first passed, and urged that “we cannot 
take even one little step backward.” 

McBride said continuation of the 
requirement for pre-clearance of changes 
in voting districts in communities where 
this has been a problem is especially im- 
portant to assure that the redrawing of 
congressional districts required by the 
1980 census doesn’t result in “racial gerry- 
mandering.” 

Rep. Peter W. Rodino, Jr. (D-N.J.), 
chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, 
is the sponsor of the labor-backed bill to 
extend the law’s key provisions an addi- 
tional 10 years and to clarify a section 
dealing with standards for judging local 
and state voting laws. 

At the start of hearings in May, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland and the 
heads of the nation’s leading civil rights 
organizations endorsed the Rodino mea- 
sure. 

The Reagan Administration has not yet 
taken a position on extension of the Vot- 
ing Rights Act and the President side- 
stepped the issue in his address to the 
NAACP convention on June 29. 


Geneva — The International Labor Or- 
ganization has called on the Soviet Union 
to take “concrete measures” to live up to 
its commitments to guarantee workers the 
right to form independent unions of their 
choice. 

The call was made in a report adopted 
by the ILO’s general assembly in the final 
stage of a session that brought together 
nearly 1,900 trade unionists, employers 
and government representatives and their 
advisers from most of the ILO’s 145 mem- 
ber states. 

IN URGING action in the “near 
future” by the Soviet Union, the report 
said Moscow should bring its labor legis- 
lation into line with the ILO convention, a 
formal treaty establishing international 
standards for guaranteeing workers free- 
dom to organize and bargain without 
government interference. 

An assembly watchdog committee that 
regularly reviews how governments abide 
by the pledges under the ILO standards 
found a “divergence” between the rights 
guaranteed under the convention and what 
Soviet workers are permitted by the com- 
munist regime. 

Soviet delegate Alexander Malikov went 
before the assembly to “emphatically ob- 
ject” to the committee’s finding against 
Moscow, which had touched a raw nerve. 
Malikov attacked the ILO machinery for 
verifying compliance with the standards, 
charging that the ILO was assuming the 
role of a “supernational body with the 
functions of a tribunal.” 

BUT EDWARD J. Hickey, Jr., the legal 
expert on the U.S. worker delegation, 
praised the ILO efforts to have govern- 
ments toe the line they had drawn. 

Hickey reminded the assembly that Lech 
Walesa, head of Poland’s independent Soli- 
darity trade union federation, had expressed 
“grateful acknowledgment” earlier in the 
session for the role played by ILO in 
advising the Polish government on how to 
give full effort to the ILO convention on 
the right of workers to organize freely. 

This achievement, through direct con- 
tacts by ILO officials with Warsaw, is a 
“milestone — arising as it does in a com- 
munist country — and its significance in 
terms of advancing free and independent 
trade unionism and human dignity is ob- 
vious,” Hickey observed. 

MEANWHILE, the assembly’s presi- 
dent, Senegal’s Labor Minister Alioune 
Diagne, rejected an Arab bid to make 
political capital of the Israeli air strike on 
Iraq’s nuclear facilities at Tamuz. 

Refusing to allow the assembly to be 
sidetracked by a political issue outside the 
ILO’s scope, Diagne ruled “irreceivable” 
an Arab demand that the assembly con- 
demn Israel and expel the Jewish state 
from the ILO. 

With Eugenia Kemble of the Teachers 
and Mike Boggs, assistant director of the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of International Affairs, 
speaking out for U.S. workers, pro- 
Moscow propaganda slogans were neatly 
eliminated in committee from a Soviet 
draft resolution on disarmament. 

IN THE COMMITTEE version adopted 
by the assembly, the resolution simply 
called on the ILO to make whatever con- 
tribution it can “within its field of com- 
petence” to United Nations studies on the 
possible economic and social consequences 
of disarmament. 


A resolution adopted by the assembly 
on the proposal of U.S. Worker Delegate 



Irving Brown and other free workers made 
the “ratification and full application” of 
ILO standards a major goal of the “inter- 
national development strategy” for better- 
ing life in the Third World. 

Another free worker resolution ap- 
proved by the assembly calls on ILO 
member states to multiply their efforts to 
prepare, adopt and apply comprehensive 
training programs for workers. 

A CONVENTION for insuring that 
neither men nor women encounter job 
discrimination because of family obliga- 
tions was approved by the assembly for 
submission to governments for ratification. 

Joyce Miller, vice president of the 
Clothing & Textile Workers, and Jose 
Estrada of the American Institute for 
Free Labor Development took part in 
committee discussions on this convention. 

Ratifying governments will be obligated 
to assure as much as possible that workers 
with family responsibilities can “exercise 
their right to free choice of employment.” 

Leon Lynch, vice president of the Steel- 
workers, and Charles Gray of the Asian- 
American Free Labor Institute were the 
AFL-CIO team members who helped draft 
a convention to protect workers against 
job-related accidents and health hazards. 

ALSO APPROVED for submission to 
governments, the proposed treaty spells 
out the measures to be taken in consulta- 
tion with unions and employers to “form- 
ulate, implement and periodically review 
a coherent national policy” on occupa- 
tional health and safety. 

J. F. Otero, vice president of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks, and Jesse A. Fried- 
man of AIFLD represented U.S. workers 
in an assembly committee that prepared 
for final drafting at next year’s session 
new standards for social security protec- 
tion for migrant workers. 

Similar preparatory work on standards 
to protect workers against unfair dismis- 
sals was done in a committee that includes 
Robert F. Harbrant, president of the AFL- 
CIO Food & Beverage Trades Dept., and 
Lester N. Trachtman of the African- 
American Labor Center. 

Economic Signs 
Underscore Lag 
In Recovery Rate 

The government’s index of leading 
economic indicators, a barometer of future 
economic trends, plunged 1.8 percent in 
May, the largest monthly decline since it 
fell 2.5 percent a year earlier. 

The drop in the index, the third since 
January, confirmed the view of many 
economists that the economy’s recent 
pattern of growth had come to a halt. 
Commerce Sec. Malcolm Baldrige said the 
decline in the index, together with other 
information available, “suggests that the 
economic recovery that began last summer 
temporarily has stalled.” 

ANALYSTS WHO believe that business 
activity has buckled under the pressure of 
high interest rates since the beginning of 
the year were not too surprised by the 
latest Commerce Dept, report. They see 
continued weak economic growth through 
at least the third quarter of the year. 

Nine of the 10 available indicators in 
the May index contributed to the decline 
for the month. The biggest negative in- 
fluence was at the very beginning of the 
supply pipeline, an apparent drop in de- 
mand for crude materials like scrap iron 
and paper. 

Other factors feeding into the downturn 
were the layoff rate, new orders, the pace 
of deliveries, contracts and orders for 
plant and equipment, building permits, 
stock prices, liquid assets, and the money 
supply adjusted for inflation. The only 
indicator that gave off positive signals was 
the average workweek. 


Steelworkers, UAW Urge 
Renewal of Voting Rights Act 



r 

, 1 . 





.1 

T 













AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 4, 1981 


Page Three 





JT 






LABOR’S SUPPORT for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment was re- the 3,000 ERA supporters across from the White House by Florine Koole of the 
affirmed by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue in Washington, a focal Communications Workers and Joycelyn Thompson of the Machinists. Alan Alda, 
point of the June 30 nationwide ERA rally. Donahue was joined in addressing right, a member of the Screen Actors, keynoted the Washington rally. 


Hotel, Restaurant Delegates 
Adopt New Dues Strueture 


Chicago — Delegates to the 39th con- 
vention of the Hotel & Restaurant Em- 
ployees approved constitutional changes to 
streamline the union’s operations and 
bolster its national legislative and organiz- 
ing goals. 

The 350 delegates to the week-long 
meeting approved a five-step per capita and 
dues increase, and voted to change the 
union’s name, effective in late July, to the 
Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees 
International Union (HERE). The former 
name was Hotel & Restaurant Employees 
and Bartenders’ International Union. 

THE CURRENT $2.32 monthly per 
capita paid by local unions will increase 
on Oct. 1, 1981, by $1.06 for U.S. locals 
and $1.01 for Canadian affiliates, plus an 
additional 50 cents each Oct. 1 through 
1985. 

The delegates also voted to increase 
the current minimum membership dues of 

Flint Glass Union 
Spurs Action on 
Job Health Risks 

Hollywood, Fla. — Delegates to the 93rd 
convention of the Flint Glass Workers 
adopted a strong resolution calling for im- 
proved protections for workers from 
health and safety hazards in the industry. 

The delegates to the 12-day convention 
directed the union, which represents over 
32,000 workers in the manufacture of 
glass products, to support efforts to elimi- 
nate such dangerous substances as asbestos 
from their workplaces. 

The convention deplored attempts by 
the Reagan Administration to gut the pro- 
tections of the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act, minimum wage safeguards, 
wage and hour standards, social security 
benefits, unemployment compensation and 
other programs that benefit workers. 

AFGW PRESIDENT George Parker 
urged the membership of the 103-year-old 
union to support efforts to preserve these 
programs from budget-cutting assaults. 

Parker was re-elected by acclamation to 
his 11th two-year term, and . Ivan T. 
Uncapher was re-elected to his fifth term 
as secretary-treasurer. Also re-elected were 
Vice Presidents Robert W. Newell, Eugene 
Bowling and Ben Johnson. Lawrence 
Bankowski was re-elected as assistant sec- 
retary. 

President Jacob dayman of the Na- 
tional Council of Senior Citizens told the 
delegates that the Reagan Administration’s 
proposed cuts in the federal budget would 
amount to “disaster” for older Americans, 
and he urged them to press their represen- 
tatives in Congress to fight the cuts. 

Other speakers included Howard Ches- 
ter, chairman of the Stone, Clay & Glass 
Coordinating Committee, and Dr. Edward 
Holstein, an asbestos expert on the staff 
of New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital. 


$5.50 a month by $2.06 for U.S. and 
$2.01 for Canadian locals on Oct. 1, 1981, 
and by an additional $1 each October 
through 1985. Locals otherwise may set 
their own dues structures. 

The difference between the U.S. and 
Canadian rates reflects the 5 cents in 
the U.S. rate allocated to legislative ac- 
tivities. The additional penny in both cases 
will be earmarked as a contribution to 
St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. 

This will bring the union’s contribu- 
tion to the hospital, instituted at the 1976 
convention, to 3 cents per member per 
month. 

Edward T. Hanley was re-elected with- 
out opposition as the union’s president 
and John Gibson as secretary-treasurer, 
both to their second full five-year terms. 

The convention amended the union’s 
constitution to create the office of general 
vice president and elected John C. Ken- 
neally to the post. Kenneally had been 
assistant to the president. 

The position of director of organization 
was also made an elective office. Herman 
Leavitt, a vice president at large, was 
chosen to fill the position. 

THREE NEW district vice presidents 
were elected to fill vacancies left by retire- 
ments. They are Vito Pitta, District 2, 
New York; Rhonda Allgaier, District 8, 
Seattle; and Robert J. Gamberg, District 9, 
Monterey, Calif. Allgaier, along with 
Hanley, is also a vice president of the 
AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades Dept. 

Vincent Sirabella of Los Angeles and 
Jack Stafford of Las Vegas were elected 
vice presidents at large, expanding the 
number of district and at-large vice presi- 
dents to 19. All other incumbent vice pres- 
idents were re-elected. 

In his opening remarks to the delegates, 
Hanley called on the union’s members to 
gear up for the “challenges of organizing.” 

“WE HAVE NOT yet conquered pri- 
vation and hunger. Black and minority 
workers are still repressed. This must and 
will be changed,” Hanley declared. 

He pledged that the union would step 
up organizing to bring the “benefits of the 
union to more people” and to “counteract 
the actions of union-busters.” 

He urged the delegates to work to 
“thwart new attacks on labor by its an- 
tagonists,” and he scored the news media 
for “unfair treatment” of labor. 

AMONG THOSE addressing the con- 
vention were House Speaker Thomas P. 
O’Neill (D-Mass.), Rep. Dan Rosten- 
kowski (D-Ill.), Rep. Guy Vander Jagt 
(R-Mich.), Rev. Jesse Jackson, president 
of Operation PUSH, and Richard M. Daly, 
state’s attorney for Cook County, 111. 

Labor speakers included AFL-CIO 
COPE Director A1 Barkan; Earl D. Mc- 
David, secretary-treasurer of the AFL- 
CIO Union Label Dept; Robert F. Har- 
brant, president of the AFL-CIO Food & 
Beverage Trades Dept.; and Chicago AFL- 
CIO President William A. Lee. 


Britain ’s Jobless Rate 
Doubles in Two Years 

London — Britain’s unemployment 
rate zoomed to 11.1 percent in June, 
its highest level since the 1930s and 
double the rate since Conservative 
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 
election two years ago. 

The government’s Dept of Employ- 
ment said that 2,558,405 Britons were 
out of work last month, and that a figure 
of 3 million was possible by the end of 
the year. 

Joblessness has risen steadily as Mrs. 
Thatcher’s economic policies of mon- 
etarism, including spending cuts and 
attempts to balance the budget, have 
been implemented. The June jobless rate 
compares with 10.6 percent in May and 
6.9 percent a year earlier. 

David Basnett, chairman of the Brit- 
ish Trades Union Congress economic 
committee, said that “the last two years 
have been a brutal and costly lesson in 
how not to run the economy. . . . The 
only hope for the unemployed now is 
a complete reversal of economic priori- 
ties, so that creating new jobs is once 
again at the top of the agenda.” 

iniiimmiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimniiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiin 

NAACP to Join 
Solidarity Day 
Demonstration 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Director Benjamin L. Hooks expressed 
confidence and determination that hard- 
won progress will not be reversed. 

He cited the “fundamental changes” 
that the labor and civil rights alliance 
helped bring about. 

“WE HAVE swept away the age-old 
legal codes and legislative sanctions that 
perpetuated racial discrimination in our 
schools, in housing, in public accommo- 
dations and in the world of work,” Kirk- 
land said. 

Equality is closer to becoming “a fact 
of daily life, as well as of law,” he noted. 
And labor remains committed “to affirma- 
tive action programs necessary to open 
doors previously shut to minorities and 
women.” 

But Kirkland voiced concern at signs of 
retreat. “Violations of civil rights laws that 
would have been unthinkable even a year 
ago have already begun to surface in states 
where our opponents eagerly anticipate 
the demise of the Voting Rights Act,” he 
warned. 

And there is suffering ahead, he 
said, “as the Administration seeks to close 
one door after another in the face of those 
who need jobs, food, housing and the edu- 
cational, medical and social services their 
government will no longer supply.” 

The AFL-CIO is devoting its energies 
and resources to preserve a just society, 
Kirkland affirmed. 

“We are heartened,” he said, “to know 
that the NAACP is at our side.” 


Donahue Pledges 
Labor Push for 
ERA Ratification 

The AFL-CIO strongly reaffirmed its 
support for the Equal Rights Amendment 
and will continue working for its ratifica- 
tion, federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue told a crowd of 3,000 ERA sup- 
porters at a June 30 rally in Washington. 

The lunch-time gathering, dubbed a 
Countdown Rally, was one of 1 80 demon- 
strations sponsored nationwide by the Na- 
tional Organization for Women to drama- 
tize the final 12 months in the ratification 
process. Thirty-five of the required 38 
states have approved adding the amend- 
ment to the Constitution. 

THE AFL-CIO supports ERA “for one 
simple reason — because it is right,” Dona- 
hue said. The amendment “recognizes the 
fundamental dignity and individual rights 
of every human being. We believe in it, 
we have fought for it, and we will continue 
to fight for. the cause of individual human 
dignity above all other causes,” he said. 

He pledged that the federation and its 
state and local councils will be active in 
urging legislation in states that have not 
ratified the amendment to do so before the 
June 30, 1982, deadline. 

Donahue pointed out the opposition to 
the ERA is being led by the same people 
who are seeking to take away laws and 
programs that benefit and protect workers, 
the elderly and the needy. 

“ERA— AND ALL the social justice 
issues — are opposed, even hated, by a loud, 
noisy minority that so distorts the issues 
with the ‘Big Lie’ technique that it has 
thwarted the will of the majority of the 
citizens of this country,” Donahue said. 

He urged those attending the rally “to 
raise the real voice of the majority of 
Americans so that it is heard in every 
state legislature, in Congress and in the 
White House,” and he called on ERA sup- 
porters to join the AFL-CIO’s “Solidarity 
Day” demonstration Sept. 19 in Wash- 
ington. 

“That day, we will reaffirm the labor 
movement’s historic commitment to social 
and economic justice, and that includes, 
above all, a commitment to equality,” 
Donahue told the gathering. 

OTHER LABOR speakers at the rally 
included Florine Koole, assistant to the 
executive vice president of the Communi- 
cations Workers, and Joycelyn Thompson, 
assistant director of the Machinists’ Hu- 
man Rights Dept. 

The roster of more than 25 speakers 
included NOW President Eleanor Smeal 
and actor Alan Alda. 

John Svahn New Chief 
Of Social Security Agency 

Baltimore — ^The new head of the Social 
Security Administration, the largest unit 
of the Dept, of Health & Human Services, 
is John A. Svahn, who was a state welfare 
official in California when President Rea- 
gan was governor. 

The social security commissioner will 
administer a program that provides some 
$144 billion a year in benefits. 



PaC0 Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, JULY 4, 1981 



The Budget Surrender 

C ONGRESS HAS come full circle in the budget-setting process, 
and it has only itself to blame. 

It has allowed the White House to seize the machinery it set up 
in 1974 in rebellion against presidential domination of the budget 
process. 

The Congressional Budget Act that was passed then by near- 
unanimous votes of the House and Senate established procedures 
to set overall budget targets that in later revisions would be broken 
down into program functions and made binding. While the mechju 
nism was overly complex and often overly restrictive, the intent was 
good. There was in the early years substantial bipartisan cocq)era- 
tion in trying to make it work. 

IN THE SAME LAW, Congress established its own non- 
partisan budget office to provide the economic research needed for 
decision-making and to estimate the cost impact of program 
changes. 

But this year, first the Senate and then the House surrendered 
the decision-making role to the Reagan Administration. The 
budget reconciliation bills passed by the Senate and the House 
bear the mark of the Reagan White House, with only a few thin 
surface changes made by congressional committees. 

And the reconciliation process, intended as the final step in 
setting binding budget ceilings at the start of the fiscal year in 
October, has been converted by this Administration into a legisla- 
tive shortcut to repeal and amend laws without separate considera- 
tion by Congress. 

TRADE ADJUSTMENT assistance and the minimum social 
security benefit are among the many programs that are likely to 
disappear with hardly a passing mention in the Congressional Rec- 
ord. Look for their demise somewhere in a bill hundreds of pages 
long that only a few congressional staffers have read in its entirety. 

The scene on the House floor a few days ago was described 
by the chairman of the House Budget Committee as “a shameless 
charade of the legislative process gone mad.” 

A majority of the House, once so jealous of its role as a part 
of the Legislative rather than the Executive Branch of the govern- 
ment, surrendered all independent judgment. Who knew what 
those scrawled changes in a photo copy of the bill were intended 
to mean? Was it true, as some warned, that science research funds 
for government agencies were abolished? And if so, was it by 
intention or carelessness? Just what last minute changes had been 
made by the White House to corral a needed vote? 

THE HOUSE ACTION was proclaimed by the newspaper head- 
lines as a big political victory for President Reagan. 

But the real loser was not the House Democratic leadership or 
the committee chairmen who had labored to meet unrealistic bud- 
get ceilings. The real loser, for now, is the Congress of the United 
States. 

In the long run, the loser will be the American people. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


s Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, July 4, 1981 


No. 27 I 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. 





‘Hey Fellas, an Invite!’ 



Facts Refute Claims ^ 

Statisticians Challenge Reagan ^ 
On Exaggeration of Tax Bite 


By Gus Tyler 

J UST HOW BIG a bite do taxes take out of the 
average income? “Today,” advises President 
Reagan, “we have to work four months to pay 
that bill.” In contrast, he noted, “prior to World 
War II, taxes were such that on the average we 
only had to work a little over one month each 
year to pay our federal, state and lotal tax bill.” 

That statement stirred a couple of statisticians 
into action. In a series of pieces they have been 
running in the New York Statistician, official pub- 
lication of the New York Chapter of the American 
Statistical Association, on the “Misuse of Sta- 
tistics,” H. F. Spirer and A. J. Jaffe of the Univer- 
sity of Connecticut and Columbia University, re- 
spectively, have been doggedly tracking down the 
inaccuracy of figures in common usage. So when 
they saw the Reagan statement about how we 
spend one-third of our earning time to pay taxes, 
as contrasted with only one-twelfth before World 
War I, these two watchdogs began to howl. 

WHAT THESE ACADEMICS found in the 
latest issue of Statistical Abstracts of the United 
States is that “direct taxes have gone from 14 per- 
cent of income to 22 percent,” a 53 percent in- 
crease from the period before World War II to 
the present. 

“The average working time to pay direct taxes 
has increased from 1.7 months to 2.6 months, also 
an increase of 53 percent.” Although nobody is 
happy with this increase, the two statisticians re- 
mind us that the increase is less than one-seventh 
of the President’s figure. 

Another way to calculate taxes is to go beyond 
“direct” taxes to all kinds of taxes collected at all 
levels of the government. Here the increase from 
the pre-war days to the present is 16 percent.” 
The record, based on documents published by the 
government, shows that there is “no official data 
support (for) the President’s dramatic assertion of 
a 400 percent increase.” 

THE SCHOLARLY PIECE then addresses 
another Reagan comment: “The percentage of 
your earnings the federal government took in 
taxes in 1960 has almost doubled.” Actually, “the 
increase in average percentage of income paid in 
individual income taxes has gone from 10.9 per- 
cent to 12.2 percent, a growth of about 11 per- 
cent.” 


So what the President declared to be a 200 per- ^ - - 
cent increase is only a small fraction of that - 
amount. 

In short, the President was in error — ^^according - - 
to official publications. Wrong about the percent- 
age of earnings going for direct taxes; wrong 
about the percentage going for all kinds of taxes; . _ 
wrong about the increase in the last 20 years. 

Now we can be fairly sure that the President 
was not aware that he was exaggerating wildly. 

He undoubtedly was reciting “fact” given to him ♦ 
by someone on staff. " ^ 

BUT THE IMPACT on policy is the same as > 
if Reagan had done his own research. What he ’ ^ 
said is taken for the truth and is heard by millions. ^ ^ 

What the New York Statistician says is read by ^ - 
few — very few— a handful of academicians who 
subscribe to this two-page publication. 

Is it any wonder that so much of public policy - 
is promulgated in ignorance? : 

^Equality of Rights ... 
Shall Not Be Denied^ 

Some day the United States Constitution will v 
include the sentence: “Equality of rights under > - 
the law shall not be denied or abridged by the ? 
United States or any state on account of sex.’’ _ ^ 

The AFL-CIO strongly endorses ratification 
of the Equal Rights Amendment because it is ^ 
right • . • because it recognizes the fundamental - 
dignity and individual rights of every human " ^ 
being. 

In those state legislatures where the struggle " ^ 
will be focused in these next 12 months, we will * ^ ^ 

testify, we will lobby. ^ 

And we will march. You will find the men ' " 
and women of organized labor in the vanguard ^ 
of every march for ERA across the country. ^ " 

We want to see ERA ratified. And we want > ^ 
to put the enemies of equality on notice that this ^ 
is a fight that we wHl never abandon. 

Together, we will prevail. - - 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R, Dona- " 
hue in a speech at the ERA Countdown Rally, 
Washington, D.C,, June 30, 1981, " ^ ^ 

imiiiiimiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiintiiiiimiiiiiiniiin ^ 


AFL^IO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.CL, JULY 4, 1981 


Pag« Five 


Election Message Distorted 

Reagan Administration Bases 
Program on Invented Mandate’ 


The following is excerpted from an article in 
the Washington Post, June 28, 1981, The author 
is senior study director of the 1980 American 
National Election Study at the University of 
Michigan's Institute for Social Research. 

By Arthur H. MUler 

T his may go down in political annals as 
the Year of the Invented Mandate. 

Treasury Sec. Donald Regan, defending the 
Administration’s three-year tax cut plan, pro- 
claims that the president “was elected on this 
basis.” Vice President George Bush declares that 
congressional opponents of the president’s spend- 
ing and tax cut proposals would “in effect thwart 
the mandate of the people.” 

Budget chief David Stockman adds his asser- 
tions that cuts in social programs are dictated by 
the elections, and Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt de- 
fends anti-abortion, pro-capital punishment and 
other conservative social causes by contending: 
“That’s what the election was all about. It is part 
of the Reagan mandate.” 

ALL THIS MAY or may not be good politics 
but it certainly is nonsense, and awfully repeti- 
tious nonsense at that. If Administration officials 
are going to keep it up, there is little choice but to 
repeat back, emphatically: That is not what the 
election was about. The accumulating evidence 
makes it quite clear that the November returns 
provided none of these claimed mandates, just as 
they did not represent the broader “historic polit- 
ical realignment” that more than a few observers 
have suggested. 

The more limited and tentative messages of the. 
election are particularly evident in the emerging 
findings of our 1980 American National Election 
Study at the University of Michigan’s Institute for 
Social Research (ISR). These, I think, bear some 
scrutiny if we are to avoid, on this and other 
scores, the kind of inflated rhetoric which is not 
merely contrary to the majority’s wishes but which 
may ultimately lead us back to deep disillusion- 
ment with our political system. 

Consider, for example. Sec. Regan’s imagined 
tax mandate. The reality, our study shows, is that 
less than half the Republicans and independents 
and only a third of the Democrats who voted for 
President Reagan favored his three-year tax cut 
proposal. The president clearly was not “elected 
on this basis,” and later evidence gives no reason 
to believe his tax plan has inspired more con- 
fidence since November. 

A NATIONWIDE POLL taken in mid-April 
by the Los Angeles Times found that less than half 
of all registered voters interviewed thought a 
Reagan-style, across-the-board tax cut would get 
the economy moving again. Similarly, the separate 
May ISR Survey of Consumer Attitudes showed 
that only 41 percent of respondents thought they 
would be better off if President Reagan’s plan to 
reduce federal taxes and spending were enacted. 


The same holds for the Administration’s across- 
the-board cuts in social programs. The election 
provided no “mandate” for this drive, no matter 
what David Stockman pretends. On the contrary, 
our study confirms other findings showing that 
voters in 1980 continued to express their long- 
standing support for these programs. 

NOR HAS ANY significant shift in preferences 
for social programs been detectable since the elec- 
tion. In April the CBS/New York Times Poll 
even reported that those identifying themselves as 
conservatives opposed spending reductions for 
such programs as the Comprehensive Employment 
& Training Act (government jobs for the unem- 
ployed) or loans to college students, both currently 
on the Reagan chopping block. 

One could scarcely find better evidence of popu- 
lar opposition to domestic spending reductions, in 
fact, than the fears of Reagan supporters about 
voting on individual program cuts in the House 
budget battle last week. 

Least of all can one find evidence of Sen. Lax- 
alt’s mythical “mandate” on a social issue like 
abortion. If it needs saying again, in November, 
as for a decade, the country was firmly committed 
to a woman’s right to have an abortion. 

WHAT DID THE election say? It may leave 
political theologians on all sides unsatisfied, but 
the 1980 vote essentially was an expression of 
growing American worry about inflation and our 
slipping economic growth, as well as about U.S, 
military strength and prestige abroad — not a clear 
endorsement of specific means for solving these 
universally recognized concerns. 

In other words, despite the striking Reagan 
sweep of the electoral college, the 1980 election 
was not ideological in terms of issues. Our study 
shows that ideology in fact plaved a less important 
role in 1980 than it did in 1976 to 1972. 

A majority of both Carter and Reagan voters, 
for example, favored increased military spending. 
But they did not view this suddenly acquired pref- 
erence — a response to events in Iran and Afghan- 
istan — as a tradeoff for reduced outlays in long- 
supported domestic social programs. Rather, our 
study makes clear, military increases were sup- 
ported in addition to domestic programs. 

The support for reduced spending that voters 
did express in the 1980 election, our study shows, 
was more a response to the belief that waste and 
incompetence can be cut in all areas, defense as 
well as domestic, than an ideological rejection of 
all Great Society programs. 

It should be abundantly clear from all this that 
Reagan did not have a mandate for most of his 
policies at election time and has not yet suc- 
ceeded in establishing a popular consensus. The 
Administration’s repeated claims to “mandates” 
can thus be seen as part of its attempt to in fact 
create such a consensus today, either by inventing 
popular wishes or using selective evidence to sup- 
port its case. 


Reagan Plan Protested 

Proposed Social Security Cuts 
Heighten Concerns of Workers 


T TNION MEMBERS are increasingly upset over 
^ the Administration’s wide-ranging budget 
slashes, AFL-CIO Vice President John DeConcini 
declared in a network radio interview. 

The proposal for drastic reduction of social 
security benefits has “struck a very discordant 
note” among workers, as they realize that the 
Administration’s plan would sweep away much of 
the retirement protection they have paid for and 
'counted on throughout their working lives, De- 
Concini said. 

DeConcini, president of the Bakery, Confec- 
tionery & Tobacco Workers, said the proposed 
social security cuts will be a major focus of that 
union’s protests in the AFL-CIO Solidarity Day 
demonstration Sept. 19 in Washington. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor News Con- 
ference, DeConcini said the union’s new emphasis 
on worker education is helping local union offi- 
cers, shop stewards and rank-and-file members 


gain a much better understanding of how the 
issues fought out in Congress and state legisla- 
tures have a direct impact on the quality of their 
lives and communities. He said the education 
effort has been a key element in the stepped-up 
political awareness and activity among the union’s 
membership. 

WHILE TECHNOLOGICAL advances have 
affected many of the jobs in the baking, candy and 
tobacco industries, DeConcini said, negotiated 
provisions in the collective bargaining agreements 
have given the union effective input into manning 
and other aspects of the automated processes that 
has helped ease the impact on individual workers. 

He said newly established “open and frank 
discussions” between the American Bakers Asso- 
ciation and the union have also produced “very 
useful exchanges” on both union and industry 
problems, and that the union intends to continue 
such communications. 



By Press Associates, Imc. 

TTEADY WITH SUCCESS in pushing its budget and tax pro- 
gram through Congress thus far, the Reagan Administration 
is expected soon to press for congressional approval of a scheme 
which a recent study says “would mean the most rapid and massive 
transfer of money from one sector of the economy to another in 
American history.” 

As with the Administration’s budget and tax proposals, what 
one critic called “the missing piece” of the Reagan economic 
package — the decontrol of natural gas — would benefit the wealthy 
at the expense of working people and the poor. 

In the case of gas decontrol, those who would reap the benefits 
are those who are least in need — the 20 largest oil conglomerates 
who own more than 60 percent of the nation’s natural gas reserves. 

While further bloating the wealth and power of the oil giants, 
decontrol would result in massive job loss, higher inflation, and 
extreme hardship for lower income and elderly persons who use 
natural gas for heating and cooking and who already pay from 
35 to 50 percent of their income for energy. 

FOR THE 60 PERCENT of American households which de- 
pend on gas, prices would at least double — to an average of over 
$1,000 a year. 

These expected consequences are explained in a study prepared 
by an independent research firm and released in late June by the 
Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition. The 200-organization coalition 
is launching an educational and lobbying campaign to fight gas 
decontrol. 

Under current law, natural gas prices will increase each year 
until 1985, when they will be deregulated and allowed to rise to 
the equivalent OPEC oil price. The President has the authority to 
continue controls two years beyond 1985. 

During his campaign for President, Reagan advocated gas de- 
control. Budget Director David Stockman and Interior Sec. James 
Watt are pushing for immediate decontrol, an even more extreme 
alternative to the existing law than accelerated decontrol. Accel- 
erated decontrol would boost gas prices at a much faster rate 
than the current schedule allows. 

UNDER ACCELERATED decontrol, the coalition study 
warns, 3.4 million jobs would be lost over the next four years in 
every major sector of the economy: retail and wholesale trade, 
agriculture, transportation, services, and manufacturing. This is 
because homeowners and tenants will pay an additional $86 billion 
for gas and will have that much less to spend on consumer pur- 
chases. 

Of the 157 industries studied, only three would have a net gain 
of jobs: oil and gas well drilling, oil and gas exploration, and oil 
field construction machinery — all of them highly capital intensive 
rather than job-creating. 

Also, business would have less capital available for job-creating 
investment and revitalization of the economy. Many smaller busi- 
nesses would be forced to shut down, accelerating the already high 
rate of bankruptcies. 

Decontrol will help only the oil and gas companies which 
already are awash with record profits far in excess of invest- 
ment needs. These companies have so much extra cash that they 
have been busy gobbling up other companies and increasing their 
already immense economic power. 

Their economic power also means political influence, and these 
energy giants long have been adept at electing their friends to 
Congress. During the 1980 elections, oil and gas industry PACs 
spent over $6 million. 

The American people must make it clear to Congress that they 
will not tolerate a huge ripoff which will hurt all consumers and 
which serves no purpose except to increase further an already 
dangerous concentration of economic and political power. 



DISCONTENT IS GROWING among workers as they see big 
chunks of the gains that they and their unions fought for swept 
away by the Administration’s budget slashers. President John 
DeConcini, center, of the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco 
Workers said. He was questioned on Labor News Conference 
by Alan Adams, left, of Employment Relations Report and 
Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. The AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Pas^e Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 4, 1981 


Key House Vote to Worsen Budget Cuts 


The House passed a labor-opposed budget reconciliation bill 
drawn up by the White House as a substitute for less drastic cut- 
backs that would have met congressional budget goals. This 217- 
210 vote on June 25, which defeated the Democratic leadership 
on a key procedural issue, did the damage. 

On labor* s scoreboard, right votes (R) were cast by 209 Demo- 
crats and, inadvertently, by one Republican. [Republican John T. 
Myers (R-Ind.) explained that he had meant to cast his vote for 
the Reagan position.^ Voting wrong (W) were 29 Democrats and 
188 Republicans. 

Numerals show congressional districts. A — absent. 


ALABAMA 

1. Edwards (R) 

W 

2. Dickinson (R) 

W 

3. Nichols (D) 

w 

4. Bevill (D) 

R 

5. Flippo (D) 

R 

6. Smith (R) 

W 

7. Shelby (D) 

W 

ALASKA 

AL Young (R) 

W 

ARIZONA 

1. Rhodes (R) 

W 

2. Udall (D) 

R 

3. Stump (D) 

W 

4. Rudd (R) 

W 

ARKANSAS 

1. Alexander (D) 

R 

2. Bethune (R) 

W 

3. Hammerschmidt (R) 

W 

4. Anthony (D) 

R 

CALIFORNIA 

1. Chappie (R) 

W 

2. Clausen (R) 

W 

3. Matsui (D) 

R 

4. Fazio (D) 

R 

5. Burton, John (D) 

R 

6. Burton, Phillip (D) 

R 

7. Miller (D) 

R 

8. Dellums (D) 

R 

9. Stark (D) 

R 

10. Edwards (D) 

R 

11. Lantos(D) 

R 

12. McCloskey (R) 

W 

13. Mineta (D) 

R 

14. Shumway (R) 

W 

15. Coelho (D) 

R 

16. Panetta (D) 

R 

17. Pashayan (R) 

W 

18. Thomas (R) 

W 

19. Lagomarsino (R) 

W 

20. Goldwater (R) 

W 

21. Fiedler (R) 

W 

22. Moorhead (R) 

W 

23. Beilenson (D) 

R 

24. Waxman (D) 

R 

25. Roybal (D) 

R 

26. Rousselot (R) 

W 

27. Dornan (R) 

W 

28. Dixon (D) 

R 

29. Hawkins (D) 

R 

30. Danielson (D) 

A 

31. Dymally (D) 

R 

32. Anderson (D) 

R 

33. Grisham (R) 

W 

34. Lungren (R) 

W 

35. Dreier (R) 

W 

36. Brown (D) 

R 

37. Lewis (R) 

A 

38. Patterson (D) 

R 

39. Dannemeyer (R) 

W 

40. Badham (R) 

W 

41. Lowery (R) 

W 

42. Hunter (R) 

W 

43. Burgener (R) 

W 

COLORADO 

1. Schroeder (D) 

R 

2. Wirth (D) 

R 

3. Kogovsek (D) 

R 

4. Brown (R) 

W 

5. Kramer (R) 

W 

CONNECTICUT 

1. Cotter (D) 

A 

2. Gejdenson (D) 

R 

3. DeNardis (R) 

W 

4. McKinney (R) 

W 

5. Ratchford (D) 

R 

6. Moffett (D) 

R 

DELAWARE 

AL Evans (R) 

W 

FLORIDA 

1. Hutto (D) 

W 

2. Fuqua (D) 

R 

3. Bennett (D) 

W 

4. Chappell (D) 

W 

5. McCollum (R) 

W 

6. Young (R) 

W 

7. Gibbons (D) 

R 

8. Ireland (D) 

W 

9. Nelson (D) 

R 

10. Bafalis (R) 

W 

11. Mica (D) 

R 


12. Shaw(R) 

W 

13. Lehman (D) 

R 

14. Pepper (D) 

R 

15. Fascell (D) 

R 

GEORGIA 

1. Ginn (D) 

R 

2. Hatcher (D) 

R 

3. Brinkley (D) 

R 

4. Levitas (D) 

R 

5. Fowler (D) 

R 

6. Gingrich (R) 

W 

7. McDonald (D) 

W 

8. Evans (D) 

W 

9. Jenkins (D) 

R 

10. Barnard (D) 

W 

HAWAH 

1. Heftel (D) 

R 

2. Akaka (D) 

R 

IDAHO 

1. Craig (R) 

W 

2. Hansen (R) 

W 

ILLINOIS 

1 . Washington (D) 

R 

2. Savage (D) 

R 

3. Russo (D) 

R 

4. Derwinski (R) - 

W 

5. Fary (D) 

R 

6. Hyde (R) 

W 

7. Collins (D) 

R 

8. Rostenkowski (D) 

R 

9. Yates (D) 

R 

10. Porter (R) 

W 

11. Annunzio (D) 

R 

12. Crane, Philip (R) 

W 

13. McClory (R) 

W 

14. Erlenborn (R) 

W 

15. Corcoran (R) 

W 

16. Martin (R) 

W 

17. O’Brien (R) 

W 

18. Michel (R) 

W 

19. Railsback (R) 

W 

20. Findley (R) 

W 

21. Madigan (R) 

W 

22. Crane, Dan (R) 

W 

23. Price (D) 

R 

24. Simon (D) 

R 

INDIANA 

1. Benjamin (D) 

R 

2. Fithian (D) 

R 

3. Hiler (R) 

W 

4. Coats (R) 

W 

5. Hillis (R) 

W 

6. Evans (D) 

R 

7. Myers (R) 

R 

8. Deckard (R) 

W 

9. Hamilton (D) 

R 

10. Sharp (D) 

R 

11. Jacobs (D) 

R 

IOWA 

1. Leach (R) 

W 

2. Tauke (R) 

W 

3. Evans (R) 

W 

4. Smith (D) 

R 

5. Harkin (D) 

R 

6. Bedell (D) 

R 

KANSAS 

1. Roberts (R) 

W 

2. Jeffries (R) 

W 

3. Winn (R) 

W 

4. Glickman (D) 

R 

5. Whittaker (R) 

W 

KENTUCKY 

1. Hubbard (D) 

R 

2. Natcher (D) 

R 

3. Mazzoli (D) 

R 

4. Snyder (R) 

W 

5. Rogers (R) 

W 

6. Hopkins (R) 

W 

7. Perkins (D) 

R 

LOUISIANA 

1. Livingston (R) 

W 

2. Boggs (D) 

R 

3. Tauzin (D) 

W 

4. Roemer (D) 

W 

5. Huckaby (D) 

W 

6. Moore (R) 

W 

7. Breaux (D) 

W 

8. Long (D) 

R 

MAINE 

1. Emery (R) 

W 

2. Snowe 

W 


MARYLAND 

1. Dyson (D) R 

2. Long (D) R 

3. Mikulski (D) R 

4. Holt (R) W 

5. Hoyer (D) R 

6. Byron (D) W 

7. Mitchell (D) R 

8. Barnes (D) R 

MASSACHUSETTS 

1. Conte (R) W 

2. Boland (D) R 

3. Early (D) R 

4. Frank (D) R 

5. Shannon (D) R 

6. Mavroules (D) R 

7. Markey (D) R 

8. O’Neill (D) Speaker 

9. Moakley (D) R 

10. Heckler (R) W 

11. Donnelly (D) R 

12. Studds (D) R 

MICHIGAN 

1. Conyers (D) A 

2. Pursell (R) W 

3. Wolpe (D) R 

4. Siljander (R) W 

5. Sawyer (R) W 

6. Dunn(R) W 

7. Kildee (D) R 

8. Traxler (D) R 

9. Vander Jagt (R) W 

10. Albosta (D) R 

11. Davis (R) W 

12. Bonior (D) R 

13. Crockett (D) R 

14. Hertel (D) R 

15. Ford (D) R 

16. Dingell (D) R 

17. Brodhead (D) R 

18. Blanchard (D) R 

19. Broomfield (R) W 

MINNESOTA 

1. Erdahl(R) W 

2. Hagcdorn (R) W 

3. Frenzel (R) W 

4. Vento (D) R 

5. Sabo (D) R 

6. Weber (R) W 

7. Stangeland (R) W 

8. Oberstar (D) R 

MISSISSIPPI 

1. Whitten (D) R 

2. Bowen (D) R 

3. Montgomery (D) W 

4. Vacancy 

5. Lott (R) W 

MISSOURI 

1. Clay(D) R 

2. Young (D) R 

3. Gephardt (D) R 

4. Skelton (D) R 

5. Bolling (D) R 

6. Coleman (R) W 

7. Taylor (R) W 

8. Bailey (R) W 

9. Volkmer (D) R 

10. Emerson (R) W 

MONTANA 

1. WUliams(D) R 

2. Marlenee (R) W 

NEBRASKA 

1. Bereuter (R) W 

2. Daub(R) W 

3. Smith (R) W 

NEVADA 

AL Santini (D) W 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

1. D’ Amours (D) R 

2. Gregg (R) W 

NEW JERSEY 

1. Florio (D) R 

2. Hughes (D) R 

3. Howard (D) R 

4. Smith (R) W 

5. Fenwick (R) W 

6. Forsythe (R) W 

7. Roukema (R) W 

8. Roe (D) R 

9. Hollenbeck (R) W 

10. Rodino (D) R 

11. Minish (D) R 

12. Rinaldo (R) W 

1 3. Courier (R) W 

14. Guarini (D) R 

15. Dwyer (D) R 

NEW MEXICO 

1. Lujan (R) W 

2. Skeen (R) W 


NEW YORK 

1. Carney (R) W 

2. Downey (D) R 

3. Carman (R) W 

4. Lent (R) W 

5. McGrath (R) W 

6. LeBoutillier (R) W 

7. Addabbo (D) R 

8. Rosenthal (D) R 

9. Ferraro (D) R 

10. Biaggi (D) R 

11. Scheuer (D) R 

12. Chisholm (D) R 

13. Solarz (D) R 

14. Richmond (D) R 

15. Zeferetti (D) R 

1 6. Schumer (D) R 

17. Molinari(R) W 

18. Green (R) W 

19. Rangel (D) R 

20. Weiss (D) R 

21. Garcia (D) R 

22. Bingham (D) R 

23. Peyser (D) R 

24. Ottinger (D) R 

25. Fish (R) W 

26. Gilman (R) W 

27. McHugh (D) R 

28. Stratton (D) R 

29. Solomon (R) W 

30. Martin (R) W 

31. Mitchell (R) W 

32. Wortley (R) W 

33. Lee (R) W 

34. Horton (R) W 

35. Conable (R) W 

36. LaFalce (D) R 

37. Nowak (D) R 

38. Kemp (R) W 

39. Lundine (D) R 

NORTH CAROLINA 

1. Jones (D) R 

2. Fountain (D) R 

3. Whitley (D) R 

4. Andrews (D) R 

5. Neal (D) R 

6. Johnston (R) W 

7. Rose (D) R 

8. Hefner (D) R 

9. Martin (R) W 

10. Broyhill (R) W 

1 1 . Hendon (R) W 

NORTH DAKOTA 

AL Dorgan (D) R 

OHIO 

1. Gradison (R) W 

2. Luken (D) R 

3. Hall (D) R 

4. Vacancy 

5. Latta (R) W 

6. McEwen(R) W 

7. Brown (R) W 

8. Kindness (R) W 

9. Weber (R) W 

10. Miller (R) W 

11. Stanton (R) W 

12. Shamansky (D) R 

13. Pease (D) R 

14. Seiberling (D) R 

15. Wylie (R) W 

16. Regula (R) W 

17. Ashbrook (R) W 

18. Applegate (D) R 

19. Williams (R) W 

20. Oakar (D) R 

21. Stokes (D) R 

22. Eckart(D) R 

23. Mottl (D) W 

OKLAHOMA 

1. Jones (D) R 

2. Synar (D) R 

3. Watkins (D) R 

4. McCurdy (D) R 

5. Edwards (R) W 

6. English (D) R 

OREGON 

1. AuCoin (D) R 

2. Smith (R) W 

3. Wyden(D) R 

4. Weaver (D) R 

PENNSYLVANIA 

1. Foglietta(D) R 

2. Gray (D) R 

3. Vacancy 

4. Dougherty (R) W 

5. Schulze (R) W 

6. Yatron (D) R 

7. Edgar (D) R 

8. Coyne, James (R) W 

9. Shuster (R) W 

10. McDade (R) W 

1 1 . Nelligan (R) W 

12. Murtha (D) R 


13. Coughlin (R) 

W 

14. Coyne, William (D) 

R 

15. Ritter (R) 

W 

16. Walker (R) 

W 

17. Ertel (D) 

R 

1 8. Walgren (D) 

R 

19. Goodling (R) 

W 

20. Gaydos (D) 

R 

21. Bailey (D) 

R 

22. Murphy (D) 

R 

23. Clinger (R) 

W 

24. Marks (R) 

W 

25. Atkinson (D) 

W 

RHODE ISLAND 


1. St Germain (D) 

R 

2. Schneider (R) 

W 

SOUTH CAROLINA 


1. Hartnett (R) 

W 

2. Spence (R) 

W 

3. Derrick (D) 

R 

4. Campbell (R) 

W 

5. Holland (D) 

R 

6. Napier (R) 

W 

SOUTH DAKOTA 


1. Daschle (D) 

R 

2. Roberts (R) 

W 

TENNESSEE 


1. Quillen (R) 

W 

2. Duncan (R) 

W 

3. Bouquard (D) 

R 

4. Gore (D) 

R 

5. Boner (D) 

R 

6. Beard (R) 

W 

7. Jones (D) 

R 

8. Ford (D) 

R 

TEXAS 


1. Hall, Sam (D) 

W 

2. Wilson (D) 

W 

3. Collins (R) 

W 

4. Hall, Ralph (D) 

W 

5. Mattox (D) 

R 

6. Gramm (D) 

W 

7. Archer (R) 

W 

8. Fields (R) 

W 

9. Brooks (D) 

R 

10. Pickle (D) 

R 

11. Leath (D) 

W 

12. Wright (D) 

R 

13. Hightower (D) 

W 

14. Patman (D) 

R 

15. de la Garza (D) 

R 

16. White (D) 

W 

17. Stenholm (D) 

W 

18. Leland (D) 

R 

19. Hance (D) 

W 

20. Gonzalez (D) 

R 

21. Loeffler (R) 

W 

22. Paul (R) 

W 

23. Kazen (D) 

R 

24. Frost (D) 

R 

UTAH 


1 . Hansen (R) 

W 

2. Marriott (R) 

W 

VERMONT 


AL Jeffords (R) 

W 

VIRGINIA 


1. Trible (R) 

W 

2. Whitehurst (R) 

W 

3. Bliley (R) 

W 

4. Daniel, Robert (R) 

W 

5. Daniel, Dan (D) 

W 

6. Butler (R) 

W 

7. Robinson (R) 

W 

8. Parris (R) 

W 

9. Wampler (R) 

W 

10. Wolf(R) 

W 

WASHINGTON 


1. Pritchard (R) 

W 

2. Swift (D) 

R 

3. Bonker (D) 

R 

4. Morrison (R) 

W 

5. Foley (D ) 

R 

6. Dicks (D) 

R 

7. Lowry (D) 

R 

WEST VIRGINIA 


1. Mollohan (D) 

R 

2. Benedict (R) 

W 

3. Staton (R) 

W 

4. Rahall (D) 

R 

WISCONSIN 


1. Aspin (D) 

R 

2. Kastenmeier (D) 

R 

3. Gunderson (R) 

W 

4. Zablocki (D) 

R 

5. Reuss (D) 

R 

6. Petri (R) 

W 

7. Obey (D) 

R 

8. Roth (R) 

W 

9. Sensenbrenner (R) 

W 

/ WYOMING 


AL Cheney (R) 

W 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 4, 1981 


Page Seven 


Appellate Decision Final 


‘Just the Way You Like Them!’ 


Supreme Court Clears 
Lead Hazard Standard 



Reagan Budget Cut Paekage 
Approved Intact by House 


(Continued from Page 1) 

gineering controls and to implement work 
practice provisions “now that the standard 
has been approved in its entirety.” 

McBride also called on the Labor Dept, 
to “stop fooling around” and start enforc- 
ing the regulations. 

LABOR WELCOMED the court’s ac- 
tions as back-to-back victories that man- 
date OSHA and the Administration to 
fully enforce the congressional intent of 
the 1970 federal job safety law. 

“The Supreme Court has once again 
properly placed the health of workers 
ahead of the profits of employers,” said 
George H. R. Taylor, the federation’s job 
safety director. 

“Of particular importance to the 800,000 
workers exposed to lead on the job is that 
the standard contains a key provision pro- 
viding medical removal of a worker from 
excessive exposure to lead to another job 
within the workplace with less exposure 
— without loss of pay or other rights,” 
Taylor pointed out. 

THE JUSTICES rejected the industry- 
Administration challenges without com- 
ment in denying review of a federal ap- 
peals court decision upholding the Carter 
Administration’s lead standard. 

The lead industry attempted to block 
implementation of the standard the day it 
was issued in 1978. The Reagan Admin- 
istration leaped to industry’s side in April, 
asking the Supreme Court to vacate the 
appellate court ruling. 

Two days after the Supreme Court 
action. Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. 
Auchter, ordered a 21 -day delay of a 
lower “trigger level” for medical removal 
of workers in the primary and secondary 
lead smelting industries. 

The medical removal protection provi- 
sion requires a worker be transferred to 


a less hazardous job when the lead con- 
tent in his blood reaches a critical level. 

ON THREE earlier occasions, Auchter 
had delayed lowering the trigger levels for 
all industries other than primary and sec- 
ondary smelters. 

Lead poisoning, resulting from high 
levels of exposure to the metal, can result 
in anemia, kidney failure, nervous system 
disorders, brain damage and death. 

In upholding the standard last August, 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District 
of Columbia pointed out that OSHA had 
presented “voluminous evidence” of the 
harmful effect of lead. 

THE STANDARD, which went into ef- 
fect in February 1979, set up a 10-year 
timetable for industry to reduce exposing 
levels in steps from 200 micrograms of 
lead per cubic meter of air to 50 micro- 
grams during an eight-hour shift. 

In the early stages, exposure reductions 
could be achieved through the use of 
respirators by workers. In later stages, 
engineering controls, hygiene facilities and 
work practices must be used to achieve 
exposure limits. 

In another area vital to worker on-the- 
job safeguards, the AFL-CIO charged in 
a federal appeals court action that the Ad- 
ministration illegally postponed implemen- 
tation of an OSHA hearing conservation 
program. 

THE PROGRAM was developed shortly 
before the Carter Administration left office 
and was to have taken effect on Apr. 15. 
But Auchter first pushed back the effective 
date to June 1 and has since postponed 
the start of the program to Aug. 1. 

Under the program, employers would 
be required to reduce noise levels in work- 
places from the current 90-decibel limit 
to 85 decibels through the use of hearing 
protectors, audiometric testing, training 
and monitoring. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the Democrats who broke with their party 
and a number of Republicans who were 
wavering on the issue. The architect of the 
substitute bill. Office of Management & 
Budget Director David A. Stockman, then 
would make “adjustments” to the bill if 
necessary to assure a vote. But Stockman 
told reporters that the changes were only 
marginal. “Considerations and adjust- 
ments” are always factors in a close vote, 
he said. 

WHATEVER THE cause, the scene on 
the House floor when the Republican sub- 
stitute was brought up was one of confu- 
sion. A thick photo copy of what purport- 
ed to be the GOP substitute appeared to 
write into law the phone number of a con- 
gressional budget aide. Hand-written in- 
serts were indecipherable. No one was sure 
whether a law giving blind vendors the 
right to operate candy stands in govern- 
ment buildings was being repealed. Esti- 
mates of “savings” to be achieved by the 
reconciliation bill varied by as much as 
$2.6 billion. 

The House began a 10-day Fourth of 
July vacation period the next day, leaving 
committee staffs to plow through hundreds 
of pages of small type in the Congressional 
Record to find out what the House had 
wrought. 

It appeared that the House-passed ver- 
sion would impose a means test for student 
loans, as well as a 4-percent “origination 
fee.” The House-passed bill would elimi- 
nate the social security minimum benefit 
of $122 for all persons now on the rolls, 
while the original Democratic bill would 
have applied only to future recipients. 

FEWER CHILDREN would be eligible 
for school lunches and for aid-to-depend- 
ent-children welfare payments because of 
tightened eligibility. Both federal civilian 
and military retirees would lose one of 
their two cost-of-living adjustments each 
year. The 1982 pay raise for government 

Tucson Student Awarded 
AFL-CIO History Prize 

A paper on the Haymarket Square Riots 
of 1886 earned high school student Clay 
Gary of Tucson, Ariz., a special prize from 
the AFL-CIO at National History Day 
ceremonies at the University of Maryland. 

The award, including a $200 cash prize, 
was presented by James Auerbach of the 
federation’s Dept, of Education. Auerbach 
serves on the board of directors of the 
National History Day competition, which 
brought more than 800 finalists to the 
Washington, D.C., area for the three-day 
event. Gary, an 11th grader, was among 
some 50,000 participants from 30 states. 


employees, set at 5.8 percent in the origi- 
nal House bill, would be cut to 4.8 percent 
under the GOP substitute. 

Despite the philosophic affinities be- 
tween the House and Senate versions, dif- 
ferences in details are so great that a 
House-Senate conference will be a lengthy 
process. 

House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. 
(D-Mass.) said Democrats will try to use 
the conference procedure to mitigate some 
of the damage done by the Republican 
budget reconciliation substitute. He said 
House committees may also hold unique 
“after-the-fact” hearings to focus attention 
on the severe cuts imposed by the hastily 
adopted substitute. 

OF THE DEMOCRATS who gave the 
Republicans their margin of victory, 
-O’Neill suggested that “in decency, some 
of those fellows should resign from the 
Democratic caucus.” 

But Rep. Delbert L. Latta (R-Ohio), the 
chief GOP spokesman during the budget 
debate, warned that the Democratic lead- 
ership in the House is in for more set- 
backs unless the party “takes a turn to 
the right.” 

Eugene A. Kelly 
Dies, Retired 
News Staffer 

Cleveland — Eugene A. Kelly, a former 
assistant editor of the AFL-CIO News, 
died June 27 at Lake County Memorial 
Hospital where he was being treated for 
pneumonia. Kelly, who was 80, retired 
from the AFL-CIO staff in 1971. 

He was a founding member of the 
Newspaper Guild’s Local 1, which he 
served as president and in other executive 
positions for 1 5 years. He also was a 
member of the Cleveland Federation of 
Teachers. 

In a message to his family, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland said Kelly will 
be remembered as a talented newspaper- 
man and an unswerving trade unionist. 

“His talents enhanced the AFL-CIO’s 
publications, and each of us who had the 
pleasure of working with Gene remembers 
him as a friend,” Kirkland said. 

Kelly worked as a reporter on all the 
major Cleveland dailies — the Plain Dealer, 
the Press, as well as the old News and the 
Times — during a 37-year span. He joined 
the AFL-CIO News staff in 1960. 

Survivors include his wife. Marguerite, 
and a son, the Rev. Justin J. Kelly, S.J. 


Senate Vote on Eliminating 
Social Security Minimum 

One of the ^'savings** adopted by the Senate as part of its budget reconciliation 
bill eliminates the minimum social security retirement benefit, which assures that 
persons who have worked long enough to qualify for social security payments will 
get at least $122 a month. 

The Senate on June 23 rejected, 53-45, a labor-supported amendment by Sen, 
Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-Mich.) to retain the minimum benefit for those now 
receiving it. 

FOR LABOR’S POSITION 

Democrats 41 

DeConcini (Ariz.) Inouye (Hawaii) 

Dixon (111.) Jackson (Wash.) 

Dodd (Conn.) Johnston (La.) 

Eagleton (Mo.) Kennedy (Mass.) 


Baucus (Mont.) 
Bentsen (Tex.) 
Biden (Del.) 
Boren (Okla.) 
Bradley (N.J.) 
Bumpers (Ark.) 
Burdick (N.D.) 
Byrd, R. (W.Va.) 
Chiles (Fla.) 
Cranston (Calif.) 

Hawkins (Fla.) 


Exon (Neb.) 
Ford (Ky.) 

Glenn (Ohio) 
Hart (Colo.) 
Heflin (Ala.) 
Huddleston (Ky.) 


Leahy (Vt.) 
Levin (Mich.) 
Long (La.) 


Mitchell (Me.) 
Moynihan (N.Y.) 
Pell (R.I.) 

Pryor (Ark.) 
Randolph (W.Va.) 
Riegle (Mich.) 
Sarbanes (Md.) 
Sasser (Tenn.) 


Republicans 4 

Pressler (S.D.) Specter (Pa.) 


Matsunaga (Hawaii) Tsongas (Mass.) 
Melcher (Mont.) Williams (N.J.) 
Metzenbaum (Ohio) Zorinsky (Neb.) 


Weicker (Conn.) 


Byrd, H. (Va.) 
Hollings (S.C.) 

Abdnor (S.D.) 
Andrews (N.D.) 
Armstrong (Colo.) 
Baker (Tenn.) 
Boschwitz (Minn.) 
Chafee (R.I.) 
Cdchran (Miss.) 
Cohen (Me.) 
D’Amato (N.Y.) 
Danforth (Miss.) 
Denton (Ala.) 
Dole (Kan.) 


AGAINST LABOR’S POSITION 

Democrats 5 

Nunn (Ga.) Proxmire (Wis.) 


Stennis (Miss.) 


Republicans 48 

Domenici (N.M.) Humphrey (N.H.) 
Durenberger (Minn.) Jepsen (Iowa) 


East (N.C.) 

Gam (Utah) 
Goldwater (Ariz.) 
Gorton (Wash.) 
Grassley (Iowa) 
Hatch (Utah) 
Hatfield (Ore.) 
Hayakawa (Calif.) 
Heinz (Pa.) 

Helms (N.C.) 


Absent: Candbn (D-Nev.); Laxalt (R-Nev.) 


Quayle (Ind.) 
Roth (Del.) 
Rudman (N.H.) 
Schmitt (N.M.) 
Simpson (Wyo.) 
Stafford (Vt.) 
Stevens (Alaska) 
Symms (Ida.) 
Murkowski (Alaska) Thurmond (S.C.) 
Nickles (Okla.) Tower (Tex.) 

Packwood (Ore.) Wallop (Wyo.) 

Percy (111.) Warner (Va.) 


Kassebaum (Kan.) 
Kasten (Wis.) 
Lugar (Ind.) 
Mathias (Md.) 
Mattingly (Ga.) 
McClure (Ida.) 



Page Eig^t 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 4, 1981 


Repeal Bill Endorsed 

Labor Dept. Backs Bid 
To Scuttle 8-Hour Day 



SOLIDARITY DAY Coordinator John Perkins and staff members assigned to 
various phases of the AFL-CIO’s Sept. 19 demonstration in Washington, display 
blow-up of official emblem of the event. From left: Maureen Houston, Janet 
Hyland, Maria Boyle, Perkins, Wilbert Williams, Kevin Kistler, Frances Kenin, 
Dick Wilson and Charlie Hughes. Also on the staff is Marvin Caplan. 


New Job Losses Forecast 
As Shoe Import Curbs End 


(Continued from Page 1) 

ribbon group established by Congress, be- 
fore taking a stand on the issue. The 
commission’s report, submitted in late 
May, concluded that a lower youth wage 
would violate the principle of equal pay 
for equal work. And it warned that any 
decrease in teen-age unemployment would 
be offset by a rise in adult joblessness. 

But at a recent breakfast meeting with 
reporters, Donovan was quoted as saying 
that he hoped to send a youth wage dif- 
ferential bill to Congress this fall as “part 
of a package” of Administration legisla- 
tive proposals. 

At his meeting with reporters, Donovan 
said the Administration is opposed to out- 
right repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, which 
requires contractors on federally-financed 
construction to pay prevailing wages. 

Donovan said he is “hopeful” that the 
objectives of those who want to repeal 
the 50-year-old law can be achieved “ad- 
ministratively” through rewriting the reg- 
ulations. 

THE LABOR DEPT, has extended to 
July 15 its timetable for regulatory 
changes, and there have been press reports 
that the Office of Management & Budget 
feels that the original Labor Dept, pro- 
posals do not go far enough. An OMB 
spokesman was quoted in the Wall Street 
Journal as voicing disappointment “that 


Despite an 840,000 drop in the total 
number of employed persons, the nation’s 
jobless rate last month dipped to 7.3 per- 
cent, from 7.6 percent the month before. 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics cautioned, 
however, that “we should not draw defini- 
tive conclusions about the economy from 
these data” because of technical swings in 
the figures. 

“It may be that earlier-than-usual school 
closings increased the supply of job seekers 
in May, leaving fewer to enter the labor 
market in June,” BLS Commissioner Janet 
L. Norwood said in a statement. “This may 
have exaggerated the seasonally adjusted 
changes in the unemployment rates for 
May and June.” 

UNEMPLOYMENT traditionally rises 
in June as large numbers of young people 
enter the workforce and either find jobs or 
continue to search for work. This June, 
BLS’s seasonally adjusted figures showed 
the largest shrinkage in the civilian labor 
force on record, 1.2 million. 

Workers between the ages of 1 6 and 24, 
who make up only one-fifth of the labor 
force, accounted for four-fifths of the sea- 
sonally adjusted drop in the labor force, 
BLS said, another indication of the skewing 
of the June data. 


the prospective savings aren’t greater.” 

The Administration has not yet taken a 
formal position on congressional attempts 
to exclude various government programs 
from Davis-Bacon requirements. The most 
immediate threat is an amendment written 
into a pending military construction au- 
thorization bill by the Senate Armed Ser- 
vice Committee that would eliminate 
Davis-Bacon jurisdiction on military con- 
struction contracts. 

The Labor Dept, also postponed its re- 
writing of rules prohibiting job discrimi- 
nation in federal contracts after the Busi- 
ness Roundtable and other large employer 
groups indicated dissatisfaction with the 
initial draft. 

DURING THE early months of the 
congressional session, when the key budget 
battles were being fought, the Adminis- 
tration’s policy was to discourage Repub- 
lican right-wingers from pushing contro- 
versial legislation that did not bear direct- 
ly on the President’s economic program 
and might “distract” Congress. 

Whether or not the policy has been re- 
laxed, Sen. Roger W. Jepsen (R-Iowa) in- 
troduced with a flourish a bill being pressed 
by the National Right to Work Commit- 
tee to make the union shop illegal under 
both the National Labor Relations Act and 
the National Railway Labor Act. A com- 
panion measure has been introduced in the 
House by Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.). 


said that obvious discrepancies in the June 
figures probably would be ironed out later 
in the year when the data are revised in 
the bureau’s annual seasonal adjustment 
correction process. 

Last month’s jobless rate was a return 
to the rate that had prevailed in February, 
March, and April. 

THE SHARPEST DROP occurred 
among 20-to-24-year-old men. Their job- 
less rate fell from 1 2.9 to 12.1 percent over 
the month. The unemployment rate for 
white workers declined four-tenths of 1 
percent to 6.4 percent, and the rate for 
black and other minority workers edged 
up from 13.6 to 14.2 percent. The jobless 
rate for workers of Hispanic origin re- 
mained at 10.2 percent. 

Workers unemployed 15 weeks or more 
increased ^83,000 to 1,205,000 during 
June, while the number unemployed be- 
tween five and 15 weeks fell 221,000 to 
2,360,000. 

BLS said the number, of “discouraged” 
workers — those who want to work but say 
they have given up looking for a job — de- 
clined by about 100,000 from April through 
June, but was still above levels before last 
year’s recession. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Asian countries. The ITC had recom- 
mended the continuation of import relief, 
as had the AFL-CIO. 

ACTWU and UFCW together represent 
about half the domestic shoe industry’s 
quarter-million workers. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, in 
a letter to Reagan urging extension of the 
import relief program for three years, 
noted that the purpose of the quotas was 
to allow the industry sufficient time to ad- 
just to new conditions of competition. 

“The shoe industry is on the road to 
recovery, largely as a result of efforts it 
has undertaken during the import relief 
period,” Kirkland observed. “Premature 
termination of import relief will seriously 
impede, if not destroy, the industry’s re- 
covery process.” 

REAGAN’S ACTION meant that the 
four-year-old import restrictions on ship- 
ments to the United States of non-rubber 
shoes from Taiwan and South Korea ended 
at midnight June 30. The domestic shoe 
industry, along with the unions, had sought 
an extension, contending that an end to 
the quotas would hurt U.S. manufacturers 
and result in job losses. 

A labor-management coalition, consist- 
ing of the American Footwear Industries 
Association, ACTWU and UFCW, decried 
the President’s decision. 

Arnold Hiatt, chairman of the American 
Footwear Industries Association, said the 
original purpose of the import relief pro- 
gram was to provide U.S. shoe makers 
with a “breathing space” while the indus- 
try undertook fundamental steps of 
revitalization. 

During the last four years, the domestic 
footwear industry has substantially in- 
creased spending for capital facilities, re- 
search and development, export promotion, 
marketing and in other areas to increase 
productivity and competitiveness, he said. 


The White House said it based its de- 
cision against continuing import restric- 
tions on the Administration’s commitment 
to free trade and in the belief that an end 
to the quotas would reduce inflation. 

IN THEIR statement, Finley and 
Sheinkman noted that imports accounted 
for 53 percent of the U.S. market in the 
first quarter of 1981, or 6 percentage 
points higher than when import relief was 
first granted in 1977. 

“The loss of only 1 percent in market 
share by the domestic industry to imports 
translates into nearly $60 million in reve- 
nue which otherwise would be pumped 
into the U.S. economy,” they observed. 
“The consequence to taxpayers will be to 
add substantially greater amounts to be 
paid out in unemployment insurance and 
welfare payments to unemployed shoe 
workers,” they warned. 

Allen Zack Leaves 
Information Post 

Allen Y. Zack, 36, has resigned as as- 
sistant director of the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Information, effective July 3, to become 
a senior associate of the Kamber Group, 
a Washington public relations firm that 
represents a number of unions. 

Zack was previously assistant director of 
public relations from 1975 until that de- 
partment merged with the Dept, of Publi- 
cations in January 1980. He first joined 
the federation staff in 1970. 

Zack served as secretary-treasurer of the 
International Labor Press Association from 
1975 until this past January, and has led 
ILPA’s efforts to achieve equitable postage 
rates for labor publications. He also co- 
ordinated the communications campaign 
in the successful 1978 effort to defeat a 
so-called right-to-work initiative in Mis- 
souri. 


Jobless Rate Dips to 7.3% 
Despite Employment Decline 


The huge drop in total employment over 
the month, 840,000, was more than dur- 
ing the sharp recessions of last year and 
the mid-1970s. BLS analyst Jack Bregger 




v»a» 



if 





ss 



Postal Employees Protest Contract Stall 


Thousands of union postal employees 
demonstrated from coast to coast June 25 
to gain public support for their contract 
talks with the U.S. Postal Service and to 
show their displeasure with Postmaster 
General William F. Bolger’s stalling tac- 
tics. 

At post offices and postal facilities, 
members of the Letter Carriers, the Postal 
Workers, and the Mail Handlers division 
of the Laborers engaged in informational 
picketing during what was billed as Postal 
Solidarity Day. 

“MORE POSTMASTER and less gen- 
eral,” read placards held by demonstrators 
in Grand Rapids, Mich. “Bolger negotiate, 
not agitate,” and “people deliver mail, not 
postmasters,” others read. 

Bolger incurred the ire of workers for 
having delayed talks for two months while 


trying to get the National Labor Relations 
Board to name one of the four postal 
unions currently engaged in bargaining 
with the USPS as the sole representative 
of the nearly 600,000 employees involved 
in the talks. He lost the battle, clearing the 
way for the opening of negotiations last 
week. 

APWU PRESIDENT Moe Biller took 
an optimistic posture in speaking to sev- 
eral hundred workers who marched in 
98-degree heat in the nation’s capital. 

“There is no reason why we cannot 
reach a contract by July 20,” said Biller. 
The APWU and the NALC together rep- 
resent about 500,000 postal employees. 
The unions’ current three-year agree- 
ments expire on July 20. 

Biller said the informational picketing 
was designed to bring Bolger to the collec- 


tive bargaining table and to inform the 
American public about “his shameful con- 
duct of labor relations.” 

IN A STATEMENT to APWU mem- 
bers, Biller said the turnout was “beyond 
belief.” New York Metro, APWU’s largest 
local, reported the largest demonstration 
in its history, he said. 

Bolger’s “high-handed arrogance” will 
not succeed. Biller predicted. “We will 
stand united against his tactics. We will ask 
the American people to join with us in 
demanding that he live up to his respon- 
sibility and negotiate with our imions,” he 
said. 

Also involved in the negotiations with 
the Postal Service is the unaffiliated Na- 
tional Rural Letter Carriers’ Association. 
The main issues in the talks are wages and 
fringe benefits, safety, and the impact of 
automation on job security. 




,<^^4500 % 


Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, July 11, 1981 


No. 28 


® a\\' 


‘Scare Tactics’ Charged 
To Social Security Foes 



STEELWORKERS PRESIDENT Lloyd McBride was honored for his commit- 
ment to union, national and world democracy with the 76th anniversary award 
of the League for Industrial Democracy, presented by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue. Participating in the ceremony were, from left, LID Presi- 
dent Thomas R. Brooks, McBride, Donahue, and LID Executive Director Arch 
Puddington. (Story, Page 3.) 

Kirkland Warning: 

Administration Steering 
Toward Social Disaster 


Senate Panel 
Toes Reagan 
Tax Cut Line 

White House strategists are looking to 
the conservative coalition that rammed 
through the massive budget cuts to provide 
the votes for tax reductions tilted heavily 
to corporations and wealthy investors. 

It won an easy victory in the Senate 
Finance Committee, which kept close to 
the Administration script in fashioning a 
bill that would drop the corporate share of 
the tax burden to a minuscule 7 percent of 
total tax revenue and reward individuals 
in the highest income tax brackets with a 
disproportionate share of the tax reduc- 
tions. 

DEMOCRATS ON the committee made 
some desultory attempts to lessen the in- 
equities, but only Sen. Bill Bradley (D- 
N.J.) voted against the bill. 

Under the Constitution, revenue bills 
must originate in the House. But the Sen- 
ate committee left open the possibility of 
circumventing that mandate by attaching 
its bill to an unrelated House-passed debt 
limit measure. 

The House Ways & Means Committee, 
meanwhile, has tentatively approved a 
different package of business tax cuts 
which the AFL-CIO protested are at least 
as bad as those the Administration sought. 
But the committee’s Democratic majority 
is still struggling to come up with indi- 
vidual tax reductions that Chairman Dan 
Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) promised would be 
“fairer” than the Administration plan. 

THE SENATE committee bill follows 
the Administration formula of a 5 per- 
cent individual tax cut effective next Oct. 
1, an additional 10 percent cut on July 1, 
1982, and a final 10 percent reduction on 
July 1, 1983. 

It also would reduce the maximum tax 
rate on unearned investment income, 
lower further the capital gains tax, allow 
a higher deduction for two-income 
couples, and provide an assortment of addi- 
tional credits and deductions for groups 
such as holders of oil and gas royalties and 
persons putting money into retirement ac- 
counts. 

Over the next five years, according to 
an AFL-CIO analysis, the federal govern- 
ment will lose $169.3 billion in business 
tax breaks “which amount to repealing the 
corporate income tax and benefit primarily 
the largest and most prosperous corpora- 
tions . . . providing windfall tax breaks 
to firms for doing what they would do 
anyway.” 

ON THE individual income tax cuts, 
the AFL-CIO figures show that for the 
year 1982, the 59 million taxpayers with 
incomes of $30,000 or less would receive 
an average cut of $213. The total would 
amount to $12.6 billion. 

Nearly as much in total reductions — 
$12.4 billion — ^would go to the 4.4 mil- 
lion taxpayers with incomes over $50,000. 
Their average savings would be $2,844. 

The White House is pressing for action 
by the House as well as the Senate before 

(Continued on Page 6) 


Organized labor’s Solidarity Day protest 
set for Sept. 19 in Washington will draw 
into focus the frustration of millions of 
Americans over the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s plans to turn back the clock on 50 
years of social and economic progress, 
-AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
declared in a network radio interview. 

Between now and September, Donahue 
predicted, more and more Americans will 
become aware of the harmful results of 
the Reagan Budget cuts and the generally 
bad effect of the President’s proposed tax 
cuts on the economy. 

THE PLANNED demonstration in 
Washington ought to have a telling effect 
on the Administration and a more im- 
portant effect on the people’s representa- 


Boston — ^The Reagan Administration is 
steering the nation toward “social disas- 
ter” and it’s up to the labor movement 
to sound the alarm, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland told the Communications 
Workers convention here. 

Kirkland called for building coalitions 
with labor’s allies in every congressional 
district, as well as nationally. 

LABOR STILL has some friends in 
Congress, “timid though they may be,” he 
said. But a showing of back-home support 
can “put a little iron in their backbones.” 

As for labor’s foes, they should be “re- 


tives in Congress, Donahue said on Labor 
News Conference. The protest should 
“make them understand a little better 
than they do just where the people are,” 
he added. 

Donahue said the nation’s judgment of 
the Reagan Administration ultimately will 
come down to how well it handles the 
economy. Right now, he observed, the out- 
look is bleak. 

“Take a look at what they’re saying,” 
he said. “They’re saying that all of the 
budget cutting, all of the restrictions on 
the economy — ^the tight-money policy, the 
20 percent interest rates, and so forth — 
all of that is going to produce two million 
extra jobs by 1986.” 

(Continued on Page 5) 


turned as soon as possible to private life” 
and replaced on Capitol Hill with those 
“who share our values.” 

America’s workers are bleeding from the 
Reagan Administration’s budget slashes, 
Kirkland said, and unions can’t afford to 
sit on the sidelines until the political cli- 
mate improves. 

The Solidarity Day demonstration in 
Washington on Sept. 19 will “show those 
who have written off the labor movement 
that we have lost none of our driving 
force,” he predicted. 

KIRKLAND STRESSED the impor- 
tance of making sure America’s workers 
understand the issues in “human terms” 
and are not fooled “by right-wing eco- 
nomic fakers.” 

It is America’s workers who are en- 
dangered by the crippling of OSHA and 
the dismantling of s^ety and health regu- 
lations, Kirkland reminded the delegates. 

It is workers “whose children’s schools 
will deteriorate” and whose neighborhoods 
will lose police and fire protection “be- 
cause of the strangulation of federal aid 
to the states and cities and the destruction 
of federal job programs.” 

RETIRED AND disabled workers “are 
the targets of the efforts to put the social 
security system on the budgetary chopping 
block,” he pointed out 

The Reagan Administration is seeking 
to dismantle “the social programs that 
hold together the relatively humane so- 
ciety that the labor movement has helped 
to build in the last half century,” Kirk- 
land warned. 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Labor Cites 
Ready Cure 
For Deficit 

The AFL-CIO challenged the scare tac- 
tics being used by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration to justify its proposed cutbacks in 
social security protections and called on 
Congress to allay fears by guaranteeing 
payment of all earned benefits. 

“We do not accept the unfounded al- 
legations that the system is bankrupt now 
or will be in the future,” AFL-CIO Social 
Security Director Bert Seidman testified 
before a Senate Finance subcommittee. 

CHAIRMAN William Armstrong (R- 
Colo.) had opened the hearing with a 
warning that “social security is going 
broke.” His source was a gloomy report 
by the three social security trustees — all 
members of the Reagan Cabinet — that the 
system will run out of money if unemploy- 
ment and inflation stay high. 

Seidman retorted that the immediate 
funding problems can be overcome with- 
out cutting back benefits, and the 
solution recommended by the AFL-CIO — 
using general revenues to fund 50 percent 
of Medicare hospitalization insurance — 
“would finance the various social security 
programs well into the next century.” 

Seidman accused the Administration of 
exaggerating the system’s temporary fund- 
ing imbalance in order to twist the social 
security program “to serve its political, 
philosophical and budget objectives.” The 
proposals the Administration has made 
“go far beyond legitimate concern about 
the program’s financing,” he testified. 

DEMOCRATS ON the subcommittee 
suggested that the Administration wants 
to cut down social security benefits far 
deeper than would be needed to keep the 
program solvent so that the surplus funds 
could be used to reduce the federal budget 
deficit. Social security payroll taxes show 
up on the revenue side of the budget; bene- 
fit payments are shown as expenditures. 

(Continued on Page 7) 

Food, Fuel Costs 
Pace June Rise in 
Wholesale Prices 

The government’s producer price index 
for finished goods, a measure of change in 
wholesale prices, moved up six-tenths of 
1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in 
June, or at an annual rate of about 7 
percent. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics attrib- 
uted most of the monthly rise to higher 
costs of food at the dealer level, a new 
swing up for home heating oil, and sharp 
increases in the cost of natural gas. 

THE JUNE RISE was the largest since 
April when wholesale prices rose eight- 
tenths of 1 percent. Through the first six 
months of this year, the wholesale index 
has risen at a 9.5 percent annual rate. The 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Solidarity Day to Put Focus 
On Impact of Reagan ’s Cuts 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 

CWA Keynoters Assail Callous Reagan Policies 


Boston — Speaker after speaker at the 
43rd annual convention of the Communi- 
cations Workers denounced the programs 
and policies of the Reagan Administration 
as showing callous disregard for working 
people. 

CWA President Glenn E. Watts, in his 
opening address, assailed the Administra- 
tion’s economic policies as “by and large, 
the economics of big business applied to 
government. The aim is to run a govern- 
ment of the corporation, by the corpora- 
tion and for the corporation.” 

AlFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, Sen. 
Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House 
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill all excoriated 
the Administration in the White House 
and the conservative mood in Congress. 

“Under the guise of trying to balance 
the budget, the Administration is advanc- 
ing a new government ideology — an ap- 
proach to government which has little 
room for human concerns,” Watts told the 
more than 2,500 delegates and alternates. 

Watts said he sees the humanistic ap- 
proaches of government being eroded in 
favor of policies that are like welfare for 
the wealthy. 

“I CAN imagine nothing worse than 
turning our backs on decades of work on 
behalf of social causes,” he said. “Yet that 
is what the political ideology of the 
extreme right would have us do.” 

Kirkland Warns 
Reagan Setting 
Disaster Course 

(Continued from Page 1) 

He said labor must resist “with all our 
strength and resolution the effort that is 
under way to bring back the days when 
our nation was a two-class society — ^with 
great wealth and ptivilege on one side, 
supported by all the largess and solitude 
of government, and insecurity, privation 
and neglect on the other.” 

KIRKLAND challenged the Adminis- 
tration’s philosophy of “getting govern- 
ment off our backs” and spoke of his own 
recollection of growing up in the depres- 
sion-era South where “the only social se- 
curity system was the county poorhouse” 
and to be black “meant constant humilia- 
tion, segregated schools or no school at 
all, no hope for a decent job and no hope 
for a decent future for your child.” 

And “in cotton mills and steel mills, 
clubs and guns were the tools of labor 
relations, backed up by the police and the 
National Guard.” 

It wasn’t until “government got on our 
backs” that conditions improved, he 
stressed. 

That brought paved roads and rural 
electrification, he recalled. 

“A federal insurance system saved the 
banks. A federal public health service 
wiped out the endemic diseases that af- 
flicted generations of Americans.” 

KIRKLAND SPOKE of the hope 
brought by social security and the Civilian 
Conservation Corps, which “provided jobs 
for the young and planted the trees that 
the pulp and paper industries are living 
on today.” 

Business groups that want the govern- 
ment “off their backs” also want con- 
tinued government subsidies for them- 
selves, he noted. And “I don’t have to 
tell you that big business is not rushing to 
lift government regulations off the backs 
of workers. The corporations are perfect- 
ly content with every law that restrains 
the activity of unions.” 

Business foes of regulation, Kirkland 
said, remain “fervent supporters of com- 
pulsory open-shop laws, mandatory in- 
junctions, and all the laws that give prop- 
erty precedence over human beings.” 

As the trade union movement sees it, 
he told the CWA delegates, “in a just 
society, it is the business of government 
to look after the interests of the poor and 
the weak. The rich and the powerful can 
and do look after themselves.” 


Kirkland, who shared a press conference 
appearance with Watts, called on delegates 
“to resist with all of our strength and 
resolution the effort that is now under way 
to bring back the days when our nation 
was a two-class society with great wealth 
and privilege on one side supported by 
all the largess and solicitude of govern- 
ment, and insecurity, privation and neglect 
on the other.” 

Kennedy slapped the Administration for 
trying to “repeal the achievements of a 
generation. Tlie nation did not vote in 
1980 for extremist schemes of longer 
hours and lower wages or for right-wing 
assaults on the health and safety of work- 
ers on the job.” He rejected the notion that 
government spending is the major cause of 
the nation’s economic problems. 

“WE ARE TOLD, and it is surely cor- 
rect, that we cannot solve our problems 
simply by throwing money at them. But 
that is only a half-truth that is too often 
misused to excuse indifference and neglect. 
The rest of the truth is that this nation 
cannot solve its problems by throwing tax 
cuts and budget cuts and social security 
cuts at them,” Kennedy said. 

Looking ahead, he predicted that “in 
due time this anti-union, anti-worker, anti- 
labor attitude will pass. . . . The vast 
majority of our people will soon come to 
understand that the prevailing philosophy 



ROY WILKINS Award of the 
NAACP Labor Committee honored 
COPE Director Alexander Barkan 
and was accepted on his behalf by 
Associate Director John Perkins. 
Fannie Neal, southern area director of 
COPE’S Volunteers in Politics pro- 
gram, makes the presentation at a 
convention luncheon in Denver. 


Denver — The historic ties between the 
trade union and civil rights movements 
have never been stronger or more needed. 
Auto Workers President Douglas A. Fra- 
ser and Ladies’ Garment Workers Vice 
President Evelyn Dubrow told participants 
in the NAACP convention here. 

Dubrow, who is also the ILGWU’s 
legislative director, linked attempts in 
Congress to scuttle the Voting Rights Act 
with the Reagan Administration’s drive to 
wipe out other hard-won programs through 
the budget process. 

CrVIL RIGHTS and workers’ rights are 
inseparable, she stressed. Attacks on the 
minimum wage, on social security protec- 
tions, child nutrition and job programs are 
the trademark of the Reagan Administra- 
tion, Dubrow charged. 

Fraser, who is a member of the NAACP 
board, assailed the Democrats who “ca- 
pitulated” to Reagan on the budget votes 
and likened the deals made by the Ad- 
ministration to get their votes to a 
“tobacco auction.” 

He spoke of the interdependence of the 


of this day is alien to our history and con- 
trary to our hopes. And when they do, you 
and I will be there — faithful to our princi- 
ples, true to the cause of all the working 
men and women of America, and ready 
for leadership once again.” 

CPNEILL CALLED Reagan “as hard as 
nails when it comes to programs like food 
stamps and school lunches that help poor 
people ... a real tightwad when it comes 
to programs like social security that help 
working families ... a real Ebenezer 
Scrooge when it comes to programs like 
student loans that offer opportunity to our 
young people.” 

“But when it comes to giving tax 
breaks to the wealthy of this country, the 
President has a heart of gold,” O’Neill 
observed. 

He pledged that Democrats are not 
about to give up: “We will not abandon 
our responsibilities to the wage earner, the 
aged and the disadvantaged.” 

Watts, opening the convention, called 
for elections by each of the union’s 12 
districts for representatives to serve on 
“CWA’s Committee on The Future,” 
which was established by the executive 
board last May. 

RANK-AND-FILE delegates elected to 
the panel will sit with appointed members 
of the union’s executive board to review 
CWA’s structure against the background 


Palm Springs,, Calif. — Delegates to the 
Grain Millers biennial convention here ap- 
proved a series of per capita payment in- 
creases while raising the monthly dues 
minimum from $7 to $8.50. 

The monthly per capita payment will 
rise to $5.25 effective Aug. 1 with auto- 
matic increases of 30 cents each in sub- 
sequent years. The union’s per capita rate 
has been at $4 since 1975. 

In his keynote address. President Frank 
T. Hoese hailed recent action by the Fed- 
eral Trade Commission that gives unions 
the automatic right to intervene in antitrust 
cases that have a direct effect on mem- 
bers’ jobs. 

The FTC ruling grew out of a lengthy 
battle by the Grain Millers and other 
affiliates of the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage 
Trades Dept, on a divestiture case against 
four major cereal makers that threatened 
more than 2,500 union jobs. 

Resolutions adopted at the three-day 
convention called on Congress to reject 
any attempts by the Reagan Administra- 
tion to slash social security benefits and 


nation’s economy, where layoffs in the 
auto industry spread unemployment to 
dozens of supplier industries that eventu- 
ally ripples throughout the nation. 

Fraser and Dubrow hailed the decision 
of the NAACP convention to endorse the 
AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day demonstration 
and to call on NAACP local and state 
branches to take part in the Sept. 19 
protest rally in Washington. 

AT THE SAME program, the NAACP 
labor committee presented its Roy Wil- 
kins Award to COPE Director Alexander 
Barkan. It was accepted on his behalf by 
COPE Associate Director John Perkins, 
who is the coordinator of the Solidarity 
Day program. 

Other awards to AFL-CIO afiSliates 
included a plaque to the State, County 
& Municipal Employees, accepted by 
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. William Lucy, and 
special awards to Thomas Turner, presi- 
dent of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL- 
CIO, and Robert Sutt, a Steelworker from 
Johnstown, Pa., for his work in strength- 
ening relations between the labor move- 
ment and the NAACP. 


of a “technological explosion that is 
sweeping today’s work place,” Watts said. 

“Rapidly changing technology will trans- 
form the way workers approach their jobs 
in the future, and this new wave of tech- 
nology promises to transform the whole of 
society as well,” Watts said. 

“What we want from this committee is 
an all inclusive look into the future. . . . 
What the future holds for society, for gov- 
ernment, for commerce, for science, for 
industry, for workers, for families, for 
unions.” 

WITH WATTS as chairman, CWA 
Executive Vice President James B. Booe 
will serve as co-chairman. Among other 
appointed members are Sec.-Treas. Louis 
B. Knecht and Vice Presidents Morton 
Bahr of New York, Martin J. Hughes of 
Cleveland and Walter Maulis of Denver. 

The committee is expected to report 
back to delegates at CWA’s 1982 conven- 
tion. 

A convention resolution making the 
AFL-CIO’s centennial year hailed the fed- 
eration’s continuing “vigor, vibrancy and 
verve.” 

In other resolutions, delegates called on 
Congress to extend for 10 years the Voting 
Rights Act originally adopted in 1965, 
expressed strong support for the full labor 
movement in Poland and memorialized the 
young people murdered in Atlanta. 


to help improve the stability of the pro- 
gram through the infussion of general tax 
revenues. 

Delegates also called for a federal ban 
on the use of strikebreakers, emergency 
legislation for extending supplemental un- 
employment benefits and protections for 
the U.S. sugar industry against unfair 
foreign competition. 

The convention re-elected Thomas Frain 
to a new term on the union’s board of 
trustees. Hoese, Sec.-Treas. Joseph T. 
Smisek and other top officers are in the 
middle of four-year terms. 

Food, Fuel Costs 
Pace June Rise in 
Wholesale Prices 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 
finished goods index last month was 10.2 
percent above the year-earlier level. 

Foods ready for sale at the grocery 
store, which had showed almost no change 
since last November, were up a half- 
percent in June. Meat was the major cate- 
gory leading the increases, with beef and 
veal up 2.4 percent for the month and 
pork up even more, 2.8 percent. 

Natural gas continued its quickening 
pace of price increases of the past few 
months. In June, natural gas became 4.4 
percent more expensive, a rate that if 
maintained would mean a doubling in 
price in less than two years. 

Fuel oil, which rose 1.2 percent at the 
dealer level in May, went up by four-tenths 
of 1 percent in June. Gasoline prices, 
however, dropped again, this time by 1.2 
percent, because of its current ready avail- 
ability worldwide. 

PRICES OF finished consumer goods 
other than foods and energy — ^items such 
as motor vehicles, luggage and jewelry — 
rose by the same amount as the overall 
index, six-tenths of 1 percent. Wholesale 
prices for over-the-counter drugs were 
down slightly after rapid increases in April 
and May. 

Heavy machinery did not increase as 
fast in June as in the previous two months. 
Capital equipment prices moved up seven- 
tenths of 1 percent in June, after going up 
nine-tenths of 1 percent in April and May. 
Heavy motor truck prices rose 2.6 percent 
over the month following a 2.1 percent 
increase in May. 


Labor, Civil Rights Goals 
Linked as Reagan Targets 


Grain Millers Convention 
Votes Step-up in Per Capita 


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AFL-aO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 


Page Three 


‘Put on Walking Shoes^ 

Labor’s ‘Solidarity’ Rally 
Enlists Teacher Support 



HISTORIC GOALS of all trade union movements are summarized in the 
original lithograph by American artist Robert Rauschenberg commemorating the 
100th anniversary of the AFL-CIO. One of 300 signed prints is presented by 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to Francis Blanchard, director general of the 
International Labor Organization, during Kirkland’s visit as part of the U.S. 
delegation to the ILO’s annual assembly in Geneva. 

Randolph Institute Leaders 
Concerned at Drift to Right 


Denver — ^AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue called on all union members 
to “put on your walking shoes” on Soli- 
darity Day, Sept. 19, to protest the Reagan 
Administration’s assault on vital social 
programs and to “join in asserting our 
demands for jobs and justice.” 

In the keynote address to the opening 
session ofi the American Federation of 
Teachers’ 65th annual convention, Don- 
ahue linked the history of the first 100 
years of the American labor movement 
to the present difficulties faced by work- 
ing people, declaring: 

“ONE HUNDRED years later, solidar- 
ity is still our message and still our great- 
est strength ... as we reaffirm the historic 
commitment of this labor movement to 
social and economic progress.” 

AFT President Albert Shanker, in his 
state of the union address to the nearly 
2,500 delegates, followed up on Donahue’s 
call for solidarity, charging that in his 
budget-cutting. President Reagan is “prac- 
ticing the role of Robin Hood in reverse 
— ^he is taking from the poor and giving 
to the rich.” 

Shanker warned the delegates represent- 
ing 580,000 AFT members that the union 
faces severe threats from both the Reagan 
budget cuts affecting education, health 
care and public employees, as well as the 
Administration’s call for tuition tax credits, 
under which parents would receive a $500 
income tax credit for sending a child to 
private school. 

TO MEET these twin assaults, Shanker 
called on the delegates to fight “as though 
it were life or death” by getting every 
AFT members to contribute $10 to COPE, 
by organizing the “free-loaders,” and by 
increasing political activity. 

Shanker warned that the combination 
of the Reagan cuts in federal funds for 
education and social programs and the 
Administration’s push for tuition tax 


Philadelphia — ^The repeal of “ripper” 
legislation that Pennsylvania enacted last 
year sharply cutting back jobless benefits 
and an all-out drive to reject a new mea- 
sure that would gut workers’ compensa- 
tion head the State AFL-CIO legislative 
agenda. 

The 1,600 delegates to the federation’s 
convention here called on the current leg- 
islature to restore the more than $200 
million in annual benefits jobless workers 
are losing under the so-called ripper law. 

THE CONVENTION also urged legis- 
lators to reject an eight-bill package that 
would disqualify thousands of workers 
needing occupational injury and illness 
compensation. The measures would also 
halt automatic annual adjustments in bene- 
fits linked to increases in the state’s aver- 
age wage. 

Another key legislative objective is 
passage of a House bill that would require 
firms employing at least 50 workers to 
give a one-year notice before plant shut- 
downs to ease the economic impact on 
workers and their communities. 

While the convention was in session, the 
Republican-dominated state senate passed 
a labor-opposed bill lifting the interest 
rate ceiling on consumer credit, which cur- 
rently ranges from 15 to 24 percent. 
Delegates urged the House to defeat the 
measure, warning that Pennsylvania con- 
sumers would have to pay at least $30 
million a year more in credit charges if 
it were adopted. 

DELEGATES GAVE a cool reception 
to Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh (R) as he 
attempted to defend his support of the job- 
less benefit ripper law and other anti- 
worker measures. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue told the delegates that reports from its 
enemies that the labor movement is dead 


credits means “an entire wipe-out of the 
federal presence in education and in 
health, an entire reduction and decimation 
of the public sector in this country, and 
the possible destruction of public educa- 
tion in America.” 

In a press conference following his 
speech, Donahue expressed the AFL- 
CIO’s opposition to the tuition tax credit 
proposal, declaring, “Our tax dollars 
should support public institutions.” He 
said such tax credits would “vastly weaken 
public schools.” 

DURING HIS address to the delegates, 
Donahue emphasized that the AFL-CIO 
would “continue to extend every assistance 
in our power to our brothers and sisters 
in Poland as long as they need and desire 
our help,” a declaration that the delegates 
greeted with resounding applause. 

He said the federation “will do the 
same in Chile, in El Salvador, in South 
Africa and in other countries where work- 
ing people have asked for trade union 
support.” 

Donahue pointed out that the AFL- 
CIO is seeking “to bolster those free trade 
unions as democratic institutions for the 
expression and achievement of workers’ 
rights.” 

THE AFT delegates were to consider a 
wide range of resolutions on education 
policy, health care, public employment 
and international affairs as well as the 
Reagan Administration’s economic pro- 
gram. 

The officers reported a growth of nearly 
30,000 members in the past year, despite 
layoffs and attrition, as a consequence of 
the combination of bargaining units switch- 
ing from the National Education Associa- 
tion to the AFT, the chartering of more 
than 100 new locals, and the union’s ex- 
pansion of its membership in the health 
care field to 35 locals in 18 states. 


are grossly exaggerated. He stressed that 
organized labor is alive and well and that 
it is committed to the fight against attempts 
by the Reagan Administration to wipe out 
50 years of social progress. 

Other speakers included Sen. John Heinz 
(R-Pa.), who pledged to resist all efforts 
to repeal the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage 
law; Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), National 
COPE Director A1 Barkan, AFL-CIO 
Regional Director Walter Waddy and Paul 
Ornburn of the AFL-CIO Union Label & 
Service Trades Dept. 


New York — Steelworkers President 
Lloyd McBride urged organized labor and 
its allies to “speak out” against the budget- 
cutting mood in Congress and denounced 
the pro-business, anti-worker bias evident 
in the Reagan Administration. 

McBride’s comments were made as the 
League for Industrial Democracy pre- 
sented him with its 76th anniversary award 
in recognition of his commitment “to 
democracy in his union, his country and 
around the world.” 

McBRIDE TOLD the 400 trade union 
and political leaders at the luncheon that 
there is an element in the Administration 
that believes “if only we could unleash 
the power of business concerns to be free 
to do as they please, this country would 
be great and powerful again.” 

That philosophy led to the exploitation 
and intimidation of workers in the past, 
McBride pointed out, and he stressed that 
the labor movement will fight any such 
efforts to turn back the clock. Unions will 
use the collective bargaining process to 


Los Angeles — Blacks and workers must 
put before the American people “a wide- 
ranging, socially equitable program” as an 
alternative to the regressive policies of 
the Reagan Administration, Norman Hill, 
president of the A. Philip Randolph In- 
stitute, declared at the institute’s 12th 
national conference. 

Hill sharply criticized the rightward 
drift of the Senate and the Executive 
Branch and charged that the Reagan Ad- 
ministration has launched “the most for- 
midable challenge to the interests of blacks 
and other workers since the Republican 
administrations of the 1920s.” Hill’s key- 
note address sounded the theme of the 
annual conference, which brought together 
more than 750 black trade unionists and 
community leaders. 

CALIFORNIA GOV. Jerry Brown, who 
addressed the opening session of the con- 
ference, spoke of the problem of world 
hunger and emphasized that millions of 
blacks are starving to death in Africa. He 
called for foreign policy initiatives to help 
stem the problem of starvation. 

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley 
praised APRJ’s work in the area, including 
its “very important contributions to voter 
registration and voter participation.” 

Other speakers included AFL-CIO Vice 
President Frederick O’Neal, Civil Rights 
Director William Pollard, COPE Director 
A1 Barkan, Sec.-Treas. John Henning of 
the Calif. AFL-CIO, and Sec.-Treas. Wil- 
liam Robertson of the Los Angeles County 
AFL-CIO. 


defend workers’ rights to “a sense of dig- 
nity which creates conditions better than 
they ever have been before,” he declared. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue called McBride “a union leader who 
believes very deeply that a union belongs 
to its members and not to others who feel 
they understand the interests of workers 
better than the workers themselves.” 

THE LID awards luncheon was part 
of a two-day conference that featured a 
debate between Ladies’ Garment Workers’ 
Assistant President Gus Tyler and “supply- 
side” economist Eugene Bimbaum on the 
Reagan Administration’s economic policies. 

U.S. policy toward El Salvador was de- 
bated by Penn Kemble, founder of the 
Coalition for a Democratic Majority and 
author-historian Ron Radosh. 

A message of greetings to the confer- 
ence was delivered by Piotr Naimski, a 
founding member of the dissident Polish 
Committee for Self-Defense, KOR. 

Naimski described the work of Soli- 
darity, the independent trade union move- 


The high point of APRI’s conference 
was the presentation of the A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Freedom Award to Rep. Augustus 
F. Hawkins (D-Calif.), who was cited for 
his contributions to the concepts of full 
employment, social justice and interracial 
cooperation. 

APRI Chairman Bayard Rustin praised 
Hawkins as “one of our country’s outstand- 
ing legislators.” He said that like Randolph, 
Hawkins “knows that the trade union move- 
ment is a principal force for social justice” 
and that “freedom for black workers is only 
possible in an atmosphere of political, 
social and economic security.” 

Donald Slaiman, deputy director of the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization & Field 
Services, presented greetings to the con- 
ference and award dinner from Federation 
President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas Donahue. Slaiman urged institute 
leaders to play a leading role in building 
black community support for the federa- 
tion’s Sept. 19 “Solidarity Day” demon- 
stration. 

DELEGATES TOOK part in an exten- 
sive workshop program focusing on such 
topics as occupational safety and health, 
union organizing drives, and grass-roots 
legislative lobbying. 

The Randolph Institute is made up of 
more than 18,000 black trade unionists, 
active in 36 states and the District of 
Columbia. It conducts voter participation 
programs, supports labor’s organizing 
drives, and mobilizes support within the 
black community for labor’s agenda, 
among other activities. 


ment in Poland, and urged American 
workers to continue their support for Pol- 
ish workers. 

“What we need most,” Naimski said, 
“is moral assistance. We need to feel that 
the outside world supports our activities.” 
Naimski also outlined practical needs such 
as printing equipment. Solidarity faces 
“media and communications problems” in 
circulating information to its members, he 
pointed out. 

LID Chairman Tom Kahn, an assistant 
to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, an- 
nounced that the league will begin publi- 
cation in the fall of a quarterly magazine 
dealing with the status of workers’ rights 
in Eastern bloc countries. 

THE PUBLICATION will focus on 
working conditions and the status of inde- 
pendent workers’ movements in those 
countries, Kahn said. 

He told the conference the league has 
made available a study defending the es- 
tablishment of the minimum wage and is 
preparing a report on the activities of 
union-busting management consultants. 


Pennsylvania Unions Seek 
Restoration of Jobless Aid 


^Speak Out ’ on Cutbacks, McBride Urges 



Pai^e Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 


^Rationale for Plutoeraej’ 

W E HAVE TO remind our elected lawmakers as forcefully as 
we can of the fact that the budgetary knife cuts more than 
pieces of paper with numbers on them — ^it woxmds the flesh and 
drains the blood of living human beings. 

Those who are swinging the blade tell us that thejr ^o so with 
the high-minded purpose of “getting government off our backs.” 
Anyone old enough to remember, firsthand, the kind of world 
that Americans lived in before there was a CWA, before the busi- 
ness jungle was tamed by public-interest legislation, and before 
government resources were harnessed to secure justice and pro- 
mote the quality of human life, can only reject any prospect of 
returning to those good old days, before government began — ^not 
to get on the people’s back — ^but to stand by the people’s side, 
with a helping hand for the poor and weak. 

IN A JUST society, it is the business of government to look 
out for the interests of the poor and the weak. The rich and 
powerful can and do look out for themselves. 

We reject the idea, now labeled “supply-side” economics, that 
government should look after the rich and the rich will take care 
of the poor. There is nothing new in this idea. It’s the ancient 
rationale for plutocracy. 

It is possible for our country to avoid the social disaster we 
see taking shape behind the Reagan economic program. We be- 
lieve it is our duty to warn our fellow citizens of the danger 
they face. 

THERE ARE some welcome indications that the American 
people and at least some of their elected lawmakers are beginning 
to grasp the full dimensions of the human cost behind the dollar 
cuts of the Reagan Administration. 

One was the 96-to-O vote with which the Senate replied to the 
President’s initial proposal to gut the social security program. Of 
course, that battle isn’t over. We can expect more schemes and 
more attacks on that basic instrument which working people rely 
on for security in old age. 

Another indication is the growing number and extraordinary 
range of the national voluntary organizations that have responded 
to the AFL-CIO’s call for a broad coalition to restore human 
values to the budget. 

OUR COALITION includes well over 200 organizations that 
cover the whole spectrum of human concerns — ^with the conspicu- 
ous exception of business and finance. Many have never engaged 
in any sort of legislation action on a national scale. All of them 
have found that their interests, too, need to be defended and that 
they cannot do it alone. 

In our first century, we have acquired a considerable body of 
experience. We have seen a great many administrations and con- 
gresses come and go. We have seen leaders come on the scene as 
conquering heroes, shinning with charisma, only to slip away a few 
years later without applause, and sometimes with scorn. 

Many times over these 100 years we have faced far worse odds 
than we face today. We have never lost heart, never lost sight of 
our goals, never turned our back on our true friends. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to Communications 
Workers convention in Boston, July 6, 1981. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue. Secretarv-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


VoL XXVI 


Saturday, July 11, 1981 


No. 28 I 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-II85) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 81 S Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. S 



‘You’ll Have to Use the Tourist Gate!’ 



Democrats Defect 

Sweet Talk on Sugar Supports 
Swings Votes to Reagan Budget 


By Gus Tyler 

T he question before the House was 
this: should they vote on the budget as one 
big package or should they vote on it as six 
separate packages? 

The difference is one faced by every shopper 
when buying bananas, for instance. Should you 
make six separate purchases of one banana each 
or should you buy half a dozen at once? As a 
rule, if you make the big buy, you save something, 
a few pennies. 

So what were the members of the House of 
Representatives who voted for the Republican 
plan to act on the big package “saving?” They 
were saving themselves from their constituencies, 
from the people who elected them. 

IF THE REPRESENTATIVES had voted on 
six separate questions, their constituents would 
know exactly where the congressmen stood and 
just how “representative” they were. The legis- 
lator would be on record “for” or “against” items 
affecting such sensitive areas as social security, 
food stamps, guaranteed student loans, child 
nutrition, Medicaid, and cost of living increases 
for federal retirees. Understandably, many con- 
gressmen preferred not to be on record. 

To “save” their standing with the folks back 
home, while at the same time voting all these 
cuts, the congressmen preferred to vote for the 
total budget in one big chunk. In that way, they 
could always say to a constituent that they did 
not really like this or that feature of the budget 
but that they had no alternative since they were 
voting on the package as a whole. 

“Sorry,” reads the letter to the retiree back 
home, “that there was that cutback on your 
pension. There were several things I didn’t like 
in that package. But we couldn’t pick and choose; 
we had to vote it ‘up’ or ‘down’. And, unfortu- 
nately, some things slipped through that were not 
to our liking.” 

BY AVOIDING SIX separate roll calls on six 
sensitive issues, the representatives could be as 
unrepresentative as they pleased while concealing 
that fact from the people in the precincts. 

It was this charade to which President Reagan 
referred when he said: “Today’s vote is a profile 
in political courage.” 

Apparently, some of that “courage” was also 


up for sale, at the rather expensive price of four 
cents on a pound of raw sugar. Rep. W. J. Tau- 
zin (D-La.), one of 29 defectors from his party 
who voted for the “package,” says that, in ex- 
change for supporting tjie GOP proposal, the 
President promised to jack up sugar cane prices 
by 25 percent. 

WHEN REAGAN’S Budget Director, David 
Stockman, was confronted with this “deal,” he 
simply denied that any deal was made. There 
were only a few “adjustments and considerations.” 

Apparently, Tauzin was not the only southern 
Democrat who was importuned with “adjustments 
and considerations.” Stockman granted that the 
President made numerous calls and that in each 
case he was properly briefed on just what it was 
the congressman would like in exchange for his 
vote. Explained Stockman: “Obviously you don’t 
call people cold. He ought to know where the 
latest heartburn item is.” 

So the President knows the “heartburn.” He 
promises to ease the pain. In gratitude, the 
congressman then votes for the GOP package 
which he can do with impunity since the “pack- 
age” will allow him to hide his views from his 
constituency. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler’s Column 

iitiiniitiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinimiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiii 

A Question of Honor 
On Social Security 

The AFL-CIO recognizes the need for 
strengthening the financing of social security. 
This can and should be done without reducing 
benefits for beneficiaries or for those now con- 
tributing to the program who must depend on 
it in the future. 

Workers have paid contributions during their 
working lives confident of recdving specified 
benefits. It would be a breach of faith to de- 
prive them of these benefits. 

Congress is honor bound to meet program 
commitments. There are effective ways to folly 
balance the program without slashing benefits, 
and we urge you to support them. 

, —From AFL-CIO testimony at Senate 
hearings, July 10, 1981. 




AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 


Paf;e Five 


Lech Walesa at ILO 

A Message of Justice, Freedom 
From Polish Workers' Leader 


The following is from an address by Lech 
Walesa, chairman of the independent Polish trade 
union, Solidarity, to the 67th International Labor 
Conference in Geneva last month, 

1 HAVE COME to this conference as a dele- 
gate of Polish workers, accompanied by my 
colleagues from the Solidarity trade union and 
colleagues from the two other trade union fed- 
erations in Poland, the branch unions and the 
autonomous unions. 

This is clear proof of the pluralism of the Po- 
lish trade union movement. However, I have 
taken the floor here, first of all, as a representa- 
tive of the largest Polish trade union organization, 
the independent self-managed trade union Soli- 
darity. 

This organization was bom late in August 1980 
as a result of the memorable events in the ship- 
yards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin and in 
the coal mines of Silesia. 

IN JUST a few months, we have brought to- 
gether in our ranks millions of workers in every 
sphere of the national economy and Solidarity 
has become the largest social organization in the 
history of my country. 

Its members have different levels of education, 
different occupations and vocations, different phi- 
losophical and religious opinions, but they are 
joined by one common aspiration, that of ensur- 
ing for the Polish workers, blue-collar and white- 
collar alike, a life in civic freedom, freedom of 
thought and speech, human dignity and national 
sovereignty. 

The independence of our union, which has 
brought about a new social situation in my coun- 
try, sometimes gives rise to various fears. 

I should like, from this international forum, to 
tell everybody, all the peoples and all the coun- 
tries in the world, that the Poles are capable of 
settling their own internal affairs among them- 
selves and by themselves. It is in the common 
interest that no external intervention should pre- 
vent the process of consolidation of the Polish 
society which began on 31 August 1980. 

OUR UNION was born out of protest. Using 
the traditional methods of workers’ struggle — 
demonstrations and strikes — it contributed in a 
definitive way of initiating a thoroughgoing trans- 
formation of the social and political life of the 
country. 

There is no area which has remained unaffected 
by this process of renewal. And even though we 
are aware that this is only the beginning of these 
changes, no one in Poland has any doubt that 
there is no way to return to the old methods of 
ruling the country and governing its economy. 

The whole world knows what a difficult eco- 
nomic situation my country is in as a result of the 
political errors and the irresponsible economic 


and social policies pursued by the leaders of my 
country in past years. 

We are conscious of the fact that to find a way 
out of the present difficulties will require sacri- 
fices and self-denial on the part of every Pole, 
even though he bears no responsibility whatever 
for our economic collapse. We have recommend- 
ed every section of Solidarity not to make any 
wage demands and not to go on strike without the 
agreement of the leadership of Solidarity. But we 
shall continue our struggle so that no one in Po- 
land remains jobless and so that the vital interests 
of the most deprived segments of the population 
in town and country are well protected. 

MAY I EMPHASIZE that Polish workers be- 
longing to the independent, self-managed trade 
union Solidarity greatly appreciate the possibility 
of cooperating with the ILO and are ready to par- 
ticipate actively in the formulation and develop- 
ment of international labor laws and other ways 
of bringing about social progress. 

It is a matter of personal privilege and honor 
to me to be able to participate in the present ses- 
sion of the ILO Conference and to be able to 
meet and cooperate with so many trade unionists 
from all the countries of the world. 

Polish trade unionists have cooperated with the 
ILO wholeheartedly throughout the 62 years of 
its existence. When in August 1980 we decided to 
create independent self-managed trade unions, we 
used in full the provisions of the ILO Conventions 
Nos. 87 and 98 on freedom of association with 
trade union rights to strengthen Solidarity. I hope 
that in the future, too, our cooperation with the 
ILO will be a lasting element in the mutual rela- 
tions of Polish trade unionists with trade unions 
from all over the world and with international 
organizations working for social progress and so- 
cial justice. 

I SHOULD LIKE to express our solidarity 
with working people throughout the world, with 
the struggle waged by trade union organizations 
in defense of the social interests of the working 
people, in defense of dignity of work, for protec- 
tion of human rights wherever they are infringed. 

A man of our times cannot have a clear con- 
science so long as there are areas in the world 
where poverty and famine prevail, so long as 
heartrending contrast in material and social well- 
being exists between different countries or classes 
of people, so long as man’s natural pursuit of 
freedom, a decent life and happiness are coun- 
tered by violence, oppression and exploitation. 

May I express the hope that — irrespective of 
and dividing line between states, blocs or systems 
— the principles of social justice, democratic free- 
dom and independence of the trade union move- 
ment, which are the guidelines of Solidarity, may 
be the common property and underlying force of 
the entire trade union movement. 


Donahue Cites Impact 

Discontent on Reagan Policies 
Seen Focus of Labor’s Protest 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

“I hope we can wait. That’s a long time for 
eight million to remain unemployed — a long time 
to wait for those two million extra jobs to be 
added to the economy. . . . 

‘TT SEEMS TO ME that a more effective pro- 
gram would be to try to find ways to keep the 
people employed in the meantime, not to create 
a budget which will, in and of itself, account for 
ah extra million people unemployed.” 

Donahue acknowledged that the President is 
personally popular, but he stressed that “there is 
a great gap” between that assessment and “what 
the people’s real attitudes are towards the indi- 
vidual actions of the Reagan Administration.” 

He said that congressional votes in which long- 
time supporters of the labor movement — ^both 
Democrats and Republicans — have switched to 
support Administration programs opposed by the 
labor movement reflect a hurried view. “They are 


reading the tea leaves differently,” he suggested. 
While “they’re running with the pack” now, those 
elected representatives will respond differently 
“when the people’s real attitudes are toward the 
individual horrors that are being visited upon 
them,” he said. 

DONAHUE REJECTED the contention of 
Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan that “workers 
have more to gain than to lose by going along 
with this program.” Donovan, he pointed out, is 
“the same Labor Secretary who said the Supreme 
Court shouldn’t apply the best health standards 
to workers in the textile industry ... the same 
Labor Secretary who proposed a renewal of in- 
dustrial homework — the worst kind of exploita- 
tion of the past.” 

“Sec. Donovan needs to take another look at 
all of these issues,” he asserted, and “another 
look at the economic effects of the Reagan pro- 
gram.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 


W HEN BISMARCK RULED imperial Germany a century ago, 
he reportedly remarked that people shouldn’t see either 
sausages or laws being made. The point was well illustrated in a 
session of the House of Representatives on June 26. 

Following a rancorous five-hour “debate” which often bordered 
on pandemonium, the House approved the broadest package of 
budget legislation in memory — a one and one-half inch thick com- 
pilation of fine print which had been handed to House members 
shortly before the session began. 

The legislators, by their own admission, did not have time to 
read or study the 1,000-page compendium, which had been thrown 
together at the last minute, with some sections hastily crossed out 
and others penciled in the margins. 

YET WITH SOME cajoling from President Reagan, who 
proved to be as skillful with the telephone as with television, the 
House passed bya217 to 211 vote the so-called “Gramm-Latta” 
substitute to the budget legislation its own committees had devised. 

The Administration’s astonishing victory was made possibly by 
the defection to GOP ranks of 29 House Democrats, most of Aem 
southern conservatives. All but two Republican members were 
held in line. 

The Gramm-Latta legislation is similar to that approved by 
the Senate. Both versions whittle down or repeal many of the 
social programs enacted since the 1930s and seriously strain the 
“safety net” for the needy which Reagan had pledged to maintain. 

As Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) told his colleagues during 
the debate in reference to the Gramm-Latta substitute: “The 
three branches of government will have become two. The White 
House will not only propose legislation, but also dispose of it. . . . 
Major changes in the law are being stampeded through Congress 
without any deliberative process.” 

Rep. Mary Rose Dakar (D-Ohio) pleaded that “opposition to 
the Republican substitute is not merely a sour grapes phenomenon. 
The Gramm-Latta bill will abrogate the authority and function of 
the House authorizing committees. I do not exaggerate when I 
charge that adoption of these amendments constitutes a blatant 
threat to our entire checks and balances system.” 

Rep. Thomas M. Foglietta (D-Pa.) declared, “I cannot, and I 
will not, go along with this mockery of the legislative process,” 
The “budget process,” he said, “is being used as an excuse to 
implement major policy reversals. The President’s block grant 
proposal is the most prominent example.” 

THE VOTE FOR Gramm-Latta only compounded the rout of 
the Legislative branch by the Reagan-led Executive Branch which 
began when the House voted in May for a “bipartisan” budget 
resolution sponsored by Texas Democrat Phil Gramm and Ohio 
Republican Delbert Latta. The 63 conservative Democrats who 
joined a solid GOP provided a comfortable margin of victory. 

That resolution, the original Gramm-Latta measure, mandated 
House authorizing committees to make $36.6 billion in social 
program cuts. Congress thus complied with the Administration’s 
desire to turn the budget process on its head by forcing congres- 
sional committees to shape programs and rewrite legislation to 
conform to previously determined spending ceilings. 

Rep. Richard Bolling (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Rules 
Committee, warned that “If the Administration’s insistence that 
it have its own way — and at once — through the reconciliation 
process continues, it will be a gross distortion of the intent of 
those who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well 
as the intent of the 1974 budget act.” 

Bolling continued: “If Congress is to be reduced to automatons 
permitted only to ratify a presidential legislative agenda that has 
been premasticated by an all-powerful executive, the American 
people, with some justice, may very well ask: ‘Why should we 
support this expensive anachronism?’ ” 



SOLIDARITY DAY demonstrators will help repudiate the 
Reagan Administration’s claims of a mandate to reverse 50 
years of social progress, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Don- 
ahue said on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by 
Lance Gay, left, of the Washington Star and Philip Shabecoff 
of the New York Times. The program is aired weekly on the 
Mutual radio network. 




Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 



SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS are presented to graduates Angel Pacheo and 
Kamlesh Patel at Samuel Gompers High School commencement exercises in 
Bronx, N.Y. in memory of the first AFL president. The awards were made on 
behalf of the Reunion of Old Timers by Charles Zimmerman, a retired vice 
president of the Ladies’ Garment Workers, Mrs. Zimmerman, and Morris Novik, 
right, a media consultant to the AFL-CIO. Principal Victor Herbert is at left. 
The old timers group was founded 40 years ago by New York area socialists and 
trade unionists. 

Hospital Workers Win Pact 
In 4-Month Kentucky Strike 


State-County 
Strikers Seek 
Pay Equality 

The State, County & Municipal Employ- 
ees pledged the union’s full resources to 
San Jose, Calif., city workers striking to 
win for women die same pay as men doing 
comparable work. 

“AFSCME and its local union member- 
ship in San Jose are asking for no more 
than a good-faith effort on the part of the 
city,” said Union President Jerry Wurf in a 
telegram to the officers of AFSCME Local 
101 in San Jose. 

“San Jose’s wage rates are illegal and 
in violation of the Civil Rights Act,” he 
charged. 

SOME 1,500 librarians, mechanics, jani- 
tors, and clerical and other workers struck 
July 5 when their old contract with the 
city expired. Earlier, on June 8, with the 
aid of AFSCME’s legal department, Local 
101 filed a formal complaint with the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commis- 
sion that the city has engaged in sexual 
discrimination in paying its predominantly 
female job classes less than predominantly 
male job classes. 

The union is seeking a $3.2 million com- 
mitment over four years to correct the 
inequities. The city, which has a popula- 
tion of 650,000, has offered $1.3 million. 
On the other hand, the city government 
has already adopted a pay equity program 
for management officials based on an inde- 
pendent evaluation of the city’s pay struc- 
ture. 

The study, conducted by the consulting 
firm of Hay Associates, found that pay for 
jobs that are predominantly staffed by 
females ranges from 2 to 10 percent less 
than the overall average for the city. The 
city initiated the half-million dollar survey 
at AFSCME’s request. 

CITY OFFICIALS rejected the union’s 
wage proposal on the ground the Hay 
study was not intended to measure pre- 
cisely the relative value of jobs, and have 
refused to upgrade jobs that are within 10 
percent of the average salary “trend line.” 
The union’s proposal would bring predomi- 
nantly female positions up to the trend 
line. 

“The men and women of AFSCME 
know that your fight is our fight,” Wurf 
said in his telegram to the local. He 
pledged support “with all of the resources 
available because the issues are important 
to working women everywhere.” 


Prestonburg, Ky. — four-month strike 
by service and maintenance workers at the 
regional hospital here has ended with sub- 
stantial contract gains despite a campaign 
of threats and violence mounted against 
the workers. 

The 280 members of District 1199’s 
unit at the Highlands Regional Medical 
Center, a 137-bed non-profit facility, 
struck Mar. 25 after solidly rejecting a 
take-it-or-leave-it offer from the hospital 
management. District 1199 is the hospital 
and health care division of the Retail, 
Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. 

THE NEW three-year pact, ratified 144- 
41 on July 7, provides for a 30 percent 
across-the-board wage increase in steps of 
11, 10 and 9 percent. Most of the union’s 
members had been receiving the minimum 
wage or slightly more. 

Many workers will also get an average 
of 7 percent in raises to correct pay in- 
equities in some jobs and establish senior- 
ity differentials. 

Gains were also made in vacations, sick 


leave, and holiday pay and health care 
coverage. 

At the start of the strike, the hospital 
hired a Cincinnati firm, Nuckols & Asso- 
ciates, to provide security guards. The 
nearly 50 uniformed guards were per- 
mitted to carry guns and billy clubs and to 
use surveillance cameras, high intensity 
lighting and armored cars. A local judge 
enjoined the union from having more than 
five pickets on the line at any time. 

UNION MEMBERS reported being 
beaten on the picket line by the guards, 
and several pickets were injured when 
they were struck by cars crashing through 
the line. 

The windows of the union headquarters 
and of many strikers’ cars were shot out. 

Pickets said they were followed home 
by guards after leaving the line, and a 
number reported receiving telephoned 
threats of death or violence if they did 
not return to work. But not a single mem- 
ber of the unit returned to work during 
the strike. 


Union Urges 

Controllers 

ToRejectPaet 

Chicago — ^The Ar Traffic Controllers’ 
executive board has unanimously recom- 
mended that the union’s members “over- 
whelmingly reject” the tentative contract 
settlement their negotiators reached June 
22 with the Federal Aviation Administra- 
tion. 

The board adopted its position at a two- 
day meeting here attended by some 400 
local union representatives as well. A reso- 
lution approved by the nine-member panel 
said that last month’s agreement “does not 
address the fundamental issues important 
to the air traffic control profession.” 

VOTING ON the tentative contract is 
expected to begin next week, and the re- 
sults known by July 28. If the pact is re- 
jected, the union’s next stop would be 
to ask the government to resume bargain- 
ing. 

The resolution did not address specific 
contract issues, but PATCO leaders said 
they have received many letters, telegrams, 
and phone calls from members complain- 
ing that the Administration’s offer of an 
11.4 percent wage increase this year is in- 
adequate. The controllers also had sought 
a shorter work week without reduction in 
pay as a means of lessening job-related 
stress. Instead, the agency offered time- 
and-a-half pay for four hours of a regular 
40-hour week. 

Under the new contract proposal, all 
PATCO members would not benefit 
equally since much of the package consists 
of increases in premium pay for night and 
weekend work as well as money for con- 
trollers who are medically disqualified. 

' THE BOARD’S three-paragraph reso- 
lution recommending rejection of the con- 
tract supported PATCO President Robert 
Poli’s acceptance of the agreement “given 
the circumstances with which he was con- 
fronted in the early morning of June 22.” 

With a strike deadline set for approxi- 
mately 7 a.m. on that date, negotiations 
between the union and the Reagan Admin- 
istration, represented by Transportation 
Sec. Drew Lewis, continued through the 
night while union officials polled con- 
trollers across the country to determine 
whether there was sufficient support for a 
strike. 

An affiliate of the Marine Engineers’ 
Beneficial Association, PATCO represents 
about 14,000 of the nation’s air traffic 
controllers. 


Musicians ’ Delegates Vote 


To Retain Dues Structure 


Salt Lake City — Delegates to the Mu- 
sician’s 84th convention rejected an ex- 
ecutive board proposal of a one-time, $5- 
per-member assessment to bolster the un- 
ion’s financial position, but left intact the 
per capita dues structure adopted at last 
year’s convention. 

The 900 delegates to the four-day meet- 
ing also re-elected the federation’s officers, 
streamlined language in the union’s con- 
stitution, voted to increase the salaries of 
officers and executive board members, and 
heard a number of speakers. 

A RESOLUTION calling for a return 
to annual conventions was voted down in 
a voice vote. At its 1980 convention, the 
AFM delegates had voted to hold conven- 
tions biennially rather than yearly. 


The decision to retain the work dues 
structure under which members pay one- 



half of 1 percent of scale wages to the na- 
tional union and one-half of 1 percent to 
their local was by a large majority of 
delegates. Several resolutions had been 
proposed to modify the plan. 

Re-elected to new two-year terms were 
President Victor W. Fuentealba, Vice 
President David Winstein, Vice President 
from Canada J. Alan Wood, and Sec.- 
Treas. J. Martin Emerson. Incumbents to 
the remaining five positions on the nine- 
member executive board were also re- 
elected, 

THE OFFICER salary increases, the 
first since 1975, raise the salary of the 
president from $55,000 to $64,000 a year 
while^that of the vice president from Can- 
ada and the secretary-treasurer go from 
$45,000 to $52,000 a year. The three po- 
sitions are full-time. Also, the salaries of 
the remaining, part-time executive-board 
members were raised from $12,000 to 
$14,000 a year. 

Speakers included the wife of Gov. 
Scott Matheson, Norma, filling in for her 
husband who had been detained in Wash- 
ington during a meeting with President 
Reagan; President Eddie P. Mayne of the 
Utah State AFL-CIO; Maurice Abravanel, 
music director of the Utah Symphony, and 
Edwin Schmidt, director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Reproduction, Mailings & Sub- 
scriptions. 


District 1199 organized a strike sup- 
port fund for the Prestonburg members, 
which was amplified by a statewide cam- 
paign led by the Kentucky AFL-CIO. Ad- 
ditional support and funds came from the 
Mine Workers. Many of the strikers, 230 
of whom were women, were the only 
support of their families or are married 
to Mine Workers’ members who were also 
on strike during much of the same period. 

ROBERT MUHLENKAMP, District 
1199 director of organizing said the vic- 
tory will be studied by hospitals and 
workers throughout the area. 

The medical center, Muhlenkamp point- 
ed out, “thought that because most of the 
strikers were women service workers 
earning the minimum wage they were 
powerless and vulnerable, and that a cam- 
paign of violence would scare them into 
submission. 

“The hospital guessed wrong, apd the 
workers stuck together in a magnificent 
display of courage and commitment.” 

COPE-Backed Democrat 

Jackson, Miss. — COPE-endorsed Dem- 
ocrat Wayne Dowdy, who spoke out for 
extension of the Voting Rights Act, was 
elected to the House from a Mississippi 
congressional district last represented by 
a Republican. 

Dowdy, 37-year-old mayor of McComb, 
edged out Republican Liles B. Williams 
in a runoff. 

The seat had been held by the GOP 
since 1972 and has been vacant since April 
when Republican John Hinson resigned 


Congress Girds 
For Tax Battle 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

Congress breaks for a scheduled August 
recess. 

The House Democratic leadership had 
assumed that a tax cut less skewed to 
the very rich would be politically more 
acceptable than the Administration plan. 
But the President demonstrated in the 
budget votes his ability to swing a bloc of 
conservative Democrats to his side. 

Ironically, the business groups that were 
solidly aligned with the President on the 
budget cuts are seen as the wild cards in 
the tax battle. 

Some trade associations find the busi- 
ness tax reductions in the House com- 
mittee bill more lucrative for their indus- 
tries than the Administration version. 

Elected in Mississippi 

from Congress after his arrest on a morals 
offense charge. 

Williams had led seven other candidates 
in the first round of voting. He campaigned 
as a supporter of President Reagan, whose 
endorsement was mailed to district voters, 
and used a television advertisement featur- 
ing Vice President Bush. 

Dowdy had the near-solid support of 
the district’s 45 percent black population, 
and Williams attributed his loss to the 
unexpectedly high voter turnouts. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 


Page Seven 


Ready Cure for Deficit 

‘Scare Tactics’ Charged 
To Social Security Foes 



COPE’S COFFERS got a $22,000 boost with a check from the Office & Profes^ 
sional Employees presented by OPEIU Sec.-Treas. William A. Lowe, right, to 
COPE Director A1 Barkan. The check represents 100-percent fulfillment of the 
union membership’s quota for voluntary political contributions for 1981. This is the 
sixth consecutive year that OPEIU has reached 100 percent of its COPE quota. 

Trade Concessions Opposed 
For Communist Countries 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Health & Human Services Sec. Richard 
S. Schweiker was also questioned sharply 
about the economic assumptions it used 
to project a massive future deficit in the 
social security funds. For that purpose, 
Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) noted, the Ad- 
-ministration assumes a continuation of 
very high unemployment and very high 
inflation. But for other economic projec- 
tions, it foresees both rates dropping. 

In Detroit, Auto Workers President 
Douglas A. Fraser said the Reagan Ad- 
ministration appears to be conducting an 
“orchestrated attempt to undermine confi- 
dence in the social security system and to 
establish a basis for the outrageous cuts 
which it proposed in May.” 

Seidman protested the “cruelty” of 
showing doubt as to whether workers who 
pay into the system will ever get benefits 
from it. 

“IT IS inconceivable that Congress 
would let s(5cial security benefits be de- 
layed or unpaid,” Seidman stressed. 

Therefore, he suggested. Congress 
should write into law “a provision stating 
that social security benefits, like interest 
on the national debt, will be paid from 
general revenues in the event payroll taxes 
are insufficient. The present moral obliga- 
tion to pay benefits should become a legal 
one. This would reassure beneficiaries and 
contributors, and strengthen public con- 
fidence in the program.” 

He reminded the panel that a similar 
provision was included in the Social Se- 
curity Act more than 30 years ago. 

AS TO THE Reagan Administration’s 
cutback proposals, Seidman said the harsh 
effect of slashing early retirement benefits 
would be compounded by further tighten- 

Job Assurances 
Sought in Talks 
On Grain Sales 

A larger share of grain sold to the 
Soviet Union should be processed into 
flour before it leaves the United States, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland urged 
in a letter to Agriculture Sec. John R. 
Block. 

The current five-year grain agreement 
between the two nations expires on Sept. 
30. Now that the Administration has lifted 
the boycott imposed by former President 
Carter, both sides are preparing for “ex- 
ploratory talks” on an extension of the 
sales agreement. 

KIRKLAND NOTED that the AFL- 
CIO had supported retaining the boycott 
“as long as Russian troops remain in Af- 
ghanistan.” But if sales are to be resumed, 
he said, greater attention should be paid 
to the effect on U.S. jobs. 

The United States is losing employment 
because U.S. wheat and soybeans are be- 
ing processed at European mills, Kirkland 
stressed. By processing a larger share of 
the grain in the United States, he said, 
job opportunities will increase and the 
value of U.S. exports will be higher. 

Kirkland urged a bilateral agreement 
on cargo sharing between the United 
States and the USSR that would in prac- 
tice as well as theory provide for an even 
division of cargo shipments. 

HE SAID the agreement should provide 
a rate structure that will enable U.S. ves- 
sels to receive a fair return and encourage 
expansion of the American-flag bulk fleet. 
Otherwise, he warned, the Soviet Union is 
likely to engage in “predatory” pricing 
tactics that will freeze out U.S. vessels. 

“If grain sales are to be made to the 
Soviets,” Kirkland urged, “they should be 
made under a multi-year bilateral sales 
and shipping agreement that mitigates 
wild swings in Russian purchases and en- 
hances U.S. domestic price stability and 
employment.” 


ing eligibilitiy for disability insurance. 

Under the Administration plan, Seid- 
man protested, no worker retiring at 62 
would get a social security benefit as high 
as the official poverty threshold. 

Seidman expressed labor’s concern that 
the extreme severity of the Administra- 
tion’s proposals may increase the willing- 
ness of Congress to accept cuts “that are 
somewhat less drastic than the Adminis- 
tration’s recommendations.” 

THAT APPEARS to be the Adminis- 
tration’s “fallback strategy,” Seidman said, 
and the various retrenchment proposals 
being talked of in Congress “give evidence 
that this strategy has been much too 
successful.” 

He told the Senate panel that the AFL- 
CIO is opposed to any increase in the age 
of retirement. Tampering with the early 
retirement provisions of social security 
places “an unequal burden on those in 
poor health and on blue-collar workers 
whose jobs require physical effort,” Seid- 
man protested. They would also have a 
“devastating impact on the early retire- 
ment provisions of collectively bargained 
pension plans,” he observed. 

Living standards of the elderly are 
declining under inflation’s impact even 
with the present cost-of-living formula for 
social security benefits, Seidman noted. 

HE AND OTHER union and senior 
citizens witnesses testifying at the hearings 
took sharp issue with the Administration 
insistence that general revenue funds not 
be used to supplement the payroll tax. 

“The United States is one of the few 
advanced industrial nations in the world 
in which the social security system is fi- 
nanced almost entirely from payroll taxes,” 
Seidman noted. 

The AFL-CIO proposal to finance 50 
percent of Medicare out of general rev- 
enues would allow the balance of the 
Medicare tax to be applied to the Old 
Age & SJurvivors Trust Fund, the basic 
retirement benefit fund. 

AS A FURTHER backup, Seidman 
said, other transfers and reallocation 
among the various funds would provide 
needed flexibility. And, as former Presi- 
dent Carter proposed in 1977, general 
funds should supplement the payroll tax 
during periods of exceptionally high un- 
employment. 

“The AFL-dO recognizes the need for 
strengthening the financing of the pro- 
gram,” Seidman testified. “But we believe 
this can and should be done without re- 
ducing benefits for either beneficiaries or 
for those now contributing to the program 
who must depend on it in the future.” 


There was a time when a member of 
Congress could count on the financial sup- 
port of the National Conservative Political 
Action Committee (NCPAC) merely by 
being consistently anti-union, voting for 
budget cuts and denouncing the “give- 
away” of the Panama Canal. 

But now, it seems, true conservatives 
should also work to preserve the com- 
modity straddle tax loophole. And not 
even the Reagan Administration can pass 
through the eye of that needle. 

COMMODITY SPECULATORS in- 
vented the straddle to defer paying taxes 
on their profits. It involves juggling buy- 
and-sell contracts to create temporary 
paper losses that are then used to offset 
real profits. 

The Treasury Dept, estimates that it 
costs the government $1.3 billion a year 
in tax revenues and recently joined with 
the AFL-CIO in testifying for a bill to 
close the loophole. 

The NCPAC is going all out to block 
the reform legislation, and an article in 


The AFL-CIO opposes extension of 
“most-favored-nation” status to the com- 
munist countries of Romania, Hungary 
and the People’s Republic of China, Leg- 
islative Director Ray Denison told a House 
subcommittee, charging that “there is 
neither human rights nor economic nor 
political justification” for such treatment. 

The three countries have been accorded 
MFN treatment under the 1974 .Trade 
Act’s waiver authority. MFN status pro- 
vides the lowest tariff and the easiest 
access to the U.S. market that the United 
States grants any other country. 

DENISON TOLD the House Ways & 
Means trade subcommittee chaired by 
Rep. Sam M. Gibbons (D-Fla.) that hu- 
man rights conditions in Hungary and 
Romania have not improved as a result of 
granting those countries MFN status and 
that China remains a question mark. 

“The issue before the committee is 
whether or not the granting of normal 
trade status to these countries encourages 
the free emigration of their citizens,” Den- 
ison wrote Gibbons. “The evidence does 
not completely support that view.” 

In addition, Denison reiterated the 
AFL-CIO’s longstanding objection to pro- 
viding U.S. technology and production fa- 
cilities for use imder communist labor 
conditions to send products into the U.S. 

“Over the years, we have listed a num- 


the July 4 issue of Congressional Quarterly 
explains how this became a New Right 
issue. 

IT SEEMS that one of the nation’s 
biggest commodity traders, Peter M. To- 
debush of Chicago, is a member of 
NCPAC’s executive committee and a big 
contributor to the organization. 

Todebush apparently had no great dif- 
ficulty convincing NCPAC Chairman John 
T. Dolan to write to key House and Sen- 
ate committee members expressing “shock” 
at the proposed legislation and urging its 
defeat. 

Todebush is quoted by Congressional 
Quarterly as terming the bill “ideologically 
offensive” and asserting that it should be 
one of the issues to determine beneficiaries 
of NCPAC help in the 1982 elections. 

DOLAN HAD a blunter explanation of 
why his group wants to keep the loophole 
open: “Anybody who can get out of pay- 
ing any taxes at any time, I support, 
whether he’s the poorest of the poor or 
the richest of the rich.” 


ber of products and industries where it- 
jury was already occurring in the U.S. and 
where jobs and production had already 
been lost,” Denison observed. “Yet im- 
ports of textiles, garments, shoes, elec- 
tronic equipment, glass, and steel prod- 
ucts — all import-injured industries — per- 
sist. 

“RECENT FIGURES show that in- 
creased imports of such equipment as rail- 
road car parts have now been documented. 
We have also called attention before this 
committee to imports of compressors from 
the People’s Republic of China, and there 
is evidence that the fastener industry, al- 
ready impacted, is increasingly impacted 
from the PRC.” 

In Romania, Hungary and China, Deni- 
son concluded, MFN status is not neces- 
sary for either trade or contracts, nor 
does normalized treatment assure U.k ex- 
porters that their sales will not be cut 
back whenever these countries’ govern- 
ments decide to curtail them. 

Extension Urged 
On Tax Status of 
Legal Aid Plans 

Group legal services should continue to 
be treated as a non-taxable fringe benefit, 
the AFL-CIO urged in a statement to a 
Senate Finance subcommittee. 

A section of a 1976 tax law specified 
that for a five-year period workers would 
not have to pay income taxes on employer 
contributions to legal services plans — or 
on the value of any of the benefits work- 
ers and their families may receive under 
such plans. 

That provision should now be made per- 
manent, the AFL-CIO urged. 

The statement, supporting a bill intro- 
duced by Subcommittee Chairman Bob 
Packwood (R-Ore.), noted that legal ser- 
vices plans were rare when the law was 
passed. 

But they have expanded rapidly, the 
statement noted, growing over five years 
from 75 to 400 plans and now covering 
about one million employees across the 
country. 

These plans make it possible for mod- 
erate-income workers to obtain needed 
legal services and should not result in 
higher taxes on workers, the AFL-CIO 
urged. 

Unless Congress acts before the end 
of the year, uncertainty over their tax 
status will discourage the growth of legal 
service plans, the federation’s statement 
pointed out. 


Tax Loophole New Yardstick 
For the ‘Truly Conservative’ 


Page Ei^t 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 11, 1981 


Convention Action 

Newspaper Guild Spurs 
Solidarity Day Turnout 



CENTER STAGE at the Newspaper Guild’s 48th annual convention — sus- 
pended above the speakers’ dais — is the emblem of the Solidarity Day demon- 
stration set for Sept. 19. Here, it looms over Guild President Charles A. Perlik, 
Jr., right, Sec.-Treas. Charles Dale, left, and International Chairperson Harry S. 
Culver as they exchange congratulations on their re-election to new terms. 

Donahue Scores Safety Gap 
For Public Sector Workers 


Memphis, Tenn. — ^Delegates to the 
Newspaper Guild’s 48th annual convention 
here unanimously committed the union — 
at both the international and local levels — 
to join “to the fullest extent possible” in 
the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day demonstra- 
tion on Sept. 19. 

The Guild and its members, along with 
the rest of organized labor, “is beginning 
to pay the price” of the election of a big- 
business-oriented administration and con- 
gressional majority, the delegates observed 
in a resolution. 

“How high that price will mount de- 
pends on us. . . . The need for a massive 
outpouring by labor and its traditional 
allies [for Solidarity Day] is acute,” the 
convention declared. 

IT STRESSED that the Reagan Ad- 
ministration must be given the message 
that America’s working people recognize 
that its economic policy is not fashioned 
for their benefit and “promotes poverty 
and discrimination.” 

At the same time, they said, the Reagan 
Administration is “orchestrating” a cam- 
paign to dismember the U.S. Freedom of 
Information Act — the law that aims to 
keep the processes of government open to 
public surveillance so that it can be subject 
to public control. 

The convention pointed to pending and 
proposed bills that would, among other 
things, bar disclosure of material sub- 
mitted to the government on defects in 
manufacturers’ products, prevent court re- 
view of any CIA refusal to release infor- 
mation, substantially broaden disclosure 
exemptions for law enforcement records, 
relax deadlines for fulfillment of requests 
for documents and limit an applicant’s 
requests to one per agency per year. 

“All those concerned with the public’s 
right to be informed must unite” in a 


The Supreme Court ruled that a union 
has the right to strike to back up a bar- 
gaining table demand that a company 
contribute to a multiemployer pension and 
welfare fund on behalf of its workers. 

Its 8-1 decision, issued shortly before 
the court concluded its term, agreed with 
the position taken by the AFL-CIO and 
the National Labor Relations Board. 

It reversed a ruling by the 3rd Circuit 
Court of Appeals which said a union’s 
insistence on participation in a multiem- 
ployer pension plan amounted to dictating 
the choice of an employer bargaining rep- 
resentative, a Taft-Hartley law violation. 


campaign to preserve public disclosure 
that is “as determined as the campaign by 
those who would destroy it,” the conven- 
tion said. 

It also warned that without amendment 
a proposed revision of federal communi- 
cations law now in the Senate could open 
the door to the telephone industry enter- 
ing the field of electronic publishing.” 

The bill, should be amended to pro- 
hibit AT&T and other telephone com- 
panies from becoming providers of elec- 
tronic information and advertising where 
they control transmission of such informa- 
tion and advertising, the delegates said. 

THE CONVENTION issued its call for 
support of Solidarity Day- after hearing 
Guild President Charles A. Perlik, Jr., 
point out that it will be “a day of solidar- 
ity with the miners whose black lung bene- 
fits Reagan has cut.” 

He cited also “victims of imprisonment, 
torture and murder at the hands of regimes 
whose human rights violations this Ad- 
ministration has decided it is in the interest 
of higher morality to overlook.” 

In other actions, the convention: 

• Voted to increase dues and per 
capita payments to the international by 50 
cents effective Sept. 1, with the additional 
funds to go to increase the union’s staff 
of organizers by two, to 13. The increase 
will put the monthly per capita payment 
at $8.53 per month. 

• Re-elected the union’s three top of- 
ficers — Perlik, president; Charles Dale, 
secretary-treasurer, and Harry S. Culver, 
international chairperson. 

Four vice presidents also were elected 
by the convention when there were no 
opposing nominees for the positions. Nine 
other vice presidencies, all contested, will 
be filled by referendum in September. 


Stewart said the appellate court was wrong 
in conceiving the role of an employer 
trustee of a pension plan as akin to that 
of a management representative at the 
bargaining table. 

A trustee of an employee benefit fund, 
he ruled, “is a fiduciary whose duty to the 
trust beneficiaries must overcome any 
loyalty to the interest of the party that 
appointed him.” 

Further, the opinion noted, trustees don’t 
function as collective bargaining represen- 
tatives or in the adjustment of grievances. 

Justice John Paul Stevens was the only 
dissenter in the case. 


LFnions face the double challenge of 
repelling Reagan Administration attacks 
on OSHA while stepping up their efforts 
to extend full safety protections to public 
sector workers, AFL-CIO Sec..-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue declared. 

Addressing a two-day job safety confer- 
ence sponsored by the federation’s Public 
Employee Dept., Donahue said that basic 
protections against occupational injury and 
illness are lacking for 2.8 million federal 
employees and 13 million workers em- 
ployed by state and local governments. 

“HAZARDS THAT threaten the lives 
and health of American workers are not 
bounded by whether the employer is a 
chemical corporation, a federal shipyard, 
or a state or county highway project,” he 
stressed. 

Although occupational injuries and ill- 
nesses show a total disregard for 'job sec- 
tor classifications, Donahue noted that 
public employees have been left in a kind 
of twilight zone — since they are not pro- 
vided the same rights and protections 
workers in the private sector have under 
OSHA. 

He pointed out the resources for the 
enforcement of standards for federal work- 
ers have been “puny and inconsequential,” 
and will likely deteriorate further as a 
result of the Reagan Administration’s 
budget cuts. Donahue also branded state 
programs for other public employees as 
weak and inadequately staffed. 

But all workers — ^public and private — 
are in the same boat because “there is no 


question the Reagan Administration is 
out to gut the OSHA act,” he warned. 

RESPONDING to an earlier address by 
Assistant Labor Sec. Thome G. Auchter, 
Donahue . said he was unaware of any 
workers being “strangled” by enforcement 
of OSHA stadards. 

Auchter, who heads the federal job 
safety agency, said that the Administration 
is moving on a broad front to reduce un- 
necessary federal regulation — “regulation 
that both labor and management have dis- 
covered is really strangulation.” 

Rep. Michael Barnes (D-Md.) told the 
conference that the combination of budget 
cuts, reductions of OSHA staff and shift- 
ing of federal jurisdiction to states will 
adversely affect job safety protection. 

Brown New Chairman 
Of Mediation Board 

Robert J. Brown has been designated 
chairman of the National Mediation 
Board, the federal agency that handles 
labor-management disputes in the railroad 
and airline industries. 

Brown, who is 51, is a former Auto 
Workers’ local officer in St. Paul and a 
member of the State, County & Municipal 
Employees during his several years of em- 
ployment with the State of Minnesota. 

Before becoming a member of the Na- 
tional Mediation Board in 1979, Brown 
had served as Under Secretary of Labor 
from March 1977 through August 1979. 


High Court Upholds Strike 
On Industry Pension Plan 


THE CASE involved the unaffiliated 
Mine Workers which sought to bring em- 
ployees of a western surface mine under 
an industry pension plan. Because of paral- 
lels with other multiemployer plans, the 
AFL-CIO, the Sheet Metal Workers and 
a Sheet Metal Contractors’ Association 
filed a brief supporting the union’s right 
to strike. 

Writing for the majority, Justice Potter 


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Task Force Backs Two-Pilot Airline Crews 


The current crop of new “high tech- 
nology” airliners can be safely flown by 
only two pilots, a presidential task force 
has concluded despite testimony by the 
Air Line Pilots and Flight Engineers that 
the heavier workload in the computerized 
cockpits requires a third crew member for 
an “extra margin of safety.” 

The special panel appointed by Presi- 
dent Reagan to study the crew comple- 
ment issue found the McDonnell Douglas 
DC 9-80 to be safe for flight with a two- 
pilot crew and that the Federal Aviation 
Administration acted properly in its pro- 
cedures for testing the “Super 30” before 
certifying it. 

OTHER NEW generation aircraft soon 
to be marketed with cockpits designed for 
only two crew members also appear to be 
“potentially” safe, the report concluded. 

The task force recommended, however, 
that the FAA take steps to strengthen and 
improve its process of certifying new jet- 
liners by including consultation and par- 
ticipation by line flight crews in the pro- 
cedure. 


Both the ALPA and the FEIA have 
long been critical of the FAA’s reliance 
on manufacturers’ data in the certification 
process with the general exclusion of quali- 
fied line crews. 

The report has been sent to the Presi- 
dent, and Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis 
is expected to make the final decision to 
adopt its conclusions shortly. 

ALPA PRESIDENT J. J. O’Donnell, 
stressing that he disagrees with many of 
the panel’s major conclusions, said he will 
recommend to the union’s executive board 
that the pilots abide by the results based 
on his commitment that the union would 
accept the panel’s decisions “if the task 
force acted in a fair and objective way.” 

O’Donnell has called a meeting of the 
ALPA’s executive board for July 14-15 to 
evaluate the full report and determine the 
union’s position. 

William A. Gill, Jr., president of the 
7,000 member Flight Engineers, said the 
union is “very surprised and disappointed” 
by the decision. 


Pointing out that no technical testing 
was conducted before the panel’s de- 
cision was announced. Gill stressed that 
“the major issue in this matter is safety. 
We are convinced that removal of the 
flight engineers from the cockpit of future 
aircraft will endanger the lives of passen- 
gers and crew.” 

The union is currently studying the re- 
port and exploring its options “in order 
to prevent this serious threat to air safety.” 

The task force was established in March 
in response to a public information cam- 
paign staged by the flight crew unions to 
stimulate action on the safety controversy. 

THE ALPA called off a scheduled work 
stoppage meant to dramatize the issue fol- 
lowing announcement by President Reagan 
that he would appoint the special panel. 

The task force, chaired by former FAA 
Administrator and Air Force Sec. John L. 
McLucas, included Fred J. Drinkwater III, 
chief of aircraft operations at NASA’s 
Ames Research Center, and Lt. Gen. 
Howard W. Leaf, inspector general of the 
Air Force. 



Labor Asks Tair Trade’ Pobcy 



TWO SENATE subcommittees considering trade issues hear AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland call for a fair trade policy keyed to maintaining a diversified 
U.S. economy instead of the “free trade” advocated by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration. With him are AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison and 
Economist Elizabeth Jager. 

Donovan Urged to Bar 
Weakening Wage Rules 


Unions Press 
Postal Talks 
Near Deadline 

By James M. Shevis 

U.S. Postal Service negotiators, under 
pressure from federal mediators, resumed 
face-to-face bargaining with the two ma- 
jor postal unions seeking new contracts 
before current agreements expire at mid- 
night July 20. 

Postal Workers President Moe Biller 
and Letter Carriers President Vincent R. 
Sombrotto said that USPS officials, who 
at first refused direct bargaining, returned 
to the table and presented counterpropos- 
als on 14 secondary contract issues. 

BILLER AND Sombrotto told reporters 
that they expected by the evening of July 
19 to be able to assess whether an agree- 
ment might be reached before the old con- 
tracts expire and would consider extend- 
ing current agreements if an accord ap- 
peared likely. They said they would not 
agree to a lengthy extension, however, 
only to around-the-clock bargaining. 

Only hours before .USPS negotiators 
returned to the bargaining table, Biller and 
Sombrotto told a National Press Club au- 
dience there had been absolutely no pro- 
gre^ since talks got under way June 16. 
They charged that the USPS — specifically 
Postmaster Gen. William F. Bolger — had 
adopted “stonewalling” tactics, and made 
a sham of the collective bargaining process. 

“For all intents and purposes, there has 
been no collective bargaining,” Biller said 
in remarks aired by National Public Radio. 

Sombrotto, addressing the same group, 
said Bolger “seems committed to demon- 
strating that collective bargaining is un- 
workable. He is determined to provoke a 
nationwide postal strike.” 

TOGETHER, the unions that Biller and 
Sombrotto head represent about 500,000, 
or 90 percent, of the nearly 600,000 un- 
ionized postal workers in the United 
States. They are seeking a 17.7 percent 
wage increase over three years, cost-of- 
living adjustments under an improved 
formula, plus other improvements in bene- 
fits and working conditions, including safe- 
ty and health, grievance procedures, and 
the allocation of time to allow union 

(Continued on Page 6) 


Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan’s pro- 
posal to lift the government’s 40-year-old 
ban against industrial homework is being 
buried under a torrent of unfavorable pub- 
lic reaction. 

That’s been the tone of the overwhelm- 
ing majority of statements received by the 
Labor Dept, during the recently ended 60- 
day period for public comment. 

EMPLOYER associations in the apparel 
industry don’t like the deregulation pro- 
posal any more than do unions. State and 
local officials concerned at health and 
safety hazards in illegal work-at-home en- 
terprises are appalled. And the chairman 
of a House Labor Standards subcommit- 
tee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), gave 
Donovan a letter signed by more than 140 
of his colleagues asking that the ban on 
homework be continued. 

Miller has now added to the already 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has 
urged the Reagan Administration to re- 
lease untouched new regulations govern- 
ing the Service Contract Act and the 
Davis-Bacon Act. The proposed new rules 
had been scheduled to take effect early 
this year but were held up by the Admin- 
istration following employer protests about 
them. 

In a letter to Labor Sec. Raymond J. 
Donovan, Kirkland said the AFL-CIO is 
“gravely concerned” over reports that the 
Administration plans to scrap the pending 
rules in favor of its own proposals that 
would weaken the laws, which require 
contractors doing work for the federal 
government to pay area prevailing wages. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that the 
“embargoed” regulations, developed dur- 
ing the Carter Administration, are the fruit 
of two years of discussions between the 
government, the labor movement and em- 
ployers. No group was completely satis- 
fied with them, but there was general 
agreement that they were appropriate, 
Kirkland noted. 


bulging Labor Dept, file of more than 
6,000 letters of protest the 122-page tran- 
script of a one-day hearing his subcommit- 
tee held in Los Angeles, which has been 
plagued by illegal sweatshops in the wom- 
en’s garment industry. 

A state senator, Joseph Montoya, said 
California’s resources are already spread 
thin to try to monitor conditions in the 
legal segment of the industry. “What might 
we expect from attempts to monitor home- 
work in 30,000 or 40,000 additional 
homes?” he asked. 

MERLE LINDA WOLIN, a reporter for 
the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, told 
the subcommittee how she had posed as an 
illegal alien seeking work in the city’s 
garment industry during an eight-month 
assignment that led to a series of 16 arti- 
cles. 

In her assumed role, she testified, “I 


While the Reagan Administration has 
yet to formally issue its own proposals. 
Labor Dept, officials have conducted brief- 
ings outlining possible rule changes which 
Kirkland called “extreme.” 

The suggestion that Davis-Bacon and 
Service Contract Act rules might be re- 
laxed to allow the greater use of helpers 
and trainees at lower wages could under- 
mine the quality of governmental contract 
work,” Kirkland asserted. 

SUCH A change, he said, would dam- 
age apprenticeship programs, restrict one 
of the “major avenues to middle class 
living standards available to minorities,” 
and “diminish the national resource of 
highly trained, productive, skilled trades- 
people in the work force.” 

Kirkland said the AFL-CIO has found 
the methods of wage determinations under 
both laws to be “generally reasonable” and 
that the exceptions to the rules have been 
handled fairly. 

He urged continued adherence to the 
(Continued on Page 3) 


earned less than the minimum wage, en- 
dured unsanitary, often dangerous working 
conditions, and saw many of my fellow 
workers toil commercially at home at 
what is known as industrial homework.” 

She talked with nearly 100 homework- 
ers, including some who worked 16 hours 
a day and others who brought bags of sew- 
ing from the shops where they worked 
during the day to be finished at night and 
on weekends. “They were all making below 
the minimum wage,” she said. 

EMPLOYER association witnesses said 
they would like to see federal wage-hour 
regulations and the ban on industrial home- 
work made stricter and better enforced, 
rather than nullified or weakened. Peter 
Phillipes, a director of the Coalition of 
Apparel Industries in California, said elim- 
ination of the homework ban “would un- 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Kirkland Hits 
Continuing 
Loss of Jobs 

By David L. Perlman 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
branded the Reagan Administration’s “sur- 
vival of the fittest” trade doctrine “an ab- 
dication of responsibility” and warned that 
jobs continue to be wiped out in the name 
of free trade “in a world where free trade 
no longer has any meaning.” 

He called instead for a “fair trade” pol- 
icy that would advance national goals of 
a diversified economy and full employ- 
ment. 

Kirkland presented labor’s rebuttal to 
an Administration “white paper” on trade 
during joint hearings by two Senate sub- 
committees. The Administration’s position 
paper, issued at the start of the Senate 
hearings, insisted that the future of U.S. 
enterprises and even entire industries 
facing import competition should be de- 
termined by world “market forces.” 

KEY WHITE HOUSE officials, includ- 
ing the chairman of the Council of Eco- 
nomic Advisers and the President’s trade 
representative, testified in support of such 
a policy of “free trade” without govern- 
ment interference. 

Kirkland protested that the Administra- 
tion is basing its policies on an outdated 
textbook theory of free trade rather than 
on the realities of “the world as it is.” 

H: noted that other nations have erected 
barriers to protect home industries, have 
enacted domestic content requirements for 
manufactured goods, and in various ways 
have subsidized exports. 

“GOVERNMENT participation in trade 
must be recognized as an ongoing reality, 
not something to be avoided at all costs,” 
Kirkland insisted. Both Congress and the 
President “have a responsibility for a trade 
policy that helps the nation at home as 
well as abroad.” 

In response to questions, Kirkland 
stressed that the AFL-CIO continues to 
believe in true reciprocity, achieved 
through “hard bargaining.” 

An important initial step toward fair 
trade, Kirkland insisted, is the enforce- 
ment of existing laws that prohibit dump- 
ing and other unfair trade practices, and 

(Continued on Page 3) 

High Rates Add 
$17 Billion to U.S. 
Interest Payment 

The Administration’s midyear review of 
,the 1982 federal budget offers no hope for 
relief from the record high interest rates 
that it now says will cost the government 
itself an additional $17 billion this year 
and next. 

The review, prepared annually for Con- 
gress, forecasts basically sluggish economic 
growth the rest of this year and next, with 
inflation running slightly lower than ex- 
pected. 

“LITTLE OR NO real output growth is 
expected during the remainder of the 
year,” the Office of Management & Budget 
said in the report. It anticipates an in- 
crease of 2.6 percent in this year’s “real” 
gross national product — the value of the 
nation’s total output of goods and services 
stripped of the impact of inflation since 
1972. Next year’s real GNP is projected 
to rise 3.4 percent. 

The report forecasts unemployment this 
year averaging 7.5 percent and rising as 
high as 7.7 percent in the final quarter. 
In 1982, the Administration predicts the 
jobless rate will average 7.3 percent, the 
current unemployment level. 

The persistence of high interest rates 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Public Opposes Homework Revival 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 



TRUTH IS THE ONLY weapon against totalitarianism, dissident Soviet writer 
Vladimir Bukovsky told delegates to the annual convention of the American 
Federation of Teachers in Denver. Bukovsky received the union’s Human Rights 
Award from AFT President Albert Shanker, right, in recognition of his opposi- 
tion to civil oppression in the Soviet Union for which he was imprisoned. 

Unions, Industry Outline Plan 
To Preserve Rail Retirement 

f 


Block Grant System Opposed 

Teachers Assail Slash 
Of Education Programs 


Railway labor and management joined 
in asking Congress to approve new financ- 
ing arrangements for the 45-year-old rail- 
road retirement system to safeguard it 
from threatened collapse. 

Representatives of the two parties pro- 
posed a legislative package to the House 
Ways Sc Means Committee which would 
also provide limited borrowing authority 
to solve a temporary cash flow problem 
facing the retirement fund. 

UNDER THE financing plan, worked 
out by railroad unions and carriers over 
the past two years, the railroads would 
increase their contribution under Tier II 
of the Railroad Retirement Act from 9.5 
to 11.75 percent of a worker’s taxable 
wage base of $22,200 during the 1981 
calendar year. Employees would pay a 
2 percent contribution on the same wage 
base, their first under Tier II. 

Railroad workers’ retirement benefits 
come from two sources, known as Tier I 
and Tier II. Tier I benefits are the same 
as social security benefits paid workers in 
other industries and are financed by work- 
er and employer taxes at the same level. 
Tier II benefits are paid under a program 
financed entirely by the carriers and ad- 
ministered along with the Tier I program 
by the Railroad Retirement Board. The 
new legislative proposal, endorsed by two 
of the three board members, would in 
effect convert the Tier II program into an 
employee-employer contribution fund. 

Maintenance of Way Employees Presi- 
dent O. M. Berge, who is also chairman 
of the Railway Labor Executives’ Associa- 
tion’s pension committee, told the con- 
gressional panel that the additional taxes 
would generate over $500 million for the 
coming fiscal year and, together with cer- 
tain curbs on benefits payments, make up 
a foreseeable shortfall in the retirement 
fund to keep the system solvent at least 
through 1991. 

“Both the proposed increase in taxes 
and the borrowing are inseparable parts 
of the complete package,” Berge said. 

Friedman Appointed 
UAW Research Chief 

Detroit — Sheldon Friedman has been 
named research director of the Auto 
Workers to succeed Howard Young, who 
is now director of UAW’s social security 
department. Friedman had been a research 
associate with the union since 1975. 

The UAW also announced that Stephen 
L. Schlossberg, director of government 
and public affairs at the union’s Washing- 
ton office since 1977, will return to private 
law practice Sept. 1. Schlossberg joined 
the UAW staff in 1963 and became gen- 
eral counsel in 1966. 


“Since the future of the system as a rail- 
road retirement pension program depends 
at this critical time on enactment of this 
complete package, we join the carriers in 
urging immediate enactment of the entire 
proposal.” 

Berge said the agreement between 
the industry and the RLEA, an organiza- 
tion representing 21 unions with members 
employed by the nation’s railroads, is 
needed to avert the collapse of the pension 
fund, which he said would inevitably fol- 
low without enactment of the package. 
The proposal is before the House Ways & 
Means Committee since that panel must 
approve all federal tax changes. 

SPEAKING FOR railroad manage- 
ment, Charles Hopkins, Jr., chairman of 
the National Railway Labor Conference, 
told the House panel that the proposed 
package would solve the fund’s financial 
problems for the next 75 years. 

The pending proposal would allow 
short-term loans from general revenues to 
tide over the railroad pension fund’s li- 
quidity position. While both the labor and 
management members of the retirement 
board support the loan proposal. Board 
Chairman William Adams, representing 
the public, expressed concern over the 
lending of general revenue funds for such 
purposes. 


Denver — ^The 65th annual convention 
of the American Federation of Teachers 
overwhelmingly approved two resolutions 
of strong opposition to the education and 
economic policies of the Reagan Adminis- 
tration, rejecting the defense of those pol- 
icies by Education Sec. Terrel H. Bell in 
an address to the convention. 

The delegates’ resolution on education 
decried the Reagan Administration’s block 
grants as “a vehicle for eliminating billions 
of federal dollars for millions of handi- 
capped and disadvantaged children.” 

THE RESOLUTION opposing “the ill- 
conceived Reagan economic program” sup- 
ported the stand of the AFL-CIO and 
called for restoration of the “major cuts 
made in federal programs in education, 
health and social welfare.” 

The delegates gave a solid endorsement 
to the call for broad participation in the 
Sept. 19 Solidarity Day protest issued by 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
in his address to the convention The rally 
set for the nation’s capital also was 
strongly supported in speeches by AFT 
President Albert Shanker, Rep. Patricia 
Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Executive Direc- 
tor John Leyden of the AFL-CIO Public 
Employee Dept. 

AFT Human Rights Awards were pre- 
sented by Shanker to Vladimir Bukovsky, 
a Soviet dissident whose opposition to civil 
oppression cost him more than 1 1 years of 
confinement in Soviet prisons and psy- 
chiatric hospitals, and to Bayard Rustin, 
chairman of the A. Philip Randolph Insti- 
tute and long-time civil and human rights 
activist. 

In accepting the award, Bukovsky 


(Continued from Page 1) 

dermine the Labor Dept.’s ability to en- 
force the minimum wage, overtime, child 
labor and health and safety standards that 
are so important to garment industry work- 
ers.” 

Amado H. Gallardo of the California 
AFL-CIO staff, who heads the state affiliate 
of the Labor Council for Latin American 
Advancement, said contractors who farm 
out work to be done at home avoid the 
cost of complying with social security and 
unemployment insurance laws, as well as 
safety and health standards, in addition to 
cheating on the wage-hour law. 


warned of the spread of communist rule 
and domination in Angola, Ethiopia, 
Yemen, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and 
Afghanistan. He called on “the American 
people for help,” declaring, “Our only 
weapon against the darkness of totalitari- 
anism is the truth, and I believe it will be 
invincible once again.” 

Rustin urged the delegates to make 
evident their commitment to human rights, 
saying,. “If you and I keep quiet while 
people are being destroyed, that is a 
human indifference that creates tragedy.” 
Rustin was saluted for “his untiring efforts 
to achieve personal freedom and human 
dignity for all people.” 

After considerable debate, the delegates 
adopted a resolution on El Salvador sup- 
porting the position of the AFL-CIO. It 
called for U.S. economic aid upon fulfill- 
ment of the government’s agrarian reform 
program, a “fair general election,” fol- 
lowed by a constituent assembly, and gov- 
ernment efforts to bring about the cessa- 
tion of the murders committed by “the 
extreme right and left.” 

THE AFT delegates voted to support a 
Service Employees local, 60 of whose 
members at the Denver Federal Building 
were fired after a non-union firm received 
the building’s custodial contract on July 1 . ^ 
The delegates marched from the conven- 
tion hall to join the picket line during a 
recess in their deliberations. 

In other actions, delegates approved a 
two-step increase in per capita payments 
to $4 per month effective Sept. 1, 1981, 
and $^40 per month effective Sept. 1, 
1982, to meet the effects of inflation and 
expand the union’s programs. 


“Yet even paying wages below the 
minimum is not low enough for these il- 
legal contractors,” he testified. “Very often 
firms report undocumented homeworkers 
to immigration authorities right before pay 
day so they can avoid paying any wages 
at all,” Gallardo told the subcommittee. 

Cornelius Wall, western regional direc- 
tor of the Ladies’ Garment Workers, said 
the regulatory changes that Donovan pro- 
posed would increase violations of the 
wage-hour law “and make it increasingly 
difficult for fair employers to operate their 
factories and to meet unfair competition 
from those firms that rely on homework- 
ers.” 

The ILGWU, whose members are most 
directly affected by the Donovan proposal, 
also submitted a 66-page statement to the 
Dept, of Labor outlining the union’s ob- 
jections to lifting the homework ban. 

IT CITED the complete lack of any 
documentation for the proposal to allow 
homework in the seven industries where it 
had been banned — women’s apparel, 
knitted outerwear, embroidery, gloves and 
mittens, buttons and buckles, handker- 
chiefs and jewelry. 

“Abolition of the ban on industrial 
homework will seriously erode the working 
standards of tens of thousands of garment 
and other workers and do irreparable harm 
to many, many small business employers 
and the community at large,” the ILGWU 
stated. 

Pacific Southwest Pilots 
Switch Affiliation to ALPA 

San Mateo, Calif. — Pilots for Pacific 
Southwest Airlines voted overwhelmingly 
to join the Air Line Pilots Association. 

In an election supervised by the Na- 
tional Mediation Board here, ALPA was 
chosen over the Southwest Flight Crew 
Association by a vote of 395 to 53. The 
latter had represented the PSA pilots since 
1967. 


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Five Predecessors Denounce 
Donovan ’s Homework Plan 

Five former Secretaries of Labor have joined in urging the Labor Dept, not 
to legalize homework in the apparel trades, as Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan 
proposed. 

To do so, their letter warned, ‘Svould be to turn America back to the dark 
ages of industrial homework.’’ 

The strongly worded statement was signed by Arthur J. Goldberg, who served 
in the Kennedy Administration; Williard Wirtz, who served under Presidents 
Kennedy and Johnson; Peter Brennan, from the Nixon and Ford Administra- 
tions; John T. Dunlop, who was in President Ford’s Cabinet, and Ray Marshall, 
who headed the department throughout the Carter Administration. 

Their letter cited the ^^decades of sad experience” that led to the banning of 
industrial homework. 

‘‘Workers toted their bundles to their home, where no effective check could 
be made on what happened. They worked endless hours without overtime pay. 
They involved the whole family. . . . Safety and sanitary standards did not exist,” 
the letter recalled. v 

To compete with these conditions, the letter continued, “wages had to be 
depressed” and “good employers had to imitate bad employers.” 

To legalize homework, the former Cabinet members warned, “is to invalidate 
every law passed in the last half-century to bring a measure of humanity to 
America’s industrial workers.” 

imiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Unions, Employers, Public 
Oppose Revival of Homework 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C„ JULY 18, 1981 


Page Three 


Continuing Job Losses Cited 

Wair Trade ’ Policies 
Pressed by Kirkland 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

that are intended to provide relief for in- 
dustries endangered by imports. 

Kirkland spoke of the decline of Amer- 
ican-flag shipping starting soon after 
World War II, and the subsequent decades 
in which imports made deep inroads in 
textiles, steel, shoes, autos, electronics and 
parts manufacture. 

Now even service jobs are going abroad, 
following the flow of American capital, 
he noted. 

“Millions of Americans have lost their 
jobs through no fault of their own as a 
result of trade policies. Lost jobs, dev- 
astated communities and eroded tax bases 
dot the U.S. landscape,” he testified. 

YET IN THE face of a demonstrated 
need for improving the trade adjustment 
assistance program for workers injured by 
exports, “the current budget would effec- 
tively end trade adjustment assistance. The 
paltry sum now available in the budget 
amounts to another broken promise to 
those who pay the price of trade liberal- 
ization,” he charged. 

Kirkland said in response to a question 
that the AFL-CIO had clung as long as it 
could to the ideals of open trade among 
nations. But union members were losing 
their jobs. “We followed our membership 
and reached the common sense conclusion 
that there must be something wrong. . . . 
We were exporting not goods, but the 
means of production.” 

In addition to effective enforcement of 
existing laws, Kirkland urged: 

• Repeal of laws that give U.S. firms 
incentives to invest abroad “in order to 
take advantage of multibillion dollar tax 
subsidies and insurance for overseas in- 
vestment. Firms that go abroad for cheaper 
labor should not be given subsidies to 
do so.” 

• An end to the zero tariff and import 


preference the United States now gives to 
imports of more than 2,700 products 
from 140 nations and territories. “These 
special privileges cfo not aid the neediest 
people abroad” as the law is intended to 
do, Kirkland testified, “and the imports 
injure U.S. industries and jobs.” 

IN RESPONSE to questions, Kirkland 
said zero tariff concessions should be 
negotiated bilaterally in terms of U.S. in- 
terests, humanitarian considerations and 
adherence to the health, safety and labor 
standards conventions that have been 
promulgated by the International Labor 
Organization but ignored by many of the 
nations that have ratified them. 

Also, he said, “there should be some 
assurance that benefits of U.S. trade con- 
cessions go to the general population, not 
just an elite.” 

• Enactment of a domestic content 
law, such as those already in effect in 
most of the nations of the world which 
require companies to make a certain per- 
centage of the contents of a product, such 
as a car or a machine, in that country. 
“The U.S. needs to adopt such content 
laws for essential industries or it will be- 
come an assembler of foreign-made parts,” 
Kirkland insisted. 

HE TERMED the “market-place” phi- 
losophy of the Reagan Administration 
“social Darwinism” of the type that bred 
the robber barons of the early years of 
American industrialization. 

An America stripped of its industries 
cannot remain a world leader, Kirkland 
warned. 

Trade decisions, he urged, must ad- 
vance the goals of “a diversified industrial 
base with the skills and services of an ad- 
vanced economy. Only a policy to create 
full employment and rising living stan- 
dards at home will enable the United 
States to maintain its cooperative role as a 
leader in the world.” 


Continued State Role Urged 
In Setting Interest Rate Limits 


States should be allowed to set interest 
rate ceilings for consumer loans and credit 
purchases, the AFL-CIO insisted in testi- 
mony before a Senate Banking subcom- 
mittee. 

Henry B. Schechter, director of the 
AFL-CIO’s Office of Housing & Monetary 
Policy, urged rejection of two bills that 
would assert the principle of federal pre- 
emption so as to nullify usury laws that 
set interest ceilings. 

ONE BILL under consideration is so 
drawn that it would affect only Arkansas, 
which for 107 years has had in its consti- 
tution a 10 percent ceiling on consumer 
credit charges. 

Schechter noted that the people of Ar- 
kansas have repeatedly voted down at- 
tempts to raise or eliminate the ceiling. 

Despite the complaints of retailers, he 
said, the evidence is that the 10 percent 
ceiling has been beneficial to the state’s 
economy as well as to the pocketbooks of 
its residents. The large chains, he noted, 
solicit and extend credit at the 10 percent 
rate while advertising their goods at the 
same prices charged in nearby states with- 
out credit rate ceilings. 

Also before the committee is a broader 
measure that would amend a 1980 law to 
make permanent federal pre-emption of 
interest rate ceilings on business and agri- 
cultural loans unless a state acts within 
three years to re-enact an interest ceiling 
and to nullify all consumer credit interest 
rate ceilings. 

THE LEGISLATION would eliminate 
the present federal ceiling on business and 
farm loans, which is set by a formula tied 
to changes in the Federal Reserve Sys- 
tem’s discount rate. 

Schechter urged that if state ceilings are 
to be voided, the federal government 



STRENGTH AND RESOLUTION will help labor resist the Administration’s 
efforts to reverse years of social progress, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
told the 2,500 delegates to the Communications Workers’ 43rd convention in 
Boston. Kirkland urged the delegates to build coalitions with labor’s allies to 
fight damaging budget cuts and assaults on workers’ protections by labor’s foes. 

CWA Delegates Rap Reagan 
On Eeonomy, Social Security 


should impose an appropriate ceiling rate 
to keep interest “from rising to destructive 
levels.” Further, he suggested, if the law 
is made permanent, states should be free 
to enact their own interest ceilings at any 
time instead of being restricted to the three 
years after passage of the law. 

State interest ceilings have been made 
a scapegoat for the economy’s failings, 
Schechter charged. In states that have 
eliminated ceilings, he noted, interest 
rates have risen rapidly — and so have 
business bankruptcies. • 


Boston — The economic problems of the 
nation formed a dominant topic of debate 
and discussion at the 43rd annual conven- 
tion of the Communications Workers here 
with the Reagan Administration drawing 
heavy criticism for mishandling the econ- 
omy and seeking severe reductions in the 
social security program. 

Calling social security a “40-year con- 
tract between American workers and the 
federal government,” CWA delegates in- 
sisted in a resolution that there are “better, 
more responsible ways” to restore fiscal 
health to the system and eliminate waste 
than the proposals of the Reagan Admin- 
istration. 

THE CONVENTION called on Presi- 
dent Reagan and Congress “to concentrate 
their efforts on finding an equitable meth- 
od of financing our social security pro- 
gram.” 

CWA President Glenn E. Watts, in his 
opening address, set the tone for the week 
when he assailed the Administration’s eco- 
nomic policies as “by and large, the eco- 
nomics of big business applied to govern- 
ment. The aim is to run a government of 
the corporation, by the corporation and 
for the corporation.” 

Other speakers sounded similar themes, 
including AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land, Massachusetts Senators Edward M. 
Kennedy and Paul Tsongas, House Speak- 


Donovan Urged to Shelve 
Weakening of Wage Rules 


(Continued from Page 1) 
“30-percent rule” in applying the Davis- 
Bacon Act. That rule, retained in the Car- 
ter regulations, bases the prevailing wage 
for a job classification on the wage re- 
ceived by the largest number of workers 
in that class, as long as they account for 
at least 30 percent of all workers in the 
classification. 

Kirkland dismissed contractor com- 
plaints about paperwork as a “euphemism 
to avoid compliance” with Davis-Bacon 
standards. 

THE PENDING regulations for the 
Service Contract Act which strengthen 
the “conforming process” should also be 
maintained, Kirkland asserted. That pro- 
cess governs how the wage relationship is 
set between jobs with wage rates that ap- 
pear in government surveys and those jobs 
unique to particular contractors. The Ad- 
ministration is considering giving employ- 
ers freer rein in setting these wage rates. 


Kirkland expressed concern over reports 
that the Administration wants to change 
the definition of contracts covered under 
the Service Contract Act to make it 
apply only to work defined as “principally 
for services.” 

This could amount to virtually a repeal 
of the law, Kirkland warned, since it 
would exclude over half the contracts now 
covered and leave thousands of workers 
without protection. 

If the Administration’s suggestions be- 
come rule, a contractor who sells the gov- 
ernment office machines and also provides 
repair services would be exempt from 
meeting wage requirements since the prin- 
cipal purpose of the contract could be 
defined as sales rather than service. 

The AFL-CIO believes, Kirkland told 
Donovan, “that when all sides are heard 
and the matters fairly weighed, you will 
issue the embargoed regulations without 
change and give them a fair trial.” 


er Thomas P. O’Neill and National Urban 
League President Vernon Jordan. 

JORDAN WENT to the Bible to de- 
scribe his view of the Reagan approach 
to domestic issues facing America’s work- 
ing people: “To those who have, to them 
shall be given. To those who have not, 
even that which they seem to have shall 
be taken away.” 

The ideal test of a budget, Jordan said, 
“should be whether it meets the needs of 
the nation while providing poor people 
with opportunities to join the mainstream. 
This budget fails that test.” 

In other actions, delegates adopted a 
resolution calling for more stringent penal- 
ties in criminal cases involving the use of 
firearms. 

The delegates also spoke out strongly 
on the issue of sexual harassment in the 
workplace, supporting “the efforts of the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commis- 
sion to keep sexual harassment as a proper 
matter for Title VII anti-discrimination 
enforcement.” 

ON THE CLOSING day of the conven- 
tion, Watts announced that CWA’s Com- 
mittee on the Future — established by 
CWA Executive Board action to visualize 
“what the future holds for American so- 
ciety, for CWA and for organized labor” 
— will hold its first meeting beginning July 
30 in Chicago. 

One member from each of the union’s 
12 geographic districts was elected to the 
committee during the convention week. 
These 12 rank-and-file members will have 
votes, while Watts was given authority to 
vote in the event of a tie and to serve as 
chairman. Other CWA officers and staff — 
appointed by Watts — will have seats with- 
out voting rights on the committee. 

The delegates, after lengthy discussion, 
also placed before the committee the task 
of considering CWA’s public image and 
its logo, or seal. 

Dotson Confirmed 
For Labor Dept. Post 

The Senate confirmed by voice vote the 
nomination of Donald L. Dotson to be 
assistant secretary of labor for labor- 
management relations. 

Dotson, 42, had been chief labor coun- 
sel of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., 
and earlier had been an attorney with 
Western Electric Co., Westinghouse and 
the National Labor Relations Board. 

Several top Labor Dept, posts are stilF 
unfilled, including the undersecretary, the 
department’s second highest position. 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 


Unchanging Goals 

W "HAT WE HAVE in the AFL-CIO is not a governing body 
that makes rules for workers, but a working tool that work- 
ers employ for their own mutual benefit. It is a federation of 
autonomous unions, coordinating their efforts and moving forward 
on those issues on which consensus exists. 

We have not succeeded in all of our aims. But we have made 
something more than a clearing in the wilderness. Education and 
leisure have been democratized in this country. Good nutrition and 
decent housing have been brought within the reach of millions. 
The dignity of the trade unionist on the job has been secured, and 
we have made a start toward universal health care, family security 
and retirement with dignity. 

Those things we have done not by trampling on the rights of 
others, but by upholding the rights of all. 

THE PAGES OF U.S. labor history are filled with sacrifice, 
and in some cases with the blood of American workers. The mine 
fields of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, the Haymarket riot, the Pull- 
man strike, the Ludlow massacre, the “Battle of the Overpass” at 
Ford, all bear ample testimony to the struggle of this movement 
to grow and survive. 

In more recent years, that struggle has continued in southern 
textile towns, on the concrete sidewalks of major cities where pub- 
lic employees, including teachers and hospital workers, struggle 
even for the recognition of their union, and in the fields of Cali- 
fornia where the cry of “huelga” rose from the throats of a whole 
new generation of the poor and the deprived, struggling to be part 
of a movement. 

We are a movement born in struggle, and we are still prepared 
to struggle if, as, and when necessary, to protect our rights. And 
we are prepared to help others in their struggle as well. What we 
want for ourselves, we want for others — all others — and from the 
beginning we have reached out to our brothers and sisters in other 
lands. 

Here at home, we have not the slightest intention of giving up or 
letting up on the unfinished task of humanizing our own society. 


WE HAVE NOT the slightest doubt that in the long run our 
values will prevail, and that America will return to the goal of 
equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity. 

We have a duty to help bring that about through reason and 
through a decent regard for the lessons of the past, rather than by 
repeating those painful experiences. 

There is a lot of frustration among trade unionists around this 
county as we make that effort, but it is, happily, the frustration of 
optimists who think it is possible to change the world for the better, 
and are frustrated by the fact that it takes so long and isn’t a 
steady haul. 

It is, happily, the frustration of people who believe in what they 
are doing and know it is right, and yet are frustrated that the op- 
position sometimes blocks our progress. 

It is, happily, a frustration manifested in the searching for new 
and better ways to seek our unchanging goals. 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue to American Fed- 
eration of Teachers convention, Denver, July 6, 1981. 


g/llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllM 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


i VoL XXVI 


Saturday, July 18, 1981 


No. 29 I 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= thing in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 






Sting Felt Abroad 


America’s Allies Raise Cain 


Over Steep U.S. 

By Gus Tyler 

I N SWITZERLAND, a few days ago, the repre- 
sentatives of 24 nations charged that America’s 
high interest rates were ruining their economies. 

The American representative retorted that their 
low interest rates were wrecking our economy. 

To most plain people, the exasperating ex- 
change seems esoterically irrelevant. Our only 
experience with high interest rates takes place 
when we try to borrow some money, usually for a 
big item like a mortgage, and discover that just 
about nothing has risen in price as rapidly as the 
price of money itself. 

WE HAVE a reason, a very personal reason, 
for being annoyed and angry. But why do big 
grown up nations — 24 of them who are sufficiently 
advanced and industrialized to belong to the Or- 
ganization for Economic Cooperation & Develop- 
ment — ^bicker so bitterly over high interest rates? 

The reason is that high interest rates don’t just 
affect us; they affect the whole world, especially 
the OECD nations who are generally our inter- 
national allies. 

The notion that high interest rates would con- 
trol inflation became the prevailing principle of 
our economy about 1969 and has continued to 
dominate our business life ever since, through four 
administrations from Nixon down to and including 
Carter and Reagan. The theory was that high 
rates would curb borrowing and, thereby, curb the 
money supply, and, thereby, hold down prices. 


Interest Rate 

need that money to provide growth and jobs in 
their economies. 

So the other nations of the OECD complain. As 
a result of U.S. policy, said Qaude Cheysson of 
France, “employment is falling everywhere, trade 
is suffering, and there is no industrial investment.” 
In short, Europe is anemic from a loss of blood 
(capital) to the United States. 

The U.S. Under Secretary of State for Eco- 
nomic Affairs, Myer Rashish, countercharged that 
the Europeans just lacked the political courage to 
bite the bullet in the macho manner of our own 
President Reagan. He wants them to do as we are 
doing: jack up the interest rates. 

BUT IF THEY do — which they won’t as they 
face the threat of their present 23.5 million job- 
less rising to 28 million by the end of 1982 — they 
would reverse the money flow and begin to drain 
America of the capital we allegedly need to sorely 
improve and expand our own economy. 

So to strengthen the dollar we will have to raise 
interest rates again and Europe will have to fol- 
low suit in an ever escalating war of economies 
where prices and unemployment both continue 
to rise along with political tempers domestically 
and internationally. 

In short, the high interest rates that have been 
bad for us at home are now making for bad blood 
between the United States and our allies in other 
lands. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


THERE IS GOOD, sound evidence to prove 
that this mumbo-jumbo is a menacing myth and 
that it is counterproductive even if the United 
States were able to seal off its economy from the 
rest of the world. But in a world where currencies 
(money supplies) flow across national boundaries, 
the high interest rate theory is as effective as a 
sieve carrying water. 

What happens is that money in other countries 
flows into the United States to take advantage of 
our high interest rates. The result is double: 
it increases our money supply, which is not what 
we intended to do; it decreases the money supply 
(the capital resources) of other countries, which 
is something that they don’t want, because they 



IM 




: 


Page Five 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 


U.S. Jobs, Standards at Stake 

Updated Trade Policy Needed 
To Counter Foreign Barriers 


The following is from testimony by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland at Senate hearings on 
foreign trade issues, July 13, 1981. 

^T^HE UNITED STATES needs a modern trade 
policy. As the United States trades with more 
than 150 nations and territories, imports and ex- 
ports of products will be worth more than one- 
half trillion dollars this year. This trade will have 
a substantial impact on jobs, technology, invest- 
ment and the industrial destiny of this nation. 

Policies to deal with the price to our nation as 
well as the benefits of this enormous trade expan- 
sion should be restructured in a comprehensive, 
realistic and fair manner. It is time for this change. 

The AFL-CIO has heard the explanations for 
trade policy come full circle since World War II. 
As U.S. seamen watched the shipping industry de- 
cline and their jobs go to foreign flags, they were 
told that the United States is not a service nation 
but a manufacturing nation and that exports of 
manufactures create jobs. However, in the three 
postwar decades, various types of manufactures 
went into deficit: textiles, steel, shoes, autos, elec- 
tronics and some kinds of machinery. 

EACH TIME, exports of a higher technology 
product was given as the “answer.” But the lost 
steel plants in Pennsylvania, autos in New Jersey, 
railroad parts in California, shoes and machinery 
in Missouri, and electronics, glass, rubber and 
aluminum nationwide left expensive scars. In- 
creasingly, huge imports of parts were a major 
factor even in aircraft and computer sales. 

The AFL-CIO believes the United States must 
be a diversified manufacturing, agricultural and 
service economy, with the full complement of 
technological industries. Anything less is a failure 
to develop the resources and industries this nation 
can provide for full employment and rising living 
standards. Trade is part of that goal — not the 
other way around. 

A FAIR TRADE policy can help build that 
goal. A policy of government abdication of re- 
sponsibility in the name of free trade can make 
the losses from trade much higher than the gains 
for most Americans. 

A fair U.S. trade policy would: 

• Provide a full account of what happens in 
the real world, a world where free trade does not 
exist. Other nations in the world do not apologize 
for pursuing their national interest. Yet the United 
States is under constant assault when suggestions 
are made to move in the U.S. national interest. 

• Enforce U.S. laws and international agree- 
ments against unfair trade practices so as to allow 
U.S. producers and workers a chance to improve 
industries impacted by trade. Procedures that now 
inhibit appropriate responses should be simplified. 

• Monitor imports and exports and their im- 

Unmet Demand Mounts 


pact on the U.S. economy. Such detailed monitor- 
ing is required now, but it does not exist. Without 
such monitoring, industries and workers now in- 
jured by imports are not able to make their case 
and solutions are not provided. 

• Achieve reciprocity. Where other nations 
bar U.S. products through one means or another, 
the opportunity to enforce U.S. laws to gain access 
should be encouraged to even out the burdens in 
the world. Equivalent access to foreign markets 
is key. 

• End the incentives U.S. firms now have to 
invest abroad in order to take advantage of multi- 
billion dollar tax subsidies and insurance for over- 
seas investment. Firms that go abroad for cheaper 
labor should not be given subsidies to do so. These 
subsidies and pressures for expansion or reloca- 
tion abroad should be repealed. 

• Repeal counterproductive laws. For exam- 
ple, the United States now grants zero tariffs or 
preferences for imports of more than 2,700 prod- 
ucts from 140 nations and territories. These spe- 
cial privileges, called the Generalized System of 
Preferences (GSP), do not aid the neediest people 
abroad, and the imports injure U.S. industries and 
jobs. This GSP should be repealed. At a bare 
minimum. Congress and the Administration should 
remove import-sensitive products from the list, 
guarantee that only the neediest countries receive 
the benefits, and exclude communist economies. 

• Establish national security policy goals that 
provide not only an adequate defense but also a 
fully employed, strong economy. Only a strong 
United States that has the means to feed, house, 
clothe and transport its population can provide 
adequate national security. 

• Provide realistic adjustment assistance for 
those injured by trade. The cost to the nation of 
losing its pool of skills is severe. Millions of 
Americans have lost their jobs through no fault 
of their own as a result of trade policies. Lost jobs, 
devastated communities and eroded tax bases dot 
the U.S. landscape. Yet these losses are not even 
measured, much less corrected. 

DISCUSSIONS OF world trade barriers in 
Washington in 1981 lead the uninformed observer 
to believe the United States has many barriers to 
trade and the world has very few. Tlie facts are 
the reverse. The world’s economies have planning, 
import regulations of all kinds, export require- 
ments and export subsidies, as well as require- 
ments to produce within their borders. No such 
protection exists for U.S. industry, which only 
can move abroad and/or become importers. 

Attempts to carry out international agreements 
or other pursuits of U.S. rights are regarded as 
protectionism — but little attention is paid to ac- 
tions of other nations against the United States 
and to constant barriers to U.S. exports. That is 
not fair. 


Continued Slump in Housing 
Tied to Tight Money Policies 


T he slump that has held housing con- 
struction to near-recession levels since the 
mid-Seventies deepened in late spring, and there 
is little hope for substantial recovery under the 
Administration’s tight money and high interest 
rate policies, John S. Rogers, secretary of the 
Carpenters, declared on Labor News Conference. 

The lag of new housing starts is so bad that it 
would now take nearly three times the current 1.3 
million annual rate “just to meet the current de- 
mand,” Rogers said. He said an “aggressive gov- 
ernment policy” of housing finance that “takes a 
share of the money out of the monopoly game” 
could meet the nation’s housing needs. He sug- 
gested that the Federal Reserve Board could, for 
example, require that a small percentage of bank 
funds be retained for only low-interest mortgages. 

Rogers agreed that negotiated pension funds are 
a ^ood source of housing funds, but noted that 
their potential is limited by legal fiduciary obliga- 
tions that loans be made at current market rates, 
and also by the reality that most of the retirement 


plans are dominated by management trustees. 

He pointed out that long-standing AFL-CIO 
policy encourages unions to “set aside certain 
portions of their portfolios for mortgages,” and 
that the Carpenters have committed some 6 per- 
cent of their total portfolio for such purposes. 

TURNING TO the conservatives’ attack on the 
Davis-Bacon Act, Rogers said the Administra- 
tion’s approach is a serious threat to an important 
“stabilizing factor” in a “very volatile industry.” 
He said repeal or weakening of the act could also 
do serious damage to the apprenticeship programs 
that are the best assurance that “we’re building 
the master craftsmen of the 21st Century.” 

Rogers said the Carpenters union, which is 
now celebrating its centennial year, has played a 
key role in the battles for many of the social and 
economic programs that the Administration is now 
dismantling and has pledged its full support to 
the AFL-CIO Solidarity Day protest in Washing- 
ton, Sept. 19. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

E mboldened by a conservative political climate, reactionary 
forces in the land have launched an all-out drive to enact a 
singularly vicious piece of legislation. 

Employing scare language conjuring up a specter of union- 
inspired violence, the National Right to Work Committee is spear- 
heading a campaign to make strike-related “violence,” or the threat 
of such violence, a federal crime. 

This means that a striking worker involved in a picketline scuf- 
fle, or whose words or gestures were perceived as threatening, 
could be hauled into court by federal prosecutors, fined $10,000 
and handed a 20-year prison sentence. 

TO THIS END, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who chairs the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill to amend a 1946 
federal anti-extortion law known as the Hobbs Act. Thurmond’s 
amendment would extend the act and its penalties to include labor 
disputes. 

The Thurmond amendment, which 1 2 conservative Senate 
Republicans have co-sponsored, would overturn a 1973 Supreme 
Court ruling that union activities do not fall under the Hobbs Act. 
It was introduced in the House by Rep. J. Kenneth Robinson (R- 
Va.) with 32 GOP and five Democratic co-sponsors. 

To drum up public and congressional support for the Hobbs 
amendment, the Right to Work Committee has pulled out all the 
stops. 

In a mass mailing to some 2 million potential contributors 
to its ultra-conservative cause, the committee charges that “union 
terrorism” is on the rise and that, as a result of this terrorism, 
“hundreds of thousands of America’s working men and women 
are prisoners of the pick-handle closed shop.” 

In addition, the right-wing committee has started a new publica- 
tion called “Violence Task Force Report — A Monthly Probe Into 
Compulsory Unionism Violence.” 

To top it off, the committee is trying to buy TV time for its new 
30 minute scare film — “The Specter of Violence.” 

To rebut the distortions, the AFL-CIO has produced a six- 
minute film which any TV station airing the Right to Work Com- 
mittee film will be asked to broadcast under the federal Fairness 
Doctrine. 

PROPONENTS OF the Hobbs Act amendment sometimes try 
to conceal their aims by claiming it would apply to employers as 
well as employees. But it wouldn’t work that way since extortion, 
as prohibited in the Hobbs Act, means taking something material 
from someone else. Since the worker, not the employer, is trying 
to gain something material by striking, the employer in effect would 
be exempt from the amendment. 

As a labor expert on legislation sees it, “if an employer or his 
agent went out to the picket line and threw a punch, he would be 
subject to state and local prosecution, whereas an employee who 
hit back would be subject to federal prosecution and far greater 
penalties.” 

The amendment would apply not only to actual violence but to 
“what somebody perceives to be a threat on the other end,” the 
labor expert noted. “If someone says he was threatened by what 
somebody said or by the way he held his picket sign, we have an 
instance which might be subject to prosecution.” 

EXISTING state and local laws provide adequate sanctions 
against violence, whether on the picket line or the ball field. 

Furthermore, the pro-amendment scare propaganda ignores the 
fact that strike-related violence is so rare that the FBI’s compre- 
hensive statistics on crime don’t even include a category for it. 

By imposing an unnecessary and slanted federal role on top 
of local law enforcement, Hobbs amendment proponents aim to 
put a damper on strikes and strikers. 



LITTLE HOPE is seen for significant recovery from the slump 
that has held the housing industry to near-recession levels since 
the mid-Seventies as long as the Administration pursues its tight- 
money and high-interest rate policies. Carpenters Sec. John S. 
Rogers, center, said on Labor News Conference. Questioning 
him were Robert Cooney, left, of Press Associates, Inc., and 
Jerome Cahill of the New York Daily News. The AFL-CIO 
public affairs interview is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 



PLANNING SESSION for the AFL-CIO Solidarity Day rally for the various federation affiliates. John Perkins, 
demonstration in Washington brought together union repre- Solidarity Day coordinator, pinpoints staging areas, march 
sentatives who are overseeing preparations for the Sept. 19 routes and assembly positions on the National Mall. 


Auto Unions in 18 Countries Rudolph Faupl 


Unions Press 
Postal Talks 
Near Deadline 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 
stewards to handle union business. 

Two smaller unions, the Laborers’ Mail 
Handlers division and the unaffiliated 
Rural Letter Carriers, are bargaining 
jointly at a second location. 

' Biller told newsmen following the 
APWU/NALC Joint Bargaining Commit- 
tee’s July 9 wage proposal presentation 
that “we can get an agreement by July 
20 if management picks up the pace im- 
mediately and enters into good-faith bar- 
gaining. . . . Such a commitment would 
be, however, a complete reversal of every- 
thing they have shown up to this time.” 

MEANWHILE, Bolger threatened to 
fire any postal worker who strikes or slows 
mail deliveries. The threat came in an in- 
sert accompanying employees’ July 17 
paychecks. 

The union’s economic proposals are 
based on an analysis by independent Wash- 
ington consultant Joel Popkin, a former 
senior staff economist for the Council of 
Economic Advisers in the Nixon and Ford 
Administrations. They call for a first-year 
wage increase of 5 percent, plus a 2.7 
percent “catch-up” raise to make up for 
inflationary losses over the period of the 
old contract, and 5 percent general wage 
boosts in each of the other two years of 
the contract. 

IN ADDITION, the unions are seeking 
an improved COLA formula that would 
provide a 1-cent increase in hourly wages 
for each quarter-point increase in the fed- 
eral government’s consumer price index. 
The existing agreement provides for a 
1-cent wage increase for each four-tenths 
of a point rise in the CPI. The unions 
estimate that the new formula would re- 
cover about 88 percent of inflationary 
price increases, compared to about 65 per- 
cent under current agreements. 

“We’ve offered the Postal Service a 
reasonable, well-supported wage proposal 
which recognizes worker needs, increased 
worker productivity, and the concerns of 
the American people,” Sombrotto told the 
National Press Club audience. 

Biller noted that the USPS’s “stone- 
walling” tactics did not develop overnight. 
He reviewed the bargaining history that 
saw talks stalled seven weeks this spring 
while Bolger unsuccessfully tried to get 
the USPS bargaining unit redefined. 

San Jose Accord 
Called Key Step 
To Wage Parity 

San Jose, Calif. — Striking members of 
State, County & Municipal Employees Lo- 
cal 101 returned to work after overwhelm- 
ingly approving an agreement that both 
sides called a major step toward wage par- 
ity between men and women city workers. 

The two-year pact, ratified by a vote of 
295 to 27, calls for $1.5 million to help 
correct pay disparities between male and 
female employees. The contract covers 
2,000 workers — the majority of them 
women — represented by AFSCME. 

THE STRIKE for comparable pay 
began at 12:01 a.m., July 5. At the time 
the walkout began, the union sought a $3.2 
million commitment over four years to 
correct inequities revealed in a city study 
requested by AFSCME leaders. The sur- 
vey found that pay for jobs predominantly 
staffed by females ranged from 2 to 10 
percent less than the overall average for 
the city. 

“The workers feel every day spent on 
strike was worth the sacrifice,” Local 101 
President Mike Ferraro said of the nine- 
day walkout. City Manager Francis Fox 
said the agreement “resolves the major is- 
sues” in the dispute. 

The settlement provides for a 7.5 per- 
cent general wage increase this year and 
an 8 percent boost next year. 


Map General 

Dearborn, Mich. — Trade union leaders 
representing General Motors Corp. work- 
ers in 18 countries agreed to closer inter- 
national ties to counter the growing world- 
wide integration of big automakers such 
as GM. 

“Because our wages and working con- 
ditions still vary considerably from coun- 
try to country, while our actual jobs are 
the same, we feel that growing interna- 
tional integration of car and truck produc- 
tion — the so-called ‘world car’ and ‘world 
truck’ — is acting partly as a spur binding 
us closer together,” they said in a resolu- 
tion adopted at a two-day meeting here 
organized by the International Metalwork- 
ers’ Federation. 

THE 40 FOREIGN and 250 U.S. dele- 
gates to the conference pledged to work 
jointly and separately toward five goals: 
“substantial” reductions of worktime, less 
overtime and an end to all compulsory 
overtime, earlier retirement with no reduc- 
tions in benefits, a uniform worldwide 
health and safety code, and the elevation 
of wages and benefits “to the highest level 
in the GM empire.” 

The world’s largest automobile manu- 
facturer, General Motors last year re- 
ported a loss of $762.5 million and laid 
off 101,000 workers. An IMF report 
prepared for the conference noted that 
“from a position of market dominance 
and ability to set prices, GM has des- 
cended to asking favors from its consti- 
tuents and employees.” 

In response to the company’s call for 
help from labor, the IMF resolution sug- 
gested that GM first put an end to any 
opposition to union organizing anywhere, 
recognize its workers’ rights to organize, 
strike, and have shop stewards, retrain 
workers idled by new technology or plant 
closings, provide certain financial dis- 
closures to labor, and offer a role in man- 
agement for unions seeking it. 

GM AND THE world auto industry in 
general are in the middle of a “giant 
shakeout” with deep impact on the present 
and future lives of workers that poses se- 
vere threats to many of the gains won by 

lUD Names Turner 
Legislative Director 

Brian Turner has been appointed legis- 
lative director of the AFL-CIO Industrial 
Union Dept., to succeed Marvin Caplan, 
who has retired after 1 8 years with the de- 
partment. 

Turner has been executive assistant to 
lUD President Howard D. Samuel and the 
department’s economic policy director. He 
first joined the lUD staff in 1974 and at 
the start of the Carter Administration 
served as assistant to Samuel, who then 
was Deputy Under Secretary of Labor for 
International Affairs. 

Caplan, a former newspaper reporter, 
joined the lUD staff in 1963 as a legisla- 
tive representative and served during much 
of his tenure as director of the Leadership 
Conference on Civil Rights. 


Motors Goals 

organized workers, the IMF said. 

In addition to the huge number of lay- 
offs, hundreds of thousands of other work- 
ers have gone on short hours, it noted. 

“More layoffs seem imminent unless we 
urgently exercise our union power,” the 
resolution warned. 

UAW PRESIDENT Douglas Fraser, in 
an address to the meeting, said GM “has 
no loyalty to any nation or any flag. Its 
only loyalty is to profits.” Emphasizing the 
need for a more international role for un- 
ions bargaining with GM and other major 
auto firms, Fraser declared: 

“Unless we unite, workers from one 
country will be played against workers of 
another country as employers seek the 
nation with the lowest wage. To our Jap- 
anese brothers, I say: your workers are 
productive, intelligent, and skilled. They 
deserve more for what they produce.” 

Nations that think they can attract in- 
dustry through low wages live in a fool’s 
paradise, Fraser warned. 

“WHAT HAPPENED after World War 
II is the best example of that,” he said 
“The textile manufacturers left the U.S. 
for Japan to take advantage of low wages 
there, but they didn’t stay in Japan. 

“As wages in Japan rose, they went to 
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The 
same thing could happen with the auto 
industry. We will have to bargain from an 
international point of view.” 


The United States could increase its 
naval support capabilities by turning to 
the private-sector merchant marine. Sea- 
farers President Frank Drozak told the 
House Committee on Merchant Marine & 
Fisheries. 

Drozak, who heads the AFL-CIO Ma- 
ritime Trades Dept., said that long-term 
charters of 20 years or more with the 
U.S. Navy would provide the vessels and 
manpower needed to support the Military 
Sealift Command. The United States could 
achieve increased naval sealift at reduced 
costs by offering a build-and-charter pro- 
gram to the maritime industry, he said. 

ALL THE EXPERTS agree that the 
United States currently does not have what 
is needed to supply and back up success- 
fully its military forces overseas in the 
event of a major war, Drozak observed. 

“Over the past couple of years,” he 
said, “we have heard one expert after an- 
other tell Congress about the absolute im- 
portance of sealift to our total defense. 
We have also heard them say that the 
way to solve the problem is to increase 
the number of merchant vessels available 
to the armed forces. For the most part, 
they are in agreement that this means 
strengthening the private-sector merchant 
fleet.” 


Dies, Former 
Delegate to ILO 

Fairfield, Calif — Rudolph J. Faupl, a 
former U.S. worker delegate to the Inter- 
national Labor Organization and retired 
international affairs representative of the 
Machinists, died here July 9 after a heart 
attack. He was 73. 

Faupl served on the ILO’s Governing 
Body as head of the U.S. worker delega- 
tion from 1958 through 1972. He also had 
been the lAM’s representative to the In- 
ternational Metalworkers and the Interna- 
tional Transport Workers federations from 
the late 1940s until his retirement in 1972. 

In a message to Faupl’s wife, Viola, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said 
that he was privileged “to have known 
Rudy and to have benefited from his 
wisdom and experience. His contributions 
to the international labor movement, and 
to the friendly relationships between the 
AFL-CIO and the labor movement in 
other countries are invaluable.” 

After coming to the United States from 
his native Hungary at age 15, Faupl be- 
came a machinist in Milwaukee. During 
the 1930s he served as an organizer for 
the Wisconsin federation of labor. He was 
a member of the War Labor Board during 
the early 1940s and became a grand lodge 
representative with the I AM in 1945. 

In addition to his wife, Faupl is sur- 
vived by two daughters and seven grand- 
children. Services were held July 13 in 
Fairfield. 


U.S. inaction over the past 30 years 
has seen a drastic decline in the merchant 
marine in direct contrast to the Soviet 
Union, which has an integrated maritime 
policy under the direction of Soviet naval 
authorities, Drozak pointed out. 

“Our Navy bureaucrats constantly raise 
the question of crew control of merchant 
vessels,” he said. “History has proven that 
U.S. merchant rnariners have honored 
their duty and performed it well in every 
national crisis — World War II, Korea, and 
Vietnam. The question of crew loyalty is 
non-existent with U.S. crews manning U.S. 
support vessels. 

“IF WE ARE to be serious, then a 
strong recommendation ought to come 
from this committee for a meaningful 
blueprint for cooperation. And, most im- 
portantly, a directive should go to the 
Navy instructing it to continue its opera- 
tions to its essential priorities and leave 
martime functions to the private sector.” 

During Vietnam, Drozak noted, the Sea- 
farers met the nation’s needs for trained 
seamen at. its Harry Lundeberg School of 
Seamanship at Piney Point, Md. The 
school is ready and waiting to train sea- 
farers for any purpose the Navy would 
regard as necessary to meet its require- 
ments to private industry, he said. 


Expansion of Merchant Fleet 
Called Vital for Naval Sealift 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 


Page Seven 


‘We’ll Need Some of You to Balance This...’ 



Retreat on Clean Air Rules 
Would Sap Industrial Areas 


Flaws Cited 
In Urban Zone 
Tax Incentives 

Legislation to give tax windfalls and 
exemption from regulations to firms lo- 
cating in impoverished urban areas has 
too many flaws to merit the AFL-CIO’s 
support, the federation testified at Senate 
hearings. 

The proposal to set up “urban enter- 
prise zones” has been touted as a means 
of inducing employers to locate in blighted 
sections of cities. But Assistant Research 
Director Arnold Cantor stressed that the 
bill being considered by a Senate Finance 
subcommittee “would not create additional 
jobs nor help solve urban problems.” 

ITS MAJOR tax provision — to allow an 
enterprise zone business to deduct 50 per- 
cent of gross receipts from taxable in- 
come — “could have the effect of wiping 
out any federal income tax liability and 
could generate artificial losses which could 
be washed out against other incomes,” 
Cantor pointed out. 

Its principal beneficiaries, he said, would 
be profitable firrris, and the device would 
be open to bookkeeping manipulations to 
avoid taxes on income from other sources. 

Cantor also questioned whether provi- 
sions in the bill for “simplification” of 
government requirements for firms in the 
zones means that building codes, safety 
and health regulations and labor standards 
will be bypassed. 

He told the panel that the AFL-CIO 
remains aware and concerned about the 
special development needs of inner cities, 
but believes programs should be better 
targeted to provide expanded job opportu- 
nities rather than merely pay employers 
to shift from one place to another. 

THE AFL-CIO proposal in this area, 
he testified, is based on the concept of a 
reindustrialization program that would use 
business tax cuts as one means of assisting 
industries, areas and people whose needs 
are greatest. 

Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.L), chairman 
of the subcommittee holding hearings on 
the measure, sponsored the bill in the 
Senate along with Sen. Rudy Boschwitz 
(R-Minn.). House co-sponsors are Rep. 
Jack F. Kemp (R-N.Y.) and Robert Garcia 
(D-N.Y.). In a letter to Chafee, Com- 
merce Sec. Malcolm Baldridge said the 
Reagan Administration “supports the 
thrust of the bill,” but has not taken a 
position on its specifics. 


The Air Line Pilots have urged Con- 
gress to preserve the labor protection pro- 
visions of the 1978 Airline Deregulation 
Act and to turn over to the National 
Transportation Safety Board the authority 
now held by the Civil Aeronautics Board 
to determine whether new airlines are fit 
to serve the public. 

Under the 1978 law, the CAB is to be 
abolished by Jan. 1, 1985. The Senate 
Aviation Subcommittee, however, is hear- 
ing various proposals by the Administra- 
tion and the agency itself, among others, 

Herbert Levine Heads 
Histadrut Council 

New York — Herbert A. Levine, former 
director of Rutgers University’s Labor Ed- 
ucation Center, has been named national 
director of the American Trade Union 
Council for Histadrut. 

He fills the post that has been vacant 
since Greg Bardacke retired in 1978. The 
council has 49 local organizations in the 
United States and Canada to promote 
American labor’s relations with Histadrut, 
the Israeli labor federation. 

Levine is a recognized authority on la- 
bor education. He established a labor 
studies program at Rutgers’ University 
College in 1967 and founded the univer- 
sity’s labor studies department in 1973. 


Any relaxation of federal air quality 
standards inevitably would increase com- 
petition among pollution-free areas to 
attract industry from the Northeast and 
central states and contribute further to 
the decline of these areas, Sec.-Treas. 
Jacob Sheinkman of the Clothing & Tex- 
tile Workers warned. 

He said returning controls to the indi- 
vidual states would encourage “blackmail 
tactics” by big corporations to force com- 
petition between states and a lowering of 
air quality standards to gain or preserve 
jobs. 

SHEINKMAN TOLD the Senate Com- 
mittee on Environment & Public Works, 
chaired by Sen. Robert T. Stafford (R-Vt.), 
that “the end result from such tactics will 
mean that each state will feel impelled to 
destroy environmental controls as induce- 
ments to these corporations.” 

The federal Clean Air Act will expire 
on Sept. 31 unless Congress renews it. 


to phase out the board as early as next 
year. 

ALTHOUGH IT endorses an earjy 
CAB “sunset,” the ALPA said, it wants 
the authority to determine airline fitness 
transferred to the NTSB. 

“Congress recognized the possibility 
that deregulation might enable new car- 
riers with questionable safety capabilities 
to serve the public,” the ALPA said in 
testimony before the Senate panel. “In 
making this charge to the board, Congress 
also tacitly recognized that the Federal 
Aviation Agency’s licensing procedures for 
air carriers were not enough to assure the 
required level of safety. 

“With the demise of the CAB, the safety 
of the traveling public requires that the 
critical tests of carrier finess be continued.” 

THE ALPA said it was “shocked and 
dismayed” at the Administration’s proposal 
to abolish the employee protection pro- 
gram written into the 1978 deregulation 
statute. Most airline labor groups had op- 
posed deregulation and grudgingly ac- 
cepted it only after protection provisions 
had been agreed to, the union pointed out. 

Even the current program, which offers 
only modest protection to a limited group 
of employees, has been stalled by the in- 
dustry, ALPA said. To date, not one em- 
ployee has received benefits of any kind 
under the program, it noted. 


American workers, and all citizens, need 
continuing federal standards, Sheinkman 
declared. 

Even if the heavily industrialized areas 
of the country weaken their controls and 
allow businesses to pollute, the economy 
of those regions will not be significantly 
altered, Sheinkman said. 

“THE OUTMIGRATION will con- 
tinue,” he said. “Top and middle manage- 
ment will be lured away to the pristine 
areas because they are clean. Management 
personnel and their families do not want 
to live in polluted areas. They have no 
desire for an early death from lung cancer. 

“Soon they will move their plants to the 
Southeast and Southwest to escape the 
very pollution their modern processes 
created.” 

Sheinkman said that retention of federal 
standards would be accompanied by cer- 
tain costs, but “these costs are not as 
heavy as some corporations would have 
you or the public believe.” 

RECENT SURVEYS indicate that pol- 
lution controls average about $140 per 
person a year in increased manufacturing 
costs, he noted. Against this he cited an 
analysis estimating the direct costs of 
treating lung disease at $19 billion a year 
and the indirect costs represented by lost 
productivity at $48 billion. 

Sheinkman reminded the committee 
that the nation’s greatest rivals in inter- 
national trade — Japan and West Germany 
— have pollution controls as strict as or 
stricter than those in the United States 
and seem to have no trouble in compet- 
ing in the world market. 


The Government Employees won a two- 
year battle to become the exclusive na- 
tionwide representative of U.S. Dept, of 
Education employees. In a run-off election 
wrapped up July 13, AFGE beat back a 
challenge by the unaffiliated National 
Treasury Employees Union by a vote of 
1,281 to 1,083. 

The election brings the. 5,000 employees 
in the Education Dept.’s headquarters and 
10 regional offices into a single bargain- 
ing unit. 

The AFGE had already outpolled NTEU 
by 958 to 942 in an election in May, but 
63 votes for “no union” denied the AFL- 
CIO affiliate the majority needed to win, 


High Interest 
Ups U.S. Cost 
By $17 Billion 

(Continued from Page 1) 

has forced the Administration to revise up- 
ward its estimates of federal spending by 
$6.1 billion for fiscal year 1981 and by 
$9.6 billion for fiscal 1982. The OMB now 
estimates that government expenditures 
will total $661.2 billion this fiscal year and 
$704.8 billion in fiscal 1982. 

Commenting on the revised economic 
forecast. Chairman James Jones (D-Okla.) 
of the House Budget Committee said that 
the Administration had finally brought its 
1981 figures in line with what his panel 
had been predicting since last April. But 
he said that the Administration’s 1982 pro- 
jections were still “dangerously mislead- 
ing.” 

“THEY HAVE not learned to separate 
what they wish would happen from what 
is likely to happen, and the burden of the 
resulting errors will fall on the American 
people,” Jones said. 

The budget review notes that the Fed- 
eral Reserve Board’s high-interest rate 
policies — encouraged by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration — affect the budget through 
higher costs for the overall national debt, 
guaranteed student loans, federal housing 
programs, and other borrowing. ‘ Interest 
on three-month Treasury bills is expected 
to average 13.6 percent for the year, com- 
pared with 11.5 percent last year. 

The midyear budget analysis presented 
a more optimistic view of the nation’s in- 
flation problems. Declines in prices of 
food and nonfood commodities, including 
the price of oil, are contributing to “the 
more hopeful outlook for inflation,” the 
OMB report said. 

THE ADMINISTRATION now pro- 
jects a 9.9 percent average rise in con- 
sumer prices for 1981, compared to its 
11.1 percent estimate in March, and a 
7-percent average annual rate next year. 
In 1980, inflation averaged 13.5 percent. 

The most recent data also suggest a 
marked slowing in the growth of personal 
income and final demand, while the rate 
of increase of industrial production con- 
tinues to weaken from last fall. 

The growth of nonfarm employment 
has shown a declining trend since January, 
and the most recent annual rate of hous- 
ing starts has fallen to 1.1 million units, 
20 percent below the peak reached last 
November, the report noted. 

OMB DIRECTOR David A. Stockman 
told reporters at a briefing on the budget 
review that the study was published as re- 
quired by law, that it contained no policy 
changes, and was “entirely a technical 
document.” 

At the same briefing, Chairman Murray 
L. Weidenbaum of the President’s Coun- 
cil of Economic Advisers characterized the 
nation’s economy as “spongy,” and ac- 
knowledged that there could be two con- 
secutive quarters of no growth — or even 
decline — in total business activity this year. 

Weidenbaum said that any upturn in the 
economy might not occur until 1982, al- 
though the official forecast calls for an up- 
turn in the fourth quarter of this year. 


thus forcing the run-off election. 

The AFGE had sought bargaining rights 
for the Education Dept, employees in 1 979 
when Congress voted to give the depart- 
ment separate agency status. It had been 
part of what was then the Dept, of Health, 
Education & Welfare, and the union based 
its request for exclusive nationwide recog- 
nition on the fact that it already repre- 
sented most HEW education employees. 

The Federal Labor Relations Authority 
ruled that certain provisions of the Civil 
Service Reform Act required that the Edu- 
cation Dept, workers be considered new 
employees under new conditions, requir- 
ing AFGE to petition for the election. 


Pilots Press Fight to Save 
Airline Safety ^ Labor Codes 


AFGE Wins Nationwide Vote 
Among Education Dept. Staff 


Paj:e Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 18, 1981 


Senate Shifts Focus 


Rights, Labor Measures 
Sidelined for Tax Debate 


The Senate put off action on controver- 
sial civil rights and trade union issues to 
take up the Reagan Administration’s multi- 
year tax cut package — a labor-opposed 
measure heavily tilted to reducing taxes 
paid by corporations and the wealthiest in- 
dividuals. 

Put on the back burner — possibly until 
after the August recess of Congress — is a 
military construction bill reported by the 
Senate Armed Services Committee. It 
would exempt military construction con- 
tracts from the Davis-Bacon Act, which 
requires payment of prevailing wages and 
benefits on federally funded construction. 

LABOR SUPPORTERS in the Senate 
had indicated such a proposal would call 
for “extended debate,” the Senate euphem- 
ism for a filibuster. 

A low-keyed filibuster on a school bus- 
ing issue did result in the Senate leader- 
ship’s decision to set aside a Dept, of 
Justice authorization bill until after the 
tax legislation is passed. 

While Congress has regularly expressed 
its distaste for busing as a means of over- 
coming racial imbalance and the effects 
of past segregation, it has so far stopped 
short of interfering with court actions 
based on the Constitution, or on Justice 
Dept, enforcement of constitutional rights. 

THE FILIBUSTER was aimed at an 
amendment that would bar federal courts 
from ordering a student assigned or bused 
beyond the nearest school and would allow 
the Justice Dept, to file suits on behalf of 
students they believe have been subjected 
to court-ordered busing in violation of the 
restriction. 

A letter to senators from AFL-CIO 
Legislative Director Ray Denison said the 
proposal “attempts to deny the federal 
judiciary its appointed role in enforcing 
the Constitution” and in effect would let 
Congress overrule Supreme Court consti- 
tutional decisions by a majority vote. 

Six Democratic and six Republican sena- 
tors joined in a letter to their colleagues 
opposing the amendment. Two attempts to 
invoke cloture failed, and the bill was set 
aside temporarily. But the second vote pro- 
duced 54 senators for closing .debate, just 
six short of the 60 votes needed under Sen- 
ate rules. A third try is expected soon after 
the tax bill is off the Senate floor. 

A SENATE LABOR subcommittee has 
approved two bills opposed by the AFL- 
CIO, but the full Labor & Human Re- 
sources Committee has not yet taken them 
up. 

One measure would largely repeal the 
eight-hour-day provisions that are written 
into laws governing federal procurement, 
service and construction contracts. At 
present, contractors must pay overtime af- 
ter eight hours in one day. The subcom- 
mittee bill would allow straight-time pay 
either for up to 10 hours a day on a four- 
day, 40-hour workweek, or for nine hours 
a day for four days in a week with four 
hours of work on the fifth day. 

The other union-opposed measure await- 
ing full committee action would transfer 
coverage of sand, gravel, clay and stone 
mining from the more stringent standards 
of the Mine Safety & Health Administra- 
tion — ^which includes mandatory inspec- 


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tions and safety training— -to the general 
jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety & 
Health Administration. 

EVEN AS the Senate was starting de- 
bate on the Reagan tax cut bill, the largest 
House-Senate conference in congressional 
history was getting under way on the 
budget reconciliation bill — the program 
cuts and changes in law that have been 
adopted to assure that federal spending 
does not exceed the budget ceiling voted 
by Congress. 

Actually, more than 40 conference sub- 
committees will deal with differences 
between the House and Senate versions 
affecting legislation coming under the 
jurisdiction of the various committees. 

While the Administration dictated much 
of the contents of both the House and Sen- 
ate bills, some of the differences affected 
programs of importance to labor generally 
or to unions with special concerns. Unem- 
ployment insurance, the future of the Con- 
rail system, funding for Medicaid and the 
future of the low-income weatherization 
program are among the scores of issues to 
be resolved. 

THE TAX BILL debate in the Senate 
found the Democratic minority divided on 
what changes, if any, to seek in the Admin- 
istration bill. The most closely contested 
issue, in fact, appeared to be an amend- 
ment supported by a majority of the Sen- 
ate Finance Corpmittee that would vastly 
increase future revenue loss to the govern- 
ment by indexing tax brackets to the in- 
flation rate. 

The AFL-CIO asked senators to oppose 
that amendment because it would per- 
petuate existing inequities and commit the 
government to a tax cut each year — even 
beyond the three years of tax cuts pro- 
vided by the Senate bill. “Such a measure 
would seriously undermine any future ef- 
forts to achieve tax justice,” the AFL- 
CIO said. 

THE HOUSE Ways & Means Commit- 
tee, meanwhile, continued to shape a 
“Democratic” tax bill that would be even 
more generous to business interests than 
the Administration plan but would tilt in- 
dividual tax cuts somewhat more to mid- 
dle-income and lower-income households. 

In one controversial action, the House 
committee voted to allow professional 
commodity speculators to continue to 
benefit from a complex tax avoidance de- 
vice called a “straddle” involving the jug- 
gling of contracts to buy and sell various 
commodities. That’s a loophole that the 
Reagan Administration, as well as labor, 
had urged Congress to close. 



SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS proposed by the Reagan Administration are un- 
justified and unnecessary, the AFL-CIO testified at Senate hearings. Social 
Security Director Bert Seidman presents the AFL-CIO funding proposal. At 
left is Associate Legislative Director Robert McGlotten. 

Moves to Cut Social Security 
Pose Union Bargaining Issues 


The Reagan Administration’s proposals 
for major cutbacks in social security pro- 
tections would require renegotiation of 
collective bargaining agreements covering 
large groups of workers, union representa- 
tives testified at Senate hearings. 

Auto Workers Legislative Director Dick 
Warden cited UAW contracts providing 
benefit levels keyed to assumptions of so- 
cial security retirement income at various 
ages. Thus, an early retirement option 
commonly would provide a higher contri- 
bution from a company fund before a 
worker is eligible for social security pay- 
ments. 

SIMILAR problems would face many 
public sector bargaining units, the State, 
County & Municipal Employees testified. 
AFSCME Legislative Director Josiah Bee- 
man said many public retirement systems 
are based on a combination of social se- 
curity and supplemental benefits. 

Both unions, in statements to a Senate 
Finance subcommittee, stressed labor’s sup- 
port for the injection of general revenues 
into the social security system and the 
flexibility of inter-fund borrowing among 
the various trust funds so that a temporary 
surplus in one fund could be used to off- 
set a short-term deficit in another. 

THEY ENDORSED, as has the AFL- 
CIO, a proposal to use general revenue 
funds to pay half of the Medicare portion 
of the social security payroll tax, thus al- 
lowing the balance of the tax to be shifted 
to replenish the basic old age and survivors 
insurance fund. 


Warden and Beeman also stressed, as 
had AFL-CIO Social Security Director 
Bert Seidman at the same hearings, that 
cutbacks in benefits are not necessary to 
maintain the solvency of the system, that 
the “crisis” has been deliberately exag- 
gerated by the Administration, and that 
the proposed changes have spread uncer- 
tainty about the reliability of social se- 
curity benefit commitments. 

Message to SOHYO 
Stresses Cooperation 

No nation can hope to solve its own 
economic problems by itself, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkand said in a message 
to the 63rd annual convention of SOHYO, 
the General Council of Trade Unions of 
Japan. Coordinated policies and actions 
with other countries are necessary, he 
added. 

The AFL-CIO has joined with other free 
labor movements in countries of the 23- 
nation Organzation for Economic Cooper- 
ation & Development in presenting an 
agreed labor position on international eco- 
nomic questions to the heads of state at 
the summit meeting scheduled in Ottawa 
on July 20, Kirkland noted. 

He said SOHYO has an opportunity “to 
contribute to the solidarity of the interna- 
tional free labor movement by joining with 
all free trade unions to promote in all 
countries freedom of association as the 
cornerstone of those human rights to which 
all workers are entitled.” 


Protests Rejected on Virginia OSHA Plan 


Labor and local government petitions to 
shelve Virginia’s job safety and health plan 
in favor of federal enforcement were re- 
buffed by Assistant Labor Sec. Thome G. 
Auchter as the Reagan Administration 
signed an agreement permitting the state 
plan to remain in effect. 

The AFL-CIO had sought to have the 
state plan vacated since its inception in the 
early 1970s on the grounds that it is rid- 
dled with deficiencies, leaving workers in 
Virginia poorly protected from occupation- 
al hazards. 

. AUCHTER NOTIFIED the current pe- 
titioners — the Oil, Chemical & Atomic 
Workers, the Fairfax County Board of 
Supervisors, the Virginia AFL-CIO and 
the AFL-CIO Building & Construction 
Trades Dept. — ^that their objections to the 
plan were denied after the agreement was 
reached with state officials. 

This is the second challenge to a state 
plan to be withdrawn by Auchter since he 
took over as head of Occupational Safety 
& Health Administration. On Mar. 27, 
Auchter dismissed petitions against the 
Indiana state plan, which former OSHA 
Director Eula Bingham charged had a 
“consistent pattern of poor performance 
in critical program areas.” 

The AFL-CIO, the Steelworkers and the 
Indiana AFL-CIO are appealing Auchter’s 


decision in that case and a similar appeal 
is contemplated in the Virginia case. 

SECTION 18 of the 1970 federal job 
safety law permits a state to operate its 
own safety program if it comes up with an 
OSHA-approved plan that is “at least as 
effective” as the federal program. 

Currently, 24 OSHA-approved state 
plans are in force in 22 states as well as in 
the Virgin Islands and Puetro Rico. Con- 
necticut’s plan covers public employees 
only, with private sector workplaces re- 
maining under federal jurisdiction. 

Under Bingham, OSHA had initiated 
action to withdraw federal approval of the 
Virginia plan as a result of the petitions 
filed against it. The state subsequently sued 
to block the OSHA effort, but dropped the 
suit after the agreement was signed by 
State Atty. Gen. Marshall Coleman and 
U.S. Atty. John S. Edwards. 

The federal job safety agency acknowl- 
edged at the same time that it was remov- 
ing more than 20 OSHA inspectors from 
the state as a part of the Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s budgetary and regulatory cutbacks. 

AUCHTER described the Virginia agree- 
ment as the start of “a new spirit of coop- 
eration between two levels of government 
for safer and healthier workplaces.” But 


Virginia AFL-CIO President Julian Carper 
challenged this assessment. 

“I just don’t think that workers’ safety 
and health is going to be enhanced by this 
action,” Carper said. 

Audrey Moore, a member of the Fairfax 
Board of Supervisors, termed the denial of 
the county’s petition “a real disaster — es- 
pecially for the younger workers who are 
not as knowledgeable about the dangers 
on a construction site.” 

The high incidence of worker fatalities 
at construction sites in northern Virginia 
led the county to begin its own inspection 
program after petitioning OSHA to re- 
move the state plan. 

THE STATE AFL-CIO noted in its 
1980 petition to OSHA that because en- 
forcement of the state plan is handled by 
district courts rather than an administra- 
tive agency, there is a total lack of uni- 
formity in procedural practices. 

“Primary responsibility for enforcement 
is left with 128 commonwealth attorneys 
who are unwilling or unable to contribute 
to the orderly development of state law. 
They are untrained, largely autonomous, 
and are highly sensitive to pressure from 
the local power structure,” Carper said. 

He called job-site inspections under the 
State plan “a farce.” 




Seniors Rally for Social Security 



Leaders Urge Approval 

‘Good’ Postal Settlement 
Put to Vote of Members 


By James M. Shevis 

Leaders of the nation’s two largest post- 
al unions urged rank-and-file members to 
ratify the new agreement with the U.S. 
Postal Service that will provide basic pay 
raises and bonuses totaling $2,100 over 
the three-year term plus uncapped cost- 
of-living increases. 

Postal Workers President Moe Biller 
and Letter Carriers President Vincent R. 
Sombrotto, detailing highlights of the con- 
tract at a press conference following a 
30-hour bargaining session, called the 
agreement a good one and predicted its 
ratification within 30 days. 

While the unions did not get all 

Real Earnings 
Continue Skid 
For 7th Month 

Living costs continued to outstrip pay 
gains in June, and the buying power of the 
average worker’s paycheck dropped for the 
seventh consecutive month. 

The consumer price index climbed 
seven-tenths of 1 percent on a seasonally 
adjusted basis — up from a six-tenths of 1 
percent rise in May and a modest four- 
tenths of 1 percent increase in April. 

SINCE JUNE of 1980, the price index 
has risen 9.5 percent. Real spendable earn- 
ings — after-tax pay adjusted for inflation — 
are down 2 percent from a year ago and 
two-tenths of 1 percent from the previous 
month. 

Housing prices, including mortgage in- 
terest rates, were the big culprit in the May 
to June rise in the consumer price index, 
as was the case^he previous month. Hous- 
ing expenditures rose 1.1 percent over the 
month and medical care costs shot up nine- 
tenths of 1 percent — ^putting both cate- 
gories in double digits on an annual basis. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


that they wanted. Biller noted, “overall 
we got enough for me to say it’s a good 
contract under the circumstances and I 
recommend approval.” The agreement 
came 16 hours after expiration of the 
unions’ old contracts and averted a pos- 
sible nationwide postal workers’ walkout. 

Two other postal unions, the Laborers’ 
Mail Handlers division and the unaffiliated 
Rural Letter Carriers, bargaining jointly 
with USPS but separate from the two 
principal postal unions, reached somewhat 
different results. 

The Mail Handlers broke off talks and 
said it would submit certain unresolved 
issues to arbitration as provided by the 
1970 Postal Reorganization Act. Negotia- 
tors for the Rural Letter Carriers agreed 
to a tentative contract whose details were 
not made known. 

THE APWU AND THE NALC, which 
together represent 500,000 of the coun- 
try’s nearly 600,000 unionized postal 
workers, had warned that a strike against 
the USPS could develop, even though a 
walkout is prohibited by federal law. 

In the later stages of the bargaining 
Postmaster Gen. William F. Bolger finally 
took a direct part in the negotiations — 
which involved the largest number of 
workers covered by collective bargaining 
this year. The agreement was hammered 
out after the unions agreed to extend their 
1978 contracts on an hour-by-hour basis 
while the talks continued at a Washington 
hotel. 

Earlier, in the small hours of the morn- 
ing, a tentative agreement had come apart 
over differences on specific contract lan- 
guage. Federal Mediator Nicholas Fidan- 
dis unveiled the final agreement to report- 
ers, saying: “This is the real thing.” 

BOLGER, who joined Biller and Som- 
brotto at the press conference, said the 
package would cost $4.8 billion over the 
life of the contract, a figure that includes 
estimated cost-of-living adjustments. He 
said the pact’s cost would not cause the 
price of a first-class postage stamp to xise 

(Continued on Page 3) 


10^000 Condemn Slashes 
As Budget-Balancing Ploy 


By Susan Dunlop 

Thousands of older Americans jammed 
the steps of the U.S. Capitol at a July 21 
“Save Our Security” rally sponsored by the 
labor-supported National Council of Se- 
nior Citizens as a highlight of its legislative 
conference. 

The nearly 10,000 demonstrators, led 
by the more than 3,000 delegates to the 
three-day conference, braved 90-degree 
heat to hear senators and representatives 
blast the Reagan Administration’s propos- 
als to cut social security benefits as part 
of its plan to balance the federal budget. 

AS DEMONSTRATORS waved signs 
and banners urging Congress to preserve 
social security benefits, inside the Capitol 
both houses were voting on measures in- 
tended to save the $122 a month mini- 
mum benefit slated for elimination under 
the Administration’s budget program. 

The House voted overwhelmingly for a 
non-binding resolution favoring continua- 
tion of all current benefits, but the Senate 
voted along party lines to reject an amend- 
ment to a tax bill that would have re- 
stored the benefit. (Story, Page 8.) 

AFL-CIO President I.ane Kirkland, ad- 
dressing the rally, stressed that the labor 
movement is a “strong and unshakable” 
ally of older Americans. Kirkland scored 
the Administration’s attempts to “sacrifice 
the retirement security of millions of 
Americans” to cut federal spending. 

HE DECLARED that Americans “will 
remember who voted to take away from 
American workers the protections they 
fought for, voted for and paid for.” 

Kirkland urged the demonstrators to 


join with the AFL-CIO on Sept. 19 at the 
federation’s Solidarity Day Rally in Wash- 
ington. 

House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill (D- 
Mass.) told the gathering that social secu- 
rity had been “supported by a president 
who cared, Franklin Roosevelt, and passed 
by a Congress who cared” as a way of 
responding to America’s “economic and 
spiritual crisis of the 1930s.” 

The Reagan Administration should be 
held to its campaign promises to make 
the protection of benefits “the overriding 
concern” of any reform of the system, he 
declared. 

SEN. EDWARD M. KENNEDY CD- 

Mass.), among several dozen legislators 
appearing at the rally to express support 
for social security, branded the attempts 
to cut the program “a breach of faith 
with 36 million social security recipients 
and 100 million American workers who 
continue to pay for the program and look 
to it for benefits.” 

At the conference’s general sessions, 
NCSC President Jacob dayman told the 
delegates that older Americans must plan 
strategies to defend the positive federal 
programs that have helped them and to 
deal with the effects that the coming bud- 
get cuts are likely to have. 

dayman cited the importance of pro- 
grams to combat hunger, subsidize hous- 
ing, pay medical and energy bills and 
provide other social services. He warned 
that the 20-year-oId NCSCs 4,000 local 
clubs and 4 million members must vigor- 
ously resist the sharp reduction or outright 
elimination of these programs pressed by 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Donahue Urges Expansion 
Of Alliance for ‘Just Society’ 


Delegates to the National Urban 
League’s annual conference gave a warm 
reception to the AFL-CIO’s call for en- 
larging the already strong alliance between 
the trade union and civil rights movements 
to encompass all groups sharing the goals 
of “a just society.” 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue said the excesses of the Reagan Ad- 
ministration are stirring into political ac- 
tion groups that “have never before in- 
volved themselves in legislative matters or 
tried to play a direct role in the nation’s 
economic life.” 

AND THEY ARE discovering, he said, 
“as the labor movement and the civil rights 
movement discovered long ago, that they 
cannot do it alone.” 

After hearing an array of Cabinet mem- 


bers defend the Reagan Administration 
programs and assure the delegates that it 
would in time bring prosperity to everyone. 
Urban League delegates gave their strong- 
est applause of the day to a different 
message from the AFL-CIO’s secretary- 
treasurer. 

Addressing the conference’s business- 
labor luncheon, Donahue blasted the Ad- 
ministration’s program “for transferring 
resources from those who have little to 
those who already have a great deal — in 
the pious hope that the rich, when they 
are richer, will somehow take care of the 
poor.” 

HE LASHED AT budget slashes in pro- 
grams to help children and the elderly, the 
unemployed, disabled and disadvantaged 

(Continued on Page 2) 




Page Two 


Donahue Asks 
Alliance For 
‘Just Society’ 

(Continued from Page 1) 

“in order to finance tax cuts that are de- 
signed to benefit the wealthy and the cor- 
porations.” 

Corporate funds are being used to buy 
up other companies, not to create jobs, 
Donahue noted. “Making money is the 
business of U.S. business, not making 
jobs.” 

Donahue spoke of the attempts to un- 
dermine fair labor standards, to close 
down the safeguards of the Voting Rights 
Act and to wipe out job training and 
affirmative action programs. 

“ON SOLIDARITY DAY, Sept. 19, we 
are going to put on our walking shoes,” 
he said, and “bring our concerns to the 
attention of the policymakers in Washing- 
ton as forcefully as possible.” 

Urban League President Vernon E. 
Jordan, Jr., is a member of the Solidarity 
Day Advisory Board, and Donahue told 
the delegates, “It’s your kind of demon- 
stration as much as ours.” 

Its intent, he said, is “to show that there 
is a deep and abiding sense of solidarity 
among the American people where issues 
of social justice and fair play are con- 
cerned. We want to put a little iron into 
the backbone of the lawmakers who have 
swallowed the line that the voters don’t 
care.” 

IN HIS KEYNOTE speech opening the 
conference. Urban League President Jor- 
dan termed the Reagan Administration’s 
right-wing ideology “a clear and present 
danger to black people and poor people.” 

Instead of ideas, Jordan charged, the 
Administration relies on slogans. “Like 
most slogans, they contain a grain of truth. 
And like most slogans, they oversimplify 
and distort. They reinforce the meanest 
instincts of selfishness. They cut society 
loose from its moral bearings.” 

Latino Council 
Leaders Explore 
Labor Concerns 

Some 40 leaders of the Labor Council 
for Latin American Advancement, includ- 
ing the organization’s top national officers, 
took part in a four-day leadership con- 
ference at the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies. 

A highlight of the conference was an 
informal, spirited discussion between the 
LCLAA leaders and AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue about common areas 
of interest and concern of the federation 
and the Latino support group. 

An example of a critical common prob- 
lem, Donahue indicated, was the looming 
fight with the Reagan Administration on 
the extension of the Voting Rights Act, 
which has been called the nation’s most 
effective civil rights law. 

“WE HAVE A big fight on our hands 
over the Voting Rights Act.” Donahue said. 
“The significance of LCLAA’s role in this 
struggle is enlarged because of the con- 
stituency you represent.” 

Kenneth Young, executive assistant to 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland; Jim 
Kennedy, legislative director of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks, Ernie Post, PAC 
director of the Steelworkers, participated 
in a panel on political processes. Walter 
Davis, director of the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Community Services, led a workshop on 
community relations. 

Top LCLAA officers who took active 
roles in the conference included Henry L. 
(Hank) Lacayo, national chairman; Jack 
Otero, executive vice chairman; Oscar 
Sanchez, secretary-treasurer; Maria Porta- 
latin and Mike Garcia, vice chairpersons, 
and Alfredo Montoya, executive director. 
Rudy Mendoza, a vice chairperson and 
chairman of the education committee, co- 
ordinated arrangements. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 



VERNON E. JORDAN, JR., presi- 
dent of the National Urban League, 
welcomes AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue at the league’s 
annual conference. 


Suit Wins Cut 
In Compensation 
Insurance Rates 

Chicago — An Illinois court has ordered 
insurance carriers to refund $750 million 
in workers’ compensation premiums to 
employers in the state and to roll back 
rates by 24 percent. 

The Cook County Circuit Court upheld 
the Illinois AFL-CIO and several employer 
groups in their 1979 suit charging that a 
23.8-percent premium increase granted by 
the state insurance department in Septem- 
ber 1979 was unjustified. 

THE ROLLBACK in that rate ordered 
by the court will reduce current workers’ 
compensation premiums charged to em- 
ployers by $360 million annually, the 
state federation said. 

Illinois AFL-CIO President Robert G. 
Gibson called the ruling a “tremendous 
victory.” He said the order makes clear 
that the increases in workers’ compensa- 
tion insurance costs in the state must be 
laid at the doorstep of insurance com- 
panies, not injured workers. 

Since the state’s general assembly passed 
reforms of the workers’ compensation laws 
in 1975, Gibson charged, “employers and 
their associations have irresponsibly con- 
tinued to blame the tremendous increases 
in workers’ compensation costs on the 
benefits paid to workers injured on the 
job.” 

Gibson pointed out that insurance car- 
riers in the state were granted premium 
increases of more than 80 percent in 1975 
and 1976 “without any public notice or 
any public hearing.” In 1979, the state 
insurance department permitted the addi- 
tional 23.8 percent rate hike. 

THE STATE federation went to court 
to stop the increases in 1976 and it won 
a $50 million refund order in 1978, Gib- 
son said. 

In the light of the current decision, he 
said, the employers “and their spokesmen 
in the General Assembly” should “aban- 
don their rhetoric which accuses injured 
workers” of responsibility for the increased 
costs. 

Paperworkers Moving 
Offices to Nashville 

The United Paperworkers is in the 
process of moving its headquarters from 
Flushing, N.Y. to Nashville, Tenn. and the 
union has requested that mail be sent to 
the new location. 

The UPIU’s new mailing address is: 
702 Church St., P.O. Box 1475, Nashville, 
Tenn. 37202. The union’s telephone num- 
ber in Nashville is (615) 254-6666. 

' Union officers said the change was made 
to bring the headquarters closer to the 
localities where most members work. 


Industry Pressure Charged 

OSH A Scored on Move 
To Fire Cancer Expert 


The top cancer specialist of the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Administration, Dr. 
Peter F. Infante, was targeted for dismissal 
after he aroused the ire of the formalde- 
hyde industry’s trade association. House 
hearings revealed. 

If the firing attempt succeeds, AFL-CIO 
Safety Director George H. R. Taylor 
warned, it will have “a chilling effect” on 
OSHA’s professional staff and send a 
message that scientific judgments must 
defer to industry profits. 

REP. ALBERT GORE (D-Tenn.), 
chairman of the Science & Technology 
subcommittee that conducted the two-day 
hearings, said it was clear that the Formal- 
dehyde Institute “wanted this guy out of 
government” and instigated his dismissal. 

Formaldehyde, which is used in a num- 
ber of industrial processes, was identified 
by the National Institute of Occupational 
Safety & Health (NIOSH) as a cause of 
cancer in animals and a suspected cause 
of cancer in humans. The Consumer 
Product Safety Commission last January 
banned its use in home insulation, and 
NIOSH had prepared a warning bulletin 
on the possible hazards of the chemical. 

Assistant Sec. of Labor Thorne G. 
Auchter, who heads OSHA, acknowledged 
that he withdrew the warning bulletin on 
formaldehyde from distribution by OSHA 
on the basis of a memo from an aide re- 
porting on a meeting with two representa- 
tives of the Formaldehyde Institute. 

THE “CHARGE” against Infante was 
that after OSHA had backed away from 
its warmng about formaldehyde, he had 
written a letter on government stationery 
to a World Health Organization research 
unit citing a chemical industry study that 
95 of 240 rats exposed to formaldehyde 
had developed tumors and enclosing a 
copy of a current bulletin issued by 
NIOSH, which is an agency of the Dept, 
of Health & Human Services and which 
has not retracted its warning about 
formaldehyde. 

Infante’s letter did not mention OSHA’s 
position on the issue, but it led to a com- 


plaint by an industry official that he was 
“one of the primary movers and shakers” 
against formaldehyde, and the dismissal 
action was initiated soon thereafter. 

At the subcommittee hearings. Gore sug- 
gested that “the only charge they could 
come up with is that he used OSHA sta- 
tionery” in passing on what he considered 
pertinent scientific data. 

THE HEARINGS led to a dramatic 
confrontation between Assistant Sec. 
Auchter and the career senior civil service 
executive who signed the letter initiating 
dismissal proceedings, Bailus Walker, who 
recently resigned as OSHA’s director of 
health standards. 

Walker testified that he was ordered by 
Auchter to fire Infante. Auchter, who is 
the official who is supposed to “review” 
the dismissal and determine whether it is 
appropriate, denied Walker’s account. 

WALKER, who signed the dismissal 
letter, testified that he considered formal- 
dehyde a carcinogen. So did four other 
government toxicology experts, including 
the director of the National Cancer Insti- 
tute. 

An estimated 750,000 workers are ex- 
posed to formaldehyde on the job and 
Taylor, the director of the AFL-CIO’s 
Occupational Safety & Health Dept., said 
the episode demonstrates ^OSHA’s “sub- 
servience” to business concerns. 

The action against Infante also brought 
a sharp protest from Industrial Union 
Dept. President Howard D. Samuel, who 
called on Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan 
to “countermand the proposal to fire Dr. 
Peter Infante for transmitting information 
published by our government to support 
his conviction that formaldehyde causes 
cancer ... a view widely held within the 
scientific community.” 

The Administration is also under fire 
from the scientific community for the dis- 
missal of NIOSH Director Anthony Rob- 
bins by Health & Human Services Sec. 
Richard Schweiker. Robbins was ousted 
after a U.S. Chamber of Commerce pub- 
lication criticized him as “a radical, anti- 
business” social activist. 


Congress Urged to Kill Bid 
To Deregulate Radio, TV 


Unions and public interest groups have 
urged House-Senate conferees to strip 
from the budget reconciliation bill a pack- 
age of controversial changes in laws gov- 
erning radio and television broadcasting. 

Provisions inserted by the Senate, but 
never considered by the House, would 
virtually deregulate radio broadcasting and 
substantially reduce the obligations of tele- 
vision stations to serve their communities. 

THE COALITION, which includes the 
AFL-CIO Dept, for Professional Employ- 
ees, stressed that the changes in com- 
munications laws would have virtually no 
impact on the budget. A fact sheet on the 
Senate changes noted that the only budget 
link was a provision for modest “user 
fees” for the right to use public airwaves. 

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman 
Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) is quoted in 
the fact sheet as explaining that a plan to 
impose Coast Guard user fees on owners 
of small boats proved politically unpopu- 
lar. “So what we did was come up with 
user fees on the owners of radio and tele- 
vision stations. As part of the package for 
getting their support on user fees, we 
agreed to lessen the regulations on them. 
It was a package.” 

AT A NEWS conference, the protesting 
groups cited these effects of the Senate 
communications amendments: 

• Radio stations would be granted 
permanent licenses instead of having to 
seek a renewal every three years. 

• New licenses for radio and televi- 
sion stations could be awarded by lottery, 
instead of going to the best-qualified ap- 
plicants. 


• Radio stations would no longer have 
to seek to meet community needs, and en- 
forcement of the fairness doctrine would 
be much more difficult. 

• Television licenses would be awarded 
for five years instead of three years, and 
the renewal procedure would be almost 
automatic, with reduced opportunity for 
citizen challenge. 

• Persons who contend they could do 
a better job of serving a community would 
no longer be able to challenge the current 
television or radio broadcaster. 

Unions taking part in the protest in- 
cluded the Auto Workers, Bakery Work- 
ers, Machinists, State, County & Municipal 
Employees, and the Steelworkers. 

2 OPEIU Victories 
Rebuff ‘Consultants’ 

New York — The Office & Professional 
Employees hailed recent victories in Knox- 
ville, Tenn., and Oklahoma City, where 
management consultants sought to defeat 
union organizing drives. 

OPEIU President John Kelly said that 
in spite of frantic, last-minute attempts 
and distribution of false and misleading 
anti-union propaganda by high-priced un- 
ion-busting lawyers, clerical workers at an 
insurance company known as Oklahoma 
Farmers Union picked OPEIU over “no 
union” by a vote of 80 to 67. 

In an election at the East Tennessee 
Baptist Hospital in Knoxville, manage- 
ment consultants failed in their anti-union 
tactics as workers chose OPEIU as their 
bargaining representative, 131 to 80. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 


Page Three 


Postal Union 
Accord Goes 
To Members 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

beyond 20 cents, or 2 cents more than the 
current price. 

Earlier this year, the independent Postal 
Rate Commission allowed USPS to raise 
the first-class rate from 15 to 18 cents, 
but rejected its request for a 20-cent 
stamp. The decision is under appeal. Bol- 
ger said that the 20-cent rate would “hold 
us for a couple of years.” 

Under the new agreement, postal work- 
ers’ salaries would rise by $300 in each 
of the next three years. In addition, em- 
ployees would receive a $150 bonus upon 
ratification of the contract, and a $350 
“productivity” bonus in each contract 
year. According to the unions, the typical 
postal employee now earns $21,146 a year. 
Thus, the pact would boost present wages 
about 10 percent over three years in addi- 
tion to any increases under the COL ad- 
justment clause. 

THE PRODUCTIVITY bonus could 
exceed $350 under an undisclosed formu- 
la, the unions said. The agreement main- 
tains current provisions for cost-of-living 
increases without a “cap,” or limit, a 
hotly contested point during the bargain- 
ing. Semi-annual COL increases of one 
cent for each increase of four-tenths of a 
point in the consumer price index gener- 
ated an average total of $3,619 in wage 
boosts under the old contract. 

This would not be rolled into base rates 
until the expiration of the new contract in 
1984, the unions said. However, workers 
within six years of retirement would have 
the option of rolling the COL amount into 
the base pay used to calculate retirement 
benefits in exchange for foregoing 7 per- 
cent of the COL increase. All other em- 
ployees would have this amount added to 
the base pay used to calculate pensions 
by 1984; The timing of the COL roll-in 
had been a major bargaining issue. 

Details on most fringe-benefit improve- 
ments were not announced. It was learned, 
however, that USPS would continue to 
pay 75 percent of workers’ health-insur- 
ance premiums and that some increases 
would be provided in uniform allowances. 



POSTMASTER GEN. William F. Bolger is given a baseball-style cap with the 
Postal Service logo following announcement of a tentative agreement in this 
year’s contract negotiations. Letter Carriers President Vincent R. Sombrotto, 
left, and Postal Workers President Moe Biller led the union negotiators. 

28-Member Advisory Board 
Named for Solidarity Day 


Twenty-eight officers of national orga- 
nizations have responded to the invitation 
of AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to 
join a Solidarity Day advisory board to 
help with plans for the Sept. 19 Washing- 
ton protest march. 

The advisory board, which includes 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, held its first planning session July 
22 at AFL-CIO headquarters. 

KIRKLAND DESCRIBED the march 
as labor’s way of demonstrating its deter- 
mination to resist attempts to turn back 
social and economic progress. 

The Solidarity Task Force has also re- 
leased a tentative agenda for the one-day 
demonstration. Marchers will gather be- 
ginning at about 10 a.m. near the Wash- 
ington Monument for a program of en- 
tertainment and prominent speakers. From 
there, the march will proceed around noon 
to the west front of the Capitol where the 
program will continue until about 5 p.m. 

Marchers are being encouraged to bring 


Watts Cites Alarming Rise 
In Office Workers^ Stress 


Cincinnati, Ohio — Modem technology 
may have streamlined office procedures, 
but it has done little or nothing to reduce 
stress that is literally killing clerical 
and secretarial workers. Communications 
Workers President Glenn E. Watts told a 
government-sponsored conference on office 
worker safety and health here. 

“New technology and new work en- 
vironments carry with them new and 
alarming health and stress problems for 
American wage-earners,” Watts said in 
an address at a four-day conference spon- 
sored by the National Institute for Occu- 
pational Safety & Health. 

“WE MAY BE ON the verge of the 
paperless office, but we have yet to devise 
the pressureless office.” 

Watts cited the findings of a study re- 
leased a year ago that women clerical and 
secretarial workers developed coronary 
heart disease nearly twice as frequently as 
other women workers. He blamed video 
display terminals, poor lighting and 
ventilation, and relentless supervision by 
machines as well as managers. 

“A NIOSH study of a San Francisco 
office found higher levels of job stress 
among clerical operators of VDTs than 
in any occupational group studied, includ- 
ing air traffic controllers,” Watts noted. 

HE SAID THAT modem research has 
exploded the myth that “only top-level 
executives and those people who make 
weighty decisions experience the effects of 
job stress. The executive’s “loyal secretary” 
is also very much a prime candidate for a 
heart attack.” 


The old idea that “stress is all in your 
head — it’s nobody’s fault but your own 
if you let things get to you” — is as out- 
dated as the manual typewriter. Watts 
added. Medical researchers have docu- 
mented beyond any reasonable doubt that 
job-related stress is a prime cause of heart 
disease, he said. 

Watts’s 625,000-member-union, which 
represents a majority of the nation’s tele- 
phone workers, recently concluded an 
agreement with the Bell System to reduce 
job stress by instituting quality-of-work- 
life programs in Bell installations across 
the country. 

“If we can increase job satisfaction, we 
will have taken a giant step to combat 
modern job stress which technology is 
bringing to the workplace,” he said. 


their families and plan picnics on Wash- 
ington’s historic mall that day. 

THE SOLIDARITY Day office at AFL- 
CIO headquarters has available names of 
coordinators from unions and support or- 
ganizations that will join the march. Each 
organization will handle its own transpor- 
tation and organization of its delegation. 

The members of the Solidarity Day 
advisory board are Arnold Aronson, Lead- 
ership Conference on Civil Rights; Tony 
Bonilla, president. League of United Latin 
American Citizens; Kenyon Burke, Na- 
tional Council of Churches; Jacob day- 
man, president. National Council of Se- 
nior Citizens; Sam Church, president. 
United Mine Workers; Murray Finley, 
president. Clothing & Textile Workers; 
Douglas Fraser, president. Auto Workers; 
Dorothy Height, president. National Coun- 
cil of Negro Women. 

Also, Benjamin L. Hooks, executive 
director, NAACP; Rev. Jesse Jackson, 
Operation PUSH; Vernon Jordan, presi- 
dent, National Urban League; Coretta 
King, co-chair. Full Employment Action 
Council; Henry Lacayo, chair. Labor 
Council for Latin American Advance- 
ment; Msgr. Francis J. Lally, U.S. Catho- 
lic Conference; Rev. Joseph Lowery, 
Southern Christian Leadership Confer- 
ence; Lloyd McBride, president. Steel- 
workers; Joyce Miller, president. Coali- 
tion of Labor Union Women; Charles 
Pillard, president. International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers; Reese Ro- 
brahn, executive director, American Coa- 
lition of Citizens with Disabilities. 

Also, Bayard Rustin, chair, A. Philip 
Randolph Institute; Chuck Senci, director. 
Concerned Seniors for Better Government; 
Albert Shanker, president, American Fed- 
eration of Teachers; Donald Slaiman, 
president, Jewish Labor Committee; Elea- 
nor Smeal, president. National Organiza- 
tion for Women; Jessica Smith, executive 
director, Frontlash; Sharon Stark, presi- 
dent, Consumer Federation of America; 
Douglas Tuthill, chair, U.S. Students As- 
sociation, and William Wynn, president, 
Food & Commercial Workers. 


UAW Opens 
Drive for U.S. 
Content Law 

Dearborn, Mich. — The Auto Workers 
are undertaking a major campaign for 
legislation to require foreign and domestic 
car companies with large U.S. sales to 
build most of those vehicles in the United 
States. 

UAW President Douglas Fraser, an- 
nouncing the drive here at the 6th annual 
Automotive News World Congress, said 
government-ordered restrictions must be 
enacted if America is to preserve employ- 
ment and shore up its industrial base. 

FURTHERMORE, Fraser said, the un- 
ion will not permit domestic automakers 
to carry out threats to move production of 
parts for American cars to other countries 
unless they get an immediate break on la- 
bor costs in the United States. Ford and 
General Motors have indicated they do 
not want to wait until their contracts with 
the UAW expire in September 1982 before 
they seek labor cost concessions. 

“We have no intention of reopening 
those agreements,” Fraser said. “Yet let 
me make it clear that the UAW fully in- 
tends to approach 1982 bargaining in a 
responsible manner. We are realists. We 
understand that bargaining doesn’t go on 
in a vacuum. You have to face the eco- 
nomic realities that exist when you go to 
the table.” 

Fraser’s proposal for “local content” re- 
quirements would mean that a percentage 
of the parts and components going into a 
vehicle would be produced in the United 
States. Legislation he said he hopes will be 
introduced in Congress this summer would 
require that auto companies with annual 
sales in excess of 200,000 units have at 
least 75 percent North American compon- 
ents in their fleets — effectively requiring 
large Japanese auto companies to set up 
assembly plants here. 

THE PROPOSAL also would require 
that the Big Three U.S. automakers — 
Ford, GM, and Chrysler — observe a 90- 
percent local content requirement, a level 
they currently are meeting. The law would 
be phased in beginning with the 1983 
model year, Fraser said. 

He said he is also seeking to enlist the 
domestic parts supplier industry in the 
legislative drive, mailing personal request 
letters for help to more than 1,000 com- 
panies that provide parts and components 
for the auto industry. 

“On this issue, the parts sector and 
trade unions should have common cause,” 
Fraser observed. “When General Motors 
threatens workers with statements it in- 
tends to buy or build more components 
‘offshore,’ your companies may very well 
be victims as well,” he told supplier indus- 
try executives. ’’When Ford talks about 
out-sourcing parts overseas, it’s your firms 
as well as our workers who are being 
blackmailed.” 

THE REAGAN Administration has said 
that it opposes local content requirements 
and other aid to specific industries as 
being anti-free trade, to which Fraser 
responded: 

“Some may object that our content 
proposal runs counter to the principles of 
free trade. If other nations’ policies pre- 
vent auto trade from becoming a two-way 
street, our country cannot afford a one- 
way traffic jam of the unemployed.” 



SOLroARITY DAY advisory board holds its first meeting the AFL-CIO will help with plans for the Sept. 19 march in 
at AFL-CIO headquarters. The 28-member panel of repre- Washington to protest the Reagan Administrations assault 
sentatives of groups taking part in the demonstration with on vital social programs. 




Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 


‘The Blade Draws Real Blood^ 

W E HAVE TO make sure that American workers understand, 
in the most real and human terms, exactly what all the talk 
about budgets and taxes means for them. 

It is their social security that is going to be cut — and with it 
their plans for a secure and decent retirement. It is their hospitals 
and schools that will be closed or left to deteriorate. It is their 
safety and health, leisure time and paychecks that will be 
threatened if OSHA is hobbled, if the protective legislation so 
many of you have fought for is dismantled. 

According to Administration doctrine, the root of all economic 
evil is the federal budget. 

We have to remind the budget cutters of two important facts 
— one, that the budget-cutting blade draws real blood; and, 
second, that we will note well and long remember who was hold- 
ing the knife. 

SOME OF THE politicians will tell you that they are only 
carrying out the will of the people, as expressed at the polls. Well, 
I am sure you will have to look long and hard in Congress to find 
any sittftig member who got there by campaigning against social 
security. 

Yet, you will find increasing numbers — safely between elections 
— ^who have bought the Administration’s line that social security 
is about to go under, and that if we don’t dump the ballast of 
“excessive benefits” it will go down with all hands on board. 


It is true that the social security system has problems which 
must be resolved. It is also true that these problems can be 
resolved without cutting benefits and without breaking the faith 
American workers have put in this system for almost 50 years. 
The Administration’s proposed cuts in overall social security bene- 
fits add up to a sum twice as large at what is necessary to balance 
the system for the next 75 years. 

THE HEART OF the plan — ^the proposed cuts in early retire- 
ment and disability provisions — ignores the fact that fully two- 
thirds of all people who retire before 65 do so because they are 
sick, their jobs have been destroyed, or they are subject to some 
form of compulsory retirement plan. The 80 percent of full 
benefits paid to these workers is based on the cool calculations 
of actuarial tables and insurance principles, not on principles of 
charity. 

We must work together to prevent the Administration’s tactics 
from driving a wedge between active workers and those who are 
receiving benefits. 

We must also counter the danger that the Administration’s dire 
predictions about the imminent collapse of the system will frighten 
many Americans into accepting cuts they would not otherwise 
tolerate. 

At the same time, we must make sure that our opponents are 
forced to run on their records, that they are not allowed to conceal 
under piles of political rhetoric the fact that they voted to destroy 
programs that have helped improve the lives of every American 
citizen. 


— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to legislative conference 
of the National Council of Senior Citizens, July 20, 1981, Wash- 
ington, D.C. 

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Official Weekly Publication . 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


Assistant Editors: 

John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


i Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, July 25, 1981 


No. 30 I 


S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
s ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
s to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
5 AFL-CIO. 





Castle in the Sky 



Shifting the Site of Pain 


‘Urban Enterprise’ Proposal 
Would Aggravate Job Needs 


By Gus Tyler 

HE KEMP-GARCIA BILL is one of those 
political dreams. A conservative Republican 
(Kemp) joins with a liberal Democrat (Garcia) 
to sponsor a bill to create jobs in poverty areas, 
presumably mainly black and Hispanic. The idea 
is to ease taxes for employers who set up shop 
in these hard-pressed neighborhoods (designated 
as “urban enterprise zones”). 

Yet, dreamy and dramatic as the proposition 
appears, it may well be one of those attractively 
simple solutions that, upon examination, turns 
into a most unattractive counterproductive com- 
plexity. Consider the following: 

AN EMPLOYER who sets up a factory under 
the proposed aegis would have a clear edge over 
his competitors by virtue of the subsidy he will be 
getting from Uncle Sam. (Exempting someone 
from paying a regular tax is, in effect, the same 
as taking money out of the federal treasury to 
make a gift to the beneficiary of the exemption.) 

Such an employer is very likely to have another 
edge. Opening a new facility in a depressed 
neighborhood would mean employment of people 
at wages close to the minimum, since it is fairly 
certain that such a work force is not apt to be 
unionized in the first days or years of operation. 

With such a double edge in his favor, such an 
employer can compete successfully in the open 
market for work for his plant and his people. 

Now what does this do to other workers who 
are getting more than the minimum in an already 
established plant and whose employer must pay 
full taxes? Clearly, they are now disadvantaged 
with less work and smaller earnings. 

THE IRONY IS that these workers — the new- 
ly disadvantaged — will also be drawn from mar- 
ginal populations, mainly black and Hispanic. 
Small-scale production in urban areas draws 
heavily from minorities for its employees. 

As a consequence, some ghetto people who will 
be working in the “neighborhood” will be dis- 
employing other ghetto people who are not work- 
ing in the precinct. But the total number of em- 
ployed in the country will not go up and neither 
will the total number of minority folk with jobs 
go up. 

At best, we will have achieved a redistribu- 
tion of unemployment within minority people. 


getting jo^s for some at the expense of others. 

That’s what would happen “at best.” But we ^ ^ 

won’t get the best. The people who will be losing 
their jobs will be those who are relatively better 
paid; those who will be getting jobs will be poorer " ^ 
paid. So, the total wage level for these workers - 
will fall and poverty-plagued minorities will be 
poorer than ever. 

Also, since total buying power will consequent- " 
ly fall, there will be fewer jobs in the nation as a 
whole. This means more unemployment both in- 
side and outside the ghettos and barrios. 

rr IS, of course, quite understandable that 
“minority” spokespeople in Congress would favor 
the Kemp-Garcia proposal because it seems like . 
a quick way to get jobs into their precincts. It is 
also understandable that a conservative, like ^ 
Kemp, would favor a bill that puts him with the " 
poor and disadvantaged minorities. ^ 

In a way, it’s most unfortunate that, in practice, 1 
the bill will merely mean more poverty and un- ^ ‘ " 
employment for the poor in a grim game of musi- 
cal chairs that merely shifts the site of pain. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns y 

. . So Much to Gain 
By Working Together' 

We are told social programs breed depen- 
dency. Tell that to young people in training j 
programs who mil lose their chance to learn -i " 
and earn their way out of poverty. Tell it to 
sick people whose public health clinics are shut ^ 
down. 

We are told that it’s had to look to govern- 
ment for special help, that everyone should be ^ ^ 
treated the same. Tell that to the afflueirt who 
wiU get huge tax cuts on top of their loopholes. ? 
Tell it to the special interests. ^ ' 

We’ve got to reach across class and ethnic * \ . 
lines to win victories for all people. America’s ^ 
tragedy is the racism that drives a wedge be- 
tween whites and blacks who have so much to 
gain by working together. ^ 

— From keynote address by Vernon E, Jor- 
dan, Jr., to National Urban League conference, ^ 
Julyl9,1981. 

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Page Five 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, JULY 25, 1981 


For Workers, Allies 

Solidarity Day Offers Chance 
To Stand Up Against ‘Mandate’ 


The following is from an address by AFL- 
CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue to the Na- 
tional Urban League Business-Labor luncheon, 
July 21, 1981, Washington. 

VIT HAT WE ARE facing, in broad outline, is 
^ a very neat and well-rounded program for 
transferring resources from those who have little 
to those who already have a great deal— in the 
pious hope that the rich (when they are richer), 
will somehow take care of the poor. 

So we have budget cuts that deprive children 
and old people and the unemployed and the dis- 
abled and the disadvantaged in order to finance 
tax cuts that are designed to benefit the wealthy 
and the corporations. 

We have business-tax revisions that are de- 
signed to give huge benefits to the biggest and 
strongest corporations — the ones with the biggest 
inventories of physical assets and machinery — 
while giving little or nothing to small business or 
to businesses that depend more on manpower 
than robots. 

WE HAVE administrative and legislative as- 
saults on regulations designed to protect the lives 
and health of workers and consumers to help 
those who maximize profits at the expense of 
those who work and those who buy. 

We have no re-industrialization program worth 
the name. We have quite a few proposals to en- 
courage business to do what I have heard called 
“maximizing human resourecs” to encourage 
productivity. 

To do that, apparently, you need to be able to 
pay less than a minimum living wage to young- 
sters at the bottom of the economic ladder. You 
need to minimize opportunity by wiping out jobs 
and training programs and affirmative action pro- 
grams of all kinds. 

You need to put government construction into 
the hands of the lowest bidder, regardless of the 
fact that he brings with him the lowest bidders 
he can find among workers — that is, those with 
the least bargaining power, the hungriest and 
most desperate workers in a depressed industry. 

TO MAXIMIZE these human resources even 
further, we are told, it is necessary to work them 
longer hours without paying overtime. The eight- 
hour day, in the construction industry, interferes 
with productivity. 

Along with that, of course, it is necessary to 
move industrial operations into the home. Obvi- 
ously, productivity can be much higher if you can 
exploit people who are desperate for work — and 
their children, too — ^without paying the rent, with- 
out worrying about hours and overtime or health 
and safety laws or minimum wages or unions. 


Now, once you put all this together, how do 
you keep it? Well, our opponents have thought of 
that. They remember how all these terrible restric- 
tions on productivity and free enterprise came 
about in the first place. They remember the years 
and decades of constructive legislative and politi- 
cal action on the part of the trade union move- 
ment and the civil rights movement. 

So, they are using their financial power as 
never before to control the legislative and electoral 
process. They have invented the negative political 
campaign, in which the candidate they support 
lies back as a perfectly innocent bystander while 
independent political action goes after his op- 
ponent — the candidates speaking up for the pub- 
lic interest, the one we think of as the good guy 
— ^with the dirtiest tricks and falsifications money 
can buy. 

AND AT THE SAME TIME, of course, they 
are doing their best to kill or cripple the Voting 
Rights Act that opened the way for millions of 
minority citizens, for the first time in history, to 
take a hand in their country’s political decision- 
making. They want to close the door on that, and 
keep it closed. 

These are some of the methods by which our 
opponents are doing their best to take us back 
to 1881. In response, we can’t afford to be any 
less united than our opponents. 

We still have friends on the Hill, timid and 
demoralized though many of them may be. And 
we need to demonstrate, for the benefit of the 
lawmakers who have been cowed by the Admin- 
istration’s claim that it has a mandate from the 
people to rearrange American society along eco- 
nomic lines. 

On Solidarity Day, Sept. 19, we are going to 
put on our walking shoes in the District of Co- 
lumbia to prove that no such mandate exists, and 
every member of the Urban League is cordially 
invited to attend. 

WE CALL IT Solidarity Day because it is 
meant to show that there is a deep and abiding 
sense of solidarity among the American people 
where issues of social justice and fair play are 
concerned. We want to put a little iron into the 
backbones of the lawmakers who have swallowed 
the line that the voters don’t care. 

Solidarity Day is for everyone, not just union 
members. The point is to show how broad a 
cross-section of America is willing to stand up 
and be counted in opposition to the President’s 
program and in favor of jobs and justice. 

And we want to show that come what may — 
win, lose or draw — ^whether it takes another 
hundred years or a thousand, we will not go away. 


Targeted Program Urged 

Long-Term Tax-Cut Schemes 
Lack Fairness, Effectiveness 


B oth of the long-term tax-cut programs 
devised by the Reagan Administration and 
the House Ways & Means Committee fail the 
tests of equity and economic effectiveness, an 
AFL-CIO legislative representative declared in a 
network radio interview. 

Stephen Koplan said on Labor News Confer- 
ence that the proposals to give business an across- 
the-board tax cut of two-thirds of a trillion dollars 
over 10 years ought to be scrapped in favor of a 
one-year program carefully targeted toward areas 
and industries most in need and in which real 
productivity gains are most achievable. 

Koplan urged that proposed three-year indi- 
vidual tax cuts that would bring greatest benefits 
to high-bracket taxpayers be replaced by a 20- 
percent refund of social security taxes paid by 
workers and a 5-percent credit for social security 
taxes paid by employers. 

He pointed out that the lion’s share of the 
proposed business cuts would flow to electrical 
and gas utilities — regulated industries in no need 
of special tax windfalls — and to the oil refining 


industry. What America needs, he said, is a co- 
herent re-industrialization program under which a 
Reconstruction Finance Corporation would direct 
tax benefits to companies needing help. 

“Anything beyond one year is putting a mort- 
gage on the future at a time when there is 
tremendous uncertainty,” he said. “We have sug- 
gested a one-year business tax cut that is targeted 
and has a $5-billion cap for tax cuts and $5 
billion more for non-tax subsidies, and a one- 
year individual tax credit of $16 billion for work- 
ers and $4 billion for employers. Then Congress 
could look to see whether it should be reauthor- 
ized.” 

ORGANIZED LABOR asks three things of 
whatever tax package is adopted, Koplan said: 

“One, on the business side we would like to see 
a substantial cutback, through targeting, in the 
amount of revenue lost to the Treasury. Second, 
on the individual side, we have called for sub- 
stantial equity in the lower and middle-income 
brackets. Third, we urge that Congress not mort- 
gage the future.” 



By Press Associates, Inc* 


T he scare campaign mounted by the H^gan Adminis- 
tration against the social security system surely must be one 
of the more irresponsible actions by national leaders. 

Most responsible observers are aware that social security has a 
short-term and a long-term problem. 

The short-term problem is directly related to the stagflation of 
recent years. High-level unemployment caused a reduction of 
employer-worker payments into the fund while inflation caused 
a sharp increase in benefits paid out. 

The long-term problem will come when the post-World War II 
baby boom generation reaches the retirement age around the 
year 2011. 

The present contrived crisis developed last spring when Reagan 
budget chief David Stockman saw an opportunity to exploit the 
short-term problem. 

Using the bankruptcy rhetoric, he apparently talked Reagan 
into proposing a wide range of cuts to “save” social security. 

THE WAVE OF anger that swept the nation persuaded the 
Senate to slap down Reagan’s major proposal, 96-0, in a sense of 
the Senate resolution. 

What led the Administration to miscalculate so badly? 

Wilbur J. Cohen, chairman of the new Coalition to Save Our 
Security and a former Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare, 
gave this explanation: 

“The major reason for the Reagan-Stockman proposal to cut 
social security is to meet the two goals of increasing expenditures 
for defense while at the same time promising to balance the 
budget. 

“Because the federal unified budget includes general revenue 
expenditures from the U.S. Treasury as well as social security pay- 
ments from earmarked trust funds, every penny cut from any 
aspect of social security payment permits Mr. Stockman to rec- 
ommend higher military spending while still claiming he’s bal- 
ancing the budget.” 

The social security cuts also enable Reagan and Stockman to 
cover losses of federal revenue from tax cuts in the event the 
Reagan economic recovery strategy fails to work. 

COHEN RECOMMENDED that social security — and also 
state unemployment insurance — be completely removed from the 
Federal Unified Budget to thwart the Stockman maneuver. 

A CBS-TV special aired July 16 showed that a good deal of 
misinformation is at large about social security, especially among 
the young. The New York Times the next day ran a story on a 
Times/CBS News poll with the headline, “Poll Shows Americans 
Losing Faith in Future of Social Security System.” 

Little wonder. The CBS-TV special showed conservative poli- 
ticians and normally fair-minded reporters wallowing in hyperbole.^ 
Problems were “gargantuan” and “horrendous” and the situa- 
tion was a “time bomb.” Health & Human Services Sec. Richard 
Schweiker saw everybody jumping aboard the disability “gravy 
train.” 

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION expert Henry Aaron calmly 
noted that 70 percent of those who apply for disability benefits 
are denied them. And half of that group never works again, he 
said. 

CBS commentator Dan Rather salvaged the program by con- 
cluding that constructive solutions exist and Congress will choose 
among them. 

It was left to Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.) to wonder why the 
Reagan Administration wants to take benefits away from young 
survivors, from the crippled, from the low-income families. 
“Does the government of the United States have to do that?” he 
asked. 



TAX PROGRAMS being shaped in Congress fail the test of 
fairness and would put a mortgage on the nation’s future, AFL- 
CIO Legislative Rep. Stephen Koplan, center, said on Labor 
News Conference. Questioning him were Sandra Teeley of the 
Washington Post and Ben Rathbun of the Bureau of National 
Affairs publication. Daily Labor Report. The public affairs 
interview is aired weekly on Mutual Radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 


Various Nations’ Production 
of Goods and Sendees per 
Person Empioyed in 1980 



(As 


100 


SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor preliminary figures. 


Poverty Rate for U.S. 
Famiiies— 1960 to 1979 



Percent of families living in poverty 


Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 


Totai Empkiyment in 
Seiected Countries 1970 
and 1980 



% Increase 


23 . 8 % 9 . 2 % - 1 . 5 % 5 . 7 % 8 . 8 % 35 . 4 % 


Source: U.S. Department of Commerce 


Supply-Side Economics: Rehash of Old Fallacies 


The so-called supply-side economic pol- 
icy espoused by the Reagan Administra- 
tion is directly at odds with the beliefs of 
those who seek equity and the economic 
advance of common people, former Labor 
Sec. Ray Marshall declares in the Amer- 
ican Federationist, the AFL-CIO’s monthly 
magazine. 

SUPPLY-SIDERS basically believe that 
by putting more money in the hands of the 
wealthy through tax breaks, the incentive 
to invest will be created and that invest- 
ment will generate more jobs and income 


and reduce inflation. But there is a deep, 
underlying fallacy to this theory, which 
runs directly counter to the traditional 
“demand-side” — or Keynesian — economics 
on which almost all of the nation’s labor 
programs have rested since the 1930’s, 
Marshall points out in the Federationist 
article, which is based on remarks at the 
May council meeting of the AFL-CIO In- 
dustrial Union Dept. 

“It’s the same trickle-down economics 
that has always existed and was found to 
have been a basic cause of the depression 


Senate Indexing Amendment 
Expands Tax Revenue Loss 

The Senate on July 16 adopted a labor-opposed amendment to the Adminis- 
tration's tax bill that would sharply curtail future government revenues by index- 
ing income tax brackets to offset inflation. The indexing would be in addition to 
the three years of tax reductions already in the bill. 

The amendment, passed by a 57-40 vote, would cause billions of dollars of 
revenue losses each year. The AFL-CIO charged also that the add-on indexing 
**would undermine efforts to enact changes in the future to promote tax justice.*' 


FOR LABOR’S POSITION 

Democrats 32 


Bentsen (Tex.) 
Biden (Del.) 
Bradley (N.J.) 
Bumpers (Ark.) 
Burdick (N.D.) 
Byrd, H. (Va.) 
Byrd, R. (W.Va.) 
Cannon (Nev.) 


Chiles (Fla.) 
Cranston (Calif.) 
Dodd (Conn.) 
Eagleton (Mo.) 
Ford (Ky.) 

Glenn (Ohio) 
Rollings (S.C.) 
Huddleston (Ky.) 


Inouye (Hawaii) 
Jackson (Wash.) 
Johnson (La.) 
Kennedy (Mass.) 
Leahy (Vt.) 

Long (La.) 
Matsunaga (Hawaii) 
Metzenbaum (Ohio) 


Mitchell (Me.) 
Nunn (Ga.) 

Pell (R.I.) 
Randolph (W.Va.) 
Sarbanes (Md.) 
Sasser (Tenn.) 
Stennis (Miss.) 
Williams (N.J.) 


Republicans 8 

Baker (Tenn.) Chafee (R.I.) Heinz (Pa.) Weicker (Conn.) 

Boschwitz (Minn.) Cochran (Miss.) Mathias (Md.) Wallop (Wyo.) 

AGAINST LABOR’S POSITION 


Democrats 14 


Baucus (Mont.) 
Boren (Okla.) 
DeConcini (Ariz.) 
Dixon (111.) 


Exon (Neb.) 
Hart (Colo.) 
Heflin (Ala.) 
Levin (Mich.) 


Melcher (Mont.) 
Moynihan (N.Y.) 
Proxmire (Wis.) 
Pryor (Ark.) 


Riegle (Mich.) 
Zorinsky (Neb.) 


Republicans 43 


Abdnor (S.D.) 
Andrews (N.D.) 
Armstrong (Colo.) 
Cohen (Me.) 
D’Amato (N.Y.) 
Danforth (Mo.) 
Denton (Ala.) 

Dole (Kan.) 
Durenberger (Minn.) 
East (N.C.) 

Garn (Utah) 


Goldwater (Ariz.) 
Gorton (Wash.) 
Grassley (Iowa) 
Hatch (Utah) 
Hatfield (Ore.) 
Hawkins (Fla.) 
Helms (N.C.) 
Humphrey (N.H.) 
Jepsen (Iowa) 
Kassebaum (Kan.) 
Kasten (Wis.) 


Laxalt (Nev.) 

Lugar (Ind.) 
Mattingly (Ga.) 
McClure (Ida.) 
Murkowski (Alaska) 
Nickles (Okla.) 
Packwood (Ore.) 
Percy (111.) 

Pressler (S.D.) 
Quayle (Ind.) 

Roth (Del.) 


Rudman (N.H.) 
Schmitt (N.M.) 
Simpson (Wyo.) 
Specter (Pa.) 
Stafford (Vt.) 
Stevens (Alaska) 
Symms (Ida.) 
Thurmond (S.C.) 
Tower (Tex.) 
Warner (Va.) 


Absent: Dcnnenici (R-N.M.); Hayakawa (R-Calif.), Tsongas (D-Mass.)* 


of the 1930s,” says Marshall, who was 
Secretary of Labor for all four years of 
the Carter Administration He plans to 
return this fall to a teaching post at the 
University of Texas. 

“We say it’s wrong because you will 
never have enduring prosperity unless all 
major groups share in that prosperity. 
Supply-siders are deliberately limiting 
their version of prosperity to those who 
will have enough money to invest.” 

MOST OF THE basic propositions of 
the supply-siders have no empirical evi- 
dence to support them, Marshall observes. 
In fact, they run contrary to strong em- 
pirical evidence from around the world, 
he notes, adding that “the only experiment 
in place of supply-side economics today is 
in Britain, where Prime Minister Margaret 
Thatcher’s Government started out saying 
the same thing that the supply-siders 
started out saying in the United States — 
namely, that there is a painless solution to 
the problems of unemployment and infla- 
tion.” 

Subsequent events in Britain obviously 
make it difficult for the Thatcher Govern- 
ment to say there’s a painless solution to 
the problem, Marshall observes, “so now 
they have to say there is a painful solution 
but it’s worth it: we have to go through a 
painful process in order to solve the prob- 
lems of inflation, unemployment and in- 
efficiency generated by government in- 
volvement. But looking at the experience 
of the United Kingdom should not give 
them a great deal of optimism about em- 
pirical justification for their policies, be- 
cause the Thatcher record shows increases 
in both inflation and unemployment.” 

The Reaganites pin much of their 


hope on a tax cut, contending that such a 
reduction will automatically stimulate 
savings and investment. But Marshall 
serts there is not much evidence to sup- 
port this belief. 

“People are just as likely to spend that 
money as to invest it,” he notes. “Even if 
they invest, there’s no assurance that the 
investment will be in job-creating activity.” 

Another serious problem for the supply- 
siders is their monetarist theory — their 
rigid belief that inflation can be caused 
by only two factors, government or an 
increase in the money supply, Marshall 
notes. Other factors are much more im- 
portant to inflation than government 
spending and, in fact, there is no necessary 
relationship between a budget deficit and 
inflation, he points out. 

‘THE MAIN REASON for inflation in 
recent times has been increases in the 
cost of energy, the cost of food prices, and 
the cost of money itself, i.e., the interest 
rates,” Marshall observes. “Supply-siders 
can’t accept that; they argue that the in- 
crease in the money supply is the only 
way to cause inflation.” 

All the economic solutions being tried 
in the UK and suggested in the United 
States have one common characteristic, 
and that is that ultimately they will use 
unemployment to check inflation, Marshall 
points out. The opposite approach should 
be used, he says. 

“Dealing with unemployment is the 
most important problem because unem- 
ployment is inflationary,” he stresses. 
“America needs a policy to continue to 
reduce unemployment by a combination 
of aggregates, monetary-fiscal policies, and 
selective programs.” 


Pilots Accept Panel’s Verdict 
On Cockpit Crew Complement 


The Air Line Pilots have agreed to 
abide by the findings of a special presi- 
dential task force that there is no need for 
a third cockpit crew member on several 
new types of passenger jet aircraft. 

A second AFL-CIO affiliate, the Flight 
Engineers, registered strong displeasure, 
however, saying it remains convinced that 
“maximum safety for future airline pas- 
sengers has been compromised” by the 
decision. 

The panel’s recommendations were is- 
sued earlier this month after a three- 
month study. The crew size controversy 
was one of several issues that prompted 
ALPA last March to threaten a one-to- 
three-day industry-wide strike. 


“We obviously were disappointed 
when the President’s Task Force on Crew 
Complement did not support our conten- 
tion that the three-man crew should re- 
main the industry standard for cockpit 
manning,” ALPA President John J. 
O’Donnell said in a statement after the 
union’s executive board voted to accept 
the panel’s recommendation. 

“However, when we requested the for- 
mation of the Task Force from the Rea- 
gan Administration, we pledged to accept 
the findings of a fair and impartial investi- 
gation of the issue. This action fulfills our 
part of the pledge.” The Flight Engineers 
said that no member of the union would 
lose a job because of the decision. 


Page Seven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 


Reagan Slashes Assailed 

1 Of 000 Seniors Rally 
To "^Save Our Security^ 



SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM’S ills can be cured by interfund borrowing, 
funds from general revenues and income tax credits, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland tells delegates to the National Council of Senior Citizens legislative 
conference in Washington. Kirkland called the Reagan Administration’s plans 
to cut benefits “stealing from social security to balance the federal budget.” 
Seated are NCSC President Jacob dayman, left, and Executive Director Wil- 
liam Hutton. 

Union Stresses Urgent Need 
For Chemical Labeling Rules 


(Continued from Page 1) 

the Administration as part of its planned 
$40 billion cuts in domestic spending. 

IN A KEYNOTE address to the con- 
ference’s general session, Kirkland urged 
the delegates to lobby to save social pro- 
grams now and to look ahead to the 1982 
elections. 

“It is not too early,” he said, “to begin 
working to guarantee that our friends in 
Congress are not overwhelmed by a vi- 
cious right-wing assault.” 

“Our opponents should be forced to run 
on their records,” Kirkland declared, with- 
out concealing the fact “that they voted to 
destroy programs that have helped im- 
prove the lives of every American citizen.” 

He pointed out that members of Con- 
gress did not get elected by campaigning 
for cuts in social security, yet many are 
now supporting the Administration’s posi- 
tion that the system can only be saved by 
slashing benefits. 

The system’s problems, he told the dele- 
gates, can be solved without cutting bene- 
fits and without backward steps. 

THE HEART OF the Administration’s 
plan, Kirkland said, would cut early re- 
tirement and disability provisions, ignoring 
the fact “that fully two-thirds of all people 
who retire before 65 do so, not because 
they are malingerers, but because they are 
sick, their jobs have been destroyed, or 
they are subject to some form of compul- 
sory retirement plan. The 80 percent of 
full benefits paid to these workers is based, 
not on overweaning generosity, but on the 
cool calculations of actuarial tables and 
insurance principles.” 

Kirkland stressed, too, that the Admin- 
istration should not be allowed “to drive 
a wedge between active workers and those 
who are receiving benefits.” He pointed 
out that younger workers are willing to 
pay the costs of social security because 
they understand that cutting back the sys- 
tem will not only mean lower benefits for 
themselves in the future, but also a greater 
immediate burden in paying through other 
sources for programs to aid the elderly. 

He pointed out that the problems facing 
the social security system can be realisti- 
cally met through interfund borrowing, 
partial financing from general revenues 
and income tax credits. 

Kirkland called on the delegates to 
rally citizens in their home congressional 
districts to pressure legislators to support 
such measures. 

Workshop sessions at the conference 
focused on specific dangers to older Amer- 

Federal Grants 
Urged to Improve 
Language Skills 

Legislation that would use federal grants 
to encourage the teaching of foreign lan- 
guages was endorsed by the AFL-CIO at 
House hearings. 

The legislation is based on recommenda- 
tions of a presidential commission ap- 
pointed during the Carter Administration 
and would provide grants to improve 
foreign language programs in elementary 
and secondary schools and as incentives 
for colleges to expand foreign language 
class enrollments. 

AFL-CIO Education Director Dorothy 
Shields told a House Education & Labor 
subcommittee that language skills in the 
United States lag far behind the rapid 
advancements in the means of communi- 
cation and in the need to communicate. 

“The concept of a global village has 
become reality,” she said. But few Ameri- 
cans can effectively speak a second lan- 
guage, and “language training in the public 
school system of our country lags far be- 
hind that of all the other industrialized 
market economies of our world.” 


icans posed by the Administration’s bud- 
get cutbacks. The topics included threats 
to income protection, health care and 
Medicare, housing and high energy costs, 
reductions in food stamps and social ser- 
vices, and programs to create jobs for 
older workers and combat discrimination. 

AFL-CIO COPE Director A1 Barkan 
urged the delegates “to declare the 1982 
election campaign open now.” The alli- 
ance between labor and senior citizens is 
strong enough to work “all out for a veto 
proof” Congress that will stop the Admin- 
istration’s drive to reverse 50 years of 
social progress, Barkan declared. 

OTHER LABOR speakers at the con- 
ference included Operating Engineers 
President J. C. Turner and Machinists 
President William W. Winpisinger. 

The 3,000 delegates approved a resolu- 
tion pledging to fight “attempts to reduce 
the federal government’s continuing obliga- 
tion to work for social justice in America” 
and specifically condemned attempts to 
balance the federal budget by cutting back 
social security benefits and eligibility. 

THE DELEGATES devoted the time 
before and after the social security rally 
to personal visits to representatives on 
Capitol Hlil. The meeting also included a 
ceremony dedicating the NCSC’s new 
headquarters. Rep. Claude Pepper (D- 
Fla.), chairman of the House Select Com- 
mittee on Aging, was a guest of honor at 
the event. 

Other speakers included Sen. Howard 
M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio): Sen. John 
Heinz (R-Pa.); Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D- 
Md.); Rep. Lindy Boggs <D-La.); Rep. 
Toby Moffett (D-Conn.); Coretta Scott 
King, president of the Martin Luther King 
Foundation; Clarence M. Mitchell, presi- 
dent of the National Black Caucus of 
State Legislators; Carol Greenwald, presi- 
dent of the National Consumer Coopera- 
tive Bank; and Eleanor Smeal, president 
of the National Organization for Women. 


The American Federation of Govern- 
ment Employees has sharply rapped the 
Reagan Administration for its inaction on 
national immigration policy and its budget 
cut recommendations for the Immigration 
and Naturalization Service. 

Mike Harpold, president of AFGE’s 
National Immigration & Naturalization 
Service Council, announced at a Washing- 
ton press conference that the union has 
scheduled a day of protest Aug. 21 to 
draw public attention to the country’s 
“serious immigration problems.” 

AFGE PRESIDENT Kenneth T. Blay- 
lock, who also spoke at the press confer- 
ence, said the informational pickets, air- 
port handbilling and other activities plan- 
ned for the protest day are part of an over- 
all effort by the AFGE to counter wide- 
spread anti-government worker attitudes. 

“We are going to take the real story of 
what is happening to the American peo- 
ple,” Blaylock declared. 

What is happening at INS, Harpold 
pointed out, is an Administration recom- 
mendation to cut 1,335 positions at the 
INS, which is an agency of the Justice 
Dept. 

THESE CUTS would mean a 38 per- 
cent reduction in the number of investiga- 
tors and a 12 percent reduction in inspec- 
tors, according to the union’s estimates. 

Harpold reported that inspectors, as 
well as other INS employees, now often 
work a mandatory 160 hours per two-week 
pay period — double the normal 40-hour 
workweek. 

Moreover, the Administration has pro- 
posed the cuts at a time when the num- 
bers of immigration applications, foreign 
tourists, and illegal aliens are increasing 
at record rates, Harpold said. 


America’s workers have a right to know 
about the health risks they encounter on 
the job, and an effective labeling require- 
ment is “desperately needed,” the Chemi- 
cal Workers testified at House hearings. 

Richard Lewis, an occupational health 
specialist with the ICWU, said the union’s 
files are bulging with requests from locals 
for help in identifying chemicals carrying 
only trade names and sometimes identified 
only by manufacturer code numbers. 

WORKERS WANT to know: “What is 
it?” and “what will it do to me?” he 
testified. 

Lewis quoted from a typical letter sent 
to the ICWU health and safety staff: 

“Four members have been complaining 


IN A JULY 2 letter to President Rea- 
gan, Blaylock said the absence of an INS 
commissioner since 1979, proposed man- 
power reductions and the lack of a clear 
immigration policy conflict with Reagan’s 
stated goals of “improving the economy, 
reducing unemployment and eliminating 
waste and inefficiency in the government.” 

He cited a recent Government Account- 
ing Office estimate that at least 5 million 
illegal and legal aliens who are working 
illegally in the nation “cheat” the govern- 
ment and economy out of some $1 1 billion. 

The economy would be improved, gov- 
ernment costs could be met, and unem- 
ployment, which stood at 7.8 million in 
June, could be reduced “if we could re- 
capture just 50 percent of the 5 million 
jobs,” Blaylock told the President. Reagan 
has not responded to Blaylock’s letter. 

HARPOLD SAID these factors are con- 
tributing to serious morale problems in the 
agency. So far, INS personnel have car- 
ried out their duties “effectively and 
humanely,” he said, but, without clear di- 
rection and relief from overtime duties, 
they may not be able to maintain their cur- 
rent level of performance. 

He said the AFGE council wants to 
see the Administration put most of the 
March 1981 recommendations of the 
Select Commission on Immigration Refu- 
gee Policy into legislative proposals. The 
commission recommended strengthening 
ports-of-entry border enforcement efforts, 
increased Border Patrol operations, full 
funding and staffing for interior immigra- 
tion enforcement, sanctions against em- 
ployers who knowingly employ illegal 
aliens, and the granting of preference 
classifications for the immediate families 
of legal aliens. (PAI) 


of a rash on their arms and bodies. One 
member has been getting sick while in 
contact with this dust.” 

Yet the only information about the sus- 
pect substance, he testified, was a mean- 
ingless code number. 

THE HEARINGS being held by an 
Education & Labor subcommittee concern 
the Reagan Administration’s withdrawal of 
a hazard identification regulation that had 
been proposed last January. Labor Sec. 
Raymond J. Donovan withdrew the regu- 
latory proposal, terming it a “midnight 
regulation” of the outgoing Carter Admin- 
istration, and cancelled hearings at which 
interested parties were to have commented 
on the proposal. 

The AFL-CIO had charged that with- 
drawal of the regulations was a politically 
motivated response to pressure from the 
chemical industry. 

Earlier in the hearings, the Chemical 
Manufacturers Association had contended 
that industry labeling standards are ade- 
quate and that chemicals that could be 
hazardous under certain conditions need 
not carry a warning label if there is no 
danger when a product is used in the way 
it is intended. 

LEWIS TOLD the subcommittee that 
experience proves that accidents and mis- 
use of products occur. And in the absence 
of clear warning of hazards, “some work- 
ers tend not to push for ventilation or 
equipment repair or even report malfunc- 
tioning equipment because of job produc- 
tion pressures.” 

The day-to-day health hazards that 
workers encounter shouldn’t be obscured 
by “impersonal” statistics, Lewis said. 

He told the subcommittee of an episode 
last summer at a Conoco plant in Balti- 
more. 

AN ICWU MEMBER refused an order 
to clean a chemical tank that contained 
benzene residue because he considered the 
job too dangerous. 

The company subsequently hired four 
temporary day laborers with no experi- 
ence in dealing with toxic chemicals. As 
the men were leaving the tank to take a 
break from the harsh fumes, Lewis re- 
counted, one of them fell unconscious and 
could not be revived. An autopsy con- 
firmed that he had died of acute benzene 
poisoning. 

Britain’s Jobless Rate 
Oimbs to 11.8 Percent 

Britain’s unemployment rate climbed 
from 11.1 percent to 11.8 percent in July, 
spurred by an influx of young workers 
unable to find their first jobs. 

Unemployment has more than doubled 
in the two years since Prime Minister Mar- 
garet Thatcher and her Conservative Party 
government took office. 


AFGE Protest to Spotlight 
Immigration Service Cutback 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 25, 1981 


Real Earnings 
Continue Skid 
For 7 th Month 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

By contrast, food and beverage costs 
rose only three-tenths of 1 percent, after 
declining the previous month and showing 
no change in April. But they nevertheless 
were 8.4 percent higher than a year ago. 

THE RISE in interest rates also was 
reflected in higher automobile finance 
charges that, along with higher auto prices, 
offset a 1.5 percent drop in gasoline costs. 

Average weekly earnings of workers in 
private sector, non-farm jobs were $254.88 
in June, up $2.50 from the previous month 
and $21.55 more than a year ago. 

But after taxes and the impact of infla- 
tion, a married workers with three depen- 
dents who earned the average had “real” 
spendable earnings in terms of the 1977 
value of the dollar of $147.21, a drop of 
8 cents from the previous month but $3.02 
a week less than a year ago. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has 
switched its index of “constant dollar” 
earnings to a 1977 base from the previous 
1967 base. All other government indexes 
using a base year earlier than 1976 are 
being gradually shifted to a base of 1977= 
100. The CPI will change over next Janu- 
ary. 

THE LAST previous CPI revision was 
in January 1971, when the current 1967 
base was substituted for the former 1957- 
59 base period. 

Before adjustment for taxes and infla- 
tion, average hourly earnings in June were 
seven-tenths of 1 percent higher than the 
previous month. But this was partly offset 
by a drop of three-tenths of 1 percent in 
average hours worked. Despite the dip for 
the month, hours worked in June averaged 
three-tenths of 1 percent over a year ago. 



DOUBLE THREAT is posed by federal and local budget The cuts could endanger public workers’ jobs and public 
cuts, Government Employees President Kenneth T. Blaylock, service, Blaylock said. The march, organized by AFGE Dis- 
left, tells 1,000 demonstrators in a march organized in trict 14 is part of the union’s strategy to build up to AFL- 
Washington to protest slashes in the U.S. and D.C. budgets. CIO Solidarity Day, set for Sept. 19 in the nation’s capital. 

Senate Rejects Minimum Pension 


The White House kept Senate Republi- 
cans in line and thwarted a Democratic 
move to prevent a reduction in social se- 
curity payments to most of the 3 million 
elderly persons now receiving the mini- 
mum benefit of $122 a month. 

BUT HOUSE Republicans, all of whom 
must face the voters in the next election, 
ran for political cover. They joined in pass- 
ing by a near-unanimous vote a non-bind- 
ing resolution urging “that necessary steps 
be taken to insure that social security bene- 
fits are not reduced for those currently re- 
ceiving them.” 


GOP, Democratic Tax Plans 
Compete for Business Favor 


The Republican Senate and the Demo- 
cratic-controlled House Ways & Means 
Committee continued an economically^ 
risky competition to come up with the 
most lavish tax cuts for corporations and 
the most politically saleable package of 
individual income tax reductions. 

As the AFL-CIO News went to press, 
the Senate was continuing to add to the 
Administration’s tax bill, which the AFL- 
CIO protested would force America’s 
workers to carry a larger share of the 
total tax burden and at the same time 
leave essential programs underfunded. 

AMONG THE “Christmas tree” amend- 
ments added by the Senate are reductions 
in the windfall oil profits tax and interest 
exemptions that would be most profitable 
to taxpayers with big bank accounts. 

The Senate also adopted other tax 
changes that, when added to other provi- 
sions of the bill, would starve the federal 
government of revenue and compel future 
budget cuts even deeper than the Reagan 
Administration has sought. 

One amendment, which the AFL-CIO 
vainly urged the Senate to reject, would 


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index the various tax brackets for the 
effect of inflation so as to bring about 
multi-billion-dollar annual reductions in 
tax revenue each year after the three-stage 
tax cut in the Administration bill. 

THE INDEXING amendment was 
adopted by a 57-40 vote. (Rollcall, Page 
7.) 

In a letter to senators, AFL-CIO Leg- 
islative Director Ray Denison protested 
that its enactment would perpetuate in- 
equities already in the bill, and “severely 
limit the federal government’s powers to 
use fiscal measures as a means to stabilize 
the economy, promote balanced growth 
and reverse the unemployment spiral.” 

Denison said that while indexing would 
be of some help to low-income and middle- 
income taxpayers, benefits “would be far 
overshadowed by the absolute and relative 
reductions in the taxes owed by higher- 
income individuals and the huge and con- 
tinuing losses to the Treasury.” 

Meanwhile, the House Ways & Means 
Committee continued to shape a bill that 
would be even more generous to oil pro- 
ducers and royalty holders than the Ad- 
ministration measure — ^with the goal of 
weaning away conservative oil state 
Democrats who have been part of the 
conservative coalition supporting the Rea- 
gan program. 

THE COMMITTEE’S problem was that 
the Senate bill, with the Administration’s 
concurrence, was being made so generous 
for oil interests that it was hard for the 
House Democrats to keep ahead. 

A more direct conflict is in the indi- 
vidual tax cut portion of the bill, where 
Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dan 
Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) has been trying to 
come up with a two-year formula tilted 
more to the middle-income taxpayer than 
the Administration bill. His most recent 
proposal called for a third year of tax 
cuts — as the Administration has proposed 
— provided the economy has improved to 
the extent predicted by the White House. 


Just three weeks earlier. House Repub- 
licans aided by a bloc of conservative 
Democrats had pushed through a budget 
reconciliation bill that included the bene- 
fit cuts the resolution was protesting. 

The Senate battle was more meaningful, 
since it came on an amendment proposed 
by Sen. Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-Mich.) 
to the Administration’s tax bill, and there- 
fore would have had the force of law. 

If adopted and subsequently approved 
by the House, the amendment would have 
nullified the cutback in social security 
benefits called for in both the House and 
Senate versions of the budget reconcilia- 
tion bill that is now in conference. 

THE REAGAN White House went 
all out to beat the Riegle amendment. 
Aware of the political heat Republicans 
were taking from the Administration’s so- 
cial security proposals, Reagan promised 
th^t before Congress returns from its Au- 
gust recess, he will make a televised ad- 
dress to the nation in which he would “call 
on the Congress to lay aside partisan poli- 
tics and join me in a constructive effort to 
put social security on a permanently sound 
financial basis.” 

THE WHITE HOUSE even had an ex- 
planation for the apparent breaking of 
Reagan’s campaign pledge not to reduce 
social security benefits for anyone now 
receiving them. 

What the President had in mind, the 
White House explained, was “earned” so- 
cial security benefits. The $122-a-month 
minimum benefit couldn’t be considered 
“earned” because it was more than re- 
cipients would otherwise get on the basis 
of their pre-retirement earnings in jobs 
covered by social security. 

On the Senate showdown, three Repub- 
licans crossed to vote with the Democrats 


and four Democrats went the other way. 

THE SENATE had originally voted to 
wipe out the minimum benefit by an al- 
most identical 53-45 margin on June 23. 

In the House, Republicans got the green 
light from their leadership to get off the 
hook and avoid a “wrong” social security 
vote. 

The result was that House Republican 
Leader Robert H. Michel (111.) made a 
speech arguing that ending the minimum 
benefit would not hurt those who are 
really needy since there are other welfare 
programs that can take up the slack. But 
then he said Republicans would vote for 
the Democratic resolution to demonstrate 
“that you’re going to have to get up a lot 
earlier in the morning to make us your 
political pawns.” 

ELIMINATION of the minimum bene- 
fit for those now receiving it was included 
in the Republican version of the budget re- 
conciliation bill, which was written largely 
in the White House. It was adopted by the 
House, with the help of some conservative 
Democratic votes, as a substitute for a 
budget bill that would have ended the 
minimum benefit for those qualifying in 
the future — but retained it for those al- 
ready receiving it. 

Before adopting the Republican sub- 
stitute, the conservative coalition had 
blocked a Democratic attempt to force 
separate votes on social security and other 
controversial ingredients of the Republi- 
can bill. 

Despite the Republican maneuver. 
House Democratic Leader Jim Wright 
(D-Tex.) said he didn’t see how the House 
conferees on the budget bill can agree to 
a final version including the social security 
cuts in view of the overwhelming House 
vote. 


Interest Rates Drag Down 
Nation’s Economic Growth 


The nation’s economic growth declined 
in the April-through-June quarter, re- 
versing the sharp surge of the previous 
three months. 

In large part due to high interest rates, 
“real” gross national product — the value 
of the nation’s total output of goods and 
services adjusted for inflation — fell 1 .9 per- 
cent on an annual basis during the second 
quarter, the Commerce Dept, reported. 
The drop was the first since last year’s 
recession, and followed an 8.6-percent rise 
in the previous quarter. 

THE GOVERNMENT also reported 
that inflation, as measured by a broad- 
guaged index within the gross national 
product, posted an annual rate of only 6 
percent during the April-June quarter, the 


smallest rise in three years. In the seconc 
quarter of 1978, prices went up 5.8 per 
cent. 

The April-June GNP, after adjustmen 
for seasonal fluctuation in prices, wai 
$2.88 trillion, the first decline since las 
year’s recession-struck second quarter 
when the GNP plummeted 9.9 percent 
Fewer auto sales contributed most to las 
quarter’s decline, with the value of can 
sold dropping by $10.5 billion. 

The GNP decline was widespreac 
through the economy, led by an $18.5 
billion drop in final sales and a badl] 
slumping housing industry. Fixed invest 
ment showed a 9.7-percent plunge, com 
puted on an annual basis, and residentia 
housing investment, measured alone, fel 
by 20.6 percent. 




Tax Cuts, Budget Package Shift 
Economic Burdens to Workers 



CONGRATULATIONS ARE exchanged in Columbus, Ohio, as delegates of the 
Aluminum Workers and Brick & Clay Workers approved merger of the two 
unions to form the Aluminum, Brick & Clay Workers (ABC). From left, are 
Aluminum Workers Sec.-Treas. H. Max Webster and President L. A. Holley, 
Brick & Clay Workers President Roy L. Brown and Sec.-Treas. Roy Lukens, and 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. 


Aluminum, Brick & Clay 
Workers Okay Merger 


Columbus, Ohio — A new 50,000-mem- 
ber union was formed here as convention 
delegates of the Aluminum Workers and 
the Brick & Clay Workers unanimously 
approved a merger agreement. 

The merger, effective Sept. 1, will unite 
some 35,000 members of the Aluminum 
Workers and 15,000 members of the Brick 
& Clay Workers. The emerging organiza- 
tion will be known as the Aluminum, 
Brick & Clay Workers International Un- 
ion, (ABQ. 


ers and six from the Brick & Clay Workers 
— to serve on the ABC’s executive board. 

With the exception of Holley, all of the 
union’s top officers will face re-election at 
the ABC’s convention in 1983. 

In an address to the delegates, AFL-CIO 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue com- 
mended the leadership of the two unions 
for the lengthy and successful effort to 
bring about the merger. 

Through launching the ABC, he 
stressed, “you have created a new vehicle 


Congress Tilts Program 
To Benefit Business, Rich 

By David L. Perlman 

Congress began packing for a month-long summer vacation after passing tax 
cuts heavily tilted to the most profitable corporations and the wealthiest individuals. 

The last item on its agenda was final action orf $35 billion in budget cuts, 


including reductions in unemployment 
stamps and school lunches. 

Tax Cuts 

America’s workers will shoulder a 
bigger share of the nation’s tax burden 
under the nearly identical Republican- 
drafted bills passed by the House and 
Senate. 

Almost every loophole business has 
used to lower its tax payments will be 
enlarged. The oil industry especially will 
benefit, getting to keep a bigger share of 
windfall profits from decontrol. And indi- 
vidual tax cuts in the twin bills reflect 
what AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
termed “naked favoritism toward the 
rich.” 

IN THE SPOTLIGHTED political bat- 
tle in the House, President Reagan again 
demonstrated his ability to break the 
Democratic majority. This time, a record 
high of 48 Democrats bolted to give the 
Administration a 238-195 victory over the 
“Democratic alternative.” 

It wasn’t much of a choice, as the trade 
union movement saw it. The AFL-CIO 
had called for rejection of both versions 
as almost equally destructive in terms of 
the nation’s needs and tax equity. 

A THIRD VERSION, which the AFL- 
CIO backed as “far more equitable,” was 
beaten on a 288-144 vote. It was sponsored 
by Democrats Morris K. Udall (Ariz.), 
David R. Obey (Wis.) and Henry S. Reuss 
(Wis.), but opposed by the party’s leader- 
ship. 

Its defeat left only the bill shaped by 
the Democratic majority of the Ways & 
Means Committee and the Republican sub- 
stitute bill before the House. 


insurance, social security benefits, food 

Budget 

The budget reconciliation bill put to- 
gether by a House-Senate conference com- 
mittee destroys or weakens many of the 
programs the trade union movement has 
supported over the years. 

The damage, however, wasn’t done by 
the conferees. In some cases, they sal- 
vaged programs marked by the Reagan 
Administration for elimination. 

EARLIER, Congress had rubber- 
stamped the Administration’s budget tar- 
gets and swallowed the White House strat- 
egy of using the budget process to accom- 
plish a large part of the Administration 
program, including substantive changes in 
laws. And just last month, a conservative 
coalition in the House adopted almost 
sight unseen a Republican budget recon- 
ciliation bill cluttered with scores of last- 
minute changes made to win over conser- 
vative Democratic votes. 

All that was left to the conference — 
actually a series of some 58 mini-confer- 
ences dealing with various subject areas — 
was to resolve the differences between the 
Republican bill passed by the Senate and 
the Republican bill passed by the House. 

The conference decisions hadn’t all 
been assembled when the AFL-CIO News 
went to press. But in some of the areas 
of special interest to labor, this is what 
the $35 billion in budget cutbacks would 
do: 

SOCIAL SECURITY— After next Feb- 
ruary, persons receiving the minimum so- 
cial security benefit of $122 a month will 
have their payments reduced — unless Con- 


AFTER CONVENING separately at 
different sites, delegations from both un- 
ions met at a downtown square and 
marched to the merger convention hall to 
voice their final approval of the agree- 
ment. 


(Continued on Page 8) 


(Continued on Page 2) 


(Continued on Page 2) 


Union Contracts Boost Wages 11,3% 


The combined delegation elected Alumi- 
num Workers President L. A. Holley to 
a four-year term as president of the ABC 
by about a 3-to-2 margin over Allan 
Sutherland, research and education direc- 
tor of the Aluminum Workers. 

H. Max Webster, incumbent secretary- 
treasurer of the Aluminum Workers, will 
hold the same post with the ABC for the 
next two years. < 

President Roy L. Brown of the Brick & 
Clay Workers was elected assistant to the 
president and organizing director. 

SEC.-TREAS. Roy Lukens of the Brick 
& Clay Workers was elected assistant to 
the secretary-treasurer of the ABC. The 
merger convention also elected 19 vice 
presidents — 13 from the Aluminum Work- 


Major collective bargaining agreements 
reached in private industry during the first 
six months of 1981 will give union mem- 
bers an average 11.3 percent wage in- 
crease during the first year of the contracts 
and an average annual boost of 9.2 per- 
cent measured over the life of the pacts, 
the Bureau of Labor statistics reported. 

The settlement data for the first half of 
the year compare with first-year increases 
averaging 9.5 percent and annual raises 
of 8 percent averaged over the full term 
under contracts previously bargained by 
the same parties. 

The data exclude any changes due to 
cost-of-living adjustment clauses and are 
derived from contracts covering 1,000 or 
more persons each. 

The settlements covered a total of 927,- 


000 workers in 233 bargaining units. 

The higher contract yields resulted 
largely from higher settlements in the 
construction industry. The average first- 
year wage boost of 13 percent in that sec- 
tor compared to 10.1 percent in other 
industries. Settlements in construction cov- 
ered 42 percent of all workers under agree- 
ments reached during the first half of 
1981. The coal settlement covered 17 
percent. 

In key contracts covering 5,000 work- 
ers or more, wage and fringe benefit in- 
creases together averaged 11.4 percent for 
the first year and 10 percent annually over 
the life of the agreements, BLS reported. 

CONTRACTS negotiated during the 
first six months of the year had an average 
duration of 31.2 months, the same as the 


expired contracts bargained previously by 
the parties. 

Other highlights of the report: 

• Settlements in manufacturing indus- 
tries averaged 8.1 percent for the first year 
and 6.4 percent annually over the full 
term. 

• Non-manufacturing settlements pro- 
vided an average first-year increase of 12 
percent and annual increases averaging 
9.8 percent over the life of the agreements. 

• Construction pacts averaged 13 per- 
cent in the first year and 10.9 percent a 
year over the life of the contracts. 

• Cost-of-living clauses covered 195,000 
workers, or 21 percent, of those under 
settlements reached during the first six 
months of 1981. Clauses were introduced 

(Continued on Page 8) 



Pape Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1, 1981 


Budget Ax Cuts Key Social Programs 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

gress reverses course. A Democratic-led 
effort was being made in the House to 
delete that provision from the final version 
of the reconciliation bill. 

Social security benefits for surviving 
children over 18 attending college will be 
phased out. A parent caring for a child 
will receive benefits only until the child 
is 16, although the child’s benefits will 
continue to be paid until 18. On the plus 
side, the conferees rejected a Senate pro- 
vision that would have further restricted 
eligibility for disability insurance benefits. 

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE— 

As of Oct. 1, 1981, there will no longer 
be a national trigger based on the insured 
unemployment rate that will allow an 
additional 13 weeks of extending bene- 
fits to be paid, on top of the normal 26- 
week maximum of state programs. Fur- 
ther, state extended benefit programs will 
“trigger-off” sooner than otherwise be- 
cause of a change in the calculation of the 
unemployment trigger. 

A year later, new restrictions on eligi- 
bility for extended benefits will be im- 
posed, including a requirement of 20 
weeks of employment during the “base 
period” on which entitlement is based. 
And an insured unemployment rate of 6 
percent will be required to trigger extended 
benefits in a state, up from 5 percent under 
present law. 

Economic Index 
Declines 1.3% as 
Housing Slumps 

The slump in housing starts pulled 
down the government’s index of leading 
economic indicators for the second month 
in a row. Commerce Dept, figures show 
the composite index down 1.3 percent in 
June on the heels of a 1.5 percent drop 
in May. 

The index, used to predict the direction 
the economy is headed, had inched up in 
March and April after dropping in the 
previous three months. 

MORE THAN half the June slide was 
attributed to the sharp drop in the number 
of building permits issued, one of the 10 
measures on the index. Lowered prices 
for raw materials accounted for another 
third of the decline. 

Also down were the average work 
week, vendors’ delivery performance and 
the nation’s money supply. The only in- 
dicator unchanged was the layoff rate. 

Indicators showing improvement were 
new orders for manufactured consumer 
goods, new plant and equipment orders 
and contracts, stock prices, and total liquid 
assets held by U.S. business. 

THE JUNE decline in the composite 
index drops is to 133.8 compared with a 
1967 base of 100 and mirrors the slump 
of 1.9 percent in an annual rate of the 
gross national product in the April-June 
quarter. The GNP had shown an 8.6 per- 
cent increase in the previous three months. 

In another economic development, the 
U.S. merchandise trade deficit narrowed 
in June to a seasonally adjusted $3.12 bil- 
lion compared to deficits of $3.44 billion 
in May and $3.46 billion in April. 

The Commerce Dept, report on the 
measure of how much the nation sells 
abroad versus how much it imports said 
that the slimmer deficit was due to “strong 
growth” in exports which managed to off- 
set an increase in oil imports. 

THE TOTAL VALUE of June exports 
was set at $19.9 billion, up 5.3 percent, 
and the value of imports was $22.9 bil- 
lion, up three percent. 

The rise in oil imports was due to fed- 
eral government purchases to add to the 
nation’s strategic oil reserve, the Com- 
merce Dept. said. 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued 
weekly except for the last week of the year at 
815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. 
$2 a year. Second class postage paid at Wash- 
ington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid 
advertising in any of its official publications. No 
one is authorized, to solicit advertising for any 
publications in the name of the AFL-CIO. 


FOOD PROGRAMS— Eligibility for 
food stamps was limited to households 
with gross monthly incomes not more 
than 130 percent of the poverty level, 
except for the elderly or disabled. Overall 
funding was cut $1.66 billion for fiscal 
1982, nearly $200 million more than the 
Administration had sought. 

The unrelated child nutrition program, 
primarily school lunches, will be cut by 
$1.5 billion. The budget “savings” will 
come from making fewer children from 
low-income households eligible for free 
lunches and raising the price of school 
lunches for the 16 million children who 
pay for their meals. 

EDUCATION — A number of school 
programs were consolidated into block 
grants instead of being earmarked for 
specific purposes, with total funding cut. 
But the conversion was less than the Ad- 
ministration had sought. The basic pro- 
gram of aid to disadvantaged children 
will continue, although with $500 million 
less in funding than the projected need. 
Impact aid to school districts with federal 
installations was reduced but not elimi- 
nated. 

Eligibility for college student loans was 
tightened, with only households with in- 
comes under $30,000 a year exempt from 
a means test. The interest rate, now 9 
percent, will rise to a 12 to 14 percent 
range. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The distribution of the individual in- 
come tax cut in the Democratic version 
was “marginally less inequitable toward 
America’s workers” than the Reagan bill, 
Kirkland said. “But the differences between 
the two bills are overwhelmed by the simi- 
larities,” he stressed. 

Both versions, Kirkland said, “widen 
the gap between the haves and the have- 
nots in our society. . . . They single out 
oil companies and those who collect oil 
royalties for special tax cuts that will cost 
the Treasury many billions of dollars.” 

The Senate completed action on its bill 

AFL-CIO Vice 


Philadelphia — AFL-CIO Vice President 
Fred J. Kroll, president of the Railway & 
Airline Clerks, died July 30 at a Phila- 
delphia hospital after a five-year battle 
with leukemia. He was 45. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in a 
statement described Kroll as a “forceful 
and successful leader of railroad and air- 
line workers and a recognized spokesman 
for a new generation of trade unionists.” 

HIS VOICE, Kirkland said, “will be 
missed in the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil and in the leadership of the railroad 
unions.” 



FRED J. KROLL 


FEDERAL PAY — ^The budget cap 
would limit federal employees to a 4.8 
percent pay raise next October, instead of 
the 13 percent they could get under the 
current comparability formula. But the 
conference scrapped a House-passed pro- 
vision that would have substantially in- 
creased the cost to employees of health 
insurance coverage by requiring their 
health plan to pick up costs for retirees 
that are now paid through Medicare. 

JOBS — The $5.7 billion “savings” in 
the Comprehensive Employment & Train- 
ing Act includes wiping out the public 
service jobs program. 

RAILROADS — Both Conrail and the 
passenger train network, Amtrak, are 
given a better chance for survival than 
under the Administration’s proposals. The 
actions make it more likely that Conrail 
can be sold to private operators intact, 
rather than through a piecemeal process 
that would result in abandonment of 
freight service. 

COMMUNICATIONS— With only a 
thin link to the budget, the Senate sought 
to use the reconciliation bill to achieve a 
union-opposed deregulation of radio and 
television broadcasting. Some of the worst 
features were modified by the conference. 
But radio station licenses are extended 
from three years to seven years, television 
stations from three to five years, and selec- 
tion of new TV stations will be made 


the same day, and a House-Senate confer- 
ence will work out the differences. 

In terms of individual tax cuts, both 
measures provide a 5 percent cut effective 
Oct 1, 1981, a 10 percent reduction on 
July 1, 1982, and another 10 percent on 
July 1, 1983. There would be a modest, 
two-step lowering of the “marriage penal- 
ty” for households with two earners. 

Beyond that, the House and Senate bills 
would establish a bracket-indexing system 
that would reduce federal revenues each 
year with the biggest cuts coming during 
periods of high inflation. In terms of the 
nation’s future needs and basic economic 

President 


Born in Philadelphia on Oct. 29, 1935, 
Kroll was a second-generation trade union- 
ist whose father and mother both were 
members of the Electrical, Radio & Ma- 
chine Workers. 

He joined the Railway & Airline Clerks 
in 1953 when he went to work for the 
. Pennsylvania Railroad as an IBM machine 
operator. Eight years later, he was elected 
chairman of BRAC Local 587 in Phila- 
delphia, marking the start of a lifelong 
career with the union that led to the pres- 
idency of the international in 1976. H^ 
was re-elected by acclamation at BRAC’s 
1979 convention. 

Kroll was elected to the AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council as a federation vice pres- 
ident in February 1978 at age 42. He was 
at the time the youngest member ever to 
hold a council seat. He was a member of 
several Executive Council committees, and 
served as a trustee of both the Asian- 
American Free Labor Institute and the 
American Institute for Free Labor Devel- 
opment. 

He was elected chairman of the Rail- 
way Labor Executives’ Association in 
February 1980. 

SURVIVORS include his wife, Hilde- 
garde; three daughters, Karen, Anita, and 
Michelle; three brothers, and his parents. 
The family requests that in lieu of flowers 
contributions be made to the Herbert L. 
Orlowitz Institute for Cancer at Hahne- 
mann Hospital in Philadelphia. 

The funeral was scheduled to take place 
in Washington, Aug. 3. Arrangements 
were incomplete at the AFL-CIO News 
press time. 


under a complex lottery system rather 
than an assessment of community needs. 

HEALTH CARE — Medicare patients 
now must pay the first $228 of hospital 
costs. This will rise to $256 now and to 
$328 by 1984. The premium cost for the 
voluntary insurance for non-hospital medi- 
cal expenses will also go up more than it 
would otherwise. 

Medicaid spending ceilings will be re- 
duced, but not through the “cap” on 
federal payments to states sought by the 
Administration. Also rejected was an Ad- 
ministration provision to reduce the mini- 
mum federal payment from 50 percent to 
40 percent of state expenditures. 

HOUSING — Subsidized housing for 
low-income families was reduced even be- 
low the Reagan budget. The fiscal 1982 
ceiling would be 153,000 additional sub- 
sidized apartments, down from 210,000 
this year, 260,000 sought in the Carter 
Administration budget last January, and 
175,000 proposed by the Administration. 
Rents paid by tenants will rise in steps 
from 25 percent of income to 30 percent. 

TRADE ADJUSTMENT— This labor- 
supported program to assist workers whose 
jobs are wiped out by imports is virtually 
demolished. The budget “savings” is $1.3 
billion; the amount left is $317 million, 
largely for retraining-related costs. Regu- 
lar state unemployment insurance benefits 
will replace the more generous trade ad- 
justment formula. 


principles, that’s “the most dangerous fea- 
ture” of the tax bills, Kirkland said. 

THE BIGGEST tax breaks go to the 
most profitable corporations, wealthy in- 
vestors and especially oil producers and 
people with oil royalties and investments. 

Corporations get extra-fast depreciation 
writeoffs under a formula that gives big- 
ger savings to capital-intensive firms than 
to labor-intensive enterprises. The capital 
gains tax rate is cut, and the exemptions 
from estate and gift taxes would rise from 
a current level of $175,625 to $600,000, 
along with a sharp drop in the maximum 
tax rate. 

IRONICALLY, a bidding war launched 
by the Democrats for the votes of southern 
conservatives resulted in billions of dollars 
in additional tax benefits for oil producers 
and investors beyond what the Adminis- 
tration had initially sought. 

On two previous budget votes in the 
House, the Democratic majority had been 
broken when a bloc of southern conserva- 
tives bolted to vote with the Republicans. 

In an effort to avoid this, House Ways 
& Means Committee Chairman Dan Ros- 
tenkowski (D-Ill.) supported a string of 
new tax breaks for the already hugely 
profitable oil industry. And the Adminis- 
tration countered by adding other tax 
concessions to their bill, both the version 
before the Senate and the substitute bill 
they were preparing for the House floor. 

The Democrats on the Ways & Means 
Committee did, however, adopt a two- 
year income tax reduction that would give 
persons with incomes under $50,000 a 
year a larger share of the tax reduction 
than the Administration had proposed. 
And their bill would have made a third- 
year tax cut contingent on the improve- 
ments in the economy that the Adminis- 
tration has forecast. 

BUT PRESIDENT Reagan’s televised 
speech, coupled with a massively financed 
Republican advertising campaign, left the 
Democrats on the defensive, with a “me- 
too” position on taxes that generated little 
support either in business ranks or in the 
party’s traditional base. Forty-eight Dem- 
ocrats ended up voting for the Reagan bill. 
Only one Republican, James M. Jeffords 
(Vt.), broke with the Administration. 

Labor’s position, Kirkland said for the 
AFL-CIO, is that business tax cuts should 
be “targeted toward areas and industries 
that can make the most constructive use of 
them.” And individual tax cuts should be 
“distributed more fairly and with a little 
less naked favoritism toward the rich.” 


Reagan Tax Script Shifts Burden 


Fred J. Kroll Dies at 45 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1, 1981 


Page lliree 


With Screen Actors^ Musical Artists 

AFTRA Delegates Clear 
1st Step of Merger Plan 



IMAGES OF LABOR in art and film are featured in joint summer exhibitions 
at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The exhibition of 32 original works 
on labor themes by top American artists was commissioned as part of the “Bread 
and Roses” cultural project of the Retail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union’s 
District 1199. The series of 24 labor films, “The Union Makes Us Strong,” was 
compiled by the Service Employees. Viewing a bust of Samuel Gompers at the 
opening of the exhibitions are, from left, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Don- 
ahue, District 1199 Executive Sec. Moe Foner, SEIU Representative Lyn Gold- 
farb, Edith Mayo of the Smithsonian and SEIU President John J. Sweeney. 

Texas Unions Mounting Up 
For Solidarity Day Rally 


Cleveland — ^The 44th convention of the 
Television & Radio Artists gave the go- 
ahead to plans aimed at merger with two 
other entertainment unions, the Screen 
Actors Guild and the American Guild of 
Musical Artists. 

The 350 delegates representing AFTRA’s 
54,000 members voted approval of the 
first of three steps toward merger with 
SAG. Phase I of the proposal will pave the 
way for joint action by the unions in es- 
tablishing contract proposals, conducting 
negotiations and ratifying national con- 
tracts covering workers in commercials 
and “prime time” television programs. 

AFTRA’S NATIONAL board unani- 
mously authorized the opening of merger 
talks with the 5,000-member Musical Ar- 
tists which represents performers in opera 
and ballet. AFTRA, SAG and AGMA are 
all affiliates of the Actors & Artistes. 

Bill Hillman, president of AFTRA, told 
the delegates the merger talks with SAG 
remain “on target” and that Screen Actors 
representatives had participated in “useful, 
frank and civilized airing of all issues” with 
AFTRA’s merger coordinating committee 
which met prior to the convention. 

The union’s executive secretary, Sanford 
Wolff, told the delegates the proposed 
merger with AGMA “makes particular 
sense in terms of our mutual interests.” 
Many AGMA members also belong to 
AFTRA and vice versa, Wolff pointed out, 
adding that as broadcasts of opera and 
ballet have increased, AFTRA has worked 
closely with the Musical Artists on their 
broadcast agreements. 

WOLFF ALSO stressed that with gov- 
ernment and private support for the arts 
declining, “in the future the economic sal- 
vation of these art forms lies in the elec- 
tronic media.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
the delegates that other recent mergers 
among AFL-CIO unions have 'made the 
unified organizations “stronger than the 
sum of their separate parts. They have 
become more efficient, more effective, and 
better able to serve their members than 
either could do alone.” 

Working people “need all of the unity 
we can achieve at this time, Kirkland said, 


The AFL-CIO asked Congress to erect 
stronger safeguards against a proliferation 
of “adjustable rate” home mortgages that 
could lead to huge, unpredictable and un- 
affordable increases in home payments. 

Henry B. Schechter, director of the 
federation’s Office of Housing & Mone- 
tary Policy, expressed concern at increas- 
ingly permissive home loan regulations 
that have led to a shift from fixed rate, 
fixed payment mortgages toward various 
types of adjustable interest rate loans. 

Initially, he noted in testimony be- 

New Film Focuses 
On Solidarity Day 

A new 7-minufe film, “Born Out of 
Protest,” has been produced by the 
AFL-CIO to promote the Solidarity Day 
demonstration Sept 19. 

Unions and allied groups can obtain 
copies of the film from the AFL-CIO 
Solidarity Day office, 815 16th St, 
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006, tele- 
phone (202) 637-5380. Prints will also 
be available at AFL-CIO regional offices. 

The film features interviews with a 
steelworker, a building tradesman and a 
parent leaving a day care center, who 
tell why they will be in Washington 
Sept. 19. It also traces how American 
trade unionists were “bom to protest” 
and have marched, demonstrated and 
picketed for everything they’ve ever 
won, including the 8-hour day and 
women’s and civil rights. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinuiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


asserting that social and economic policies 
of the Reagan Administration are based 
on a philosophy of “subordinating the 
public interest to private profit.” 

KIRKLAND SCORED the Administra- 
tion for its cuts in budgets that fund public 
radio and television and its attempts to 
relax regulations that require broadcasters 
to present all sides of opinion on issues as 
well as provide public service air time. 

The same drive for budget cuts will 
hurt schools, the elderly, the disabled, the 
unemployed and the disadvantaged, he 
said, and the assaults on fair regulation 
are found elsewhere in the Administra- 
tion’s efforts to curb wage and hour and 
safety and health protections for workers. 

He told the delegates that the AFL- 
CIO’s Solidarity Day demonstration in 
Washington on Sept. 19 will give union 
members and their allies the opportunity 
“to show that there is a deep and abiding 
sense of solidarity among a huge cross- 
section of the American people where is- 
sues of social justice and fair play are 
concerned.” 

THE CONVENTION unanimously re- 
elected Hillman to his third one-year term. 
Jackson Beck of New York and Rubin 
Weiss of Detroit were unanimously re- 
elected as first 'and second vice presidents. 

Other vice presidents elected are Tom 
Pettit, Washington; Stan Farber, Los An- 
gles; Brad Phillips, New York; Mimi 
Honce, Atlanta; John Sandifer, Seattle; 
William Burkitt, Dallas; and Frank Max- 
well, Los Angeles. 

The delegates re-elected Elizabeth Mor- 
gan of New York and Peter Cleveland of 
San Francisco as treasurer and recording 
secretary. 

THE UNION’S highest award, the 
George Heller Memorial Gold Card, was 
presented to Rubin Weiss in recognition 
of contributions to AFTRA and its mem- 
bers. 

Other resolutions adopted by the dele- 
gates included a call for stepped-up en- 
forcement of contract anti-discrimination 
clauses, creation of a committee to study 
the needs of handicapped members, and 
the establishment of scholarship funds. 


fore a House Banking, Finance & Urban 
Affairs subcommittee, restrictions on varia- 
ble rate mortgages gave homebuyers a 
reasonable degree of protection against 
sharp increases in monthly payments. 

But “with each successive set of regula- 
tions, the disclosure requirements to pro- 
tect the borrower have been reduced,” he 
testified. “The potential for borrower op- 
tions as to standard versus adjustable rate 
mortgages has been significantly eroded, 
and the shift of interest rate changes from 
lender to borrower has become practically 
unlimited.” 

Schechter noted that a further easing of 
regulations regarding “balloon payment 
home loans,” which require periodic refi- 
nancing of mortgages, has been proposed 
by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board 
and would mark a reversion to conditions 
that existed in the 1920s. 

IF ONE OF the proposed regulatory 
changes had been in effect in December 
1977, a homebuyer with a $50,000 mort- 
gage would have seen his monthly mort- 
gage jump from $420 to $621 in just 
three and one-half years. 

He warned that allowing such rapid rises 
carries the potential for a wave of “de- 
faults, distress sales and foreclosures.” 

To protect home buyers and to counter- 
act economic instability, the AFL-CIO 
testimony proposed that all federally char- 
tered or federally insured lenders should 
be required to make at least half their 
mortgage loans or purchases fixed rate, 
fixed payment plans. 

Further, borrowers should be given 
detailed disclosure information that would 


Austin, Tex. — A record number of dele- 
gates to the Texas AFL-CIO Convention 
pledged strong support for the Solidarity 
Day protest in Washington Sept. 19 and 
state AFL-CIO President Harry Hubbard 
told a press conference that Texas would 
be well represented at the demonstration. 

Hubbard said, “We cannot let the Rea- 
gan Administration undo 50 years of social 
progress without a fight. We’ve been in 
the streets before on picket lines, in civil 
rights marches and in a demonstration of 
support for a minimum wage for farm 
workers. 

“WE’LL BE IN the streets in Washing- 
ton on Sept. 19 to let the President know 
that Americans of conscience still care 
about retired people’s social security, job 
development for youngsters from poor 
families, safety rules in workplace and 
educational opportunity for every child in 
the country.” 

Hubbard was re-elected to his fifth two- 
year term and Joe D. Gunn was re-elected 


enable them to make an informed choice 
as to the type of mortgage they wished. 

Schechter urged also that interest rate 
increases under adjustable mortgages 
should be limited to one-half percent a 
year and to a cumulative increase of 3 
percent over the life of the mortage. 

Experience in California, where varia- 
ble rate mortgages have been common, 
and in other countries indicates that higher 
mortgage costs do not result in more new 
housing being built, he testified. 

SCHECHTER stressed labor’s belief 
that credit controls offer the most effective 
solution through channeling available 
funds to loans that serve a desired national 
goal without pushing up interest rates. 

He said the AFL-CIO “applauds” a non- 
binding “sense of the Congress” resolution 
introduced in the House by Representa- 
tives Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.) and Fer- 
nand J. St Germain (D-R.I.) and by Dis- 
trict of Columbia Delegate Walter E. 
Fauntroy. It would call on the Administra- 
tion to implement a policy of encouraging 
banks to target available credit on uses 
that will contribute to increasing produc- 
tivity and lowering inflation. 

THE RESOLUTION should be strength- 
ened to prod the Administration to use 
the authority it has under the Credit 'Con- 
trol Act of 1969, Schechter urged. He also 
suggested that legislative action be started 
now to make the Credit Control Act per- 
manent, since it is scheduled to expire 
next June. The brief use of credit controls 
contributed to a drop in the mortgage in- 
terest rate from 16.25 percent to 12.25 per- 
cent during the spring of 1980, he noted. 


secretary-treasurer. Hubbard is a member 
of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers 
and Gunn is a member of the Communi- 
cations Workers. 

The delegates unanimously approved an 
increase in the per capita payment to the 
state federation from 30 cents to 40 cents 
a month. 

Key speakers included Hispanic civil 
rights leader Ruben Bonilla, who is gen- 
eral counsel for the National LULAC 
organization; and Texas NAACP Presi- 
dent A. C. Sutton, both of whom told 
delegates they personally will be in Wash- 
ington for Solidarity Day along with other 
members of their organizations. 

THE DELEGATES spent a day and a 
half of the four-day convention in 36 
workshops covering topics ranging from 
grievances to polls, priorities and candi- 
date recruiting. 

House Majority Leader Jim Wright, 
who represents Fort Worth, Tex., in Con- 
gress, told delegates that Republicans had 
cried wolf about the “bankruptcy” of so- 
cial security for the last 20 years. He 
stressed that “Congress will not allow the 
social security system to go bankrupt.” 

The convention expressed strong oppo- 
sition to President Reagan’s proposed 
“guest-worker” program, as part of his 
immigration policies, saying that it would 
be especially harmful to workers in un- 
skilled and semi-skilled jobs in states 
along the Mexican border. The state 
chapter of the Labor Council for Latin 
American Advancement adopted a similar 
resolution. 

HUBBARD TOLD the delegates in his 
report that membership in the Texas AFL- 
CIO had increased by 42,000 in the last 
two years and that it would top 300,000 
by mid-August. 

The convention put heavy emphasis on 
fund-raising for the Texas COPE. Cash 
contributions, pledges and sales of promo- 
tional items totaled $143,550. 

Air Traffic Controllers 
Vote Down Contract 

The Air Traffic Controllers asked the 
government to reopen negotiations imme- 
diately, following overwhelming rejection 
of a tentative contract reached in June. 

PATCO President Robert E. Poli said 
more than 95 percent of the membership 
voted against ratification of the June 22 
pact. The vote, completed this week, 
showed 13,495 against the agreement and 
616 in favor of it. 

The union, an affiliate of the Marine 
Engineers’ Beneficial Association, said that 
the agreement failed to address certain is- 
sues and did not offer adequate monetary 
benefits or a satisfactory solution to the 
controllers’ work-hours problem. 


‘Adjustable^ Mortgage Safeguards Urged 


THE WINNERS AND THE LOS 


The New Equality 


Budget Guts Sacrifice 
Workers and the Needy 





When the Reagan Administration’s budget went to Congress, 
Americans were told we must all sacrifice. Now that the 
budget is nearly completed, it is clear who made the sacrifices 
—the workers, the children, the retirees, the students, the 
laid-off and the sick. But no sacrifices by the wealthy and 
the large corporations. 

Here’s who is making the sacrifices in the Reagan 
budget... 


Social Security— Eligibility tightened and minimum benefit eliminated 
for three million elderly people. 


Medicare— Elderly required to pay more for medical services. 


Unemployment Insurance — Reduced ability to trigger extended benefits 
except for short-term, high unempoyment situations. 


Trade A^ustment Assistance— Eliminated original payment levels; 
provided reduced benefits available to fewer workers. 


Federal Employees — Pay increases held to below comparability and full 
inflation adjustment for retirees eliminated. 


Comprehensive Employment and Training— Eliminated all public 
service jobs. 


Higher Education— Needs test applied for some Guaranteed Student 
Loans and grants to students from low-income families reduced. 


Elementary & Secondary Education— Reduced aid where federal 
facilities place burden on community. 


Medicaid— Reduced payments to states, causing higher costs or 
reduced medical care. 


Food Stamps — Strikers' families and one million working poor 
eliminated. 


School Lunch — Costs to children from near-poor families increased. 


Energy Assistance— Assistance to low-income people with high fuel 
bills reduced. 


AFDC— Benefits reduced, primarily those available to the working poor. 


Housing— Subsidized housing reduced, rents increased, and funds for 
repairs reduced. 


Rail — AMTRAK subsidies cut, CONRAIL to be sold in whole or in parts. 


Highways, Airports & Mass Transit — Funds reduced for construction 
and purchase of equipment. 


Maritime — Eliminated funds to rebuild merchant marine. 


Economic Development — Funds for urban and rural economic 
development reduced. 


Postal Service — Postage costs for non-profits, such as labor, religious 
and education groups increased. Some Post Offices majr be closed. 


Other social service, health, education, nutrition, economic 
development and energy programs. 


Total specified cuts 
Unspecified cuts in 1983 and 1984 

Total cumulative cuts by 1984: 


And that’s only the beginning. The Reagan Administration 
plans to cut Social Security by $82 billion by 1986, while 
tax giveaways to the wealthy will continue to grow larger. 


$ 11 billion 
$ 4 billion 


$ 3 billion 
$ 3 billion 
$ 17 billion 
$ 16 billion 
$ 3 billion 
$ Z billion 
$ 3 billion 


$ 6 billion 

$ 5 billion 


$ Z billion 

$ 4 billion 


$ 1 billion* 

$ Z billion 


$ 5 billion 
$0.1 billion 


$ Z billion 
$ 3 billion 
$ 48 billion 


$140 billion 
$ 74 billion 


$814 billion 


:: 


»L 


n 


•/ ^7- 










1’ 


1 




6- (i- 

- 

c 1 

-.J 


»» J 


♦Also reduced $43 billion in new 
budget authority, which would have.; 
been spent in subsequent years. 




SERS UNDER REAGANOMICS 




- 


:‘v 




I 


f-rt.; 

s'.-'.-- 

■e 



i 







Rich and Corporations 
Get Windfall Tax Guts 

Then, when the Reagan Administration’s tax cut package 
went to Congress, Americans were told it was an ‘*across- 
the-board” cut for all. But now that the tax bill nears final 
enactment it’s clear who is getting the hefty cuts and a lot 
more — the rich and the large companies. 

By 1984 these will be the giveaways to the rich in the 
Reagan tax bill... 



Room Service 


Tax Cuts for Wealthy Persons— About 1/3 of total rate cuts go to those 
now earning over $50,000— yet they equal only 6% of all tajcpayers. 

Estate and Gift Tax Cuts — Raise combined limit on estates and gifts 
subject to tax from $175,000 to $600,000. 

— Slash the tax rate on net estates in excess of $2.5 miUlon 
from a 70% top mariginal rate to a 50% rate. 

— Widen special gimmicks for valuing for estate tax 
purposes for wealthiest farms, woodlands and other business real 
estate. 

— Increase annual exemption from gift tax from $6,000 to 
$20,000 for married ($3,000 to $10,000 for single). 

Oil Tax Cuts — $2,500 windfall profit tax credit for oil royalty owners, 
replaced by 2 barrels per day exemption in 1982-1984. 


$ 55 billion 

$ 3 billion 

$ 1 billion 

$ 1 billion 

$600 million 
$2.9 billion 




— Phased in reduction of windfall profits tax rate on 
“new” oil from 30% to 15%. $400 million 

— Exempt tax on stripper oil production by Independent 
producers. $700 million 


— Continue percentage depletion deduction for oil and gas 
production at a 22% rate. Instead of scheduled phasedown. $ 2 billion 

Foreign Earned Income — Phased-ln exclusion from taxes of $95,000 

for Americans working overseas by 1986 plus additional special 

deductions for housing costs and a shortened overseas residence period 

to qualify. $1.5 billion 

Extension of so-called Targeted Jobs Tax Credit— Subsidizes employers. 

Would have otherwise expired at the end of this year. $500 million 


Depreciation — Provides monstrous across-the-board speed-up for 

businesses whereby government absorbs costs of buildings, equipment 

and vehicles. Greatest benefactors of these provisions are electric arid 

gas utilities and oil companies. $55.8 billion 

• « 

Retirement Funds — Increase and extend Individual retirement account 

provisions which primarily benefit upper income persons. $3.5 billion 

— Double deductions for self-employed individuals (from 
$7,500 to $15,000) that they can take annually by setting up a 

retirement for themselves. $300 million 


Unearned Income — Cut top rate on capital gains to 20% and shorten 

holding period for long-term capital gain treatment. $600 million 

— Create special exemption of $2,000 from tax for savings 
certificates ($1,000 for single). $4.7 billion 


Tax Straddles — Continue to exempt from tax the income of professional 
commodity traders. (Would have resulted in a revenue gain for 
Treasury of $400 million) 


Giveaway cuts by 1984: $133.5 billion 


Above are only the outrageous tax giveaways. Overall, the 
tax reductions amount to far more in individual and 
business reductions during the next several years, and 
threaten to cause massive deficits, higher inflation, 
and more unemployment. 


Additional cuts by 1984: 
Total cumulative cuts by 1984: 


$152.6 billion 
$286.1 billion 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1, 1981 


The *Me Too’ Tax Cuts 

P RESIDENT REAGAN the tax bill he wanted, and there 

was rejoicing at the White House. A press aide described the 
President as “thrilled and jubilant.” 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hailed the “true bipartisan 
spirit” shown by the House of Representatives, and a wire service 
bulletin carried the news that the House had given Mr. Reagan 
“another smashing victory over the Democratic majority.” 

Indeed, President Reagan won a victory. But he won it before 
the House voted on a tax bill, and before he made his impassioned 
television address to the nation. 

He won when the Democratic decision-makers chose to abandon 
previous positions in an effort to come up with a bill so loaded 
with extra benefits for business groups and especially for the oil 
industry that the conservative Democrats who had voted with the 
Republicans on other key votes would simply have to side with the 
Democrats this time. 

THE REPUBLICANS countered by sweetening up their own 
bill, skewing it even more to the most profitable corpK)rations and 
their biggest stockholders. By then, neither bill was worthy of 
labor’s support. As AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said in a 
statement: 

“Both of these bills are designed to bring huge benefits to the 
corporations and the super rich, at the expense of school children 
and pensioners, the unemployed, the disabled and the disad- 
vantaged. 

“They would take $700 billion out of the federal treasury over 
the next five years . . . through savage cutbacks in health services, 
social security, aid to schools, food stamps, unemployment com- 
pensation, aid to states and cities, and a long list of other social 
programs that help people who have no place else to turn. 

"BOTH OF THE tax bills would hand over half of the $700 
billion to business and the richest 5 percent or so of the popula- 
tion. Neither bill makes any pretense of providing tax cuts where 
they are most needed, or where they would do the most good in 
stimulating the economy, creating jobs and getting America mov- 
ing toward the goal everyone shares — a full-employment econ- 
omy.” 

The AFL-CIO statement cites the many and costly tax give- 
aways to benefit a scant few who are already the most prosperous 
among us. It notes the array of “savings incentives that totally 
ignore the needs of those who have nothing to save.” And it 
warns of mortgaging the nation’s future to long-term commitments 
to continuing tax cuts. 

So in the end, it didn’t really matter which tax bill received the 
most votes in the House, except as a measure of political muscle. 


ONCE AGAIN, the swing votes of conservatives whose ties to 
the Democratic Party grow fainter and fainter went to the Republi- 
cans and the Administration. 

It’s too bad that, in a futile bid for their votes, mainstream 
Democrats were so quick to abandon the programs that should 
distinguish them from their political opponents. 

A “me too” policy does not become the party that has for so 
many years been at the cutting edge of social progress and social 
justice. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
AI H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Emmet Andrews 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


1 VoL XXVI 


Saturday, August 1, 1981 


No. 31 E 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
S ington.^D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
E Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
S AFL-CIO. / ^ ^ 



‘He Demands Sacrifice!’ 



Nation's Economy 


Weidenbaum Muddles Outlook 
With His ‘Spongy’ Diagnosis 

By Gus Tyler 

T he NATION’S economy is “spongy,” says 
Murray L. Weidenbaum, chairman of the 
President’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

For those who do not look upon “spongy” as 
a highly scientific term, Weidenbaum offers an 
exhilarating explanation: “I use the term spongy 
deliberately because a sponge is something you 
can temporarily depress — that is, through mone- 
tary and fiscal restraint — and it’s an item that 
bounces back and I anticipate that this economy, 
being basically healthy, will bounce back.” 

Bv this definition, “spongy” becomes an upbeat 
word that could be used by any mechanic or pro- 
fessional entrusted with the care of broken down 
people and things. “Doctor,” I say, “I am aching 
and paining all over. What shall I do?” He replies 
blithely, “Don’t worry. You’re spongy.” 

I go to the car mechanic. “My transmission 
won’t work, my tires come off the rims, and my 
ignition won’t ignite. What shall I do?” He re- 
plies: “Relax, Mac, your car is spongy.” 

WEIDENBAUM IS supposed to be a doctor. 

He is the one man entrusted officially with the re- 
sponsibility of advising the President of the United 
States on what has to be done to restore our 
economic health to maximize employment in this 
country. He is supposed to come up with a 
prescription to ease our economic aches and 
pains. Instead of which he applies a sponge as a 
soporific, substituting a metaphor for a medicine. 

To Weidenbaum’s credit, it should be noted 
that he offers a reason for his spongy language. 

“My foggy crystal ball doesn’t provide a clear set 
of numbers calibrated that closely.” In other 
words, he doesn’t know what’s ahead. So instead 
of saying, “I’m all fogged up,” he says that the 
economy is spongy. 

HOW LONG WILL the s{>onge be depressed? 

Weidenbaum says that he expects this sad state 
to continue “until the fourth quarter of 1982.” 

After that, sometime somehow, the sponge will 
spring back. Why? Because sponges are spongy. 

. Intrigued by this notion, I consulted a friend 
who specializes in both natural and artificial 
sponges. “If you put downward pressure on a 


sponge,” I queried, “how long will it take for a 
sponge to spring back?” 

‘IT WILL SPRING back when you take the 
pressure off. What are the pressures and how long 
will they be kept on?” 

“The pressures,” I quoted Weidenbaum, “are 
monetary and fiscal restraints imposed by budget 
cuts and by high interest rates decreed by the 
Federal Reserve Board.” 

“Never heard of such pressures on a sponge 
before,” said my friend, “but when will they be 
lifted?” 

“They’ll be lifted,” I explained, “after the 
sponge springs back.” 

"IN THAT CASE,” said my friend, “the sponge 
will never return to its normal state.” 

“But Dr. Weidenbaum says it will spring back 
by 1983,” I said. 

“Never heard of him,” said my friend. “I guess 
his specialty is not sponges. He’s probably an 
economist. They’re spongy.” 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


fAarch for 
Rishts. 



SOU 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1, 1981 


Page Seven 


The Original Plan 

A 3rd Party to Social Security 


The following article by J. Douglas Brown ap~ 
pear ed as a letter to the editor of the New York 
Times, May 22, 7977, and its point remains valid 
today. The author headed the Social Security Ad~ 
visory Council in 1937-38 and was a member of 
four succeeding councils. 

I T IS SURPRISING to one who has participated 
in the developing of the Old Age Survivors & 
Disabilitv Insurance program (social security) 
since 1934 to read statements that government 
contributions to the system would undermine the 
integrity of the program, causing dire results. The 
planners of OASDI took precisely the opposite 
view. They were convinced that, as the system 
matured, government contributions would be 
necessary and fully justified to preserve the in- 
tegrity of the system. 

The Advisory Council on Social Security of 
1937-38, which laid down the basic framework 
of OASDI as it has since operated, made in its 
final report of Dec. 10, 1938, the following 
recommendations on financing: 

“I. Since the nation as a whole, independent of 
the beneficiaries of the system, will derive a bene- 
fit from the old-age security program, it is appro- 
priate that there be federal financial participation 
in the old-age insurance system by means of reve- 
nues derived from sources other than payroll 
taxes. 

“II. The principle of distributing the eventual 
cost of the old-age insurance system by means of 

Protection from Chiselers 


approximately equal contributions by employers, 
employees and the government is sound and 
should be definitely set forth in the law when tax 
provisions are amended.” 

The signers of these unanimous recommenda- 
tions included six representatives of labor, thirteen 
representatives of the public and six representa- 
tives of employers. Among the members were the 
chairmen or presidents of United States Steel, 
General Electric, Curtis Publishing, Provident 
Mutual Life Insurance and the Bowery Savings 
Bank and the treasurer of Eastman Kodak. The 
AFL and CIO, the National Association of Man- 
ufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 
were ably represented. The council held many 
meetings over more than a year. 

THE PLANNERS of the old-age insurance 
program estimated that government contributions 
would be needed by 1962 to offset the accrued 
liability assumed by the system in the early years 
in lifting millions of our people from old-age 
needs-test relief fully financed from general taxes. 

To introduce government contributions now 
would, step by step, be fulfilling a proper and 
justifiable plan for financing a mature and effec- 
tive system of contributing social insurance based 
on the mutual responsibility of the employees, 
employers and the general taxpayers of the coun- 
try in protecting our people against hardship 
caused by old age, disability or premature death, 
without dependence upon needs-test relief. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

I N 1980, falling water produced 23 percent of the world’s elec- 
tricity, accounting for 5 percent of total world consumption of 
energy. But most of the world’s hydropower potential remains 
untapped. 

The technically usable water potential is 19,000 trillion watt- 
hours, produced at dams with a capacity of 2,214,700 megawatts. 
By contrast, the total world hydro production currently is only 
1,300 trillion watt-hours, generated by dams with a capacity of 
363,000 megawatts. 

A new study by Worldwatch Institute stressed that if all eco- 
nomically available hydropower were harnessed, it would be suffi- 
cient to meet most of the world’s electricity needs. 

David Deudney says in Rivers of Energy: The Hydropower 
Potential that “hydropower promises to be a cornerstone of a 
sustainable energy economy in the post-petroleum era . . . Hydro- 
power is clean, renewable, and, above all, an inflation-proof energy 
source.” 

UNLIKE FOSSIL fuels, water power resources are dispersed 
throughout the world. In more than 35 countries, falling water 
already generates more than two-thirds of the electricity. 

The modern era of large-dam construction, Deudney notes, can 
be traced to the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
in 1933. This governmental body was given broad powers to build 
dams, borrow money and condemn private property to promote 
rural electrification, control soil erosion, improve navigation, 
harness power, and create recreational facilities. 

TVA, which organized construction throughout an area of a 
million square miles, spread the benefits of its programs among 
thousands of small farmers and townspeople. 


Davis-Bacon Tenets Still Valid 


The following is from an article by Robert A. 
Georgine, president of the AFL-CIO Building & 
Construction Trades Dept., in the Washington 
Post, June 25, 1981. 

T he DAVIS-BACON ACT was motivated by 
problems arising on a program of federal pub- 
lic works begun in 1926. A few unscrupulous 
contractors had decided that the way to. win gov- 
ernment work was to cut wages well below the 
locally prevailing level in order to underbid com- 
petitors. The result was that federal projects often 
led to disruption of wages and working conditions 
within the project area. 

The basic principles that led to the passage of 
the Davis-Bacon Act are still valid today. Incen- 
tives still exist for contractors to use wage cutting 
as a device for winning government contracts, and 
persistently high unemployment still makes con- 
struction workers vulnerable to wage-cutting pres*^ 
sures. 

The charge by Davis-Bacon opponents that the 
law is little more than a device to impose union 
wage rates on all federal construction, even in 
areas where these rates do not prevail, is com- 
pletely unfounded. In fact, a majority of all Davis- 
Bacon wage rates are set below union scales. 

Tlie general accuracy of Davis-Bacon determi- 

Religion-Labor Conference 

Common Goals 

S TRENGTHENING the ties between the union 
and religious communities to work more ef- 
fectively for common goals is the thrust of the 
newly formed Religion and Labor Conference, 
Director Alan Kistler of the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Organization & Field Services said on a network 
radio interview. 

Kistler, a co-chairman of the conference, said 
the group will serve as “a focal point for exchange 
of information” that will help local coalitions 
work to ease community problems, such as hous- 
ing, employment, plant closings and cutbacks of 
unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation 
and other worker protections. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor News Con- 
ference, Kistler said that the “ultimate binding 
element” between religion and labor is that “the 
roots of both run in the soil of Judeo-Christian 
teachings of justice, fairness and respect for hu- 
man dignity.” 

Both institutions, he stressed, have not only 
concern for the poor, the underprivileged, the 
disadvantaged and the distressed, but also a “his- 


nations was confirmed in a 1976 study by the 
Council on Wage & Price Stability, which found 
that these wages are not typically higher than 
actual average wages in the communities studied. 

There is also the complaint that building trades 
workers are overpaid and that it is our rapidly 
escalating wages that are the cause of inflation in 
constructon. 

It is true that hourly wages are relatively high 
in construction. However, because of time be- 
tween jobs, seasonal shutdowns and the periodic 
depressions that plague our industry, few building 
trades workers are able to work year round. This 
high unemployment means the average annual in- 
come in construction is below that in sectors such 
as manufacturing and transportation. 

ANYWAY, IT IS not wages that are pushing 
up construction costs. Over the past five years, 
construction wages have risen at an average rate 
of 6 percent per year, while material prices and 
financing costs have increased by 9 percent per 
year, and the profits of large construction con- 
tractors have increased by 13 percent per year. 

Efforts at controlling construction costs should 
be directed at items that are causing the problem 
— ^land costs, interest rates, material prices — not 
at reducing the wages and living standards of 
construction workers. 


Spur Coalition 

tory and tradition of action to implement those 
concerns into the lives of people.” 

Kistler said the coalition is not directed at in- 
creasing union membership. “That,” he said, 
“would be to exploit the natural affinity” between 
religion and labor. 

HE POINTED OUT that the fundamentals of 
unionism- — “fraternity, justice, respect for human 
dignity and the improvement of the common- 
wealth” — draw a positive response from those 
whose religious affiliation commits them to the 
same basic objectives. He said that is why the 
religious community has often “taken a leading 
role in supporting a labor objective, whether it 
be a J. P. Stevens boycott or an organizing drive. 

“We want to develop those ties,” he stressed. 

Reporters questioning Kistler on the AFL-CIO 
produced public affairs program were Stephenie 
Overman, of the National Catholic News Service 
and Doug Harbrecht of the Scripps-Howard 
Newspapers. The program is aired weekly on 
Mutual Radio. 


SUCCESSFUL hydroelectric projects have made similar con- 
tributions in developing countries. In Egypt, for example, the 
power from Aswan Dam electrified 99 percent of the nation’s 
villages and created many jobs in labor-intensive local industries. 

However, the study notes, there can be problems in developing 
nations where construction of large facilities brings soil erosion, 
water-borne diseases and dislocation of population. Such problems 
can be largely avoided through small-scale plants. In China, some 
90,000 small hydro units built since 1968 provide electric light 
and power for rural industries. 

In the industrial world, the United States and, to a lesser degree, 
Europe, Japan and the Soviet Union have manv existing dams that 
have become viable sources of power due to rising oil prices. 

In the United States, just since World War II, nearly 3,000 dams 
have been abandoned. Fewer than 3 percent of dams in this coun- 
try currently generate electricity. At stake is as much as 50,000 
megawatts of electricity — which could meet about 10 percent of 
the nation’s energy needs. 

The federal government has taken steps to encourage small-dam 
restoration including offering low-interest loans to investors and 
boosting tax depreciation benefits. The most wide-ranging stimulus 
is the “limited power producer” section of the 1978 public utility 
regulatory law. Private utilities now are required to buy power 
from small producers and to pay for it at a rate equal to the utili- 
ties’ “incremental cost” — in most cases, what the utility would 
have to pay for new coal or nuclear capacity. 

THESE GOVERNMENT incentives help overcome the high 
costs of renovating abandoned dams which, once refurbished and 
maintained, provide an inflation-proof source of energy that can 
last for centuries, Deudney points out. 

He also suggests that the United States develop the 140,000 
megawatt hydro potential in Alaska, at the same time raising power 
rates in more settled regions. Alaska would benefit from the new 
jobs created and the Pacific Northwest could avoid expensive fossil 
and nuclear plants. 



COALITION of labor and religion to work for common goals 
in the tradition and history of both institutions is the aim of the 
newly formed Religion and Labor Conference, Director Alan 
Kistler, center, of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization & Field 
Services said on Labor News Conference. Kistler, who co-chairs 
the organization, was questioned by Stephenie Overman of the 
National Catholic News Service and Doug Harbrecht of Scripps- 
Howard newspapers. 


/ 




Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 1, 1981 


Merger Voted 
By Aluminum, 
Brick Unions 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

to carry forward the struggle to fulfill the 
hopes and aspirations of the members 
you’re privileged to represent.” 

Donahue pointed out that since the 1955 
merger of the AFL and the CIO, 39 affili- 
ates of the federation have merged. He 
said the federation will continue to assist 
other affiliates seeking voluntary mergers 
and to work to resolve any technical prob- 
lems they may encounter. 

Officials of the two unions have been 
conducting merger discussions for the past 
two years. The ABC will be based in 
Bridgeton, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, 
where the Aluminum Workers now has its 
headquarters. 

THE PRIMARY focus of the conven- 
tion was on the drafting of the ABC’s 
constitution and bylaws. The per capita 
payment for the new union will be based 
on the equivalent of two hours pay per 
month, a schedule that is carried over 
from the Aluminum Workers’ bylaws. 

The Brick & Clay Workers trace their 
history to the late 1 800s to the Terra Cotta 
Workers Alliance organized by the Knights 
of Labor. The union was chartered in 
1893 by the AFL as the International 
Brick, Tile & Terra Cotta Workers Al- 
liance. In 1915, it adopted its present 
name, the United Brick & Clay Workers 
of America. 

THE ALUMINUM WORKERS were 
chartered as an organizing committee by 
the AFL in 1932 to represent workers in 
what was then a relatively new industry. 
A number of local unions were formed 
during the next two decades, and the 
Aluminum Workers International Union 
was chartered as an affiliate of the AFL 
in 1953. 

Major convention speakers included 
President Frank Drozak of the AFL-CIO 
Maritime Trades Dept., Sec.-Treas. Earl 
McDavid of the Union Label & Service 
Trades Dept, and Howard Chester of the 
Stone, Glass & Clay Coordinating Com- 
mittee. 



PILOT PROGRAM to encourage grass roots lobbying sup- 
port for AFL-CIO legislative goals gets off the ground at 
the first meeting of the Connecticut 4th Congressional Dis- 
trict Legislative Action Committee. COPE Regional Director 
Madeline Matchko explains the new program to some 70 


members of 25 local unions at the committee’s meeting in 
New Haven, organized with the help of the Connecticut 
AFL-CIO President John J. Driscoll. Frank Carrano, presi- 
dent of the New Haven Central Labor Council is standing 
at center. 


OSHA Grants Exceptions 
To Tighter Lead Standards 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has initiated a long-delayed 
provision to improve safeguards for work- 
ers with high levels of lead in their blood, 
but at the same time it granted temporary 
variances from the tighter restrictions to 
about 30 firms, including several major 
lead smelters. 

If the firms meet certain conditions, they 
can be exempt from the provision for up 
to a year. Primary and secondary smelters, 
as well as some battery manufacturers, had 
sought an industry-wide one-year delay in 
lowering the “trigger level” on blood tests 
for removing workers from jobs with high 
exposure to lead. 

AS IT IS, OSHA’s Assistant Labor Sec. 
Thorne G. Auchter held up implementa- 


Kirkland Warns Social Cuts 
Threaten Support for Defense 


Chicago — Vital popular support for 
defense spending could be weakened by 
slashes in social programs, AFL-CIO Pres- 
ident Lane Kirkland asserted in a speech 
before the national convention of the Fra- 
ternal Order of Eagles here. 

The AFL-CIO has been a “consistent 
and steadfast” supporter of strong defense 
policies “as a requirement for survival in 
a dangerous world,” Kirkland said. He 
stressed that in a democracy cuts in need- 
ed social programs such as social security, 
jobs programs and aid to cities, coupled 
with tax cuts for the rich, can undermine 
public support necessary to maintain high 
levels of military spending. 

“It makes no sense,” Kirkland told the 


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delegates, “for an Administration dedi- 
cated to repairing America’s standing in 
the world to create new anti-defense con- 
stituencies among the elderly, the jobless, 
the working poor, the minorities, the sick 
and the disabled.” 

All Americans must feel that they have 
a stake in the survival of our society, 
Kirkland said, pointing out that such feel- 
ings of anticipation have been “enhanced 
by federal programs that have cushioned 
our economy against unemployment, cre- 
ated jobs, eased poverty, attacked dis- 
crimination, trained the unskilled, taught 
the young and helped the needy.” 

Referring to Administration statements 
that Americans are entitled to nothing 
from the federal government, Kirkland 
pointed out that the Constitution requires 
the federal government to “provide for the 
common defense and the general welfare.” 

“THE AMERICAN people are entitled 
to both,” Kirkland emphasized. “They are 
not required to choose one or the other. 
That is the mandate of the Constitution. 
It supersedes any other mandate, real or 
imagined, which the Administration labors 
to extract from last November.” 

Kirkland was given the fraternal order’s 
Murray-Green Award, named after the 
late CIO President Philip Murray and the 
late AFL President William Green who 
had both been active in the organization. 
The award was established to recognize 
the long-term relationship between the or- 
ganization and the labor movement. 

Kirkland praised the Eagles for their 
efforts since their founding in support of 
programs that aid workers and their fam- 
ilies, including workers’ compensation, 
health care and social security. 


tion of the lower trigger level for all lead 
industries except primary and secondary 
smelters from Mar. 1 until May 15. For 
companies that don’t qualify for the vari- 
ance, the provision went into effect July 
21 . 

Under the 1978 federal lead standard, 
which the Supreme' Court upheld in re- 
jecting challenges by the lead industry and 
the Reagan Administration, employers are 
required to transfer workers with high 
blood lead levels to other jobs in the work- 
place without loss of pay or other rights. 

The new trigger level for medical re- 
moval is 60 micrograms of lead per 100 
grams of blood, a reduction of 10 micro- 
grams from the previous level. The af- 
fected workers may be returned to their 
regular jobs after the lead level in their 
blood drops to 40 micrograms. 

AN ESTIMATED 800,000 U.S. work- 
ers face the threat of lead poisoning from 
high exposure to the metal on the job. 
About 7,500 workers are expected to be 
affected by the variances OSHA is grant- 
ing. 

High levels of exposure to lead can 
result in anemia, kidney failure, nervous 
system disorders, brain damage and death. 

Mike Wright, industrial hygienist for the 
Steelworkers, called the OSHA action 
denying an industry-wide delay of the new 
trigger “a partial victory” for workers. Al- 
though OSHA is now meeting the pro- 
vision that it should have instituted in 
March, Wright said, the job safety agency 
still is giving too much latitude to the 
companies by granting variances. 


’81 Pay Boosts 
Average ll.Sfo 
For First Year 

(Continued from Page 1) 

or re-established in four agreements cov- 
ering 42,000 workers, and dropped in 
seven agreements covering 25,000 workers. 

SETTLEMENTS with cost-of-living pro- 
visions generally tend to yield lower basic 
wage increases than those without such 
clauses. Possible future COL adjustments, 
however, add to the base. First-year wage 
increases negotiated in the first six months 
of the year averaged 7.6 percent in agree- 
ments with COL clauses compared with 
12.3 percent in those without such provi- 
sions, BLS said. Wage adjustments over 
the life of the agreements averaged 6.3 per- 
cent and 10 percent annually, respectively. 

BLS said that in the first half of this 
year 2.9 million workers received COL 
increases under major agreements. The 
average gain for these workers was 3.5 
percent, or two-thirds of the rise in con- 
sumer prices during the months of COL 
review. 

An additional 2.2 million workers un- 
der COL clauses did not receive pay in- 
creases from this source, BLS said, be- 
cause their contracts did not call for 
review, the maximum increase already had 
been granted, or the government’s con- 
sumer price index had not risen to the 
level necessary to trigger a COL increase 
under their contracts. 

DURING THE current July-September 
quarter, 104 major agreements covering 
343,000 workers are due to expire or may 
be reopened for wage negotiations. 


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First Backpay Checks Sent 
To Darlington Mills Victims 

Winstan-Salem, N,C. — ^ITiis time the check really is in the mail for some 400 
former employees of Darlington Mills in South Carolina. 

The first mailing of back pay checks that will total nearly $5 million has been 
sent from the National Labor Relations Board regional office here to former 
workers at the Deering-Milliken textile factory that slammed its doors in 1956 
after employees voted to be represented by the Textile Workers. 

The settlement was worked out in December 1980 by NLRB General Counsel 
William A. Lubbers between the union, now ACTWU, and Milliken. It ends 
the union’s 25-year struggle for just treatment of the 525 Darlington workers 
who lost their jobs when the mill shut down. Milliken, after decades of protracted 
legal stalls, agreed to the settlement when the Supreme Court upheld the NLRB 
decision that the company violated the law when it closed the plant as punish- 
ment for the union vote. 

Amounts of the checks range from a few dollars to more than $30,000. The 
first checks went to 380 living former employees, and checks to heirs of the 144 
deceased workers will be mailed shortly. The settlement will be complete when 
the probate problems concerning a final group of heirs are resolved. 

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Board '^Calls Up the Ranks’ 
For Solidarity Day Protest 




Striking Air Controllers Snpported, 
Kirkland Blasts Government Tacties 


By James M. Shevis 


Chicago — AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland assailed the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s “brutal, repressive” measures against 
striking air traffic controllers, and the fed- 
eration’s Executive Council called on the 
Administration to resolve the dispute 
through negotiations instead of mass fir- 
ings. 


“Punitive measures are no substitute for 
fair dealing,” the council said. It urged 
“joint and constructive efforts to work out 
a settlement that will be fair to the con- 
trollers, the government and the flying 
public.” 


AS THE LABOR movement rallied to 
its support, the 13,000-member Profession- 
al Air Traffic Controlleis (PATCO) held 
firm in its determination to achieve a re- 
dress of long-festering grievances from the 
Federal Aviation Administration, which 
employs its members at air traffic control 
and regional routing centers across the 
nation. 


Neither massive fines against the union 
and its members nor wholesale dismissals 
and the jailing of at least five striking con- 
trollers succeeded in cracking the union’s 
solidarity. 

If anything, the jailings stiffened the 
determination of members of PATCO, an 
autonomous affiliate of the Marine Engi- 
neers. And the sight on national television 
of one striker being led to an Alexandria, 
Va., jail in handcuffs and leg irons after 
telling a federal judge he intended to stay 
on strike brought phone calls of protest 
from outraged viewers. 


VoL XXVI 


Saturday, August 8 , 1981 3 No. 32 


“THE INCARCERATION of our peo- 
ple hasn’t helped,” PATCO President Rob- 
ert Poli said, adding that the union would 
challenge the government’s actions. “I 

(Continued on Page 12) 


LEADING A PICKET LINE of Executive Council members in support of 
striking air traffic controllers, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland tells reporters 
why the labor movement opposes the Administration’s “brutal, repressive” actions. 


Asks Strong 
Outpouring 
On Sept. 19 

By John M. Barry 

Chicago — The AFL-CIO General Board 
sounded the call for a strong outpouring 
of trade unionists to protest the Reagan 
Administration’s attack on social programs 
and workers’ rights. 

“We intend to demonstrate our disap- 
proval by our presence in Washington, 
D.C., on Sept. 19 — Solidarity Day,” the 
board declared in a unanimous resolution. 

IT RECOUNTED the record of the first 
seven months of the Administration, start- 
ing with its budget-balancing slashes in aid 
for the needy, ranging through its efforts 
to block or weaken job safety and health 
protections, and culminating in the top- 
heavy tax cut just enacted by Congress. 

Organized labor cannot “watch from the 
sidelines” as this counter-revolution is “con- 
solidated on the backs of workers,” Fed- 
eration President Lane Kirkland told the 
board. 

“It is time to call up the ranks,” he said. 
“It is time to muster our friends and allies. 
It is time to draw upon our ultimate source 
of strength, and to call upon those in whose 
name we speak to come forth in a dis- 
play of solidarity for a. humane and fair 
America.” 

KIRKLAND’S ADDRESS opened the 
one-day meeting of the board, which is 
made up of Executive Council members 
and principal officers of affiliated national 
and international unions and constitutional 
departments. With leaders of many state 
and local central bodies also participating, 
registration for the session reached 250, 
despite travel delays during the Air Traffic 
Controllers’ strike. 

The delegates also were given a preview 
of the new film, “A Time of Challenge,” 
prepared for showing around the country 
as part of the federation’s centennial ob- 
servance. At the afternoon session, given 
over to discussion of plans and arrange- 
ments for Solidarity Day, they viewed an- 
other film, “Bom Out of Protest,” designed 
to promote participation in the Sept. 19 
demonstration. 

The board’s resolution, introduced by 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, called on 
“all affiliates, departments and state and 
local central bodies to give top priority to 
the success of Solidarity Day and commit 
all necessary resources to assure an effec- 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Council Brands Reagan Policies ^Class Warfare’ 



Chicago — ^The Reagan Administration 
is imposing economic policies on the na- 
tion that will put more, people out of 
work, aggravate infiation and bring greater 
inequity to the American economy, the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council charged. 

“These policies add up to class warfare 
against the poor and the working people 
of America,” the council declared. 

IT DENOUNCED the central elements 
of the Reagan program — sharp slashes in 
essential social programs coupled with tax 
cuts favoring the wealthy and giant cor- 
porations, along with encouragement of 
the Federal Reserve Board’s high-interest 
rate policy that stifies production and fuels 
infiation instead of curbing it. 

The council reaffirmed the federation’s 
alternative program put forth six months 
ago with emphasis on specific infiation- 
fighting measures, a job-creating reindus- 
trialization program, and a fair tax sys- 


tem to restore consumer buying power. 

The statement on the national economy 
was one of a series on domestic issues, 
trade union matters and international af- 
fairs adopted at the council’s summer 
meeting here. 

THE MEETING opened with a memo- 
rial tribute to Vice President Fred Kroll, 
who died in Philadelphia only four days 
earlier. 

The council welcomed to its member- 
ship Auto Workers President Douglas A. 
Fraser, who was elected to fill a vacancy 
created by the resignation of Vice Presi- 
dent Emmet Andrews, former head of the 
Postal Workers. (Story, page 2.) 

Throughout the meeting, the council re- 
ceived reports on the status of the Air 
Traffic Controllers’ strike, which began 
hours before the session opened. A council 
statement expressed solid support for 
PATCO’s position in the dispute and 


called on the government to abandon its 
“punitive measures” against the union and 
engage in “frank and open” bargaining. 
(Story, this page.) 

During the noon break on the final day 
of the meeting, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland led council members as they 
joined PATCO strikers on the picket line 
at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. 

In its statement on the national econ- 
omy, the council recalled that at its Feb- 
ruary meeting it had described President 
Reagan’s program as “a high-risk gamble 
with the future of America, with workers 
and the poor taking the lion’s share of the 
risk” and the only sure winners being 
wealthy individuals and corporations. 

“THE PASSING months have con- 
firmed this judgment,” the council said. 

It saw little prospect under the Reagan 
program for progress in combating job- 
lessness, which has grown by 2 million 


persons in the past two years, or in the 
long-term fight against inflation. 

“The Administration’s policies on en- 
ergy, housing, taxes, interest rates and 
money supply will make inflation worse,” 
the statement observed. 

Nor is there any likelihood of a sig- 
nificant reduction soon in the sky-high in- 
terest rates, which have seen the bank 
prime rate shoot above 20 percent and 
mortgage rates above 16 percent. 

Yet, interest rates must be reduced, the 
council insisted. 

“THE HIGH COST of money spreads 
throughout the economy,” it noted, “and 
is built into the cost of all goods and 
services. Credit controls and selective 
credit regulation are needed to stop un- 
productive speculation and corporate take- 
overs and to target investment in housing, 
agriculture, small business and other basic 
(Continued on Page 3) 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 



AUTO WORKERS President Douglas A. Fraser is welcomed as a member of 
the AFL-CIO Executive Council by Federation President Lane Kirkland. Fraser 
was elected a vice president of AFL-CIO at the council’s meeting in Chicago. 


UAW^s Fraser Welcomed 
To Executive Council Seat 


Vigorous Defense Pledged 

Deregulation Drive Hit 
As Assault on Workers 


Chicago — Auto Workers President 
Douglas A. Fraser was elected to the Ex- 
ecutive Council as a vice president of the 
AFL-CIO, marking a return of UAW 
representation to the ranks of the federa- 
tion’s leadership. 

Fraser was nominated by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland and elected 
unanimously by the council to fill a va- 
cancy created by the resignation of Vice 
President Emmet Andrews, former presi- 
dent of the Postal Workers. 

THE COUNCIL earlier had accepted 
Andrews’s resignation with “deep regret,” 
lauding his “diligence and devotion to the 
cause of democracy and human rights” 
during his service on the council and as 
a leader of the Postal Workers. 

Fraser, who led the 1.3-million-member 

Tributes to Kroll 
Cite Leadership 
And Dedication 

Chicago — ^Fred J. Kroll, the late presi- 
dent of the Railway & Airline Clerks, was 
honored by the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil as a “forceful, faithful, and inspiring” 
union leader whose early death is “a 
tragic blow” to his family, his union and 
the trade union movement. 

Kroll, who had also been an AFL-CIO 
vice president, died July 30 of leukemia 
at the age of 45. 

The council cited Kroll as “a respected 
representative and spokesman of a younger 
generation of trade unionists.” At the 
time of his election, he was the youngest 
person ever elected to the Executive Coun- 
cil. 

KROLL BROUGHT to the AFL-CIO’s 
governing body “a combination of buoyant 
optimism and energy, long with moral 
strength, intellectual power and seasoned 
judgment, grounded in the highest tra- 
ditions of the American trade union move- 
ment,” the council said. 

His “counsel and companionship en- 
riched us,” his colleagues said. 

BRAC’s own executive council, in a 
tribute to Kroll, said his example “will 
guide us as we carry on the struggle to 
achieve the goals for which he worked and 
in which he so steadfastly believed: the 
good fight for human dignity, responsive 
democratic institutions and action for eco- 
nomic justice for all working people.” 

Funeral services were held Aug. 3 at 
the Church of the Little Flower, Bethesda, 
Md. and burial was at St. Gabriel’s Ceme- 
tery in Potomac, Md. AFL-CIO Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue represented 
the federation at the services. 


UAW to reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO 
effective last July 1, has been president of 
the union since 1977. Before that he had 
been a vice president of the UAW for 
seven years and a member of its executive 
board since 1962. 

He was born in Scotland Dec. 18, 1916, 
and came to this country with his parents 
at the age of 6. After attending Detroit 
schools, he went to work as a metal fin- 
isher in the DeSoto plant of Chrysler 
Corp. when he was 18. 

FRASER SOON became active in UAW 
Local 227 and was elected to various of- 
fices culminating with the local presidency 
in 1943. He joined the UAW staff as an 
international representative in 1947 and 
four years later became an administrative 
assistant to UAW President Walter P. 
Reuther. He was elected co-director of 
Region lA in 1959, and at the 1962 con- 
vention, delegates elected him to his* first 
term as a member of the UAW executive 
board. 

Fraser has been associated with Chrys- 
ler bargaining throughout his service with 
the UAW, He led negotiations that won 
the union’s pacesetting early retirement 
program in 1964, the first U.S.-Canada 
wage parity agreement in 1967, and the 
auto industry settlement pattern in 1973 
following a nine-day strike. 

When Chrysler agreed to union repre- 
sentation on its board of directors, Fraser 
was elected to a seat on the board at the 
company’s 1980 stockholders’ meeting. 

HE HOLDS office or membership in 
numerous labor, civic and governmental 
bodies, including the presidency of the 
World Automotive Council of the Inter- 
national Metalworkers’ Federation. 

Even before the UAW’s reaffiliation, he 
worked closely with AFL-CIO officers as 
chairman of the Committee for National 
Health Insurance and member of the ex- 
ecutive committee of the Leadership Con- 
ference on Civil Rights. He is on the 
boards of the Full Employment Action 
Council, the NAACP and the National 
Urban Coalition, among other organiza- 
tions. 

Otter Confirmed to Head 
Wage & Hour Division 

The Senate confirmed William M. Otter 
as head of the Labor Dept.’s Wage & 
Hour Division. A 58-year-old attorney 
from Kentucky, he is the seventh Reagan 
appointee confirmed for a Labor Dept, 
post. 

One other nominee is awaiting confir- 
mation, while four presidential appoint- 
ments at the department remain to be 
filled. Still to be confirmed is the appoint- 
ment of Ford Barney Ford as head of the 
Mine Safety & Health Administration. 


Chicago — “The Reagan Administration) 
is engaged in a broad attack on regulations 
designed to protect workers,” the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council charged, and it 
pledged a vigilant defense of those safe- 
guards in the courts. 

The council said the Administration’s 
objective is “to gut standards already on 
the books, to postpone indefinitely stan- 
dards which were scheduled to go into ef- 
fect, to reinterpret existing regulations so 
as to narrow their scope, and to gen- 
erally reduce enforcement so that employ- 
ers may violate with impunity.” 

TO ACHIEVE its purpose — “pro-busi- 
ness, regulation-free environment” — the 
Administration has filled key posts with 
unqualified, inexperienced officials and has 
allowed the Office of Management & 
Budget to “usurp” the decision-making 
authority on regulations, the coimcil 
charged. 

Its statement focused on three areas of 
particular concern to workers — ^prevailing 
wage laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act 
and the Occupational Safety & Health Act. 

On the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires 
the payment of prevailing wages on fed- 
erally financed construction projects, the 
council noted that the Reagan Adminis- 
tration had embargoed revised regulations 
developed after lengthy review and issued 
last January. In their place the Adminis- 
tration is considering new changes that 
would no longer protect community wage 
standards and permit employers to com- 
pete for government contracts on the basis 
of cut-rate wages and classifications. 

UNDER THE Service Contract Act, 
half of all contracts currently covered 
would be excluded by an Administration 
proposal to apply the law’s prevailing wage 
requirements only to contracts “principally 
for services” rather than those “substan- 
tially for services.” 

The Administration also is seeking to 
undercut the wage protections of the 
Urban Mass Transit Act, which insure 
workers in the mass transit industry that 
their basic wages, working conditions and 
job security will be maintained. 

On the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 
council said Labor Sec. Raymond Dono- 
van “has been sending mixed signals,” 
leading strike force raids on apparel sweat- 
shops while at the same time proposing to 
lift the ban on. industrial homework in 
eight industries. 

Donovan also has reduced the num- 
ber of compliance officers to enforce 


Chicago — The nationwide AFL-CIO 
boycott of Coors beer will continue “until 
justice is obtained for Coors workers,” the 
federation’s Executive Council pledged. 

The four-year-old boycott has played a 
role in forcing down Coors sales, market 
shares and income, the council pointed 
out, noting that the Colorado-based 
brewery has been knocked out of its 
formerly dominant sales position in three 
states where the boycott has had broad 

Coors’ sales volume in its nine prime 
markets has declined, a council report 
noted. 

THE COUNCIL keyed the success of 
the boycott to support by union members, 
state and local labor councils, other inter- 
ested organizations, and AFL-CIO con- 
stitutional departments, particularly the 
Union Label & Service Trades Dept. 

In its statement, the council urged con- 
tinued backing of the action, including 
increased financial aid. 

The boycott was launched in April 
1977 when members of the AFL-CIO di- 
rectly affiliated local union at the Golden, 
Colo., brewery struck over company 
harassment, discriminatory practices, vio- 
lations of privacy and other policies 
“against worker dignity.” 


the federal wage-hour law, while advocat- 
ing stricter penalties for non-compliance, 
the council noted. 

And the Secretary at first said he would 
withhold any recommendation on a sub- 
minimum wage for youth until after the 
Minimum Wage Study Commission coni^ 
pleted its work, only to announce within 
a month after the commission issued its 
report that he supports such a submini- 
mum for disadvantaged young people. 

Also, Donovan still has a “freeze” on 
the rule issued last January that would 
have increased the minimum salary test 
for a worker to be considered a true ex- 
ecutive, administrative or professional em- 
ployee and thus exempt from the law’s 
requirement of time and one-half pay for 
overtime beyond 40 hours a week. Under 
the present law, such a worker can be 
paid only $155 a week for a 48-hour 
week, whereas a non-exempt worker earn- 
ing the minimum wage would receive $174 
for the same workweek. 

“IT IS OUR view that the title of 
executive or administrator is small conso- 
lation for a legal ‘subminimum’ wage,” the 
council observed. 

On the job safety law, the council said 
the Administration “has moved swiftly and 
deliberately to wipe out major gains in 
worker protection of the past four years.” 
It cited the illegal postponement, weaken- 
ing or revocation of standards on exposure 
to cotton dust and lead, hazards identifica- 
tion, walkaround compensation, hearing 
conservation, cancer policy, and access to 
medical records. 

And while the Supreme Court has up- 
held the AFL-CIO’s position that the re- 
quirement of cost-benefit analysis in the 
development of safety and health stan- 
dards is prohibited by the OSHA law, the 
Administration has announced that it will 
simply substitute “cost-effectiveness” stu- 
dies in its continuing effort to weaken 
these standards. 

IN ADDITION, enforcement of exist- 
ing standards is being watered down 
through reliance on inadequate state plans 
and drastic cuts in staff, the council 
pointed out. 

“The AFL-CIO will continue to monitor 
the actions of this Administration as they 
affect worker standards,” the statement 
pledged. “If the officials charged with the 
enforcement of labor laws continue to 
undermine them, we will bring appropri- 
ate legal action to enforce the laws that 
were established to protect basic worker 
standards.” 


The union was decertified as a result of 
a management-initiated election in which 
only striker replacements were allowed to 
vote. 

“THE CONDITIONS that compelled 
the Coors union employees to strike for 
human dignity, a decent contract and 
genuine collective bargaining still prevail,” 
the council pointed out, noting that the 
boycott continues wih the full support of 
the labor movement. 

The council called for “all affiliates, 
central bodies, organizations and others 
concerned with corporate decency in the 
workplace” to step up their support of 
the boycott, including financial aid. 



Coors Boycott to Continue 
‘Until Justice Is Obtained’ 




AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, AUGUST 8, 1981 


Page Tlir®c 


Council Assails Giveaways to W ealthy 

Charges Reagan Policies 
Amount to ^Class Warfare’ 



EXECUTIVE COUNCIL is briefed by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at 
its summer meeting in Chicago. Council members adopted statements covering 
a wide range of issues, including worker protections, the nation’s economy, 
slashes in social programs by the Reagan Administration and international affairs. 


(Continued from Page 1) 
public investment essential to productivity, 
essential to fighting inflation and essential 
to economic progress.” 

The council stressed its continued com- 
mitment to the “detailed and specific” al- 
ternative economic program it adopted six 
months ago, calling for policies to deal 
effectively and fairly with the causes of 
inflation and the weaknesses that prolong 
unemployment. 

“We declared that such policies must 
deal with the basic causes of inflation and 
must concentrate on putting America back 
to work,” the statement said. “Such poli- 
cies must include adequate resources to 
provide needed investment in specific in- 
dustrial and geographic sectors within an 
overall full employment program that 
meets the commitments of the Humphrey- 
Hawkins Full Employment & Balanced 
Growth Act.” 

IN OTHER statements, the council as- 
sailed the Reagan Administration’s “back- 
ward” philosophy of government that 
forms the basis for its “trickledown” eco- 
nomic policies, its tax-cutting spree favor- 
ing business and the wealthy at the ex- 
pense of workers, its attack on federal 
regulations that protect workers, its moves 
to weaken civil rights enforcement, and 
its drive to /‘gut” the social security sys- 
tem. 

The Administration drew a sharp warn- 
ing from the council that it risks shatter- 
ing the national consensus for a stronger 
defense if it pays for massive boosts in the 
military budget by continuing to slash do- 
mestic programs that aid low-income 
groups. 

. The council also called for a thorough 
review and overhaul of the nation’s immi- 
gration policy, voicing deep concern at the 
shortcomings of the Administration’s pro- 
posals in this area. Other statements 
stressed labor’s firm opposition to the 
deregulation of natural gas prices while 
urging renewal of the President’s standby 
authority to impose oil price controls and 
gasoline rationing in an emergency, called 


for measures “to check the monopolization 
of America” through corporate takeovers, 
supported the Ohio AFL-CIO in its fight 
to preserve the exclusive state fund for 
workers* compensation, urged an end to 
the discrimination against Vietnam war 
veterans and called on the nation to “give 
them the honors and Benefits traditionally 
extended to veterans, supported renewal 
of the manufacturing clause in the U.S. 
copyright law to prevent decimation of the 
American book publishing industry, and 
proposed a series of safeguards for states 
adopting short-time jobless benefit pro- 
grams for reduced workweeks to avoid 
layoffs. 

THE COUNCIL also reviewed the boy- 
cott of Coors Brewing Co. products, found 
it effective, and urged increased support 
by the labor movement and consumers. 

In the area of international affairs, the 
council called for an American policy on 
human rights keyed to the “universal prin- 
ciple” of freedom of independent associa- 
tion no matter what the character of a 
country’s ruling authority may be. It also 
took note of the 20th anniversary of the 
construction of the Berlin Wall and called 
for its destruction as a violation of the 
Helsinki Accord. Another statement urged 
a strong American protest against the 
South African government’s latest arrests 
and intimidation of trade union leaders. 

In the course of its sessions, the council 
viewed films and television spots designed 
to promote the Solidarity Day protest 
and the federation’s centennial observance. 
Kirkland and Solidarity Day coordinator 
John Perkins gave reports on preparations 
for the march in Washington, Sept. 19, 
and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue re- 
ported on materials developed by the fed- 
eration or in the works to commemorate 
the AFL-CIO’s 100th anniversary. 

The council also viewed and heard an- 
other film and tapes of radio announce- 
ments developed to counteract the Na- 
tional Right to Work Committee cam- 
paign to apply the Hobbs Act’s anti- 
racketeering penalties against unionists — 


but not employer representatives — who 
engage in picket-line scuffles. 

KIRKLAND AND International Rep. 
Irving Brown, the U.S. worker delegate 
to the International Labor Organization, 
reported on the AFL-CIO’s participation 
in the ILO meeting at Geneva in June. 
William Doherty, executive director of the 
American Institute for Free Labor Devel- 
opment, filled in the council on the situa- 
tion in El Salvador and ^the efforts of 
trade unionists there to press ahead with 
the land reform program against the op- 
position of both the left and the right. 

The council approved the creation by 
the AFL-CIO of a Labor Institute for 
Public Affairs, as recommended in a re- 
port of the public relations committee pre- 
sented by Vice President Glenn Watts. As 
envisioned, the institute would provide 
expertise on disseminating information via 
various media technologies, such as cable 
and satellite TV, commercial and public 
service time on networks and local sta- 
tions, public radio and television, with 
special attention to how labor can achieve 
maximum results with limited funds. 


Committee reports also were presented 
by Vice President Lloyd McBride and 
Organization Director Alan Kistler on or- 
ganizing and field services. Vice President 
J. C. Turner on the campaign to encour- 
age voluntary COPE checkoff clauses, 
Social Security Director Bert Seidman on 
investment of union pension funds, and 
Vice President Murray Finley on mergers. 

Donahue gave detailed reports from the 
finance committee and on the AFL-CIO 
Mortgage Investment Trust. 

THE COUNCIL voted contributions to 
the following organizations: League for 
Industrial Democracy, National Society to 
Prevent Blindness, Human Resources De- 
velopment Institute, National Planning As- 
sociation, Citizens for Tax Justice, Citizen/ 
Labor Energy Coalition, Economics Edu- 
cation Foundation for the Clergy, Jewish 
Labor Committee, Frontlash, NAACP, 
United Negro College Fund, and the In- 
ternational Labor Program of George- 
town University. 

The next council meeting will be held 
in Washington, Sept. 18, the day before 
Solidarity Day. 


Board ^ Calls Up the Ranks ’ for Solidarity Day 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tive, powerful expression of protest against 
the policies of the Reagan Administration.” 

AFL-CIO Vice President Peter Bom- 
marito, speaking for the council in strong 
support of the resolution, said Solidarity 
Day is “a fitting expression of who we are, 
what we do and why we trade unionists 
banded together in the first place.” 

BOMMARITO, the president of the 
Rubber Workers, ran down the list of of- 
fenses against workers: 

• The “calloused and brazen” attempt 
to undermine the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act and the Mine Safety Act. 

• The effort to impose federal criminal 
sanctions against strikers involved in picket- 
line altercations, but not against manage- 
ment representatives committing the same 
offenses. 

• The assault on prevailing wage pro- 
tections that cover employees of federal 
contractors. 

• The undermining of overtime stan- 
dards under the Walsh-Healey Act. 

• An economic “game plan” that en- 
courages record high interest rates, threat- 
ens rising unemployment and fails to con- 
tain inflation. 

• Income tax policies that shift an ever 
greater share of the burden to the pay- 
checks of workers. 

• The move to slash social security 
benefits for the elderly, widows and their 
children, and the disabled. 

Throughout that litany, Bommarito said, 
“the common theme is to repress workers 
and quiet the voice they can express 
through their unions.” 


In discussion from the floor, a dozen 
speeches representing a broad cross-section 
of American unions were as one in con- 
demning the Reagan Administration’s poli- 
cies and pledging strong participation by 
their members in the Solidarity Day pro- 
test in September. 

KIRKLAND OBSERVED that Presi- 
dent Reagan himself issued the challenge 
to organized labor that led to the call for 
Solidarity Day. He referred to Reagan’s 
comment on union officials last Feb. 19 
that “I happen to think that sometimes 
they’re out of step with their own rank 
and file. They certainly were in the last 
election.” 

“Reagan has thrown down the gauntlet,” 
Kirkland observed. “He claims his victims 
as allies. He would make working people 
accomplices in his assault on their interests. 

“I do not believe that we can quietly 
turn our backs and walk away from this 
challenge, and still be true to our man- 
date. . . . 

“We are not free to pick and choose our 
principles according to public opinion polls 
or media fashions. 

“WE ARE NOT free to favor social 
security one day and acquiesce in its dis- 
memberment the next. . . . 

“We are not free to favor the minimum 
wage, health and safety regulations, un- 
employment insurance, aid to education, 
food stamps, tax justice, public service 
jobs, and equal rights one day, and then 
discover on the next that these were mere- 
ly ways of the government ‘getting on our 
backs.’ ” 

Kirkland noted that labor over the past 
hundred years has been no stranger to 
rallies and demonstrations, although nor- 


mally it tends to rely on other methods of 
expression and persuasion — lobbying, po- 
litical action, education, organizing and 
collective bargaining. 

“But these are not normal times,” Kirk- 
land stressed. 

“We are not challenged on this or that 
specific issue. What is challenged is a 
broad range of programs, which we helped 
to create, and which rescued millions from 
the economic jungle. 

“WHAT IS challenged is a philosophy 
of government,” the AFL-CIO president 
declared. 

He cited the Administration’s often ex- 
pressed attitude that government is an 
oppressive burden on the backs of the 
people. 

“Ironically,” he commented, “the func- 
tions of government most burdensome to 
the people, in this Administration’s view, 
are those that minister to the needs of the 
people whom the free market leaves be- 
hind. These unfortunates, according to the 
Reagan philosophy, are also burdened by 
government — ^burdened by social security, 
burdened by food stamps, burdened by 
unemployment insurance. To remove this 
burden from their backs, David Stockman 
has proclaimed that nobody is entitled to 
anything from government.” 

But labor has a different philosophy of 
government, Kirkland stressed. 

IT IS NOT for big government as an end 
in itself, he said, and having “a long mem- 
ory,” it approaches all government with 
“a healthy skepticism and vigilance.” 

“But in a democratic society,” he said, 
“the people have the right to shape the 
government into an instrument that meets 
their needs.” 


Kirkland noted that at one time the gov- 
ernment was not an instrument of the 
people, when most citizens, including the 
majority who were women, were denied 
the right to vote, and the government be- 
longed to “white men of property” and 
“served the interests of those who owned 
it.” 

Through protest, struggle and organiza- 
tion, he said, the people were able to re- 
shape government “into an instrument for 
the reduction of gross inequality and in- 
justice,” making it more nearly a govern- 
ment “of, for and by the people.” 

“THIS IS the kind of government we 
helped to build — and are still working to 
perfect,” he said. “This is the kind of 
government the Administration seeks to 
dismantle.” 

Taking note of the federation’s centen- 
nial year, Kirkland observed that labor’s 
own mandate has been built and tested 
over a century of struggle and achieve- 
ment. 

“It is time to renew our mandate,” he 
told the general board. 

Foreign Trade Deficit 
Surges in Second Quarter 

The nation’s trade deficit, measured on 
the so-called balance of payments basis, 
expanded sharply in the April- June quar- 
ter as a stronger dollar made American- 
made goods less competitive overseas. 

The Commerce Dept, reported the 
second-quarter deficit was $6.99 billion, 
up from a first-quarter trade deficit of $4.6 
billion. About one-quarter of the increase 
in imports was due to the increased cost 
of imported oil. 


Page Four 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C, AUGUST 8, 1981 



REPORTERS’ QUESTIONS are fielded by AFL-CIO Pres- spoke of Solidarity Day, and of the labor movement’s soli- 
ident Lane Kirkland during a news conference between darity with striking air traffic controllers standing up against 
sessions of the Executive Council meeting in Chicago. He mass firings, heavy fines and jail sentences. 


New Tax Bill Takes from Workers 
To Give to Corporations^ Wealthy 


Chicago — ^The tax cut bill passed by 
Congress at the Administration’s insis- 
tence will “shift hundreds of billions of 
dollars from the paychecks and programs 
that sustain working Americans to the 
rich and corporations,” the AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council charged. 

The council cited revenue losses that 
will mount from $36 billion in fiscal 1982 
to an estimated $250 billion in the fifth 
year. Most of the benefits will go to the 
most prosperous corporations and to the 
wealthiest individuals. 

“THESE ARE funds that should be 
channeled and directed to creating jobs,” 
the council insisted. 

It said the revenue that will be given up 
is needed for “revitalizing and rebuilding 
the nation’s cities, industries and distressed 
areas; meeting the needs of the poor, the 
old and the disadvantaged, and providing 
an effective and fair reduction in the tax 
burdens of moderate- and middle-income 
Americans who are paying more than their 
fair share.” 


Chicago — ^The unrestrained corporate 
growth by mergers and acquisitions must 
be better controlled and regulated in the 
national interest, or all Americans will 
suffer, the AFL-CIO warned. 

“These giant corporations try to domi- 
nate and control not only specific business 
activities but seek to influence the entire 
U.S. economy and society,” the Executive 
Council charged in a statement, here. 

“THEIR INTERESTS are frequently 
inimical to that of workers and individual 
taxpayers and contrary to America’s basic 
economic, political, and social goal$.” 

The “merger fever” is rapidly rising, the 
council noted, adding that the rate of 
corporate mergers increased a third faster 
in the first half of 1981 than in the same 
period of 1980. DuPont, Mobil, and Sea- 
gram — all giants in their own right— have 
seized center stage in the battle for con- 
trol of Conoco, the nation’s ninth largest 
oil company, it pointed out. 

“But cash-rich oil giants like Exxon, 
Gulf, Standard Oil of California, and 
Texaco, with billions of dollars on tap, 
are on the prowl for still more corporate 
mergers and acquisitions,” the council 
observed. “Their merger mania makes a 
joke of the theory that big windfall oil 
company profits would go into new invest- 
ment in energy exploration and develop- 
ment.” 

CONSUMERS clearly suffer from con- 
centrated economic power resulting from 
merger and acquisitions of corporate 
giants, the AFL-CIO warned, yet the 
Reagan Administration sees nothing wrong 
in the monopolization of America. 

“Conglomerate mergers and multina- 
tional corporations’ decisions to shift pro- 


The council statement scored the Ad- 
ministration tax bill as the product of “pri- 
vate greed, political expediency and trickle- 
down theories” of economics. 

IT WARNED that “shoestring public 
budgets” will add to social tensions as 
well as economic problems. The huge rev- 
enue loss will “assure a continuance of 
inflation and sky-high interest rates.” 

And it contrasted the difference between 
the modest tax reduction of a typical work- 
ing family and the 12 times greater sav- 
ings to a family with a $100,000 income 
over the three-year period. 

Business taxes will be slashed by more 
than $170 billion between now and 1986, 
the council statement projected. That 
would drop the effective corporate tax rate 
from about 30 percent at current levels to 
14 percent. 

OVER THE SAME period, the council 
said, the tax changes will reduce the cor- 
porate share of federal income tax receipts 
from 21 percent to 12 percent. And cor- 


duction to overseas plants often result in 
plant closings and plant shutdowns that 
throw workers and local communities on 
the scrap heap,” the council said. “Job 
loss and loss of local industry are inevita- 
ble as corporations concentrate on profits 
and ignore their social responsibilities to 
workers and communities.” 

The council recommended the follow- 
ing measures to check the growing merger 
trend: 

• Require federal chartering of corpo- 
rations with more than $1 billion in assets 
or sales. 

• Require major oil companies to di- 
vest their holdings in other sources of 
energy and to be limited to only a single 
aspect of the oil industry. The major oil 
firms should be strictly prohibited from 
acquiring, by merger or otherwise, other 
companies with assets of more than $100 
million each. 

• The President and the Federal Re- 
serve Board should use their existing 
powers to require the allocation of bank 
credit to productive uses and not for 
corporate mergers and acquisitions. This 
would protect small business, consumers, 
and the housing industry. 

• Congressional enactment of legisla- 
tion enabling consumers, business, and 
government victims of corporate price- 
fixing to recover triple damages, even if 
they were not direct customers of the 
price-fixing violations. 

• To protect the economic rights of 
workers and their communities against 
plant closings and plant relocations, busi- 
ness firms relocating or shutting down a 
plant should be required to give early 
advance notice and to provide aid to 
affected workers and communities. 


porate taxes will drop from 12 percent of 
the federal budget to an estimated 8 per- 
cent of the budget. 

Even that doesn’t take into account the 
full tilt of the Administration tax bill, the 
council noted. It cited also: 

• Near elimination of the federal estate 
and gift tax. 

• Special “savings incentives which ben- 
efit higher income individuals, completely 
exclude those who are unable to save, con- 
tribute nothing to the level of funds avail- 
able for productive investment and height- 
en the competition for available funds.” 

• Still more “tax preference to oil pro- 
ducers, oil royalty owners and corporate 
executives.” 

Congress gave final approval to the tax 
bill while the Executive Council was in 
session, approving a House-Senate con- 
ference agreement on similar bills passed 
by both bodies. 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
made a last-minute effort to get the Senate 
to send the bill back to conference because 
it included a number of special concessions 
to oil producers and royalty holders that 
had been added by the House. He said 
the bill’s exemptions from last year’s oil 
windfall profits tax would cost $33 billion 
in needed revenues over the next 10 years. 
But the recommittal motion was beaten, 
55-20. 

THE EXECUTIVE Council statement 
reiterated the AFL-CIO’s support for “a 
carefully designed tax reduction program.” 
The federation had proposed a social se- 
curity tax credit for workers, a smaller 
credit for employers, and business tax con- 
cessions carefully targeted to reindustrial- 
ization goals set by a tripartite body. 

It stressed that the AFL-CIO “will con- 
tinue to press for a tax structure that is 
based upon ability to pay and that assures 
a public sector adequately equipped to 
deal with the economic, social and defense 
needs of the nation.” 


Berlin Wall 
Still Barrier 
To Freedom 

Chicago — ^The AFL-CIO called on the 
United States government to use the oc- 
casion of the 20th anniversary of the 
construction of the Berlin Wall to char- 
acterize the structure for what it is: a 
continuing violation of hum^n rights and 
a major obstacle to peace, security, justice, 
and cooperation in Europe. 

“The wall must be demolished if there 
is to be lasting peace, security, justice and 
cooperation,” the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council said. The council urged the gov- 
ernment to raise the issue of the Berlin 
Wall’s continued existence in discussions 
on the implementation of the 1975 Hel- 
sinki agreement. 

“WE SHOULD make clear to the Soviet 
regime that the Berlin Wall dishonors the 
pledge made at Helsinki, and that the wall 
must be demolished,” the council state- 
ment said. Construction of the wall by 
the East German Communist regime, un- 
der control of Soviet occupation forces, 
began 20 years ago this month. 

In signing the Final Act of the Helsinki 
Conference on Security & Cooperation in 
Europe, the council observed. East Ger- 
many and the USSR solemnly undertook 
to “act in conformity with the purposes 
and principles of the Charter of the United 
Nations and with the Universal Declara- 
tion of Human Rights,” and agreed to 
make it their aim to facilitate freer move- 
ment and contacts . . . among persons.” 

The presence of the wall can no more 
be reconciled with the Helsinki pledge than 
could the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghan- 
istan, the council said. 

Describing the wall as a “monument to 
the inhumanity and to the economic and 
social failures of Communist dictator- 
ships,” the AFL-CIO pointed out that the 
barrier was built to prevent the mass flight 
of people trying to escape a regime which 
systematically denied its inhabitants funda- 
mental human rights. 

THE WALL was lengthened from Ber- 
lin to divide the German nation by bun- 
kers, mines, dog blockades, and enough 
barbed wire to encircle the globe. 

Despite these almost insurmountable 
obstacles, the council noted, people in 
East Germany have not stopped trying to 
escape. Hundreds have been killed or 
wounded trying to scale the wall, and 
thousands more dragged away before even 
reaching it. 

“We realize that there is a strong 
tendency among the leaders of Western 
countries after 20 years to accept this situ- 
ation, and no longer raise this issue,” the 
council said. 

“But we should not deceive ourselves. 
As long as Berlin and Germany are di- 
vided, peace in Europe is threatened. As 
long as Soviet rulers keep a city divided, 
denying freedom of movement for people 
they have encaged, no one should take 
seriously their talk of co-existence as 
‘detente.’ ” 


Attacks on Black Unions 
In South Africa Denounced 

Chicago— The AFL-CIO called on the Administration to protest the South 
African government’s latest attacks on unions of black workers, and to urge the 
South African government to recognize and accept workers’ basic trade union 
rights. 

The Executive Council urged all other groups which support free trade union 
principles to register a similar protest over the continuing , suppression of black 
workers’ rights in South Africa. 

Last February, the council noted, after decades of brutal suppression, the 
South African government claimed to be moving toward recognition of black 
trade unions. The events of the past few months, however, indicate that this was 
a false hope, the council said. 

“There is no disguising the fact that black trade unions are a major target of 
government reprisals,” the council observed. Fifty-seven trade unionists already 
have been arrested, it said, and many others are facing government pressure and 
intimidation. 


Corporate ‘Merger Fever’ 
Held Bad for Nation’s Health 



AFM30 NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C, AUGUST 8, 1981 


Pace Fire 


Scare Tactics Assailed 

Social Security Attacks 
Tied to Budget Motive 



MEXICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR President Fidel Velasquez is greeted 
by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at a luncheon during the Executive Coun- 
cil’s meeting in Chicago. The visit of Velasquez was in response to a long- 
standing invitation and epitomized the constructive and friendly relations be- 
tween the two federations and the workers of both countries. 

Neglect, Hostility Threaten 
Basic Civil Rights Protection 


Chicago — ^The biggest danger facing the 
social security system is not its financial 
ills but the Administration’s plans to slash 
benefits, the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
charged. 

The council accused the Administration 
of “gross exaggeration” of the financial 
woes of the system “to convince the pub- 
lic that major cuts are necessary to assure 
adequate financing.” 

WORKERS PRESENTLY employed, 
particularly those counting on early retire- 
ment, will bear the brunt of the proposed 
cutbacks, the council emphasized. 

The Administration is trying to conceal 
the fact that it is attempting to “balance 
the federal budget on the backs of the 
elderly,” the council declared. 

Including social security in the federal 
budget is “completely inappropriate,” the 
council said, pointing out that “long-term 
social security benefit entitlements should 
not be influenced by year-to-year varia- 
tions in the federal budget.” The system’s 
problems can be met without cutting bene- 
fits, the council asserted. 

THE COUNCIL urged Congress to 
“honor its commitment to American work- 
ers — those still at work, as well as those 
who have retired.” 

“It is inconceivable,” the council 
stressed, “that Congress would break that 
commitment after a 45-year record of 
responsible action on social security.” 

The Administration’s proposed benefit 
cuts would chop early retirement benefits 
by 43 percent, disability benefits by one- 
third and the overall program by 21-23 
percent. 

Hardest hit, the council pointed out, 
will be early retirees, most of whom are 
forced to leave their jobs because they are 
laid-off or in poor health. The cut would 
reduce the maximum early retirement 
benefit below the poverty level for anyone 
retiring next year at age 62. 

OTHER DESTRUCTIVE changes are 
proposed by the Administration, the coun- 
cil said, including postponement of the 
cost-of-living adjustments for all retirees 
and modification of the benefit formula so 
that all future retirees would get a 10 
percent cut. 

The Administration’s plan would also 
restrict the disability program by basing 
eligibility solely on medical criteria, and 
it would apply the lower disability maxi- 
mum family benefit to retirement and sur- 
vivors’ benefits. Also, children’s benefits 


Chicago — The Reagan Administration 
has proclaimed a backward philosophy of 
government that favors private wealth at 
the expense of workers and the poor, the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council charged. 

“The needs of complex 20th-Century 
societies cannot be met by 19th-Century 
political dogmas,” the council declared in 
a statement on the role of government. It 
added: 

“THE NOTION of an ever declining 
federal government, restricted to defense 
functions and monetary regulation, may 
have had a place in pre-industrial small- 
town America, but it is inappropriate to a 
society whose economy is dominated by 

Pennsylvania House Seal 
To Remain Democratic 

Labor-backed Joseph F. Smith was 
elected to the House from a Philadelphia 
district, and will be counted as a Democrat 
even though he ran as an independent with 
Republican endorsement. 

Smith, a Democratic member of the 
state Senate, lost the Democratic primary 
to David B. Glancey last May, but easily 
won the general election. 

He will replace Democrat Raymond E. 
Lederer, who resigned after his conviction 
for involvement in an Abscam case. 


would be eliminated in early retirement 
cases and, benefits accrued to public work- 
ers from other employment would be 
denied. 

The council commended the House of 
Representatives for its vote to block elimi- 
nation of the social security minimum 
benefit as called for in the budget recon- 
ciliation bill. It urged the Senate to also 
act to rescind the cut. 

Unless the cut is rescinded, some 3.1 
million current beneficiaries will see their 
checks shrink. Among these are some of 
the nation’s poorest retirees, the council 
said, including a “disproportionate” num- 
ber of elderly women. 

The AFL-CIO, which has supported the 
social security system since its beginning, 
has suggested alternatives to help solve 
the system’s current financial problems, 
the-council stressed. 

For example, the Old Age & Survivor’s 
Insurance fund’s short-term financial dif- 
ficulties could be handled by interfund 
borrowing — ^loans from other trust funds 
in the system now running surpluses. 

The council recommended strengthen- 
ing these short-term solutions with standby 
authority for borrowing from general 
funds. This would permit review of any 
changes in the system “in a calmer atmos- 
phere free from the pressures of the budget- 
cutting mania which inhibits thoughtful, 
responsible legislation,” the statement 
declared. 

The AFL-CIO believes payroll taxes 
should be supplemented by general rev- 
enue funding as the “fairest and most 
feasible” way to cope with the system’s 
financial strains and avoid future increases 
in the social security tax, the council 
pointed out. A first step, the council said, 
would be to finance half the cost of 
Medicare from general revenues. 

THE COUNCIL’S statement made clear 
that while AFL-CIO unions have many 
retirees, “most union members are con- 
tributors to — not beneficiares of — the so- 
cial security program.” 

There will not be a breach between 
beneficiaries and contributors over this 
issue, the council stressed, explaining “the 
elderly of today are our parents and grand- 
parents. Social security allows them to 
retire with dignity and to avoid being a 
financial burden on their children. All of 
us will be senior citizens some day and all 
of us have a stake in making this retire- 
ment system as good as it can be and 
keeping it secure.” 


ever larger corporations and conglomer- 
ates, which exists in an interdependent 
world economy, and which faces burgeon- 
ing problems of unemployment, urban 
blight, transportation, education, health 
and housing.” 

It was precisely because the so-called 
free market proved incapable of addressing 
such problems that the American people 
turned to the government, enlarging its 
role and looking to it as an instrument for 
the protection of rights and the promotion 
of social justice, the council stressed. 

It cited such federal achievements as 
rural electrification, the railroad and inter- 
state highway systems, public works, re- 
forestation, soil conservation, the rescue 
of failing banks and the cushioning of the 
nation “against the cruelties of the busi- 
ness cycle.” This progress, the council 
pointed out, benefitted not only the peo- 
ple, but private business as well. 

THE COUNCIL also pointed to the 
federal government’s role in providing jobs 
for the unemployed, striking down Jim 
Crow laws, guaranteeing voting rights for 
minorities, expanding educational oppor- 
tunities, setting health and safety stan- 
dards on the job, providing medical care 
for the needy, establishing social security 
for the elderly and creating a “minimal 
security net” for the victims of the free 
market. 


Chicago — ^The AFL-CIO warned that 
the nation’s basic civil rights protections 
are threatened by neglect or hostility from 
the Reagan Administration and reaffirmed 
labor’s commitment to the effective ad- 
ministration and enforcement of those 
measures 

The Executive Council noted that the 
Administration and its conservative sup- 
porters in Congress “have all but com- 
pleted their effort to dismantle federal pro- 
grams” that have given a measure of eco- 
nomic dignity to the jobless, the aged and 
the disadvantaged. 

‘THERE IS every indication that the 
next target will be some of the major fed- 
eral civil rights laws enacted to enhance 
the economic, political and social rights 
of the victims of discrimination,” the 
council said. 

It stressed that the job of providing 
women and minorities with a full measure 
of equal opportunity is far from over. 

“We recognize how much remains to 
be done by all of us,” the council said, 
“and we reaffirm our commitment” to 
such measures as the Voting Rights Act, 
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the 
executive order designed to counter dis- 
crimination by government contractors, 
and “the major measure that must be 
added to our Constitution” — the Equal 
Rights Amendment 


“Thus, according to the Administration, 
did the government climb on the backs 
of the people,” the council statement ob- 
served. 

It said the Administration is now trying 
to persuade the people that all this was “a 
colossal historic mistake” and that they 
should turn once more to the very market 
forces that failed to meet their needs. 

“To reduce the protective role of gov- 
ernment while encouraging an increasing 
concentration of corporate power is not 
an exercise in expanding freedom,” the 
council observed. “It is nothing more than 
a shift of power from democratically 
shaped institutions.” 

The council said the Administration is 
engaging in “regressive engineering” that 
would distribute the rewards upward and 
the burdens downward on the economic 
ladder “in the name of supply-side eco- 
nomics.” 

The common theme that runs through 
all the Administration’s policies — eco- 
nomic, social and political — is “a bias 
in favor of private wealth, an indifference 
to workers and the poor, and a hostility 
to government efforts to protect their in- 
terests,” the council declared. 

“There is nothing new in this philosophy 
of government, and nothing to commend 
it to the labor movement or to the Ameri- 
can people.” 


“Passive reliance on promises of vol- 
untary action has proved unavailing,” 
the council statement observed. “The un- 
deniable truth is that, standing alone, all 
the pledges and guarantees of equal op- 
portunity are meaningless. Only aggres- 
sive action to open doors previously shut 
to women and minorities will work.” 

It reaffirmed the labor movement’s sup- 
port for positive programs of recruitment, 
hiring, training, upgrading, promotions 
and wage equalization to ensure that 
minorities and women gain equal access 
to jobs and equal treatment on the job. 

In taking note of the AFL-CIO’s cen- 
tennial year, the council traced the rec- 
ord of the federation’s support for equal 
rights dating back to Samuel Gompers and 
its vigorous efforts to win enactment of 
the major civil rights laws now on the 
nation’s statute books. To carry those 
efforts forward, the council called specifi- 
cally for: 

• Prompt passage of the bill reported 
by the House Judiciary Committee to ex- 
tend the Voting Rights Act. 

• Rejection by Congress of proposals 
to limit or prohibit the courts and Justice 
Dept, from carrying out their constitu- 
tional obligations. 

• Maintaining the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission’s vigilant role 
through the presidential appointment of 
“strong and knowledgeable people” to 
policy-making positions on the commission 
and provision of sufficient staff and budget. 

• Continuation and strong enforcement 
of the program to counter discrimination 
by federal contractors and an end to the 
“backsliding” evident in the Labor Dept’s 
proposals to weaken and reduce the pro- 
gram. 

More Aid Asked 
For Viet Veterans 

Chicago — ^The government should stop 
shortchanging Vietnam veterans and pro- 
vide them with extra services suited to 
their special needs, the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council urged. 

The problems facing men and women 
who served in Vietnam have been ignored 
“in an effort to erase from our minds” 
the war, the council said in a statement. 

These difficulties, including higher than 
average unemployment, lack of job skills 
and health problems which grew out of 
their service experience should be faced. 
Vietnam veterans need extra job training 
and placement help, the council said, and 
they should be extended the education and 
housing assistance provided to veterans of 
other wars. 

Facilities such as the storefront rehabili- 
tation centers already in existence in many 
communities are particularly suited to these 
“forgotten” ex-GI’s needs, the council 
pointed out 


‘Backward ^ Philosophy of Government Hit 



Page Six 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Tilted Against Workers 

C ONGRESS, spurred and goaded by the Administration, is on 
a tax cutting spree for business and the wealthy and against 
workers that defies logic, precedent and fair play. 

A combination of private greed, political expediency and trickle- 
down theories has produced a tax bill that will: 

• Shift hundreds of billions of dollars from the paychecks and 
programs that sustain working Americans to the rich and the 
corporations. 

• Add to the economic problems and social tensions that are 
the inevitable result of shoestring public budgets financed by in- 
equitable tax structures. 

# Assure a continuance of inflation and sky-high interest rates. 

In fiscal year 1982 the Administration’s measure amounts to a 
$36 billion drain of the treasury — by 1986 the annual loss will 
be $250 billion. Between now and 1986 over $730 billion in 
revenues will be lost and approximately half of that amount will 
go to business and the wealthiest 5 to 10 percent of the population. 

THESE ARE FUNDS that should be channeled and directed 
to creating jobs; revitalizing and rebuilding the nation’s cities, 
industries and distressed areas; meeting the needs of the poor, the 
old and disadvantaged; and providing an effective and fair reduc- 
tion in the tax burdens of moderate- and middle-income Ameri- 
cans who are paying far more than their fair share. 

Business taxes will be slashed by over $170 billion between 
now and 1986. As a result, the corporate income tax by 1986 
will account for only 14 percent of federal income tax receipts 
compared to 21 percent currently and only 8 percent of the total 
budget compared to 12 percent currently. 

Effective corporate income tax rates will plunge from current 
levels of approximately 30 percent down to 14 percent. 

The basic individual and business income tax cuts, however, do 
not tell the whole story of the massive shift that is being under- 
taken in the responsibility for financing the nation. Congress, 
again with the Administration’s blessing, has included an array 
of other costly and unfair measures which widen the tax avoidance 
opportunities for the wealthy. 

AMONG THE most glaring are provisions which would: 

• Nearly eliminate the federal estate and gift tax. 

♦ Provide a variety of so-called “savings” incentives which 
benefit higher income individuals, completely exclude those who 
are unable to save, contribute nothing to the level of funds avail- 
able for productive investment and heighten the competition for 
available funds. 

# Provide even more tax preferences to oil producers, oil roy- 
alty owners and corporate executives. 

The AFL-CIO will continue to press for a tax structure that is 
based upon ability to pay and that assures a public sector ade- 
quately equipped to deal with the economic, social and defense 
needs of the nation. 

— From an AFL-CIO Executive Council statement adopted 
Aug, 3, 1981, in Chicago, 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

♦ Deceased. 


Executive CouncU 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll ♦ 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


Director of Information: Saul Miller e 

Managing Editor: John M. Barry e 

Assistant Editors: = 

John R. Oravec 1 

James M. Shevis E 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. s 

Washington, D.C. 20006 = 

Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

VoL XXVI Saturday, August 8 , 1981 No. 32 | 

The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C, 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. 5 

iniiiimiiiiiimiiii iiiiiw iiii iiiiillHlllllllllHlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllimiiB 



Tm Carrying the Stool!’ 


APMIMISTRATION'S 

TAY 

MOVING 
SeRVlCE 



iOMPARtiy PAV 7 

SEPT t<»^l98l 0 > 


Cotton Dust Ruling 


Rebuff to ‘Cost-Effective Claim 
Denies Industry License to Kill 


By Gus Tyler 

W ORKERS IN COTTON mills should not be 
exposed to the perils of cotton dust. That’s 
what a 1970 law clearly intended. 

But some employers found this to be unduly 
onerous. So they — together with the Reagan Ad- 
ministration — ^have been pushing the idea that 
the law should not be applied where it is not 
“cost effective.” In other words, if it is too ex- 
pensive, it should be exempt. 

By a vote of 5-3, the Supreme Court ruled out 
the “cost-effective” argument. As Justice William 
J. Brennan put it: “Congress itself defines the 
basic relationship between costs and benefits by 
placing the ‘benefit’ of worker health above all 
other considerations, save those making attain- 
ment of this ‘benefit’ unachievable.” 

THIS FORTHRIGHT decision has shocked 
many in the business community. “How could 
the court be so insensitive to the economic factor, 
to the basic need to calculate cost effectiveness?” 
They scratch their heads in disbelief over the 
unrealistic attitude of the justices. 

Yet, what would happen if we applied the cost- 
effective logic to all our basic laws? For instance: 

“Thou shall not kill unless it is cost effective.” 

It’s not difficult to imagine an imaginary case. 
I am threatened with death by someone. I proceed 
to surround myself with an expensive bodyguard; 
I buy a costly armored car to convey my mortal 
parts; I employ detectives. The bill keeps running 
up. 

I FIND OUT that for a much smaller sum I can 
contract to kill the man who menaces me. So 
after my accountant has tallied the sheets, I con- 
clude that the “cost-effective” thing for me to do 
is to hire a hit man. 

I go to the courts charged with murder. My 
defense is clear. I did what was cost effective. 
After all, I should not be expected to heed the 
dictum that “thou shalt not kill” if to follow that 
rule would be cost ineffective. 

The analogy between the commandment on 
killing and the law on cotton dust is really not 
so far-fetched. When Congress laid down the 
law on preventing the poisoning of the respira- 
tory system, it was doing little more than imple- 
menting the order not to kill. 


Cotton dust kills — perhaps not always and not 
instantaneously. But it does kill many eventually. 

Congress was so convinced. So it moved to 
stop the killing. In effect, it wrote a law that said: 
“Thou shalt not kill with a weapon called dust.” 

It did not say that thou shalt not kill unless it 
is cheaper to kill. To do so, would be like saying 
“thou shalt not commit adultery unless you en- 
joy it.” 

Copyright 1981. Gus Tyler Colunms 
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

A Challenge for Labor 
To Renew Its Mandate 

The mandate of the trade union movement 
imposes special obligations. Each of us is bound 
by a sacred trust to represent faithfully the 
interests of our members, and, by natural and 
logical extension, the interests of the working 
people of America. That is our mandate. 

It was built and tested over the century of 
struggle and achievement we celebrate this year. 

Now in our centennial year, that mandate is 
challenged. The challenge comes from an Ad- 
ministration which seeks to conceal the radical 
character of its program by claiming the sup- 
port of those who would suffer the most from 
its execution. 

I do not believe we can quietly turn our backs 
and walk away from this challenge and still be 
true to our mandate. Our job, knowing what we 
know, is to resist that injustice and to prevent 
the damage — not to wait until disaster strikes 
in the hope of turning workers’ misery to later 
political advantage. 

It is time to call op the ranks. It is time to 
muster our friends and allies. It is time to draw 
upon our ultimate source of strength and to call 
upon those in whose name we speak to come 
forth in a display of solidarity for a humane and 
fair America. 

It is time to renew our mandate. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in an 
address to the General Board, Aug. 6, 1981, 
in Chicago. 

iiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiilniiiiiiiiiiim 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Page Seven 


Wage Standards, Job Safety 

Worker Safeguards Threatened 
By Assault on Key Regulations 


The following is from a statement adopted by 
the AFL-CIO Executive Council Aug. 3, 1981, 
in Chicago. 

^T^HE REAGAN Administration is engaged in a 
broad attack on regulations designed to pro- 
tect workers. The attack is all-inclusive. The 
objective is to gut standards already on the books; 
to postpone indefinitely standards which were 
scheduled to go into effect; to reinterpret existing 
regulations so as to narrow their scope, and to 
generally reduce enforcement so that employers 
may violate with impunity. 

To achieve the ends to which it aspires — a 
pro-business, regulation-free environment — the 
Reagan Administration has appointed officials 
with little or no knowledge or experience and 
only limited interest in determining the purpose 
of the regulations and the situations which they 
were designed to correct. Decision-making on 
regulations is usurped from the responsible agen- 
cies by the Office of Management & Budget 
through a new Executive Order (12291). 

DURING THE YEARS 1978 and 1979, the 
Dept, of Labor made a careful review of the ad- 
ministrative rules covering the Davis-Bacon and. 
Service Contract Acts. On the basis of this re- 
view, revised regulations were issued in January 
1981. These regulations have now been em- 
bargoed and new changes under consideration by 
the Reagan Administration would seriously un- 
dermine the effectiveness of these statutes. 

For example, the Administration is considering 
the elimination of the Davis-Bacon reporting re- 
quirement essential in the determination of com- 
pliance. Further, the Administration is proposing 
a new method of establishing prevailing wages 
under Davis-Bacon which would no longer protect 
prevailing wage rates and would — instead — per- 
mit employers to compete for contracts on the 
basis of cut-rate wages and cut-rate classifications. 

Under the Service Contract Act half of all con- 
tracts currently covered would be excluded from 
coverage by changing the definition from con- 
tracts substantially for services to principally for 
service. 

THE STANDARDS for labor protection in- 
corporated in the Urban Mass Transit Act are also 
under attack. These protections have assured 
workers in the mass transit industry that their 
basic wages, working conditions and job security 
would be maintained. 

The Secretary of Labor has been sending 
mixed signals as to his intentions under the Fair 
Labor Standards Act. He has led strike force 
raids on sweatshops in the apparel industry at the 
same time as he has proposed revoking the regu- 
lations prohibiting industrial homework. 

He seems to have been totally unaware of the 
horrors of industrial homework — substandard 
wages, child labor, long hours of work and unsafe 
and unhealthy working conditions. 

He proposes stricter penalties for noncompli- 
ance with the provisions of the Fair Labor Stan- 
dards Act at the same time as he reduces the 
number of compliance officers. 

Seidman Scores Scare Talk 


He indicates that he will pos^ne any rec- 
ommendation with rq)sect to a subminimum 
wage for youth imtil ^ter the Minimum Wage 
Study Commission completes its work. However, 
within a month after the commission issued its 
report rejecting a youth subminimum, he stated 
that he favors a “youth differential” or special 
subminimum for disadvantaged teenagers. 

He has apparently ♦ decided to maintain a 
“freeze” on amended regulation 541 issued as a 
Final Rule by the Dept, of Labor on Jan. 13. 
This regulation would have increased the mini- 
mum salary tests necessary for an employee to 
be considered a bona fide executive, administra- 
tive or professional employee for exemption from 
the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act. 

The present salary tests are so low as to be 
meaningless for the purpose for which they were 
intended. Under the present law a nonexempt 
employee earning the minimum wage would be 
paid $174 a week for a 48-hour week. An exempt 
executive or administrative employee working the 
same number of hours would meet the salary test 
for exemption if paid only $155 a week. 

IN THE AREA OF occupational safety and 
health, the Administration has moved swiftly to 
wipe out major gains in worker protection of the 
past four years. Attacks have been made on 
standards for cotton dust, lead, hazards identifica- 
tion, walkaround compensation, hearing conser- 
vation, cancer policy, and access to medical 
records. These regulations have been postponed 
illegally, targeted for weakening or revoked 
entirely. 

The Administration’s attempts to roll back 
worker protections under the guise of a cost- 
benefit test have been slowed down by recent 
Supreme Court decisions which upheld OSHA’s 
cotton dust and lead standards, as well as the 
AFL-CIO position that cost-benefit analysis was 
prohibited by the OSHA legislation. 

But OSHA has announced it will merely sub- 
stitute “cost-effectiveness” analysis for “cost- 
benefit” analysis in continued efforts to weaken 
these and other rules. 

IN ADDITION to weakening standards in the 
area of occupational safety and health, enforce- 
ment will be watered down. For example, in 
states where there is dual federal and state juris- 
diction, federal compliance activities will end Oct. 
1, 1981. Decisions made by the previous Ad- 
ministration to withdraw inadequate state plans 
in Indiana and Virginia have been reversed 
though the glaring deficiencies in these programs 
still exist. Also, drastic cuts are being made in 
OSHA enforcement. 

The AFL-CIO will continue to monitor the 
actions of this Administration as they affect 
worker standards. If the officials charged with the 
enforcement of labor laws continue to under- 
mine them, we will bring appropriate legal action 
to enforce the laws that were established to pro- 
tect basic worker standards. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

H igh on the list of Reagan Administration bugbears is 
government regulation — “deregulation” being one of the 
pillars of the Administration’s program for “economic recovery.” 

The Administration, like big industry, has blamed regulation 
of the workplace and environment for a multitude of evils: exces- 
sive costs to business, inflation and unemployment increases, pro- 
ductivity declines, slowdowns in capital investment, and more. 

Now the Council on Economic Priorities has produced a study, 
“Occupational Safety and Health in the Chemical Industry,” by 
Ruth Ruttenberg and Randall Hudgins, which begins to dispel 
some of the rhetorical accusations concerning Occupational Safety 
& Health Administration regulations and enforcement activities. 

Ruttenberg and Hudgins, both economic analysts, studied data 
from OSHA, primary chemical producers, the Commerce Dept, 
and Federal Reserve Reports for the period 1972-1979. They 
especially focused on the eight largest chemical companies: Du- 
Pont, Dow, Union Carbide, Monsanto, W. R. Grace, Allied 
Chemical, American Cyanamid, and Celanese. 

THE STUDY FOUND that over the eight-year period, the 
chemical industry performed well. Total industry sales increased 
165 percent. After-tax profit for the eight largest companies in- 
creased 160 percent. 

Significantly, output per production worker manhour increased 
from 7.4 percent per year in the pre-OSHA period, 1966-1971, 
to 7.8 percent in the 1971-1976 post-OSHA period. 

The chemical industry spent some $1.4 billion on health and 
safety over the eight-year period, according to the study. This 
works out to about 0.16 percent of 1979 sales or an average of 
only 2.9 percent of total capital expenditures for new plant and 
equipment over the period. 

The annual cost of health and safety per worker was only 
$140, according to the study. 

The report estimates that the $140 per worker annual invest- 
ment produced a 23 percent decline in occupational injury and 
illness between 1972 and 1979. 

The authors also pointed out that the chemical companies had 
spent millions of dollars in legal fees fighting OSHA regulations 
and enforcement activities. The companies did this even though 
the average penalty for a chemical company over the eight-year 
period amounted to only $74.79 per citation. 

“Fees to engineers to abate hazards rather than fees to lawyers 
to abate already low penalties might be a more cost-effective way 
to promote safety and health,” the authors suggest. 

THE STUDY addressed other byproducts of regulation, such 
as the fact that improved safety and health reduces the cost of 
workers’ compensation insurance for the industry and prevents 
major losses of plant and equipment caused by incidents such 
as fire and explosion. 

The Administration’s policy requiring that all federal regula- 
tions be subjected to so-called “cost-benefit” analysis has been 
attacked by labor and others as having no moral basis. Critics 
argue that the cost of human suffering and death cannot be 
equated in dollars and cents. 

The OSHA law has the principle of feasibility written into it. 
According to the act and the federal courts, a health and safety 
regulation must be technologically possible and the regulated 
industry must be able reasonably to afford compliance. 

Recognizing these feasibility concepts, OSHA through the 
years allowed industries generous time periods to comply with 
new standards. 

The Ruttenberg-Hudgins study on the chemical industry indi- 
cates that OSHA regulations are economically feasible and they 
are not the economic ogres industry and the Administration have 
made them out to be. 


Attacks on Social Security Tied 
To Reagan’s Political Motives 


T he ADMINISTRATION'S drive to slash so- 
cial security benefits is based on two political 
considerations that have nothing to do with any 
4scal problems or structural weaknesses in the 
system. Director Bert Seidman of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Social Security said. 

The first, Seidman said, is that the Adminis- 
tration really believes that the social security 
program should be “smaller and less effective.” 
The second, he said, is that it wants to build up, 
through benefit cuts, “a huge surplus” in social 
security funds that can be used to balance the 
^ budget. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Seidman 
stressed that despite scary talk that social secu- 


rity is on the brink of collapse, it faces no un- 
manageable problems. He said that current short- 
falls, caused by wages rising less rapidly than 
prices, can be met merely by borrowing among 
the three separate social security funds without 
going outside the system or reducing benefits. 

AS FOR LONG-TERM projections that a ris- 
ing number of retirees in relation to the number 
of active workers will strain the system after the 
year 2010, Seidman said, “that isn’t the whole 
story.” 

“What counts,” he declared, “is the total num- 
ber of dependents. While there will be more 
people over 65,” he pointed out, “the ‘total ratio’ 
won’t be any higher than it is now and somewhat 
lower than it was 10 and 20 years ago.” 



BENEFIT SLASHES in social security pursued by the Reagan 
Administration are based on political motivations rather than 
efforts to resolve funding problems. Director Bert Seidman, cen- 
ter, of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security charged. He was 
questioned on Labor News Conference by Calvin Zon, left, of 
Press Associates, Inc., and Lance Gay of the Washington Star. 
The program is broadcast weekly on Mutual radio. 


Pai^e Eight 


AFL^O NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Key House Rollcall on Tax Cut Issue 


On the AFL~C10*s ledger, the key House vote on the tax bill 
was the 288-144 rejection of a labor-supported substitute that 
would have been more equitable, less inflationary and would 
have slashed about $400 billion of the most shameful giveaways 
to the wealthy from the tax bill. 

Right votes (R) for the amendment sponsored by Rep, Morris 
K, Udall (D-Ariz.) were cast by 139 Democrats and 5 Repub- 
licans. Voting wrong (W) were 102 Democrats and 186 Republi- 
cans. 

Numerals show congressional districts. A — absent, P— present 
but not voting. 


AXABAMA 


1. Edwards (R) 

W 

2. Dickinson (R) 

W 

3. Nichols (D) 

R 

4. Bevill (D) 

R 

5. Flippo (D) 

R 

6. Smith (R) 

W 

7. Shelby (D) 

W 

ALASKA 

AL Young (R) 

W 

ARIZONA 

1. Rhodes (R) 

W 

2. Udall (D) 

R 

3. Stump (D) 

W 

4. Rudd (R) 

W 

ARKANSAS 

1. Alexander (D) 

R 

2. Bethune (R) 

W 

3. Hammerschmidt (R) 

W 

4. Anthony (D) 

W 

CALIFORNIA 

1. Chappie (R) 

W 

2. Clausen (R) 

W 

3. Malsui (D) 

W 

4. Fazio (D) 

R 

5. Burton, John (D) 

R 

6. Burton, Phillip (D) 

R 

7. Miller (D) 

R 

8. Dellums (D) 

R 

9. Stark (D). 

R 

10. Edwards (D) 

R 

11. Lantos(D) 

W 

12. McCloskey (R) 

W 

13. Mineta (D) 

W 

14. Shumway (R) 

W 

15. Coelho (D) 

W 

16. Panetta (D) 

R 

17. Pashayan (R) 

W 

18. Thomas (R) 

W 

19. Lagomarsino (R) 

W 

20. Goldwater (R) 

W 

21. Fiedler (R) 

W 

22. Moorhead (R) 

W 

23. Beilenson (D) 

R 

24. Waxman (D) 

R 

25. Roybal (D) 

R 

26. Rousselot (R) 

W 

27. Dornan (R) 

W 

28. Dixon (D) 

R 

29. Hawkins (D) 

R 

30. Danielson (D) 

R 

31. Dymally (D) 

R 

32. Anderson (D) 

R 

33. Grisham (R) 

W 

34. Lungren (R) 

W 

35. Dreier (R) 

W 

36. Brown (D) 

R 

37. I .ewis (R) 

W 

38. Patterson (D) 

R 

39. Dannemeyer (R) 

W 

40. Badham (R) 

W 

41. Lowery (R) 

W 

42. Hunter (R) 

W 

43. Buigener (R) 

W 

COLORADO 

1. Schroeder (D) 

W 

2. Wirth (D) 

W 

3. Kogovsek (D) 

R 

4. Brown (R) 

W 

5. Kramer (R) 

W 

CONNECTICUT 

1. (!'olter (D) 

A 

2. Gejdenson(D) 

R 

3. DeNardis(R) 

R 

4. McKinney (R) 

W 

5. Ratchford (D) 

R 

6. Moffett (D) 

R 

DELAWARE 

AL Evans (R) 

W 

FLORIDA 

1. Hutto (D) 

W 

2. Fuqua (D) 

W 

3. Bennett (D) 

R 

4. Chappell (D) 

W 

5. McCollum (R) 

W 

6. Young (R) 

W 

7. Gibbons (D) 

W 

8. Ireland (D) 

W 

9. Nelson (D) 

W 

10. Bafalis (R) 

W 

11. Mka (D) 

R 


12. Shaw(R) 

W 

13. Lehman (D) 

R 

14. Pepper (D) 

R 

15. Fascell (D) 

R 

GEORGIA 

1. Ginn (D) 

W 

2. Hatcher (D) 

W 

3. Brinkley (D) 

W 

4. Levitas (D) 

W 

5. Fowler (D) 

W 

6. Gingrich (R) 

W 

7. McDonald (D) 

W 

8. Evans (D) 

W 

9. Jenkins (D) 

W 

10. Barnard (D) 

W 

HAWAH 

1. Heftel (D) 

W 

2. Akaka (D) 

R 

IDAHO 

1. Craig (R) 

W 

2. Hansen (R) 

W 

ILUNOIS 

1. Washington (D) 

R 

2. Savage (D) 

P 

3. Russo (D) 

W 

4. Derwinski (R) 

W 

5. Fary (D) 

W 

6. Hyde (R) 

W 

7. Collins (D) 

R 

8. Rostenkowski (D) 

W 

9. Yates (D) 

R 

10. Porter (R) 

W 

11. Annunzio (D) 

W 

12. Crane, Philip (R) 

W 

13. McClory (R) 

W 

14. Erlenbom (R) 

W 

15. Corcoran (R) 

W 

16. Martin (R) 

W 

17. O’Brien (R) 

W 

18. Michel (R) 

W 

19. Railsback (R) 

W 

20. Findley (R) 

W 

21. Madigan (R) 

W 

22. Crane, Dan (R) 

W 

23. Price (D) 

W 

24. Simon (D) 

W 

INDIANA 

1. Benjamin (D) 

R 

2. Fithian (D) 

R 

3. Hiler (R) 

W 

4. Coats (R) 

W 

5. Hillis (R) 

W 

6. Evans (D) 

R 

7. Myers (R) 

W 

8. Deckard (R) 

W 

9. Hamilton (D) 

R 

10. Sharp (D) 

R 

11. Jacobs (D) 

R 

IOWA 

1. Leach (R) 

W 

2. Tauke (R) 

W 

3. Evans (R) 

W 

4. Smith (D) 

W 

5. Harkin (D) 

R 

6. Bedell (D) 

R 

KANSAS 

1. Roberts (R) 

W 

2. Jeffries (R) 

W 

3. Winn (R) 

W 

4. Glickman (D) 

W 

5. Whittaker (R) 

W 

KENTUCKY 

1. Hubbard (D) 

W 

2. Natcher (D) 

R 

3. Mazzoli (D) 

W 

4. Snyder (R) 

W 

5. Rogers (R) 

W 

6. Hopkins (R) 

W 

7. Perkins (D) 

R 

LOUISIANA 

1. Livingston (R) 

W 

2. Boggs (D) 

W 

3. Tauzin (D) 

W 

4. Roemer(D) 

W 

5. Huckaby (D) 

W 

6. Moore (R) 

W 

7. Breaux (D) 

W 

8. Long (D) 

W 

MAINE 

1. Emery (R) 

w 

2. Snowe (R) 

w 


MARYLAND 


1. Dyson (D) 

R 

2. Long (D) 

R 

3. Mikulski (D) 

R 

4. Holt (R) 

W 

5. Hoyer (D) 

R 

6. Byron (D) 

W 

7. Mitchell (D) 

R 

8. Barnes (D) 

R 

MASSACHUSETTS 

1. Conte (R) 

R 

2. Boland (D) 

R 

3. Early (D) 

R 

4. Frank (D) 

R 

5. Shannon (D) 

W 

6. Mavroules (D) 

R 

7. Markey (D) 

R 

8. O’Neill (D) Speaker 

9. Moakley (D) 

R 

10. Heckler (R) 

W 

11. Donnelly (D) 

R 

12. Studds (D) 

R 

MICHIGAN 

1. Conyers (D) 

R 

2. Pursell (R) 

W 

3. Wolpe (D) 

R 

4. Siljander(R) 

W 

5. Sawyer (R) 

W 

6. Dunn (R) 

R 

7. Kildee (D) 

R 

8. Traxler (D) 

W 

9. Vander Jagt (R) 

W 

10. Albosta (D) 

W 

11. Davis (R) 

W 

12. Bonior (D) 

R 

13. Crockett (D) 

R 

14. Hertel(D) 

R 

15. Ford (D) 

R 

16. Dingell (D) 

W 

17. Brodhead (D) 

R 

18. Blanchard (D) 

R 

19. Broomfield (R) 

W 

MINNESOTA 

1. Erdahl(R) 

W 

2. Hagedorn (R) 

W 

3. Frenzel (R) 

W 

4. Vento QD) 

R 

5. Sabo (D) 

R 

6. Weber (R) 

W 

7. Stangeland (R) 

W 

8. Oberstar (D) 

R 

MISSISSIPPI 

1. Whitten (D) 

R 

2. Bowen (D) 

W 

3. Montgomery (D) 

W 

4. Dowdy (D) 

W 

5. Lott (R) 

W 

MISSOURI 

1. Clay (D) 

R 

2. Young (D) 

W 

3. Gephardt (D) 

R 

4. Skeltpn (D) 

W 

5. Bolling (D) 

R 

6. Coleman (R) 

W 

7. Taylor (R) 

W 

8. Bailey (R) 

W 

9. Volkmer (D) 

W 

10. Emerson (R) 

W 

MONTANA 

1. WUliams (D) 

R 

2. Marlenee (R) 

W 

NEBRASKA 

1. Bereuter (R) 

W 

2. Daub (R) 

W 

3. Smith (R) 

W 

NEVADA 

AL Santini (D) 

W 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

1. D’ Amours (D) 

R 

2. Gregg (R) 

W 

NEW JERSEY 

1. Florio (D) 

R 

2. Hughes (D) 

R 

3. Howard (D) 

R 

4. Smith (R) 

W 

5. Fenwick (R) 

W 

6. Forsythe (R) 

W 

1. Roukema(R) 

W 

8. Roe (D) 

R 

9. Hollenbeck (R) 

R 

10. Rodino (D) 

R 

11. Minish (D) 

R 

12. Rinaldo (R) 

W 

13. Courier (R) 

W 

14. Guarini (D) 

R 

15. Dwyer (D) 

R 

NEW MEXICO 

1. Lujan (R) 

W 

2. Skeen (R) 

W 


NEW YORK 


1. Carney (R) 

W 

2. Downey (D) 

R 

3. Carman (R) 

W 

4. Lent (R) 

W 

5. McGrath (R) 

W 

6. LeBoutillier (R) 

W 

7. Addabbo (D) 

W 

8. Rosenthal (D) 

R 

9. Ferraro (D) 

R 

10. Biaggi (D) 

W 

11. Scheuer (D) 

R 

12. Chisholm (D) 

R 

13. Solarz (D) 

R 

14. Richmond (D) 

R 

15. Zeferetti (D) 

R 

16. Schumer^) 

R 

17. Molinari(R) 

W 

18. Green (R) 

W 

19. Rangel (D) 

R 

20. Weiss (D) 

R 

21. Garcia (D) 

R 

22. Bingham 

R 

23. Peyser (D) 

R 

24. Ottinger (D) 

R 

25. Fish (R) 

W 

26. Gilman (R) 

W 

27. McHugh (D) 

R 

28. Stratton (D) 

W 

29. Solomon (R) 

W 

30. Martin (R) 

W 

31. Mitchell (R) 

W 

32. Wortley(R) 

W 

33. Lee (R) 

W 

34. Horton (R) 

W 

35. Conable OR.) 

W 

36. LaFalce (D) 

R 

37. Nowak (D) 

W 

38. Kemp (R) 

W 

39. Lundine (D) 

R 

NORTH CAROLINA 

1. Jones (D) 

W 

2. Fountain (D) 

R 

3. Whitley (D) 

R 

4. Andrews (D) 

R 

5. Neal (D) 

R 

6. Johnston (R) 

W 

7. Rose (D) 

R 

8. Hefner (D) 

R 

9. Martin (R) 

W 

10. Broyhill (R) 

W 

11. Hendon (R) 

W 

NORTH DAKOTA 

AL Dorgan(D) 

w 

OHIO 

1. Gradison (R) 

W 

2. Luken (D) 

w 

3. Hall (D) 

w 

4. Oxley (R) 

w 

5. Latta (R) 

w 

6. McEwen (R) 

w 

7. Brown (R) 

w 

8. Kindness (R) 

w 

9. Weber (R) 

w 

10. Miller (R) 

w 

11. Stanton (R) 

w 

12. Shamansky(D) 

R 

13. Pease (D) 

R 

14. Seiberling (D) 

R 

15. Wylie (R) 

W 

16. Regula (R) 

W 

17. Ashbrook (R) 

W 

18. Applegate (D) 

W 

19. Williams (R) 

W 

20. Oakar (D) 

R 

21. Stokes (D) 

R 

22. Eckart(D) 

R 

23. Mottl (D) 

R 

OKLAHOMA 

1. Jones (D) 

w 

2. Synar (D) 

w 

3. Watkins (D) 

w 

4. McCurdy (D) 

w 

5. Edwards (R) 

w 

6. English (D) 

w 

OREGON 

1. AuCoin (D) 

w 

2. Smith (R) 

w 

3. Wyden(D) 

R 

4. Weaver (D) 

R 

PENNSYLVANIA 

1. Foglietta(D) 

R 

2. Gray (D) 

R 

3. Smith (D) 

R 

4. Dougherty (R) 

W 

5. Schulze (R) 

W 

6. Yatron (D) 

W 

7. Edgar (D) 

R 

8. Coyne, James (R) 

W 

9. Shuster (R) 

W 

10. McDade (R) 

W 

11. NeUigan(R) 

W 

12. Murtha 

R 


13. Coughlin (R) 

W 

14. Coyne, William (D) 

R 

15. Ritter (R) 

W 

16. Walker (R) 

W 

17. Ertel (D) 

R 

18. Walgren (D) 

W 

19. Goodling (R) 

W 

20. Gaydos (D) 

W 

21. Bailey (D) 

W 

22. Murphy (D) 

W 

23. Clinger (R) 

W 

24. Marks (R) 

W 

25. Atkinson (D) 

W 

RHODE ISLAND 

1. St Germain (D) 

W 

2. Schneider (R) 

W 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

1. Hartnett (R) 

W 

2. Spence (R) 

W 

3. Derrick (D) 

W 

4. Campbell (R) 

W 

5. Holland (D) 

W 

6. Napier (R) 

W 

SOUTH DAKOTA 

1. Daschle (D) 

w 

2. Roberts (R) 

w 

TENNESSEE 

1. Quillen (R) 

w 

2. Duncan (R) 

w 

3. Bouquard (D) 

w 

4. Gore (D) 

R 

5. Boner (D) 

W 

6. Beard (R) 

W 

7. Jones (D) 

W 

8. Ford (D) 

R 

TEXAS 

1. Hall, Sam (D) 

W 

2. WUson (D) 

W 

3. Collins (R) 

W 

4. Hall, Ralph (D) 

W 

5. Mattox (D) 

W 

6. Gramm (D) 

W 

7. Archer (R) 

W 

8. Fields (R) 

w 

9. Brooks (D) 

w 

10. Pickle (D) 

w 

11. Leath (D) 

w 

12. Wright (D) 

w 

13. Hightower (D) 

w 

14. Patman (D) 

w 

15. de la Garza (D) 

R 

16. White (D) 

W 

17. Stenholm (D) 

W 

18. Leland (D) 

R 

19. Hance (D) 

W 

20. Gonzalez (D) 

R 

21. I.oeffler (R) 

W 

22. Paul (R) 

W 

23. Kazen (D) 

W 

24. Frost (D) 

W 

UTAH 

1. Hansen (R) 

W 

2. Marriott (R) 

W 

VERMONT 

AL Jeffords (R) 

R 

VIRGINIA 

1. Trible (R) 

W 

2. Whitehurst (R) 

W 

3. Bliley (R) 

W 

4. Daniel, Robert (R) 

W 

5. Daniel. Dan (D) 

W 

6. Butler (R) 

W 

7. Robinson (R) 

W 

8. Parris (R) 

W 

9. Wampler (R) 

W 

10. Wolf (R) 

W 

WASHINGTON 

1. Pritchard (R) 

w 

2. Swift (D) 

R 

3. Bonker (D) 

R 

4. Morrison (R) 

W 

5. Foley (D ) 

W 

6. Dicks (D) 

W 

7. Lowry (D) 

R 

WEST VIRGINIA 


1. Mollohan (D) 

W 

2. Benedict (R) 

W 

3. Staton (R) 

W 

4. Rahall (D) 

W 

WISCONSIN 

1. Aspin (D) 

R 

2. Kastenmeier (D) 

R 

3. Gunderson (R) 

W 

4. Zablocki (D) 

R 

5. Reuss (D) 

R 

6. Petri (R) 

W 

7. Obey (D) 

R 

8. Roth (R) 

W 

9. Sensenbrenner (R) 

W 

WYOMING 

AL Cheney (R) 

W 


AFL^IO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Page Nina 


* Guest Worker* PUm Hit 

Employer Curbs Sought 
In Immigration Proposal 



AT HOUSE HEARINGS, a Government Employees delegation protests Ad- 
ministration plans to disperse the National Institute for Occupational Safety & 
Health to Atlanta and Cincinnati. AFGE President Kenneth Blaylock is joined 
at the witness table by Darlene Christian and Joseph Cook, officers of the AFGE 
local representing NIOSH employees, and Legislative Rep. Terry Rogers, right. 

Labor Scores Planned Shift 
Of NIOSH from Washington 


Chicago — ^The key to controlling illegal 
immigration is stiff penalties against em- 
ployers who hire illegal aliens, backed up 
by a secure identification system, the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council said. 

Its statement on immigration reform 
stressed that U.S. immigration policy is 
and has been in “disarray,” and urged 
Congress to provide “sound solutions” to 
the social, political and economic prob- 
lems involved. 

The Administration’s recently released 
proposals for immigration reform provide 
a “basis for action,” the council said, but 
the AFL-CIO is “deeply concerned” by 
shortcomings in the program. 

IT SHARPLY criticized the proposal to 
bring up to 50,000 Mexican “guest work- 
ers” into the United States each year as 
a threat to U.S. labor standards. 

The council called for a “fair” amnesty 
program for illegal immigrants already 
part of American communities, including 
“compassionate regard” for families. 

The AFL-CIO is opposed to the Admin- 
istration’s proposed “guest worker” pro- 
gram and to its suggested revision of the 
H-2 temporary worker program. Both 
would undermine U.S. working conditions, 
the council said. 

THE LABOR movement would support 
the concept of expanded legal immigra- 
tion, the statement emphasized, after ille- 
gal immigration is controlled and U.S. 
unemployment problems are cured. 

It pledged that the AFL-CIO will “take 
an active role in the effort to pass con- 
structive legislation.” 

Among the shortcomings in the Admin- 
istration’s policy cited by the council is 
the proposal for mild civil sanctions, pri- 

Richard Kilroy 
Elected to Head 
Railway Clerks 

The executive council of the Railway & 
Airline Clerks unanimously elected Rich- 
ard I. Kilroy as president to fill the un- 
expired term of Fred J. Kroll, who died 
July 30 of leukemia. Kilroy has been a 
BRAC vice president since 1973. 

BRAC council members also elected A1 
Archual, general chairman of the union’s 
Conrail system board in Philadelphia, to 
take over the vice presidency vacated by 
Kilroy. Both terms of office run through 
Aug. 31, 1982. 

Kilroy, 54, began his career as a block 
operator with the Pennsylvania Railroad 
in 1951 as a member of the Railroad Te- 
legraphers. He served as a local chairman 
and as system chairman on the Pennsyl- 
vania. 

He became a vice president of the un- 
ion, which was renamed the Transporta- 
tion Communication Employees, in 1968. 
After the union merged with BRAC the 
following year, Kilroy became a division 
vice president. He was elected an interna- 
tional vice president four years later. 



RICHARD I. KDLROY 


marily fines, against employers who know- 
ingly hire illegal aliens. 

The council called for a sharper system 
of sanctions against employers “including 
injunctions backed by criminal contempt 
for repeat violators. 

THE BASIS for such a system is coun- 
terfeit-proof identification, such as a se- 
cure social security card, the council said. 
The Administration’s program would per- 
mit employers to request as identification 
documents such as birth certificates and 
drivers’ licenses. 

The Administration’s plan for penalties 
“relies on documents easily counterfeited 
and freely available for sale,” the council 
pointed out. It said the proposed sanctions 
“will not even be a minor inconvenience 
to those who hire illegal workers.” 

In its statement, the council praised the 
efforts of Immigration & Naturalization 
Service employees to call attention through 
their union to the need for improved 
border patrols and interior enforcement. 
Such control and enforcement require ad- 
ditional funding and staffing for INS, the 
council noted. 

The AFL-CIO supports a “fair and 
generous” program to legalize the status 
of illegal aliens who have become part of 
their communities, providing it is tied to 
programs to cut further illegal immigra- 
tion. 

IN ADDITION, the statement said, 
conditions with “compassionate regard” 
for families should be set “with a mini- 
mum of formality to make citizenship 
possible for individuals who presently 
have a strong attachment to this country 
while not encouraging illegal immigration 
in the future.” 

The council expressed “serious reserva- 
tions” about portions of the Administra- 
tion’s amnesty proposal. Certain “precon- 
ditions” for legalization that would apply 
to illegal aliens but not to Cuban or Hai- 
tian refugees are unfair and wrong, the 
council stressed. 

The total 15-year waiting period for 
citizenship, the denial of reunification of 
families, the demand for payment of taxes 
“without the right to earned benefits ac- 
corded other taxpayers such as unemploy- 
ment compensation,” and the requirement 
of proficiency in English “are so harsh as 
to belie the very concept of amnesty,” the 
statement asserted. 

THE AFL-CIO is against any program 
that would permit “importation of foreign 
labor to undercut U.S. wages and working 
conditions,” the council said, scoring the 
Administration’s proposal to allow up to 
50,000 Mexican “guest workers” into the 
United States annually. 

Such a program will worsen unemploy- 
ment, the council warned, and will under- 
mine “the already low level of wages in 
those industries that are most likely to 
hire such temporary workers.” Women 
and minority workers are most likely to 
feel the job losses and income cuts, the 
council pointed out. 

The council opposed the suggested ex- 
pansion of the so-called H-2 temporary 
worker program through revision of its 
certification requirements. Along with the 
guest worker program, and the proposal 
to increase legal entries from Mexico and 
Canada to 40,000 a year, immigration 
would swell to some 100.000 people, “far 
more than present conditions justify.” 

The AFL-CIO supports expanded legal 
immigration, the council emphasized, 
“over the, long run and after illegal im- 
migration is controlled. Unemployment 
problems must be cured first, the- council 
said, then we must “absorb into our so- 
ciety” the millions of illegal immigrants 
and refugees already in the United States. 

The council urged Congress in its con- 
sideration of the problems of illegal immi- 
gration to maintain the government’s au- 
thority “to continue its historic policy of 
providing refuge to the victims of political 
oppression.” 


A scheduled transfer of the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety & 
Health from the Washington, D.C., area to 
Atlanta and Cincinnati is a “bureaucratic 
hijacking” that will weaken its usefulness, 
the AFL-CIO charged at House hearings. 

Safety & Health Director George H. R. 
Taylor urged an Education & Labor sub- 
committee to do “all in its power” to block 
the move, which he said will slow decision 
making, substantially increase travel costs 
and flout the intent of Congress. 

NIOSH, which is a part of the Dept, of 
Health & Human Services, is supposed to 
be the industrial health twin of the Labor 
Dept.’s Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration (OSHA). But it is at a lower 
level in the department hierarchy. While 
OSHA is headed by an assistant secretary 
of labor, NIOSH comes under the Centers 
for Disease Control, which are headquar- 
tered in Atlanta. 

Taylor asked the subcommittee to con- 
sider legislation that would move NIOSH 
out of the Centers for Disease Control, 
declaring that the agency’s experience 
bears out labor’s belief that the placement 
of NIOSH within the CDC “flouts” the 
intent of the law. 

Taylor noted that past proposals to 
move NIOSH out of Washington had 
drawn strong opposition from NIOSH di- 
rectors, congressional committees, and the 
trade union movement. 


Chicago — ^The concept of “short-time” 
unemployment compensation for workers 
on reduced workweeks during economic 
downturns is, on balance, a worthwhile 
approach as long as appropriate safe- 
guards are maintained, the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council said. 

The arrangement permits workers to 
draw jobless benefits for the working time 
they forego in short workweeks instituted 
to avoid layoffs. Thus, it amounts to work 
sharing with a partial income replacement, 
the council noted. 

THE SYSTEM has been tried success- 
fully in some European countries, and 
California has experimented with it since 
1978. Arizona recently enacted a short- 
time compensation law, and several other 
states are considering such laws. 

Union reports on the California experi- 
ence have been generally positive, the 
council noted. It pointed out that although 
about a fourth of major collective bar- 
gaining agreements permit shorter work- 
weeks in lieu of layoff, short-time is rarely 
used because there are no provisions for 
income replacement. 

“If compensation is made available,” 
the council observed, “these contracts 
would allow senior workers to elect the 
shorter workweek they may well prefer 


HHS Sec. Richard S. Schweiker an- 
nounced the plan to transfer NIOSH to 
Atlanta and Cincinnati after he had fired 
NIOSH Director Anthony Robbins at the 
insistence of the U.S. Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

The new NIOSH director. Dr. J. Don- 
ald Millar, comes from the Atlanta-based 
Centers for Disease Control, Taylor pointed 
out. 

When the announcement of the move 
was made last month, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland protested that the change 
would subordinate the mission of protect- 
ing workers* health and safety and cause 
it to lose experienced and needed staff 
members who do not intend to make the 
move. He urged HHS Sec. Richard S. 
Schweiker to reconsider. 

TAYLOR TOLD the House panel that 
the AFL-CIO has never received a reply 
to its protest. 

Government Employees President Ken- 
neth T. Blaylock and officers of the AFGE 
local representing Health & Human Ser- 
vices Dept, employees also testified against 
the dispersal of NIOSH. 

“NIOSH is mandated by statute to work 
closely with the Mine Safety & Health 
Administration and OSHA,” Blaylock 
stressed. Relocating the agency would 
largely “put it out of action in the occu- 
pational safety and health field,” he 
charged. 


and at the same time preserve employment 
opportunities for the recently hired, in- 
cluding minorities and women.” 

THE COUNCIL cautioned, however, 
that the scheme is not an alternative to 
other anti-recession programs, since no 
new jobs are created and the benefits will 
be available to relatively few workers. It 
stressed, too, that care must be taken that 
short-time compensation programs do not 
endanger the unemployment trust funds 
that in many states are already in financial 
trouble. 

The council urged that state laws estab- 
lishing short-time compensation systems 
include the following safeguards: 

• Adequate funding for the unemploy- 
ment insurance trust fund to protect the 
rights of all workers. 

• Agreement with unions representing 
the workers where short-time arrangements 
are adopted. 

• A wage replacement level of at least 
two-thirds of a worker’s lost pay up to 40 
percent of the workweek. 

• Full retension of pension, insurance 
and other fringe benefits. 

• Protection against manipulation of 
short-time compensation that would dis- 
criminate against recently hired workers, 
especially women and minorities. 


Council Outlines Safeguards 
For ‘Short-Time’ Jobless Aid 



Page Ten 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 



GRAIN MILLERS President Frank Hoese, seated center, holds a Kellogg’s 
Com Flakes box to indicate the package size soon to carry the union label, a 
breakthrough in the cereal industry. With him are, seated left to right, Doug 
Sackett, Kellogg director of manufacturing personnel; Chris McNaughton, Kel- 
logg senior vice president for corporate services; Grain Millers Executive Vice 
Pres. Robert Willis, and Grain Millers Sec.-Treas. Joseph T. Smisek. Standing, 
are President Robert Harbrant of the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades Dept., 
and Sec.-Treas. Earl McDavid of the Union Label & Service Trades Dept. 

Congress Asked to Reject 
Decontrol of Natural Gas 


State Injury 
Insurance on 
Ohio Ballot 

Chicago — ^The Executive Council urged 
all AFL-CIO affiliates to work for the de- 
feat of a November referendum in Ohio 
that would permit private insurance com- 
panies to sell workers’ compensation poli- 
cies in the state, thereby ending Ohio’s 
exclusive state fund plan. 

Under the exclusive state fund system, 
private insurers are not allowed to sell 
workers’ compensation insurance to em- 
ployers. Therefore, investment income is 
retained by the fund to pay benefits and 
lower employer costs, and there is no need 
for overhead expenses and profit margins. 

FIVE OTHER states— West Virginia, 
North Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and 
Washington — also have exclusive state 
funds. In a dozen other states, private in- 
surers compete with’ state funds. Ohio’s 
fund is the largest of the six state funds, 
with more employers covered than all the 
other exclusive fund states combined. 

For this reason, the council charged, the 
insurance industry has decided to attack 
and destroy the Ohio plan, which had been 
established in 1913 in a law sponsored by 
then State Sen. William Green — ^who suc- 
ceeded Samuel Gompers as president of 
the American Federation of Labor. The 
attack is being led by out-of-state insur- 
ance interests through the American Alli- 
ance of Insurers, the council said. 

An amendment to the Ohio constitution, 
backed by a group calling itself the Com- 
mittee for Free Enterprise Competition, 
has been forced on the November ballot 
to do away with the state plan. 

IN RECOGNITION of the lower costs 
inherent in exclusive state funds, a number 
of employers in Ohio have joined with the 
state’s trade union movement to oppose 
the amendment. 

The Executive Council, noting that other 
states are considering establishment of ex- 
clusive funds because of Ohio’s success, 
said that the attack on the Ohio system is 
a blatant effort to destroy the flagship of 
the exclusive state workers’ compensation 
funds of America, and should be resisted 
by the total trade union movement. 


After-tax corporate profits in the second 
quarter of 1981 soared over the same 
period of a year earlier despite a sharp 
drop in the economy, a Wall Street Jour- 
nal survey of company earnings indicated. 

The Journal survey of 516 major corpo- 
rations showed a 23 percent increase in 
after-tax earnings during the April-June 
period. Over the same three months, 
“real” gross national product — ^the value 
of the nation’s total output of goods and 

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Reprieve Approved 
For 2nd Class Mail 

Publications of non-profit organiza- 
tions, including union newspapers and 
magazines, got a reprieve from sharply 
higher postage rates in the final version 
of the budget reconciliation hiU. But 
bulk mailings, sent out under third class 
postal rates, will cost substantially more 
after Oct 1. 

Under present law, postal subsidies 
for both second class and third class 
mailings of non-profit groups are sched- 
uled to be gradually phased out by 1987. 
As a budget saver, the Senate version of 
the reconciliation bill would have elimi- 
nated the subsidy for both categories 
immediately; the House hill would have 
ended the third class subsidy and cut the 
second class funding. 

A conference committee aj^eed, how- 
ever, to continue the second class sub- 
sidy unchanged while denying funds for 
third class mailings. 


Chicago — Natural gas price controls 
should be continued and Congress should 
renew the President’s emergency powers 
to deal with oil and gasoline shortages, 
the AFL-CIO Executive Council urged. 

Natural gas price controls are scheduled 
to be phased out by 1985 tinder present 
law and prices have already been allowed 
to rise faster than the overall inflation 
rate, the council noted. Low- and mod- 
erate-income families are already hurting 
and immediate decontrol threatens a “dis- 
astrous shock to the economy,” the AFL- 
CIO warned. 

The statement stressed that deregulation 
“cannot be justified on economic grounds. 
Current prices are more than adequate to 
stimulate exploration for new gas. Drilling 
for natural gas is at record levels with 
every available drilling rig in use.” 

NATURAL GAS prices “should be 
based on cost of production plus a rea- 
sonable profit,” the council said. Deregu- 
lation “would give windfall gains to major 


services — fell at a seasonally adjusted 1.9 
percent annual rate. 

However, in this year’s first quarter, 
profits dropped 2 percent from a year be- 
fore despite strong economic growth due 
largely to a slide in oil company earnings. 

Contributing to the second quarter prof- 
its surge was a rebound in steel industry 
earnings. The Journal reported steel prof- 
its up 112 percent. Also helping to boost 
April-June earnings was the auto industry. 
For the first time in over two years, the 
Journal said, all of the Big Three auto- 
makers showed a profit. 

In a separate sample. Business Week 
magazine said that companies reporting 
second-quarter profit gains over a year 
earlier outnumbered firms reporting de- 
clines by 3 to 1, with companies in sev- 
eral industries registering particularly 
strong showings. 

THE STEEL industry’s sharp earnings 
gain last quarter was particularly evident 
among firms that manufacture pipes and 
tubes in oil and gas exploration and pro- 
duction, the Journal reported. U.S. Steel, 
the nation’s largest steelmaker and largest 
producer of pipe, doubled its operating net 
to $167.6 million on a 20-percent sales 
gain, and seventh-ranked Armco lifted its 
profits 43 percent to a record $85.5 mil- 
lion on a 26 percent increase in sales. 

In other industries, aerospace compa- 
nies boosted their profits 21 percent dur- 
ing the April-June quarter, the Journal 
said. Department store profits rose 75 per- 
cent, utilities 21 percent, chemicals 30 
percent, tobaccos 16 percent, publishing 
companies 14 percent, and petroleum 
products 8 percent. 


oil companies already bloated with enor- 
mous profits.” 

While resisting legislation to abolish nat- 
ural gas price ceilings, the AFL-CIO is 
pressing Congress for permanent legisla- 
tion giving the President standby authority 
to impose oil price controls and to ration 
gasoline and other oil products to cope 
with an energy emergency. 

Existing authority, granted in 1973 fol- 
lowing the Arab oil embargo, will expire 
after Sept. 30 unless Congress acts. 

THE COUNCIL statement and Senate 
testimony the previous week by Associate 
Legislative Director Howard Marlowe 
stressed that Congress should not wait for 
a catastrophe before it acts. 

The President should be able to act 
“overnight if need be, in the event of 
shortages or excessive price increases 
caused by OPEC or otherwise, and in the 
event of security emergencies,” the council 
said. 

Marlowe’s testimony before the Senate 
Energy & Natural Resources Committee, 
urged permanent legislation rather than a 
short-term extension of emergency powers. 

“WE BELIEVE a program that ra- 
tions gasoline and other oil products fairly 
and prevents prices from soaring is essen- 
tial to maintain public morale during an 
energy crisis. A program that allows prices 
and profits to soar while most Americans 
endure financial hardship and inconveni- 
ence invites cynicism,” he warned. 

The Executive Council statement rioted 
estimates that a 20 percent shortfall of 
crude oil supply would send the price of 
a gallon of gasoline soaring to a range 
of from $7 to $14. 

“Opponents of rationing under any cir- 
cumstances would reduce consumption 
through the combination of so-called mar- 
ket forces and rising prices,” the council 
noted. “That inequitable policy would 
price oil products out of the reach of 
low- and moderate-income families,” it 
protested. 


A total of 121 national organizations 
have announced support for the AFL- 
CIO’s Solidarity Day protest demonstra- 
tion planned for Sept. 19 in Washington. 

Solidarity Day coordinator John Perkins 
reported that additional endorsements are 
being added each day. The demonstration 
is intended to focus the frustration of mil- 
lions of Americans over the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s cutbacks in social programs. 

In addition to the 121 national organi- 
zations, Perkins said that large numbers 
of local and state groups and coalitions 
will participate in the demonstration along 
with union contingents. 


Kellogg Adds 
Union Label 
To Packages 

The Grain Millers and the Kellogg Co. 
have reached an agreement under which 
the company — the largest cereal-maker 
in the country — ^will print the union label 
on each of its family-sized cereal pack- 
ages. 

Kellogg, whose workforce is entirely 
unionized, announced its decision in Wash- 
ington at a meeting with top officials of 
the 35,000-member union. 

GRAIN MILLERS President Frank T. 
Hoese said that he viewed the action as 
a sign of a maturing relationship between 
the two parties. The union has had a labor 
contract with the firm since 1937. 

“We’re very pleased to have the Kellogg 
company put the union label on its family- 
sized cereal packages,” he said. “We’d 
like to see all the companies we do busi- 
ness with do the sanie thing.” 

The company’s decision to print the 
Grain Millers’ label is not part of a col- 
lective-bargaining agreement and is based 
solely on a voluntary, mutual understand- 
ing. 

Doug Sackett, director of manufactur- 
ing personnel for Kellogg, said that he 
expected the label to be showing up on 
cereal packages “in four to five months.” 

Sackett said that the label will be print- 
ed at the bottom of one of the side panels 
of each family-sized cereal package. Such 
packages make up 97 percent of the com- 
pany’s production. The label will go on 
50 different packages of 24 products, such 
as Product 19, Corn Flakes, 40% Bran 
Flakes, and Sugar Corn Pops. 

KELLOGG, which will become the first 
cereal company to carry a union label, 
also plans to print the label of the union 
local which makes the cereal packages, 
the Printing Specialties & Paper Products 
Union, Local 480 of the Printing & Graph- 
ic Communications Union. 

The cereal company employs 5,000 
workers in Battle Creek, Mich.; Memphis, 
Tenn.; Omaha, Neb.; Lancaster, Pa., and 
San Leandro, Calif. It has participated in 
the Union-Industries Show for the past 
two years. 

Richard Leonard Dies, 
Retired lUD Official 

Logan, Ohio — Richard T. Leonard, who 
served as assistant to the president of the 
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, for 16 
years until his retirement in 1972, died of 
cancer here Aug. 3. He was 79. 

A founding member of the Auto Work- 
ers, Leonard helped organize a Chrysler 
Corp. DeSoto plant in the mid-1930s and 
was a delegate to the UAW’s first con- 
vention in 1935. He also served as the 
union’s welfare director, on the UAW 
executive board and as a vice president. 
After joining the CIO staff in 1948, 
Leonard was appointed Arizona director. 

He later served as assistant to CIO 
Presidents Philip Murray and Walter P. 
Reuther. Following merger of the AFL 
and CIO in 1955 he was appointed assis- 
tant to the president of the lUD. 


Among the national groups are the Afri- 
can Methodist Episcopal Church, Ameri- 
can Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, 
Consumer Federation of America, Front- 
lash, League of United Latin American 
Citizens, League of Women Voters and the 
NAACP. 

The list also includes the National Con- 
sumers League, National Council of Senior 
Citizens, National Farmers Union, Nation- 
al Education Association, National Orga- 
nization for Women, National Urban 
League, the Wilderness Society, United 
Mine Workers, and various Catholic, 
Protestant and Jewish organizations. 


Major Firms Show Surge 
In Second Quarter Profits 


121 National Organizations 
Get Behind Solidarity Day 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Pmg€ Eleren 


Human Rights 
Tied to Free 
Associations 

Chicago— The cornerstone of United 
States human rights policy should be the 
universal principle of freedom of inde- 
pendent association, the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council declared. 

“The right of ordinary citizens to create 
and maintain their own institutions, re- 
gardless of who owns the means of produc- 
tion or what political party is in power, is 
fundamental to all other rights,” the coun- 
cil said. 

“Without organizations through which 
to assert their rights and protect themselves 
from the state or other strongholds of 
power,” the council averred, “citizens are 
deprived of the means to secure either 
their policy liberty or a wider measure of 
social and economic justice.” 

THE OPEN and forceful promotion of 
freedom of association should be under- 
taken by the United States, using all ap- 
propriate instruments, public and private, 
the AFL-CIO declared. It warned tihat the 
alternative to such a positive policy now 
may be increasing reliance later on purely 
negative and punitive sanctions, or the 
abandonment of a human rights policy 
altogether. 

The promotion of human rights and of 
political democracy serves the legitimate 
security interests of the nation, the coun- 
cil pointed out. 

Persistent violations of human rights by 
governments friendly to the United States 
are warning signals of their instability and 
ultimate unreliability. 

“WE BELIEVE that the struggle of 
workers, under all social systems, for free 
and independent trade unions provides a 
useful perspective from which to formulate 
a more effective human rights policy,” the 
council affirmed. 

“We recognize that in running the gamut 
from authoritarian to totalitarian societies, 
the policy we propose will encounter dif- 
ferent obstacles and thus require different 
methods of implementation. Nonetheless, 
it rests on a single standard of judgment 
and a universal principle which the Amer- 
ican people can understand and support.” 

Attendants Press 
Texas Airline on 
Resuming Talks 

Houston — The Association of Flight At- 
tendants asked the National Mediation 
Board to intervene in its contract nego- 
tiations with Texas International Airlines 
after the carrier walked out of talks 
July 20. 

At the same time, AFA President Linda 
A. Puchala said that the union “will be 
contacting labor groups in every city 
served by Texas International to gain sup- 
port for our efforts to reach a fair and 
equitable contract.” 

Puchala said that the airline, one of 
four companies owned by the holding 
company of Texas Air Corp. headed by 
Frank Lorenzo, had made no effort to 
return to the bargaining table since it 
abruptly broke off talks, further evidence 
of its progressively deteriorating labor 
relations. 

AFA MEMBERS conducted informa- 
tional picketing against the Houston-based 
carrier July 30, 31, and Aug. 1 at the 
Houston International Airport and on 
July_30 and 31 at the Dallas-Fort Worth 
Airport to protest the company’s refusal to 
bargain in good faith. 

Airline unions charge that Lorenzo’s 
most recent creation. New York Air, was 
formed from Texas International assets, 
and that New York Air is avoiding union 
contract obligations. They also cite nego- 
tiating difficulties that TXI is currently 
experiencing with the Air Line Pilots and 
the Machinists as well as the recent sus- 
pension of five Texas International pilots 
for speaking out against the airline’s man- 
agement at a Continental Airlines stock- 
holders’ meeting. 




WOMEN TRADE UNION leaders from 15 Central and 
South American nations attended the 1981 collective bar- 
gaining and leadership programs for women of the American 
Institute for Free Labor Development. The 38 women, par- 
ticipated in graduation ceremonies at AFL-CIO headquar- 
ters after attending two seven-week institutes at the George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies. Among the topics covered 


were negotiations, economics, communications and human 
and trade union rights. Field trips included visits to unions 
and plants in New York and Boston. At left, Cecilia Rosa 
Halpern of the Argentinian Insurance Workers receives her 
diploma from AFL-CIO Education Director Dorothy Shields 
and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. AIFLD Executive 
Director William C. Doherty is at right. 


Senior Citizens Cite Need 
For Federal Energy Aid 


The National Council of Senior Citi- 
zens has released the findings of two 
studies that underline the need for con- 
tinuing federal weatherization and energy 
assistance programs for low-income house- 
holds. 

In a press conference announcing the 
study results, NCSC Executive Director 
William R. Hutton said “no one should 
doubt the severity of the crisis low-income 
households face because of rising energy 
costs.” 

Noting that elderly and disabled persons 
are especially susceptible to death from 
cold and overheating, Hutton declared that 
without assistance, “this winter and sum- 
mer, old people are going to be dying out 
there, and we want to interest people to 
help.” 

HUTTON CALLED the current energy 
policy of the Reagan Administration “in- 
humane and inequitable.” 

The Administration has proposed to 
terminate the Dept, of Energy’s partici- 
pation in the weatherization program and 
instead allow states and communities to 
use Dept, of Housing & Urban Develop- 
ment block grants for weatherization proj- 
ects if they so choose. However, this op- 
tion has been open to states under the 
weatherization legislation and has not been 
used. 

The Administration also has proposed 
to cut the federal energy assistance pro- 
gram by 25 percent and fold $1.4 billion 
in funding for the program into Dept, of 
Health & Human Services emergency en- 
ergy assistance block grants to states which 
do not specifically target low income per- 
sons. 

THE STUDIES were conducted by the 
Grier Partnership and the Consumer En- 
ergy Council of America for Project 
Energycare, an information and referral 
program to help poor elderly and disabled 
persons obtain aid in meeting escalating 
energy costs. Energycare has 85 commu- 
nity-based branches operated by the NCSC 
and funded through the Community Ser- 
vices Administration. 

With regard to energy assistance, the 
Grier study pointed out that the price of 
home heating oil has increased six-fold 
since 1973, from 20 cents to $1.25 per 
gallon, while the consumer price index has 
doubled. Natural gas quadrupled in price 
during the same period. 

Social security and Supplemental Secu- 
rity Income benefits, on which many poor 
elderly people subsist, are tied to the CPI 
and, therefore, energy costs consume ever- 

CORRECTION 

A picture caption in the Aug. 1 issue 
of The AFL-CIO News misidentified Pat 
Thomas, education director of the Service 
Employees, as Edith Mayo of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 


increasing percentages of fixed, low-income 
budgets, the study pointed out. An esti- 
mated 5 million elderly persons have in- 
comes less than 125 percent of the fed- 
eral poverty guidelines, according to the 
Grier’s data. 

Some examples from the study’s state- 
by-state breakdown of average 1981 
home energy expenditures, compared with 
projections for 1982, show: 

• In Maine and New Hampshire, the 
average expenditure was $1,773 in 1981 
and is projected for more than $2,100 in 
1982. 

• In New York, the average expendi- 
ture was $1,851 in 1981, projected to 
reach $2,200 in 1982. 

• In 11 states, average home energy 
expenditures exceeded $1,400 in 1981. 

• In no state will the average energy 
expenditure for 1982 be less than $500. 

The CECA study concluded that 
weatherization saves energy and is a cost- 
effective way to use federal energy dol- 
lars. It also said that weatherization helps 
low-income households reduce fuel bills 
by an average of 27 percent. 

A combination of weatherization and 
energy assistance programs for low-income 
households would be the most cost-effec- 
tive approach to alleviate the burden of 
rising energy costs for the poor, CECA 
said. (PAD 


Printing Clause 
Held Essential to 
Copyright Law 

Chicago — The AFL-CIO urged Con- 
gress to enact pending legislation that 
would permanently retain the manufactur- 
ing clause in the U.S. copyright law which 
requires books written by American au- 
thors living in the United States to be 
printed in either the United States or 
Canada in order to receive U.S. copyright 
protection. 

Elimination of the clause would result 
in a massive move by American publishers 
and printers out of the country and the 
publishing of American authors’ books 
abroad, as well as widespread job losses 
in the U.S. printing industry, the Execu- 
tive Council warned. The provision, in 
effect in varying forms since 1891, is 
slated to expire July 1, 1982. 

“Removal of the manufacturing clause 
from the Copyright Act will not produce 
any tangible benefits for the American 
consumer,” the council’s statement said. 

“The manufacturing clause is a vital 
defense against wholesale destruction of 
the U.S. industry. It should be preserved.” 

If the clause were eliminated, the Labor 
Dept, estimates, there would be a huge 
drop in employment opportunities in firms 
such as paper mills which supply the print- 
ing and publishing industry. It is estimated 
that the total job loss in the United States 
could run as high as 367,000, the council 
observed. 


iiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnniiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnniiiiim 

August Schedule Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

A weeklong session on arbitration was held at the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Md., and other training programs sponsored by 
six unions and the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) 
are scheduled for the balance of August. 

The arbitration program included preparation and presentation of a mock 
case, before a professional arbitrator, with proceedings videotaped for review. 

Using the campus for their own leadership training during August are the 
Clothing & Textile Workers, Aug. 2-3; Hight Attendants, Aug. 10-14 and 24-27; 
Teachers, Aug. 17-21; Communications Workers, Aug. 23-28; Operating Engi- 
neers, Aug. 23-28 and Aug. 30-Sept. 4; Cement, Lime & Gypsum Workers, 
Aug. 30-Sept. 4 

The AIFLD will have 40 trade union leaders from Latin American countries 
on campus, Aug. 24 to Sept. 30, to study collective bargaining and leadership 
techniques. 

A scheduled institute for principal officers of state and local central bodies on 
techniques for using the news media to tell labor’s story was cancelled because 
of the air traffic controllers’ strike. It was to have been co-sponsored by the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Information and the Dept, of Organization & Field Services. 

Information on these and other labor studies programs may be obtained from 
Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive director, George Meany Center, 10000 New 
Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone (301) 431-6400. 



Page Twelye 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 8, 1981 


Council Backs Strikers 




Kirkland Blasts Attempt 
To Bust Air Controllers 


(Continued from Pa^e 1) 

think it’s brutal overkill and a blatant 
union-busting tactic on the part of the 
Administration.” 

At a news conference during the Execu- 
tive Council meeting, AFL-CIO President 
Kirkland told reporters: 

“I do not believe that meeting this issue 
by brutal, repressive measures, invoking 
the full force and power of the government 
of the United States against these workers, 
who are attempting by the only means that 
they feel is left to them to bring proper 
attention to their serious problems, is a 
contribution to the resolution of it, nor 
will it advance the cause of public safety.” 

KIRKLAND SAID that PATCO mem- 
bers, who work long hours under highly 
stressful conditions, rarely qualifying for 
full pension benefits because of medical 
reasons, felt that they had no recourse but 
to strike an employer that has repeatedly 
turned its back on their pleas for justice. 

“I respect the law,” Kirkland told re- 
porters, “but events here and elsewhere in 
the world have demonstrated that when 
working people feel a deep sense of grie- 
vance, they will exercise what I think is a 
basic human right to withdraw their ser- 
vices, and not to work under conditions 
which they no longer find tolerable.” 

Kirkland said in response to a question 
that the no-strike “oath” that air control- 
lers and other federal employees must sign 
is like the “yellow-dog contracts” that have 
long since been outlawed in the private 
sector. 

Kirkland, who accused President Reagan 
of strikebreaking in his militant, intract- 
able handling of the walkout, led the Ex- 
ecutive Council and other national and 
local labor leaders in an hour-long march 
with controllers picketing Chicago’s O’Hare 
International Airport. 

He said he hoped “reason will prevail,” 
and suggested that appointment by the 
Administration of an experienced, impar- 
tial mediator “could offer a way out” of 
the impasse. 

SUCH A recommendation was forward- 
ed to the White House the evening of 
Aug. 3, when the walkout began, by Air 
Line Pilots President John J. O’Donnell, 
who told reporters in Chicago that he 
made the recommendation to Reagan’s 
labor liaison, Robert Bonitati, and suggest- 
ed forpier Labor Sec. W. J. Usery for the 
role. 

Meanwhile, expressions of support for 
the controllers — as well as warnings that 
the Administration’s uncompromising poli- 


cy toward the strikers could have far- 
reaching implications — came from other 
labor groups. 

BRITISH controllers were considering 
supportive action, as was the International 
Transport Workers’ Federation, a trade- 
union secretariat linking transportation 
unions in the free world. 

President Jerry Wurf of the State, Coun- 
ty & Municipal Employees said that the 
Administration’s actions signal a major 
attack on public employees generally. 

Government Employees President Ken- 
neth Blaylock observed that “if the FAA 
were operating in the private sector, they 
would have faced charges of failure to 
bargain in good faith from the National 
Labor Relations Board. Instead, they enjoy 
the full force of federal legal machinery 
and the judicial system in attempting to 
stifle the legitimate demands of PATCO 
and the workers it represents.” 

Blaylock added that the Administration’s 
repressive measures against the union “lead 
to the unmistakable conclusion that it is 
intent on breaking it.” 

THE CONTROLLERS’ walkout fol- 
lowed rejection of a June 22 government 
offer by 95 percent of PATCO’s members. 
The controllers, whose rejection of the pro- 
posal was announced five days before they 
left their jobs, want higher wages than 
Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis allowed 
for in the government’s package. 

But they are especially seeking agree- 
ment on issues that transcend simple eco- 
nomics. These include earlier retirement, 
a shorter workweek, more say on choice 
of equipment they use, better training for 
rookie controllers, and a greater recogni- 
tion by the government of the stress of 
their jobs. 

PATCO members claim that few of their 
number last long enough on the job, 25 
years, to collect full retirement benefits. 
They point to FAA statistics, obtained by 
the union through the Freedom of Infor- 
mation Act, showing that between 1976 
and 1979 about 89 percent of U.S. con- 
trollers who retired did so for medical 
reasons before they were eligible for full 
retirement benefits.- 

ONLY THE United States, among all 
the world’s major countries, they note, re- 
quires controllers to work a 40-hour week. 
In Canada, controllers work a 34-hour 
week and get a 21 -day “sabbatical” every 
five years for extensive physical and psy- 
chological examinations to check for stress. 

The Canadians got the work pressure 
relief only after a strike, the union noted. 



WIVES OF STRIKING Air Traffic Controllers join the picket line in support of 
their husbands at a regional control center in Nashua, N.H. Spouses of PATCO 
members also picketed at a number of othe>r locations across the country. 

Congress Gives 2nd Helping 
To Profit-Rich Oil Industry 


Congress recessed until Sept. 9 after 
giving rubber-stamp approval to the heart 
of the Reagan Administration’s economic 
program — ^heavy budget cuts in virtually 
all non-defense segments of government, 
coupled with a tax policy geared to putting 
more cash in the hands of business firms 
and wealthy investors. 

Both the House and Senate brushed aside 
last-ditch liberal efforts to cut back on the 
embarrassment of added benefits for the 
profit-rich oil industry. In addition to the 
assortment of tax cuts all business firms 
will receive, the oil industry will reap tax 
reductions expected to total $11.8 billion 
over the next five years. 

EVEN AS the measure was being 
cleared for the President’s signature, a 
high-level Administration official dropped 
a strong hint of a future proposal Aat 
would come close to eliminating entirely 
the tax obligations of the wealth. 

The trial balloon was sent up by As- 
sistant Sec. of the Treasury for Economic 
Affairs Craig Roberts in an interview with 
Fred Barnes of the Baltimore Sun. 

Roberts said the Administration will 
consider moving to wipe out the progres- 


Social Cuts Imperil Support for Defense 


Chicago — The AFL-CIO’s traditional 
and steadfast support for a strong national 
defense should not be construed as “a 
blank check for the Pentagon,” the Execu- 
tive Council declared. 

The council warned in a statement that 
the Reagan Administration’s policies are 
threatening to shatter the national con- 
sensus for a stronger defense effort. 

“By increasing defense spending at the 


8/8/81 


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expense of vital social programs, the Ad- 
ministration risks the creation of new 
anti-defense constituencies among workers, 
the poor, minorities and the elderly,” the 
council said, adding: 

“Popular support for a strong defense 
and foreign policy cannot be sustained by 
unjust social and economic policies which 
generate social tension, class conflict and 
political polarization. Nor will such poli- 
cies produce the economic strength re- 
quired for military strength.” 

The council called on Congress to sub- 
mit the Administration’s defense budget 
“to the closest scrutiny.” 

‘TF, AS THE Administration says, we 
cannot solve our social problems by throw- 
ing money at them, we cannot solve our 
defense problems that way, either,” the 
council declared. 

It said that just as the AFL-CIO has 
in the past opposed across-the-board cuts 
in defense spending without regard for the 
weapons or strategies that would be af- 
fected, it also rejects the notion that vast 
increases" in military spending will by 
themselves add substantially to the na- 
tion’s military strength. It’s not how much 
money is spent, but what it buys in rela- 


tion to the country’s security needs that 
should be the standard, the council 
stressed. 

It charged that the Reagan Administra- 
tion “has put the cart before the horse” 
by seeking huge increases in the defense 
budget without having resolved key issues 
of strategy or decided what weapons sys- 
tems are needed to implement that strat- 
egy. Additional billions have been com- 
mitted to the Pentagon, but no decisions 
have been made, for example, on deploy- 
ment of the missile, on the B-1 bomber, 
or on other major defense questions. 

THE COUNCIL noted that the Admin- 
istration’s budget proposals would boost 
defense spending, in constant 1972 dollars, 
from $72.5 billion in 1980 to $116.4 bil- 
lion in 1985. Over the same span, non- 
defense spending would be reduced from 
$222.4 billion to $201.6 billion. 

The statement called on Congress to 
crack down on the wasteful spending, 
huge cost overruns and poor management 
of resources that have characterized the 
Defense Dept. Those practices are inde- 
fensible even in prosperous times, the 
council observed, but they are intolerable 
“at a time when the defense burden is 
being shifted more and more to workers 
and the poor.” 


sive income tax system, under which those 
with the highest incomes are taxed at the 
highest rates. 

Graduated income taxes hurt the poor 
by slowing “their climb up the ladder,” 
Roberts insisted. He said the Administra- 
tion may end up proposing “a flat rate of, 
say, 15 percent,” without exemptions or 
deductions. 

SUCH A FLAT rate would mean a 
higher total tax for wealthy, it would be a 
huge reduction from the present 50 per- 
cent tax rate ceiling. 

Another Administration option, Roberts 
suggested, might be “moving away from 
income taxes altogether to a consumption 
tax.” He presumably had in mind a value- 
added tax or some other form of national 
sales tax. 

Technically, the stringent budget that 
Congress established is a non-binding 
target subject to refinement in a second 
budget resolution. 

But at the Administration’s prodding. 
Congress passed and sent to the President 
before the recess a budget reconciliation 
bill that made permanent changes in many 
of the nation’s laws to ensure that spend- 
ing does not exceed the tentative budget 
ceiling. 

THERE WAS some hope for at least 
a partial reprieve in one element of the 
budget reconciliation bill, the much criti- 
cized provision eliminating the $122 a 
month minimum social security benefit. 

The House voted 404 to 20 to con- 
tinue the minimum benefit, which the 
budget reconciliation marked for elimina- 
tion next March. The Senate put off con- 
sideration of the measure until after the 
recess. 

The first item the Senate will take up 
when it returns, however, will be a show- 
down on an attempt to prevent federal 
courts from requiring school busing to 
achieve racial balance. Three attempts to 
break a filibuster supported by the civil 
rights movement failed, the last time by 
only a single vote. Another try at getting 
the 60 votes needed to limit debate is 
scheduled the day the Senate returns. 

THE HOUSE, too, is approaching deci- 
sion on a civil rights issue although it has 
not yet been scheduled for floor action. 

Before the recess, the House Judiciary 
Committee approved by a bipartisan 23-1 
vote a strong bill extending the 1965 
Voting Rights Act, which is scheduled to 
expire a year from now. Efforts to reach 
a compromise on conditions under which 
jurisdictions became exempt from the law 
fell through, but those who sought to 
soften the law agreed to bring the ’bill to 
the House floor. 





Petition Drive 
Launched for 
Solidarity Day 

Unions, AFL-CIO central bodies and 
allied organizations -taking part in Solidar- 
ity Day have begun collecting signatures 
on petitions keyed to the goals of labor’s 
Sept. 19th demonstration. 

The petitions will increase the impact of 
Solidarity Day, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland said in a letter asking participat- 
ing groups to reproduce and circulate the 
one-page document. They will show that 
those who come to Washington to demon- 
strate “are backed up by legions of like- 
thinking Americans in communities across 
the land.” 

“WE SPEAK for ourselves,” the peti- 
tion asserts, denying the claim of “the pres- 
ent Administration and a me-too Congress” 
to represent the views of America’s work- 
ers. 

The petition affirms the support of the 
signers for: 

• Jobs and justice for all Americans. 

• A safe workplace. 

• Payment for all benefits guaranteed 
by the social security program. 

• Full educational opportunity for all 
our children. 

• The protection and expansion of civil 
rights, women’s rights and voting rights. 

• Decent housing and health care for 
all. 

• A healthful environment. 

• Fair trade laws that help rebuild the 
American economy. 

• Energy programs that serve the na- 
tion and its people, not simply the oil 
giants. 

• Tax justice. 

• Interest rates that encourage, not 
impede, economic growth and job crea- 
tion. 

SIGNED PETITIONS, Kirkland said, 
should either be sent to the Solidarity Day 
office at the AFL-CIO headquarters or 
brought to Washington on Sept. 19. 

The Solidarity Day committee stressed 
the importance of the petitions in show- 
ing the grassroots support for the pro- 
grams that the trade union movement and 
its allies have been defending and advo- 
cating. 

Circulation of the petitions by itself will 
stimulate interest in the demonstration. 
Solidarity Day Coordinator John Perkins 
noted. And it is a key element in an effec- 
tive followup. 

“Solidarity Day is not intended as a one- 
day media event,” Perkins stressed. 

OSHA to Keep 
Cancer Expert, 
Drops Charges 

The Reagan Administration has called 
off its campaign to fire the top cancer ex- 
pert at the Occupational Safety & Health 
Administration after running into a hor- 
net’s nest of protest. 

Dr. Peter Infante is back on the job 
as director of OSHA’s Office of Carcino- 
gen Identification & Classification, and 
charges against him of insubordination 
and misrepresenting the agency’s position 
on formaldehyde have been dropped. 

Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne G. Auch- 
ter withdrew the charges in a letter to 
Infante dated Aug. 7, three weeks after a 
House Science & Technology subcommit- 
tee held hearings on the attempts to dis^ 
miss the cancer expert. 

AFTER TWO days of testimony. Sub- 
committee Chairman Albert Gore (D- 
Tenn.) concluded that the formaldehyde 
industry’s trade association “wanted this 
guy out of government” and instigated his 
dismissal. 

Formaldehyde is suspected by the Na- 
tional Institute of Occupational Safety & 
Health of causing cancer in humans. The 
National Cancer Institute takes a similar 

(Continued on Page 8) 



Labor Support Spreads 
In Air Controller Strike 



BUS TRANSPORTING AFL-CIO Executive Council members and staff from 
Chicago to Washington carried a message of support for striking Air Traffic 
Controllers. Public Employee Dept. Executive Director John Leyden, left, and 
President Kenneth Blaylock of the Government Employees show the banner. 

The AFL-CIO on Wheels 

Bus Riders Walk Line 
On Long Voyage Home 

By John M, Barry 


“We’re getting used to traveling by bus, 
and I highly recommend it,” AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland told a cheering 
throng of Air Traffic Controllers and their 
families outside strike headquarters in 
Elyria, Ohio. 

Bus travel in these times “is absolutely 
safe,” Kirkland stressed. “They’re good 
union drivers, and there are no white 
knuckles.” 

He thus summed up th^ reasons for the 
chartered Greyhound bus journey from 
Chicago to Washington by which he and 
his wife and 32 AFL-CIO officers and 
staff members made it back to base from 
the Executive Council and General Board 
meetings. 

IN THE COURSE of the council ses- 
sions, it became apparent from the Rea- 
gan Administration’s harsh response to the 
PATCO strike that there would be no 
flying back to Washington. There was tacit 
unanimity on that point. A number of 
council members and staff representatives 
arranged to drive or managed to find train 
accommodations. For the rest of us, the 
chartered bus offered the best solution. 

But what started as a simple, if long, 
voyage home became an exercise in trade 
union solidarity and, more than that, an 
adventure of the spirit. 

♦ * ♦ 

The big Greyhound cruiser had scarcely 
left Chicago’s city limits on Friday morn- 
ing, Aug. 7, when someone pointed out 
that the route would take us within a few 
miles of the air traffic control center out- 
side Cleveland. Why not swing by and 
give a bit of encouragement to the PATCO 
pickets? The idea stirred anticipation on 


the bus as the riders saw the chance to 
demonstrate support for the strikers and 
publicly express their outrage at the Ad- 
ministration’s tactics. 

AT THE FIRST rest stop on the In- 
diana Turnpike, John Leyden, executive 
director of the federation’s Public Em- 
ployee Dept, and a former president of 
PATCO, phoned ahead for directions. 
There were more calls from subsequent 
rest areas as the bus coursed across In- 
diana and Ohio, and Leyden was able to 
work out a rendezvous with escorts from 
PATCO Local 203 who met us at Exit 8A 
of the Ohio Turnpike and led us to the 
local’s headquarters. 

(Continued on Page 6) 


St. Paul — Some 14,000 Minnesota state 
employees, their ranks unbroken after 22 
days on the picket lines, returned to work 
with a tentative two-year agreement that 
carried the unanimous endorsement of the 
executive board of Council 6 of the State, 
County & Municipal Employees. 

The strike was legal under a 1980 state 
law and prison guards, the principal group 
of employees not allowed to strike, dem- 
onstrated their support by joining the 
picketing in their df-duty hours. 

THE AGREEMENT, subject to ratifi- 
cation, assured every worker a pay raise 
of at least $100 a month in the first year 
of the contract, ranging up to $184 at the 
top grades. But the highest percentage 


Unions Hit 
Mass Firings 
By President 

By James M. Shevis 

Organized labor’s support for the air 
traffic controllers’ strike gathered momen- 
tum as the AFL-CIO and its affiliated 
unions joined in urging the Reagan Ad- 
ministration to return to the bargaining 
table and resolve the dispute that has re- 
sulted in mass firings, fines, and jail sen- 
tences. 

With President Reagan unrelenting in 
his directive to fire members of the 13,000- 
strong Professional Air Traffic Controllers 
Organization who struck for better work 
conditions, the federation called upon its 
state and local bodies across the country 
to rally their members and their congres- 
sional delegations in the controllers’ be- 
half. Actions and expressions of support 
by foreign air traffic controllers also un- 
derscored worker backing for the walkout. 

THE FEDERATION directed its staff 
members to cancel all air travel plans, and 
postpone any AFL-CIO meeting where 
attendance would require participants to 
fly. State and local central bodies were in- 
structed to follow the same course. 

At its meeting in Chicago, the Execu- 
tive Council called on the government to 
engage in “frank and open” negotiations 
aimed at alleviating the controllers’ “clear- 
ly justifiable grievances.” 

Because the Administration has not re- 
sponded to its call to reason, the AFL-CIO 
is asking state and local bodies to partici- 
pate in petition drives, letter-writing cam- 
paigns to congressmen and senators, 
rallies, handbilling and informational pick- 
eting to generate such a response. 

Individual affiliates proclaimed their 
support for the controllers, who struck 
after months of frustration in trying to ne- 
gotiate a settlement of longstanding differ- 
ences with the Federal Aviation Adminis- 
tration. PATCO members are employees 

(Continued on Page 2) 


increase went to lower-paid workers. Food 
service workers, for example, got a 13.3 
percent raise. 

Workers who struck represented a 
broad range of white-collar, blue-collar 
and service occupations. Three of the bar- 
gaining groups will receive a 6 percent 
raise next July 1, and an additional 3 per- 
cent on Jan. 1, 1983. Other units will 
receive two cost-of-living allowances the 
second year of the contract. 

The strike began July 20 after AFSCME 
members had voted by a 77 percent mar- 
gin to reject the state’s contract offer. 

Minnesota government offices hired 
about 700 temporary workers during the 

(Continued on Page 8) 


State Employees Win Pact 
In 22-Day Minnesota Strike 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D,C., AUGUST 15, 1981 



36TH CONVENTION of the Iron Workers opened with a keynote by President 
John H. Lyons warning that high interest rates are dragging the construction 
industry into deeper recession. More than 1,000 delegates were on hand. 


Labor Support Expanding 
In Air Controller Strike 


Iron Workers Convention 


Lyons Scores Reagan 
On Economic Policies 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

of the FAA, part of the Transportation 
Department. 

STEELWORKERS President Lloyd Mc- 
Bride instructed all USWA officers and 
staff members to refrain from flying on 
commercial aircraft except in emergencies. 

Kenneth Blaylock, president of the 
AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, as well 
as head of the Government Employees, 
urged members of PED affiliates similar- 
ly to avoid flying until the PATCO strike 
has ended, and encouraged AFGE locals 
“to lend moral support, including infor- 
mational picketing alongside PATCO 
members.” 

Teachers President Albert Shanker 
urged his members to observe PATCO 
picket lines, assist PATCO locals and 
members during the strike, and to write 
Reagan and members of Congress of their 
dissatisfaction with the Administration’s 
repressive handling of the dispute. 

WOODWORKERS President Keith 
Johnson, warning that the Administration’s 
harsh and brutal measures against PATCO 
“could well be the opening salvo” in its 
long expected anti-union campaign, asked 
IWA members to give “all possible aid 
and support” to the striking controllers. 

Air Line Pilots President John J. 
O’Donnell observed that the Administra- 
tion’s position appears to have hardened 
into a form of “philosophical warfare” 
against labor. “Little, if any, meaningful 
discussion is going on regarding the issues 
that initiated the dispute,” he added. 

The AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, 
urged the Administration to end its “puni- 
tive” tactics. lUD staff will shun air travel. 

TEXAiS AFL-CIO President Harry 
Hubbard said it was ironic that the Ad- 
ministration encouraged workers in Poland 
to form free unions and speak out against 
government repression while at the same 
time it is trying its best “to break a nation- 
al union in this country.” 

At a press conference following the 
AFL-CIO General Board meeting in Chi- 
cago, Federation President Lane Kirkland 
said that he felt confident that the public 
will come to see the Administration’s 
handling of the strike as “an exercise in 
repression ... to avoid any sort of rea- 
sonable discourse and any real effort to 
examine the real merits of the case and 
the justice of that cause.” 

In the maze of legal developments sur- 
rounding the dispute, PATCO filed an 
unfair labor practice charge against the 
FAA for refusing to bargain since the 
controllers struck on Aug. 3. At a hearing 
before the Federal Labor Relations Au- 
thority called by the FAA to seek de- 
certification of the union as the controllers’ 
representative, PATCO attorney Gary 
Klein asked Administrative Law Judge 
John Fenton to consider that the agency 
“is engaged in blatant union-busting.” 


Meanwhile, PATCO President Robert 
Poli appeared in Federal District Court 
in New York to give a deposition in a 
multi-million dollar suit brought against 
the union by the nation’s airlines. Poli, 
who arrived by chartered bus, warned re- 
porters that air travel was unsafe due to 
replacement of PATCO members by super- 
visory personnel and inexperienced military 
controllers. 

IN WASHINGTON, federal Judge Har- 
old Greene refused the Administration’s 
request for further action against the strik- 
ing controllers, saying the government 
“cannot have it both ways.” It cannot take 
action against workers it has fired, he 
reasoned. Greene also cut outstanding 
fines against PATCO from $4.75 million 
to $750,000, and reduced the fine against 
Poli from $6,000 to $2,000. 

Overseas sympathy for the striking 
Americans girdled the globe. Transatlantic 
flights over Canada were delayed or can- 
celed for two days as members of the 
Canadian Air Traffic Controllers’ Asso- 
ciation in Gander, Newfoundland, refused 
to clear flights to the United States over 
Canadian air space on grounds the re- 
duced number of American controllers 
made U.S. air space unsafe. 

THE CANADIAN boycott ended when 
the government promised to investigate 
union complaints that border skies were 
dangerous. Spain’s controllers decided to 
refuse clearance to U.S. flights, however, 
and a boycott by Portuguese controllers 
was announced. The International Associ- 
ation of Air Traffic Controllers also was 
meeting in Amsterdam to consider the 
American air traffic situation. 

The controllers seek improvements, in- 
cluding shorter hours and early retirement. 
The stress of their life-or-death respon- 
sibilities has forced many controllers to 
leave their jobs for medical reasons before 
they reach retirement age. 



Hollywood, Fla. — ^The Reagan Admin- 
istration’s tactics of fighting inflation by 
risking further unemploymeiff came under 
sharp attack here at the opening session 
of the Iron Workers’ 36th convention. 

Iron Workers President John H. Lyons 
warned the 1,084 delegates that Reagan 
economic policies will lead to long and 
deep recessions which the nation can ill 
afford. 

“EVERY ONE percentage point in un- 
employment costs the government about 
$25 billion a year,” Lyons stressed. With 
full employment, he said, essential pro- 
grams could be funded and the budget 
would show a surplus. 

The high interest rates that are part of 
the Administration economic strategy have 
pushed the unemployment rate in the con- 
struction industry 43 percent above the 
national average, Lyons charged. 

Increased investments by the wealthy 
won’t help a wage earner buy a home with 
a 16 percent mortgage, he said. Gains that 
union members made in the past “are 
slipping away from us,” he warned. 

Former Labor Sec. Ray Marshall and 
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
warned, as did Lyons, of the attacks on 
the Davis-Bacon Act, which sets prevail- 
ing wage standards for federally funded 
construction, and other labor protections. 

KENNEDY CHALLENGED Republi- 
can senators who seek to repeal Davis- 
Bacon to prove that the law is inflationary. 
He also asked the Administration to “look 
at their own high interest rates” to dis- 
cover one of the real causes of inflation in 
the construction industry. 

He said “attacks on social programs are 
really attacks on organized labor which 
fought over the past 50 years to achieve 
those programs.” 

Marshall warned that if the Davis- 
Bacon statute were repealed, it would de- 
stabilize the construction industry, encour- 
age fly-by-night contractors, result in 
shoddy work and higher costs for mainte- 
nance and repairs, and remove the incen- 
tive for developing skills and acquiring 
training and apprenticeship. 

In his report to the convention, Lyons 
unveiled a new study of the effects of the 


open shop on the construction industry. 
The nation’s two largest open-shop con- 
tractors, Daniel Construction and Brown 
& Root, are “making major inroads into 
the synthetic fuels market,” he pointed 
out, and other non-union firms are making 
incursions into the industry. 

“THE STAKES are too high to sit idly 
by while the Business Roundtable plots 
the destruction of construction unions,” 
Lyons said. “Their philosophy and method 
of carrying it out constitutes a violation 
of the antitrust laws.” 

Also addressing the convention were 
Rep. Claude D. Pepper (D-Fla.), who 
lashed out against the Administration’s 
proposed social security cuts. President 
Paul J. Burnsky of the AFL-CIO Metal 
Trades Dept, and Sec.-Treas. Joseph F. 
Maloney of the AFL-CIO Building & 
Construction Trades Dept. 

Drozak Hits Bid 
To Weaken Law 
On U.S. Shipping 

The AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept, 
called on Congress to reject any weaken- 
ing of the Jones Act, which reserves do- 
mestic shipping rights for U.S. vessels. 

MTD President Frank Drozak told a 
House Merchant Marine panel recently 
that poking loopholes in the law would 
threaten the nation’s defense as well as 
“severely weaken our economic base.” 

Past military sealifts have been possible 
“because the Jones Act provided the Unit- 
ed States with a healthy shipbuilding mo- 
bilization base and a pool of skilled per- 
sonnel to operate vessels,” he noted. 

Drozak, who is also president of the 
Seafarers, opposed legislative exemptions 
sought by the Pacific Northwest lumber 
industry. 

He reminded the House panel that 
“more than 185,000 American workers 
and their families owe their livelihoods to 
domestic waterborne transportation pro- 
tected by the Jones Act.” 


81,000 Win Contract Gains 
At California Supermarkets 


Los Angeles — Members of nine locals 
of the Food & Commercial Workers ap- 
proved a new three-year contract cover- 
ing more than 81,000 food clerks em- 
ployed by 21 Southern California super- 
market chains and independent super- 
markets. 


The pact, ratified by a margin of 63 
percent of those voting, covers 65,000 



By Aoth, from the Philadelphia Inquirer 


employees of the chains and binds also 
the independent supermarkets that had 
agreed to accept the terms of the union’s 
settlement with the Food Employers 
Council. 

THE AGREEMENT, reached on the 
eve of a strike deadline, will raise hourly 
wages by $1.90 over three years, and 
provide cost-of-living adjustments and in- 
creases in employer health and welfare 
pension contributions. 

The nine UFCW locals directly covered 
by the contract are in Bakersfield, Long 
Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San 
Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Po- 
mona, and Santa Monica. 

Union negotiators valued the overall 
package at $3.56 an hour for the life of 
the contract in pay increases, COL ad- 
justments, and fringe benefits. 

THE PACT will increase journeyman 
clerks’ pay by 80 cents an hour in the 
first contract year, and by 55 cents an 
hour in the second and third years. In 
addition, there will be a guaranteed COL 
raise of 25 cents an hour the first year, 
20 cents the second and 25 cents the 
third. 

Clerks’ helpers will receive increases of 
40 cents an hour the first year and 25 
cents an hour in each of the other two 
years. Other worker categories will receive 
increases in appropriate proportion to 
journeymen’s wages. 






AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


Page Three 



CARE PACKAGES of food like that shown here are being sent for distribution 
to the elderly in Poland under a program developed by the international aid and 
development cooperative. CARE President Wallace J. Campbell and AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland discuss the emergency food program. The federation 
is a member organization of CARE. The agency plans to send 200,000 pack- 
ages to Poland in the next year. 

OCAW Keynote Challenges 
Reagan’s Election Mandate 


Jobless Rate 
Dips on Drop 
In Workforce 

The nation’s jobless rate fell three-tenths 
of 1 percent for the second month in a 
row, dropping to 7 percent in July. That’s 
the lowest it has been since April 1980, 
when it was 6.9 percent. 

But the improvement was more statisti- 
cal than real. 

The two-month decline in the unemploy- 
ment rate was primarily the result of a 
shrinkage in the total workforce — the num- 
ber of people employed and actively look- 
ing for work. 

THE WORKFORCE total was nearly 
one million less than two months ago, and 
the number of persons with jobs in July 
was 273,000 below the May level. While 
both employment and the workforce rose 
in July, the rise was not enough to offset 
the previous month’s sharp decline. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner 
Janet L. Norwood cautioned against over- 
optimism on the basis of the July drop in 
the unemployment rate. 

“I don’t know what will happen in Aug- 
ust, September, and October,” she told 
reporters at a news conference. 

Norwood said that “the auto industry 
continues to show weakness and has re- 
covered only a small portion of the jobs 
lost during the past two years.” 

Construction employment, which con- 
tinued to decline in July, remains below 
the low point of last year’s recession. 

DESPITE THE downturn in the econ- 
omy in the second quarter, total employ- 
ment last month rose by 570,000, with 
most of the new jobs going to adult males, 
especially those 20 to 24 years old. For 
men 25 years and over, the jobless rate 
dropped from 5 to 4.7 percent in July. For 
those 20 to 24 years old, the unemploy- 
ment rate declined sharply from 12.8 to 
11.3 percent, its lowest level since March 
1980. 

The jobless rate for adult women, 6.7 
percent, remained about the same. The rate 
for all teenagers dropped from 19 to 18.1 
percent. The unemployment rate for mi- 
nority teenagers dropped from 38.6 to 36.4 
percent. 

For blacks of all ages, the jobless rate 
last month fell six-tenths of 1 percent to 
13.6 percent. Unemployment among His- 
panic workers was measured at 9.9 per- 
cent, a three-tenths of 1 percent drop, the 
bureau reported. 

EMPLOYMENT IN the construction 
industry remained at depressed levels in 
July, as an additional 20,000 jobs were 
lost, BLS said. Joblessness in the industry 
was measured at 15 percent, “still well 
above the rates that prevailed earlier this 
year,” the bureau said. 

In contrast, manufacturing employment 
continued to improve in July, rising by 
110,000 to 20.5 million. Both durable and 
non-durable goods industries registered job 
increases,; with fabricated metals, ma- 
chinery, electrical equipment, and apparel 
showing the most improvement. 

iiiiniiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiimiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiniiiiiiin 

Top Executive Pay 
Averages $616,500 

Top officers of major industrial cor- 
porations collected double-digit pay 
raises last year, according to a survey 
, by a management consultant firm. 

In 100 major companies surveyed, 
the median salary and cash bonus of 
chief executive officers came to $616,- 
500, up 11.7 percent from the previous 
year. 

Other high-ranking executives did 
even better. Compensation for the sec- 
ond highest official in these companies 
rose 14.4 percent, to $455,800. The 
third layer of executives averaged a 12.4 
percent increase, to $353,700. The sur- 
vey was conducted by the firm of Tow- 
ers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby. 


Denver — President Reagan’s “election 
mandate” was sharply challenged at the 
opening of the 16th biennial convention 
of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers. 

In his keynote address, OCAW Presi- 
dent Robert F. Goss blamed voter apathy 
for the election result. “Much has been 
made by the President of the mandate of 
the last election. But Reagan was elected 
because almost half of the people stayed 
home; we stayed away from the polls,” 
Goss said. 

“He was not mandated to destroy un- 
ions, to gut OSHA, to take away food 
stamps, to cut back help to the elderly, to 
cut out student loans, but that is what’s 
happening. 

“THE REAGAN Administration has 
given tax cuts to the oil industry, to multi- 
national oil companies, and to people 
making over $50,000 a year, and that 
doesn’t apply to very many people in this 
gathering.” 

Focusing on the makeup of the Admin- 
istration, Goss noted that both Labor Sec. 
Raymond Donovan and OSHA Adminis- 
trator Thome Auchter are employers and 
charged that they do not truly represent 
working people. 

“We work in the most profitable and 
hazardous industries and we have found 
no help in developing a safe work environ- 
ment,” he said. 

The OCAW president also noted that “a 
sophisticated union-busting industry is de- 
veloping in this country.” 

“ANTI-LABOR forces took over our 
country during the elections last fall and 
are trying to retrogress us back to the 
1930s, and we’re already there in some re- 
spects,” Goss said. “Anti-labor forces are 
eating our lunch every day.” 

Approximately 850 delegates and 150 
OCAW staff members attended the con- 
vention that was to conclude Aug. 14 with 
the election of officers. Goss is being chal- 
lenged by Anthony Mazzocchi, director 
of the union’s health and safety depart- 
ment. Thirteen candidates are mnning for 
the four officer positions. 

Whenever possible, delegates as well as 
staff employees used alternative means of 
transportation to the convention. The 
OCAW executive board had notified them 
of their support of the Air Traffic Con- 
trollers’ strike. 

Those traveling to the convention used 
autos, buses and trains, many of them 


driving several days from the east coast 
and other distant areas of the United States 
and Canada. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, President Joyce Miller of the Coali- 
tion of Labor Union Women, and Rep. 
John Conyers (D-Mich.) were scheduled 
to address the convention but canceled 
their appearances because of the PATCO 
strike. 

Delegates adopted resolutions condemn- 
ing the Reagan budget and tax program, 
high interest rates and so-called “right-to- 
work” laws. Other resolutions endorsed 
Solidarity Day, “grass-roots” political ac- 
tion and urged “vigorous defense” of the 
social security program. 


Chicago — The AFL-CIO Industrial Un- 
ion Dept, called for a mobilization of 
union resources to keep major business 
firms from destroying collective bargaining 
relationships where they already exist. 

“This effort takes the form of company- 
stimulated decertification elections,” lUD’s 
executive council said in a resolution 
unanimously adopted here. 

lUD AFFILIATES that participate in 
coordinated bargaining are beginning to 
feel the impact of this relatively new 
level of union busting, the council state- 
ment observed. 

At Reliance Electric, what had been 
regarded as an increasingly productive 
union-management relationship was shat- 
tered by decertification elections in three 
plants, two of which were lost by the 
union, the department noted. A generally 
peaceful relationship between a number of 
lUD affiliates and management at the 
Square D Corp. recently was overthrown 
by a decertification petition filed at a 
Square D plant in Texas, with the re- 
ported support of the local plant manager. 

Trying to hold off unionization is noth- 
ing unusual for American corporations, 
the lUD noted. But it has been rare for 
major American companies to try to over- 
turn a collective bargaining relationship 
once it became established. 

The practice “represents a menacing new 


Kirkland Cites 
Inspiration of 
Polish Unions 

Chicago — ^The workers of Poland have 
“reinvigorated the cause of democratic la- 
bor everywhere in the world,” AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland declared in a tele- 
thon here to raise funds for the food and 
medical needs of the Polish people. 

“They have written a new and dramatic 
chapter in the history of freedom,” Kirk- 
land said in remarks aired on WGN-TV. 
Solidarity, the new labor federation in 
Poland, has become more than a narrow 
trade union movement, Kirkland added. 

“IT HAS BECOME the vehicle for a 
broad national movement of the whole 
Polish people against a failed tyranical 
system imposed upon them by the Soviet 
Union,” he said. 

The AFL-CIO, which is the largest sup- 
porter of Solidarity in the West, having 
raised a quarter of a million dollars for 
office supplies and equipment for the or- 
ganization, pledged $1,000 to the Polish- 
American Charities Committee’s campaign 
for food and medical supplies for the 
Poles. 

Organized by the Polish-American Con- 
gress headquartered here, the telethon 
had raised $1,032,000 by the following 
day. President Robert Gibson of the Illi- 
nois State AFL-CIO, who introduced Kirk- 
land, said that “more is still coming in.” 

GIBSON SAID that while the majority 
of pledges came from the Chicago area, 
where there is a heavy Polish-American 
population, calls came in from all over 
the nation. The telethon was beamed to 
some 1,200 outlets through WGN’s tie-in 
with cable television. 

He said that the food and medical sup- 
plies will be purchased in the United 
States, and shipped directly to Poland, 
where Solidarity members will help in their 
distribution to the needy. 

Congratulating the organizers of the tele- 
thon and the viewers for their generous 
response, Kirkland said that the AFL-CIO 
is prepared to work with Polish-American 
groups, church and charitable organiza- 
tions, and other concerned Americans to 
provide food and medicine to the Polish 
people. 

And, as for assistance to the Solidarity 
trade-union movement in Poland, “we will 
continue this as long as they need it and 
want it,” he said. 


direction taken by American industry, a 
threat not only to many individual unions, 
but to the basic role of free trade unionism 
in our democratic system,” the council 
declared. 

The lUD urged responsible corporate 
leaders to weigh the ultimate effect of 
these new anti-union efforts on the basic 
relationships between labor and manage- 
ment and on the fabric of industrial life 
in a free society. 

In another resolution, the lUD prom- 
ised to work to reform U.S. trade law 
and policy to make fair trade a reality. 
“Sensible international economic policy is 
a vital part of the industrial policies need- 
ed to reindustrialize the United States,” 
the resolution observed. 

THE DEPARTMENT pledged to con- 
tinue to work toward stemming the flood 
of imports, ending export performance re- 
quirements and other “job-stealing” rules 
imposed by foreign governments, pressing 
for a system of minimum international 
labor standards, and continuing to fight 
for an end to the special multinational 
tax breaks which encourage U.S. industry 
to invest and create jobs abroad rather 
than in the United States. 

In other business, the lUD approved 
the affiliation of the Office & Professional 
Employees International Union, bringing 
the number of department affiliates to 59. 


lUD Assails New Strategy 
To Oust Established Unions 




Page Four 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


To Call lip the Ranks 

1^ ACH OF US is bound by a sacred trust to represent faithfully 
“ the interest of our members and, by natural and logical ex- 
tension, the interests of the working people of America. 

Unlike the wily politician, we are not free to shift from con- 
stituency to constituency, to trade off one set of interests for 
another, to bob and weave among the issues, just so long as the 
election day tally comes out in our favor. 

We have a constituency with self-defined interests. We have an 
agenda that flows from the aspirations of our members. It did 
not come from a moistened finger thrust into the political breeze. 

WE ARE NOT free to pick and choose our principles according 
to public opinion polls or media fads. 

We are not free to favor social security one day and acquiesce 
in its dismemberment the next. 

We are not free to favor voting rights one day and find it un- 
necessary the next. 

We are not free to favor the minimum wage, health and safety 
regulations, unemployment insurance, aid to education, food 
stamps, tax justice, public service jobs, and equal rights one day, 
and then discover on the next that these were merely ways of the 
government “getting on our backs.” 

When old discredited policies reappear in the guise of “a new 
beginning,” we cannot pretend ignorance of their likely conse- 
quences. We cannot give the Administration the benefit of the 
doubt when there is no doubt in our minds. 

WHEN GOVERNMENT social programs are blamed for all 
our economic ills, we cannot retreat into amnesia, conveniently 
forgetting the grim conditions that gave birth to those programs. 

When the President calls for a “new federalism” to reduce the 
role of the federal government and turn power back to the states, 
we cannot act as if we were not around when “States Rights” 
was invoked to keep blacks out of polling booths and universities, 
to keep wages and social benefits low, to obstruct union organiz- 
ing, and to maintain the power of narrow political and commercial 
cliques in the state houses. 

When the Administration launches a radical counter-revolution 
to undo the progress of half a century, we cannot pretend that we 
are in the midst of business-as-usual. 

Some of our political friends have suggested that now is not the 
time to mobilize resistance to the counter-revolution. Wait, they 
say, until the full impact of Reaganomics hits your people. Wait 
until they’re really hurting. Then they will have only the President 
to blame. 


But that is not what our mandate is for. To watch from the side- 
lines as the counter-revolution is consolidated on the backs of 
workers is a betrayal of our stewardship. Our job, knowing what 
we know, is to resist that injustice and to prevent the damage — not 
to wait until disaster strikes in the hope of turning workers’ misery 
to later political advantage. 

It is a time to call up the ranks. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland at General Board meet- 
ing, Aug. 6, 1981. 







Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kiiucland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

• Deceased. 


Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

Managing Editor: John M. Barry 1 

Assistant Editors: 1 

John R. Oravec 1 

James M. Shevis g 

1 AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. = 

= Washington, D.C. 20006 § 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

= Vol. XXVI Saturday, August 15, 1981 No. 33 1 

= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except ~ 

5 for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
5 ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
5 W ashington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
s AFL-CIO. __ 

illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllllllllllllllllllllinillllllillllllllillllllllllll 




No Solution to Unemployment 


Thatcher’s Cheap Pay Subsidy 
Pushes Down Britain’s Wages 


By Gus Tyler 

STEM THE RIOTS in Britain, Prime Min- 
ister Margaret Thatcher has proposed an eco- 
nomic program that is in violation of her basic 
economic principles and yet is so fettered by her 
conservative prejudices that it just won’t work. 

Her plan is to create jobs for youths of riotous 
age, using government funds for the purpose to 
the tune of about $1 billion next year. 

Apparently, Thatcher has concluded that job- 
less youth are prone to riot. So she is planning to 
put the young to work with the aid of government 
funding. 

THE STEP — necessary as it is — is strictly out 
of step with Tory philosophy. If the unemploy- 
ment rate in Britain now stands at 11.8 percent, 
that is a condition that should be cured by “mar- 
ket forces,” according to conservative orthodoxy. 

By that dogma, the high unemployment rate 
should bring down wages to make it possible for 
employers to hire workers at a profitable price. 
Thus unemployment with its low wages would be 
the road to greater employment at reduced wages, 
according to the classic calculations of the con- 
servatives. 

Whatever merit there may be to this bit of eco- 
nomic logic — and it is dubious whether there is 
any — the theory makes no allowance for the fact 
that people are people and not just so many numb 
numbers. People riot and people vote and they 
are doing both to the dismay of the Tories. 

THE RIOTS have been running continuously 
for several weeks. In a by-election recently, the 
Tory party polled less than 10 percent of the total 
vote. Within the Cabinet there has been rising 
pressure for the Government to do something to 
spur employment and to give up the crude course 
of trying to revive the economy by starving peo- 
ple into submission. Agriculture Secretary Peter 
Walker demanded policies that would “move the 
country to being one nation at work instead of 
two, one employed and one unemployed.” So, 
finally, Maggie, the metallic maiden, yielded. 

But, even as she did, she didn’t. She did decide 
that she could not count on “market forces” to do 
the job and that the Government had to step in. 
But the way in which she intervened once more 
exposed her class prejudices. 

The key point in her program is a proposal to 
make weekly payments of $28.50 to companies 


for each employee under 18 hired at $76 or less 
per week. In other words, the Government will 
subsidize employers to employ young people, 
provided the pay is low enough. 

The program will probably not create a single 
job in Britain without displacing someone else 
from some other job. No doubt, there will be 
employers who will be delighted to get the subsidy 
from the government as a reward for paying a low 
wage. They will indeed employ some youth. 

But these employers, advantaged by cheap la- 
bor and government subsidy, will be in a position 
to undersell and undercut and undermine other 
employers who presently employ people — ^young 
and old — at the going wage and without subsidy. 

SO THE THATCHER program will merely 
redistribute unemployment while lowering the 
general wage level. The only beneficiaries will be 
those employers who get the subsidy — a rather 
predictable consequence of a mind set that is de- 
termined by the attitude of the employer class. 

Thus has Maggie lost her purity while gaining 
nothing in return for the humiliating sacrifice. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

Let the Country See 
There's No Mandate 

Our organization, the American Federation 
of State, County & Municipal Employees, will 
with other unions do everything possible to 
make Solidarity Day a national happening so 
that the country as a whole can see that there 
is no mandate for the programs that are com- 
ing from this Administration. 

There is no mandate for the reduction in 
minimum benefits of social security. 

There’s no mandate across the country for 
the reduction of school lunches, for cutting the 
whole host of programs in the name of balanc- 
ing the federal budget. 

There’s certainly no mandate for the reduc- 
tion of jobs, particularly where young adults 
for the first time have made an opportunity to 
go to work. 

There must be a minimal standard of life 
below which we will not expect anyone to exist 
in our society. 

— AFSCME Sec.-Treas. William Lucy at 
AFL-CIO General Board meeting. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


Pai^e Five 




Voicing Labor's Concerns 

Solidarity Day Provides Forum 
For Basic Aims of Unionists 


The following is from an address to the AFL- 
CIO General Board by Vice President Peter Bom- 
mar ito in Chicago, Aug, 6, 1981. 

S OLIDARITY DAY is a call to action. We 
know that an America that has 7 percent un- 
employment demands action. 

In this, the centennial year of American labor, 
Solidarity Day is a fitting expression of who we 
are, what we do, and why we trade unionists 
banded together in the first place . 

Our primary mission is to support the process 
of collective bargaining — which is nothing more 
than free men and women, negotiating in a free 

society, achieving 
a voice in their fate 
on the job. To pur- 
sue that goal, we 
will use any tool 
we can lay our 
hands on. Our tools 
may, at a given 
time, include edu- 
cation, organiza- 
tion, legislation or 
negotiation with ei- 
ther friend or foe. 

A few years ago, 
we noted well that 
corporate America and its conservative political 
allies were expressing an attitude toward workers 
and their unions that was turning, in a word, 
nasty. In the fight for labor law reform in 
1978, for instance, America’s companies unswerv- 
ingly lined up behind the outlaws in their ranks 
in a blind expression of a bunker mentality — ^us 
against them, with no interference from the light 
of reason. 

IN CORPORATE and conservative America, 
among those who have much and intend to keep 
it, the motives and issues were not new — indeed, 
they were much like the motives and issues faced 
by Samuel Gompers as much as a century ago. 

The methods, however, had changed. The com- 
pany goon with the club and brass knuckles had 
been replaced by the sharpie with a briefcase, 
whose “seminars” taught America several new 
euphemisms for old-fashioned union-busting. At 
the same time, and on an equally slick and fast 
track, they cranked up in the political arena a 
new tool called the independent political action 
committee which could bring the methods of the 
gutter to the attack against any candidate they 
chose, while their candidate, the beneficiary of 
these methods, stood above the fray, unaware, 
of course, of how many dollars were poured into 
his victory. 

It was against that backdrop we came to No- 
vember 1980. And we lost. 

Our opponents did not win with an overwhelm- 
ing mandate. In fact, the presidential election 
was decided by just over 50 percent of Americans 
who turned out to vote. So, it could better be 
called one-half of one-half of a mandate. 


But they did win. And they did win enough 
offices -to get started on turning back the clock 
on social progress in America. 

TODAY, less than seven months into the new 
Administration, we can see the shape of the at- 
tack. In the halls of both the legislative and execu- 
tive branches of government, they are working 
their will through either legislative initiative or 
administrative fiat to achieve a whole host of 
goals that can only be called anti-worker. 

Unfortunately, the attitudes that make such a 
wholesale attack on workers possible are on dis- 
play now. All Americans have seen the harsh and 
punitive actions of the Administration against the 
air traffic controllers, who agreed by a 95 percent 
vote that their situation was untenable, their 
working conditions intolerable. 

We trade unionists would also ask one ques- 
tion of the nation’s opinion molders and media. 
Why is it that one year ago this month, when 
some public employees at the shipyard in Gdansk, 
Poland, felt similarly compelled and went on 
strike the free world was electrified and applaud- 
ing? Are these the same voices who today say the 
only option for an American public employee is 
to go to jail? 

Throughout that list of anti-worker initiatives, 
the common theme is to repress workers and 
quiet the voice they can express through their 
unions. It’s anti-worker, pure and simple. 

Nowhere has the philosophy behind this tax- 
cutting and budget-cutting insanity been more 
clearly displayed than in the attack on the social 
security system. Incredibly, the social security 
cuts are being advanced by a candidate whose 
principal pronouncement on the issue was to say, 
in the nationally televised presidential debate on 
Oct. 19, 1980, that he would begin work on 
social 'security “with the promise that no one 
presently dependent on social security is going 
to have the rug pulled out from under them and 
not get their checks.” 

THERE ARE SERIOUS questions for us 
about many of the other officials who were 
elected last November with our help. In kow- 
towing to the Executive Branch and its much 
ballyhooed “mandate,” our congressional friends 
showed they know when it’s time to rise above 
principle and. worship the great god expediency. 
Together they left us with a choice between jelly 
beans and jelly fish. 

We trade unionists know we stand pretty much 
alone in the fight to advance the workers’ rights. 
But that never deterred us during the first century 
of American labor, and it sure isn’t going to stop 
us now. 

We will, now and in the future, continue to use 
all the tools of education, organization, negotia- 
tion and accommodation that are necessary for us. 
But for now, we’re going to begin at the very 
beginning. And that’s on the streets of Washing- 
ton, D.C., on Sept. 19. 



3 Million Jobs Endangered 

Decontrol Plan Seen Bringing 
Doubling of Natural Gas Prices 


T 'HE REAGAN Administration’s plan to end 
price controls on natural gas would more than 
double current prices and cut more than three 
million more jobs out of the already staggering 
economy, AFL-CIO Associate Legislative Direc- 
tor Howard Marlowe warned on Labor News 
Conference. 

The impact of natural gas decontrol will be 
both “enormous and severe,” Marlowe said. He 
stressed that industries as well as consumers will 
suffer. He pointed out that 60 percent of the na- 
tion’s homes use natural gas for either heat or 
cooking, and that the production process of “a 
number of industries are very dependent upon 
natural gas. 

Marlowe said that if natural gas controls are 
lifted, the producers will push prices to a “market- 
clearing level,” which will be “determined by the 


OPEC price of oil on the world market.” He 
noted that the current price restraints have held 
natural gas rates below the OPEC level, even 
though “the oil companies are the gas producers.” 

Marlowe turned aside the contention that “if 
the price is held artificially low by government 
action, the industry does not have the incentive 
to explore for and produce from new sources.” 
In fact, he pointed out, the Reagan decontrol plan 
would wipe out the current incentive, which per- 
mits producers to charge higher prices for newly 
discovered gas. 

Under decontrol, the price of all gas will be 
the same, whether it comes from existing or newly 
discovered sources, Marlowe said. “The incentive 
then,” he said, “will be to manage the sale and 
production of gas on hand, so that it produces the 
profits that the oil companies want.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

A ny sensible plan to curb inflation must include putting 
L rapidly escalating health care costs under control. 

Total health expenditures in the United States rose from $10.8 
billion in 1950 to $167.9 billion in 1978. These figures represent 
only a partial picture as they do not include administrative costs 
or government public health expenditures. 

Costs for hospitalization, surgery, doctors’ care and auxiliary 
services such as laboratory tests, x-radiography, and physied 
therapy have become so prohibitive that a serious and prolonged 
illness can financially ruin a middle-income family without health 
insurance. 

THOSE WITHOUT health insurance — and there are some 27 
million according to current estimates — may often be turned away 
from hospitals if they cannot pay the costs. 

Past unsuccessful legislation debated by Congress would have 
restrained health care costs directly by restricting hospital charges 
and physicians’ fees. This year, however, several bills pending in 
Congress seek to control costs indirectly through insurance com- 
panies and consumers. 

These current measures would apply a “free-market” approach 
to the health care industry. Theoretically, costs would be lowered 
by providing incentives for employers and consumers to choose 
lower cost health plans and thus inducing insurance companies to 
compete by lowering premiums. 

The Committee for National Health Insurance (NHI), chaired 
by Auto Workers President Douglas A. Fraser, has produced a 
study of one of the pending bills, the Administration-supported 
National Health Care Reform Act of 1981 (H.R. 850). 

THE COMMITTEE points out problems with what it calls 
“the have-less insurance approach” of this bill, which was drafted 
by Management & Budget Director David Stockman and intro- 
duced into the House earlier in the year by Rep. Richard A. 
Gephardt (D-Mo.). 

Under the Stockman-Gephardt plan, employers who are now 
permitted to deduct group health insurance premiums for em- 
ployees from federal income taxes would only be allowed to 
deduct a maximum contribution, which is as yet unspecified in the 
bill. Any health premium payments above that amount would be 
considered taxable income to the employees. 

Medicare recipients would have the choice of continuing in 
Medicare or receiving vouchers to purchase membership in a 
qualified plan. Those totally without health coverage also may 
receive vouchers to buy into health plans, but only after the com- 
petitive system becomes established and if the states choose parti- 
cipation in the system. 

The committee found other flaws in the plan: 

• Lower-cost, lower-benefit plans would mean less health care 
coverage. Workers with less coverage would end up paying higher 
deductibles and co-insurance payments or, as the committee says, 
“workers would be offered a bribe to disinsure themselves.” 

• The maximum amount to be paid by individuals is $2,900, 
after which catastrophic benefits would become operative. How- 
ever, CNHI points out that for tens of millions of low-income 
persons, $2,900 may be “catastrophic.” 

• The maximum non-taxable premium to be paid by employers 
is not stipulated, therefore no actual cost estimates can be made. 

• Union members with negotiated comprehensive health cov- 
erage paid by employers would be penalized. 

• Higher cost “preventive” health care would be discouraged. 
• Poverty-level Americans without Medicaid coverage would 
be threatened with no coverage. The committee estimates that 47 
percent of those at or below the poverty level are not covered by 
Medicaid. 



THREE MILLION more jobs cut from the economy and cook- 
ing and heating gas bills at least double current charges will be 
the price of the natural gas decontrol plan the Reagan Adminis- 
tration is pushing, AFL-CIO Associate Legislative Director 
Howard Marlowe, center, warned. Marlowe was questioned on 
Labor News Conference by Alan Adams, left, of Employment 
Relations Report newsletter and Drew Von Bergen of United 
Press International. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs pro- 
gram is broadcast weekly on the Mutual radio network. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


AFL-CIO Bus Makes Picketing Detour 



PICKET LINE at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport took on a family day atmosphere 
as children of striking Air Traffic Controllers joined in with AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland and Executive Council members in a demonstration of support. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The greeting was stunning. A crowd of 
some 300 strikers, their families and sup- 
porters, led by Local 203 President Ed 
Zagovic, roared their welcome, arms up- 
thrust, as driver Bill Johnson maneuvered 
the bus into a parking spot. Area trade 
unionists on hand included Cleveland 
AFL-CIO President Sebastian Lupica, 
CWA Vice President Martin Hughes, Rus- 
sell Schroeder of the federation’s field 
staff, Lorain County AFL-CIO President 
Andy DeAngelis and local UAW and lUE 
leaders. 

For the most part, the crowd was made 
up of young men and women, many with 
babies in backpacks and strollers or with 
toddlers at their side. They were white 
and black and brown and represented a 
wide mix of nationalities. But there were 
no old-timers among the strikers, under- 
scoring PATCO’s point that few of its 
members last long enough under the pres- 
sures of their job to make it to retirement 
with full benefits. 

KIRKLAND, speaking through a bull- 
horn from the top of a table Set up in an 
open field, took special note of the young- 
sters seated around him on the grass and 
recalled meeting others like them when 
the Executive Council joined the PATCO 
picket line at O’Hare Airport earlier in 
the week. 

“I couldn’t help thinking,” he said “how 
they must feel when they turn on televi- 
sion and watch the President of the United 
States, in all his majesty and might, stand- 
ing in the Rose Garden calling their fath- 
ers and mothers criminals and offenders, 
villains and persons violative of the prin- 
ciples of this republic” 

“Your parents are heroes in whose cour- 
age you can take pride,” he told the young 
people. 

“They have the courage to overcome 
fear and to stand up against all the force 
that can be brought to bear to repress 
and deny the legitimate aims of ordinary 
people trying to work for a living, trying 
to do the best that they can.” 

Kirkland expressed labor’s firm support 
of the strikers’ cause and predicted that 
ultimately American public opinion will 
come around to their side. 

“THEY’LL CONSIDER the spectacle 
of a President and an Administration that 
applauds the example of the Polish work- 
ers risking their necks and their freedom 
— committing what were then illegal acts 
— striking government employment to es- 
tablish a genuine, free and independent 
trade union for themselves. 

“And yet when the same thing happens 
here, it’s met with a kind of brutal op- 
pression that I’m sure the Russians and 
the old-time members of the central com- 
mittee of the Communist Party of that 
country would have loved to be able to 
exercise in that case.” 

AFL-CIO Vice President Ken Blaylock, 
president of the Government Employees, 
drew resounding cheers when he told the 
strikers that “by your commitment, your 
determination and your courage, you are 
an example for the rest of the federal 
workforce, and they are taking notice 
throughout this country.” 

“YOUR STRENGTH is gaining daily,” 
Blaylock said. He noted that AFGE was 
being “totally swamped” with calls from 
members wanting to know how they could 
help. 

“They’re rallying to your people all 
over the country — strike, line protection, 
line rotation, family assistance — they’re 
walking with you and more are coming 
every day.” 

Federation Vice President Dave Fitz- 
maurice was warmly welcomed as a Cleve- 
land native who had begun his union ac- 
tivism there before moving on to head 
the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers. 

Fitzmaurice remarked at the solidarity 
PATCO members were displaying in the 
face of great odds. He urged the strikers 
to stand fast against the legal and punitive 
actions the Administration was taking. 
“Strikes aren’t won in the courts,” he re- 
minded them. “They’re not won on tele- 
vision. They’re won on the picket line.” 


When the speaking and handshakes 
had ended, the personal messages of sup- 
port conveyed, the Washington passengers 
reboarded their bus for a short drive to 
the picket line at the air traffic control 
center in nearby Oberlin: 

There the iron authority of the federal 
government was blatantly on display. A 
temporary restraining order issued by the 
federal court in Cleveland restricted 
picketing to six persons along grass path- 
ways rigidly demarcated by day-glo orange 
pylons. U.S. marshals were camped inside 
the gatehouse and patrolled the entrance 
to guard against deviations. 

Kirkland and his wife, Irena, along with 
Blaylock, Fitzmaurice and federation staff- 
ers, relieved the pickets for tours on -the 
line. They were cheered on by the crowd 
across the road, gathered in the parking lot 
of a supermarket whose manager had 
braved the ire and rebuffed the complaints 
of FAA officials to permit PATCO to use 
the lot as a staging area. 

PROVISIONS FOR the remainder of 
the journey were restocked at the market 
and Georgia Dunfee of Sec.-Treas. Tom 
Donahue’s staff, who served as a combi- 
nation supply officer and wagon master, 
managed to round up pizzas and beer. 

♦ * ♦ 

“On to Pittsburgh!” The cry came half 
in jest from Rex Hardesty of the Dept, of 
Information staff who worked the phones 
with Leyden at each stop to get word out. 
The response at first was scattered laughter, 
but then the question again posed itself: 
why not? The only real problem was 
whether the bus could make it to the 
headquarters of the Pittsburgh PATCO 
local at a reasonable hour of the night. 

At the next stop, the timing was 
checked out with the new driver, Cindy 
Kvamme, and more phone calls were 
placed. 

A SCOUTING PARTY met us at the 
Beaver Falls exit of the Pennsylvania 
Turnpike and guided the bus through sub- 
urban towns to the VFW hall in Sewick- 
ley. There members of PATCO’s Pitts- 
burgh Local 245 had gathered with their 
families for a dinner rally to hear reports 
of the strike’s progress. They had re- 
mained at the hall long after the sched- 
uled close of the rally when they learned 
that the caravan bound for Washington 
would stop by. 

Leyden was greeted by old friends from 
his days at PATCO’s helm — Local 245 
President Ed Wintermeyer and Vice Presi- 
dent Roger Flaherty among others. He 


told them of “the solidarity, the strength 
and the resolve” he had seen on the 
PATCO lines in Chicago and Cleveland, 
and he insisted: “You will prevail. You 
will win.” 

Kirkland congratulated the assembled 
strikers for carrying on a courageous battle 
for justice. 

“You’re exercising a basic human right 
which no legislature or no tool of em- 
ployers in the country can override by 
law,”, he declared. “There is a concept of 
natural rights that underlay the creation 
of this country, and Thomas Jefferson 
expressed it when he swore eternal en- 
mity to every form of tyranny over the 
mind of man. 

“YELLOW-DOG contracts are one 
form of tyranny,” Kirkland observed, 
“whether they’re put in by government 
regulation or private power. The trade 
union movement fought them for a hun- 
dred years in private employment, and 
now we’re fighting them in public em- 
ployment.” 

Again, Kirkland spoke directly to the 
many strikers’ children in the crowded 
hall and told them they would “look back 
on this day as a moment when you found 
out just what great people” their parents 
were. 

“They’re fighting for their brothers and 
sisters,” he said. “They’re fighting to make 
a tough job a better job for their brothers 
and sisters and for all those who come 
after them to work in that job. That’s 


Seattle — Convention delegates gave the 
executive board of the Elevator Construc- 
tors authority to raise monthly per capita 
payments 50 cents each year, beginning 
next Jan. 1. The present rate is $5.90 a 
month. 

There will be no change in the separate 
defense fund payments, which remain at 
30 cents a month. 

President Everett A. Treadway was re- 
elected to his second five-year term by 
acclamation, as were Sec.-Treas. John N. 
Russell and Jerome A. Mullett, assistant 
to the president. 

The 298 delegates also re-elected five of 
the union’s incumbent vice presidents. Of 
the three new vice presidents, Russell 


what the trade union movement is really 
all about.” 

To the strikers themselves, the AFL- 
CIO president declared: 

“We’re with you in spirit. We’re with 
you in any way and every way that it’s 
possible to be with you. And we’re proud 
to be amongst you and to have this chance 
to join you.” 

Blaylock again reported on the rising 
level of support for the PATCO strikers 
among federal employees across the coun- 
try. On the question of legality, he pointed 
out that if the government had observed 
the intent and principles of the federal 
pay comparability act, wages would not 
be an issue in the controllers’ strike. 

Before closing, Blaylock read a hand- 
printed letter to the President from seven- 
year-old Tiffany Lynn Sanko, daughter of 
one of the Pittsburgh strikers: 

“YOU CAN TAKE away our money. 
You can take away our car. You can 
take away our house, but you can go too 
far. You can’t take away our special love 
fronrme and my family.” 

Leaving the hall at close to 11:30 p.m., 
the Washington group was pressed with 
expressions of thanks from the strikers 
and their families. 

“We’re so grateful to you for coming 
out of your way,” one young wife said as 
she presented her two youngsters to shake 
the hand of an AFL-CIO staffer. “This 
has been a real boost. You don’t know 
how much it means to us.” 

After a pause, the reply came: “Not 
nearly as much as what you’re doing 
means to us.” 

♦ * * 

IT WAS A subdued group of travelers 
that began the final leg of the return trip. 
A new driver, Angelo Maccagnan, gave a 
time check for the benefit of those who 
wanted to make last-minute entries in the 
arrival pool. 

Reading lights were turned off one by 
one. It began to rain, and the rhythmic 
slapping of the windshield wipers helped 
some to catch a little sleep. But soft con- 
versations continued among seat mates as 
they reflected on the events of the day 
and the images left by the faces of the 
strikers, faces that reflect firm determina- 
tion, yet traces of anxiety. 

It had been a day of renewal, another 
replenishment of the spirit of solidarity. 

The first hint of dawn appeared in the 
East as the bus reached Rockville, Md., 
on the outskirts of Washington, and day- 
light broke through as it wound its way 
through the city’s streets. 

ARRIVAL TIME at AFL-CIO head- 
quarters was 5:43 a.m., our driver report- 
ed, which meant that Ken Young, execu- 
tive assistant to Kirkland, had won the 
pool. 

There were suggestions along the way 
that the journey deserved a name. “A 
Ride for Freedom, Justice and Human 
Rights” was one proposal. “A Ride for 
Fair Play” was another. They didn’t seem 
to catch on. In days to come, those who 
were there will recall it simply as “the 
bus trip.” That will be enough. 


Hansborough of Washington, D.C. was 
elected without opposition. In contested 
elections, the Canadian delegation elected 
J. Warner Baxter, regional director for 
Canada, over incumbent William J. Mor- 
ran, and Richard Scariot of Miami defeat- 
ed LeRoy Phillips. 

Elected to the union’s labor committee, 
which will oversee standard contracts for 
the next five years, were George Popp, Jr., 
of Baltimore, A. H. Schumann of Houston, 
John DeRosa of New Haven, Conn., and 
James Hale of Chicago. 

Major convention speakers included 
President Robert A. Georgine of the AFL- 
CIO Building & Construction Trades Dept, 
and Washington Lt. Gov. John Cherberg. 


Elevator Constructors Vote 
To Allow Per Capita Step-up 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, O.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


Page Seven 



BACHELOR OF ARTS degrees, awarded by Antioch Uni- 
versity in cooperation with the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies, are presented to the six newest graduates of 
the independent labor studies curriculum. The seven-year-old 
degree program recognizes experience in the labor movement 
as well as earned college credits. Thirty union leaders have 
earned college degrees in the program which now has more 
than 125 students enrolled. At the most recent graduation 
ceremonies, from left, Michael Anderson, Antioch registrar; 
Russell Allen, the center’s deputy director; Lana M. Katz, 


Office & Professional Employees Local 2 shop steward at the 
Government Employees headquarters, Washington, D.C.; 
Paula O’Connor Pierce, information director, American 
Federation of Teachers, Washington, D.C.; Christel Manz, 
chief steward. Machinists Local 1259, New Holstein, Wis.; 
Jeanna Belkin, vice president. Actors’ Equity, New York; 
Lawrence M. Slay, Jr., apprentice coordinator, IBEW Local 
1547, Anchorage, Alaska, and Jacqueline Brophy, the cen- 
ter’s degree coordinator. Not shown is Thomas C. Melisko, 
business agent. Operating Engineers Local 66, Pittsburgh. 


Plumbers & Pipe Fitters Delegates Elect 
Martin Ward to 3rd Term as President 


USWA Files 
For Vote at 14 
DuPont Plants 

Pittsburgh — ^The Steelworkers have filed 
petitions for , representation elections at 
14 DuPont plants employing some 12,000 
workers. 

The petitions, filed with the National 
Labor Relations Board in Washington, 
mark a major step in the union’s cam- 
paign to organize the multi-billion-dollar 
conglomerate headquartered in Wilming- 
ton, Del. The firm employs about 65,000 
workers at plants across the nation. 

STEELWORKERS President Lloyd Mc- 
Bride said that the petitions seek repre- 
sentation elections at DuPont plants in Old 
Hickory, Tenn.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Kins- 
ton, N.C.; Cape Fear, N.C.; Belle, W.Va.; 
Newark, N.J.; New Johnsonville, Tenn.; 
Willow Bank, Del.; Florence, S.C.; Ger- 
may Park, Del.; Cleveland, Ohio; New- 
port, Del.; Martinsburg, W.Va., and Gibbs- 
town, N.J. 

USWA Organizing Director John L. 
Oshinski said that the petitions were filed 
in Washington rather than at NLRB re- 
gional offices because the union wants to 
consolidate the petitions to avoid duplica- 
tion of proceedings, and to achieve a uni- 
formity in scheduling of election dates, 
tallying of ballots, and rules and regula- 
tions governing the elections. 

“THE EXTRAORDINARY union-bust- 
ing strategy employed by DuPont calls for 
rigorous election procedures to give Du- 
Pont workers a fair opportunity to make 
their choice,” Oshinski said. 

Oshinski said top DuPont executives in 
Wilmington dictate the company’s labor 
relations, denying workers the right to 
companywide bargaining, thereby forcing 
them to negotiate at the plant level — 
where, in some cases, there are indepen- 
dent local unions with meager resources 
and, in other cases, no organization what- 
soever to represent the workers. 


The George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies has published a new catalogue for 
the 1981-82 academic year offering 56 
institutes, workshops and programs. The 
courses are open to all full-time union offi- 
cers, representatives and staff of AFL-CIO 
affiliates. There is no charge for tuition. 

In this 13 th year of the center’s opera- 
tion, AFL-CIO affiliates have scheduled 
57 other training programs, many co-spon- 
sored by the George Meany Center. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland, 
in a foreword to the catalogue, urges every 
union “to use this facility to the utmost.” 

This year’s catalogue indicates that the 
center’s most popular subjects continue to 
be organizing techniques, grievance arbi- 
tration and collective bargaining. 

The five-day basic institute on organiz- 
ing techniques will be offered six times 
during the school year. There’s also a 
two-week advanced organizing workshop. 
Grievance arbitration preparation and pre- 
sentation is offered five times, twice at the 
George Meany Center and once each at 
state universities in Colorado, Illinois and 
Oregon. 

Collective bargaining is the subject of 
four institutes this year: two on public 
sector negotiations, one on private sector 
negotiations and one on new developments 
in collective bargaining. 



Dnsi 


SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


Las Vegas — Carrying his whole slate 
with him, Martin J. Ward was re-elected 
to his third consecutive five-year term as 
president of the 350,000-member United 
Association of Plumbers & Pipe Fitters 
by the more than 3,700 delegates attend- 
ing the largest general convention in UA 
history. 

Ward defeated Joseph Mazzola of San 
Francisco, 2,368 to 1,222 in voting ma- 
chine secret balloting which decided the 
contest for two of the six vice presidencies 
and for three international representatives’ 
positions. 


Two institutes are scheduled on labor 
law for union officers. 

Under the heading. Leadership Devel- 
opment, five study programs are offered: 
basic skills for union leaders, psychology 
for union leaders, union administrator and 
business agent, effective speaking and a 
two-week program for new staff. 

At the direction of the Executive Coun- 
cil, the center is offering seven three-day 
sessions on pension fund investments. Two 
will be at the Silver Spring campus, the 
others at five regional locations. 

Tool courses are being offered in audio- 
visual techniques, education techniques, 
grantsmanship for union leaders, news- 
writing and editing for union publications, 
media relations for union officers, and 
public communications for public employ- 
ee unions. 

With the Building & Construction 
Trades Dept., the center has scheduled in- 
stitutes for building trades business agents 
at the Silver Spring campus and at Mich- 
igan State University and the University 
of Oregon. 

THREE COURSES have been devel- 
oped to help officers of unions using or 
considering the use of computers. They are 
introduction to computers, advanced com- 
puter workshop and “mini” computers for 
local unions. 

The year will end on a musical note next 
June when the center will sponsor The 
Great Labor Song Exchange, a three-day 
workshop and coaching session designed to 
preserve and promote labor’s inspiring mu- 
sical tradition. 

The charge for room and board at the 
Silver Spring campus is $60 a day. Copies 
of the catalogue are available on request 
to Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., director, George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies, 10000 
New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 
20903, Telephone (301) 431-6400. 


Sec.-Treas. Joseph A. Walsh was un- 
opposed for his election to a second five- 
year term. So were executive board incum- 
bents Donald T. McNamara of Detroit, 
Edward F. Brabec of Chicago, Joseph L. 
Arsenault of Fairfax, Alaska, and J. Rus- 
sell St. Eloi of Ottawa, the UA’s Canadian 
director. 

VICE PRESIDENT John J. Murray of 
New York turned back a challenge of 
George Daly, 1,899 to 1,595 and Vice 
President Thomas C. Payne of Atlanta was 
re-elected to the executive board over C. 
Randy Gardner, 1,891 to 1,593. 

In his keynote address. Ward stressed 
the traditional trade union values of hon- 
esty and integrity. These are not worn out 
attributes, he said. They stand in opposi- 
tion to the all-too-prevalent attitudes of 
“me first and anything goes” — attitudes 
which, he said, weaken the union and 
diminish the motivation of members to 
do their best on the job and in the union 
hall. 

Ward said that jobs must be regarded 
as the highest priority. Local organizing 
and collective bargaining activities are the 
backbone of this effort, he said. Supple- 
menting these efforts are national agree- 


The Air Line Pilots stepped up a 
corporate campaign against New York 
Air with assistance from the AFL-CIO in 
locating unions that may have funds in- 
vested in the non-union airline, its holding 
companies, creditors and stockholders, 
and corporations represented on its board 
of directors. 

This latest action is another step in 
bringing pressure on New York Air to 
recognize an existing contract between 
ALPA and Texas International Airlines, 
its corporate sibling. Both airlines are 
owned by Texas Air Corp., which in turn 
is held by Jet Capital Corp. Frank Loren- 
zo, a Texas-based entrepreneur, is the 
controlling individual behind all four 
companies. 

IN A LETTER sent to 27 affiliated 
unions which may have pension fund in- 
vestments or other dealings with the cited 
companies, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland asked for their cooperation as 
“part of the AFL-CIO’s efforts to assist 
the Air Line Pilots Association ... in 
its fight to prevent the establishment of 
a non-union airline by Texas International 
Airlines.” 

Last February, the AFL-CIO Execu- 


ments and the need for members to ac- 
tively join in the drive to organize non- 
union contractors. He added that contract 
maintenance agreements are another im- 
portant area of job opportunity. 

THERE ARE three major difficulties 
presently affecting all working people. 
Ward said. They are the economic situa- 
tion with its high interest rates and infla- 
tion, the political attacks on social pro- 
tections and legislative advances labor has 
worked for, and the shift in public opin- 
ion toward a more conservative pro-busi- 
ness bias. 

President Robert A. Georgine of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept., one of the principal speakers at the 
convention, announced that Ward will 
head a new BCTD committee. 

Georgine said Ward’s committee will 
explore possibilities of establishing a coali- 
tion of labor contractors, manufacturers, 
suppliers and the designer professions that 
would identify the critical issues facing the 
construction industry in the 1980s. 

Georgine also called on building trades 
unions to direct the investment of their 
pension funds so they benefit members 
by providing union work. 


tive Council branded New York Air “un- 
fair” and termed it “unworthy of union 
support through investment or stock pur- 
chases.” 

ALPA maintains that its contract with 
Texas International also applies to New 
York Air. The New York operation was 
spun off using profits, aircraft and per- 
sonnel from Texas International, but un- 
like its sister airline, is totally non-union. 
A coalition of unions representing Texas 
International employees has charged 
Lorenzo with setting up a runaway shop 
to avoid existing labor contracts. 

Pickets from ALPA, the Flight At- 
tendants, the Transport Workers, and the 
Machinists have been passing out boycott 
information on New York Air at airports 
used for its flights. 

AFL-CIO Convention 
Slated to Open Nov. 15 

The 14th Constitutional Convention 
of the AFL-CIO will take place in New 
York City, beginning Nov. 15, 1981. 

The meetings of the convention will 
be in the Sheraton Centre HoteL 


Labor Studies Center Lists 
Courses for 1981-82 Term 


Pilots Supported in Effort 
To Put Pressure on N.Y. Air 



Pa^e Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., AUGUST 15, 1981 


OSHA Proposal Criticized 

Rule Change Threatens 
Access to Health Data 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration is proposing to erect stiff 
monetary barriers to workers and their 
unions seeking access to workplace health 
records and data on exposure to toxic 
substances. 

This is all a part of the proposed “in- 
terim modification” of the OSHA stan- 
dard on Access to Employee Exposure & 
Medical Records that was issued by the 
Carter Administration in May 1980. 

AS OUTLINED by Assistant Labor 
Sec. Thome G. Auchter, the standard 
would be modified by “strengthening” the 
trade secret protection provisions of em- 
ployers. This could be achieved, Auchter 
suggested, by allowing employers to estab- 
lish monetary penalty clauses in confiden- 
tiality agreements employees must sign 
before gaining access to their records. 

George H. R. Taylor, the AFL-CIO’s 
job safety director, warned that the pro- 

OSHA to Keep 
Cancer Expert 

(Continued from Page 1) 
view of the chemical, which is used in a 
number of industrial processes. 

An estimated 750,000 workers are ex- 
posed to formaldehyde on the job, accord- 
ing to Director George H. R. Taylor of 
the AFL-CIO job safety department who 
had warned that the firing of Infante 
would have a chilling effect on OSHA’s 
professional staff. 

THE CONTROVERSY over Infante be- 
gan after OSHA halted distribution of a 
NIOSH warning bulletin on the possible 
"'health risks of the chemical and Infante 
aired his personal views on the formalde- 
hyde hazard in a letter to the International 
Agency for Research on Cancer. Infante’s 
letter did not mention OSHA’s position 
on the formaldehyde issue. 

In his letter to Infante, Auchter ad- 
mitted that the cancer expert may not 
have been appraised of “my policy de- 
cision not to take immediate regulatory 
action on formaldehyde” in dismissing the 
charge of misrepresenting the position of 
OSHA. 


posed changes in the regulation could 
effectively block access to medical records 
and scientific information sought by a 
worker’s physician or union. 

By using the trade secret provision as 
a shield, employers could withhold all 
types of pertinent information, Taylor 
said. “A trade secret could be anyttog 
they declared it to be.” 

Sheldon Samuels, safety director of the 
Industrial Union Dept., expressed concern 
that the proposed confidentiality agree- 
ment could halt the release of all informa- 
tion on workplace hazards by employers. 

He said the monetary penalty clause 
could make both workers and their unions 
liable in civil suits that could add up to 
millions of dollars in damage payments. 

IN ADDITION to proposing the 
changes in the standard, OSHA asked a 
federal appeals court to delay for six 
months a briefing schedule on the chal- 
lenged regulation until next February 
while the agency reviews its provision. 

Industry groups, including the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce and the Chemical 
Manufacturers Association, sought to 
block implementation of the regulation 
largely on the argument that its provisions 
inadequately protected trade secrets. 

The lUD had sought in a court suit to 
strengthen the original standard so as to 
assure union-designated physicians access 
to workplace records. 

The access standard now permits work- 
ers to examine and copy their own medi- 
cal and toxic exposure records. It also 
allows union representatives access to the 
records of a particular employee if they 
have written consent from the worker. 

ACCORDING TO an AFL-CIO analy- 
sis of the standard, trade secret data that 
disclose manufacturing processes or the 
percentage of a chemical substance in a 
mixture may be withheld, but sufficient 
alternate data must be provided to evalu- 
ate the chemical. 

Employers may also require a written 
agreement from workers or their union 
when releasing so-called trade secret in-^ 
formation that prohibits the misuse of the" 
data. The standard presently does not 
permit monetary sanction clauses in the 
access agreements. 


Transportation, Health Costs 
Pnsh Up Budget for Retirees 


The typical retired couple last year 
required 10.2 percent more income than 
the previous year, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported. 

In its annual updating of three hypo- 
thetical budgets for a retired man and 
wife, BLS said that a couple living on an 
“intermediate” budget needed $9,434 in 
the year that ended last November. 

COUPLES ON a lower-level budget 
needed $6,644, or 10.3 percent more, 
while those on a higher budget needed 
$13,923, or 9.9 percent more. BLS said 
these were the largest increases in the cost 
of living for retired people since 1974, 


when the comparable increases ranged 
from 11 to 11.5 percent. 

The 1980 inflation rate was 12.6 per- 
cent, while living costs from last Novem- 
ber to June have risen 6.8 percent. 

Higher costs for transportation and 
medical care were the major factors in 
raising last year’s budgets, BLS said. 
Transportation costs rose about 16 per- 
cent for the lower and intermediate bud- 
gets and 14 percent for the higher budget. 
Medical care prices also rose sharply, in- 
creasing costs approximately 13 percent 
at all three levels. 


^ — BLS HAS calculated the hypothetical 

5 Jo budgets at three economic levels for typi- 
cal retired budgets for the last 15 years, 
.*“1 adjusting them each year to refiect in- 
- || creases in the cost of commodities and 
services. The couples include a husband 
ag® 65 or over who are assumed to be 
5&S self-supporting and living in an urban 
area. The figures assume no payment of 
income taxes and paid-up mortgages 
where homes are owned. 

•*S2 Food costs at all three levels rose 10.6 
percent last year. Personal care costs in- 

f * 8 creased by 8.9 percent while clothing went 

I up 4.8 percent. 

e 


gS BLS said that a couple living on an 
intermediate budget would spend 33 per- 
2 1 cent of its income on housing, 29 percent 
on food, 10 percent on medical care, and 
Jg 10 percent on transportation. 



Blaylock Protests Cutback 
In Federal Comparability Pay 

Government Employees President Ken- 
neth Blaylock charged that the Admin- 
istration’s decision to give federal white- 
collar workers less than one-third of what 
the President’s Pay Agent has determined 
they need to make their salaries compara- 
ble to those in the private sector is “not 
only unfair, but totally insensitive.” 

The Pay Agent, a statutory body com- 
prised of Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan, 

Director David Stockman of the Office 
of Management & Budget and Director 
Donald Devine of the Office of Personnel 
Management, found that overall salaries 
of white-collar government workers would 
have to be raised by an average of 15.1 
percent to reach the same salary level as 
their counterparts in the private sector. 

DESPITE THE finding by its own 
agent, the Administr-ation is limiting salary 
increases for government employees this 
year to 4.8 percent. The increase is sched- 
uled to take effect Oct. 1. 

“Essentially, President Reagan is asking 
federal workers to bear the brunt of a 
bad economy while ignoring the fact that 
people who work for the government 
suffer from high infiation just as severely 
as people who work for private industry,” 

Blaylock observed. 

Blaylock, joined by the presidents of 
the unaffiliated National Treasury Em- 
ployees Union and the National Federa- 
tion of Federal Employees, said in a letter 
to the Pay Agent that the Administration’s 
“curious logic” shows that “they know 
the price of everything but the value of 
nothing.” 

“It’s no wonder that the best brains are 
being beaten out of government, and frus- 
tration is mounting for those who feel 

Radio Spots Air Concerns 
On Social Security Cuts 

‘Would you have voted for your senators or representative if they had said 
they were going to cut social security benefits? Because now that they are in 
office, they may be considering those proposals fb cut social security payments, 
to cut aid to the disabled, to cut early retirement benefits. Things they wouldn’t 
have dared speak about when they were running for office. Listen to what they 
are saying now and make them listen to you. Write them.” 

That’s one of three 30-second “Save Social Security” radio commercials being 
sponsored by AFL-CIO central bodies and unions in cities throughout the nation. 

In a letter to union groups enclosing cassettes of the messages and urging local 
sponsorship, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said the AFL-CIO is airing 
them in Washington, “but that’s not enough. They must be heard throughout 
the nation . . . and the word gotten to Congress.” 


compelled to remain and continue per- 
forming services for the public,” he said. 
Blaylock pledged that AFGE will continue 
its fight on Capitol Hill for congressional 
relief for federal workers. 

The Pay Agent’s salary increase recom- 
mendation is part of the pay-setting 
process involving federal white-collar 
workers. It is based on a survey taken 
in March of each year by the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics comparing private sector 
and government workers’ pay and respon- 
sibilities. Pay comparability between the 
groups was mandated by the 1971 Federal 
Pay Comparability Act. 

Minnesota Accord 
Won for 14,000 

(Continued from Page 1) 

strike, but all of them are being dismissed 
as a result of the settlement. 

ATTEMPTS BY state officials to re- 
quire professional employees not in the 
bargaining units to do the work of striking 
employees led to a successful lawsuit by 
the Minnesota Association of Professional 
Employees and the State Residential 
Schools Education Association. They won 
a court order barring the state from re- 
assigning professionals to do the work of 
strikers. 

AFSCME Council 6 Director Bob Cur- 
rie said state officials expressed surprise at 
the determination and solidarity of the 
strikers. “They didn’t think so many of 
our members would go out on strike, or 
that we would be out this long,” he said. 




special Fund to Aid PATCO Strikers^ Families 



By James M. Shevis 

The AFL-CIO has set up a special fund 
to help the families of striking Profes- 
sional Air Traffic Controllers meet severe 
financial problems. 

Announcement of the fund by Federa- 
tion President Lane Kirkland and Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue came as the 
American labor movement continued, by 
word and deed, to demonstrate its support 
for the PATCO strikers in the face of 
repressive government measures against 
them. 

KIRKLAND AND Donahue, in a letter 
to AFL-CK) affiliates and central bodies, 
condemned the government’s actions as 
“harsh and vindictive” and noted that 
many of the PATCO members and their 
families are now “beginning to confront 
individual financial burdens.” 


“We have, therefore, decided to estab- 
lish an assistance fund for discharged Air 
Traffic Controllers and their families.” 

Checks for the fund should be made 
payable to the PATCO Family Fund. It 
will not be used to pay strike benefits, the 
letter said, but to assist in specific cases 


of pressing financial need. Trustee for the 
fund will be Msgr. George G. Higgins. 

Kirkland and Donahue also stressed that 
the AFL-CIO continues to call on the 
Reagan Administration to resume bargain- 
ing in an effort to settle the dispute. 

“Massive firings, federal indictments. 


and continued harassment will not pro- 
vide America with the safe and adequate 
air transportation system it requires,” they 
said. “What is needed is a return to the 
bargaining table and an equitable resolu- 
tion of the problems. 

“UNTIL SUCH a settlement is reached, 
the AFL-CIO calls upon its affiliated un- 
ions and their members to help provide 
aid to the families of the discharged air 
traffic controllers.” 

Creation of the special fund was an- 
nounced following a special meeting of 
the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
executive board at which Kirkland joined 
PED President Kenneth Blaylock, other 
department officials and union leaders 
from outside the department in a wide- 
ranging discussion of ways to deliver aid 
to PATCO strikers and their families. 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Rule Changes Hit 
As Bid to Sabotage 
Wage Protections 



SUPPORTERS OF THE nation’s striking Air Traffic Controllers demonstrate 
across from the White House at Washington’s Lafayette Park as organized labor 
stepped up its efforts to aid the union. The rally, sponsored by the Greater 
Washington AFL-CIO, drew hundreds of sympaffiizers. 

$27.5 BUlion Loss 

Business Tax Giveaways 
Threaten State Revenues 


States stand to lose as much as $27.5 
billion in reduced income tax receipts over 
the next six years as a result of recently 
enacted changes in the way businesses are 
allowed to calculate depreciation write-offs 
for federal tax purposes, according to a 
study by Citizens for Tax Justice, a coali- 
tion of labor and public interest groups. 

By 1986, the study shows, the annual 
cost to the states could reach $10.2 billion 
— including a 38 percent reduction in 
corporate tax collections. In later years, 
the costs are expected to continue to esca- 
late. 

OSHA Studies 
Ways to Soften 
Key Standards 

A series of options for the Occupational 
Safety & Health Administration to con- 
sider in dealing with lead and cotton dust 
exposure standards upheld by the Supreme 
Court in June are blueprinted in a memo- 
randum prepared by the Solicitor’s Office 
of the Labor Dept. 

The memorandum evaluates — and as- 
sesses Jhe potential impact on the Reagan 
Administration — of OSHA’s seeking to 
soften the standards through new “rule 
making” and the possibility that it might 
“moderate” them administratively through 
enforcement methods and procedures. 

THE FULL TEXT of the memorandum 
was published Aug. 3 in the Legal Times 
of Washington, a weekly newspaper for 
attorneys. 

The memorandum expresses concern 
(Continued on Page 8) 


THE ESTIMATED revenue losses re- 
flect the total amount by which state in- 
come taxes would be cut if the 45 states 
with income taxes, plus the District of 
Columbia, choose to conform their laws 
to the Reagan Administration’s so-called 
“Accelerated Cost Recovery System” — or 
“10-5-3” as it is commonly known. The 
10-5-3 plan was part of the tax bill ap- 
proved by Congress before the August 
recess. 

Twenty-five states will automatically 
conform to the federal changes unless 
they take steps to amend their current tax 
statutes. Revenue losses in these states — 
which include such major industrial states 
as New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio 
and New Jersey — ^will exceed $15 billion 
between 1981 and 1986, the study found. 

For 13 other states, conformity to the 
new federal depreciation law would re- 
quire special legislation. These states could 
avoid the projected revenue losses by 
maintaining their current tax laws. But 
there is likely to be substantial corporate 
pressure for change. 

SIX OTHER states and the District of 
Columbia have in the past generally con- 
formed to prior federal depreciation rules 
by regulation. Since the statutes in these 
jurisdictions typically provide that depre- 
ciation deductions be “reasonable,” adop- 
tion of the federal rules could be chal- 
lenged as “an abuse of discretion,” accord- 
ing to Dean Tipps, executive director of 
the tax justice coalition. He pointed out 
that the new federal depreciation laws are 
almost universally conceded to be unre- 
lated to any reasonable concept of actual 
depreciation. 

Tipps noted that the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s federal tax program “is designed to 
shift almost all of the tax burden onto 

(Continued on Page 2) 


By David L. Perlman 

New regulations proposed by the Labor 
Dept, would sabotage the prevailing wage 
protections of the Davis-Bacon Act and the 
Service Contract Act, the AFL-CIO 
warned. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald challenged the claim by Labor 
Sec. Raymond J. Donovan that the de- 
partment’s “regulatory reform” proposals 
“could significantly reduce the cost of gov- 
ernment construction and service con- 
tracts.” 

ANY SIGNIFICANT savings,. Oswald 
said, would require flouting the intent of 
the two worker protection laws. He said 
the AFL-CIO will present its detailed ob- 
jections during the 60-day period allowed 
for public comment before the Labor Dept, 
takes final* action. 

President Robert A. Georgine of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept, said the proposed changes in Davis- 
Bacon in effect would “repeal by adminis- 
trative fiat” the 50-year-old prevailing 
wage law. 

“It will mean a return to exploitative, 
cut-throat competition that forces workers 
to work for substandard wages,” he as- 
serted. 

PREVAILING WAGE rates on federal- 
ly funded construction are now based on 
the rate received by the largest number of 
workers in the job classification being 
surveyed, provided they constitute at least 
30 percent of all workers in that classifica- 
tion. 


The Labor Dept, proposes to raise the 
30 percent requirement to 50 percent. If 
no rate were received by at least 50 per- 
cent of the workers in the survey area, the 
average wage would be used. 

Open-shop contractors have pressed for 
years for abolition of the 30 percent rule, 
contending that it tends to establish union 
wage scales as the prevailing standard. 

ANOTHER PROPOSED change would 
encourage the use of semi-skilled “helpers” 
and allow contractors to use one “helper” 
for every five journeymen on a contract. 
The La^r Dept, also would allow con- 
tractors to submit a weekly compliance 
statement instead of actual payroll records 
to show they have followed the law. 

“The overall result is to emasculate en- 
forcement,” Oswald protested. 

Georgine charged that the “helper” pro- 
vision would “destroy the long time policy 
of the government of encouraging appren- 
ticeship by substituting cheap and un- 
trained helpers, even where this is not the 
prevailing practice.” 

The Reagan Administration proposals 
are substantially more drastic than regula- 
tory changes that had been recommended 
by the Carter Administration before it left 
office following extensive discussions with 
all concerned groups. 

THOSE CHANGES included some that 
had been sought by contractors, but did 
not alter the 30 percent rule for determin- 
ing the prevailing rate. 

The new proposals go a long way to 
(Continued on Page 6) 


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Mexican Labor Denounces 
Reagan ^Guest Worker ’Plan 

Mexico City — Mexico’s trade union federation wants no part of the Reagan 
Administration’s proposal to bring up to 50,000 Mexican nationals into ijfe 
United States each year for stays of from 9 to 12 months in designated work 
areas. 

A ^Manifesto to the People,” signed by President Fidel Velasquez of the 
Mexican Federation of Labor, charged that the guest-worker plan would lead to 
further exploitation and second-class status for Mexican workers in the United 
States. 

The manifesto, published in Mexican newspapers, said the Reagan proposal 
would convert Mexican workers ‘‘into the biggest strategic labor reserve in con- 
temporary history, subject to super-exploitation and servitude.” 

Velasquez was a guest at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Chi- 
cago earlier this month, when the council expressed concern that a guest-worker 
influx would undermine U.S. wages and working conditions. 

The Mexican labor federation manifesto also strongly criticized provisions of 
the Reagan proposal that would require guest workers to pay social security 
and other taxes, but leave them ineligible for unemployment benefits, food 
stamps and other forms of assistance. 

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Pafi^e Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 



SUPPORT FOR STRIKING Air Traffic Controllers was 
pressed at a meeting of the AFL-CIO Public Employee 
Dept.’s executive board in Washington. With leaders of 
unions outside the department also participating, the special 
meeting centered on ways to meet the financial needs of 


PATCO members. PED President Kenneth Blaylock, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland, and PATCO President Rob- 
ert Poli are at the head of the table. Those at the meeting 
unanimously called on the government to get back to the 
bargaining table and negotiate with the controllers. 


Aid Pressed for Strikers ’ Families 


(Continued from Page 1 ) . 

Taking part were leaders of the nation’s 
major federal, postal and state and local 
public employee unions, including PATCO 
President Robert Poli, and AFL-CIO field 
staff members. 

Poli thanked the union leaders for their 
demonstrations of support, and reaffirmed 
that PATCO’s 1 2,000 striking members are 
totally committed to a united stand. 

“IF THEY EVER went after organized 
crime in this country the way that they 
went after the controllers,” Poli said earlier 
on CBS-TV’s Face the Nation broadcast, 
“it would be a lot safer place to live.” 
PATCO members have been shackled, put 
in jail, and indicted on criminal charges in 
21 cities for violating a law banning strikes 
by federal employees. 

Meanwhile, a federal hearing officer 
recommended an order revoking PATCO’s 
status as exclusive bargaining agent for the 
controllers, but refused to issue an order 
permanently barring PATCO from such 
status. Attorneys for the Federal Labor 
Relations Authority, which oversees labor- 
management relations in the federal gov- 
ernment, had sought the order revoking 
the union’s bargaining rights permanently. 


Sixty-three percent of the American peo- 
ple believe that the Air Traffic Controllers 
have “legitimate reasons” for striking, ac- 
cording to the findings of a Louis Harris 
poll. 

A 58 to 35 percent majority of those 
surveyed said they believe that PATCO’s 
claims that controllers suffer from the 
effects of extreme job stress are true and 
are justification for the union’s demands 
for change. 

THE POLL RESULTS, which appeared 
in the Washington Post and other news- 
papers, show that a substantial majority 
of Americans — 71 to 26 percent — think 
that actions by foreign air controllers 
which have curtailed some flights in and 
out of the United States for safety reasons 
mafc it “more urgent than ever” that the 
government and the union negotiate a set- 
tlement. 

Overall, the Harris poll found, only a 
51 to 40 percent margin of the public 
sympathizes more with the Reagan Ad- 
ministration than with PATCO over the 
strike. About 69 percent felt that Presi- 


AFL-CIO Convention 
Slated to Open Nov. 1 6 

The 14fh Constitutional Convention 
of the AFL-CIO will take place in New 
York City, beginning Nov. 16, 1981. 

The meetings of the convention will 
be in the Sheraton Centre Hotel. 


but FLRA Administrative Law Judge John 
H. Fenton said it would amount to “a 
death sentence — industrial capital punish- 
ment.” Fenton’s decision gives PATCO 
until Sept. 14 to file exceptions. 

THE FLRA IS still investigating 
PATCO’s complaint, filed with the agency 
on Aug. 10, that the government had 
committed an unfair labor practice by re- 
fusing to bargain in good faith in the con- 
tract negotiations earlier this year. The 
controllers’ agreement with the Federal 
Aviation Administration, which employs 
them, expired on Mar. 15, and they have 
been trying since January to negotiate a 
new pact reducing their work week, pro- 
viding for earlier retirement and increased 
wages. 

In his CBS-TV interview, Poli praised 
the American labor movement for giving 
PATCO “tremendous support.” Numerous 
unions are urging members to refrain from 
taking flights and money is being con- 
tributed to a legal defense fund by many 
unions, he noted. PATCO’s funds are 
frozen by a lawsuit in New York brought 
by the American Transport Association. 

LABOR HAS rallied across the country 
to the cause of the striking controllers. 


dent Reagan’s firing of the striking con- 
trollers was justified in the light of the 
no-strike oath government workers are re- 
quired to sign. 

But the public split evenly, 48 to 48 
percent, over the question of whether all 
strikes by public employees should be 
banned. 

THE POLL also found that a majority 
of union members, 52 to 39 percent, are 
more sympathetic to PATCO’s position 
than to the Administration’s. By a dra- 
matic 73 to 17 percent, blacks said they 
sympathized with the controllers’ plight. 

Also favoring the controllers’ position 
were 46 to 43 percent of women, 52 to 
44 percent of white collar workers, 54 to 
37 percent of Democrats, 49 to 45 percent 
of residents of the East and 47 to 42 per- 
cent of high school graduates. 

The conclusions drawn by Harris are 
that the public has “a fairly widespread 
sympathy” with the health and safety 
claims of air traffic controllers. However, 
public concerns about the justification of 
the strike snag on the question of the no 
strike oath. 

The public believes overall that the Ad- 
ministration should change its stand and 
return to the bargaining table, Harris said, 
and that the “proper way” to settle the 
strike is to correct the hazards. The results 
also indicate that the public would be 
more inclined to feel that “justice had 
been served” if the strike was settled by 
an agreement fair to PATCO members. 


Four hundred members of 31 different 
unions marched in picket lines at Ken- 
nedy International Airport on Long Is- 
land in one demonstration. 

Labor support for the controllers has 
taken a variety of forms. Worker groups 
in Chicago are supplying food to PATCO 
members and their families. In Madison, 
Wis., they have set up a “rumor hotline” 
to advise the public and the media of the 
true situation in the dispute and the issues 
involved. In major urban centers, union 
members have joined PATCO pickets or 
spelled controllers on picket lines and 
acted as babysitters while parents marched 
on the lines. 

IN ALBANY, N.Y., members of the 
New York State Public Employees Federa- 
tion joined controllers on their picket line 
at the Albany County Airport. The organi- 
zation represents some 48,000 professional, 
scientific, and technical state workers. PEF 
President John J. Kraemer said members 
of his organization regard the govern- 
ment’s attack on PATCO as “an attack on 
all public employees and an attempt to 
deny public-sector professionals the sem- 
blance of collective bargaining it took so 
long to achieve.” 

As an expression of solidarity, the Fire 
Fighters postponed until Dec. 2 a Chicago 
workshop that would have brought in 300 
delegates from all parts of the country. 

RUBBER WORKERS President Peter 
Bommarito, urging a renewal of talks be- 
tween the government and PATCO, 
warned that “no one can win in the situa- 
tion as it stands. Collective bargaining is 
the answer to this very serious problem. 
PATCO must have some way to adjust its 
grievances.” 


Brookfield, Wis. — ^Albert J. Hayes, re- 
tired^ president of the Machinists and an 
architect of the AFL-CIO merger, died 
here at 81 after a stroke. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue wrote 
warmly to Mrs. Hayes of her husband’s 
contribution to the entire labor movement 
as well as to his own union. 

“MILLIONS OF American trade union- 
ists are better off because A1 Hayes cared 
about them,” they said. 

Hayes began his* long trade union lead- 
ership career in 1918, when he was picked 
by his fellow apprentices in the Milwaukee 
railroad shops to serve as chairman of the 
Apprentice Boys Committee. 

He walked his first picket line in the 
1922 railroad strike, just a few weeks 
after he was married. He held a series of 
Ipcal and national offices in the lAM, 
serving as president from 1949 until his 
retirement in 1965. 

Hayes was a staunch believer in labor 


States Facing 
Big Drop in 
Tax Revenue 

(Continued from Page 1) 

working people.” He pointed out that cor- 
porations will receive over $500 billion in 
federal tax benefits over the next ten years, 
“virtually eliminating the corporate income 
tax as a significant federal revenue raiser.” 

“MOREOVER,” he noted, “other taxes 
on investment income are also being 
slashed under the Reagan program.” He 
cautioned the states not to follow the fed- 
eral lead, “which can only result in more 
and more resentment on the part of aver- 
age taxpayers who will be asked to shoul- 
der the entire tax burden. What the states 
may face if they conform to the federal 
rules is a serious tax revolt.” 

Public debate in the states over whether 
to conform with the new federal rules 
seems likely to focus on the alleged prob- 
lem of taxpayer compliance with two dif- 
ferent systems of depreciation. 

Tipps suggested that this is “a bogus 
issue.” He noted that the federal govern- 
ment will continue to use its prior depre- 
ciation rules for a number of tax purposes, 
including cases in which taxpayers prefer 
the old system and situations in which 
property is used outside the United States. 

“THE STATES could just as easily re- 
tain the old rules for all property,” Tipps 
said. 

“Alternatively,” he noted, “states could 
avoid all so-called complexities by requir- 
ing larger companies to use the same 
depreciation for tax purposes that they use 
on their books — ^the system followed in 
Japan and Germany. Since these books 
must be maintained anyway, this solution 
requires absolutely no additional calcula- 
tions.” 

Tipps said that if this second alternative 
were adopted, “it might also be reasonable 
to adopt the new federal rule allowing up 
to $5,000 in investments in depreciable 
property to be written off immediately” — 
an approach designed to aid small busi- 
nesses. 

Cascade Pilots Vote 
For ALPA Affiliation 

Cascade Airways pilots have voted to 
join the Air Line Pilots Association. The 
official certification of ALPA as their bar- 
gaining agent followed completion of a 
mail ballot election in which 70 percent of 
the voting pilots chose the AFL-CIO af- 
filiate. 

Cascade, a large regional passenger and 
cargo carrier based in Spokane, Wash., 
employs 93 pilots. The group is the sec- 
ond to join since ALPA launched an or- 
ganizing campaign last November. The 
pilots of Pacific Southwest Airlines joined 
last month. 


unity at a time when the AFL and CIO / 
were rivals. Soon after he became presi- 
dent of the Machinists, he negotiated a no- 
raid agreement with the Auto Workers, 
which at the time was the lAM’s chief 
competitor. Both represented large groups 
of aircraft workers. 

THAT UAW-IAM agreement became 
a model for the no-raid pact that paved 
the way for the AFL-CIO merger in 1955. 
Hayes was a member of the joint AFL- 
CIO Unity Committee that worked out the 
merger. He was a vice president of the 
AFL-CIO from its founding to 1965, serv- 
ing at various times as chairman of the 
Ethical Practices Committee and of the 
Internal Disputes Committee. 

Hayes held numerous government and 
public service posts during his long career. 
Among his many public services was mem- 
bership on the President’s Commission on 
Health Needs, whose 1952 report launched 
the still-continuing debate on comprehen- 
sive and universal health care. 


Harris Poll Shows Support 
For Aims of Air Controllers 


lAM’s Albert J. Hayes Dies, 
Helped Shape Labor Unity 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 


Page TIkree 


^ Unity* Slate Wins 

OCAW Delegates Elect 
Goss for Second Term 



IRON WORKERS helped Las Vegas fire fighters open up exits in last Decem- 
ber’s Grand Hotel disaster and lead occupants to safety. Fire Fighters President 
John A. Gannon says “thanks” with a plaque for the Iron Workers and the 
union’s Las Vegas local. From left: Iron Workers Sec. Juel D. Drake, President 
John H. Lyons, Gannon, and Iron Workers Treas. Charles R. Anding. 

Iron Workers^ Convention 
Votes Per Capita Increase 


Denver — President Robert F. Goss of 
the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers and 
his “unity” slate won the four top elective 
offices of the union at the OCAW’s 16th 
biennial convention. 

Goss defeated Anthony Mazzocchi, di- 
rector of the OCAW Health & Safety 
Dept., by a vote of 72,856 to 69,090. As 
vice presidents, the two had opposed each 
other for the presidency in 1979, with 
Goss winning by a narrow margin. 

ELECTED secretary-treasurer was Mi- 
chael Ricigliano, who had been director 
of the union’s Collective Bargaining Dept. 
Calvin Moore, incumbent, and Joseph 
Misbrenner, Goss’s executive assistant, 
were elected vice presidents. 

Ricigliano succeeds Robert V. Palmer, 
who had served one two-year term. Ernest 
Rousselle, also elected in 1979, was de- 
feated in his bid for re-election as one of 
the two vice presidents. 

In support of the air traffic controllers’ 
strike, the 850 delegates and 150 staff 
members used alternative means of trans- 
portation to the convention. 

NORMAN HILL, president of the A. 
Philip Randolph Institute, traveled by 
train and bus to address the delegates. He 
reviewed the work of APRI during the 
general elections and offered his assessment 
of the current political situation. The in- 
stitute was successful in getting approxi- 
mately one million black voters to the 
polls in 1980, Hill noted. 

Commenting on the “more conservative 
and anti-labor government” that resulted 
from last November’s election. Hill noted 
that some political observers contend that 
voters are opposed to increased govern- 
ment intervention in the economy as well 
as government efforts to redress social 
inequities. 

BUT HE pointed out that many public 
opinion polls indicate the people want 


Chicago — Cuts in the federal budget 
and their effect on local communities and 
their police officers were a primary con- 
cern of delegates to the third convention 
of the International Union of Police Asso- 
ciations. 

The delegates, representing some 30,000 
law enforcement officers, passed a reso- 
lution expressing their opposition to the 
Administration’s economic program and 
the deep cuts in social programs that had 
been funded by the federal government. 

George Rollins Dies, 

Led Insurance Union 

Manchester, N.H. — George A. Rollins, 
president of the Insurance Workers from 
1963 to 1965, died here at the age of 68. 
Rollins, who retired in 1978, died on Aug. 
14. He made his home here. 

Rollins began his union career in 1939 
shortly after going to work for the John 
Hancock Life Insurance Co. in Boston. He 
served as office chairman and unit vice 
president. 

When the former United Office & Pro- 
fessional Workers of America was ousted 
from the CIO in 1950 on charges of Com- 
munist domination, Rollins was named 
to the Insurance Workers Organizing Com- 
mittee set up to replace the defunct union. 
He served as an organizer until 1959 when 
the committee was chartered as the pres- 
ent Insurance Workers International Un- 
ion, and a^ a staff representative until his 
election as president in May 1963. After 
an unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1965, 
he returned to employment with John 
Hancock. 

Funeral services were held Aug. 17 in 
Barrington, N.H. Besides his wife Alice, 
he leaves five daughters. 


greater expenditures for such programs as 
health and education, even if this means 
more taxes. 

“Blacks, and labor lost a number of 
friends in the 1980 election, but the major 
factor was not a shift away from labor’s 
point of view,” he said. “There was no 
massive rejection of the role of govern- 
ment as a mechanism for greater social 
equality. 

“The loss of a number of friends in the 
Congress had less to do with issues involv- 
ing one’s view of the proper role of gov- 
ernment, and more to do with a general 
discontent with the economic state of af- 
fairs and with concern about America’s 
military strength,” he said. 

CRITICIZING President Reagan’s cut- 
backs in social services and the recently 
enacted tax program. Hill said: “Clearly 
the Administration is not so much inter- 
ested in getting the government off the 
backs of people as it is in getting govern- 
ment off the backs of corporations and the 
rich.” 

In convention action, the delegates 
turned down propositions that would have 
provided for election of district directors, 
three-year conventions, a simple majority 
to change the constitution instead of the 
present two-thirds majority, and a reduc- 
tion in the number of districts from eight 
to six. 

Rank-and-file members of the interna- 
tional executive board were elected by 
their respective districts: Kenneth Lord 
of Long Beach, Calif., Rex Donohue of 
Bacchus, Utah, Ralph Ames of Hampton, 
Va., Roy Barnes of Pasadena, Tex., John 
Sullivan of St. Louis, Alexander Perry of 
St. Paul, Minn., David Young of Detroit, 
and Angelo Augustino of Niagara Falls, 
N.Y. All but Ames, who defeated Charles 
Baker of Oak Ridge, Tenn., were re- 
elected. 


EXTENSIVE discussion centered on the 
effects these and other slashes in funds 
available to state and local governments 
will have on the economy as a whole, on 
government and on public employees. 

The union, affiliated with the AFL-CIO 
since 1979, also held elections for execu- 
tive vice presidents and area vice presi- 
dents from its 20 regions. 

Mike Baker of Memphis, Tenn., was 
elected first vice president of the union 
over Jack Hawkins of Chicago. 

Candidates for the majority of the seats 
for executive and area vice presidencies 
were elected without opposition. In the 
contested races for executive vice presi- 
dent, in Region 2, Mike Tracy of the 
union’s Long Beach, Calif., association 
defeated Reno Rapagnani of San Fran- 
cisco. 

IN REGION 13, Wayne Jones of the 
Prince William County, Va., affiliate won 
over James Courtney of the U.S. Secret 
Service unit, headquartered in Washing- 
ton. Bill LaVash of Boston defeated Jack 
Moriarty of the Connecticut association 
for the executive vice presidency in Re- 
gion 16. 

In the only contested race for an area 
vice presidency, Wendell Phillips of Sacra- 
mento defeated Rapagnani in Region 2. 

AFT Attorney Elected 
To Bar Association Post 

Albany, N.Y. — Bernard F. Ashe, coun- 
sel for the New York State United Teach- 
ers here, will be the next chairman of the 
American Bar Association’s Section on 
Labor & Employment Law. The 12,000- 
member section chose him as chairman- 
elect and he will become chairman auto- 
matically next year. 


Hollywood, Fla. — Delegates to the Iron 
Workers quadrennial convention here re- 
elected a veteran slate of officers by accla- 
mation, approved a two-step raise in the 
union’s per capita payment and directed 
a study of portable pension credits. 

John H. Lyons, who has headed the 
182,000-member union since 1961, was 
elected to a new four-year term, as were 
Sec. Juel D. Drake, Treas. Charles Anding 
and nine general vice presidents. 

THE 1,100 DELEGATES overwhelm- 
ingly approved a constitutional change 
raising the per capita for “outside” locals 
by $2, to $8.15 a month, with another $2 
increase on Jan. 1, 1984. The $2.50 rate 
for shop locals and Navy Yard riggers 
will rise $1 now and again in 1984. 

Another change eliminated all references 
to gender in the union’s constitution. Dele- 
gates approved an increase in the union’s 
death benefits plan and discussed the prob- 
lem of pension credits for members who 
work in different localities under various 
locally-negotiated pension plans and union- 
management agreements. 

The convention approved a resolution 
calling for establishment of a committee 
of full-time union representatives to con- 
sider the problems and “make an appro- 
priate recommendation to the local union 
trustees of Iron Worker pension plans.” It 
said the goal should be to make pension 
benefits among the various local and dis- 
trict council plans “as portable as legally 
feasible.” 

FIRE FIGHTERS President John A. 
Gannon came to the convention to present 
plaques to the Iron Workers and especially 
the union’s Las Vegas local for a life- 
saving assist during the MGM Grand Hotel 
fire last December. 

Las Vegas Iron Workers used their 


Boca Raton, Fla. — Joseph Curran, who 
went off to sea at the age of 16 and built 
a union, died of cancer at the age of 75. 

He led a sitdown strike on the SS Cali- 
fornia that won a $5-a-month pay raise in 
1936 — when the average seaman earned 
$55 a month. When the company tried to 
blacklist Curran and other militants, sea- 
men throughout the East Coast walked 
out. A later four-month strike transformed 
the Seaman’s Defense Committee into the 
CIO-affiliated National Maritime Union 
that during World War II would grow to 
100,000 members. 

FROM THE DAY that the crew of the 
California chose him as their spokesman, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue wrote to 
Mrs. Curran, his “courageous example and 
high quality of leadership were assets of 
the American labor movement.” 


wrecking bars to pry open locked hotel 
doors and their spud wrenches to open 
sealed windows for the aerial rescue of 
hundreds of guests. Working alongside Fire 
Fighters, they carried some 200 guests out 
of the hotel. 

A unanimous convention resolution 
called on the government to “call off its 
punitive measures” against air traffic con- 
trollers and their union. It urged negotia- 
tions instead of “repressive” government 
policies. 

PRESIDENT ROBERT A. Georgine 
and Sec.-Treas. Joseph F. Maloney of the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept, warned of attacks on wage standards 
through administrative changes in Davis- 
Bacon regulations and in congressional 
threats for legislative repeal of the law. 

Georgine said high interest rates have 
priced new homes beyond the reach of 
96 percent of the population. Maloney, 
himself a member of the Iron Workers, 
warned of the new corporate efforts to 
“bust unions and promote the open shop.” 

Dr. Eula Bingham, who headed the 
Occupational Safety & Health Administra- 
tion during the Carter Administration, 
expressed concern at the weakening of 
safety protections through regulatory re- 
treats. She cited changes that she warned 
would erode an Iron Worker’s right to 
refuse to climb high steel in freezing tem- 
peratures and high winds. 

The weeklong convention was a family 
affair for the delegates, typified by a 
“three-tier” convention banquet. There was 
the traditional seated banquet for the 
adults in attendance, a steak and rock 
band affair for teens and a chuckwagon 
dinner and puppet show for the pre-teens. 


Curran served as president of the NMU 
from its founding until his retirement in 
1973 and he was a vice president of the 
AFL-CIO from the 1955 merger until 
1973. He had been a vice president of the 
CIO since 1940. 

The NMU’s strength was in the passen- 
ger liner trade, and the advent of the air 
age and the decline in American-flag ship- 
ping substantially reduced the NMU’s sea- 
going membership. 

Nevertheless, the conditions it estab- 
lished helped transform life at sea for those 
who followed in Curran’s footsteps. 

“He will be remembered not only in the 
history books and among the members of 
the National Maritime Union,” Kirkland 
and Donahue wrote, “but everywhere 
trade union principles and traditions are 
held in honor.” 


Police Unions See Hazards 
From Impact of Budget Cuts 


Maritime Union’s Founder, 
Joseph Curran, Dies at 75 


Page Four 


An^CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 


Tilting the Rules 


Demolition Job 


AFTER SEVEN months of the Reagan Administration, em- 
ployer groups have come uncomtortably close to their goal 
of a pro-business “regulation-free environment.” The changes 
proposed by the Secretary of Labor in the rules for administering 
the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act would take a 
big step toward deregulation. 

The secretary has announced a plan to save the government 
money by lowering the prevailing wages that the Davis-Bacon Act 
says must be paid on federally funded construction. This would be 
done by changing the long established formula for determining the 
prevailing wage rate in a manner long urged by non-union con- 
tractors, and by creating a new lower-paid job title of “helper.” 


HIS PROPOSAL for achieving “savings” under the Service 
Contract Act is even simpler. All that is necessary there is to 
rewrite the regulations so as to eliminate about half of the service 
contracts now governed by the prevailing wage requirement. 

There are sometimes legitimate grounds for changes in regula- 
tions, and there can be honest differences of opinion about them. 
Pending, when the Reagan Administration took office, were the 
Labor Dept.’s carefully crafted proposals for modifications of 
prevailing wage regulations that had been developed after extensive 
discussions with all interested groups. 

But the Reagan Administration discarded these proposals, with 
barely a glance. 

The new Davis-Bacon regulations would be heavily tilted to the 
open-shop contractors, but the employer groups are already look- 
ing ahead to the next step. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said 
it will redouble its efforts to achieve “outright repeal of this out- 
dated, inflationary relic of the past.” 

After all, why settle for three-fourths of a loaf? 


A Challenge to the ‘Mandate* 


S OLIDARITY DAY, on Sept. 19, takes on even more signifi- 
cance in the light of the Reagan Administration’s continued 
erosion of worker protections. 

Solidarity Day will demonstrate that a large body of Americans 
from all walks of life are deeply concerned at this Administra- 
tion’s radical shift away from the mainstream. 

It will challenge the contention that the slim majority vote that 
Ronald Reagan received last November can be interpreted as a 
mandate to take from those with the least in order to give more to 
those with the most. 

It will say that health and safety protections, jobs and training, 
affordable housing for those who can’t afford mortgages carrying 
17 percent interest rates and lunches for school kids have a higher 
claim on the nation’s resources than still further tax cuts for 
profit-glutted oil companies to buy up competitors. 

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees “the right 
of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the govern- 
ment for a redress of grievances.” 

On Sept. 19, that’s just what labor and its allies intend to do. 



fi ' 1 



Id 




r. 


ppeVAILlNG 

WACE 

PROTECDOMS 







Apu-dO 


Working in the Shadows 

Vanishing Job-Seekers a Sign 
Of ‘Hidden’ Economy’s Growth 


By Gm Tyler 


T HERE’S THIS MYSTERY about those one 
million Americans who disappeared in the 
space of two months between May and July of 
1981. 


In May, there were about 107 million men and 
women who were in the “labor force,” which 
means that they were either on a job or looking 
for a job. Two months later, in July, there were 
only 106 million. 

This was not due to any shrinkage of our total 
population; that just kept on growing — as it gen- 
erally does. The shrinkage was only in the “labor 
force.” 


WHEN THE figures first hit the headlines they 
were hailed as “good news.” The New York 
Times reported on page one: “Unemployment 
Defies, Forecast, Declining to 7%.” That looked 
great: more people at work. 

But, then, if you looked at the fine print, you 
found that there were not more people at work at 
all. Indeed, there were fewer people at work in 
July than in May by about 600,000. 

If, you ask, the number of people at work went 
down, how could the unemployment rate also go 
down? The answer: there were fewer people 
looking for work. 


TAKE NEW JERSEY, for example, where the 
jobless rate fell to a relatively low 6 percent. At 
first glance, that sounds like happy news, suggest- 
ing more people at work. But, no, the number at 
work did not rise. It’s just that the number of 
people in the “labor force” — working or seeking 
work — in New Jersey shrunk by 118,000 from 
May to July. 

Now what happened to those 118,000 folk in 
New Jersey who were in the labor force in May 
but disappeared in July? You can’t say that they 
went to some other state, because what happened 
in New Jersey happened in the country as a 
whole. The mystery remains. 

The experts who are in charge of finding names 
for strange things generally list these “missing 
persons” as “discouraged” job seekers. They have 
no job; they have stopped looking for jobs; they 
are statistical non-beings. 


lAarch for 
^omanRisdts. 

.kVU-C/o, ” 



sou 



THEY DON’T EVEN collect unemployment 
insurance because to do that they must officially 
be “looking for work.” Whether they are or not, 



It' ■' 






■ 


they would be counted as part of the “force.” 

Some of the “missing” may just be hanging 
around waiting for times to get better. 

But there is good reason to believe that there 
are many who are fully and gainfully occupied 
in a hidden economy that is growing in America. 
A big chunk of that subterranean business system 
operates on barter or in cash — ^payments for 
goods and services that go unreported. 

AN EVEN larger portion of that shadow econ- 
omy is outrightly criminal — mugging, burglary, 
hijacking, fencing, prostitution, dope, pilferage, 
paid-for arson, loft thefts, stolen vehicles and con- 
struction machinery. It’s a multi-multi-billion- 
dollar piece of turf. 

The ultimate threat to the American society 
is that this hidden economy will grow, as it 
has been growing, if the legitimate economy does 
not grow in line with our potential. 

The great irony is that our official “unemploy- 
ment” rate may actually decline although fewer 
people hold jobs, because there will be fewer 
people looking for legitimate jobs as more and 
more make their livelihood in the shadows. Crime 
may become — if it is not already — ^the nation’s 
biggest business. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


- 














AFL^IO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 


Page Fire 


High Rates of Poverty, Joblessness 

Administration Policies Fail 
To Address Needs of Blacks 


By Norman Hill 

TN THE SIX MONTHS he has been President, 
Ronald Reagan has failed to articulate any- 
thing approaching a coherent policy on matters 
of racial inequality and poverty. Aside from gen- 
eralities concerning the need to combat discrimi- 
nation and to bolster productivity, the Adminis- 
tration shows no sign of having given serious 
thought to the plight of what has come to be 
called the black underclass. 

This underclass has been a persistent fact in the 
life of American society for many decades, and 
its ranks continue to swell. 

The typical Reagan Administration response 
to the problem of black poverty and unemploy- 
ment has been to assert that only the private sec- 
tor can resolve the problems faced by blacks and 
others who are poor. Help business and industry, 
the Reagan argument goes, and you will help 
poor blacks and all poor Americans improve their 
lot. However, a glance at the recent history of 
black unemployment and impoverishment gives 
little indication that the Reagan approach will 
work. 

SINCE WORLD WAR II, the rate of black 
unemployment has stood at roughly twice that of 
white unemployment. This ratio has remained 
constant in times of economic prosperity and 
through periods of economic decline, through 
periods of inflation and periods of price stability. 
No matter how the economy has been doing, 
blacks seem disproportionately to shoulder the 
burdens of unemployment. 

What improvement has been made by blacks 
in the last 35 years can be attributed to increased 
education. Blacks who have received adequate 
training and education have made tremendous 
strides economically. Black women college grad- 
uates, for example, today earn slightly more than 
their white counterparts. But the Reagan Admin- 
istration has implemented massive cuts in federal 
aid to education and has drastically cut funding 
for a number of training and employment pro- 
grams which seek to prepare minorities and the 
poor for meaningful private sector employment — 
precisely the initiatives one would expect the 
President to support. 

Of equal importance is the Reagan approach 
to “states’ rights.” The Administration is a vocal 
proponent of block grants and of giving increased 
power to the states. Yet it is precisely at the re- 
gional and state level that, for historical reasons, 
discrimination remains a significant problem. For 
example, due to a variety of complex factors, 
black workers in the South earn 78 percent of the 
income of white Southerners. Throughout the rest 
of the country, however, the earnings of black 
and white workers are nearly identical. 

An approach that puts emphasis on “states’ 


rights” will prove unable to diminish the discrep- 
ancy between the earnings of Southern whites and 
blacks. Federal action must be a component in 
diminishing these differences. And it is precise- 
ly such federal intervention that President Reagan 
appears to oppose. 

Recently, the Gallup Organization conducted 
a poll of the views of the black population. The 
results are both interesting and ominous, for they 
indicate a deepening division between blacks and 
whites, in some measure as a direct consequence 
of the policies of the Reagan Administration. 

The Gallup study found that while 55 percent 
of whites were optimistic about what 1981 would 
bring for them personally, only 18 percent of 
blacks expected a better year and 48 percent ex- 
pected things would be worse. 

SIMILARLY, in February a Newsweek mag- 
azine poll found that 52 percent of blacks ex- 
pected things would get worse for them during 
Reagan’s presidency and only 8 percent felt 
things would improve. In April, while President 
Reagan enjoyed a 74 percent approval rating 
among whites, only 25 percent of blacks approved 
of the President’s performance. 

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, when blacks 
were experiencing some social advancement, polls 
registered a significant sense of progress. In 1969, 
for example, 70 percent of blacks felt that the 
situation of blacks had improved during the pre- 
vious five years. In 1981 only 30 percent feel this 
is true. 

The Gallup survey reveals one very dangerous 
trend. Only the barest majority of blacks (51 per- 
cent) rejects violent protest as a means of accom- 
plishing goals, and two-thirds of blacks agree that 
the only time the federal government really pays 
attention to blacks is when they resort to violence. 
This sense of frustration and rage must be con- 
fronted. Yet in the context of the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s retreat from necessary social pro- 
grams and in the Administration’s failure to con- 
front the reality of racial inequality, there are the 
seeds of disaster. 

BLACK AMERICANS have viewed the Ad- 
ministration with skepticism since Ronald Reagan 
took his oath of office. Yet the President has 
made no serious effort to diminish this skepticism 
by developing a policy which addresses the spe- 
cific needs and problems faced by blacks. Glib 
generalizations and assertions that the private 
sector will resolve the plight of the black poor do 
not constitute a coherent policy on black inequal- 
ity. They constitute a serious failure of leadership. 

In defending his economic policies, Ronald 
Reagan frequently asserts that “a rising tide lifts 
all boats.” He, however, appears to have forgot- 
ten that those who are without boats may very 
well drown. 


'Dead in the Water^ 

Actions to Weaken Safety Law 
Called Tantamount to Repeal 


P RESIDENT REAGAN has, in effect, reneged 
on his campaign pledge not to seek repeal of 
the Occupational Safety & Health Act by au- 
thorizing a series of administrative and legal at- 
tacks aimed at making the law inoperative. Di- 
rector George H. R. Taylor of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Occupational Safety & Health charged. 

Attempts to kill, weaken or delay standards on 
cotton dust, lead, hearing conservation and other 
job-related hazards, and maneuvers to substan- 
tially water down enforcement by reducing per- 
sonnel and exempting large numbers of work- 
places, are clearly aimed at leaving the law “dead 
in the water,” Taylor declared. He said that while 
the President hasn’t yet pushed for outright repeal 
of OSHA, the moves he has authorized add up to 
the same thing. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Taylor warned 
that major gains in worker protection achieved 
over the past four years are in grave danger. 

Noting that “some of OSHA’s severest congres- 


sional critics” are now in leadership positions, 
especially in the Senate, Taylor acknowledged 
that even if the labor movement is able to blunt 
the administrative assault on OSHA, the law will 
still face the threat of legislation to accomplish 
the same ends. He said that Senate Labor & 
Human Resources Committee Chairman Orrin 
Hatch (R-Utah) has “apparently adopted a wait- 
and-see attitude . . . watching the methods, poli- 
cies and programs that are put into play” by the 
agency. 

SEN. HATCH “always has the option” of 
pushing OSHA amendments, if the attempts to 
wash out the law through administrative changes 
fail, Taylor observed. 

Reporters questioning Taylor on the AFL-CIO 
produced public affairs program were Dale Mc- 
Featters of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers and 
John Herzfeld of Occupational Safety & Health 
Reporter, a publication of the Bureau of National 
Affairs. Labor News Conference is broadcast 
weekly by the Mutual radio network. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T ODAY’S WHOLESOME MEAT and poultry owes much to 
Upton Sinclair, whose expose of filth in the Chicago stock- 
yards led to the landmark Meat Inspection Act of 1906. 

That law, plus several key amendments, have provided not only 
for cleanliness in meat and poultry operations but also for regu- 
lation of fat content, standardization of ingredients and accurate 
labeling. 

Now, amidst celebrations of 75 years of progress, come signs 
that the nation may have started to move backward as the public 
price for easing cost burdens on government and business. 

One pointed manifestation: filthy conditions in an estimated 
18.4 percent of meat and poultry slaughtering plants, according 
to a recent General Accounting Office report. GAO attributed 
problems of sanitation to a scarcity of inspectors, whose ranks 
^have been shrinking through a government policy of deliberate 
attrition, and to failure by plant managers to meet their respon- 
sibilities. 

ALTHOUGH DEMOCRATS did a bit of cost-cutting when 
they were in power, conservative Republicans, in servitude to in- 
dustry, are doing more, with accelerated backsliding. In fact, they 
are trying hard to reverse a number of protections consumers 
gained under the previous Administration. 

A pro-business philosophy so runs herd at the Agriculture Dept, 
these days that the person overseeing inspection and grading reg- 
ulations is the assistant secretary for marketing, C. N. McMillan, 
a former lobbyist for the National Cattlemen’s Association. Pre- 
viously, inspection and grading fell under the jurisdiction of the 
assistant secretary for food and consumer services. 

One of the public threats that particularly worries labor and 
consumer leaders is the movement in Congress to amend regula- 
tions that prohibit the use of suspected cancer-causing substances 
as food additives. 

One such additive is sodium nitrite, a commonly used curing 
agent in bacon, bologna, franks and other processed meats. Re- 
search showed sodium nitrite produced tumors in laboratory ani- 
mals. Health advocates sought to prohibit it by invoking the law 
that requires a ban when a substance causes cancer in laboratory 
animals. 

So far, industry has thwarted those attempts and currently is 
striving to change the law. If that happens, “it will not be long 
before we return to a time of rampant health and economic risks,” 
to use the words of Ellen Haas of the Community Nutrition Insti- 
tute, a public interest group. 

ALTERATIONS IN various inspection procedures also could 
put the meat and poultry supply at risk, according to federal 
inspectors. 

One such new program, called Quality Control Inspection, 
applies to processing plants. It allows them, on a voluntary basis, 
to submit certain of their records to the federal inspectors who, 
in turn, verify the records by laboratory sampling techniques, thus 
reducing the inspectors’ personal observations. 

Concomitant with “quality control inspection,” USDA is seek- 
ing an amendment to the Meat Inspection Act giving the Secretary 
of Agriculture discretion on how often an inspector must visit each 
plant. The existing mandate is for continuous inspection, which 
has been interpreted to mean a daily visit. 

Agriculture officials say their schemes mean more efficient reg- 
ulation for fewer dollars. However, cutting comers to save money 
can mean cutting corners on public health and safety. It may not 
be long before another Upton Sinclair will be needed. 



AGENCY AND COURT attacks aimed at rendering OSHA 
inoperative and encouraged by the Administration in effect 
wash out President Reagan’s campaign pledge not to seek re- 
peal of the federal job health and safety law. Director George 
H. R. Taylor (center) of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Occupational 
Safety & Health, charged on Labor News Conference. Taylor 
was questioned by John Herzfeld, left, of Occupational Safety 
& Health Reporter and Dale McFeatters of the &ripps-Howard 
Newspapers. 




Page Six 


AFX-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, H.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 


INTERACTING ROLES of labor, business and government are explained in 
photo at left by Norman Osborne, retired AFL-CIO Community Services rep- 
resentative from Saginaw, Mich., to a couple of Texas Scouts working toward a 


merit badge. In the photo at right, Ted Reed, the research director of ,the Oper- 
ating Engineers and an active scouter, supervises an exercise in surveying by 
Scouts seeking a badge in that specialty. Larry Rick of Local 77 assists. 



Boy Scouts Learn About Unions at Jamboree 


Career Labor Dept. Aide 
Named to International Post 


Fort A.P. Hill, Va. — In a 7,000-acre 
outdoor campsite and classroom^ more 
than 30,000 Boy Scouts, leaders and visi- 
tors from every state and several foreign 
nations learned about the American labor 
movement at the 10th National Jamboree 
here. 

The outdoor classroom was a Merit 
Badge Midway where more than 60 career 
and hobby displays were presented. In- 
cluded were exhibits on the Scouts’ “Amer- 
ican Business” and “Surveying” merit 
badges staffed by representatives of the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Community Services 
and the Operating Engineers. 

MEMBERS OF the AFL-CIO National 
Labor Advisory Committee, which works 
to strengthen ties between organized labor 
and the Scout movement, visited with 
Jamboree Scouts and officials during the 
eight-day event that takes place every 
four years. 

Ted Reed, director of research for the 
Operating Engineers; J'. Robert Miller, 
national liaison for AFL-CIO community 
services and director of labor relationships 
for the Boy Scouts; and Norm Osborne, 
retired community services representative 
from Saginaw, Mich., were on hand 
throughout the Jamboree to answer ques- 
tions on labor’s role and to help Scouts 
with labor-related badge requirements. 

Many other AFL-CIO union members 
were involved as volunteer leaders for the 
Scouts, who camped in tents and cooked 
their own meals at this first Jamboree held 
south of the Mason-Dixon line. 


Osborne explained that more than 
22,000 Scouts have earned the “Amer- 
ican Business” badge since it was first 
offered in 1968. Requirements include 
preparation of a central labor organiza- 
tional chart and explanations of the terms 
union shop, open shop, collective bargain- 
ing, shop steward, business agent and 
union counselor. Scouts earning this badge 
also learn of the parts played by federal 
and state agencies in labor relations. 

In addition. Scouts qualifying for the 
badge must show an understanding of 
money flow in business and industry, prof- 
its, insurance and stocks, and how capital 
is secured. 

Featured for the first time at a National 
Jamboree was a display and demonstration 
on the “Surveying” merit badge by the 
Operating Engineers. 

REED, AN Eagle Scout as a boy and 
a recipient of the George Meany Award 
for Scouting, noted that over 1 00,000 boys 
have qualified for this badge, one of the 
original badges offered in 1911. Larry 
Rick of lUOE Local 77 of Suitland, Md., 
assisted at the surveying demonstration. 
It featured a history of surveying, how to 
draw maps to scale, determining height, 
and plotting lots with errors of closure no 
more than 5 feet. 

In keeping with the Jamboree’s theme 
of “Scouting’s Reunion with History,” 
Reed, Rick and other AFL-CIO personnel 
noted that George Washington and Thom- 
as Jefferson used an instrument known as 


NATIONAL LABOR ADVISOIJIY Committee members 
are shown at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree. From left: 
Leon Wickersham, Graphic Arts Union; Bob Harbrant, 
president of the Food & Beverage Trades Dept, and chair- 
man of the advisory committee; Dick Plumb, Food & Com- 


a “semi-circumferentor” or “graphometer” 
which combined a peep-sight and a com- 
pass for establishing the direction of a 
line. 

Scouts at the 1981 National Jamboree 
were reunited with history in many ways. 
They passed under gateways decorated 
with flags and images of individual states, 
soldiers, battles, and other historical scenes. 
A Heritage Trail allowed them to take 
part in such activities as pitching horse- 
shoes, using branding irons and having 
log races. Opening and closing ceremonies 
highlighted important moments in Ameri- 
can History, capped by the display of five 
tons of fireworks. 

A. J. PHILLIPS, director of the Na- 
tional Joint Apprenticeship Training Com- 
mittee for the Electrical Industry, observed 
after the last Jamboree in 1977 that the 


Scouts’ merit badge program can be a 
boost to local apprenticeship programs. 
He noted, for example, that the New York 
City chapter of the National Electrical 
Contractors Association works with Local 
3 of the International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers in sponsoring Scout 
troops for handicapped and disadvantaged 
children, using their Long Island training 
facility and encouraging the Scouts to 
continue into apprenticeship. 

Reed notes that merit badge pamphlets 
explain the kinds of training programs 
available to youths interested in various 
careers. The electricity badge guide, for 
one, advises Scouts that one way “to get 
into the electrical field is by entering an 
apprentice training course.” It points out 
that “an apprentice usually helps a skilled 
mechanic and thereby gradually becomes 
skilled himself.” 


Rule Changes Scored as Bid 
To Sabotage Pay Protection 


mercial Workers; Ted Reed, Operating Engineers; Bob 
Miller, national liaison from AFL-CIO Community Services 
Activities; Tom Snover, Auto Workers; Bill Lawbaugh, Iron 
Workers, and Alan Bosch, representing the AFL-CIO Dept, 
of Community Services. 


James F. Taylor of Alexandria, Va., a 
40-year career civil servant, was named 
associate deputy under secretary for inter- 
national affairs at the Labor Dept, by 
Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan. 

Taylor, 62, succeeds Herbert N. Black- 
man, who is retiring. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

giving the open-shop groups all they had 
asked for in regulatory change. But the 
Associated Builders & Contractors now 
says the regulatory changes should be con- 
sidered “just the first step leading to out- 
right repeal.” It said the regulations should 
be further eased to allow a low-paid helper 
for each journeyman employed. 


The changes proposed by the Labor 
Dept, in the Service Contract Act “would 
repeal the law’s protections for large num- 
bers of workers by administratively strip- 
ping contracts from coverage” of the law, 
Oswald charged. 

UNDER PRESENT regulations, pre- 
vailing wage and benefit standards must 
be met on contracts providing services to 
the government — most often food services, 
janitorial work and other relatively low- 
paying occupations, but also indluding 
some high-skilled technical work. Until 
the law was enacted, workers who suc- 
ceeded in organizing and improving their 
conditions faced the threat that the con- 
tract would be lost to a bidder paying sub- 
standard wages. 

The proposed changes would exempt 
research and development contracts, ex- 
clude maintenance and repair of computers 
and other “high technology” equipment. It 
would also limit the law’s coverage to con- 
tracts that are “principally for services.” 

That “innocent sounding phrase,” Os- 
wald pointed out, would repeal the law’s 
protections for large numbers of workers. 

“Without adequate protection, commu- 
nity prevailing wages will be undermined 
and workers will lose their jobs,” he pro- 
tested. “The promise of the Service Con- 
tract Act is that the government contract- 
ing process will not threaten job security. 
That promise should be maintained,” 
Oswald declared. 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 19»1 


Page Seren 


More Funds Earmarked 

Plumbers-Pipe Fitters 
Step Up Organizing 


Las Vegas, Nev. — The 3,700 delegates 
to the Plumbers & Pipe Fitters 32nd con- 
vention heeded the strong recommenda- 
tion of President Martin J. Ward that the 
union intensify its organizing efforts as 
they earmarked more funds for that pur- 
pose. 

The convention voted to increase the 
per capita dues by $2 a month, with $1 
of the boost going to the international 
union. This will permit an increase of ten 
cents for the organizing fund, providing 
a new total of 40 cents per member per 
month beginning next Jan. 1. 

AN ADDITIONAL 70 cents is allo- 
cated to the general fund, making it $3.35 
a month, and 20 cents to the burial ex- 
pense fund, making it $1.70. 

Ward told the delegates that the union 
is “losing millions of additional man-hours 
of work both at the local and national 
levels because of the competition of non- 
union contractors.” He called for a major 
effort “to persuade our members to join 
actively in and support this drive to or- 
ganize non-union contractors.” 

Ward, who was elected to a third con- 
secutive five-year term, said many large 
companies that purchase construction proj- 
ects now look with favor on non-union 

Unions Sponsor 
Ad Campaign on 
Social Security 

“Social security is not a handout. It’s a 
contract between the United States govern- 
ment and the American people — a con- 
tract we’ve earned through lifetimes of 
hard work.” 

That’s part of an advertisement that ap- 
peared recently in many of the nation’s 
leading newspapers. It was sponsored 
jointly by the State, County & Municipal 
Employees and the Auto Workers as part 
of labor’s campaign to block Reagan Ad- 
ministration proposals to reduce social 
security protections. 

“Don’t Do It, Mr. President^” is the 
headline over a drawing of a scissors about 
to cut a social security card. 

The advertisement stresses that social 
security’s funding problems, caused by 
abnormally high unemployment and infla- 
tion, can be solved “without breaking the 
government’s promise to working Amer- 
icans.” 

It asks letters to members of Congress, 
and urges: “Don’t let them take away what 
we’ve earned. And don't settle for a com- 
promise that merely pushes back the cuts 
to a later date.” 


contractors, especially the large oil com- 
panies building synthetic fuel plants that 
will represent $200 billion worth of con- 
struction in the years immediately ahead. 

“THIS FIGURE is more than the total 
annual construction outlay for all the 
United States and Canada,” he said, “so 
it’s a situation we can’t run away from. 
We may have to face the difficult task of 
organizing the jobs on a site-by-site basis.” 

In other action, the delegates unani- 
mously adopted a resolution introduced 
from the floor in support of the Air Traffic 
Controllers’ strike and calling on President 
Reagan to engage in “serious negotiations” 
to settle the dispute. 

The convention also went on record as 
supporting the Washington Building & 
Construction Trades Council in its efforts 
to persuade the Prudential Insurance Co. 
of America to use pension funds to foster 
union construction and to stop using a 
number of non-union contractors to de- 
velop income-producing properties for its 
own account in northern Virginia and the 
District of Columbia. 

FORMER LABOR SEC. Ray Marshall 
told the convention that increasing com- 
petition would threaten American labor 
standards unless the standards of workers 
around the world are improved. 

“Public opinion needs to be turned 
around with respect to the values of a 
free labor movement for a free society,” 
Marshall said. Many people seem to be 
able to understand this principle better 
for Poland than they can understand it 
for the United States, he observed. 

“With the internationalization of the 
American economy and the growing influ- 
ence of multinational corporations, it is 
important for the American labor move- 
ment to continue to strengthen its ties 
with labor movements of other countries 
to promote the concept of international 
minimum labor standards and to minimize 
the impact of international trade and im- 
migration on the working conditions of 
workers in the United States,” Marshall 
continued. 

MARSHALL SAID that organization 
and collective bargaining are becoming 
ever more complicated because most of 
the jobs created over the last decade were 
in plants with fewer than 50 employees 
and the decentralization of industries has 
been to locations where unions are not 
strong. 

“The construction industry itself is be- 
ing brought under the control of large 
multinational corporations who are op- 
posed to unions, who have created a so- 
called committee for a union-free environ- 
ment and who are boycotting unionized 
contractors,” Marshall noted. 


Wholesale Rise Moderate 


Despite Jump in Food Costs 


Wholesale prices rose at a moderate, 
seasonally adjusted rate of four-tenths of 
1 percent in July — or at a 4.8 percent 
annual rate before compounding — despite 
a sharp jump in food costs, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reported. 

The July increase in producers’ finished 
goods followed rises of six-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in June and four-tenths of 1 percent 
in May. Changes irf producer prices are 
viewed as a harbinger of consumer price 
changes. 

WHOLESALE FOOD prices soared 1.5 
percent over the month, led by a 10.1- 
percent surge in pork. Beef and veal prices 
went up 3.8 percent. Fresh fruits were up 
2.5 percent and eggs 1.5 percent. These 
increases were partially offset by declines 
of 5.7 percent for poultry, 2.1 percent for 
fish and 1.1 percent for vegetables. 

Energy prices fell a full percentage 
point, helped by the third straight month 
of declines for gasoline. Home heating oil 


and gasoline prices, measured by them- 
selves, went down 2 percent at the whole- 
sale level on a monthly basis. 

Besides the expected food price surge, 
the 3. 3 -percent rise over the month in steel 
prices was the major source of concern. 

However, durable goods — long-lasting 
products most likely to use steel in their 
manufacture — dropped in price for dealers 
by two-tenths of 1 percent, with large de- 
clines also for jewelry, platinum, gold, and 
costume jewelry. 

THERE WERE also drops of over 1 
percent in prices for cosmetics, electric 
lamps and bulbs, and tires and tubes. Pas- 
senger car prices, however, rose 1.1 per- 
cent, and household appliances were up 
1.5 percent. 

Over the past 12 months the govern- 
ment’s producer price index for finished 
goods rose 8.8 percent. In July 1980, the 
index was 14.6 percent higher than 12 
months earlier. 



NEW SECRETARY-TREASURER of the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept, is Rhonda Allgaier, who was elected at the department executive board’s 
recent meeting in Chicago to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Harry 
Poole. Here she joins FBTD President Robert F. Harbrant in a discussion with 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. She is a vice president of the Hotel 
Employees & Restaurant Employees, 


Pay Boosts Averaged 7.5^ 
In 1980 State, City Accords 


Major agreements between State and 
local governments and their employees 
last year provided first-year wage increases 
averaging 7.5 percent, up from 6.8 percent 
in 1979, the Bureau of Labor Statistics re- 
ported. Over the life of the agreements, 
the annual wage boost averaged 7.8 per- 
cent, compared with 6.5 percent in 1979. 

The 1980 data cover 1,012,000 blue- 
collar and white-collar workers in 83 state 
and local bargaining units of 5,000 mem- 
bers or more. While the wage increases 
bettered the previous year’s, they were far 
below last year’s 12.4 percent inflation 
rate. 

NLRB Nominees 
Assume Posts 
During Recess 

John R. Van de Water, President Rea- 
gan’s choice to succeed John Fanning as 
chairman of the National Labor Relations 
Board, was sworn into office Aug. 18 at 
the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt. 

Van de Water, who was in Africa to at- 
tend his daughter’s wedding at the time of 
his “recess appointment,” is 64, a Repub- 
lican, and an attorney from California. 

REAGAN ALSO granted a recess ap- 
pointment to Robert Hunter, 40, who 
has served as a labor relations adviser to 
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of 
the Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee. Hunter was sworn in as a 
board member on Aug. 14. 

Van de Water replaces Democrat John 
Pennello, who resigned Jan. 14. Fanning 
will stay on as a member of the five-man 
board. A new President has the privilege 
of designating the chairman. 

Hunter, who takes the seat of John 
Truesdale, a Democrat who resigned in 
January after Reagan withdrew his nom- 
ination for another term, was designated 
acting chairman until Van de Water re- 
turns to the United States next week. The 
board has been functioning with only three 
members since Truesdale’s resignation. 

BOARD MEMBER Howard Jenkins, 
Jr., who recently was hospitalized for a 
heart attack, is expected to be discharged 
next week and work at home for about a 
month before undergoing minor surgery. 

Although both Van de Water and 
Hunter were nominated to the board in 
June before the congressional recess, the 
subsequent appointments while Congress 
is in its August recess allowed both to 
assume office immediately, and not wait 
for Senate confirmation. The Senate Labor 
& Human Resources Committee has sched- 
uled a confirmation hearing to start 
Sept. 10. 


THE DATA relate to settlements 
reached and wage changes put into effect 
during the year, deferred increases stem- 
ming from earlier agreements, and cost- 
of-living adjustments paid. Forty settle- 
ments were reached in 1980. Deferred 
wage increases were made under 37 agree- 
ments negotiated prior to 1980, and COL 
adjustments were made under three con- 
tracts. 

All but three of the 1980 settlements 
provided for specified wage boosts in the 
first contract year. Of the three that did 
not, one continued quarterly COL pay- 
ments. 

The settlement data do not include 
estimates of potential adjustments to wages 
under COL clauses. Five of the 40 settle- 
ments reached last year, covering 55,000 
workers, continued COL clauses. No new 
COL clauses were introduced in last year’s 
settlements, and two agreements dropped 
such clauses. 

CONTRACTS without COL clauses 
tended to provide higher average wage 
boosts, 7.6 percent against 7.3 percent in 
the first year and 7.9 percent against 6.7 
percent averaged over the life of the agree- 
ments. Pacts with COL clauses had an 
average duration of 26.6 months, while 
those without such provisions averaged 
23.9 months. 

Teachers Reject 
Shift to States of 
Federal Function 

The American Federation of. Teachers 
intends to take a close look at the options 
the Administration is considering for the 
future of the Dept, of Education. But it 
will “strongly oppose” any move to shift 
federal education functions to the states, 
AFT President Albert Shanker said. 

Education Sec. Terrel Bell is reported 
to have submitted various options to Presi- 
dent Reagan, including conversion to a 
non-Cabinet department, merger with an- 
other government department and conver- 
sion to a foundation with most functions 
and funds shifted to the states. 

Shanker said the AFT will examine 
each Administration proposal from the 
viewpoint of whether or not it would be 
an improvement over the existing situa- 
tion. 

But consolidation of federal programs 
into grants for the states would merely 
“generate destructive battles on the state 
and local level over how a greatly reduced 
federal pie would be divided to meet the 
needs of the handicapped and disadvan- 
taged,” Shanker said. 



Page Eigjit 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 22, 1981 


Memo Outlines Options 


OSHA Studies Ways 
To Soften Standards 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 
that “flexible enforcement” would not 
“clearly show industry that OSHA is sen- 
sitive to their [sic] problems” and would 
not “clearly demonstrate regulatory reform 
initiatives.” 

The memorandum makes no mention 
of the hazards to workers in the textile 
and smelting industries that the standards 
were developed to eliminate. 

IT MENTIONS organized labor only 
twice: once in an expression of concern 
that unions might challenge the Labor 
Dept, if it continues to delay action on one 
aspect of the lead standard, and again in 
a caution not to “enrage the unions who 
could feel that their legal victory [in the 
Supreme Court cases] is being under- 
mined.” 

The Solicitor of Labor is the chief legal 
counsel to the Labor Dept. The incumbent, 
T. Timothy Ryan, also headed one of the 
Administration’s so-called regulatory re- 
view groups. 

The Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision 
in mid-June upheld the OSHA standard 
on worker exposure to cotton dust, reject- 
ing industry groups’ contentions that the 
required engineering controls would be 
too costly and the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s request to delay its ruling until 
OSHA could conduct a cost-benefit analy- 
sis of the standard, which was developed 
under the Carter Administration. 

TWELVE DAYS later the high court 
rejected without comment challenges by 
the lead industry and the Reagan Admin- 
istration to an OSHA standard designed 
to reduce the lead-poisoning hazard for 
more than 800,000 workers. 

While the bulk of the Solicitor’s Office 
memorandum deals with the lead stan- 
dard, it points out that “essentially the 
same options are available” for softening 
the effect of the cotton dust standard: new 
rule making — immediately or later since 
“here, too, the industry has several years 
to comply” — or “enforcement flexibility 
and variances . . . for the primary textile 
industry.” 

In reviewing the court’s cotton dust 
ruling, the memorandum notes that the 
court “limited its conclusions on ‘cost- 
benefit’ to toxic substance standards” and 
“did not preclude the use of ‘cost-benefit’ 
to set priorities for other OSHA regula- 
tory actions.” 

IT ALSO NOTES that the court “did 
not discuss whether OSHA could do a 
cost-benefit analysis without relying on 
the analysis for purposes of deciding on 
levels of protection from toxic sub- 
stances.” 

But, the memorandum cautions, 
OSHA’s “preparation of a cost-benefit 
analysis, even though not used, may add 
to the difficulties in defending the stan- 
dard and present disadvantages from a 
public relations point of view.” 

In the court’s majority decision. Justice 
William J. Brennan wrote that “Congress 
itself defined the basic relationship be- 
tween costs and benefits by placing the 
‘benefit’ of worker health above all other 
considerations, save those making attain- 
ment of this ‘benefit’ unachievable.” The 


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key word in the job safety law, he sai4 is 
“feasible . . . capable of being done.” 

THE MEMORANDUM also notes that 
the court “did not deal with OSHA en- 
forcement policy as a means of bringing 
flexibility to health standards,” and it sug- 
gests that as employers submit their plans 
for complying with the standards “OSHA 
could . . . mitigate some of the engineer- 
ing control burdens by allowing such ad- 
ditional time as is demonstrably neces- 
sary.” 

One of OSHA’s options is to “com- 
mence new rule making” immediately for 
affected primary industries “where there 
is thought to be a feasibility problem,” the 
memorandum suggests. 

“Current evidence on economic and 
technological feasibility as well as cost 
effectiveness of the standards . . . could 
be considered,” the memorandum says. 

A PUBLIC STATEMENT soon that 
there will be a new rulemaking “would 
minimize the impression that the Supreme 
Court decisions seriously threaten the 
Administration’s regulatory reform pro- 
gram,” the memo says, pointing out, how- 
ever, that “it may be too early to develop 
evidence demonstrating infeasibility . . . 
since industry has not yet done anything 
to comply with engineering control and 
related provisions.” 

At the same time, however, such a state- 
ment “may appear to reflect resistance to 
the Supreme Court decisions, which 
would harm the agency’s [OSHA’s] public 
image in general, and enrage the unions 
who could feel that their legal victory is 
being undermined,” the memo says. 

OSHA also could wait for the industry’s 
compliance plans to be submitted “(6 
months- 1 year after the effective date)” 
and on the basis of the plans “and other 
new evidence decide whether to begin pro- 
ceedings to amend the standard.” 

Such delay, however, “may be viewed 
as a lack of commitment to regulatory re- 
form or difficulty in implementing regula- 
tory reform after the Supreme Court de- 
cisions,” the memo observes. 



SHOW OF SOLIDARITY for striking air traffic controllers included a call to 
join the AFL-CIO’s Sept. 19 Solidarity Day march in Washington, D.C. The 
young trade unionists were participating in an Aug. 18 support rally for the 
PATCO strikers organized by the Greater Washington AFL-CIO. 

Fraser Calls for U.S. Policy 
To Spur Ailing Auto Industry 


High unemployment, idle plants and de- 
pressed communities are part of the price 
the United States is paying for its lack 
of a “coherent” industrial policy. Auto 
Workers President Douglas A. Fraser testi- 
fied. 

Fraser told a House Judiciary subcom- 
mittee that he considers it “regrettable” 
that the Reagan Administration has not 
continued a tripartite committee estab- 
lished late in the Carter Administration to 
seek solutions to the auto industry crisis. 
The experiment in labor-management- 
govemment interchange had shown some 
promise, he said. 

THE U.S. AUTOMOBILE industry’s 
sales slump is now in its 28th month, 
Fraser noted, and more than 150,000 
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler work- 
ers are still jobless. With related unem- 
ployment, he testified, the auto industry’s 
sales slump has pushed the national un- 
employment rate up a full percent and 
over the past two years has cost an esti- 
mated $25 billion in lost government tax 
revenue and in expenditures for unem- 


1.3 Million Elderly to Face 
Cut in Social Security Check 


Unless Congress reverses itself before 
next March, about 1.3 million of the 3 
million persons now receiving the mini- 
mum social security benefit of $122 a 
month will have less to live on. 

The House has already had second 
thoughts about its approval of the Reagan 
Administration budget package and has 
voted to rescind the section eliminating 
the minimum benefit. The Senate put off 
a decision until after Congress returns 
from its August recess. 

AFL-CIO SOCIAL SECURITY Direc- 
tor Bert Seidman noted in a memo on the 
impact of the cut that the projected bud- 
get savings could be at least partially 
illusionary. 

An estimated 1.7 million persons will 
have cuts in the minimum benefit offset by 
higher payments under other portions of 
the Social Security Act. And the process 
of identifying and recomputing benefit 
payments to the 3 million current bene- 
ficiaries is likely to overtax the agency’s 
already strained data processing facilities. 
Besides the added costs, Seidman said, nor- 
mal social security operations could be dis- 
rupted for the next year. 

Seidman said the “savings” to the gov- 
ernment would be even lower if all of the 
persons who would become eligible for 
the income-related supplemental social in- 
surance payments applied for them. But 
the Administration’s own estimates, he 
noted, is that only about one out of four 
will actually do so. 

The average benefit cut if the min- 


imum is not restored is estimated at be- 
tween $700 and $800 a year, Seidman 
said. 

While there is no separate breakdown 
of the persons not eligible for offsetting 
benefits, the “profile” of the 3 million per- 
sons now receiving the minimum benefit 
shows that 85 to 90 percent are women 
and half are 70 or older. 

About 500,000 are 80 or older and 80,- 
000 are at least 90. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiniimiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Network Broadcasts 
Set for Labor Day 

AFL-CIO leaders wiU appear on the 
following radio and television programs 
over the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 6 
and 7: 

Vice President John H. Lyons on 
Mutu^ radio, Monday, Sept 7, 12:15 
p.m. EDT. 

Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue on 
NBC radio, Monday, Sept 7, 9:30 p.m. 
EDT. 

President Lane Kirkland on CBS 
radio, Monday, Sept 7, 7:45 p.m. EDT. 

Kirkland also is scheduled to appear 
on the CBS television program “Face 
the Nation” Sunday, Sept 6, at 11:30 
a.m. 

Local stations may ^ter program 
schedules and should be checked for 
exact broadcast time. 


ployment insurance and other forms of in- 
come support. 

While auto industry management is not 
without fault, the severe sales slump is 
largely the result of “massive” vehicle im- 
ports from Japan and “ruinous” interest 
rates resulting from the Federal Reserve 
Board’s tight-money policy. 

THE SUBCOMMITTEE is exploring 
productivity along with other issues, and 
Fraser said the UAW is “well aware of its 
importance” in keeping the industry com- 
petitive and enabling union members “to 
attain an excellent level of wages and ben- 
efits of which we are proud.” But “con- 
tinuing labor support of technological in- 
novations,” he said, requires effective guar- 
antees that new technology won’t result in 
abrupt displacement of workers. 

Fraser challenged the conception that 
the Japanese auto industry is substantially 
more productive than that of the United 
States. 

Japanese auto workers are assured of 
employment without fear of periodic lay- 
offs, he noted, and their management en- 
courages their ideas on improving the 
workplace and their product. 

Also, Fraser noted, “the Japanese gov- 
ernment has played an active role in 
ensuring rapid investment in high produc- 
tivity and technologically advanced indus- 
tries. With import protection, subsidized 
research, low interest credit and other 
mechanisms, the government has carefully 
nurtured the development of most of the 
industries that export so successfully 
today.” 

IN AN AREA the United States should 
not emulate, Fraser said, the Japanese 
model is “flawed” by pay and hiring dis- 
crimination against women, by excessive 
hours of work and little vacation time. 
Further, “Japanese workers are required 
to retire from major companies by age 60 
at the latest,” ■ and their severance pay 
does not compare with the lifetime pen- 
sion benefits U.S. auto workers receive. 
“Overall, Japanese auto workers have not 
shared proportionately in the fruits of their 
remarkable productivity performance.” 

While the United States can learn from 
Japan’s experience, Fraser suggested, “we 
cannot simply graft parts of the Japanese 
industrial relations system on to ours.” 

Mississippi Congressman 
Appoints Union Staff Aide 

Rep. Wayne Dowdy (D-Miss.), who won 
a special election last month in a House 
district that had previously gone Repub- 
lican, has appointed a black trade union 
leader as his administrative assistant. 

Dowdy chose William Wright, a member 
of Local 605 of the International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers in Jackson. 
Wright has been president of the Central 
Mississippi Chapter of the A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Institute and vice president of the 
AFL-CIO central labor council in Jackson. 





Unions Build Controllers Family Fund 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, August 29, 1981 


N.frit6ry 


No. 35 






Real Wag es Drop 2.9^, 
Prices Shoot Up Again 


miKB/ 



THREE-STORY TALL sign calling attention to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Day 
demonstration is displayed outside the Machinists’ headquarters in Washington. 
The lAM also posted a 50-foot Solidarity Day sign on an adjacent building. 

Kirkland Hits Weakening 

Curb on Discrimination 
Eased for Contractors 


Community, 
Financial Aid 
Shaping Up 

The AFL-CIO enlisted its community 
services operation to assist, on the basis 
of need, families of air traffic controllers 
fired by the government for taking part 
in their union’s strike. 

Where financial aid is needed, help will 
come through the PATCO Family Fund 
established by the AFL-CIO. A telegraph 
poll of the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
brought quick concurrence in a $10,000 
contribution to launch the fund, and do- 
nations from affiliates began coming in 
immediately. 

The Communications Workers presented 
a $100,000 check to the family fund, and 
CWA President Glenn Watts said the un- 
ion’s executive board had authorized up 
to $1 million from CWA’s defense fund 
to be used “in defense of unionism and 
the process of collective bargaining in the 
public sector.” 

OTHER MAJOR contributions received 
in the first days after the fund was set up 
included $15,000 from the State, County 
& Municipal Employees and $10,000 from 
the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers. 
A number of other unions announced con- 
tribution plans or were putting the issue 
to their governing bodies. 

The government’s retaliation against the 
PATCO strikers apparently extends be- 
yond the dismissal notices sent out by the 
Federal Aviation Administration and the 
jail terms and fines that have been levied 
by judges in many parts of the nation. 

The Dept, of Housing & Urban Devel- 
opment notified its regional offices that the 
fired controllers were not eligible for an 
HUD program designed to avoid fore- 
closure when a horhe buyer has missed 
mortgage payments because of unemploy- 
ment or other temporary circumstances 
beyond control. 

“If the mortgagor’s default was caused 
by loss of employment related to the 
PATCO action, the application should be 
rejected,” the HUD memo said. 

MSGR. GEORGE G. Higgins is the 
trustee for the PATCO Family Fund and 
AFL-CIO Community Services Director 
Walter G. Davis directed his field staff to 
set up machinery for assistance on the 
basis of need in localities where air con- 
trollers live. 

Some state and local central bodies had 
already launched community assistance 
programs, and AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland notified them to coordinate their 
activities with the community services op- 
eration. 

President Jesse M. Calhoon of the Ma- 
rine Engineers, with which PATCO is af- 
filiated, expressed his union’s appreciation 
in a letter to Kirkland. 

He cited “the outstanding aid and sup- 
port that you, the Executive Council, and 
all of the departments of the AFL-CIO 
have rendered” to PATCO and its mem- 
bers. “It has been a real pleasure to watch 
the machinery of the AFL-CIO start up 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Two unions representing half a million 
employees of the U.S. Postal Service have 
overwhelmingly ratified new three-year 
contracts that include an uncapped cost- 
of-living escalator on top of pay raises 
and bonuses totaling $2,100 over the con- 
tract term. 

The vote by the Letter Carriers (NALC) 
was 124,316 to 20,316 — a margin of 
better than 6-to-l for ratification. 

MEMBERS OF the Postal Workers 
(APWU) voted 149,595 for ratification to 
36,595 opposed. 

The two unions bargained together 
and members of both unions voted in a 


New rules drastically weaken enforce- 
ment of anti-discrimination programs for 
federal contracts, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland charged. 

Instead of strengthening enforcement, as 
the AFL-CIO had urged, the Labor Dept, 
is now proposing to exempt 75 percent of 
all companies doing business with the gov- 
ernment from many of the requirements 
intended to encourage hiring of qualified 
women and minorities. 

The AFL-CIO and 37 other civil rights, 
women’s and labor organizations had ap- 


mammouth mail referendum, tallied by 
teams of counters and watchers in an 
around-the-clock operation. 

The agreement, which had the endorse- 
ment of the leadership of both unions, 
calls for a $300 salary increase each year, 
plus an annual productivity bonus of $350. 
In addition, there is a one-time $150 
bonus on ratification of the contracts. 
Postal salaries averaged $21,146 before 
the new increases. 

Semi-annual cost-of-living increases, on 
a formula of 1 cent for each 0.4 increase 
in the consumer price index, will con- 
(Continued on Page 2) 


pealed to the Reagan Administration to 
reconsider the “drastic changes” in con- 
tract compliance it was contemplating. 

THE RULES CHANGE proposed by 
the Office of Federal Contract Compliance 
Programs “confirms that the fears we ex- 
pressed earlier this year were warranted,” 
Kirkland said. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council, he 
stressed, had also warned that weakening 
of the anti-discrimination standards would 
amount to “backsliding” in 40 years of 
effort under both Democratic and Repub- 
lican administrations to counter discrimi- 
nation by government contractors. 

The AFL-CIO will study the proposals, 
Kirkland said, and “in consultation with 
our colleagues in the civil rights and 
women’s movements, we will take appro- 
priate steps to maintain an effective fed- 
eral contract compliance program.” 

Joyce Miller, president of the Coalition 
of Labor Union Women, called the pro- 
posed rules “a disaster, a clear message 
to the enemies of equal opportunity for 
women and minorities that they can feel 
free to evade and avoid the law.” Miller 
is also an AFL-CIO vice president and a 
vice president of the Clothing & Textile 
Workers. 

STEELWORKERS Vice President Leon 
Lynch, chairman of the union’s civil rights 
committee, attacked the plan as “an effort 
by the Administration to dismantle years 
of progress in human rights.” Lynch 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Outlook Dim 
As Interest 
Rates Soar 

Inflation jumped back into the double- 
digit column in July, sending the buying 
power of the average worker’s paycheck 
tumbling. 

The consumer price index rose 1.2 per- 
cent — which would amount to an annual 
rate of 15.2 percent if compounded. The 
rise was the largest month-to-month in- 
crease since the spring of 1980 and pushed 
the price index 10.7 percent above a year 
ago. 

Real spendable earnings for the average 
worker — what was left after taxes and 
after inflation — dropped eight-tenths of 1 
percent in July, despite a rise of four- 
tenths of 1 percent in the dollar amount 
of paychecks. 

OVER THE PAST 12 months, the Bu- 
reau of Labor Statistics reported real 
spendable earnings have declined by 2.9 
percent. 

The price-wage reports came on the 
heels of other economic findings that 
pointed to a continuing deterioration in 
the position of America’s workers. 

Some examples: 

• The real income of American fami- 
lies dropped 5.5 percent last year, the 
steepest decline since the Census Bureau 
began compiling the data in 1947. (Story, 
Page 3.) 

(Continued on Page 3) 
lllllllllllilllllllllllllllillllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllin 

Kirkland to Attend 
Solidarnosc Parley 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
has accepted the invitation of Solidar- 
nosc President Lech Walesa to attend 
the first National Congress of Po- 
land’s trade union federation* 

Kirklaiul and Martin J. Ward, 
president of the Plumbers & Pipe Fit- 
ters and chairman of the AFL-CIO 
Committee on International Affairs, 
will represent the AFL-CIO at the 
Gdansk convention. The Solidarnosc 
movement rose from the 1980 ship- 
yard strike in Gdansk that Walesa 
led. 

Kirkland and Ward will be in Po- 
land Sept. 26-29, during the second 
part of the Solidarnosc meeting. They 
will be accompanied by AFL-CIO 
European Rep. Irving Brown. 

The AFL-CIO over the past year 
has raised more than $250,000 
through its Polish Workers Aid Fund 
and provided office and printing 
equipment requested by Solidarnosc. 

iliiiiiiiiiiiiilliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilliiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 


Two Postal Unions Ratify 
New Contracts for 500, 000 





Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, AUGUST 29, 1981 


Postal Unions 
Approve Pact 
For 500,000 



TELLERS COUNT ballots mailed in by Letter Carriers on of the Postal Workers were being tallied. Members of both 
the ratification of a new three-year agreement with the U.S. unions overwhelmingly ratified the contract that provides 
Postal Service. In an adjoining room, ballots from members pay raises, bonuses and an uncapped cost-of-living escalator. 


Cutbacks in Social Security Protection 
Protested as Not Needed^ Not Justified 


New York — Cutbacks in social security 
protections being urged by the Reagan 
Administration are neither justified nor 
necessary for the system’s financial health, 
former Social Security Commissioner 
Robert M. Ball testified. 

Ball spoke for the 90 organizations in 
the labor-endorsed Save Our Security coa- 
lition at hearings held here by Sen. Daniel 
P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.) to spotlight issues 
in the social security battle being waged 
in Congress. 

When the Senate returns after Labor 
Day, one of its early showdowns will be 
a decision on whether to restore the mini- 
mum social security benefit that Congress 
liminated in its budget reconciliation bill. 

The house had some quick second 


The nation’s economy was weaker than 
previously thought in the second quarter, 
declining at an annual rate of 2.4 percent 
— a dramatic turn downward from the way 
the year started. 

In a preliminary estimate last month, 
the Commerce Dept, had pegged the sec- 
ond-quarter decline in “real” gross national 
product at a 1.9 percent annual rate. That 
followed a sharp gain of 8.6 percent in 
the first three months of 1981. Real GNP 
is the value of the nation’s total output 
of goods and services after squeezing out 
inflation. 

THE GOVERNMENT reported that 
GNP reached $2.9 trillion — $2,881.6 bil- 
lion — during the April-June period at a 
seasonally adjusted annual rate. Before ad- 
justing for inflation, GNP was up 4.1 per- 
cent at an annual rate. 

Senior Commerce Dept. Economist 
Theodore Torda said that “it’s too early 
to say whether we’ll have a plus or minus 
GNP” in the current July throueh Sep- 
tember quarter. “I think it will be very 
close,” he said. 

The Commerce Dept, said that the ma- 
jor weakness in the economy was in final 
sales, which dropped 5.1 percent in the 
April-June quarter after rising 6.9 percent 
in the first quarter. 

Unsold autos and the construction slump 
were major factors in the economic down- 

Veterans Alerted on Cutoff 
Of Educational Benefits 

Time is running out for eligible veter- 
ans to use educational benefits of the 
GI Bill, the Veterans Administration re- 
ports. 

Under the law, a veteran is entitled to 
such benefits within 10 years after his 
discharge from the military service, or by 
Dec. 31, 1989, whichever is earlier. This 
year the eligibility of 900,000 of the 4.3 
million vets now entitled to benefits will 
run out. 


thoughts on the issue, voting overwhelm- 
ingly to restore the $122-a-month mini- 
mum benefit. But the Senate put off ac- 
tion until after the recess. 

Ball noted that the massive cuts that 
the Administration proposed last spring 
were “so horrendous” that Congress isn’t 
about to enact them all. They would add 
up to an overall 25 percent cutback in 
social security protection, including more 
than a 40 percent reduction in benefits 
for persons choosing retirement at age 62. 

“Perhaps the greatest danger to social 
security in the proposals,” Ball suggested, 
“is that recommending such drastic cuts 
may accustom the American people and 
their representatives in Congress to the 
idea of accepting additional cuts in social 


turn. Automakers overproduced in the 
second quarter, and dealers now have a 
three-month supply on hand. The second 
quarter did see the automakers post their 
first profits in almost two years, but “it’s 
somewhat of an artificial number,” Torda 
said, because among the cars Detroit 
counted as sold were those sold to dealers. 

The revised figures also showed that 
prices, as measured by a broad GNP-based 
gauge which economists consider the most 
reliable measure of inflation, rose at a 6.6 
percent annual rate in the second quarter. 
The figure is a marked slowdown from 
the 9.8 percent pace of the first period. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

termed Administration claims that the 
weakened regulations only eliminate paper- 
work a “cosmetic cover-up” for the signal 
to employers that it is all right to resume 
discriminatory practices. 

The proposed new rules have not won 
universal favor within the government. The 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commis- 
sion has disagreed publicly with OFCCP 
over major issues including the sharply 
increased threshold for compliance and 
asked for further study before the final 
rule takes effect. 

An earlier set of rule changes, drafted 
by the Carter Administration, would have 
tightened many affirmative action obliga- 
tions for companies doing business with 
the federal government and expanded the 
role of unions in compliance programs. 

THOSE REGULATIONS were to have 
taken effect Jan. 29, but were “frozen” for 
review by the Reagan Administration. The 
new rules, issued Aug. 25, sharply scale 
back affirmative action planning, report- 
ing, documentation and other compliance 
standards. 

Smaller contractors are primarily ex- 


security protection, even though short of 
what the Administration recommends.” 

BALL PRESENTED a detailed refuta- 
tion of the scare talk of approaching 
“social security bankruptcy, and outlined 
relatively simple proposals involving real- 
location of contribution rates among the 
various social security funds and standby 
authority for borrowing from the general 
treasury. 

He questioned whether Congress should 
accept projections of economic condi- 
tions, demographics and workforce size 
in the next century as a firm basis for 
revamping the system. 

“It is difficult to escape the conclusion 
that the Administration, in proposing 
these cuts, has more in mind than social 
security,” Ball said. “Slashing social secur- 
ity benefits would make a major contri- 
bution to the Administration’s goal of 
balancing the general budget,” he noted, 
and to the objective “of reducing the size 
and scope of federal programs.” 

As to the minimum benefit. Ball termed 
its continuation by Congress “a matter 
of major principle.” 

He noted that the persons now receiv- 
ing the $122-a-month payment “have met 
all the requirements in present law. They 
have submitted their proofs; their claims 
have been adjudicated; they have re- 
ceived a notice bearing the signature of 
a high official of the United States gov- 
ernment, the Commissioner of Social 
Security, telling them what they are en- 
titled to.” 

It would be “a clear breach of faith,” 
he charged, for the government “to 
change the rules retroactively.” 


empted, but the relaxation of anti-dis- 
crimination programs will also apply to 
many larger employers. 

The new rules are open for public com- 
ment for 60 days with final action a month 
after that. 

Among the changes proposed is a rule 
that will raise the threshold on who is 
required to file a written, detailed affirma- 
tive action plan. Currently, the rule ap- 
plies to all contractors with at least 50 
employees and having $50,000 in annual 
federal contracts. Under the Reagan Ad- 
ministration proposals, only employers 
with at least 250 employees and $1 million 
worth of contracts will be required to 
file. 

Pre-award reviews of a contractor’s 
hiring patterns will be discontinued com- 
pletely. 

Other changes include: 

• Permitting larger employers to file 
“abbreviated” affirmative action plans. 

• Requiring only one plan to be filed 
covering companies under “the same chain 
of command.” 

• Exempting construction firms from 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tinue without a cap, which postal manage- 
ment had sought to impose. The previous 
three-year contract had brought union- 
represented workers $3,619 in cost-of- 
living adjustments. 

THE POSTAL negotiations got off to a 
stormy start last spring, when Postmaster 
Gen. William F. Bolger sought unsuccess- 
fully to get the National Labor Relations 
Board to hold a new representation vote 
before the start of bargaining. 

After the NLRB rebuffed postal man- 
agement, the parties faced each other 
across the bargaining table but progress 
was minimal until the July 20 contract 
expiration deadline neared. 

The unions accused postal management 
of trying to provoke a strike and the post- 
master general sent every employee a pay- 
check message that any striker would be 
fired. 

But with federal mediators on the scene 
as the deadline neared, the parties moved 
together sufficiently to “stop the clock” to 
allow continued negotiations. Sixteen hours 
later, an agreement was reached, subject 
to ratification. 

TWO OTHER unions that bargain na- 
tionally for smaller groups qf postal em- 
ployees, negotiated separately with the 
U.S. Postal Service. 

The unaffiliated Rural Letter Carriers 
has sent a tentative agreement to its state 
units for ratification. The Mail Handlers 
division of the Laborers chose to invoke 
the fact-finding procedure of the Postal 
Reorganization Act for resolving a bar- 
gaining impasse. 

A three-member panel was convened 
with a member named by the union and a 
member named by management, who to- 
gether chose a third member — Arvid 
Anderson, head of the New York City 
Office of Collective Bargaining. 

If the fact-finding procedure does not 
lead to a settlement, the law provides that 
a separate arbitration board be named to 
render a binding decision. 

The collective bargaining provisions for 
the U.S. Postal Service, which is a semi- 
autonomous government operation, stem 
from a reorganization law that was enacted 
in 1970 after long delays in getting pay 
raise legislation through Congress erupted 
into postal walkouts in major cities that 
reduced mail service to a trickle. 

Top level negotiations, in which both 
the AFL-CIO and Cabinet heads in the 
Nixon Administration were directly in- 
volved, brought agreement on collective 
bargaining for the postal service. 


filing affirmative action plans covering 
non-construction employees. 

• Narrowing the requirements for the 
appropriate number of wo»>ien and minor- 
ities who should be employed by federal 
contractors in different parts of the coun- 
try. 

• Eliminating many requirements for 
recordkeeping and documentation, and 
lengthening the compliance review period. 

In addition, the new OFCCP plan drops 
the Carter Administration’s proposal that 
would have required notice to bargaining 
agents that the employer was to undergo a 
compliance review and expanded union 
participation in the review process where 
conditions covered under bargaining agree- 
ments were involved. 

THE NEW RULES only permit unions 
to “present their views” to OFCCP’s di- 
rector “prior to any resolution between 
OFCCP and the contractor” on compli- 
ance efforts that would effect collective 
bargaining agreements. 

Regulations which would have improved 
access by women and minorities to train- 
ing and recruitment programs are also 
scaled back sharply. 


Quarterly Drop in Output 
Greater Than First Estimate 


Anti-Discrimination Rule Weakened 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 


Page Three 


Pushed Into Poverty 




Index of Family Income 
Takes a Record Plunge 


A combination of sharp consumer price 
increases and the 1980 economic down- 
turn depressed the real income of Ameri- 
can families 5.5 percent last year — the 
largest drop since 1947 when the govern- 
ment began compiling the records, the 
Census Bureau reported. 

As a result of the plunge in real income, 
another 3.2 million persons were driven 
below the poverty line last year, bringing 
the total to 29.3 million, according to the 
bureau. Over the year, the proportion of 
the population below the poverty level 
rose from 11.7 percent to 13 percent. 

While the median family income in- 
creased 7.3 percent, to $21,020, the 13.7 
percent jump in the consumer price index 
between 1979 and 1980 resulted in a net 


Steel Union Elects 
12 Directors in 
District Contests 


Pittsburgh — ^Winners of 12 of 13 elec- 
tions for district directors of the Steel- 
workers have been announced by the 
union’s tellers. The 13 th contest will be 
rerun. 

The union’s national officers, headed by 
President Lloyd McBride, as well as di- 
rectors of 11 other districts, were unop- 
posed and were declared elected when the 
nominations deadline closed last May. 

WINNERS IN the contested races are 
Mitchel F. Mazuca, District 4; Dave 
Patterson, District 6; James N. McGeehan, 
District 7; David Wilson, District 8; Paul 
E. Lewis, District 15; James M. Coyne, 
District 19; Walter Bachowski, District 20; 
Harry E. Mayfield, District 27; Harry E. 
Lester, District 29; Jack Parton, District 
31; Obert J. Vattendahl, District 32; and 
Eldon D. Kirsch, District 33. 

In the election in District 30, Edward 
O. Zeuch outpolled Donald G. Kerns by 
216 votes, but both candidates filed pro- 
tests. The district xx>vers all of Indiana 
except the four northwest counties as well 
as parts of northern Kentucky and south- 
western Ohio. 

The union’s five elected tellers, who 
oversee the election and hold hearings on 
protests, found evidence of technical mis- 
use of union facilities by both sides and 
called for a new election between the same 
candidates. 

The 30 officers, who make up the steel- 
workers’ executive board, will be installed 
in ceremonies on Sept. 1 at the union’s 
Linden Hall education facility in Dawson, 
Pa. 


decline of 5.5 percent in terms of buying 
power. 

INFLATION ALSO raised the annual 
income used by the government for the 
poverty level to $8,414 from $7,412 in 
1979 for a family of four. 

The bureau’s report is based on a na- 
tionwide survey of 68,500 families in 
March 1981. The sharp drop in real me- 
dian family income was the first statisti- 
cally significant annual decline since 
1974-75 period and the largest since the 
post World War II period. 

The report also noted that the increase 
of 3.2 million below the poverty level was 
one of the largest increases since 1959, the 
earliest year for which poverty statistics 
have been kept. The last largest increase 
came in 1974-75 when the combined im- 
pact of inflation and unemployment added 
2.5 million people to the poverty rolls. 

THE DECLINE in real family income 
was spread widely across geographic, racial 
and ethnic lines. However, farm families 
were hardest-hit with their incomes drop- 
ping 14.8 percent to $15,760, compared 
with a decline of 5.3 percent to $21,150 
for urban families. 

While the rates of decline were about 
the same for all families last year, whites 
remained in the higher income brackets — 
$21,900, compared with $12,670 for 
blacks and $14,720 for Hispanics. 

The bureau reported that families living 
on fixed incomes, largely retirees, showed 
no significant change from 1979 largely 
because of inflation indexing of social se- 
curity and other benefits. 

THE REPORT also noted that the in- 
crease in poverty affected most segments 
of the population: 

• In 1980, there were 19.7 million 
whites, 8.6 million blacks and 3.5 million 
Hispanics below the poverty level — an in- 
crease in each category from 1979. 

• The number of poor children under 
18 rose from 10.2 million in 1979 to 11.4 
million in 1980, and the proportion of 
children below the poverty line increased 
from 16.2 percent to 18.1 percent. 

• Of the four major geographic sectors 
of the country, only the Northeast did not 
experience a significant increase in the 
number of poor people last year. 

• The incidence of poverty rose among 
families headed by a woman with no 
husband present as well as by married- 
couple families. 

Median income means that half of the 
nation’s families had an actual income 
over $21,020, and the other half below 
that level. 



REAL MONUMENTS to past leaders of the Seafarers can be found in the 
better lives of today’s union members, SIU President Frank Drozak declared at 
the dedication of new facilities at the union’s training center in Piney Point, Md. 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, shown here, and New York Gov. Hugh 
Carey, were among the speakers. 

Seafarers Honor Leaders 
In Dedicating New Facilities 


Piney Point, Md. — Paul Hall, George 
Meany and A. Philip Randolph left an 
indelible stamp on the modem American 
labor movement as educators, agitators 
and organizers, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland said at a Seafarers dedication 
ceremony here. 

Kirkland and a host of notables includ- 
ing the governor of New York and the 
commandant of the Coast Guard took 
part in the formal opening of new facili- 
ties at the Harry Lundeberg School of 
Seamanship, the SIU’s unique training fa- 
cility on the Chesapeake Bay. 

THE BUILDINGS and facilities, in- 
cluding the new Paul Hall Library, were 
named in honor of SIU leaders of the 
recent past. 

Hall, who headed the Seafarers for 23 
years, served on the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council with Meany and Randolph, and 
Kirkland spoke of the similarities and dif- 
ferences of the three men who died within 
a 13-month span in 1979-80. 

When Hall was bom in Alabama in 
1915, Randolph, at the age of 26, was al- 
ready championing the cause of black 
workers in New York’s Harlem, an in- 
tellectual and magazine editor who was to 
build a small union of sleeping car porters 


New Reports Dim Outlook for Economy 


(Continued from Page I) 

• The drop in the GNP, the nation’s 
output of goods and services, during the 
second quarter of this year was greater 
than the Commerce Dept, had originally 
estimated. (Story, Page 2.) 

• Income from dividends, interest and 
rent rose faster than wages and salaries 

British Jobless Rate Hits 
Depression Era Level 

Britain’s unemployment rate rose to 
12.2 percent, the highest since the height 
of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

The increase from 11.8 percent marked 
the 15 th consecutive month of mounting 
unemployment. Joblessness has more than 
doubled since the Conservative Party gov- 
ernment of Prime Minister Margaret 
Thatcher came to power in 1979. 

The Thatcher government has advo- 
cated the same economic doctrines that 
the Reagan Administration has espoused 
in the United States. 


over a five-year period. (Story, Page 7.) 

Housing, food, transportation, medical 
costs and utility bills were the chief in- 
gredients in the July price rise. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald termed the sharp increase further 
evidence that “tight money and high in- 
terest rates aggravate inflation rather than 
cure it.” 

HIGH INTEREST rates “continue to 
drive up the cost of home ownership as 
well as auto finance charges,” Oswald 
stressed. 

The cost of buying a home climbed at a 
double-digit annual rate for the third con- 
secutive month, going up 1.6 percent in 
July after rises of 1.1 percent in June and 
1.3 percent in May. 

Food costs, which had held relatively 
steady earlier in the year, moved up eight- 
tenths of 1 percent in July on a seasonally 
adjusted basis. There were substantial in- 
creases in beef, pork, poultry and fresh 
produce. 

Medical care costs advanced 1.3 per- 
cent for the month, paced by a 1.7 per- 


cent increase in fees charged by doctors 
and dentists. While the price of gasoline, 
declined, the cost of public transportation 
and used cars more than offset the drop. 
The public transportation component shot 
up 14.7 percent. 

Despite the sharp July rise, the Admin- 
istration said it is continuing to stick to 
its prediction that the price rise for the 
year will be a shade under 10 percent. 

Deputy Press Sec. Larry Speakes told 
reporters that the Reagan economic pro- 
gram should “begin taking effect in the 
next several months.” 

IN THE PRIVATE sector, the spend- 
able average weekly earnings of a mar- 
ried worker with three dependents was 
$221.43 in July, measured in current dol- 
lars. That’s $1.35 more than the previous 
month and $15.57 more than July of 1980. 

But in “constant dollars,” keyed to the 
1977 buying power, the same worker’s 
real spendable earnings last month came 
to $146.35, down from $147.21 in June 
and $150.70 in constant buying power a 
year ago. 


into the base for a civil rights revolution. 
And Meany, just becoming a journeyman 
plumber in the Bronx, was still seven years 
away from his first local union office. 

“IT WAS A long way from Harlem and 
the Bronx to rural Alabama,” Kirkland 
noted, and the three men were “as differ- 
ent in manner and personality as they 
were in origin.” 

But “together they were unbeatable,” 
Kirkland said of the era when they served 
together on the AFL-CIO Executive Coun- 
cil. “No one could teach better than 
George Meany,” he said. “Phil Randolph 
agitated without rest for 60 years” and 
“no one ever out-organized Paul Hall.” 

In addition to the Paul Hall Library 
and Maritime Museum, the SIU dedicated 
an administration building named after 
A1 Kerr, the union’s secretary-treasurer 
until he died at age 52 in 1972, and voca- 
tional buildings named after Paul Drozak, 
an SIU vice president who died of cancer 
at age 50 in 1977, and Charles Logan, 
labor educator and NLRB regional direc- 
tor who founded a boys’ home in New 
Orleans where several SIU leaders were 
educated. 

SIU PRESIDENT Frank Drozak, who 
succeeded Hall and is the brother of Paul 
Drozak, told the hundreds of invited 
guests that the “real monuments” to the 
past leaders being honored can be found 
in “the many thousands of seafarers and 
boatmen whose lives are richer and 
whose families are more secure” because 
of their contributions. 

He spoke of the SIU’s commitment to 
education and training of its members. 
And from the vantage of one who “grew 
up in the Depression and had to go to sea 
when I was 16,” he stressed the value of 
education and the importance of the Piney 
Point school. 

New York Gov. Hugh Carey came to 
the Maryland SIU dedication to voice his 
admiration for Paul Hall, whom he de- 
scribed as “fierce” in his opposition to 
injustice, racism and poverty. America is 
better because of Hall and his generation 
of SIU leaders, Carey said. 

Admiral Robert Scarborough, the Coast 
Guard commandant, and Andrew Gibson, 
former head of the Maritime Administra- 
tion and now head of Delta Steamship 
Lines and the National Maritime Council, 
also spoke at the dedication ceremonies. 

Scarborough read messages from both 
President Reagan and Transportation Sec. 
Drew Lewis voicing support for a strong 
U.S. merchant fleet. Gibson expressed the 
belief that after years of decline, a new 
era of merchant fleet growth is starting. 





Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 


The 1970 Solution 


M ore than ll years ago, in March of 1970, the pent-up 
frustrations of postal workers around the country had erupt- 
ed into a strike that then, as now, was illegal. 

President Nixon brought in the military to try to move the mail, 
as President Reagan was to bring in military air controllers to 
replace striking civilians. 

George Meany, then the president of the AFL-CIO, issued a 
statement that carries the same tone as the resolution that the 
AFL-CIO Executive Council adopted during the first days of the 
PATCO strike. 

IN GEORGE MEANY’S words of Mar. 23, 1970: 

“The AFL-CIO deplores the use of military personnel to per- 
form the work of civilian employees of the post office in New 
York or any other city. 

“This action will not restore mail services nor contribute to an 
early resolution of the problems and circumstances which caused 
the stoppage of those services. It raises a specter of the misuse of 
military power that is foreign to this nation’s traditions and prin- 
ciples. 

“The postal workers have genuine, deep-seated problems and 
grievances that merit the sympathetic concern of all Americans. 

“THEY HAVE petitioned their government for the redress of 
those grievances, so far in vain. They are loyal, patriotic citizens 
who have devoted their lives to the service of the public. Their 
reward, so far, has been neglect by their government and public 
indifference. They have been made the victims of partisan political 
maneuvering, false economy and budgetary sleight-of-hand. 

“The best and surest way to bring about the restoration of full, 
efficient postal service, which we all desire, is not punitive sanc- 
tions, but prompt action to meet the basic needs of those workers 
and to resolve their genuine grievances on the basis of simple, 
obvious justice. 

“Partisan politics and empty posturing for the sake of public 
image should be set aside. . . .” 


THE POSTAL workers were not fired. They returned to work 
and high-level negotiations led to an agreement which was ratified 
by Congress. 

The most recent contract with the U.S. Postal Service, covering 
half a million workers, is the direct result of the decision by a 
different Republican Administration to seek a resolution of a 
dispute rather than retribution. 

As the AFL-CIO Executive Council said 1 1 years later of the 
current dispute, punishment and retribution are no substitute “for 
joint and constructive efforts to work out a settlement that will be 
fair to the controllers, the government and the flying public.” 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


1 John H. Lyons 
1 Frederick O’Neal 
= A1 H. Chesser 
1 Albert Shanker 
s Edward T. Hanley 
1 William H.McClennan 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
= Wm.W.Winpisinger 
S John J. O’Donnell 
E Robert F. Goss 
1 Joyce D. Miller 

S * Deceased. 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


5 Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry 5 

S Assistant Editors: = 

I Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 1 

i David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 5 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 1 

S Washington, D.C. 20006 S 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

1 Vol. XXVI Saturday, August 29, 1981 No. 35 1 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001 -1 1 85) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-ClO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. 






Monetarists vs. Supply-Siders 


Conflicting Economic Policies 
Lead to Worst Choice Result 


By Gus Tyler 

W HETHER HE KNOWS it or not, President 
Reagan is pursuing two separate and contra- 
dictory policies to “get the economy moving.” 
By opting for both at once, he must end up with 
the worst of choices. 

On the one hand, he goes along with the 
monetarist policies of the Federal Reserve Board 
that believes the way to battle inflation is to 
restrain economic growth. At the same time, 
Reagan goes along with the “supply-side” policies 
of some of his advisers who believe that the way 
to battle inflation is to stimulate economic growth. 

If inflation is caused by too much money chas- 
ing too few goods, the monetarists say, “cut 
demand,” while the supply-siders say, “increase 
supply.” 

Although these are obviously contradictory 
ways to go, it is possible in a curious way to ride 
both horses at the same time. This is done — as it 
is by Reagan — ^by increasing the specific immedi- 
ate measures proposed by both sides in further- 
ance of their policies. To wit: 

THE MONETARISTS seek to accomplish their 
ultimate goals by raising interest rates. High rates, 
they say, will discourage both consumers and 
producers from borrowing. That will cut demand, 
“cool” the economy, and thereby hold down 
inflation rates. 

That policy has been in operation since 1969. 
Now, 12 years later, the rate of inflation is triple 
what it was when we entered the ’70s. High rates 
have proven to be inflationary and recessionary 
as well. 

But, no matter. The Administration rides that 
horse. 

THE SUPPLY-SIDERS have their own strat- 
egy: to write tax laws that will put a greater 
share of the nation’s income in the hands of the 
investing class. The theory is that making the rich 
richer will provide the funds for investment in a 
greater “supply,” in making more goods and more 
work. 

The policy is really not quite as new or original 
as its proponents claim. Corporations that used 
to carry 25 percent of the tax load in 1955 now 
only carry 11 percent. The investing class is 
loaded. But instead of putting its money into 
expanding facilities that now run at only 60 or 
70 percent of capacity, it is pouring its funds 
into mergers, into gambling with commodities. 


into land speculation, into cornering the silver 
market, etc. Speculation — ^not production — is the 
name of the game. 

There is no evidence that making the rich 
richer makes for more jobs, especially since the 
rest of the country has less with which to buy 
what the producers are supposed to produce. But 
there is no doubt that the Washington Post is 
right when it wrote: “Democrats and Republicans 
may argue about which party wins . . . but there 
can be no , argument about the real winners: the 
well-to-do in America.” 

The “supply-side” tax bill is, of course, the 
other horse that Reagan rides. 

NOW, IF YOU put both policies together, 
where do we end up? 

The monetarist strategy gives us a tight econ- 
omy in which jobs and income are scarcer and 
prices are higher. That’s bad; 

The supply-side strategy redistributes the 
limited income from the bottom and the middle 
to the top. That’s worse. 

The end result is a nation divided, with a few 
living very well at the expense of the many 
living poorly. That’s the worst. 

Labor's Struggle for 
Justice and Dignity 

There are those in our society who would 
like to turn back the clock on our progress 
toward justice and human dignity, and they are 
enjoying a moment of power. They believe they 
can use that power to dismantle the socisd 
programs that have cushioned all Americans 
against economic disadvantage. 

For the labor movement, and for all the 
American people, there can be no turmng 
back. We have struggled too long to achieve a 
degree of equality and justice to let those gains 
be taken away. 

On Sept. 19, Solidarity Day, we will demon- 
strate that we stand united in our dedication 
to a fair and humane social and economic 
policy. 

— AFL-CIO Sec,-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue in a message to the convention of the Al- 
lied Industrial Workers convention, Aug. 26, 
1981, Dearborn, Mich. 

iiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiitiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 


Pafcr Five 


Revival o£ Faulty Bracero Scheme 

Reagan’s ‘Guest’ Worker Plan 
Ignores Plight of U.S. Jobless 


The following is from an article by former 
Labor Sec, Ray Marshall in the current issue of 
the American Federationist magazine, 

D espite its own forecast of the long- 
est sustained period of high unemployment 
since the 1930s, the Reagan Administration has 
sent Congress an overhaul of the nation’s immi- 
gration law which includes a “guest” worker pro- 
gram. The program, opposed by the AFL-CIO 
and most Hispanic organizations as a throwback 
to the failed “bracero” program of 1942-1964, 
would permit 50,000 Mexican nationals into the 
United States as temporary workers. 

The ostensible purposes of a guest worker pro- 
gram would be to meet the U.S. demand for labor 
that will be content with low wages and hard 
work, help stem the flow of illegal immigrants 
and at the same time provide a continuing “safety- 
valve” for the exploding population of Mexico 
and other countries, especially those located in 
the Caribbean basin. 

A guest worker program has natural appeal to 
some employers and politicians, but experiences 
in the United States and other countries leave 
considerable skepticism about the wisdom of 
either launching another such effort or enlarging 
our present small and controversial temporary 
worker programs. 

Because workers are not commodities, it is 
very difficult to have a temporary flow that can 
be turned on and off or reversed to suit national 
economic needs. 

THE MAIN American experience with an ex- 
tensive temporary worker program was between 
1942 and 1964 when the United States entered 
into the so-called “bracero” agreement with 
Mexico to import males without their families to 
work mainly in agriculture. At its peak in 1956, 
more than 445,000 braceros worked in the United 
States. 

Braceros were deported if they displeased em- 
ployers, and invited back as “specials” if they 
did not; this program also depressed American 
employment and working conditions, led to 
charge of bribery and corruption by those who 
controlled access to the program in Mexico, and 
strained relations between the United States and 
Mexico over both the treatment of braceros and 
the terms of the agreement establishing this pro- 
gram. 

The bracero program did not halt illegal im- 
migration. On the contrary, many former braceros 
became undocumented workers. 

ADVOCATES OF a new and enlarged foreign 
worker program contend that such a system is an 
essential component of any effort to control illegal 
immigration, both as a way to meet the labor 
needs of employers who rely on the undocumented 
workers and to continue the “safety-valve” for 
Mexico and other labor-exporting countries. 


Since it’s absurd to say more help is needed 
at a time when more than 8 million Americans 
are out of work, proponents usually fall back on 
the argument that U.S. nationals “won’t do cer- 
tain types of work.” 

The employment of aliens does not prove that 
domestic workers will not do certain kinds of 
work. Aliens may be preferred by employers 
because they are willing to work “hard and 
scared” at low wages and under adverse condi- 
tions. Despite this competition from aliens, it is 
hard to find an occupation that Americans will 
not take; legal residents dominate the work forces 
of every industry and occupation in the United 
States, proving that Americans are willing to take 
“alien jobs.” 

WORKERS WITH American standards and 
aspirations may be less satisfied with many meni- 
al low-wage jobs than their Third World compe- 
titors, who will, at least for a time, compare these 
jobs favorably with those available in their home- 
lands. But this is a temporary satisfaction because 
the longer they stay here the more likely foreign 
workers are to adopt American standards. Amer- 
ican employers will have little motive to improve 
these jobs if they have a ready supply of foreign 
workers. 

The proponents of a large-scale guest work- 
er program are correct in arguing that the flow 
of people into the United States should be 
legalized, but this should not be done by creating 
an easily exploited underclass that would raise 
serious human rights issues and threaten the con- 
ditions of American workers. 

High priority should be given to legalizing the 
flow of undocumented immigrants into the United 
States, and any program to control illegal immi- 
gration should contain provisions to grant per- 
manent amnesty or resident alien status, to people 
who have worked in the United States for some 
time and who have not committed serious crimes. 

AMNESTY IS justified by the fact that we 
have, in effect, sanctioned the flow of illegal im- 
migrants into the United States by refusing to 
adopt an effective immigration control over its 
borders than any major industrial country. At any 
given time, for example, the INS has no more 
than 450 border patrol guarding 6,000 miles of 
border and shoreline. Those 450 border patrol 
guards on each shift have to be responsible for 
about 13 miles of border each. To put it in an- 
other perspective, there are more guards on the 
National Capitol and public buildings in Wash- 
ington, and the INS budget is smaller than that of 
the police departments of most large American 
cities. 

The Border Patrol needs to be strengthened, 
but employer sanctions, a fair, effective and uni- 
form work authorization system and the other 
recommendations of the Select Commission on 
Immigration and Refugee Policy also are needed 
to reduce illegal immigration. 


The Squeeze Tightens 

Tight Money Policy, Tax Cuts 
To Keep Interest Rates Sky-High 


rriHE COMBINATION of the Federal Reserve 
-I Board’s tight money policy and the Reagan 
Administration’s big tax cuts that give away future 
government revenues will hold interest rates in 
the 20 percent range for the near future, AFL- 
CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald warned. 

Noting that the prime rate is holding at an un- 
precedented 10 points above the rate of inflation, 
Oswald saw little hope that it will return to “the 
normal 2 to 3 percent real rate of return” in the 
next three years. 

He said the “very high budget deficits that are 
projected to result from the tax cuts will be a 
major factor in holding interest rates at economy- 
stifling levels. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Oswald point- 
ed out that the recently enacted business tax cuts 
will cause a “tremendous shift” of the total tax 


burden away from business and industry and onto 
individual taxpayers. He said that the corporate 
share will be cut by one-half by 1985, with no 
assurance that those savings will be spent or 
invested in the United States. 

‘‘CONGRESS MAY have unwittingly encour- 
aged the export of more American jobs,” Oswald 
said. He said that Congress should take another 
look at that risk and “limit those tax benefits to 
domestic investments,” which “theoretically was 
promised” when the measure was under conside- 
ration. 

Oswald warned that many corporations may 
choose to use the tax windfalls to finance 
mergers, such as the recent link-up of DuPont and 
Conoco, that produce “big increases of profits and 
capital gains for the stockholders,” but do little 
or nothing to “help struggling companies expand 
and create jobs.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

M ost of the nation’s civilian air traffic controllers — 
nearly 13,000 highly trained and experienced professionals — 
have been fired from their jobs and told that they never will be 
rehired. Many of them face criminal prosecution, fines and jail 
terms. 

Their crime? Going on strike. 

Their employer? The federal government. And there’s the rub. 

Hours after the walkout began on Aug. 3, President Reagan 
went before TV cameras and ordered the controllers to return 
to work within 48 hours or else. The strikers were “in violation 
of the law,” he stressed. 

Reagan said the controllers had broken the no-strike pledge 
they signed when they were first hired. Saying that he respected 
“the right of workers in the private sector to strike,” he added 
that “we cannot compare labor-management relations in the 
private sector with the government.” 

Reagan and Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis have continually 
played on the theme of legality to justify their harsh measures 
against the controllers and their union, the Air Traffic Controllers 
(PATCO). 

As Teachers President Albert Shanker noted: “It’s strange that 
the United States, which got rid of King George III over 200 
years ago, is about the only democracy still saddled with this 
notion from the old monarchial days that any public ‘servant’ who 
strikes is really engaged in a rebellion against the sovereign and 
therefore must be severely punished.” 

IS IT FAIR, one may ask, that a strike by airline pilots, 
which could shut down all air traffic, is legal while a strike by 
traffic controllers, which has disrupted but not halted air traffic, 
is illegal? Should the deciding factor be that the pilots work 
for private airlines while the controllers work for the Federal 
Aviation Administration? 

It wasn’t until 1962, in an Executive Order signed by President 
John F. Kennedy at the urging of Labor Sec. Arthur J. Goldberg, 
that federal workers won protection of their right to organize 
and engage in collective bargaining. This right was codified in 
the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. 

Yet federal workers still face dismissal and legal penalties 
if they withhold their labor, regardless of the circumstances or 
the provocation. Only eight states allow any kind of job action 
by public employees. 

The controllers, after more than a decade of dealing with an 
unresponsive management over issues vital to their job perfor- 
mance and air safety, felt they had no other recourse than to 
strike. 

While the Administration has portrayed the strike as a dispute 
over pay, PATCO members emphasize that what they wanted 
most was better conditions in their highly stressful occupation. 

THIS INCLUDES a shorter workweek, earlier retirement, a 
say in the equipment they use, and better training for new 
controllers. Most foreign air controllers have won such demands, 
often by strikes and other job actions. 

PATCO members often compare themselves to the workers 
of Poland who struck “illegally” against the government. They 
wonder how a President and others who have praised the Polish 
workers can be so adamant in denying American workers the 
right to strike. 

The no-strike clause in government contracts often is compared 
to the old “yellow dog” contracts, widespread in the 1920s, under 
which workers promised their private employers not to join 
a union. Members of PATCO have made comparisons with the 
civil disobedience movement against segregation laws in the South 
in the 1950s and ’60s. They also draw parallels with the “illegal” 
sit-down strikes by auto workers in the 1930s. 



TIGHT MONEY policy and tax cuts that give away future gov- 
ernment receipts will hold interest rates in the 20 percent range 
for the near future, AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald, 
center, warned on Labor News Conference. He was questioned 
by Lloyd Schwartz, left, of the Fairchild Publications and Merrill 
Brown of the Washington Post. The AFL-CIO produced public 
affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 



CENTENNIAL CONVENTION of the Boilermakers is opened by President 
Harold J. Buoy. The 1,000 delegates met in Chicago, where a group of railroad 
shop workers created the union 100 years ago. 


NLRB Modifies Its PoKcy 
On Union Solicitation Rights 


Looking to the Future 

Boilermakers Open 
Centennial Convention 


The National Labor Relations Board 
struck down a 1974 board decision on 
union solicitation and distribution of lit- 
erature during “working hours,” and 
held that employer rules that prohibit 
them — without further clarification — are 
presumptively invalid. 

The decision by Chairman John Fan- 
ning and Members Howard Jenkins, Jr., 
and Don A. Zimmerman overturned the 
board’s 1974 decision in Essex Interna- 
tional, Inc., that such prohibitions during 
“worktime” or “working time” are pre- 
sumptively valid. 

THE MAJORITY VIEW in the Essex 
case held that a bar against solicitation 
and distribution of literature during 
“working time” connotes only the period 
of time that is spent in the performance 
of actual job duties and does not include 
meal periods or breaks — times in which 
employees are free to engage in solicita- 
tion or distribution. 

The current case involved a rule pro- 
mulgated by TRW, Inc. at its Flowery 
Branch, Ga., facility. The employer 
maintained that it met the test in Essex 
by making clear to employees, through 
distribution of an employee manual seven 
months before issuance of the rule, that 
its March 1979 “working hours” prohibi- 
tion did not preclude them from solicita- 
tion and distribution when not actually 
engaged in work. This policy, the em- 
ployer continued, was reiterated in Octo- 
ber 1979 in a posted notice to employees. 

THE BOARD AGREED with the con- 
clusion of the administrative law judge 
who originally heard the case that the 

Clay Chosen for 
Sheet Metal Post 

Honolulu — Cecil Clay of Charleston, 
S.C., has been elected secretary-treasurer 
of the Sheet Metal Workers by the union’s 
executive council meeting here. 

Clay, a vice president of the union since 
1972, succeeds David S. Turner who is 
retiring after having served as secretary- 
treasurer for 22 years. 

Prior to his election as a vice president. 
Clay had been business agent of Local 
399 in Charleston, a post he held since 
1959. 

He also served as president of both the 
South Carolina and the Greater Charles- 
ton Building Trades Councils. Clay is an 
officer of the AFL-CIO central body in 
Charleston and of the South Carolina 
AFL-CIO. He is also a director of the 
Southern States Apprenticeship Confer- 
ence. 


rule violated the Taft-Hartley Act — ^but 
not on the ground taken by the judge that 
TRW failed to rebut the presumptive 
invalidity of the rule. 

Instead, the board flatly rejected the 
principle enunciated in Essex that prohibi- 
tions against solicitation and distribution 
during “working time” are presumptively 
valid. It said it could see “no inherent 
meaningful distinction” between the terms 
“working hours” and “working time” when 
used in no-solicitation rules. 


St. Louis — Charges of sex discrimina- 
tion against its male employees have been 
leveled at Emerson Electric Co. by the 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers and 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Com- 
mission. 

In a joint suit filed in federal district 
court here, the union and the agency said 
the company is violating equal pay laws 
because its health care plans provide wider 
coverage to husbands of female employ- 
ees than to wives of male workers. 

THE lUE AND its Local 1102 have 
charged that Emerson’s three health plans 
each cover hospital and medical expenses 
for dependent spouses of female workers 
regardless of the condition being treated, 
but they limit coverage related to preg- 
nancies of dependent spouses of male em- 
ployees. 

This is sex-related bias in compensation 
in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights 
Act, the lUE asserts, since male workers 
must cover more medical expenses out-of- 
pocket than female employees regardless 
of the size of the medical or hospital bill. 

lUE President David J. Fitzmaurice in 
announcing the lawsuit said the union and 
Local 1102 have been trying to settle the 
issue with the electrical and electronic 
products maker since 1979. 

“We sought to correct this situation at 
the collective bargaining table,” Fitz- 
maurice emphasized, “but the company in- 
sisted that in this respect no change in 
maternity provisions is required by law. 
Accordingly we filed a charge against 
Emerson with the EECXI^, and this lawsuit, 
after our attempts to resolve this matter 
through negotiation failed.” 

FITZMAURICE praised the EEOC for 
supporting the union’s longstanding efforts 
to fight race and sex discrimination in the 
workplace. 


Chicago — ^The Boilermakers launched 
their second century as a trade union in 
the city where the union was founded 100 
years ago. 

A commemorative film traced the high- 
lights of the union’s past, but President 
Harold J. Buoy stressed the present and 
future in his keynote address to the cen- 
tennial year convention. 

LABOR MUST resist a growing “con- 
servative and anti-union” attitude in the 
nation. Buoy urged. He prescribed more 
effective communication as necessary to 
keep the trade union movement strong. 

“We must communicate with ourselves, 
with employers, with Congress and with 
our fellow trade unionists,” he urged, to 
turn back attempts “to lower prevailing 
wage rates, repeal OSHA, repress picket- 
ing rights and court foreign competition.” 

Buoy called for “organizing the unor- 
ganized” as the counter to non-union con- 
tractors and corporations. “Organizing is 
the key to the preservation of the labor 
movement for many years to come.” 

Sec.-Treas. Charles F. Moran’s address 
to the delegates hit hard at the Adminis- 
tration’s “trickle-down” economics. 

HIGH INTEREST rates make it harder 
for working people to buy homes and 
cars, he said. “The rich are being given a 
host of incentives to invest and to fatten 
already-large corporate coffers.” 

The union’s commemorative film, “A 
Century of Service,” was shown for the 
first time at the convention. It pictured the 
railroad shop boilermakers who were the 
mainstay of the union in its early years 
and the evolution to cover a variety of 
trades including blacksmiths and iron 
shipbuilders. Today’s union represents 
nearly 1 50,000 workers in manufacturing, 
shipbuilding, construction, railroads and 
forging.' 


Local 1102 President Richard C. Goe- 
wert also stressed that the union would 
have preferred to resolve the benefits issue 
at the bargaining table. 

“However, when Emerson refused to 
change its position,” he said, “we had no 
choice but to take legal action to protect 
the rights of male employees to equal 
employment opportunity under our col- 
lective bargaining agreement and the Civil 
Rights Act.” 


Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan 
brought a defense of the Administration’s 
program and approach to the convention. 
He said the recently enacted tax cuts “will 
provide the needed incentive to work 
harder and smarter, and to save.” 

Donovan told the delegates the Admin- 
istration has had to “fight hard to hold 
the line” against groups seeking outright 
repeal of the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage 
law. The Labor Dept.’s regulatory review, 
he insisted, was aimed at revising only 
regulations “that are useless, counter-pro- 
ductive, confusing or punitive.” 

Move Towards 
Merger Adopted 
By Screen Actors 

Hollywood, Calif. — Members of the 
Screen Actors Guild have voted strong 
approval of the first step of a plan to 
merge with the Radio & Television Art- 
ists. 

By a vote of 12,893 to 788, SAG mem- 
bers endorsed the initial phase of the 
merger program that will permit joint 
bargaining and ratification for national 
contracts covering work such as commer- 
cials and prime time television programs. 

AFTRA members approved the first 
phase at the union’s convention in July. 

THE PLAN creates joint SAG/ AFTRA 
wage and working condition committees, 
joint negotiating committees and a joint 
board of directors to handle negotiations. 

Both unions are expected to begin work 
on the second phase of the merger plan 
which deals with governance and structure. 

SAG Executive Secretary Chester L. 
Migden called the vote evidence of “mem- 
bership support for greater cooperation 
with AFTRA” and approval of “full-scale 
efforts to resolve the remaining problems 
in Phase II.” 

In addition to the merger issue, the 
SAG ballot included two constitutional 
changes, both approved by the members. 

ONE MEASURE will change the 
union’s bylaws to permit a merger if it is 
approved by 60 percent of the members 
voting as a substitute for the previous 
requirement of approval by 51 percent of 
the entire membership. The second amend- 
ment permits the SAG board of directors 
to approve certain limited or interim con- 
tracts without a full membership referen- 
dum. 


iiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiniii 

September Schedule Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

Two institutes, Organizing Techniques and the Union Administrator & 
Business Agent, highlight the September schedule at the George Meany Center 
for Labor Studies. Three AFL-CIO unions plan to use the center’s facilities 
for their own training programs. Several programs were cancelled or postponed 
last month because of the PATCO strike and the September program is also 
subject to changes. The schedule: 

Organizing Techniques, Sept. 13-18 — An institute on the essentials of ^ 
successful organizing campaigns: making the survey, picking in-plant committees, | 
developing winning issues, making house calls and responding to employer 
attacks. National Labor Relations Board procedures will be reviewed. 

Union Administrator & Business Agent, Sept. 20-25 — A program for business 
agents and full-time ofiScers to sharpen administrative skills. Classes deal with 
contract enforcement, working with executive boards, leadership development, 
involving members in union activities, office procedures and bookkeeping. 

Unions using the campus for their own leadership training during September 
are: Communications Workers, Sept. 1-2, Sept. 13-Oct. 2; Railway &* Airline 
Qerks, Sept. 15-18; Printing & Graphic Communications Union, Sept. 20-25. 

Information about these or other labor studies programs is available from 
Fred K. Koehler, Jr., executive director, George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies, 10000 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone- 
30 1/43 1-6400. 

I 


lUE Suit Charges Sex Bias 
In Benefits for Male W orkers 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 


Page Seven 


UAW Pushes 
Challenge on 
Trade Act Aid 

The Auto Workers are seeking trade ad- 
justment assistance payments for UAW 
members and other workers who lost their 
jobs because of imports, but were denied 
benefits under an “unfair and illegal” La- 
bor Dept, policy. 

In a suit filed in federal district court in 
Washington, the UAW is challenging the 
Labor Dept.’s interpretation of a provision 
in the 1974 Trade Act that requires a 
worker to have been employed by a single 
firm for 26 of the 52 weeks immediately 
preceding layoff to be eligible for trade 
adjustment benefits. 



CHECK FOR $100,000 from the Communications Workers Kirkland by CWA Sec.-Treas. Louis B. Knecht, second from 
for the AFL-CIO’s special fund to aid families of striking right. Joining in the presentation were CWA Executive Vice 
Air Traffic Controllers is presented to Federation Lane Presidents John C. Carroll, M. E. Nichols and James Booe. 


Public Sector Strike Upheld Donations 

Ai7»xA 1 Launch Fund for 

As First Amendment mght ^ 

^ Striker t amilies 


The Labor Dept, has interpreted this to 
rule out payments to workers who did not 
receive regular wages for 26- weeks. It has 
refused to count compensation from such 
sources as sickness and accident pay, va- 
cation and holiday pay, disability pay and 
workers’ compensation, military duty pay 
and back pay coming from a grievance or 
arbitration settlement. 

THIS POLICY, the UAW suit asserts, 
is inconsistent with both the purpose and 
intent of the federal law. It estimates that 
up to 15,000 UAW members have been 
denied trade adjustment assistance because 
of the Labor Dept.’s restrictive interpre- 
tation of the law. 

The UAW also accused the Labor Dept, 
of heavy-handed attempts to intimidate 
states that have given a less stringent in- 
terpretation of the earnings requirement 
by threatening to cut off federal funds to 
the states. 

Eleven individual workers have joined 
the UAW as plaintiffs in the case. One is 
a worker denied TRA for nonwage pay- 
ments related to medical leave because his 
finger was amputated after an accident; 
another is a women who was denied eligi- 
bility because of maternity leave. 


The growth of the nation’s labor force 
will slow in the 1980s but service jobs will 
be the fastest growing segment of occu- 
pations, according to latest projections by 
the Labor Dept. 

The department’s Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics projects significant gains for wo- 
men and blacks, a decline of young peo- 
ple in the labor force and a climb in 
white-collar employment to more than 
half the workforce. 

THE PROJECTIONS by BLS indicate 
that blue-collar employment will stabilize 
at about 31 percent and the sharp growth 
in service jobs will bring that segment to 
16 percent. 

Employment projections show gains 
over the first half of the decade from 
2.4 to 2.7 million jobs, depending on dif- 
fering economic assumptions. In the 1970s 
the average gain was 2 million jobs. 

The labor force studies indicate that 

Furniture Union Wins 
4 “Year Fight for Pact 

Putney, Vt. — The Furniture Workers 
capped a four-year struggle with Staco 
management here by negotiating a first- 
time contract providing solid wage and 
fringe-benefit improvements. 

The three-year pact gives Staco’s 120 
workers wage boosts totaling $1 an hour 
over the life of the agreement, an addi- 
tional paid holiday and coverage under 
the union’s insurance program. Also, se- 
niority becomes the determining factor in 
layoffs, recalls, job transfers, and overtime. 

Staco used stalling tactics and other 
maneuvers to try to thwart the UFWA 
organizing campaign but failed each time. 

The company finally exhausted its legal 
appeals to the courts and the National 
Labor Relations Board, and got down to 
good-faith bargaining under a federal court 
order. 


A West Virginia Supreme Court deci- 
sion dismissing a damage suit arising out 
of a public employee strike has been get- 
ting renewed attention for its sharp con- 
trast to punitive federal court actions 
against striking air traffic controllers and 
their union. 

The link has been made despite the fact 
that the legal issues are not analogous. 
West Virginia has no state law dealing 
with strikes by public workers and the 
damage suit brought by the City of Fair- 
mont against a union representing striking 
nurses at a municipal hospital was based 
on the common law. 

WHAT HAS attracted interest to the 
case, however, was the refusal of West 
Virginia’s highest court to reflect the view 


state and local government employment 
will fall behind the overall growth rate 
because of a drop in education jobs; that 
the sharp rise in service jobs will be paced 
by the growth in health industry employ- 
ment. 

MANUFACTURING jobs will grow 
by possibly as much as 1.6 percent in the 
decade with durables leading the way, 
resulting from defense spending and con- 
sumer demand. Non-durable manufactur- 
ing is expected to show declines in em- 
ployment growth. 

The BLS projections indicate that the 
fastest-growing industries will be com- 
puters, communications and coal mining 
while the slowest are expected to be petro- 
leum refining, copper ore mining and 
nonferrous metal ores mining. 

Depending on the projections, white- 
collar jobs will increase from 48.6 mil- 
lion currently to 60.7 million in the low- 
growth projections and to 64.7 million in 
the high-growth projection. 

Service jobs are expected to rise from 
the present 14.4 million to a range of 
18.9 to 20.1 million in 1990. In blue- 
collar jobs, the employment gains vary 
widely according to the range of economic 
projections. 

Dystrophy Association 
Awards Meany Fellowship 

New York — The Muscular Dystrophy 
Association announced award of its George 
Meany Postdoctoral Fellowship in neuro- 
muscular disease to Dr. Nobutaka Hiro- 
kawa of the Washington University School 
of Medicine in St. Louis. 

The $20,500 award honoring the found- 
ing president of the AFL-CIO goes to 
Hirokawa for a second year. The fellow- 
ship was established in 1968 as a tribute 
to Meany, who served as an MDA corpo- 
rate member for many years. 


that a peaceful strike in the public sector 
is a form of outlawed conduct that must 
be put down with all the powers of gov- 
ernment. 

“Where public employees, who have 
no employment contracts with their em- 
ployer, engage in a work stoppage which 
is peaceful and directed only against the 
employer” with no attempt to bar en- 
trance to the struck facility, “there is no 
common law right to damages on the part 
of the public employer,” Justice Thomas 
Miller declared on behalf of all but one of 
the five Supreme Court justices. 

A concurring opinion by Justice Dar- 
rell McGraw, joined by Justice Sam 
Harshbarger, took a still broader stand for 
the rights of public workers. 

“A peaceful strike by public employees 
is legal in West Virginia,” McGraw de- 
clared without equivocation. 

HE REJECTED strongly the view that 
public employers do not have to bargain 
with their workers and that public em- 
ployees have “somehow limited” First 
Amendment protections. 

In fact, McGraw wrote, public em- 
ployees have the same First Amendment 
rights as private sector workers and their 
right to collective bargaining was not cre- 
ated by federal labor legislation but stems 
from the Constitution itself. 

“In West Virginia,” he insisted, “the 
right to protest against the policies of 
government and the right to seek redress 
from the government without fear of re- 
prisal are as fundamental to our law and 
good sense as cornbread and beans are to 
our diet.” 


Investment income rose at a faster rate 
than wages and salaries over a five-year 
period, the Commerce Dept.’s Bureau of 
Economic Analysis reported. 

Between 1974 and 1979, the govern- 
ment reported, income from dividends, 
interest and rent increased 74.9 percent. 
Earning^ from employment rose only 65 
percent over the same period. 

THE AGENCY also traced the rate of 
income growth in eight geographical re- 
gions, with the Southwest, Far West and 
Rocky Mountain states showing the larg- 
est percentage rise and the Great Lakes, 
New England and the Mideast at the 
bottom. 

In terms of per capita income, how- 
ever, the more industrialized areas con- 
tinued to rank above the national average. 
At the start of the five-year period, the 
Mideast stood first in p>er capita income, 
followed by the Far West and the Great 
Lakes region. By 1979, the Far West had 
moved into first place with a per capita 
income of $9,884. The Great Lakes area 


(Continued from Page 1) 
and function like a 21 -jewel watch, and 
we want to express a very heartfelt ‘thank 
you.’ ” 

AS DETERMINED controllers con- 
tinued to walk the picket lines, public 
pressure mounted for reinstatement of the 
fired strikers and a return to collective bar- 
gaining. 

The International Federation of Air 
Traffic Controllers, whose affiliates 
throughout the world have expressed con- 
cern at safety hazards from the loss of 
some 12,000 trained controllers, has 
sought to play a mediator role. 

Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis said he 
and Federal Aviation Administrator Lynn 
Helms had no objection to talking to rep- 
resentatives of the international group, but 
reiterated that “we will not negotiate.” 

PATCO President Robert E. Poli wel- 
comed the mediation effort and said the 
union was prepared to negotiate with Ad- 
ministration officials “this afternoon, to- 
morrow morning or at any time they are 
willing to sit down with us.” 

IN ANNOUNCING the CWA’s major 
commitment of funds for PATCO family 
relief and to defend collective bargaining 
in the public sector. Watts said the govern- 
ment’s firing of the controllers and the 
attempt to decertify PATCO as bargaining 
representative “sets an alarming precedent 
which can only be viewed as an attack on 
public sector unionism at all levels.” 

He said the CWA will work both na- 
tionally and locally “to help the air traffic 
controllers tell their full story.” 


moved up to second with a $9,126 per 
capita income, and the Mideast dropped 
to third with a $9,110 average. 

The Southeast, with an average income 
growth, remained last in per capita in- 
come, at $7,621. 

$242 Million Spent 
On Congressional Races 

Senate and House candidates spent a 
record $242 million on last year’s con- 
gressional elections, or 23 percent more 
than in the 1978 contests, the Federal 
Election Committee reported. 

Political action committees contributed 
$55.3 million, or about 22 percent of the 
total amount, to the 1980 congressional 
candidates, the FEC reported. 

Democrats raised $129 million and 
spent $124 million. Republicans raised 
$122 million and spent $117 million, and 
independent or third-party candidates 
raised and spent $1 million. 


Service Field Jobs Expected 
To Pace Workforce Gains 


Rise in Investment Income 
Tops Increases in Paychecks 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 29, 1981 


Carter Rules Modified 

OSH A Weakens Policy 
On Workplace Noise 


The Reagan Administration has come 
up with a stripped down noise exposure 
standard that gives employers wide latitude 
in meeting the requirements of a “hearing 
conservation” program. 

The hearing conservation program is 
a weakened version of the workplace 
noise regulations announced by the Carter 
Administration on Jan. 16 that had been 
scheduled to take effect in April. With the 
change of Administration, OSHA delayed 
implementation of the program, first until 
June 1 and then to Aug. 1, before coming 
out with the watered down version on 
Aug. 22. 

The revised OSHA noise abatement pol- 
icy, an AFL-CIO preliminary analysis sug- 
gests, relies on the use of ear plugs and 
ear muffs, rather than more effective engi- 
neering controls that unions had been 
calling for since the early 1970s. 

Industry groups had attacked the Janu- 
ary provisions — issued as an amendment 
to OSHA’s 1974 noise exposure standard 
— as being too burdensome and expensive. 

The AFL-CIO challenged the repeated 
delays last July in a suit still pending in a 
federal appeals court. 

THE NEW program, which OSHA de- 
scribed as employing the “performance 
approach” in giving employers more flex- 
ibility in complying with regulations, won 
the strong endorsement of the U.S. Cham- 
ber of Commerce. The Chamber was one 
of several employer groups that challenged 
the Carter Administration’s version of the 
hearing conservation program. 

OSHA said the new program covers all 
workers, except those in construction and 
agriculture, who are exposed to noise 
levels of 85 decibels over an eight-hour 
shift on a time weighted average. It esti- 
mated that about 5.1 million workers at 
some 300,000 workplaces are exposed to 
this level of noise. 

The 1974 OSHA noise standard set a 
limit of 90 decibels for workers during an 
eight-hour shift. But workers in such 
places as textile mills, canneries, lumber 
mills and printing plants are often exposed 
to noise levels above 90 decibels. 

THE REAGAN plan in no way lowers 
the noise exposure limit from 90 decibels. 
Like the Carter program, it sets a trigger 
level for monitoring and audiometric test- 
ing of workers at 85 decibels. 

The 5-decibel difference in the indus- 
trial noise range is far greater than the 


number indicates. Noise recorded at 90 
decibels is considered to be almost twice 
as loud as that at 85 decibels. Some ex- 
perts compare 90 decibels to the roar of 
a 20-ton truck at close range, and 85 
decibels to the noise of a busy city street 
corner. Normal conversation level is about 
65 decibels. 

A study by the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety & Health shows that 
15 percent of the population risks hearing 
impairment at exposure to 85 decibels 
over a long period of time and 29 percent 
of the peculation could develop material 
hearing impairment at 90 decibels during 
a working lifetime. 

WHILE EMPLOYERS will still be re- 
quired to monitor noise levels regularly 
and provide annual hearing tests for work- 
ers, OSHA has dropped many specific re- 
quirements governing monitoring and hear- 
ing tests. 

One significant change in the regulation 
is the relaxation of record keeping and 
hearing equipment requirements. In the 
January version of the program, for ex- 
ample, a “qualified physician” was re- 
quired to perform audiometric tests. Under 
the new version, the tests can be con- 
ducted by a “trained technician.” 

According to the preliminary analysis by 
the AFL-CIO Dept, of Occupational Safety 
& Health, the new OSHA program will 
sharply restrict worker rights to informa- 
tion and training. 

Although workers will still be allowed 
to observe noise monitoring of workplaces, 
the analysis notes, “the employer is no 
longer obligated to explain the monitoring 
or to allow the worker to record the 
results.” 

THE STUDY also points out that all 
requirements for the posting of warning 
signs alerting workers of hazards in noisy 
areas and of the need for hearing protec- 
tion in those areas have been stayed. 

Another prime concern of labor safety 
experts is the stay of the definition of a 
“significant threshold shift.” This means 
that each employer may define what con- 
stitutes significant changes in the hearing 
ability of his workers, the analysis noted. 

OSHA said it will accept comments on 
the revised provisions and stayed regula- 
tions until Sept. 22. One of the questions 
on which it invited comment was “whether 
the provisions going into effect are a cost- 
effective alternative to the Jan. 16 rule.” 


22 ^000-Strong Retail Union 
Votes to Join with UFCW 


Chicago — ^The 22,000-member United 
Retail Workers Union, which represents 
supermarket and retail outlet employees 
in Illinois and Indiana, voted by a 3-to-l 
margin to affiliate with the Food & Com- 
mercial Workers. 

Balloting was conducted over a two- 
week period after the proposal won unani- 
mous endorsement of the URW’s leader- 
ship. It was approved by a 6,823 to 2,344 


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vote, and the merger will take place on 
Nov. 1. 

UFCW PRESIDENT William H. Wynn 
described the United Retail Workers as a 
sound and progressive trade union, “and 
we are very proud to welcome it to the 
UFCW and the AFL-CIO families.” 

He hailed the “very positive” 74.4 per- 
cent vote for affiliation and termed the 
turnout of nearly 50 percent “extremely 
high for a mail referendum.” 

In stressing the need for stepped-up 
labor unity, Wynn said that with revolu- 
tionary changes taking place in the food 
industry, “we can mutually profit from 
each other’s guidance and counsel. To- 
gether, we can do even better than we 
were able to do separately.” 

Fred Burki, executive director of the 
URW, said the affiliation will provide the 
URW the ability to deal directly with mul- 
tinational corporations and aid the union 
in its national organizing efforts. 

A majority of the 22,000 URW mem- 
bers is employed at Jewel food stores in 
Illinois and Indiana. The union also repre- 
sents workers at Eisner food stores, Osco 
drug stores. Venture discount stores. Re- 
public Lumber outlets and A&P food 
stores. 


‘Sorry— I Can’t Hear You!’ 



Fraser Charges Destruction 
Of Safety Law Enforcement 


The new management of the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Administration is 
planning a wall-to-wall overhaul of the 
agency that would effectively cut federal 
protections for American workers. Presi- 
dent Douglas A. Fraser of the Auto Work- 
ers charged. 

Appearing on a network television 
program, Fraser warned that draft pro- 
posals laid out at an OSHA field man- 
agers’ conference last month “that are 
now under consideration, would emascu- 
late enforcement of OSHA.” 

FRASER ACCUSED Assistant Labor 
Sec. Thorne G. Auchter of attempting to 
abrogate a worker’s right to calling in 
OSHA without the employer being alerted 
in an effort to correct hazardous workplace 
conditions. 

Under previous administrations, Fraser 
observed, “the individual worker could 
lodge a complaint and there’d be an in- 
spection. Under Mr. Auchter’s proposal, 
you would have to go to the employer 
first, and the employer would have to be 
notified before an on-site inspection could 
take place.” 

Auchter, appearing on the same pro- 
gram — ABC’s Good Morning, America — 
conceded that OSHA officials are consid- 
ering a number of administrative and pol- 
icy changes, but he insisted that a proposal 
to give employers advance notice on in- 
spection had been ruled out. 

AUCHTER CONTENDED that the 
changes the agency is contemplating are 
aimed at better protecting workers. 

But Fraser, citing draft documents 
emanating from the July 21-23 OSHA 
conference in Colorado Springs, said that 
employers would be able to head-off in- 
spections by providing a report that the in- 
cidence of accidents at the plant is below 
a magic number. 

Fraser also charged that OSHA is 
proposing to eliminate penalties on viola- 
tions providing that the employer even- 
tually complies with federal standards. 

A review of the draft documents by the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Occupational Safety 
& Health concludes that the OSHA jpro- 
posals include numerous provisions of a 
1980 bill authored by then Sen. Richard S. 
Schweiker (R-Pa.), which unions strenu- 
ously opposed. The measure never reached 
the Senate floor. 

George H. R. Taylor, the federation’s 
job safety director, warned in a memoran- 
dum that some directives being consid- 
ered by Auchter could be more destructive 


to OSHA enforcement than the provisions 
of the Schweiker bill. 

According to Taylor, among the changes 
under consideration that OSHA may put 
into effect as early as Oct. 1 are: 

• No automatic inspections in re- 
sponse to valid worker complaints. 

• Advance notice to employers on 
complaint inspections. 

• Exemption of so-called safe manu- 
facturing workplaces and small businesses 
from general schedule inspections. 

• Elimination of penalties for serious 
and other violations for employers who 
abate hazards. 

• Virtual elimination of repeating 
citations in the construction industry. 

• Elimination of on-site federal mon- 
itoring of state plans. 

TAYLOR SAID the nronosals also call 
for the formation of labor-management 
STAR committees (Sharing the Accounta- 
bility for Regulation) as a substitute for 
OSHA enforcement. 

Fraser, commenting on OSHA’s role in 
the STAR program, noted in the TV inter- 
view that the UAW has copies of corres- 
pondence showing General Motors Corp. 
is already involved in consultations with 
the federal safety agency. 

But the problem with the program, 
Fraser said, is that the UAW has yet to be 
consulted on the OSHA-GM activities. 

Illlillllllllllillillilllilllllllllllllllliltllllllllllllllllllilllllll^ 

Network Broadcasts 
Set for Labor Day 

AFL-CIO leaders will appear on the 
following radio and television programs 
over the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 6 
and 7: 

Vice President John H. Lyons on 
Mutual radio, Monday, Sept. 7, 12:15 
p.m. EDT. 

Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue on 
NBC radio, Monday, Sept. 7, 9:30 p.m. 
EDT. 

President Lane Kirkland on CBS 
radio, Monday, Sept 7, 7:45 p.m. EDT. 

Kirkland also is scheduled to appear 
on the CM television program “Face 
the Nation” Sunday, Sept 6, at 11:30 
a.m. 

Local stations may alter program 
schedules and should be checked for 
exact broadcast time. 

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Reagan Slashes Federal Employees Pay Raise 



By David L. Perlman 

President Reagan slashed a scheduled 
15.1 percent comparability pay raise for 
government workers to 4.8 percent and 
asked Congress to rewrite the law so that 
federal salaries will be held permanently 
below the private sector. 

Reagan’s substitute pay plan, which 
takes effect Oct. 1 unless Congress dis- 
approves it, is based on the budget he 
drew up last winter and ignores the gov- 
ernment’s own finding that the accumu- 
lated lag in government salaries justifies a 
catch-up raise of over 15 percent. 

Kenneth T. Blaylock, president of both 
the American Federation of Government 
Employees and AFL-CIO Public Employ- 
ee Dept., charged that Reagan has shown 
himself “totally insensitive to government 
workers, who suffer from inflation like 
everybody else.” 


Other Presidents have trimmed back 
the supposedly automatic annual salary 
adjustments provided by the 1970 pay 
comparability law, Blaylock noted, but 
none so drastically as Reagan has pro- 
posed. 

Congress has already approved a budget 


reconciliation bill incorporating the 4.8 
percent pay raise ceiling, virtually ruling 
out a resolution of disapproval that would 
reinstate the full comparability amount. 
The last time Congress rebuffed a president 
seeking to hold down federal pay was in 
the Nixon Administration. 


Last year, when the government’s pay 
comparability formula showed that a 13.5 
percent catch-up raise would be needed to 
regain parity with private sector jobs. 
President Carter’s original budget had 
projected a 6.2 percent raise. But he raised 
the amount to 9.1 percent, to keep federal 
employees from slipping farther behind, 
after the AFGE and the AFL-CIO argued 
that anything less would breach the Ad- 
ministration’s commitment to fair treat- 
ment for federal workers. 

THE 4.8 PERCENT raise for the gov- 
ernment’s 1.4 million salaried employees 
also will serve as the ceiling for nearly 
500,000 hourly paid blue-collar workers, 
whose pay scales are supposed to be ad- 
justed annually on the basis of local pre- 
vailing wages. Congress, in its budget re- 
conciliation bill, imposed the same limit 
(Continued on Page 3) 



Kirkland Protests 
‘Brutal Force’ Used 
To Punish Strikers 


SOLIDARITY DAY’S message, “Together we shall be heard,” carries the same 
meaning in any language. This Spanish language poster is being used in Hispanic 
communities across the nation. 

Labor Day Themes Cite 
Renewal of Commitment 


America’s trade union movement ap- 
proached Labor Day with a fierce deter- 
mination to defend a century of achieve- 
ment and a renewed commitment “to 
those among us for whom life is still a 
struggle for survival.” 

Labor Day statements by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue acknowledged the 
strength of labor’s foes in today’s political 
climate but insisted that the links of union 
solidarity will prove still stronger. (Texts 
on Pages 6 and 7.) 

KIRKLAND POINTED to Poland’s 
trade union federation, born a year ago 
this month, as evidence that the natural 
solidarity of workers “can be repressed 
but never extinguished.” 

Poland’s workers, he said, “have shown 
the world that the fight for workers’ rights 
is the fight for human rights.” 

Kirkland said American labor’s pride in 
its accomplishments is tempered by the 
knowledge that not all have shared in the 
progress. There are still too many, he 
stressed, who do not have safe and health- 
ful Workplaces, decent homes, access to 
good schools and good medical care. 

LABOR’S PRIDE, he cautioned, 
“should leave no room for complacency, 
because all victories are only temporary. 
What we have gained at the bargaining 
table and in the legislative halls down 
through the years can, in an instant, be 
swept away.” 

Donahue expanded on that theme, warn- 
ing: 

“There is a movement afoot in the 
country to erect new barriers, to establish 
an economic caste system alien to Amer- 
ica,” with “a permanently entrenched, tiny 
elite of the wealthy” at the top and “a 
permanent underclass of the unfortunate 
and the disadvantaged” at the bottom. 


“We cannot allow this to happen,” he 
insisted. 

DONAHUE SAID the blame for de- 
struction of labor-supported programs 
must fall “on a Congress which knuckled 
down to pressure” as well as on the 
Reagan Administration. “Congress sur- 
rendered to the few who stand to gain the 
most,” Donahue said, “and agreed to the 
abandonment of programs and policies 
which have served our people and their 
nation well.” 

President Reagan and Labor Sec. Ray- 
mond J. Donovan used their Labor Day 
statements to voice optimism about the 
impact of Administration policies. 

Reagan asserted that his “economic 
revitalization program will create more 
jobs and more work in an expanding 
economy.” Donovan said the Reagan pro- 
gram will lower inflation and generate jobs. 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
called on President Reagan to set aside 
the “brutal force” the government has 
used against its striking air traffic con- 
trollers and open the door to a settlement 
of the dispute. 

“It is not too late,” Kirkland urged, for 
the President to “instruct his representa- 
tatives to sit down with those workers and 
address their genuine grievances.” 

IN SPEECHES to Seafarers and Steel- 
workers, in television interviews and in 
public statements, Kirkland hammered 
away at the Administration’s overkill. 

He cited the words of Dwight D. Eisen- 
hower, at the time a five-star general, that 
“much worse than strikes ... is the loss 
of freedom. . . . Only a handful of un- 
reconstructed reactionaries harbor the ugly 
thought of breaking unions” 

Yet today, Kirkland said, “we see the 
Reagan Administration, as employer, using 
the power of the police, the courts and 
the military to punish and break a small 
union.” 

THE ADMINISTRATION seeks to 
deny controllers the right to choose their 
own union, Kirkland charged. “It has 
jailed union leaders for responding to the 
wishes of the membership.” 

Kirkland recalled the letter that Reagan 
wrote to PATCO last October, on which 
the union relied when it endorsed his can- 
didacy for President. “Too few people 
working unreasonable hours with obsolete 
equipment has placed the nation’s air trav- 
elers in unwarranted danger.” 

But now, Kirkland noted, the Adminis- 
tration insists “that the air traffic system 
is safe and adequate with less than half a 
crew of less-skilled strikebreakers.” 

On the Public Broadcasting Service’s 
MacNeil/Lehrer Report, Kirkland said the 
AFL-CIO has from the start of the strike 


urged a mediation role for “impartial third 
parties” to break the impasse. 

HE FOUND “troubling and very dan- 
gerous” the use of military air controllers 
to replace strikers. 

“The trade union movement has his- 
torically strongly supported the national 
defense of this country,” Kirkland stressed. 
“We’re concerned when we see the sons 
of working people, who serve in the army 
for the purpose of defending this country 
against foreign adversaries, breaking 
strikes” 

As for the strike being over because the 
government fired the strikers, Kirkland re- 
torted that “the 12,000 controllers are still 
standing firm, their problems still exist” 

Further, he reminded the interviewer, 
“employers do not declare the end of a 
strike. The organization and its members 
declare the end of a strike.” 

Reagan’s Quotes 
On Strike Policy 
‘Misread History’ 

President Reagan “misread history” 
when he sought to link the early leaders 
of labor to his view that a strike by gov- 
ernment workers cannot be tolerated, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said. 

Kirkland quoted from union leaders 
from Samuel Gompers, the early president 
of the American Federation of Labor, to 
George Meany, the first president of the 
AFL-CIO, to answer statements made by 
Reagan in an address to the Carpenters 
convention in Chicago. 

Reagan told the convention delegates 
that from the time of Gompers, union 
(Continued on Page 8) 


Bus Caravans to Head for Washington 


By Susan Dunlop 

All roads lead to Washington for la- 
bor’s Solidarity Day demonstration on 
Sept. 19. 

State and local central bodies, as well 
as international unions and their locals, 
have organized bus, car and van cara- 
vans to bring their delegations to Wash- 
ington, many after cancelling air reser- 
vations in support of the striking Air 
Traffic Controllers. 

TRAVEL TO and from the National 
Mall will be eased by free access to the 
Metro subway system all day, including 
trips from huge fringe parking areas near 
suWay stops. 

Parking on the Mall itself is being as- 


signed to demonstrators with special trans- 
portation problems, particularly senior citi- 
zens and the handicapped. Solidarity E>ay 
Coordinator John Perkins said. 

The Minnesota AFL-CIO, which can- 
celled its charter flights because of the 
strike, has arranged for at least* eight 
buses. The delegation of some 400 union- 
ists is scheduled to leave Minneapolis at 
7 a.m.. Sept. 18 for a 26-hour trip to 
Washington. After participating in the 
march, the Minnesotan will board their 
buses at 6 p.m. for the same long trip 
home. 

AMONG THE Minnesota marchers will 
be a delegation from PATCO’s Local 305. 
State Federation President David Roe said 
the local’s check for $350 to cover its ex- 


penses for the trip would be returned and 
the state federation will pick up the tab 
to bring the strikers to Washington. 

Trade unionists from Washington State, 
a labor and community delegation being 
organized by the state AFL-CIO, will 
make a three-hour trip overland to Van- 
couver, British Columbia on Friday to 
catch a Canadian air carrier to Toronto. 

From there the demonstrators are 
scheduling land transportation to Wash- 
ington, “by Conestoga wagon, if neces- 
sary,” according to state Solidarity Day 
coordinator Ross Reider. 

Robert Petersen, president of the Great- 
er Washington (D.C.) Central Labor 

(Continued on Page 2) 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASfflNGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 



REBUILDING OF America’s merchant marine is essential to national and 
economic security, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told the Seafarers con- 
vention in Washington. Kirkland is flanked by SIU President Frank Drozak, 
left, and Sec.-Treas. Joseph DiGiorgio. 

Keep U.S. Shipyards Open, 
Boilermakers Delegates Urge 


In Convention Action 

Seafarers Offer Plan 
To Revive Cargo Fleet 


Chicago — Delegates to the Boilermakers 
convention adopted a centennial year pro- 
gram keyed to strengthening their union 
and the shipbuilding industry where about 
one-fourth of its members work. 

The convention also expressed its con- 
cern at attacks on labor, moves to weaken 
prevailing wage and job safety laws, and 
the Reagan Administration’s effort to cut 
back social security protections. 

A RESOLUTION, strongly urged by 
President Harold J. Buoy, endorsed the 
AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day demonstration 
and called on union members to turn out 
for the march and rally. 

Buoy, Sec.-Treas. Charles F. Moran and 
all incumbent vice presidents were re- 
elected without opposition. Their terms will 
be for five years, in line with the adoption 
of a resolution to increase the interval be- 

All Roads Lead 
To Washington 
Solidarity Day 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Council, announced that arrangements 
have been set with the city’s transporta- 
tion authority for the Metro subway sys- 
tem to be free from 8 a.m. to midnight 
oa Solidarity Day. 

COST FOR the free Metrorail rides will 
be picked up by the AFL-CIO and its 
affiliates, Petersen said. 

With priority given to assigning the 
limited parking spaces on the Mall to 
those with special needs, * Petersen urged 
demonstrators driving into Washington to 
use the fringe parking areas near each 
subway terminus and ride the train to 
downtown. Maps showing locations of the 
lots are available from local and national 
Solidarity Day offices. Bus and caravan 
parking is also being assigned by the na- 
tional coordinators. 

In other developments, Perkins an- 
nounced that two hours of Solidarity Day 
coverage will be telecast live from Wash- 
ington via satellite beginning at 3 p.m. 
Eastern Daylight Time. The coverage, pro- 
duced by the Public Interest Video Net- 
work, will be on stations of the Public 
Broadcasting System. 

An hour of Solidarity Day highlights 
will also be available to PBS stations at 
Solidarity Day offices. Bus and caravan 
5 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 20. 

Typical of many individuals shunning 
the air routes but determined to march are 
eight members of International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers Local 960 in 
El Paso. They will make the 4,000-mile 
round trip, “not to set records, but to set 
the record straight.” 


tween conventions from four years to five. 

Also adopted by the 1,000 delegates, 
representing nearly 150,000 members, was 
a per capita rise of $1 to take effect next 
January, with additional increases of 50 
cents a year for the next five years. 

Strike benefits were raised in two steps 
from $45 to $55 a week. 

THE CONVENTION strongly urged 
continuation of the federal construction 
differential subsidy to encourage the build- 
ing of merchant vessels in American ship- 
yards. 

AFL-CIO Metal Trades Dept. President 
Paul Burnsky urged a letter-writing cam- 
paign to members of Congress in support 
of the ship construction differential. 

Building «& Construction Trades Dept. 
President Robert Georgine underscored 
the threat to the Davis-Bacon Act, which 
he termed “one of the most progressive 
labor laws we have.” The convention also 
adopted a resolution opposing efforts to 
transform the Hobbs Act into a weapon 
that could be used against unions by trans- 
forming a picket line scuffie into a felony. 

In a concluding speech. Buoy told the 
delegates to the union’s 100th anniversary 
convention that they had adopted a pro- 
gram for the Eighties that reflects a “de- 
termination to strengthen the trade union 
movement against attack.” 


Honolulu — A proposal to blunt the cur- 
rent anti-union attack in Congress with an 
outpouring of mail from union members 
received strong support from some 500 
local officials attending the annual Sheet 
Metal Workers business agents conference 
here. 

President Edward J. Carlough outlined 
the union’s plans to mobilize support for 
the defense of the Davis-Bacon Act, which 
provides prevailing wages on federally fi- 
nanced construction, and opposition to 
right-wing proposals to rewrite the Hobbs 
Act so that any picket line scuffie might 
become a federal felony case. 

“THE ‘CRAZIES’ are mobilizing against 
us, and we can’t just sit still and take it,” 
Carlough told the union business agents. 
“The only things this Administration un- 
derstands are power and response. Let’s 
give it to them.” 

Sen. Henry Jackson (D-Wash.) told the 
conference that “Republicans seem to have 
the idea that Davis-Bacon was some sort 
of New Deal ‘socialist’ idea. This idea is 
retroactive nonsense.” 

Jackson noted that Davis-Bacon was 
sponsored by a Republican senator — James 
J. Davis — ^who had been Secretary of 
Labor in the cabinets of Presidents Hard- 


The Seafarers convention called for 
long-overdue government action to reverse 
the steady decline of the American mer- 
chant marine. 

Stressing that the United States suffers 
from an “appalling lack of a unified, 
coherent, well planned and enforced mari- 
time policy,” the 350 convention delegates 
adopted a five-point program that spells 
out the need for: 

• Revitalizing the nearly scuttled dry 
bulk U.S.-flag fleet to carry fair shares of 
U.S. coal exports and strategic material 
imports needed for the nation’s defense. 

• Utilizing the merchant fleet as an 
auxiliary to the Navy during national 
emergencies for shipping supplies to free 
naval personnel to staff strategic vessels. 

• Restructuring tax laws to encourage 
U.S. ship owners to build and to operate 
modem fleets efficiently. 

• Stripping away unnecessary restric- 
tions that put U.S. shippers at a disad- 
vantage in the world market. 

• Negotiating bilateral agreements 
with U.S. allies and developing countries 
to reserve an equitable portion of Amer- 
ican international cargoes for U.S.-flag 
vessels. 

SIU PRESIDENT Frank Drozak noted 
in his keynote address to the triennial con- 
vention that union members face difficult 
times as a result of Reagan Administration 
budgetary cutbacks. He cited in his re- 
port the urgent need to restore funding 
for U.S. Public Health Service hospitals 
vital to merchant seamen and federal con- 
struction subsidies to spur American ship- 
building. 

However, Drozak said he was opti- 
mistic that President Reagan would live 
up to his repeated pledges to rejuvenate 
the merchant marine and the maritime 
industry. 

Drozak called for maritime union unity 
and stepped-up cooperation from all sec- 
tors of the industry at a post-convention 
press conference. 

“UNLESS GOVERNMENT, manage- 
ment and labor cooperate — map maritime 
strategy together and chart the same 
course — we will have succeeded in de- 
molishing our U.S. fleet without even 
firing a single shot,” he warned. 

In an address to delegates, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland stressed that the 
rebuilding of the U.S. merchant marine is 
absolutely essential to national and eco- 
nomic security. 

“We should have learned that lesson 
from the 1973 war in the Middle East and 


ing, Coolidge and Hoover — and Robert L. 
Bacon, a Republican congressman from 
upstate New York. “You know how radical 
they are,” he said. 

But the move to attack Davis-Bacon on 
a piecemeal basis is part of an “un- 
raveling process” aimed at various laws 
that aid working people, Jackson charged. 

The Washington senator, who has be- 
come a prime target for defeat by right- 
wing political groups, called for allocation 
of credit resources to stimulate the housing 
industry. 

THE REPUBLICAN budget-cutters, he 
added, are trying to “make people believe 
social security is going broke.” It isn’t, 
Jackson said, but the Administration 
would like to use the scare tactics to con- 
vert social security from an insurance pro- 
gram to a welfare program. We can’t let 
them do it.” 

David Wagner, head of the sheet metal 
and air conditioners employer group, 
warned of the continuing threat of inroads 
in the construction industry by non-union 
companies. He called for cooperation in 
the search for “sensible solutions to our 
common problems.” 

W. L. Fillippini, administrator of the 
joint union-employer National Training 


from the Arab oil embargo,” Kirkland de- 
clared. “We saw runaway fleets owned by 
American companies giving foreign pow- 
ers a veto over U.S. policy. 

“Instead of learning the lesson,” he 
observed, “our government in 1977 re- 
jected even a limited version of cargo 
preference. Today we are down to a 5 
percent share of our nation’s import- 
export trade. That is a loss of 100,000 
seafaring jobs, with a ripple effect on other 
industries and other workers.” 

The convention elected Drozak by ac- 
clamation to his first full three-year term. 
The SIU executive board choose Drozak 
to head the union last year following the 
death of Paul Hall, who was memorialized 
in a resolution that recognized his progres- 
sive leadership for more than two decades. 

DELEGATES ALSO re-elected Sec.- 
Treas. Joseph DiGiorgio and 12 vice presi- 
dents. Six new vice presidents elected to 
the SIU executive board are George 
McCartney of San Francisco, Jack Caffey 
and John Fay of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mike 
Orlando of Gloucester, Mass., Mike Sacco 
of St. Louis and Joe Abatta of Chicago. 

Drozak also had been elected president 
of the SlU-affiliated United Industrial 
Workers, which met earlier at Piney Point, 
Md. Steve Edney, an SIU vice president, 
was elected national director of the UIW. 

The SIU convention approved a 50-cent 
increase in monthly per capita payments 
which will rise to $2.25 effective Oct. 1. 

Other key resolutions adopted at the 
three-day convention called for repeal of 
waivers to the Jones Act, which reserves 
shipping between U.S. ports to American- 
flag vessels and manned by U.S. seamen; 
protection for U.S. fishing fleets from 
seizures by other countries; opposition to 
proposals for the export of Alaska oil; and 
government recognition of the threat to 
national security by U.S.-owned runaway- 
flag vessels. 

DELEGATES GAVE strong endorse- 
ment of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Day rally 
in Washington on Sept. 19, urging maxi- 
mum participation by SIU affiliates and 
members. 

Convention speakers included Rep. 
Walter B. Jones (D-N.C.), chairman of the 
House Merchant Marine Committee; 
President J. C. Turner of the Operating 
Engineers; President William H. Wynn of 
the Food & Commercial Workers; Presi- 
dent Robert Lowen of the Masters, Mates 
& Pilots; Executive Sec.-Treas. Jean 
Ingrao of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades 
Dept, and Robert Bonitati, special assis- 
tant to Reagan. 


Fund, said the group is placing increased 
emphasis on offering advanced training to 
skilled journeymen. “It’s time to turn to 
new programs for a new decade, and new 
technologies require new skills.” 

THE CONFERENCE was told that its 
pension fund has increased average monthly 
payments by 100 percent in eight years 
while strengthening its fiscal base. The 
union-management underemployment ben- 
efits program has paid out a total of $62 
million in four different categories, and 60 
locals are now covered. 

The Sheet Metal Workers received 
praise for pushing programs for solar heat- 
ing and for energy conservation through 
retrofitting from Omi Walden, former as- 
sistant secretary of energy and now a con- 
sultant on energy matters to the union. 

She decried the elimination of the 
Energy Dept.’s funds for state and local 
grants and for energy education, and com- 
mented that it is “hard to tell what our 
national energy program really is.” 

While conservation and better utiliza- 
tion of domestic energy supplies has 
brought a cu tin foreign oil imports com- 
pared to 1973, Walden said, “today we’re 
just as vulnerable as in 1973 from a na- 
tional security standpoint.” 


Sheet Metal Union Launches Mail Campaign 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


Page Three 



SOLIDARITY WITH striking air traffic controllers is demonstrated by delegates 
to the Allied Industrial Workers convention held at Dearborn, Mich. Two 
busloads of delegates joined the PATCO picket line at the Detroit Airport, and 
brought along a check from a collection taken at the convention. In the front 
row are AIW Board Member Charles Street, Sec.-Treas. William J. Salamone, 
and AIW President Dominick D’Ambrosio, who is presenting the check to 
Steve Conaway, vice president of PATCO Local 321. 

Allied Industrial Workers 
Press for Jobs Programs 


Denver Vote 
Victory For 
Fire Fighters 

Denver — City voters sided with their 
fire fighters in a special referendum and 
approved a new one-year contract for 
lAFF Local 858 that retains a 48-hour 
workweek which has been in effect since 
1974. 

The contract, reached under a unique 
provision of the city charter, includes a 
12.3 percent pay raise. The city’s salary 
proposal was similar, although more re- 
stricted. The big difference was the city’s 
demand that the 850 fire fighters work a 
54-hour week in exchange. 

A RECOUNT confirmed the razor-thin 
victory margin. The union’s contract pro- 
posal was adopted by a margin of 118 
votes out nearly 45,000 cast. 

Local 858 President Ron F. Moeder 
said the union waged a positive campaign 
to convince Denver’s citizens of the need 
to maintain a higher standard of municipal 
fire service. Moeder praised the efforts of 
the Denver AFL-CIO, the Colorado AFL- 
CIO and locals of many international un- 
ions that helped the campaign. 

An impasse developed in negotiations 
several months ago over the workweek 
issue, as well as how the pay package 
would be applied. The city’s proposal, un- 
like the lAFF’s, provided no pay increases 
for top grade linemen and lieutenants. 

THE DISPUTE went through a fact- 
finding process, and an arbitrator ruled in 
favor of the city administration’s proposal. 

But under Denver’s city charter, which 
was revised in 1979, the Fire Fighters had 
the right to call for a citywide referendum 
— if the union agreed to pay for the cost 
of the election. 

IN AN EFFORT to put additional pres- 
sure on the Fire Fighters, Moeder noted, 
the city demanded that the local place 
$160,000 in escrow to cover the election 
costs. 

The local raised the funds through 
loans, coming mainly from the lAFF head- 
quarters in Washington and Communica- 
tions Workers Local 8412 in Denver. 
Moeder said the loans will be repaid 
through an assessment of $15 a month per 
member over a one-year period. 

The, new contract goes into effect next 
Jan. 1. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

on their pay raises during the fiscal year 
that starts Oct. 1. 

Even with the raise held to 4.8 percent, 
the government’s top executives won’t get 
any more money in their paychecks. They 
are up against a salary ceiling set by Con- 
gress of $50,112 a year. 

The Salary Comparability Act provides 
for military pay to rise by the same per- 
centage as the civilian increase. But both 
this year and last. Congress and the Ad- 
ministration have* supported higher levels 
of military pay raises. 

Last year, the military pay hike was 
11.7 percent, and legislation awaiting final 

Federation Officers 
Bypass Air Travel 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue have 
been driving or taking the train to speak- 
ing engagements during the PATCO 
strike, and cancelling appearances where 
this can’t be done. 

Kirkland and AFL-CIO Vice President 
Martin J. Ward will take the Canadian 
route to travel to Poland to attend the first 
National Congress of the Solidarity trade 
union federation. They will go to Montreal 
by train to begin their flight, unless the 
U.S. air controllers are back at work be- 
fore their scheduled departure. 


Dearborn, Mich. — Delegates to the 
Allied Industrial Workers convention here 
adopted a fight-back program designed to 
strengthen a union that has been hard-hit 
by layoffs and plant closings in the reces- 
sion-battered midwestern industrial states. 

To recoup membership and revenue 
losses, the convention approved a $2 rise 
in minimum dues, to $11 a month. AIW 
locals, regional councils and the interna- 
tional union will share in the added rev- 
enues. 

TO REVERSE the decline in jobs, the 
convention called for government policies 
keyed to full employment. 

The Reagan Administration’s program 
“is deepening a recession that has hit us 
right in our own shops, in our own union,” 


action by Congress would provide an addi- 
tional 14.3 percent raise in October. 

The Administration has proposed a 
permanent change in the comparability 
formula that would hold the federal salary 
level to 94 percent of the rate for com- 
parable private sector jobs. 

ACCORDING TO an Office of Man- 
agement & Budget “fact sheet,” the sub- 
par level is in recognition of “aspects of 
federal employment that make it more at- 
tractive than many non-federal jobs.” 

The original intent of the comparability 
law was to provide a fair and automatic 
adjustrnent of government salary scales, 
without the political battles that used to 
occur regularly when salaries could be in- 
creased only through legislation. 

Blue-collar wages had always been set 
on the basis of prevailing wages and the 
1970 law was to apply a similar principal 
to white-collar employment. 

AN ESCAPE clause, at first used only 
rarely but in recent years becoming the 
rule rather than the exception, allowed the 
President to reject the comparability 
formula and propose an alternative pay 
plan. But if either the House or Senate 
within 30 days passed a resolution dis- 
approving the President’s alternative, the 
original comparability increase would take 
effect. 

Reagan told Congress the lower pay 
raise he proposed was “in accordance with 
our economic recovery program.” 


President Dominick D’Ambrosio declared. 

AIW membership is concentrated in 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and 
Ohio, where unemployment has been high. 
Its members have been heavily employed 
in the auto parts industries, plastics, truck 
parts and bodies, all hard-hit by recession 
cutbacks and imports. 

As a result, D’Ambrosio and Sec.-Treas. 
William J. Salamone reported, member- 
ship dropped from a 1979 average of 
94,000 to under 72,000 this year, with a 
corresponding decline in per capita in- 
come. 

DELEGATES ADOPTED a resolution 
of support for the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity 
Day march on Sept. 19, endorsed reindus- 
trialization goals and voted to raise strike 
benefits by $5 a week, to $40. 

On the convention floor, delegates dis- 
cussed the problems arising out of plant 
closings and adopted a resolution to set in 
motion an AIW program of technical in- 
formation and assistance to locals in plant 
closing situations, including assistance in 
community services. Locals were urged to 
bargain protective provisions in their con- 
tracts. 

Melva Meachem, who heads an Illinois 
State AFL-CIO program to assist worker 
victims of plant closings, urged delegates 
to initiate similar programs in their areas. 
She is a member of the Distillery Workers 
and was herself a victim of a plant closing 
in Peoria, 111. 

D’AMBROSIO reported to the conven- 
tion on merger talks the AIW has held 
with the Molders Union and said the two 
groups had not been able to agree on 
terms. Before adjourning, the convention 
adopted a resolution calling on AIW offi- 
cers “to look into the possibility of merg- 
ing with a large industrial union” and “to 
first seek out the United Auto Workers” 
for discussions. 

UAW President Douglas Fraser, who 
addressed the convention earlier, noted 
that the once sharp rivalry between the 
two unions had been transformed into a 
pattern of cooperation on mutual prob- 
lems. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Don- 
ahue, unable to appear in person because 
of the air controllers strike, sent a message 
stressing the labor movement’s insistence 
that “there can be no turning back” from 
the progress America has made towards 
equality and justice. 

The Solidarity Day rally, he said, “will 
demonstrate to the Administration, to 
Congress and to the nation that we stand 
united.” 


Federal Workers Pay Raise 
Slashed Back to 4.8 Percent 


ITU Assails 
‘Take-Aways’ 
By Reagan 

Montreal — Condemning the economic 
policies of the Reagan Administration and 
its efforts to dismantle “worker protections 
that took generations to achieve,” dele- 
gates to the Typographical Union’s 123rd 
convention here endorsed the AFL-CIO’s 
call to the Sept. 19 Solidarity Day demon- 
stration and urged locals and members to 
participate “to the maximum possible ex- 
tent.” 

Budget cuts and harsh monetary re- 
straints are imposing economic hardship 
on workers while cuts in personal and 
business income taxes are “further enrich- 
ing the wealthy,” the convention declared. 

DELEGATES LABELED “unconscion- 
able” the reductions in social security ben- 
efits proposed by the Administration and 
urged a campaign to ensure that “social 
security does not become another Reagan 
. . . take-away program.” 

Beginning in 1984, ITU conventions 
would be held twice every three years 
rather than annually — as they have 
throughout most of the union’s 129-year 
history — under a constitutional amend- 
ment approved by this year’s convention. 

That amendment, which like all changes 
in the union’s constitution must be sub- 
mitted to membership referendum, calls 
for the convention to meet during the 
first and third years of each three-year 
term of international officers. 

Delegates also endorsed a constitutional 
amendment that would provide for nomi- 
nation of candidates for international of- 
fice by convention delegates, replacing a 
nominating procedure requiring a mini- 
mum number of local union endorsements 
for declared candidates. 

AS UNDER the current procedure, con- 
tested offices would be decided by a vote 
of the membership, but convention dele- 
gates would pare the field to two nominees 
for each office by roll-call balloting. 

Another constitutional amendment would 
raise the maximum benefit paid striking 
members by $100, to $250 a week, and 
would trigger a membership assessment 
for the strike fund whenever the fund’s 
balance fell below $5 million, replacing 
current $3 million strike fund floor. 

In other actions, the ITU convention: 

• Voted its support for striking air 
traffic controllers and called for the ap- 
pointment of a panel of arbitrators to 
help resolve the dispute. 

• Urged locals to seek greater mem- 
beship contributions to COPE through 
voluntary political-action checkoffs. 

• Called for the defeat of legislative 
proposals that would amend the Hobbs 
Act to make violence in a labor dispute a 
crime under federal extortion laws. 

The convention also said that the ter- 
mination of merger talks between the ITU 
and the Newspaper Guild last spring 
“should not deter us from making another 
effort,” and declared that merger of the 
two unions would not only produce “a 
stronger union,” but also improve “pros- 
pects of merger with other unions in the 
graphic arts field.” 

Fred Pieper Dies at 72, 
Retired Field Director 

Acworth, Ga. — Fred C. Pieper, an early 
leader of the Auto Workers who retired 
in 1971 as director of the AFL-CIO 
Rocky Mountain region, died Aug. 27 at 
the age of 72. 

He began his trade union career in the 
1930s, helped to establish the UAW in 
Atlanta and served on the union’s execu- 
tive board. After military service in World 
War II, Pieper became director of the CIO 
Louisiana-Mississippi region and later 
served as field assistant to the CIO’s execu- 
tive vice president. He was named director 
of the Rocky Mountain region after mer- 
ger of the AFL and CIO in 1955. 

Survivors include his wife Dorothy and 
two sons. Services were held in Kennesaw, 
Ga., and burial in Acworth. 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


When Less Is Xot Best 

O NE OF THE MORE pixilated ideas being promoted by the 
Reagan Administration is something called “health compe- 
tition” as the secret of holding down health care costs. 

It assumes that “less is best” and that workers should be dis- 
couraged from negotiating comprehensive health insurance cover- 
age. 

The reasoning, if such it can be called, is that making medical 
and hospital services available to workers and their families at 
low or no cost sends them flocking to expensive specialists for 
treatment of cuts and bruises or lolling about *in $200-a-day 
hospital beds. 

THE LEGISLATIVE proposal being talked up by the Dept, 
of Health & Human Services would require workers to pay taxes 
on the value of employer-paid health insurance premiums above a 
specified amount. One variant being considered would allow work- 
ers to choose a less costly health plan than the employer provided 
and pocket the difference. 

This “carrot-and-stick” approach is supposed to promote com- 
petition among health insurance plans to hold down premium 
costs. In turn, the insurance companies presumably would pres- 
sure doctors and hospitals to hold down their costs. 

The reasoning boggles the imagination. 

Have the framers of the plan never spent half a day in a 
doctor’s office that they assume that the lure of free care is ir- 
resistible? Have they never spent a night in a hospital or other- 
wise become aware that it is hardly a substitute for a weekend at 
the beach? 

THIS IS NOT the first time such a “health competition” plan 
has surfaced, and a new pamphlet by the Committee for National 
Health Insurance points up some of the fallacies. 

For example, making buyers of health insurance cost conscious 
has little to do with the eventual cost of health services because 
doctors and not patients decide what medical tests are needed and 
when hospitalization is required. The medical care market is con- 
trolled by those who provide the services, not those who purchase 
them. 

There has been strong evidence over the years that comprehen- 
sive medical care, stressing preventive medicine and early treat- 
ment, keeps people out of hospitals and shortens hospital stays. 
But that is just the type of program that is most likely to be 
penalized as too generous in its benefits. 

A CASE COULD be made, in fact, that the “health choice” 
plan would actually drive up costs in the long run. So-called 
“cheap” policies often don’t provide alternatives to expensive 
hospitalization. And any “savings” in health insurance premium 
costs achieved through higher deductibles merely means that 
people who got sick will have bigger medical bills to pay out of 
their own pockets. 

Surely this warmed-over proposal isn’t a serious Administration 
answer to the problem of making quality health care available to 
all Americans. 

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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McCl^nnan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

* Deceased. 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


N.W. 


i VoL XXVI Saturday, September 5, 1981 No. 36 i 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
5 AFL-CIO. 






'Lazy Worker' Myth Dispelled 

Study Shows Productivity Rate 


Rises and Falls 

By Gus Tyler 

T he most recent report on productivity 
in American industry, issued by the Bu- 
reau of Labor Statistics, makes hash out of the 
popular notion that output per worker in the 
United States is falling because the employees 
of our land are getting lazier all the time. 

- The report, covering all of 1980, does show 
that productivity (output per worker) did show 
an absolute decline in the year, a drop of about 
one-half of one percentage point. But the same 
report also shows that the drop was not due to 
a shift toward sloth on the part of the workers, 
and was not even due to any decline in production 
technology in this country. 

THE PROOF is not explicit: it is implicit, con- 
tained in the facts and figures on the differences 
in productivity trends in different sectors of the 
economy. For instance: 

Steel showed a decline of 3.7 percent; copper 
fell by 9.2 percent; sawmills by 2.3 percent; and 
so on. In short, in certain industries productivity 
fell. 

But in other industries, productivity rose. Coal 
mining jumped by a stupendous 13.8 percent; 
railroads by 6.4 percent; electric and gas utilities 
by 2.2 percent. T^us, while productivity was fall- 
ing in some industries, it was rising in others. 

If worker “attitude” were determinative, then 
we would have to conclude that workers in steel 
were increasingly lazy while workers in coal min- 
ing were increasingly industrious. 

NOR CAN WE attribute the variances from 
industry to industry and from month to month 
to changes in technology. They just do not take 
place that rapidly nor that variedly from sector to 
sector. 

There is a hidden element in productivity that 
generally goes unnoticed. That additional ele- 
ment is the level of output for the. sector as a 
whole. When the sector picks up, productivity 
picks up. For instance: 

“The coal mining industry posted a very large 
productivity increase of 13.8 percent. Coal out- 
put grew 7.8 percent.” 

In other words, the demand for coal, spurring 
increased total output per worker. Why? Because 
in busy times, everybody gets busy; there are 
fewer idle hands hanging around waiting to do 


with Economy 

something while the time clock ticks on. This is 
especially true for the supervisory, managerial and 
maintenance crews who must be kept on if things 
go slow. 

Similarly, “productivity in railroads increased 
6.4 percent as large shipments of coal and grain 
raised output.” 

THERE ARE exceptions to this rule, as in the 
petroleum industry, where output (total produc- 
tion) fell by 6.4 percent while productivity (out- 
put per person) rose by 4.5 percent. 

What happened in this industry is that, instead 
of running all refineries at — let’s say — 70 percent 
of capacity, the industry decided to run refineries 
at fuller capacity while simply shutting down 
other refineries. As a result, many workers were 
totally idled but fewer workers on the job were 
idle during work hours. 

The exception proves the rule. The rule says 
that when a plant is run at top capacity it is bound 
to be much more productive — ^per person — than 
a plant that is being run at partial capacity with 
idle human overhead. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiliiiiiiiliiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiii^ 

Pay Safeguards Face 
Repeal by Regulations 

For a half-century, the Davis-Bacon prevail- 
ing wage law has served as the bedrock of our 
philosophy that American taxpayers’ money 
will not be used to promote the exploitation of 
labor. 

President Reagan has promised on numer- 
ous occasions that he would not support the 
repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act. Yet the changes 
now being proposed by his Dept, of Labor in 
the regulations that permit the law to function 
wiU effectively repeal the Act. 

The protections of the law, which two gener- 
ations of working Americans have depended 
upon will vanish. 

If the Davis-Bacon Act is destroyed, what 
will be the next target of the Reagan Adminis- 
tration? Social security? The Fair Labor Stand- 
ards Act? The National Labor Relations Act? 

— From a statement by Operating Engineers 
President /. C. Turner, Aug, 26, 1981, 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


Page Five 


Professor Knows Best 


Elitist Critics of Unions Show 
Basic Disdain for Democracy 


By Msgr. George G. Higgins 

T he labor movement has more than its 
share of avowed enemies. But while contend- 
ing with them as best it can, it will also have to 
reassess its own internal strengths and weak- 
nesses. Like all of our major institutions, it is 
faced with a crisis of identity and credibility 
which can only be resolved by the painful process 
of self-criticism and self-renewal. 

I happen to think that the labor movement is 
fully capable of carrying out this process of re- 
newal on its own initiative, but some of its more 
disdainful academic critics contend that this is 
absolutely impossible. They seem to think that 
the labor movement is in such desperate straits 
that, sooner or later, it will have to turn to them 
as objective outsiders for the solution to its prob- 
lems. Many of these people, incidentally, seem to 
have little or no confidence in the democratic 
process. 

THE LABOR movement, in their opinion, 
simply cannot be renewed from within by its own 
members but, putting aside its democratic proce- 
dures, must call upon the superior wisdom of 
complete outsiders like themselves. 

A recent article by Douglas McCabe, assistant 
professor of industrial and labor relations at 
Georgetown University’s School of Business Ad- 
ministration, is an extreme example of this all too 
familiar line of thought. Some weeks ago, in an 
op-ed column in the now-defunct Washington 
Star, Prof. McCabe argued that “it is useless for 
the rank-and-file to hope that its present leader- 
ship will become statesmen of unionism.” 

It is necessary, he said, for the labor movement 
to go back to square one and start all over again. 
Two steps must be taken immediately. 

The first is “the drafting of a Declaration of 
American Labor Philosophy, just as the Declara- 
tion of Independence codified the American po- 
litical philosophy.” 

The second step, the professor continued, is 
“to draft proper union constitutions adequate for 
implementing the principles in the Declaration 
of American Labor Philosophy, just as the Con- 
stitution implements the political philosophy of 
the Declaration of Independence.” 

NOW FOR THE $64 question. Who is to draft 
these two off-the-wall charters? The dues-paying 
members of the labor movement acting demo- 
cratically through their duly elected leaders? No 
way, says Prof. McCabe, for “unlike colonial 
America, unionism today has no founding fathers 
in its ranks — willing and able to do the job; the 
rank-and-file can’t do it in a bootstrap operation.” 

So what next? According to Prof. McCabe, we 
need “an Institute of Labor Philosophy staffed by 
three types of individuals: Union officials, ap- 


pointees of the Secretary of Labor, and academic 
experts.” During the past 40-odd years academia 
has produced dozens of similar articles. Typically, 
articles of this type are terribly elitist and con- 
descending. 

With all due respect, I must say that Prof. Mc- 
Cabe’s piece takes the prize in this respect. His 
contempt for labor leaders as a group and for 
the intelligence of the rank-and-file sticks out 
like a sore thumb, and his lack of confidence in 
the democratic process is almost beyond belief. 
Moreover, his touching confidence in the superior 
wisdom of “academic experts” (as opposed to 
“power-hungry union leaders”) is too self-serving 
and much too silly to be taken seriously. 

IN FACT, I suspect that many of the profes- 
sor’s academic peers will smile indulgently at his 
naivete. There must be men and women in aca- 
demia who know better than to believe that 
academicians are as smart and labor leaders as 
stupid as he has made them out to be. 

I have cited Prof. McCabe’s ivory tower arti- 
cle in this Labor Day column not to start a fight 
with him, but simply to suggest — using his article 
as a case in point — that criticism of the labor 
movement by academicians who cannot conceal 
their contempt for the movement and its leaders 
and who clearly betray a lack of confidence in the 
democratic process is counterproductive. 

Both the rank-and-file and their elected lead- 
ers will scornfully reject this kind of intemperate 
criticism as just another exercise in academic 
snobbery. They know perfectly well that the labor 
movement has problems and also know that they 
need the help of objective outside experts to cope 
with these problems. But they are not about to 
subvert their own democratic procedures by per- 
mitting any group of outside experts, including 
the so-called “best and the brightest” from aca- 
demia to take control of the movement from the 
outside and rewrite its basic philosophy. 

THE MORAL of all this is that academicians 
who sincerely want to be of assistance to the la- 
bor movement will have to learn to mind their 
manners, and, above all, will have to understand 
that representative democracy is of the very es- 
sence of a free labor movement. 

With all its limitations, the American move- 
ment still fits into this category. Though its demo- 
cratic procedures are admittedly imperfect and 
unfortunately are sometimes violated, it is still 
the most democratic of all our major institutions, 
including, of course, our educational institutions. 

This is something for academicians to think 
about with diffidence and humility on labor’s na- 
tional holiday. 

End of this year’s Labor Day sermon. 

Copyright 1981 NC News Service 


Close Watch on Congress 

Battle to Save Vital Programs 
Still Faces Legislative Test 


A DOPTION OF the Reagan budget isn’t the end 
j^of the effort to save vital people programs, 
AFL-CIO Civil Rights Director William E. Pol- 
lard and NAACP Executive Director Benjamin 
L. Hooks declared on Labor News Conference. 

“The fight is not over,” Pollard and Hooks 
stressed, pointing out that Congress still has to 
shape legislation within the framework of the 
budget. They warned also that as a result of the 
misdirected tax changes and the failure to curb 
unemployment, inflation and high interest rates, 
the Administration faces a deficit far above its 


Y’KNOW WHAT’S f \ 

HAPPENING IN 1 YOU BET 1 DOl 

WASHINGTON ? J 1 TUNE IN THE 


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y Produced by The AFL-CIO 


original forecast and is expected to try for even 
deeper program cuts in the months ahead. 

“We don’t intend to stand by and let them cut 
out all of the programs,” Hooks declared. He 
-said that a major goal of the Solidarity Day pro- 
test march on Sept. 19 is to remind Congress that 
it must not approach the upcoming legislation 
and the Administration’s push for more cuts with 
“the haste” in which the budget bill was passed. 

POLLARD SAID that the “devastating effects” 
of the Reagan budget on children, adults, work- 
ers, professionals, minorities and women, and on 
civil rights laws, the Voting Rights Act, affirma- 
tive action programs and EEOC, has brought to- 
gether a broad-ranging coalition in the Solidarity 
Day demonstration. 

Pollard and Hooks were questioned by Marc 
Gibspn of the Sheridan Broadcasting Network, 
June Cross of the McNeil/Lehner Report and 
Claude Matthews of NBC News. The AFL-CIO- 
produced public affairs program is aired weekly 
on the Mutual radio network. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

M ost states and localities — like the majority of the nation’s 
middle- and lower-income people — ^will be victims rather 
than beneficiaries of the Reagan Administration’s tax and budget 
cuts. 

Most state governments will be collecting less revenue from 
corporate and individual taxpayers and will be receiving less fed- 
eral aid. 

The result is likely to be large-scale layoffs of public employees, 
including teachers; reduced local government services; and an 
increase in regressive sales taxes and users’ fees. 

Under the tax legislation enacted by Congress, 40 states will 
lose revenues because their corporate and/or personal tax rates 
are based on the federal rate. 

Meeting in Atlantic City in August, the National Governors’ 
Association took a worried look at what is about to happen. 

“The Administration’s tax bill^” the governors said in a report, 
“will cost states $2.3 billion in lost corporate tax revenues and 
higher borrowing costs” in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. 

AT THE SAME time, “state and local governments will absorb 
about one-third of the $35 billion in federal aid cuts” in the budget 
legislation enacted by Congress, the governors said. 

By far the biggest revenue losses to the states will result from 
changes in the way businesses are allowed to calculate deprecia- 
tion write-offs, according to a recent study by Citizens for Tax 
Justice, a coalition of labor and public interest groups. 

By 1986, the study shows, states whose tax schedules conform 
to the new federal depreciation rules would- sustain tax losses 
totaling over $10 billion a year. Their corporate tax collections 
would have dropped by 38 percent. 

Currently, 25 states will automatically conform to the federal 
changes unless they amend their tax laws, the study points out. 
These states, which “couple” their corporate tax rates to the fed- 
eral rates, include major industrial states which can least afford 
such large revenue losses. 

FOR 13 OTHER states, conformity to the new “accelerated 
cost recovery system” would require them to change their current 
tax laws. These states could avoid the corporate revenue losses 
by keeping their tax rates as they are. 

In these 13 states, however, there is likely to be substantial 
pressure from business interest to change depreciation schedules 
to conform to the federal writeoff on plant and equipment. 

Thus the next battle over taxes will shift to the state legisla- 
tures. 

The governors’ report was not sanguine about the outcome 
of the tax fight. “States will face a choice,” it said, “between a 
major loss of corporate tax revenues or raising their tax rates to 
offset losses from new depreciation schedules. 

ORGANIZED LABOR, especially the public employee unions 
which will be most directly affected, is gearing up to oppose the 
depreciation ripoff. 

The American Federation of Teachers predicts that 44,000 
teachers across the country will be laid off this fall mainly because 
of state fiscal problems. 

The State, County & Municipal Employees policy analyst Tim 
Wilson said, “We think it’s unfair that corporate taxes so drasti- 
cally reduced at the federal level are also reduced at the state 
level. The Administration rhetoric was that reduced federal taxes 
would allow states to increase taxes.” 



EDUCATION FUND in memory of slain unionist Michael P. 
Hammer grows by $3,000, a gift from Domei, the Japanese 
labor confederation, which asked the AFL-CIO to transmit its 
contribution. Hammer, a representative of the American Insti- 
tute for Free Labor Development, was murdered in El Salvador 
while working on a land reform program to help small farmers. 
The fund, now over $15,000, will aid the education of Hammer’s 
son as well as Latin American farm workers. AFL-CIO Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue presents Domei’s check to Sam 
Haddad, AIFLD deputy director and trustee of the fund. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


Kirkland on Labor Day 

Defending ‘What We Helped Build’ 


By Lane Kirkland 

^^ODAY, AS IN EACH of the 87 years since Labor 
A Day became a national holiday, we pause to honor 
America’s working men and women. 

Labor Day 1981 holds special significance for 
American trade unionists. This is our centennial year. 

One hundred years ago this November a handful of 
trade unionists gathered in Pittsburgh and laid the 
cornerstone on which we have built the national trade 
union center which has evolved into today’s AFL-CIO. 

Their reasoning was simple: if workers needed unions 
to achieve collectively what they could not hope to 
achieve as individuals in the workplace, then it logically 
followed that unions should come together in a cohe- 
sive labor federation. 

THE NEW FEDERATION did not supplant the 
individual unions or deprive them of their autonomy. 
They continued to concentrate on winning justice in 
their separate crafts and workplaces, while the federa- 
tion carried that battle into the halls of our state and 
national legislatures. 

But even to the unions of 1881 political action was 
nothing new. In earlier generations they had struggled 
to achieve the 10-hour day and to abolish child labor 
and the debtors’ prison. 

They had led the fight for free public education 
equally available to the children of the poor as to the 
children of the rich. But as these issues were resolved, 
the union amalgamations they sparked dissolved, and 
the unions went their separate ways — until 1881. 

The instrument forged in Pittsburgh that year has 
survived a hundred years of testing. We have known 
good times and bad, administrations friendly and hos- 
tile, and changing climates of public opinion. We have 
tasted victory and defeat. Through it all we have made 
solid progress for the working people of America. 

THE TRADE UNION movement gives expression 
to a fundament^ human need and value — solidarity. 
Human beings who share common interests have a 
natural urge to join together to defend their interests 
against those who oppose them. 

That need can be repressed but never extinguished, 
as the workers of Poland have reminded us. Against 
awesome odds, they have created and sustained the 
first free and independent trade union movement in a 
Communist country, and that movement — appropri- 
ately named Solidarity — ^has become the vehicle of a 
whole people’s struggle for democratic rights. 

They have shown the world that the fight for work- 
ers’ rights is the fight for human rights. 

We of the AFL-CIO are proud of our Polish-brothers 
and sisters. As we celebrate our one hundredth anni- 
versary, we congratulate them on their first. 

In countries ruled by dictatorship, whether of the left 
or the right, workers are valiantly trying to form their 
own free trade unions and to protect them from govern- 
ment suppression. Sometimes their efforts are well pub- 
licized; sometimes the blanket of censorship is so thick, 
we hear of their unions only after they have been 
broken and their leaders imprisoned in psychiatric hos- 
pitals and labor camps. 

But they keep trying. Solidarity runs deep in the 
human spirit. 

OUR PLURALIST democracy is based on the as- 
sumption that people have conflicting interests and will 
band together for self-help and self-protection. Em- 
ployers have their own associations. So do lawyers, 
doctors, scientists — and, yes, politicians. Because 
human beings play different roles in society, we some- 
times band together under more than one organization 
— as consumers, sportsmen, veterans, or ethnics. 

Americans have never been comfortable with the 
notion of a monolithic society in which all elements 
of the population are subordinated to a central au- 
thority or to a single definition of what is good for us. 
We prefer the conflict of ideas, the competition of 
interests — all within a democratic framework of fair 
rules. 

So the trade union movement does not object to 
being called an interest group. We object only to being 
called a “narrow” interest group. The interests we 
represent are those of Americans in their role as work- 
ers — and they are not a narrow group. With their skills, 
their industry, and their productivity, they are the back- 
bone of our economic society. 

The American trade union movement has come a 
long way. Bom in the twilight of the 19th Century, we 
stand now but two decades away from the dawn of the 
21st Century. 


In the lobby of the AFL-CIO headquarters in our 
nation’s capital there is a mural which depicts the 
progress which American workers and their industries 
have made. In that mural is a quotation from the great 
Scottish essayist and historian, Thomas Carlyle, which 
says, “Labor is life.” 

WHEN CARLYLE wrote those words near the end 
of the last century, they were literally true. For most 
people life was consumed by work — hard, back-break- 
ing, life-shortening work. 

Today, thanks to the determination of American 
trade unions and the courage and genius of American 
workers, things have changed. We still respect work, 
but we have leavened it with leisure, alleviated sheer 
toil, and, in the process, enriched the lives of working 
people, both on the job and when the day’s work is 
done. 

Yet there are those among us for whom life is still 
a struggle for survival, barren of even the simplest 
pleasures to relieve the drudgery of their existence. 
There are still others for whom gainful employment 
and full participation in our society are beyond reach. 

We have come far toward better wages, shorter 
hours, and safer working conditions in factories and 
offices, on farms and in workshops. Yet there are those 


There is a quality in this land of ours 
that we do not wish to see despoiled or 
pillaged. There is a dignity about the work- 
ing people of this land, and we do not wish 
to see them demeaned or degraded. There 
is inspiration in our political institutions, 
aspiring to justice, and we do not wish to 
see them eroded by cynicism and despair. 

among us who still do not receive the full fruits of 
their labor, and others for whom the workplace re- 
mains a threat to their health and safety. 

We have come far toward decent schools for all of 
our children, decent homes for our families, decent 
hospitals to care for us in time of sickness, decent 
retirement that provides dighity and security as an 
earned right. 

YET THERE ARE those among us to whom equal 
educational opportunity is still a myth and for whom 
rat-infested, disease-ridden slums remain the only place 
they can call home. There are those for whom medical 
care is priced beyond reach and for whom the in- 
evitable process of aging brings anxiety and uncer- 
tainty as they face the prospect of spending their sun- 
set years in a twilight world of abject poverty. 

We have come a long way toward expanding access 
to the ballot box, where the promise of “government 
by the people” most ultimately be redeemed. 

Yet for many among us, the color of their skin, or 
the accent of their mother tongue, or some other arbi- 
trary and capricious measurement is used to deny them 
full and free access to the political process. 


From a Labor Day statement by Howard D. Samuel, 
president of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept, 

k YEAR AGO the Industrial Union Dept, viewed 
with alarm the potential consequences of a Reagan 
Administration. We feared that regulatory protection 
for American communities and workers — such as 
OSHA and environmental, prevailing wage and civil 
rights laws — ^would be undermined. We predicted that 
unemployment would be used as a tool to keep wages 
down, and that the trickle-down theory would once 
again reign supreme. 

We could see no recognition of the need to revitalize 
the declining U.S. industrial base, impacted by unfair 
competition from abroard and corporate manipulation 
at home. We knew that the voice of America’s working 
men and women would no longer be listened to at the 
highest levels of government, and that business would 
have a freer hand to push back the hard-won achieve- 
ments of organized labor. 

The Reagan Administration now is claiming it has 
established a new agenda, and has done so in response 
to a national mandate. 

ON BOTH COUNTS the Administration is wrong. 
The Reagan agenda is not new; it is old. It represents 
not a bold and creative effort to meet our problems, 
but instead a retreat to old blueprints which past events 
have long since discredited. 


American workers can take pride in the progress 
we have made. Certainly our national economy would 
not be as productive nor our cultural life as enriched, 
nor our social and political institutions as compas- 
sionate, were it not for the determined efforts of work- 
ing men and women to pull themselves up by their 
bootstraps, aad their country with them. 

BUT THAT PRIDE should leave no room for 
complacency, because all victories are only tem- 
porary, and what we have gained at the bargaining 
table and in the legislative halls down through the years 
can, in an instant, be swept away. 

And that instant could be upon us now. We observe 
Labor Day 1981 in a mood of deep concern for these 
are difficult and uncertain times, and we in the labor 
movement are troubled about the direction in which our 
country appears headed. 

Nor are we alone. Our concern is shared by thou- 
sands of people in scores of organizations — those who 
believe with us in civil rights and civil liberties, in 
equal rights for women, in safeguarding the environ- 
ment we hold in trust for generations to come, in social 
security and health security, in tax justice and pension 
protection, in a safer workplace and safer products^ 
in quality education for all, and in equal access to the 
polling booth, to jobs, and to opportunity without re- 
gard to race, creed, color, national origin or gender. 

We intend to dramatize the depth of our concern 
with a demonstration in our nation’s capital on Sept. 
19. We call it aptly. Solidarity Day. 

We will be joined by our allies in the civil rights 
and women’s movements, in the environmental and 
consumer movements. We will march with senior citi- 
zens, religious groups, and dozens of other organiza- 
tions, large and small, representing people of serious 
purpose from every corner of the nation. 

SEPT. 19 will be a day of hope, a day of rededica- 
tion to the fullfillment of the American promise of a 
better quality of life for all of us. We shall stand 
together in defense of the American spirit. 

There is a quality in this land of ours that we do not 
wish to see despoiled or pillaged. There is a dignity 
about the working people of this land, and we do not 
wish to see them demeaned or degraded. There is 
inspiration in our political institutions, aspiring to 
justice, and we do not wish to see them eroded by 
cynicism and despair. 

The labor movement has been a part of the quality, 
the dignity, and the inspiration of America. What we 
have helped to build, we shall fight to defend. 

On this Labor Day 1981, we can almost reach out 
and touch the 21st Century. When the year 2001 
dawns, many of us will still be alive to see it. But it 
will be our children and their children who will inherit 
and inhabit that new century. 

It is our duty — as trade unionists, as workers, as 
citizens — building on our past, to give to future 
generations of Americans a century free from fear and 
bright with promise. 


Despite the support of many moderate Republicans 
and conservative Democrats in Congress, this Admin- 
istration has no legitimate claim to a national mandate. 
There is no question that last November a slim majority 
of the American people no longer felt that .the Carter 
Administration had the answers to our problems. They 
were looking for an alternative. 

But there is no evidence from that election, from 
continuing opinion polls, and from the recent special 
elections in a few states, that a majority of the Ameri-' 
can people wants to water down civil rights or environ- 
mental or safety laws, or turn over a larger proportion ’ 
of our resources to the rich, or reduce the role of the 
federal government in assuring a prosperous society, 
with equal opportunity for all. 

THERE IS NO alternative but for workers and for 
our allies to do everything in our power to move the 
Administration away from its present direction, to 
awaken friends in Congress to their responsibilities, to 
inform the American people of the peril that confronts 
our nation. 

Our fundamental goals have not changed: to 
strengthen the nation’s economic and political founda- 
tion so that all Americans can reap the fruits of our 
democratic heritage of freedom, security and equal op- 
portunity. On this Labor Day, the Industrial Union 
Dept, is committed to this course. 


Trickle-Down Theory Supreme 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


Page Seven 


Donahue on Labor Day 

^We Find Ourselves Embattled . . . ’ 


By Thomas R. Donahue 

O N LABOR DAY, the nation pays respects to those 
who toil for a living — white-collar workers and 
blue, skilled and unskilled, those who work with their 
hands and those who work with their minds — ^because 
the enduring strength of America lies in its workers. 
They are the ones who have given their best efforts to 
build better lives for themselves, for their families and 
for future generations and, in the process, they have 
built a far better nation as well. 

America was conceived as a classless nation — the 
Declaration of Independence proclaimed that principle 
when it said that “all men are created equal.” Yet 
workers have struggled for two centuries and more to 
obtain some measure of that equality that was sup- 
posed to be the hallmark of our society and the birth- 
right of its people — and that struggle continues to this 
day. For two centuries and more, we have struggled 
to tear down some of the barriers which insulated the 
wealthy and isolated the workers, depriving us of our 
right to share more fully in the wealth we have helped 
to produce — and that struggle continues to this day. 

DESPITE OUR BEST efforts, we find ourselves, on 
this Labor Day 1981, embattled and in danger. What 
little social and economic equality we have managed 
to attain are in danger of being swept away. 

There is a movement afoot in the country to erect 
new barriers, to establish an economic caste system 
alien to America — to create a permanently entrenched, 
tiny elite of the wealthy and the privileged; to press 
down new and onerous economic burdens upon work- 
ers and their families — the ones already carrying a dis- 
proportionately large share of the cost of government; 
to set in place a permanent underclass of the unfor- 
tunate and the disadvantaged; and, inevitably to set 
one economic class against the other. 

We cannot allow this to happen. 

Over the first century and a half of this country’s 
history, we took only tiny, tentative steps toward creat- 
ing a social order rooted in equity and compassion. 
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 
delineated our hopes, but workers had to fight tooth 
and nail to give them substance. 

OUR PROGRESS accelerated in the past half cen- 
tury, from the days of Franklin Roosevelt forward. But 
if the pace of progress accelerated, the programs put 
in place from the New Deal through the Great Society 
were enacted neither overnight nor in haste. Far from 
it. They were born out of long and arduous effort, out 
of extensive public hearings in which the views of all 
parties were aired and weighed, out of lengthy and 
often acrimonious debate, and most of the time out of 
compromise between what was desirable and what was 
achievable. 

Throughout the Administrations of eight Presidents 
and through 24 consecutive Congresses, these programs 
were opposed by those who believed in neither equality 
nor compassion — ^but they survived. Under eight Presi- 
dents and 24 Congresses, these programs were refined 
and enlarged to make them more effective, amended and 
modified to make them more efficient — and they 
survived. 

Now we are witnessing efforts to wrench that intricate 
structure of social legislation from the statute books. 
The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of an Ad- 
ministration which has distorted the results of the last 
election into what it claims was a “mandate” for a 
wholesale and mindless retreat from our solemn obli- 
gations. 

The blame falls, as well, on a Congress which 
knuckled under to pressure, not from the general public 
but from the wealthy and the profit-heavy corporations. 
Congress surrendered to the few who stand to gain the 
most — the people of little faith, less hope and absolutely 
no charity — and agreed to the abandonment of pro- 
grams and policies which have served our people and 
their nation well. 

To see basically sound and socially desirable pro- 
grams tossed onto the scrap heap is bad enough; to 
see this happen without even the semblance of public 
hearings to gauge the true national temper or to debate 
these programs’ social merits is unthinkable. Not once 
did the budget-cutters ask, “Are these programs use- 
ful?” All they wanted to know was, “How much do 
they cost?” And when they supplied their own answer, 
“They cost too much,” the programs were thrown out 
the window, and the people to the wolves. 

IN THE PIOUS name of a “balanced budget” — that 
last refuge of those who care nothing about the poor, 
the young, the old, the weak and the helpless, or 
indeed, about workers — these programs are being dis- 


mantled. We in the AFL-CIO know it’s desirable to 
balance the government’s income and outgo. But we 
object, and strenuously, to having, not the general 
welfare but the almighty dollar, be the scale on which 
we weigh the decision to wipe out a half century of 
progress. 

We have been taught that politics is the art of give 
and take — but that speaks to the notion of compromise. 
There is no compromise in the great give-away-take- 
away game being played in Washington — the takeaway 
from the employed and the unemployed, from the 
elderly, the children, the sick, the poor; the giveaway 
to the wealthy, the oil barons, the stock speculators, 
the multinational corporations. 

To our regret, the Congress acquiesced in this 
scheme. In the debate over economic policy, no clear 
battlelines were ever drawn between the two political 
parties. Both engaged in a gigantic bidding war — not 
over principles, only over imagined votes. The concept 
of fair play was dispensed with, tax cuts were placed 
on the block, and only the fat-cat bidders were allowed 
into the auction. 

And what happened? 

Social security. Medicare and Medicaid, unemploy- 
ment insurance and trade adjustment assistance, public 
service jobs, aid to schools and students, food stamps, 
school lunches, benefits to the working poor, urban 
and rural redevelopment — ^local transit subsidies and 
aid to our cities — all were put to the ax by the political 
executioners. 

THE $214 BILLION being withdrawn from these 
programs won’t go to balance the federal budget — it 
will help underwrite $286 billion in tax breaks, most 
of which will be handed over to the wealthiest of indi- 
viduals and the most profitable of corporations. To a 
mere six percent of all taxpayers — the ones earning 
over $50,000 a year — ^will go one-third of the tax cuts. 
To the biggest corporations — particularly the electric 
and gas utilities and the profit-glutted oil companies — 
will go another third. The rest will be dribbled out to 
workers and their families — ^pennies at a time. 

Take the average American family — a worker, a 
spouse, and two children. If that family earns $15,000 
a year, it will find the sum of $1.34 cents more in the 
weekly pay envelope this October, and $2.54 more 
next July. If the family income is $20,000 a year, 
October’s tax cut will amount to $2.42 and in July 
1982 it will go all the way up to $4.59. At the $25,000 
level, the tax cut will be worth $3.59 in October and 
$7.01 next July. 

And what does this Administration say to workers 
and their families? “Now don’t throw this money 
around,” the President says. “Invest it.” What non- 
sense! The increased transit fares in most cities, higher 
health care costs or a gallon or two of milk for the 
kids, or a few cans of soup and a loaf of bread, will 
eat up those extra pennies each week. 

THE ADMINISTRATION insists it is being fair 
because, it says, taxes are being cut equally across the 
board. The $100,000-a-year executive earns five times 
as much as the $20,000-a-year worker — ^but the execu- 
tive’s tax cut is going to be twelve times as large. 

In the face of these gross inequities, we in the trade 


From a Labor Day statement by Robert A. Geor- 
gine, president of the AFL-CIO Building & Construc- 
tion Trades Dept, 

O N A NATIONAL holiday established expressly 
to honor their performance, the working people 
of the United States, particularly the organized, find 
themselves battling against heavy odds merely to retain 
protections acquired over a century. 

Many of those in power on Labor Day 1981 — the 
politically and financially dominant — are attempting to 
take away those rights so hard won. Contractors and 
business interests and their supporters in government, 
openly seek to destroy the prevailing wage system. 
They would subvert the minimum wage by reducing 
it for young workers. They would scuttle the three 
principal laws guaranteeing the payment of that spe- 
cific community’s prevailing wages by contractors 
awarded federal government contracts — ^Davis-Bacon, 
Walsh-Healey and the Service Contract Acts. 

THE ONLY counter-force capable of resisting this 
deadly assault is organized labor. The working people 
have no other champion, no other advocate, no other 
defender. 

The gains unions have won for workers throughout 


union movement are told not to worry. We are urged 
to be patient, to endure inflation and unemployment, 
to put up with poverty and misery, because things will 
somehow turn out right in the end. We are told that 
if the government subsidizes the rich, they, in turn, 
will help middle-income workers and the poor. They 
call it “supply-side” economics, but that’s just the old, 
discredited “trickle-down” theory dolled up in a new 
dress — lavishing money on those at the top of the 
economic heap in the hope that some of the money 
will seep down, someday, to the rest of society. It’s 
an idea which never held water in the past, and it’s 
just as porous today. 

We in the trade union movement are urged to give 
the Administration’s economic theories a chance. These 
are the same theories which the incumbent Vice Presi- 
dent ridiculed, just a little over a year ago, as “voodoo 
economics.” These are the same theories which the 
President’s own Majority Leader in the Senate con- 
ceded, as recently as last month, were little more than 
a “riverboat gamble.” We agree with what the Vice 
President said then, and with what the Republican 
Majority Leader says now. We think the Administra- 
tion is recklessly shooting craps with the economic 
destiny of America, and the dice are loaded against us. 

WE IN THE TRADE UNION movement are told 
to stifle our dissent, but this we will not do. We would 
not wish to have the absence of protest be misinter- 
preted — ^we are not silent partners in the Administra- 
tion’s high-stakes gamble with the security of the Amer- 
ican people and the welfare of their nation. 

We are told there are political benefits to be reaped. 
“This is the President’s program,” we are told, “and 
when it fails, we’ll pick up the pieces the next time 
around.” We reject that counsel. Unless we undo the 
mischief that is being wrought, there may be no next 
time, nor any pieces left to pick up. 

We are told to be good losers. That may be fine in 
games; it has no place in the grim struggle for eco- 
nomic survival. There is no virtue in adopting a “sports- 
manlike” posture, not while our system is caving in 
around our ears. 

We are told that, because Ronald Reagan won last 
November, we should just roll over and play dead. 
But that has never been our way, nor will it be. That 
would imply that ours is a lost cause — and we do not 
believe that to be true. 

SO ON THIS Labor Day 1981, we in the AFL-CIO 
stand straight and proud and tall, and we proclaim 
our message loud and clear: We do not intend to 
abandon our struggle for jobs, justice and social pro- 
gress. We do not intend to abandon our struggle for a 
more equitable distribution of the wealth of this nation. 

In the hundred years of the American trade union 
movement, we have learned that the battle is never 
over. As long as we remain united in spirit and com- 
mitment, as long as we have breath in our bodies and 
blood in our veins, there will be no final defeat on any 
battleground. 

We have lost a round — and we . may lose another, 
and another. But we will always be back — again, and 
again. And we are going to win, pecause we are not 
going to quit. Not today, and not tomorrow. 


the world and especially in the United States are not 
part of our consciousness. We don’t think very often, 
if at all, about our advantages and how organized labor 
had to struggle to get them. 

IF A PERSON belongs to a union his or her wages 
are pretty good when they work. Even if they work for 
a contractor who is not covered by a collective bargain- 
ing agreement, the non-union wages are almost as good 
because unions exist. The non-union contractor has to 
stay pretty close to the rate and working conditions of 
the unions in order to get manpower with reasonably 
good skills. 

But keep this in mind. If the system were reversed 
and there were no unions, the employer could let the 
marketplace decide what wage rates would be, on a 
day-to-day basis, and what working conditions would 
be, too. We then would have workers competing with 
each other, struggling to make a living by working 
cheaper than a co-worker. 

A union is nothing more than a fitting which joins 
two pieces together. Organized labor unions are joined 
workers who have the combined power to withstand 
oppressive employers and obtain that to which they are 
legitimately entitled. 


‘^Only Counter-Force Is Labor’ 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON^ D.C., SEPTEMBER 5, 1981 


Kirkland Voices Outrage 

Dissident Soviet Worker 
Faces New Persecution 


The AFL-CIO is “outraged” over the 
brutal treatment of Soviet worker Anatoli 
Marchenko by Soviet authorities in retalia- 
tion for his trade union and human rights 
activities, Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land asserted. 

In a statement condemning the arrest 
and trial of Marchenko for alleged “anti- 
Soviet agitation and propaganda,” Kirk- 
land stressed that charges against the dis- 
sident worker include his writings, public 
support of the Polish trade union move- 
ment, and a letter he wrote to George 
Meany in response to an invitation to at- 
tend the 1977 AFL-CIO convention. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that Mar- 
chenko, facing a 15-year sentence on the 
new charges, has already spent 1 1 years in 
prisons and labor camps and four years 
in exile. 

He “has been subjected to unusually 
cruel treatment since his arrest,” Kirkland 
said, emphasizing that Marchenko has 
been denied a hearing aid, in violation of 
Soviet law, as well as personal items such 
as toothbrush, soap or underwear. 

“On May 19,” Kirkland said, “after 

Lovell Nominated 
Under Secretary 

Malcolm R. Lovell, Jr., has been nomi- 
nated as Under Secretary of Labor, the 
No. 2 post at the Labor Dept, which has 
remained vacant since the Reagan Ad- 
ministration took office. 

President Reagan also announced his in- 
tention to name Leonara Cole-Alexander 
as director of the Women’s Bureau, an- 
other key department position that has 
been unfilled. Both posts require Senate 
confirmation. 

Lovell, who served as assistant secretary 
of labor for manpower during the Nixon 
Administration, has headed a rubber in- 
dustry employers association since 1973. 

Cole-Alexander has been vice president 
for student affairs at the University of the 
District of Columbia since 1978 and held 
a similar post with American University 
from 1973 to 1977. 


having learned of his situation, I sent a 
package to Mr. Marchenko in Vladimir 
prison. The package contained underwear, 
socks, soap, a toothbrush, and a shirt and 
pants for exercising.” 

“The package has been returned. The 
Soviet authorities would not allow Mr. 
Marchenko even these minimal hygenic 
necessities. The return of this package 
speaks volumes about the character of Mr. 
Marchenko’s jailers and indeed of the So- 
viet rulers,” Kirkland declared. 

The federation president called on the 
U.S. government to intercede for Mar- 
chenko, “through whatever channels are 
deemed appropriate and effective.” 

«HIS BARBAROUS treatment,” Kirk- 
land asserted, “is not an internal affair of 
the Soviet Union. It is clear violation of 
the Helsinki Agreement.” 

Kirkland pressed other free labor move- 
ments to speak out on Marchenko’s behalf 
“through every available means.” 

Among the evidence expected to be held 
against Marchenko is a letter addressed to 
delegates to the 1977 AFL-CIO conven- 
tion to which he and five other Soviet dis- 
sidents were invited to attend by former 
AFL-CIO President Meany. 

IN THE LETTER dated Dec. 1, 1977, 
but not received by the AFL-CIO until 
February 1978, Marchenko said he had 
heard about his invitation to the conven- 
tion “by listening to foreign radio.” 

Marchenko’s communication detailed 
low pay and oppressive working conditions 
as well as food shortages, inadequate hous- 
ing, lack of winter heating, clothing and 
sanitary facilities endured by Soviet work- 
ers in Siberia. 

Outlining the lack of rights and state 
control of all institutions and organiza- 
tions in the USSR, Marchenko chided for- 
eign visitors for favorable reports of con- 
ditions in the Soviet Union. 

“When I read the estatic reports of 
your compatriots about my country,” 
Marchenko said, “I would like to address 
them with the words of our contemporary 
song: ‘If you envy this, you can come and 
sit next to me.’ Yes, next by my stove, 
next to me on a bed without sheets, next 
to me in the communal outhouse, prefer- 
able in the winter time.” 


Screen Actors Tell Reagan 
Union Supports Controllers 


Los Angeles — ^The Screen Actors Guild’s 
board of directors voted to back the AFL- 
CIO position condemning the firing of the 
PATCO strikers and refusal to bargain 
with their union, and wrote President Rea- 
gan telling him so. 

SAG rejected formal requests, however, 
to strip Reagan of his lifetime member- 
ship in the union in response to his actions 
against the controllers. 

AT SEPARATE meetings of SAG’s - 
Hollywood and New York boards, motions 
were approved 27 to 2 and 17 to 4 to 
notify the President of the union’s support 


12/S/6 






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f’gS 

sis 

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if 




of the PATCO strike, its concerns over 
air safety, and over the absence of any 
fair dispute resolution mechanism that 
would also give federal workers “proper 
redress of grievances.” 

Board members voted 21 to 1 at both 
meetings not to revoke the President’s 
membership or to press formal charges of 
“conduct unbecoming a member.” 

Reagan, a former movie and television 
actor, was president of SAG from 1947 to 
1952 and in 1960. 

IN A LETTER to the President drafted 
by SAG Executive Secretary Chester L. 
Migden at the board’s direction, the union 
said it “overwhelmingly supports” PATCO 
and the AFL-CIO position urging resolu- 
tion of the strike. 

SAG is “deeply concerned” over the 
government’s role in the dispute, Migden 
said. Air traffic controllers, as citizens, 
should have the right “to redress griev- 
ances.” Federal workers’ unions without 
the right to strike need an acceptable dis- 
pute resolution procedure “for the col- 
lective bargaining process to work” in the 
public sector, he stressed. 

The union told the President that re- 
quests for disciplinary action against him 
filed under the union’s constitution were 
rejected because they were “inappropriate.” 

“The basic right to viewpoint,” Migden 
said, “applies to all citizens including the 
President of the United States.” 



Steelworkers Bolster Fund 


With $100,000 Contribution 


A $100,000 contribution from the Steel- 
workers pushed the AFL-CIO’s PATCO 
Family Fund near the $300,000 mark, 
with the total climbing with each mail 
delivery. 

The USWA’s check matched the dona- 
tion the Communications Workers had 
made to help launch the fund, which is 
being administered by the AFL-CIO Dept, 
of Community Services. Msgr. George G. 
Higgins is the trustee, and money con- 
tributed will be used to assist families of 
discharged air traffic controllers who en- 
counter severe financial problems. 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride 
said the contribution was voted unani- 
mously by the union’s executive board. 

CONTRIBUTIONS to date have come 
from both large and small unions, from 
shop and office collections, and from indi- 
viduals who have mailed personal contri- 
butions to the AFL-CIO. 

The Food & Commercial Workers sent 
in a $25,000 contribution for the family 
assistance fund. A $5,000 contribution 
from the Teachers, $3,000 from the Oper- 
ating Engineers and $2,500 from the New 
York City Central Labor Council have 
been received. 

Other contributions of $1,000 or over, 
not previously announced, have come 
from the Aluminum Workers, the Union 
Label & Service Trades Dept., and the 
Longshoremen. 

Community Services Director Walter 
G. Davis said interview procedures have 
been set up to evaluate requests for as- 
sistance on the basis of need involving: 

iiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilin 

‘A Tiny Check* to Aid 
PATCO Families 

A retired couple from Maine made 
one of the first contributions to the 
PATCO Family Fund, a check for 
$10 enclosed in a letter to AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland. 

Howard and Blanche Browning 
were outraged at the jaUing of strik- 
ers, the heavy fines against their un- 
ion and other tactics they had asso- 
ciated with totalitarian regimes. 

‘We enclose a tiny check, all we 
can afford now,” they wrote, asking 
Kirkland to have it cashed and used 
to help the union controllers. And 
they foUowed through with letters to 
Reagan and Maine’s congressional 
delegation protesting the “vindictive” 
punishment of strikers. 

iniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


• Avoidance of mortgage foreclosure. 

• Rental payments necessary to avoid 
eviction. 

• Medical emergency costs. 

• Payments to avoid repossession of 
essential household goods. 

• Essential clothing for family mem- 
bers and funds for food when not avail- 
able from other sources. 

• Home fuel needs. 

Reagan’s Quotes 
On Strike Policy 
‘Misread History’ 

(Continued from Page 1) 
leaders had supported organization of gov- 
ernment workers only on the condition 
that “public employees could never be 
allowed to strike.” 

IT HAS ONLY been “in recent years,” 
Reagan contended, that “some leaders of 
organized labor have retreated from la- 
bor’s earlier stand against public employ- 
ee strikes.” 

Kirkland, who had addressed the Car- 
penters convention banquet the previous 
night, made these points in a later state- 
ment responding to Reagan: 

• When Massachusetts Gov. Calvin 
Coolidge, later to become President, fired 
Boston policemen who struck when their 
leaders were suspended for affiliating with 
the AFL, Gompers termed the firings “an 
autocratic abuse of power.” The 1920 
AFL convention lauded the strikers in a 
resolution. 

• In 1935, Meany himself led a suc- 
cessful strike against the federal govern- 
ment to maintain prevailing wage rates on 
WPA jobs. 

• In 1975, while Meany was president, 
the AFL-CIO convention adopted a reso- 
lution calling for federal legislation cover- 
ing collective bargaining in the public 
sector and recognizing the right to strike 
in public employment. 

“That remains the AFL-CIO position,” 
Kirkland said. 

Kirkland stressed, however, that the real 
question “is not one of history, but of 
resolving a current dispute — ^the air traffic 
controllers strike. The issues of that dis- 
pute can only be resolved through the 
resumption of negotiations.” 

History’s lesson, Kirkland said, “is that 
problems don’t go away. They need to be 
faced and resolved.” 




Renewed Spirit Marks Labor Day 





Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, September 12, 1981 


No. 37 







FROM REVIEWING STAND, in front of the New York were bands, balloons, placards, banners and more than 
Public Library, union leaders and dignitaries wave and 150,000 union members participating, including striking air 
applaud the six-hour Labor Day parade up Fifth Ave. There controllers and high-stepping Rockettes. 

Complaint Filed with ILO 

Air Controllers’ Strike 
Triggers ICFTU Charges 


The AFLCIO lent its strong endorse- 
ment to a complaint of the International 
Confederation of Free Trade Unions 
against the U.S. government over its 
handling of the air traffic controllers’ 
strike. 

The complaint, filed with the Interna- 
tional Labor Organization’s Freedom of 
Association Committee in Geneva, charges 
the U.S. government with “infringement 
of basic trade union rights,” specifically 
those principles contained in ILO Con- 
ventions 87, 98, and 151 guaranteeing 
workers the right to strike and bargain 
collectively. 

AFL CIO President Lane Kirkland 

Black Workers 
Struck by Surge 
In Jobless Rate 

By James M. Shevis 

Joblessness among black workers jumped 
to a record 15 percent in August, pushing 
the overall unemployment rate for the 
nation to 7.2 percent, an increase of two- 
tenths of 1 percent over the month, the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 

For black and other minority teenagers, 
aged 16-19, the jobless rate last month 
rose to a record 45.7 percent, eclipsing 
the previous high of 40.9 percent regis- 
tered in August 1977. The category in- 
cludes Indian, Eskimo, Asian and Pacific 
and some Hispanic youths. For black 
teenagers alone, BLS said, the jobless rate 
for the month was 50.7 percent, an in- 
crease of 10.7 percent over the previous 
month. 

BLS COMMISSIONER Janet L. Nor- 
wood said in a statement that there was 
no clear explanation why unemployment 
among black teenagers soared in August. 
They accounted for about 400,000 of the 

(Continued on Page 6) 


said in a letter to ILO Director Gen. 
Francis Blanchard that the Reagan Ad- 
ministration “has, we believe, violated im- 
portant conventions of the ILO in its 
intemperate treatment” of PATCO (the 
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Or- 
ganizaiton) before and after the union’s 
Aug. 3 strike against the Federal Aviation 
Administration, the controllers’ employer. 

The ICFTU complaint, drawn up at its 
Brussels headquarters, calls upon the ILO’s 
Freedom of Association Committee to 
examine “these serious violations of basic 
trade union rights” by the U.S. govern- 
ment, and forcefully call that government’s 
attention to its obligations and duties as 
a member state of the ILO. 

“It is our hope that prompt action on 
the part of the ILO will encourage a 
speedy and just resolution to this dispute 
between the U.S. government and its em- 
ployees,” the ICFTU declared. 

IT NOTED “with concern” that the 
U.S. government’s rededication to the 
principles of human dignity and freedom 
as stated in a special message to Blanchard 
from President Reagan last June appears 
to have been “mislaid when dealing with 
workers in its own employ.” 

The ICFTU complaint detailed specific 
violations by the Reagan Administration in 
its intractable position toward PATCO. 
The U.S. government has refused to meet 
with the union since the strike and has 
refused repeated requests for mediation 
and conciliation, it noted. It further 
charged that the Administration’s move to 
decertify the union “could be considered 
as being tantamount to the dissolution of 
the union by administrative action.” 

In addition, the government’s refusal to 
bargain on safety issues raised by the un- 
ion, together with its refusal to bargain at 
all after Aug. 3 “is a clear violation of the 
requirement to negotiate and obtain col- 
lective agreements,” the ICFTU charged. 

Other evidence of anti-union dis- 
crimination and interference in PATCO’s 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Unions Pressing 
Big Turnout for 
Solidarity Day 

All stops are out in the drive to bring 
thousands of trade union members to 
Washington for Solidarity Day. 

More than 35 national and interna- 
tional unions have prepared mailings to 
members’ homes, concentrating on those 
within at least a 300-mile driving radius 
of Washington and urging them to turn 
out with their families for the Sept. 19 
rally. 

OTHER PROJECTS include distribu- 
tion of leaflets in offices and job sites, ads 
in union publications, bulletin board post- 
ings, pledge card drives and phone banks. 

The effort to draw union members who 
can provide their own transportation to 
Washington has been supplemented by 
scores of central labor bodies, local un- 
ions, labor support groups, and allied or- 
ganizations that have mounted their own 
information campaigns. Many organiza- 
tions have set up car caravan information 

(Continued on Page 3) 


By Susan Dunlop 

CBS Radio refused to broadcast a Labor 
Day message taped by AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland over its national network, 
breaking a 35-year tradition and drawing 
a charge of censorship from the federa- 
tion’s president. 

The network withdrew its commitment 
to air the broadcast on Friday before 
Labor Day, claiming that the text dealt 
with “controversial issues of a political 
nature.” 

SINCE 1946, the nation’s major radio 
networks have carried Labor Day ad- 
dresses by federation officers. The 1981 
messages by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue and Vice President John H. 
Lyons were aired as scheduled on the 
NBC and Mutual radio networks. 


Observances 
Stress Issues 
For Workers 

By David L. Periman 

Labor Day 1981 was a proud and joy- 
ful parade by 150,000 union members up 
New York’s Fifth Ave., led by a 105-piece 
band. And it was most of the 8,987 resi- 
dents of Covington, Va., turning out to 
watch or march with members of Local 
675 of the Paperworkers. 

It was a Labor Day Mass in a Washing- 
ton, D.C., church, and it was a march to 
Detroit’s Kennedy Square that was billed 
as “a warm-up” for union members who 
are coming by bus to Washington on Sept. 
19 to take part in Solidarity Day. 

LABOR DAY was celebrated from 
coast to coast with family outings and 
games for the kids. But under the double 
spur of the labor federation’s centennial 
year and trade union outrage at the firing 
and jailing of air traffic controllers, union 
members marched and demonstrated in 
record numbers. 

A United Press International (UPI) 
news item from Boise, Ida., gives some of 
the special flavor of this Labor Day. 

In Boise, UPI reported, “unions repre- 
senting just about every worker in the 
state carried placards in support of Idaho’s 
air traffic controllers.” 

The Labor Day weekend is when the 
Sunday television interview programs fo- 
cus on the trade union movement, and this 
year was no exception. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland 
tried to make questioners on the CBS 
Face the Nation program understand that 
the labor movement isn’t about to wither 
away because it is at odds with the Presi- 
dent’s economic program and doesn’t have 
many victories in a conservative-con- 
trolled Congress. 

“We’re concerned,” Kirkland readily 
agreed, at such things as weakening of job 
safety regulations, severe cuts in a host of 
programs that labor supports and the na- 
tion needs, and the continuing threat to a 
half-century of progress. 

“We intend to fight,” he said. “We state 
our case to Congress as effectively as we 
can. We call upon our allies to do the 
same.” 

FURTHER, “the nice thing about a de- 
mocracy is that there’s always a second 
chance. It isn’t that the people always do 
the right thing, but they always have a 
chance to correct their errors, and there 
will be other elections.” 

Nor does the labor movement “exist 
solely to seek the enactment of legislation. 
The labor movement exists and was 
founded to advance the interests of work- 
ing people through a variety of means . . . 

(Continued on Page 3) 


The Kirkland message was carried in 
the west on the Intermountain Network 
and on a number of local radio stations 
affiliated with CBS which had requested 
tapes directly from the AFL-CIO. 

Kirkland observed in a statement that 
the network’s act “does not serve the cause 
of full and open discussion of public af- 
fairs and the free flow of ideas.” He com- 
pared the incident to the “current dispute 
in Poland between the Solidarity union 
and the government-controlled media.” 

HIS MESSAGE, he asserted, was no 
more controversial or political “than the 
statements broadcast daily by Adminis- 
tration and congressional leaders.” 

In the text of the broadcast, Kirkland 
said the fundamental issue confronting the 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Kirkland Hits CBS Refusal 
To Air Labor Day Broadcast 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


Carpenters Celebrate First 100 Years 


By Rex Hardesty 



CENTENNIAL CONVENTION of the Carpenters was held dent William Konyha welcomes the delegates to the chal- 
in Chicago, and this striking backdrop tells the story. Presi- lenges of the union’s second century. 


Chicago — The second century of the 
Carpenters opens with the union facing 
the need to expand its organizing in the 
Sun Belt states while protecting the in- 
terests of members in the older areas of 
the North and Northeast, President Wil- 
liam H. Konyha told the union’s centen- 
nial convention. 

That task must be started, Konyha 
noted, in a repressive political and eco- 
nomic climate that is stifling construction 
employment while encouraging attacks on 
Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws, OSHA 
protections and social security. 

THE CARPENTERS returned to the 
site of the union’s August 1881 founding 
— ^the city of Chicago — for the centennial 
celebration. The 2,434 delegates voted to 
return the convention to its regular sched- 
ule with 1986 the next date. Delegates 
also re-elected the union’s five general 
officers without opposition: Konyha, Vice 
Presidents Pat Campbell and Sigurd Lu- 
cassen, Sec. John S. Rogers and Treas. 
Charles E. Nichols. Ten district board 
members were also unanimously re-elected. 

Otherwise, the convention was largely 
a centennial celebration, which Rogers 
described as lasting for the coming year 
and featuring four major parts: a stage 
show, “Knock on Wood,” which was also 
videotaped at the convention; a popular 
history, “The Road to Dignity,” by labor 
historian Thomas R. Brooks, distributed 
at the convention; a scholarly history by 
Walter Galenson of Cornell; and a series 
of local events arranged through state 
humanities councils. 

Rogers also described a comprehensive 
radio and television advertising campaign 
on the centennial. The ads close with an 
organizing appeal, “Why don’t you join 
us?” They provide a toll-free 800 number 
to contact Carpenter offices. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN, who had pre- 
viously agreed to serve as honorary cen- 
tennial co-chairman, spoke to the conven- 
tion on its fourth day and made his first 
public remarks on the striking Air Traffic 
Controllers after his Aug. 3 directive that 
they return to work or be fired. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
spoke briefly to the convention banquet 
the night before Reagan’s appearance. 
Kirkland reminded the banquet that the 
Carpenters union was “illegal” when it 
was founded, considered a conspiracy by 
court interpretations of that era. 

Kirkland also pointed out that his prede- 
cessor, George Meany, had led a 1935 
strike against the federal government in 
New York in which WPA workers and 
their instructors, members of building 
trades unions, struck together to protect 


Chicago — “God made the forests, but 
Big Bill Hutcheson claims jurisdiction 
over them.” 

That description of the United Brother- 
hood of Carpenters is one of the musical 
choruses from the play, “Knock on 
Wood,” with which the Carpenters cele- 
brated their centennial at their 34th con- 
vention. 

THE PLAY, written by Arnold Sun- 
gaard and using the “living newspaper,” 
format, ran for a week at Chicago’s Aries 
Crown Theatre, part of the McCormick 
Place complex where the convention was 
held. 

With the admission held to $3 and a 
vigorous promotion by the Carpenters and 
the Chicago Federation of Labor to at- 
tract trade unionists, the play had several 
sellouts in its public showing as well as in 
the preview showings for the convention 
delegates. 

The cast of eight was headed by E. G. 
Marshall, a leader in the actors’ unions 
who played both union founder Peter J. 
McGuire and Hutcheson. The format uses 
slides and movies on a giant screen be- 
tween the actors’ appearances. 

The difficulty of presenting a lively 
story with song and dance and still telling 
some of the relatively complicated stories 


prevailing wage laws on the WPA projects. 
Labor Sec. Raymond Donovan also ap- 
peared at the convention banquet. 

AFTER REAGAN’S speech the next 
day, Kirkland issued a point-by-point refu- 
tation of the President’s “misreading” of 
history, primarily the contentions that all 
public employee unions had no-strike 
clauses in their founding constitutions and 
that the federations of that era would only 
charter them if they had such no-strike 
clauses. Neither contention is true, Kirk- 
land’s statement noted. 

Reagan has consistently used the no- 
strike pledge that federal employees are 
forced to sign to get a job as his excuse for 
his actions against the Air Traffic Con- 
trollers. 

THE RESPECT shown Reagan in his 
office as President did not temper the eco- 
nomic complaints or Solidarity Day sup- 
port of Konyha, however. He character- 
ized Reagan’s newly won tax-cut package 
as one that “distributes nickels and dimes 
in the zones where the working folks live 
while it showers big bucks up there on the 
hills where the rich people live and admire 
the scenery.” 

Konyha drew resounding approval from 
the convention when he welcomed former 
members of the Lathers, which merged 


of trade unionism was exemplified in the 
account of the Carpenters’ long fight to 
stop court injunctions against union mem- 
bers for refusing to install non-union 
products. 

THROUGH THE device of a court- 
room witness, a non-union Wisconsin mill- 
wright who was making 12 cents an hour 
for the 12-hour day, the play unfolds the 
story of a seven-year wait for the 1917 
Supreme Court verdict ending the injunc- 
tions, which were reinstated by the Taft- 
Hartley Act 30 years later. 

The section on jurisdiction is part of a 
profile of William H. Hutcheson, president 
of the Carpenters from 1915 to 1951. The 
union has had three presidents since: 
Maurice Hutcheson, William Sidell and 
William Konyha. 

The play describes how John L. Lewis 
took a swing at Hutcheson at the 1935 
AFL convention in the founding days of 
the CIO, but remained such a fast friend 
that Lewis later entrusted $1 million in 
Mine Worker funds to Hutcheson for safe- 
keeping. 

THE PLAY ran 72 minutes in all and 
included a thorough description of the 
founding days of the union featuring Mar- 
shall as McGuire. Young McGuire was 
with Sam Gompers at the 1881 Pittsburgh 


into the Carpenters in 1978, and when he 
pledged to continue close surveillance on 
how and where some $3.5 billion in UBC 
pension funds are invested. 

Konyha said prudence and “correct and 
stringent standards” on the handling of 
pension funds are compatible with “saying 
to Mr. Banker or Mr. Money Manager, ‘If 
you want to manage our members’ money, 
you’re going to have to make it serve our 
members’ needs or, mister, we’re going 
to get somebody else to manage it.’ ” 

KONYHA TOLD the convention that 
Carpenters always have been and always 
will be “working stiffs — not labor states- 
men or phony philosophers.” And, Kony- 
ha said, “Solidarity Day is the day when 
the working people together with the 
senior citizens of this country will be able 
to have our say, and let’s hope the poli- 
ticians hear our message Sept. 19. 

“On issue after issue, since this Admin- 
istration and this Congress took office, the 
decisions have in a large degree been tilted 
toward the corporations, the banks, the 
rich and the very affluent sectors of our 
population,” Konyha said. 

“But on Sept. 19, we feel confident that 
the Carpenters, along with thousands of 
trade union men and women, together with 
our friends from many public organiza- 


convention of the Federation of the Or- 
ganized Trades & Labor Unions, from 
which the AFL-CIO stemmed, and is also 
credited with the idea of Labor Day as a 
national holiday. McGuire was the union’s 
secretary-general from 1881 to 1901 and 
was succeeded by Frank Duffy, who 
served until 1948. 

McGuire’s attempts to build a perma- 
nent Carpenters’ union found fruit in St. 
Louis, where the union’s first significant 
strike won $2.50 a day in wages and led 
to the bargaining goal of a national fixed 
rate — enforced by a national union — ^be- 
cause of the hopping from city to city by 
carpenters seeking higher wages. Mc- 
Guire’s quest for the eight-hour day is 
also featured. 

McGuire’s nine rules on a strike are 
dramatically portrayed in a discussion be- 
tween McGuire and Duffy. The rules 
range from formation of a seven-member 
strike committee to greeting potential 
scabs at the railway depot and assigning 
pickets at jobsites other than their own. 

ONE OF THE most memorable songs 
in the play recurs throughout, depicting 
the “golden harvest” from unity and bet- 
ter wages, which will provide “a little slice 
for each, and a little slice for all, when 
we all sit down together in the great 
harvest hall.” 


tions, will make their voices heard in a 
tremendous display of the people’s soli- 
darity.” 

Konyha’s re{X)rt focused heavily on the 
Carpenter’s industrial division, which has 
been hurt by plant closings and transfers 
of jobs across either state or national 
boundaries. 

HE REPORTED that the union had ini- 
tiated almost 250,000 workers since the 
1978 convention, yet had recorded a net 
loss of 19,079 members. There is a 16 
percent unemployment rate in construc- 
tion, Konyha said, but that sector has 
stayed relatively stable, as has the union’s 
Canadian membership. 

“Our losses, over and above the normal 
turnover caused by death, retirement and 
leaving the jurisdiction, have been heaviest 
among our industrial members. Foreign 
imports of wood products don’t get as 
much publicity as Datsuns and Toyotas, 
but the result is the same — American un- 
employment.” 

Konyha recited the political losses from 
House seats lost in the Northeast and 
gained in the South and Southwest, de- 
scribing plant closings and quick transfer 
from union to non-union status via open- 
ing a new plant in another state. 

“AND IF ANY of you think that or- 
ganizing in Texas or Florida is the same 
as organizing in some of our older strong- 
holds, think again,” Konyha said. 

But in tracing the Carpenters’ history 
through the American Plan of 60 years 
ago to the “right-to-work” movement of 
today, Konyha pledged the weapons of 
more flexible work-rules, affirmative ac- 
tion and modern communication methods 
— such as those displayed in the centen- 
nial celebration — will be used in the or- 
ganizing effort that is essential to the 
union’s future. 

History Project Funded 
For Baltimore Steelworkers 

Baltimore — The Baltimore Steelworkers 
History Project has been awarded a grant 
by the National Endowment for the Hu- 
manities to prepare an exhibition on the 
history of the union and its role in the 
growth of the city. 

The $200,000 grant will go to Essex 
Community College which will work with 
Steelworkers Locals 2609 and 2610 to put 
together the exhibition of photographs, 
artifacts, memorabilia and text. 

An additional $130,000 will be pro- 
vided by the college for production and 
travel. The exhibition will open in Balti- 
more on Labor Day 1982 and travel for 
two years to some eight cities in the East 
and Midwest, including the AFL-CIO’s 
George Meany Center for Labor Studies. 


Musical Play Dramatizes Union ’s Story 



AFlrCIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


Page Three 


Rallies Focus on issues 

Renewed Spirit Marks 
Labor Day Observance 



A TRADITION in Washington is the laying of a wreath during the Labor Day 
weekend at the statue of Samuel Gompers, the early president of the American 
Federation of Labor. Greater Washington Central Labor Council President Bob 
Peterson did the honors this year. 


Kirkland Hits CBS Refusal 
To Air Labor Day Broadcast 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

through collective bargaining, through or- 
ganization, agitation, education.” 

Kirkland, Labor Sec. Raymond J. Don- 
ovan on ABC’s Issues and Answers, and 
Government Employees President Ken- 
neth T. Blaylock on NBC’s Meet the 
■ Press were questioned about the Adminis- 
tration’s handling of the air traffic con- 
trollers’ strike. 

DONOVAN WAS asked whether it 
might have been appropriate on Labor 
Day for the President to offer amnesty to 
the strikers, “make some gesture so that 
the skilled employees at this important job 
might find their way back to the job.” 

Donovan’s reply was that the strikers 
weren’t “fired.” By going out on strike 
they had in effect “quit” because “they 
broke the law,” he contended. 

The President’s position, Donovan said, 
is “there will be no amnesty . . . and I 
applaud the President for having taken 
the position.” 

AT THE SAME time, over another 
network, Blaylock sought to put the strike 
in a different perspective — ^as the despera- 
tion move by a group of workers whose 
problems had been ignored by this and 
previous administrations. 

Without better methods of resolving dif- 
ferences, he warned, public sector work 
stoppages will occur despite punitive laws. 

Kirkland said in response to a question 
that President Reagan has shown that “the 
federal government in all its might and 
power, with the assistance of the military 
and the courts, is capable of crushing a 
very small union.” 

REAGAN HAS “established the fact 
that he is hard-fisted,” Kirkland said. 
“What remains to be established is where’s 
the rest of him? Where’s the heart? And 


(Continued from Page 1) 

centers to bring together drivers, vehicles 
and passengers. 

In Connecticut, as an example, the 
State, County & Municipal Employees 
encouraged participation in the protest 
with the flyers outlining how the Reagan 
Administration’s budget cuts will cause the 
layoff of thousands of public employees, 
many in that state. Machinists members 
throughout the state also received leaflets 
urging them to join the protest. An Inter- 
national Brotherhood of Electrical Work- 
ers local voted to offset part of the travel 
expenses of every member who partici- 
pated in the demonstration. 

In the federal sector, the Government 
Employees, with a heavy concentration of 
members in the Washington-Baltimore 
metropolitan area plan to contact every 
metropolitan area, plan to contact every 

Members of the Postal Workers have re- 
ceived a letter from the union’s president, 
Moe Biller, praising them for their show 
of “Postal Solidarity” in the 1981 contract 
negotiations and urging them to bring the 
same enthusiasm to the Solidarity Day 
demonstration. 

NATIONAL AND international union 
efforts include mailings of more than 25,- 
000 information packets by the Steelwork- 
ers, over 10,000 by the Service Employees, 
and 25,000 by the Communications Work- 
ers, along with similar promotions by more 
than 30 unions and many of their locals. 

A mailing by the Newspaper Guild to 
some 3,700 of its members within driving 
distance of Washington includes an ap- 
peal to march from the union’s president, 
Charles A. Perlik, Jr. 

Perlik’s letter received a personal reply 
from the wife of a retired janitor who had 
worked for 17 years for the Baltimore 
Sun. The letter explained that the retiree 
would not be able to attend the rally since 


where’s the understanding of these peo- 
ple’s problems that will make it possible 
to have a decent resolution ... to serve 
the public interest best, restore these quali- 
fied people to their jobs and get the air- 
lines running normally again.” 

Kirkland was grand marshal of the 
New York City Labor Day parade, march- 
ing the route with AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, New York City 
Central Labor Council President Harry 
Van Arsdale, Jr., and other organizers of 
the parade. 

Then, from the reviewing stand, they 
greeted the union contingents as they 
marched amid seas of baloons, banners 
and flags. Cheers from the tens of thou- 
sands who lined the streets signalled the 
arrival of ranks of air traffic controllers. 
A continuous ripple of applause greeted 
the high-stepping Rockettes, union mem- 
bers all. 

In the nation’s capital, AFL-CIO Orga- 
nization & Field Services Director Alan 
Kistler was the speaker at the traditional 
Labor Day Mass, and Msgr. George G. 
Higgins received the Greater Washington 
Central Labor Council’s Cardinal Gibbons 
Award for “dedication to workers’ rights.” 

A WREATH was placed by the statue 
of James Cardinal Gibbons, as the previ- 
ous day a wreath had been put by the 
statue of Samuel Gompers, on a down- 
town square. All these were traditional. 

But Labor Day in the nation’s capital 
also included a march organized by the 
Central Labor Council in support of 
PATCO strikers. And with Council Presi- 
dent Bob Peterson holding one end of a 
huge banner and Kistler holding the other 
end, PATCO strikers and their supporters 
in the community marched along 16th 
Street to Meridian Hill Park for a strike 
support rally. 


he was blind, paralyzed and confined to a 
hospital. But, his wife told Perlik, “if I 
were younger (I am now 81) and in better 
health myself, I would come tc Washing- 
ton to march in his place because I know 
my husband would want with all his heart 
to be there.” 

Estimates released by the AFL-CIO 
Solidarity Day office indicate that partici- 
pation in the march could hit 100,000. 

UNION MEMBERS in the Washington 
metropolitan area, and along the East 
Coast and in the Midwest, also were urged 
to turn out for the Sept. 19 rally by sup- 
port organizations including the Coalition 
of Labor Union Women, the A. Philip 
Randolph Institute, and Frontlash. 

The high turnout of union members 
within driving range of the Capital will 
bring thousands of cars into Washington, 
along with caravans of buses. Other 
demonstrators are planning to arrive by 
train. 

The AFL-CIO Solidarity Day office has 
information available on special parking 
areas for both car caravans and buses. 
Parking is also available at the large satel- 
lite lots adjacent to the city’s suburban 
Metrorail subway stops which all individu- 
als are being encouraged to use. 

RIDES ON Metrorail will be free from 
8 a.m. to midnight on Sept. 19. However, 
riders on the city bus system will pay the 
regular 60 cents fare. 

Washington AFL-CIO President Robert 
Petersen announced that the free rail trips 
will be paid for by the AFL-CIO which 
will give the Metropolitan Transit Author- 
ity $45,000 for the day’s service and $20,- 
000 to cover the overload. 

The decision to pick up the tab for the 
subways was made, Petersen said, to make 
it easier for marchers to get downtown 
for the rally and to ease the impact of the 
demonstration on Washington’s residents. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

American people is the debate over the 
purpose of government and its relation- 
ship to the people. 

“The Administration projects a picture 
of government as an alien force, sitting on 
the backs of people, holding them down, 
repressing their productive energies,” Kirk- 
land said. 

The labor movement’s view, he noted, 
is of a government “by, for and of the 
people.” In a democracy, he emphasized, 
“the people have the right to shape their 
government into an instrument that meets 
their needs.” 

THIS IS WHAT the American people 
have done in the past 50 years when they 
have used government in “a more active 
role in promoting the general welfare,” 
Kirkland said. 

He charged that the Administration’s 
economic policies are a gamble in which 
Americans are asked “to risk our jobs, our 
mortgage, our children’s education, our 
social security and even our national 
defense.” 

The labor movement is not prepared to 
accept such a gamble, Kirkland said, 
stressing that the Sept. 19 Solidarity Day 
demonstration will give trade unionists 
and their allies an opportunity to come 
to Washington to express “our deep con- 
cern over the direction in which the na- 
tion is headed.” 

IN HIS NBC radio broadcast, Donahue 
traced the history of the trade union move- 
ment and the gains it has helped win for 
all American workers, not only in wages 
and working conditions, but also in a 
better standard of living. 

The labor movement can take pride in 
its role in the nation’s “progress in the 
past century toward meeting the economic, 
and equally important, the spiritual needs 
of working people,” Donahue said. 

Throughout its history, he stressed, the 
labor movement’s concerns have gone far 
beyond the “tangible gains” in the work- 
place, including wages and conditions, al- 
though these remain labor’s first job. 

“American trade unionists,” Donahue 
said, “have always been deeply concerned 
with human rights, human dignity and 
social justice ... as interested in improv- 
ing the quality of life as in improving the 
quality of the workplace.” 

NOTING THE first anniversary of the 
founding of the independent Solidarity 
Union in Poland, Donahue emphasized 
that the trade union movement has “been 
a vehicle for the expression, in the United 
States and around the world, of the basic 
human need for solidarity.” 

The union in Poland, he pointed out, 
“has become the instrument for the Polish 
people’s struggle for freedom and demo- 
cratic rights.” 

Lyons, who is president of the Iron 
Workers, in his broadcast over the Mutual 
network, rapped the Administration’s 


“supply-side economics” as simply a new 
name for an old idea, the “redistribution 
of the nation’s wealth” in favor of those 
already well-off. 

These economic programs are likely to 
worsen rather than help the problems of 
inflation, unemployment, social instability 
and high interest rates, Lyons warned. 

THE ISSUE of high interest rates is 
one clear example of the gravity of the 
economic problems, Lyons said, using the 
housing industry as an example. With 
home prices and interest rates “prohibi- 
tive, contractors have been driven out of 
business and the craftsmen who worked 
for them “have been driven to the unem- 
ployment line.” 

Under the Reagan Administration’s pro- 
gram, these conditions are likely to grow 
worse, Lyons charged. He emphasized that 
elsewhere in construction, “the bridges 
that were built by members of our union, 
the great federal highways and public fa- 
cilities of all kinds are deteriorating faster 
than they are being repaired. The public 
investment that is needed simply to keep 
America from falling apart has been 
chopped mercilessly from the budget.” 

Industrial Unions 
Hit Hardest by 
Membership Drop 

Union membership in the United States 
slipped by 385,000 in the recession-hit 
1978-80 period, to 22,353,000, according 
to preliminary estimates by the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics. But the total was up more 
than a million over the 1970-80 decade. 

The two-year loss was largely in basic 
industries, many of which were battered 
by increased imports as well as recession 
cutbacks. 

OVER THE SAME period, union mem- 
bership continued to grow in the trade, 
communications, construction and service 
industries, and in the public sector. But 
the net membership loss also brought the 
percentage of non-farm workers carrying 
a union card from 25 percent in 1978 to 
24.7 percent in 1980. 

The BLS report showed the largest two- 
year membership losses repn^rted by the 
Auto Workers, followed by the Paper- 
workers, Rubber Workers, Steelworkers 
and Clothing & Textile Workers. 

Gains of over 25,000 members during 
the same period were listed for the Food 
& Commercial Workers, Carpenters, Com- 
munications Workers, International Broth- 
erhood of Electrical Workers, Machinists 
and Service Employees. 

Year-to-year union membership tallies 
have fluctuated over the decade, respond- 
ing to economic cycles as well as to more 
lasting changes in the nature of the work- 
force. 


Unions Spur Big Turnout 
For Solidarity Day Protest 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


For All Americans 


‘Here’s One for the Gipper!’ 


A ll AMERICANS have benefitted from organized labor’s up- 
hill struggle to improve the standard of living for all workers. 

It was the unswerving efforts of trade unions that won the basic 
eight-hour day most Americans now enjoy. 

Unions fought for and won a decent minimum wage, and that 
is something we still defend in spite of the fact that virtually no 
union member earns so little. 

UNIONS BROUGHT an end to child labor and they fought 
and they continue to fight, indeed, the sweatshops that exploit 
the desperately poor. 

America’s trade unions led the fight to establish both the private 
pension system and social security to insure working people a 
decent and a dignified old age. 

We fought tirelessly — against very stiff opposition — ^for protec- 
tions such as unemployment insurance and workers’ compensa- 
tion. 

Because of the perseverance of unions, all American workers 
today enjoy greater safety and freedom from health hazards on 
the job. 

The labor movement’s concerns go far beyond the workplace 
and the size of the pay envelope. 

AMERICAN TRADE unionists have always been deeply con- 
cerned with human rights, human dignity and social justice. 

We will continue to defend the rights of all Americans to vote, 
to have the job of their choice, to live in the neighborhoods they 
choose, to educate their children to the best of their ability. 

Our fight against tyranny in the workplace and in the domestic 
affairs of our nation translates easily into opposition to tyranny 
anywhere in the world. 

The trade union movement has been a vehicle for the expres- 
sion — in the United States and around the world — of the basic 
human need for solidarity. People who share common goals, have 
a natural interest in banding together to achieve them. 

WE IN THE labor movement plan to write another chapter in 
the history of that labor movement on Sept. 19 in Washington, 
D.C. 

We are calling it Solidarity Day, and on that day, the labor 
movement will be joined by our allies in the civil rights movement, 
the women’s movement, by environmentalists and consumers, by 
senior citizens, the religious community and many more people all 
united by the common bond of a dedication to human rights. 

We are going to march together, to reaffirm our belief in the 
future of America and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness it holds out to all. We are going to march to reaffirm, 
in our centennial year, the labor movement’s historic commitment 
to social and economic justice for everyone in America. 

— From Labor Day broadcast by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas, Thomas 
R, Donahue, 





s 

s 




Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Khikland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan y. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


5 * Deceased. 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I VoL XXVI Saturday, September 12, 1981 No, 37 | 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 00I-I185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 






Fed Policy Backfiring 

‘Cure’ of High Interest Rates 
Sends Inflation Fever Soaring 


By Gus Tylfer 

I N PURSUIT OF his policy of high and ever 
higher interest rates, Paul Volcker, chairman 
of the Federal Reserve Board, has shown remark- 
able consistency. Replying to his critics on ABC’s 
“Issues and Answers,” Volcker said: “No ques- 
tion. Yes, we intend to stick with it.” He was 
talking about high interest rates as a way to 
check inflation. 

If nothing else, Volcker has proven that he is 
not the kind of man who retreats under fire. 
Attacks have come from many sides. Small busi- 
nessmen groan as high interest rates force them 
into bankruptcy. Wall Street grumbles as stocks 
decline. Treasury Sec. Donald T. Regan states 
publicly that the Fed policy is making economic 
recovery impossible and is adding to the govern- 
ment’s debt. Economists point out that high inter- 
est rates have, in fact, not deterred inflation at all. 

SOME EVEN ARGUE that the high interest 
rates are indeed inflationary, not deflationary. 
They list eight reasons: 

First, high interest rates raise the price of 
money, thereby lifting the cost of everything in 
the economy involving money. Second, the higher 
rates bankrupt small business and hasten mo- 
nopoly pricing. Third, high interest rates slow 
down production and reduce supply, thereby 
forcing up prices. Fourth, less capital is available 
to small and medium business for research and 
development, thereby retarding increases in pro- 
ductivity that could help hold down prices. 

Fifth, higher interest rates idle factories, there- 
by increasing overhead costs and forcing up prices 
once again. Sixth, higher interest rates increase 
the borrowing costs of Uncle Sam (also, states, 
counties and municipalities) to inflate both the 
taxes and deficits. Seventh, higher interest rates 
that are intended to curb the money supply do 
just the opposite, because our higher interest rates 
attract money from other countries to swell our 
money supply. 

PETER CANELO, an investment analyst for 
Merrill, Lynch, says that the Feds have lost all 
credibility, especially in view of the fact that the 
\;^y indicator — the money supply — has grown by 
16 percent in the last six months. 

But none of these arguments is changing Volck- 
er’s course. He remains consistent. 


Which fact has given rise to an eighth reason 
why the Fed policy is inflationary. Its very con- 
sistency adds to inflation. 

It is now predictable that if prices rise, interest 
rates will rise. In these times of inflationary ex- 
pectations, it is reasonable for any would-be 
borrower of funds to conclude that interest rates 
will go up — as they have consistently been doing. 

IF THAT is the case, it is prudent to borrow 
now even if the rate is — let’s say — 20 percent. 
Why not? If you delay, the rate will soon be 22 
percent. Indeed, it pays to borrow now and to 
lend out the money later. 

Hence, the consistent way in which the Feds 
apply their policy becomes, in itself, an infla- 
tionary factor — expanding the money supply. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

A Troubling Course 
For National Policy 

We are deeply troubled by the direction in 
which our country appears to be heading. 

The Reagan program . . . will worsen in- 
flation, unemployment and social instability. 

America is building no more than one-third 
of the housing that is absolutely necessary to 
meet the needs of the American people. Mat- 
ters are no better in other parts of the construc- 
tion field. 

The bridges that were built by members of 
our union, the great federal highways and pub- 
lic facilities of all kinds are deteriorating faster 
than they are being repaired. 

The public investment that is needed simply 
to keep America from falling apart has been 
chopped m^rcflessly from the budget. 

And so have investments in public education, 
public health, public transit and other programs 
that millions of people depend on. 

On Solidarity Day, we intend to demonstrate 
our concern. 

AFL-CIO Vice President John H. Lyons, 
president of the Iron Workers, in a Labor Day 
broadcast, 

iiimiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiii 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


Page Fire 


Preservation of Progress at Stake 

Labor’s ‘Century of Struggle’ 
Yielded Gains for All Society 


The following is excerpted from a Labor Day 
broadcast by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
prepared for presentation over the CBS radio net- 
work, Although the network refused to air the 
message, a number of stations affiliated with CBS 
carried the broadcast, 

E WANT MORE of the opportunities to 
cultivate our better natures.” 

This was part of Samuel Gompers answer to 
the question, “what does labor want?” 

That was in 1893, twelve years after the found- 
ing of the national labor center that became the 
AFL-CIO, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate 
this year. 

“More of the opportunities to cultivate our bet- 
ter natures.” This is still what labor wants on 
Labor Day 1981. 

Looking back on our century of struggle and 
sacrifice, we take pride in the gains American 
workers have made through their unions. Those 
gains have not been restricted to a narrow interest 
group in our society. In fact, all Americans have 
benefitted from the higher wages, expanded con- 
sumer purchasing power, and improved working 
conditions that unions have fought for. 

Our entire society is better off because of la- 
bor’s victories in the struggle for free public 
education, social security, unemployment insur- 
ance, civil rights laws, voting rights, and many 
other milestones in our progress toward a more 
humane and just society. 

SOME PEOPLE don’t agree and never have. 
They think our better natures are best cultivated 
in the economic jungle. They believe in the sur- 
vival of the fittest. Unfortunately, people who 
share that view have captured the White House 
and have cowed a compliant Congress. 

They are suspicious of government programs 
to feed the hungry, educate the young, secure 
dignity for the elderly, care for the sick, safe- 
guard the rights of minorities, protect consumers, 
and defend the environment from plunder. 

Their philosophy has been summed up by their 
budget director, David Stockman: “No one is 
entitled to anything from the government.” 

This breathtaking statement is remarkable for 
its candor. It joins the issue — the fundamental 
issue confronting the American people. What is 
the purpose of government? What is the relation- 
ship between the government and the people? 

The Administration projects a picture of gov- 
ernment as an alien force sitting on the backs of 
the people, holding them down, repressing their 
productive energies. 

At the AFL-CIO, we believe government is, 
in Abe Lincoln’s words, “by, for, and of the 
people.” In a democracy the people have the 
right to shape their government into an instru- 
ment that meets their needs. 

Now we are told by the Administration that 
the people’s government is the people’s enemy. 

We are also told that the way to get the gov- 


ernment off the backs of the people is to slash 
the people’s programs and give a high tax cut to 
big corporations and wealthy individuals. 

We are told that our government will become 
more responsive to the people’s needs by trans- 
ferring the people’s resources to the rich and 
powerful. They, in turn, will invest these re- 
sources wisely, without government interference, 
and thereby create new jobs, improve productiv- 
ity, and ultimately return more tax dollars to the 
federal treasury. 

Presumably, these wealthy and wise men bear 
no responsibility for our nation’s economic prob- 
lems, and therefore can be trusted to make the 
right economic decisions for the rest of us — if 
only we leave them alone and allow the free 
market to work its magic. 

THIS DOCTRINE has a new name — “supply- 
side economics.” We have always known it by 
another name — the “trickle-down theory.” But 
while the theory is not really new, this is the first 
time we have been asked to gamble so much on 
it. We are asked to risk our jobs, our mortgages, 
our children’s education, our social security, and 
even our national defense. 

This is not a gamble the AFL-CIO is prepared 
to take. We have too great a stake in the Ameri- 
can way of life — which we have helped to build — 
to put it in jeopardy. 

We intend to make ourselves heard. On Sept. 
19 — ^which we call Solidarity Day — ^tens of thou- 
sands of trade unionists and our allies will go to 
Washington to express our deep concern over the 
direction in which our nation is headed. 

We will protest the Administration’s efforts to 
dismantle the social programs that reflect humane 
and compassionate government. We will exercise 
our constitutional right of petition to assert our 
demands for jobs and justice. We will march in 
the spirit of the great abolitionist Frederick Doug- 
lass, who said: 

. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. 
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet 
deprecate agitation, are men who want crops 
without plowing up the ground. They want the 
ocean without the awful roar of its many waves.” 

THIS LABOR DAY 1981 is a time for all 
Americans to reflect on the contributions of work- 
ing people to the nation’s progress. It is also a 
time to reflect on the stake all of us have in pre- 
serving that progress. 

Despite the grave challenges we face, we are 
not discouraged. Looking back on our first one 
hundred years of achievement, we realize that we 
have faced harder problems than we face today. 
We have faced worse odds. But we have survived, 
and we have overcome. 

Today, we have a challenge not only to the 
nation’s achievement since the New Deal, but to 
the trade union movement itself. We intend to 
meet that challenge, confident that, in their funda- 
mental decency, the American people will not 
consent to the destruction of one of their funda- 
mental institutions. 




By Press Associates, Inc. 


N OW THAT A compliant Congress, moving with unaccus- 
tomed speed, has enacted President Reagan’s tax and 
budget “program for economic recovery,” what can Americans 
expect in coming years? 

Leaving aside the equity of the tax cuts and the adverse 
effects of the budget cutbacks on the lives of working and 
low-income people, is it reasonable to believe that the Reagan 
program will fulfill its promise of restoring health to the economy? 

The President’s tax cuts, an unprecedented bonanza for busi- 
ness and upper-income individuals, was sold as a program to 
unleash a wave of business investment and economic growth. 

This growth, as the scenario goes, will create jobs, swell 
Treasury revenues and, combined with drastic cuts in social 
spending, lead to a balanced budget by 1984. 

Fiscal restraint, along with a tight money policy by the Federal 
Reserve Board, is supposed to dampen “inflationary expectations” 
of investors as well as cause workers to expect lower wage 
increases. 

WHILE IT IS too early to pass judgment on “Reaganomics,” 
early warnings point to a grim prognosis. 

The ink had scarcely dried on the President’s signature on 
his tax and budget legislation when Wall Street — which had waxed 
euphoric over Reagan’s election — reacted with dismay and con- 
fusion. 

While a White House spokesman dismissed the financial com- 
munity’s jitters as “a temporary state of mind,” investors had 
sound reasons for their pessimism. 

In contrast to the Administration’s rosy predictions about a 
balanced budget, private analysts, including a senior economist at 
the conservative American Enterprise Institute, predicted that the 
federal deficit by 1984 could reach $100 billion. 

With the exception of the doctrinaire “monetarists” running the 
Reagan Treasury Dept., economists see obvious contradictions in 
trying to slow down the economy by restricting the supply of 
money and credit and spur economic expansion through enormous 
tax cuts for business. 

THIS COMBINATION, in the words of House Budpt Com- 
mittee Chairman James R. Jones (D-Okla.), “is the equivalent of 
stepping hard on the gas at the same time you slam on the brakes.” 
It portends continuing high interest rates, further showing of the 
economy and perhaps another recession. The already depressed 
housing and auto industries will be hardest hit. 

Further, corporation executives interviewed recently by the 
Wall Street Journal didn’t show the kind of enthusiasm in their 
investment plans for the coming year that the Administration’s 
highly touted “supply-side” tax breaks were supposed to arouse. 

One reason for the corporations’ low-expectation investment 
plans rests in a major flaw in supply-side economic theory — it 
doesn’t account for the “demand side” of the equation. Whatever 
the tax incentive, businesses aren’t going to invest to produce 
items people can’t afford to buy. The new tax bill does little for 
the buying power of the average consumer. 

ALREADY THE Administration is being forced back to the 
drawing board by the failure of events to follow its game plan. 
The non-partisan Congressional Budget OflSce and private econo- 
mists predict that the deficit for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is 
likely to more than double the Administration forecast. 

From all appearances, about all that Americans can expect 
from Reaganomics is open-ended budget cuts in vital social pro- 
grams and an open-ended raid on the U.S. Treasury by corpora- 
tions and the rich. 


PATCO Reprisals, 4,8% Pay Cap 

Reagan Labor Relations Policy 
Ruffles Government Workers 


P UBLIC SECTOR workers view with growing 
apprehension the labor relations policies and 
actions of the Reagan Administration, Executive 
Director John Leyden of the AFL-CIO Public 
Employee Dept, said on Labor News Conference. 

^ But public employees are not intimidated by 
the Administration’s positions, Leyden asserted, 
and may in fact turn in greater numbers to the 
“solid, cohesive voice” of unions. He said that 
the President’s hard-line handling of the PATCO 
dispute and his 4.8 percent cap on the pay in- 
crease due federal employees — despite the recom- 
piendation of his own pay agent for a 15.1 per- 
cent increase — have produced a strong resolve 
that will be made clear in the Sept. 19 Solidarity 
Day demonstration in Washington. 

Leyden, a former air traffic controller, said 


that “contrary to the announced end of the strike 
by Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis and by vari- 
ous Administration officials, the PATCO strike 
is not over.” He said that “there is no way that 
the system can function normally, as it did prior 
to the strike” without the 12,000 trained and 
experienced professional controllers the President 
fired. 

ALTHOUGH ABOUT 75 percent of com- 
mercial flights are operating, Leyden pointed out 
that “general aviation, which carries more pas- 
sengers than commercial aviation, has been re- 
moved from the system.” 

Leyden said that he is hopeful that the Admin- 
istration will “come to its senses, sit down at the 
bargaining table with those workers, and let the 
system run as it should.” 



GROWING APPREHENSION over the policies and actions 
of the Reagan Administration and their implications for labor- 
management relations in the public sector will be clear in the 
Sept. 19 Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington, Execu- 
tive Director John Leyden, center, of the AFL-CIO Public 
Employee Dept, said on Labor News Conference. Leyden was 
questioned by Michael Arian, left, of Government Employee 
Relations Report and Lance Gay of the Scripps-Howard News- 
papers. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs program is aired 
weekly on Mutual radio. 




Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


Blacks Suffer 
New Surge in 
Jobless Rate 

(Continued from Page 1) 

7.7 million workers who were unemployed 
in August. The jobless rate for black 
teenagers was about three times the rate 
for white teenagers, 15.6 percent. The 
unemployment rate for whites of all ages 
was 6.1 percent, little changed from the 
July level. 

Norwood cautioned that the labor mar- 
ket experience of the category group is 
“especially difficult to measure with preci- 
sion.” But she said “the data do confirm 
that unemployment for black teenagers is 
a continuing problem.” The jobless rate 
for black teenagers has been between 30 
and 40 percent for some time. 

Overall joblessness has remained in the 
7 to 7.3 percent range since June, after 
being at about the 7.3 percent level since 
the beginning of the year. 

Total employment in August held fairly 
steady at 98.9 million, down only slightly 
from July. Meanwhile, the labor force 
grew by 138,000 to 106.6 million. 

Norwood said the labor market picture 
last month was “substantially improved” 
over July a year ago, when the 1980 
recession ended. The jobless rate then was 

7.8 percent. 

“BUT, EXCEPT for the over-the-month 
improvement we reported last month, the 
labor market has been somewhat sluggish 
in recent months,” she added. 

The BLS report indicated that employ- 
ment in manufacturing industries, which 
had been at depressed levels earlier this 
year, leveled off last month after the July 
improvement. The only noteworthy over- 
the-month movements in manufacturing 
were declines in lumber products and food 
processing and an increase in the number 
of machinery jobs. 

Employment in mining continued to 
show strength in August, especially in oil, 
gas and coal extraction. There was also 
a job gain in retail trade. 

Labor Mourns 
Ally in Struggl 

The labor movement joined in mourn- 
ing the death of Roy Wilkins, a strong 
ally in the ongoing struggle for racial and 
economic justice. 

Wilkins, who had served as executive 
director of the NAACP and chairman of 
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 
died Sept. 8 of kidney failure at the age 
of 80. 

“FEW MEN have touched so many 
lives or opened so many channels of hu- 
man understanding and cooperation,” 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said in 
a message to Wilkins’s widow, Aminda. 

Kirkland and Donahue credited Wilkins 
as the chief architect and leading strate- 
gist of the Leadership Conference, which, 
they said, “welded together the labor 
movement and the civil rights movement 
into the most successful legislative coalition 
of all time.” 

They said Wilkins has earned an hon- 
ored place in history books: “The Civil 
Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the 
other legislative achievements that have 
forever changed the conditions of life in 
America are his legacy as much as any 
man’s, just as the LCCR is his monument. 

“Roy was much more than a strate- 
gist,” Kirkland and Donahue said. “He was 

Mark Cowan Named 
To No. 2 Post at OSHA 

Mark D. Cowan has been appointed 
deputy assistant secretary of labor for 
occupational safety and health, the sec- 
ond-ranking position at the Occupational 
Safety & Health Administration. Cowan, 

31, joined OSHA earlier this year, serv- 
ing as the agency’s special assistant for 
regulatory affairs as well as director for 
policy, regulatory analysis, legislation and 
interagency programs. 



RAIN DIDN’T DAMPEN the determination of these Philadelphia teachers 
striking to protest the School Board’s breach of a no-layoff clause and its uni- 
lateral cancellation of a scheduled pay raise. More than 200 AFT members 
were arrested on the picket line. 


Teachers ’ Strike Protests 
Layoffs in Philadelphia 


Philadelphia — Police here arrested more 
than 200 striking school teachers protest- 
ing widespread layoffs and cancellation of 
a scheduled pay increase as Mayor Wil- 
liam Green called an emergency City 
Council meeting to deal with the crisis. 

The city’s 21,000 teachers represented 
by the Philadelphia Federation of Teach- 
ers went on strike Sept. 8. The walkout 
was prompted by a school board decision 
to fire 3,700 school employees to meet a 
$223 -million deficit and to balance the 
city’s budget for the 1981-82 academic 
year. 

Roy Wilkins, 
e for Justice 

a man of limitless faith and courage, a 
leader who inspired others by his example 
even more than by his eloquence. 

“Those of us who had the good fortune 
to work closely with Roy and count our- 
selves among his friends will always cher- 
ish the memory of his kind and hopeful 
spirit.” 

Thousands of trade unionists are better 
men and women for having known Wilkins 
and millions of others are better off be- 
cause of his life and work, Kirkland and 
Donahue stressed. 

WILKINS, WHO was born in St. Louis 
in 1901, worked as a redcap, as a Pullman- 
car waiter and in a slaughterhouse while 
going through the University of Minne- 
sota. He later was a reporter and editor 
before joining the NAACP staff in 1931. 
He went on to become executive director 
of the organization in 1965 and retired 
in 1977. 

The Leadership Conference was founded 
in 1950 by Wilkins, President A. Philip 
Randolph of the Sleeping Car Porters, and 
Arnold Aronson of the National Jewish 
Relations Advisory Committee. It began 
as a coalition of some 50 civil rights, labor, 
religious and civic organizations, and grew 
over the years to embrace 150 affiliates. 
Wilkins served as chairman from 1950 
until his retirement in 1977. The AFL-CIO 
and many of its affiliates are part of the 
conference. 

Donahue headed the AFL-CIO delega- 
tion attending funeral services at the Com- 
munity Church in New York. The delega- 
tion included Federation Vice Presidents 
Frederick O’Neal, Albert Shanker, Alvin 
E. Heaps, and John J. Sweeney, Sec.- 
Treas. Jacob Sheinkman of the Clothing & 
Textile Workers; Kenneth Young, execu- 
tive assistant to Kirkland, and AFL-CIO 
Civil Rights Director William E. Pollard. 


The school board, which took the action 
despite a no-layoff clause in a contract 
reached with the Teachers after a long 
strike last year, also said it would be un- 
able to pay a 10-percent salary increase 
provided for this year in the 1980 agree- 
ment. The PFT is an affiliate of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Teachers. 

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in five 
other states, thousands of other teachers 
were on strike. In the latest walkout, 240 
teachers in North Providence, R.I., stayed 
away from their classrooms. The major 
issues in the walkouts and contract dis- 
putes are pay and hours, with most of the 
problems stemming from an upsurge in 
fiscal cuts leading to layoffs. 

A random survey by AFT showed that 
school systems in Massachusetts are the 
hardest hit with an estimated 7,500 teach- 
ers being laid off this fall. The Boston 
school system alone plans to lay off 1,000 
teachers. The 5,000-member Boston 
Teachers Union voted this week to au- 
thorize a strike Sept. 21 if no agreement 
over the layoffs is reached. 

OTHER STATES reporting major 
teaching layoffs include Illinois, 2,700; In- 
diana, 1,000; Louisiana, 2,500; Michigan, 
2,000; Pennsylvania, 4,000; Wisconsin, 
2,500; New York, 1,100, and Ohio, 300. 

The Philadelphia arrests were for al- 
leged violation of a court order issued 
Sept. 8 limiting the striking teachers to 
four pickets at an entrance to the Phil- 
adelphia School District’s administration 
building. 

PFT President John Murray predicted 
that the strike would be “a long one, very 
bitter,” that likely would not be settled 
until the city came up with more funds. 

Dystrophy Group Elects 
Unionists to Key Posts 

Scottsdale, Ariz. — ^AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue were re-elected as corporate 
members of the Muscular Dystrophy As- 
sociation at the organization’s annual 
meeting here. 

Donahue and Actors & Artistes Presi- 
dent Frederick O’Neal were re-elected to 
MDA’s board of directors. Fire Fighters 
President John A. Gannon was named to 
his first term on the board and as a cor- 
porate member. 

Also re-elected to the health research 
association’s corporate membership were 
Letter Carriers President Vincent R. Som- 
brotto and William H. McClennan, presi- 
dent emeritus of the Fire Fighters. Food 
& Commercial Workers President William 
H. Wynn was named a national vice presi- 
dent. 


McBride Asks 
Reactivation 
Of Steel Panel 

Dawson, Pa. — Steelworkers President 
Lloyd McBride urged the Reagan Admin- 
istration to reactivate a high-level com- 
mittee of labor, industry and government 
representatives to shape a national steel 
policy keyed to orderly markets and 
steady jobs. 

Such a committee was launched in the 
Carter Administration, and McBride said 
a tripartite approach is essential “if we are 
to restore the sfeel industry to its once 
strong, competitive position in domestic 
and foreign markets.” 

McBRIDE AND AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland spoke at installation cere- 
monies for the union’s officers and district 
directors, held at the USWA educational 
center here. McBride and the four other 
national officers were elected without op- 
position to new four-year terms. 

Kirkland and McBride scored the Rea- 
gan Administration’s overall direction. The 
President’s declared intent to “get the 
government off our backs,” Kirkland said, 
requires wiping out “40 years of economic 
and social justice.” 

He called on the President to lift the 
“full vindictive weight of the government” 
from the nation’s air traffic controllers and 
let the dispute be settled at the bargaining 
table. He told the union gathering that 
labor’s Solidarity Day demonstration will 
be a “lesson in freedom” to the Admin- 
istration and Congress. 

McBRIDE NOTED that the USWA 
and the steel employers will begin talks 
in October on whether to renew the no- 
strike, binding-arbitration agreement for 
the 1983 negotiations. McBride said the 
experiment “served both sides well” in the 
1974, 1977 and 1980 negotiations, but 
any decision on its future “has to pass 
the approval of our union’s membership.” 

He said the union will continue to press 
for a shorter workweek, “especially in the 
face of increased use of robots and other 
automated technologies.” 

Montana Labor 
Elects Driscoll 
New President 

Billings, Mont. — Delegates to the 25th 
annual Montana AFL-CIO convention 
elected Jerry Driscoll of the Laborers to 
a two-year term as president. Driscoll, as- 
sistant business agent of LIU Local 98 in 
Billings, succeeds Robert Kokoruda who 
did not seek re-election to a third term. 

The 122 delegates also voted unani- 
mously for a three-step increase in per 
capita payments, which will rise 4 cents 
next Jan. 1 to 60 cents a month, followed 
by 2-cent increments in 1983 and 1984. 

DRISCOLL WAS elected by acclama- 
tion after Maurice Mulcahy of State, 
County & Municipal Employees Local 
2033 in Butte pulled out of the contest 
shortly before the rollcall vote. 

In another contest, R. Nadiean Jensen, 
executive director of AFSCME Council 9 
in Helena, was elected vice president over 
Marilyn Kuder of the Hotel Employees & 
Restaurant Employees. 

James W. Murry was re-elected without 
opposition to his seventh term as executive 
secretary-treasurer of the state labor fed- 
eration. The convention also elected Ted 
Tracy of Machinists Local 88 to the ex- 
ecutive board and re-elected five incum- 
bent board members. 

IN KEY resolutions adopted at the 
three-day convention, delegates reiterated 
their opposition to a state sales tax pro- 
posal and attempts to repeal state and fed- 
eral prevailing wage laws, and renewed 
support for ratification of the Equal Rights 
Amendment. 

Convention speakers included Gov. Ted 
Schwinden, Senators John Melcher and 
Max Baucus and Rep. Pat Williams, all 
Democrats. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 


Page Seven 


Back from Recess 

Congress Faces Votes 
On Davis-Bacon, Budget 


‘Tote That Barge!’ 



Glass Union Delegates Hit 
Retreat on Job Safety Rules 


Congress returned from a month-long 
vacation to face a bruising new budget 
battle, key decisions on the future of social 
security and the first skirmishes over the 
Davis-Bacon Act. 

The Davis-Bacon issue will come to a 
head this month when the Senate takes up 
the military construction authorization bill. 
The heavily conservative Senate Armed 
Forces Committee amended a House- 
passed bill by adding a section excluding 
all military construction from the prevail- 
ing wage requirements of the Davis-Bacon 
Act. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) was 
the author of the exemption. 

ITS ENACTMENT would touch off a 
renewed attempt to repeal all prevailing 
wage laws, as the U.S. Chamber of Com- 
merce has urged. The AFL-CIO and the 
Building & Construction Trades Dept, are 
calling on senators to support an amend- 
ment by Sen. Henry M. Jackson CD- 
Wash.) to eliminate the Thurmond rider 
and restore Davis-Bacon protection. 

The Senate also faces a decision on a 
bill passed by the House shortly before 
the August recess to restore the $122 
minimum social security benefit for the 
3 million persons now receiving it. The 
Administration first insisted on eliminating 
the minimum benefit entirely and now 
wants it maintained only for the most 
“truly needy” of recipients. 

Meanwhile, the Administration is prod- 
ding Congress to make permanent reduc- 
tions in social security entitlements in 
order to keep revenues above outlays. 

Kirkland Assails 
Soviet Sentence 
For Morchenk 

^ The AFL-CIO is “outraged” but not 
surprised by the stiff sentence given Soviet 
dissident Anatoli Marchenko as punish- 
ment for his trade union and human rights 
activities, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land said in a statement following Mar- 
chenko’s trial. 

Marchenko, who was tried Sept. 2-3 in 
the Soviet city of Vladimir, had been 
charged with “anti-Soviet” activities in- 
cluding his support for the Polish trade 
union. Solidarity, and his correspondence 
with former AFL-CIO President George 
Meany. He was sentenced Sept. 4 to ten 
years in a “strict regime” labor camp to be 
followed by five years of internal exile. 
The 43-year-old activist has already served 
some 15 years in Soviet prisons, labor 
camps and exile. 

“THIS SENTENCE is harsh,” Kirkland 
said, “but it comes as no surprise consider- 
ing the brutal treatment already accorded 
to Marchenko by his jailers and by Soviet 
authorities.” 

That treatment “during his latest impris- 
onment includes refusal to let him accept 
parcels of clothing and hygienic items and 
the withholding of proper medical and 
sanitary care,” Kirkland noted. 

In a statement before the trial, Kirkland 
said that a package of clothing, soap and 
toothbrush he had personally sent to Mar- 
chenko in Vladimir prison in May had 
been returned by Soviet authorities. 

MARCHENKO and five other Soviet 
dissidents had been invited to attend the 
1977 AFL-CIO convention. In a letter to 
Meany, Marchenko said he had heard of 
the invitation on foreign radio stations but 
had not received the letter. Soviet postal 
authorities had returned a signed receipt 
indicating that the letter was delivered. 

In the message to Meany and the AFL- 
CIO convention, Marchenko described 
harsh working conditions for the average 
Soviet worker. 

Kirkland urged the U.S. government, 
“the free trade union community and all 
those who believe in the struggle for hu- 
man rights to intercede with the Soviet 
government on Mr. Marchenko’s behalf.” 


Both the House and Senate face key 
votes on whether to disapprove Presi- 
dent Reagan’s proposed sale of a highly 
sophisticated airborne radar system 
(AW ACS) to Saudi Arabia. The AFL- 
CIO Executive Council said sale of the 
AWACS aircraft, which can be used as 
a battle control station, “would be an act 
of irresponsibility and high potential risk 
to peace.” 

CONGRESS GAVE President Reagan 
virtually everything he asked for in the 
way of spending cuts, budget ceilings and 
tax reductions during his first six months 
in office. 

But it came back to find the White 
House preparing a new list of heavy 
spending and program cuts, which it in- 
sists are necessary to avoid budget deficits 
many billions of dollars more than the 
Administration’s earlier estimates. 

The tight-money policy which the Ad- 
ministration has relied on as an anti- 
inflation weapon has sent interest rates 
sky high. Housing starts have dwindled 
to a trickle, businesses have been squeezed 
and the “savings” the government was to 
achieve through spending cuts are being 
cancelled out by additional billions of 
dollars in interest payments on the na- 
tional debt. 

The Congressional Budget Office has 
projected an $80 billion federal deficit in 
the next fiscal year, nearly twice the 
amount the Reagan Administration had 
originally estimated. 

THE ADMINISTRATION is studying 
proposals to ask Congress to cut back the 
increase in defense spending originally 
budgeted and to make additional cuts in 
already decimated social programs. 

Republican leaders have told reporters 
that the Administration may ask Congress 
to partially restore the President’s right to 
impound — or not spend — funds voted by 
Congress. 

Congress enacted the anti-impoundment 
law after President Nixon had repeatedly 
thwarted congressional intent by refusing 
to allocate funds voted for specific pro- 
grams. Its repeal would be seen as a fur- 
ther surrender of legislative powers to the 
White House. 

Also on the congressional agenda are: 

• A Senate showdown on stringent 
anti-busing amendments, including one 
that would curtail the authority of fed- 
eral courts to order remedies for school 
segregation. 

• Action on a military pay raise ex- 
pected to average 14.3 percent. 

• Senate action on the nomination of 
Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to the Su- 
preme Court. Her confirmation is antici- 
pated despite a campaign against her by 
some anti-abortion groups. 


Dean K. Clowes, former deputy under 
secretary of labor for international affairs 
and a veteran trade unionist, died Sept. 3 
after a heart attack in Washington. Before 
accepting the government post in 1979, 
Clowes, 58, had been on the Washington 
staff of the Steelworkers, heading the un- 
ion’s political action, international affairs 
and older and retired workers depart- 
ments. 

He had recently become labor liaison 
representative with the Democratic Na- 
tional Committee. 

From 1964 to 1968, he was deputy di- 
rector of the AFL-CIO African-American 
Labor Center in New York. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland, 
in a letter to Clowes’s widow, Gladys, 
praised his service to his country and the 
labor movement, describing him as “a 
man of kindness, honor and sincerity.” 

“Those qualities,” Kirkland continued. 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Delegates to the 
Glass Bottle Blowers 67th convention chal- 
lenged the Administration’s weakening of 
occupational safety and health regulations, 
voiced concern over new attacks on labor 
and approved a per capita increase in- 
tended to strengthen their union during 
the decade of the Eighties. 

The 866 delegates, representing 70,000 
members, voted active support for the 
AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day march on Sept. 
19 and hailed the Polish free trade union 
federation, Solidarnosc, on its first anni- 
versary. Delegates reinforced adoption of 
the resolutions with a rousing chorus of 
Solidarity Forever, led by GBBA President 
James E. Hatfield. 

HATFIELD WAS re-elected to a four- 
year term by acclamation, as were Sec.- 
Treas. Frank W. Carter and all other offi- 
cers and board members. Hatfield has 
headed the union since 1977 after having 
previously served as secretary-treasurer. 

The convention approved a four-step 
rise in per capita payments to $11 a month 
on Oct. 1, with annual 50-cent increases 
to bring the rate to $12.50 by Oct. 1, 1984. 
Previous differences in dues categories 
were eliminated so that the new per capita 
rate will be the same for all GBBA mem- 
bers. The convention also authorized, but 
did not require, a $2 increase in local dues. 


“made him a great trade unionist . . . 
more important, they 'also made him a 
dear friend whose memory will be cher- 
ished.” 

Clowes began his labor career as a rep- 
resentative with the national CIO in At- 
lanta in 1948. He became labor adviser to 
the Marshall Plan in Europe and joined 
the Steelworkers as a staff representative 
in 1953. 

HE WAS a labor adviser in the 1960 
presidential campaign of John Kennedy 
and served as a staff labor coordinator for 
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in 
the 1964 and 1968 campaigns. 

In addition to his wife, he is survived 
by two daughters, Joan and Kathleen, and 
a son, Philip, all of Silver Spring, Md. 

The family has requested that memori- 
als be in the form of contributions to the 
American Heart Association. 


In terms of the union’s special concerns, 
Hatfield said it succeeded in negotiating 
“outstanding contracts” over the past four 
years and he saw a healthy future for em- 
ployment in glass, plastics and fiberglass 
industries. 

HE REITERATED the GBBA’s deter- 
mination to resist job-destroying anti- 
bottle legislation at the local, state and 
national levels. 

Hatfield and other convention speakers 
were sharply critical of Reagan Adminis- 
tration policies and the President’s retalia- 
tion against striking air traffic controllers. 
A convention resolution urged that the 
dispute be resolved through negotiations. 

In his keynote address, Hatfield said the 
Reagan Administration’s “trickle-down” 
economic policy has been used before. 

“It brought on the Depression,” he told 
the delegates. “We must convince the Ad- 
ministration that the policies of Calvin 
Coolidge and Herbert Hoover are no more 
workable today than they were over 50 
years ago.” 

THE CONVENTION raised $11,000 
for the GBBA Political Education League, 
and it contributed close to $4,000 to the 
Olympics for Retarded Children — ^with 
the international union matching proceeds 
of a collection from delegates. 

In a message to the convention, AFL- 
CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said 
Solidarity Day will demonstrate to the Ad- 
ministration, Congress and the nation la- 
bor’s commitment to social and economic 
justice. 

There are those, “enjoying a moment of 
power, who would like to turn the clock 
back,” Donahue said. But “there can be 
no turning back.” 

ROBERT HARBRANT, president of 
the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept., took sharp issue with those who 
praise the courage of Polish union leaders 
but “turn around and smash trade union- 
ism here at home.” 

Howard Chester, executive secretary of 
the Stone, Glass & Clay Coordinating 
Committee urged delegates to join with 
the Citizen-Labor Energy Coalition to 
fight decontrol of natural gas prices, which 
he said could cost the nation over 3 mil- 
lion jobs as well as higher prices. 

Other convention speakers included 
AFL-CIO International Affairs Director 
Ernest Lee, Pottery Workers President 
Lester H. Null, President Norman Hill of 
the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and two 
past presidents of the union, Lee W. Min- 
ton and Harry A. Tulley. 


Dean K. Clowes Dies at 58, 
International Labor Specialist 




Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 12, 1981 



IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL, the AFL-CIO Central La- 
bor Council drew on strong community support for this 
Labor Day march to a rally of solidarity with striking Air 
Trafl5c Controllers. The sign tells the story. Aid to the strik- 
ing controllers continued to pour in from unions and indi- 


viduals across the country, with the AFL-CIO’s PATCO 
Family Fund approaching the $300,000 mark. The fund 
was set up to provide food and clothing, medical emergency 
care and rental and mortgage money to prevent eviction and 
foreclosure. 


Guest Worker Plan Scored 
As Union-Busting Scheme 


Air Controller 
Strike Spurs 
Letter to ILO 

(Continued from Page 1) 

affairs were cited in the complaint. These 
include excessive government fines against 
the union, imprisonment of union mem- 
bers who fail^ to return to work or to 
order others to return to work, and at- 
tempts to prohibit non-violent picketing. 

In addition, the complaint charged that 
FAA supervisers are telephoning union 
members who have received termination 
notices and advising them to dissociate 
themselves from PATCO by appealing 
the terminations without union represen- 
tation. 

Also, “government personnel are telling 
union members that they can avoid being 
terminated only if they cooperate with the 
government and testify against the union,” 
and “threatening physical violence against 
union members if they report intimidating 
communications to their union.” 

THE COMPLAINT also focused on the 
Administration’s over-zealousness in pur- 
suing legal actions against the union and 
its members. Rather than consolidate the 
litigation in one court, the complaint 
noted, the government prosecuted cases 
against the union in approximately 70 
courts, “attempting to overpower the legal 
capabilities of the union.” The Adminis- 
tration also is pursuing some 75 criminal 
indictments aganst individual union mem- 
bers for their participation in the strike, 
the ICFTU observed. 

On the issue of the right to strike, which 
is denied air traffic controllers, the ICFTU 
pointed out that the absence of this right 
was not offset by adequate guarantees to 
safeguard workers’ interests. The govern- 
ment’s dismissal of PATCO members, its 
refusal to bargain, and its refusal of offers 
of mediation were cited. 

“In the U.S. air traffic system, airline 
pilots and other organized groups have 
the right to strike while the controllers do 
not enjoy this right,” the ICFTU said. 

“Since the effect of job actions by these 
different groups would be the same, the 
limitation of rights for controllers is clear- 
ly discriminatory, and shows that there is 
no demonstrable need to treat all govern- 
mental employees alike with regard to 
limitations of rights.” 


The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged 
the Administration to do a more thorough 
hatchet job on the Davis-Bacon Act than 
the Labor Dept, has proposed. 

It praised the Labor Dept, for moving 
“in the right direction” with its plan to 
rewrite prevailing wage regulations so as 
to push down construction worker pay 
scales. But the Chamber complained ^at 
the Administration wasn’t moving far 
enough and suggested more drastic reg- 
ulatory changes that it claims would “save” 
the government $1.3 billion a year on 
construction contracts. 

THE “SAVINGS” would come from 
giving open-shop contractors a clear pre- 



Fresno, Calif. — ^The Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s proposed “guest worker” program 
was roundly denounced as a “union bust- 
ing” move aimed at destroying the United 
Farm Workers and fostering discrimina- 
tory actions against both Mexican and 
U.S. citizens in a resolution adopted by 
delegates to the UFW’s fifth constitutional 
convention here. 

The delegates also approved plans for 
the UFW to be represented at the Solidari- 
ty Day demonstration in Washington Sept. 
19. 

CALIFORNIA GOV. Edmund G. 
Brown, Jr., who signed the 1975 state law 
extending collective bargaining rights to 
farm workers, emphasized that unions, 
business and government must cooperate 
to compete economically with foreign 
countries but sharply attacked actions by 
the Reagan Administration to undermine 
unions and the rights of all U.S. workers. 


ference for bidding on government con- 
tracts by assuring that the prevailing wage 
is set so low that union contractors couldn’t 
compete. 

The Labor Dept, proposal, which the 
AFL-CIO and the Building & Construc- 
tion Trades Dept, charge would fiout the 
intent of the Davis-Bacon Act, would 
change the rules for determining the pre- 
vailing wage so as to lower the rate in 
most localities. It would also set up a new 
low-paying category of “helper.” 

To achieve substantially deeper pay 
cuts, the Chamber proposed that the Labor 
Dept, adopt one of the following two 
plans: 

• Survey wage rates in a locality for 
the various crafts and allow contractors to 
pay wages anywhere within the range. In 
other words, the lowest rate paid by any 
contractor in a locality would be the al- 
lowable wage on a federal construction 
contract. 

• As an alternative, the prevailing 
wage rate would be set “by computing the 
average rate paid in the lower 50 percent 
of wages paid to a craft within the locality 
or survey area.” 

In defending its proposals, the Chamber 
contended that the Davis-Bacon Act wasn’t 
intended to guarantee prevailing wages, 
but merely to establish a minimum wage 
that contractors might pay. 

The Chamber also urged further liberal- 
ization of the allowable use of lower-paid 
helpers. 


The governor predicted that U.S. work- 
ers would soon sour on the Administration 
because of “Reagan’s anti-union philoso- 
phy.” 

UFW President Cesar Chavez warned 
the delegates that “malignant forces” both 
inside and out of the union are “jointly 
struggling to destroy our union” and 
called for unity during the difficult days 
ahead when some 95 union contracts with 
growers come up for negotiations. 

HE ALSO announced that the UFW 
had jus^t received word that the Federal 
Communications Commission has finally 
approved the license for Farm Workers 
Communications, Inc., to operate a non- 
profit educational radio station in the San 
Joaquin Valley. 

The station, which will reach an area 
covering more than 12,000 square miles, 
will have the power equivalent to a 50,000- 
watt station because it would be situated 
high on a mountain, Ken Doyle, the un- 
ion’s radio specialist, said. 

The station is expected to be operational 
early next year, well before the Mar. 31 
20th anniversary of the union. 

AMONG OTHER actions, the delegates 
approved a resolution to set up a legal 
corporation to provide paralegal services 
for UFW members. 

Chavez was re-elected as president of 
the union without opposition. Other key 
officers elected at the convention were Do- 
lores Huerta, first vice president; Frank 
Ortiz, second vice president; Richard 
Chavez, third vice president; and Peter 
Velasco, secretary-treasurer. 


Economic Index 
Continues Slide 
For Third Month 

The Commerce Dept, reported that its 
index of leading economic indicators de- 
clined 0.1 percent in July, signaling con- 
tinued sluggishness in the economy. 

The third consecutive monthly drop in 
the index, which is designed to forecast 
economic trends, followed a revised 1- 
percent decline in June and a 1.6-percent 
drop in May. The June performance ini- 
tially was estimated as a 1.3-percent drop. 

Most of the recent weakness in the 
economy has resulted from high interest 
rates resulting from the Federal Reserve 
Board’s tight money policy, which the 
Administration has supported as the price 
of curbing inflation. 

THE ECONOMY boomed in the first 
quarter of the year, growing at an 8.6- 
percent seasonally adjusted annual rate. 
But during the second quarter, the real 
gross national product (GNP) shrank at 
a 2.4-percent annual rate. 

In July, six of the 10 indicators that 
make up the index of leading indicators 
registered declines. The biggest falls came 
in the money supply and in new orders for 
manufactured consumer goods and mate- 
rials. The other indicators contributing to 
the overall drop were the average work- 
week, vendor performance, building per- 
mits and stock prices. 

Three of the indicators rose, partly off- 
setting the decline. These were the layoff 
rate, contracts and orders for plant and 
equipment, and change of total liquid as- 
sets. One indicator was unchanged — the 
change in sensitive crude materials prices, 
which averages movements over four 
months. 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

U.S.-Israeli Ties Stressed 
On Histadrut Anniversary 

The trade union movements of the United States and Israel are linked by 
democratic values and a common commitment to freedom, AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland said in a message to the 60th anniversary convention of Histadrut. 

^‘The values we share must be defended, as must the progress we have made 
on behalf of working people in our two countries,” Kirkland wrote Histadrut 
Sec.-Gen. Yerucham Meshel. 

Despite temporary setbacks, “the struggle to achieve liberty, justice and se- 
curity for all cannot falter,” Kirkland declared. Because the values are universal, 
he said, ‘"they wBl sooner or later prevail.” 

Kirkland voiced pride in U.S. labor’s steadfast support for the creation of 
an independent Jewish national homeland, dating back to an AFL convention 
resolution in 1917, and in the fact that the creation of the state was largely 
achieved “by ordinary working men and women” with a “solid foundation of 
trade union principles.” 


Chamber Asks Deeper Slash 
In Davis-Bacon Protections 



Workers, Allies Aeross Nation 
Head for Solidarity Day March 



IN PHILADELPHIA, area labor leaders and several thousand other supporters 
joined striking teachers in a City Hall rally to protest conditions that led to the 
walkout. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers called the strike after the 
school board laid off some 3,500 workers and rescinded a pay increase agreed 
to in a contract signed last year. The walkout involves some 22,000 teachers 
and other school employees. 

100,000 Face Sharp Cut 
In Trade Adjustment Aid 


Rank-and-File to Protest 
Reagan Rollback of Gains 

By bus, train, car pool and camper, Americans who want to send a message to 
the Reagan Administration and to Congress headed for Washington to join in the 
Solidarity Day demonstration called by the AFL-CIO and endorsed by some 200 
national organizations. 

Groups marching down Constitution Ave., from the vicinity of the Washington 
Monument to the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, will include major senior citizen, 
civil rights, religious, consumer and women’s organizations as well as unions not 
affiliated with the AFL-CIO — all joining to protest Reagan’s attempt to reverse 
four decades of social progress. 

More than a day before the Sept. 19 demonstration, the more distant caravans 


One hundred thousand unemployed 
workers drawing trade adjustment assis- 
tance because their jobs were wiped out 
by imports will have their benefits cut by 
an average of more than $100 a week 
after Oct. 1. 

That’s the start of the new fiscal year, 
when the budget cuts sought by President 
Reagan and enacted by Congress start to 
take effect. 

UNTIL OCT. 1, workers certified for 
trade adjustment benefits are entitled to 
70 percent of lost wages up to a ceiling 
equal to the average factory wage in the 
United States — currently $289 a week. 

After Oct. 1, the amount of their bene- 
fit will be determined by their state’s un- 
employment insurance program. In some 
cases, that will be less than half their 
current payments. 

While every section of the nation has 
its import victims, the Labor Dept, says 
the largest group is made up of displaced 
auto workers, with a heavy concentration 
in Michigan and other Great Lakes states. 

EVEN IN Michigan, where a recent in- 
crease in state unemployment insurance 
benefits brought the ceiling to $182 a 
week, the drop in payments will exceed 
$ 100 . 

Most state benefit ceilings are lower 
than that. In neighboring Indiana, for 
example, the displaced worker who had 
been getting $289 in trade adjustment 
benefits will drop to a state maximum of 
$141 a week for a person with dependents 
or $84 for a jobless worker without de- 
pendents. 

Another provision written into the bud- 
get bill will achieve further “savings” by 
cutting back on the number of workers 
entitled to even the reduced level of trade 
adjustment benefits. That change takes 


effect next Dec. 13, six months after Pres- 
ident Reagan signed the budget reconcilia- 
tion bill. 

Workers seeking certification for pay- 
ments after that date must demonstrate 
that foreign import competition was a 
“substantial cause” for their unemploy- 
ment, a definition the Administration re- 
gards as more stringent than the present 
requirement that imports “contributed sub- 
stantially” to the job losses. 

A section of the budget reconciliation 
bill that is already in effect has knocked 
Rhode Island out of the small list of high- 
unemployment states still providing a 13- 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Convention 

The AFL-CIO issued the official call 
for its 14th Constitutional Convention, 
noting that the federation will meet in its 
centennial year “when workers and trade 
unionists are deeply disturbed” by the di- 
rection the country is headed. 

The convention will be held at New 
York’s Sheraton Centre Hotel, starting 
Nov. 16, at 10 a.m. 

In issuing the call. Federation President 
Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue observed that “radical changes 
in America’s social and economic struc- 
tures are being pressed by a business- 
oriented Administration and embraced by 
a compliant Congress.” 

KIRKLAND AND DONAHUE said 
that the Reagan White House is following 
four main avenues in efforts to roll back 
a half-century of labor’s gains. 

They cited “tax cuts that favor the rich; 
cuts in federal spending that injure the 


began rolling. In Minnesota, union mem- 
bers were up before dawn on Sept. 18, to 
board buses in Minneapolis and St. Paul 
for a 7 a.m. departure — ^and a 26-hour 
drive to Washington. Iowa and Oklahoma 
buses were among other early starters. 

THE NIGHT BEFORE, car pools from 
Seattle began moving union members 
across the Canadian border to Vancouver 
— to board a plane to Toronto over a 
route staffed by union air controllers, and 
then to begin a 10-hour bus trip to 
Washington. 

Most of the participants will be coming 
from lesser distances, within a 300-mile 
radius of the nation’s capital. 

With a substantial turnout assured, the 
emphasis in the final round of interviews 
and speeches by AFL CIO President Lane 
Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Don- 
ahue has been on the goals of the demon- 
stration. 

IT’S A TAKEOFF point, not the fin- 
ish line, they stressed, of a continuing 
campaign to defend social and economic 
progress from the Reagan Administration 
and a me-too Congress. 

Kirkland told reporters that the impact 
of Solidarity Day will be felt long after 
the last demonstrator has left Washington, 
and will be reflected in closer ties that 
have been forged between the trade union 
movement and its Solidarity Day allies. 

“It will strengthen us for today and to- 
morrow,” Kirkland said. “It strengthens 
people to look around and see they’re not 
alone. It encourages them.” 

KIRKLAND TRACED the genesis of 
Solidarity Day to President Reagan’s as- 
sertion, early in his Administration, that 
labor’s criticism of his budget and tax 
policies reflected only the views of union 
leaders, not of rank-and-file members. 

“There’s only one real adequate re- 
sponse to that kind of position,” Kirkland 
said, “and that is to bring the rank-and- 
file to town and give them an opportunity 
to present their views.” 

Kirkland noted that at the series of 
(Continued on Page 8) 


public interest; termination of federal regu- 
latory programs that protect workers, con- 
sumers and the environment; and monetary 
policies that destroy jobs, feed inflation 
and bankrupt companies and industries 
that depend upon borrowed money. 

“As the strongest, best-organized force 
defending the interests of workers and the 
plain people of the United States, the labor 
movement must provide nationwide leader- 
ship in opposition to this destructive pro- 
cess,” Kirkland and Donahue stressed. 

“Delegates to the AFL CIO convention 
face the task of establishing programs and 
policies around which workers and all 
Americans who believe in freedom, de- 
mocracy and the public interest can rally 
in the hard struggle that lies ahead.” 

The notice to affiliates includes a replica 
of the call to the 1881 founding conven- 
tion of the Federation of Organized Trades 
& Labor Unions, which became the Amer- 


Preparations 
For Rally Hit 
Fever Pitch 

By David L. Periman 

On Solidarity Day Minus Three, the 
phones in the AFL-CIO’s command post 
never stop ringing, logistics problems 
mount — and Solidarity Day coordinator 
John Perkins and his staff couldn’t be 
happier. 

The 26 satellite parking areas for buses 
and cars that will bring demonstrators to 
Washington were barely adequate for yes- 
terday’s estimates. Now, NAACP coordi- 
nator Ina Boon puts down a telephone to 
pass the word that her organization will 
have at least 51 more buses coming to 
Washington than the start-of-the-week 
tally indicated. That latest call was from 
North Carolina, where NAACP branches 
have lined up 14 chartered buses instead 
of the nine previously scheduled. 

No sweat. They’ll get parking spaces as- 
signed somewhere. 

SOLIDARITY DAY headquarters is a 
large conference room that has been 
transformed into a warren of makeshift 
cubbyholes just big enough to squeeze in 
a desk and phone for each of the people 
responsible for the myriad details. 

Posters and placards lean against the 
walls. A new box of signed Solidarity Day 
petitions is set down precariously on top 
of an earlier stack. Secretaries, unfaillingly 
polite and cheerful, give intricate driving 
directions to callers between bites of lunch 
at their desks. 

An advance team from the Auto Work- 
ers comes to find out about permits for 
bullhorns. The Ladies’ Garment Workers 
telephones to confirm the schedule for the 

(Continued on Page 8) 


ican Federation of Labor five years later. 

“The time has now arrived for a more 
perfect combination of Labor — one that 
will concentrate our forces so as to more 
successfully cope with concentrated capi- 
tal,” the 1881 call observed. 

IT NOTED THAT there were numerous 
local, national and international unions al- 
ready in existence. “But, great as has been 
the work done by these bodies, there is 
vastly more that can be done by a combi- 
nation of all these organizations in a fed- 
eration of trades. . . . 

“Only in such a body can proper action 
be taken to promote the general welfare 
of the industrial classes. There we can dis- 
cuss and examine all questions affecting 
the national interests of each and every 
trade, and by a combination of forces se- 
cure that justice which isolated and sepa- 
rated trade and labor unions can never 
fully command,” the 1881 call declared. 





Page Two AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 

Pope Declares Unions ^Indispensable’ 


By Janies M. She vis 

Pope John Paul II declared in a major 
statement to the Roman Catholic Church 
that labor unions are “an indispensable 
element” of modern industrialized so- 
ciety, serving as “advocates for the strug- 
gle for social justice (and) for the just 
rights of working people.” 

In the third encyclical of his pontifi- 
cate, John Paul defended workers’ rights 
to form unions and engage in strikes and 
to have adequate salaries, health care, em- 
ployment, and vacations. He stressed that 
unions should guard their independence 
and autonomy, warning that “they should 
not be subjected to the decision of political 
parties or have too close links with them.” 

THE ENCYCLICAL, or circular let- 
ter, to Roman Catholic bishops was writ- 
ten to commemorate the 90th anniversary 
of Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” 
(“Of New Things”), the church’s first so- 
cial encyclical, which also dealt, with 
work. 

The latest papal letter touches on many 
specific worker issues, including jobs and 
unemployment, wages and social benefits, 
the role of multinational corporations in 
society, agricultural labor, and the prob- 
lems of women workers, migrant workers, 
and the handicapped. 

In a section of the 24,000-word ency- 
clical on “social benefits,” the Pope said 
that wages should be high enough so that 
a man can support a family and so a 

TV Campaign Hits 
Reagan Attack on 
Social Security 

The State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees is challenging the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s attack on the social security 
system with a 13-city television advertising 
campaign that urges viewers to write mem- 
ber® of Congress. 

AFSCME President Jerry Wurf said the 
union has committed $400,000 to the TV 
advertising campaign, on top of earlier 
newspaper ads, because “we won’t let the 
Reagan Administration take away what 
working Americans have earned.” 

The union’s message, he stressed, is 
that “social security is not a handout. It’s 
a contract between the United States gov- 
ernment and the American people” and its 
promised benefits have been earned 
“through lifetimes of hard work.” 

A SIMILAR theme was stressed earlier 
this year in a newspaper advertisement 
sponsored jointly with the Auto Workers 
and in AFSCME ads detailing the impact 
of the Reagan Administration’s budget 
and tax cuts. 

AFSCME Sec.-Treas. William Lupy told 
a news conference that 37 television 
stations in the 13 target cities are running 
the union’s 60-second commercial. But 
another 24 stations, he said, refused to sell 
time to the union, generally on the excuse 
that they do not carry “advocacy advertis- 
mg. 

The “contract, not a handout” com- 
mercial began a weeklong run on televi- 
sion stations in the following cities: Wash- 
ington, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, 
Dallas, Hartford, Atlanta, Miami, San 
Francisco, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit 
and Pittsburgh. 

Rubber Workers Win 
Oklahoma Plant Vote 

Oklahoma City — Workers at Firestone’s 
Dayton Tire plant here voted in the Rub- 
ber Workers in the union’s seventh orga- 
nizing attempt at the facility. 

In a National Labor Relations Board 
election Sept. 1 1 , plant workers voted for 
URW representation 564-513. There were 
1,215 workers eligible to vote. 

URW President Peter Bommarito called 
the win a major victory for the union that 
reflects an upsurge in union organizing in 
the South and Southwest. 


mother will not have to work to help the 
family survive. 

“IT WILL redound to the credit of so- 
ciety to make it possible for a mother — 
without inhibiting her freedom, without 
psychological or practical discrimination 
and without penalizing her as compared 
with other women — ^to devote herself to 
taking care of her children and educating 
them in accordance with their needs,” the 
official English version of the encyclical 
states. 

“Having to abandon these tasks in or- 
der to take up paid work outside the home 
is wrong from the point of view of the 
good of society and of the family when 
it contradicts or hinders these primary 
goals of the mission of a mother.” 

The Pope recognized, however, that “in 
many societies women work in nearly 
every sector” and he called for their fair 
treatment on the job. Working women 
should be allowed to “fulfill their tasks in 
accordance with their own nature, without 
being discriminated against and without 
being excluded from jobs for which they 
are capable,” the Pontiff said. 

On a more general level, John Paul 
said, work for all human beings “must 
be organized and adapted in such a way 
as to respect the requirements of the per- 
son and his or her forms of life, above 
all life in the home.” 

“LABOREM EXERCENS”— the Latin 
title for the encyclical, meaning “through 


the exercise of work” — is John Paul’s 
most sweeping socio-political statement 
since he was elected Pope nearly three 
years ago. He said he had intended to 
issue the document on May 15, but the 
attempt on his life two days earlier de- 
layed its publication. Encyclicals have 
traditionally been used by popes to ad- 
dress the world’s 600 million Roman 
Catholics on major doctrinal, moral and 
disciplinary issues, and to apply church 
teaching on social matters. 

A central theme of the document is the 
Pope’s strong opposition — vigorously ex- 
pounded on his trips abroad — to the “de- 
humanizing excesses” of modern economic 
systems. He blamed both “rigid” capital- 
ism and the “collectivist system” for sub- 
ordinating the worker to economic goals. 

“We must emphasize and give promi- 
nence to the primacy of man in the pro- 
duction process, the primacy of man over 
things,” the Pope said. “We must first of 
all recall a principle that has always been 
taught by the church, the principle of the 
priority of labor over capital.” 

THE POPE SAID Catholic social teach- 
ing supports “proposals for joint owner- 
ship of the means of work, sharing by the 
workers in the management and/or profits 
of businesses, so-called shareholding by 
labor, etc. 

“Whether these various proposals can 
or cannot be applied concretely, it is clear 
that recognition of the proper position of 
labor and the worker in the production 


process demands various adaptations in 
the sphere of the right to ownership of 
the means of production.” 

An unabashed admirer of Poland’s 
year-old Solidarity, the independent labor 
federation, John Paul uses the word 
“solidarity” frequently in the letter as in 
the following defense of independent trade 
unions: 

“IN ORDER TO achieve social justice 
in the various parts of the world, in the 
various countries and in the relationships 
between them, there is a need for ever new 
movements of solidarity of the workers 
and with the workers. This solidarity must 
be present whenever it is called for by the 
social degrading of the subject of work, 
by exploitation of the workers, and by 
the growing areas of poverty and even 
hunger. The church is firmly committed to 
this cause. . . .” 

In an introduction to the letter, the 
Pope stresses the theological aspect of 
work, giving it a spiritual dimension that 
sets man apart from other forms of life. 

“From the beginning, (man) is called 
to work. Work is one of the characteristics 
that distinguish man from the rest of crea- 
tures, whose activity for sustaining their 
lives cannot be called work. Only man is 
capable of work and only man works, at 
the same time by work occupying his exis- 
tence on earth. Thus work bears a particu- 
lar mark of man and of humanity, the 
mark of a person operating within a com- 
munity of persons.” 


American Histadrut Council 
Focuses on Mid-East Outlook 



AMBASSADOR PHILIP HABIB 


The AFL-CIO has urged the House Ap- 
propriations Committee to deny the Rea- 
gan Administration funds for shifting the 
headquarters of the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety & Health from the 
Washington area to Atlanta. 

A House appropriations subcommittee 
in a 5-to-2 vote has already rejected the 
use of nearly $2 million to cover the cost 
of the move. 

THE TRANSFER of the NIOSH head- 
quarters from Rockville, Md., to the Cen- 
ters for Disease Control in Atlanta is be- 
ing pressed by Sec. Richard S. Schweiker 
of the Dept, of Health & Human Ser- 
vices. 

Schweiker announced plans for the shift 
earlier this year after firing Dr. Anthony 
W. Robbins as NIOSH director and ap- 
pointing Dr. J. Donald Millar to the post. 
Millar had been director of the Center for 
Environmental Health, a part of the fed- 
eral disease control centers in Atlanta. 

The proposed move, which unions as- 
sailed as an attempt to dismantle the 
agency, involves the shift of the director’s 
office and about 110 key staff positions 
to Atlanta, as well as splitting off 50 tech- 
nical experts from the headquarters opera- 
tion and moving them to Cincinnati. 


Unity House, Pa. — Ambassador Philip 
Habib, special Middle East negotiator for 
the United States and personal representa- 
tive of President Reagan, told a trade un- 
ion parley here that the next few weeks 
will determine whether a comprehensive 
peace settlement in the Middle East will 
be possible. 

In an address before 300 trade union- 
ists at the biennial conference of the 
American Trade Union Council for Hista- 
drut, Habib said the recent meetings be- 
tween Reagan and Israeli Prime Minister 
Menachem Begin made decisions critical 
during this period of calm in the Middle 
East. 

HABIB MADE ONE of his rare public 
appearances at the Labor Day weekend 
conference of ATUC at this center of the 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland ex- 
pressed concern that the role of NIOSH 
may be diminished and subordinated by 
the move and that many of the agency’s 
highly qualified staff members who are 
unable to make the transfer will be lost. 

“In addition, important liaison work 
with OSHA, EPA and represeiltatives of 
workers will be unnecessarily constrained 
by the geographic distance created by the 
move,” Kirkland stressed. 

KIRKLAND ALSO pointed out that 
the agency neglected to consult with Gov- 
ernment Employees Local 41, which rep- 
resents the NIOSH staff, before announc- 
ing the move. 

In a letter to Chairman Jamie W. Whit- 
ten of the House of Appropriations Com- 
mittee, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison warned that the shift would seri- 
ously impair the ability of NIOSH to carry 
out the directives of Congress under the 
federal job safety law to protect workers. 

Strong opposition to the shifting of 
NIOSH also was expressed at a Capitol 
Hill press conference by union, public in- 
terest and congressional representatives, 
including the AFL-CIO Industrial Union 
Dept., the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Work- 
ers, AFGE, Mine Workers and Rep. Mi- 
chael D. Barnes (D-Md.). 


Ladies’ Garment Workers. He was invited 
to address the session by Matthew Schoen- 
wald, chairman of the council and vice 
president of the ILGWU. 

Schoenwald informed the delegates that 
in appreciation of the ambassador’s par- 
ticipation in the conference and in recog- 
nition of the service of his brother, the 
late Fred Habib, as an officer of Local 62 
of the ILGWU, the council was dedicat- 
ing an annual scholarship to the vocational 
high schools of the Histadrut in Israel in 
the name of Fred Habib. 

HABIB DEVOTED most of his talk to 
a discussion of the potential of the Camp 
David Agreements which, he said, can’t 
be described “in anything except highly 
laudatory terms.” 

He cautioned, however, that the princi- 
pals in the agreements — Egypt, Israel and 
the United States — must take advantage of 
the calm now existing in the area to get 
the most out of the Camp David accords. 

Habib warned that “the problems are 
long-term, but the near future must pro- 
duce movement or the confrontation will 
arise that will threaten everything.” 

The theme of the two-day conference 
was “Prospects of Peace in the Middle 
East.” The ATUC maintains active sup- 
port for and liaison with Histadrut, the 
General Federation of Labor in Israel. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Miners to ‘Convene’ 
On Solidarity Day 

The United Mine Workers has an- 
nounced a “special convention” to co- 
incide with Solidarity Day to assure that 
mine operators won’t be able to keep 
UMW members from coming to Wash- 
ington. 

Union contracts allow workers to take 
off without pay for “official union busi- 
ness,” but some mine owners said they 
didn’t consider the Solidarity Day dem- 
onstration an occasion for excused ab- 
sences. 

The union then proclaimed a “special 
convention” and UMW President Sam 
M. Church, Jr., said any member who 
took part in Solidarity Day would be 
considered a convention delegate. The 
business of the convention will be to 
march with the UMW’s contingent. 

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Congress Urged to Reject 
Funds for Shift of NIOSH 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


Page Three 


Industry Negotiations 

Job Guarantees Key Goal 
Of Auto Workers in ’82 



UNION MILLINERY workers demonstrate their hat-making skills at the annual 
Labor Day street fair in New York sponsored by District 1 199, the health care 
affiliate of the Retail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. A number of other unions 
and the Coalition of Labor Union Women joined in this year’s program. 

Michigan Unions Back Riegle 
To Counter Far-Right Attack 


Detroit — Auto Workers President 
Douglas A. Fraser alerted the industry 
that negotiation of some form of job 
guarantee will be a major priority of the 
union in next year’s round of auto bar- 
gaining. 

“I believe the UAW will seek a guar- 
anteed right of employment in the 1982 
contract,” Fraser said in an address to 
the Economic Club of Detroit. 

HE POINTED OUT that the union’s 
collective bargaining proposals have al- 
ways grown out of the experiences and 
problems of the membership. 

“The local union delegates to our col- 
lective bargaining convention will decide 
what direction we take,” Fraser said. “But 
I think the experiences of the workers in 
the current auto depression argue that job 
security will be a priority issue in 1982 
bargaining. 

“The agony and horror of the layoffs 
experienced in the last two years must 
never again be allowed to occur,” the 
UAW president said. 

100.000 Jobless 
Face Sharp Cut 
In Trade Act Aid 

(Continued from Page 1) 

week period of extended benefits for 
workers still jobless after having used up 
their maximum 26 weeks of regular state 
benefits. 

Rhode Island “triggered-off” the extend- 
ed benefits program because a new method 
of calculating the insured jobless ratio 
was written into law as part of the budget 
process. 

UNDER THE NEW system, persons 
who use up their state benefits and start 
drawing extended unemployment benefits 
are no longer counted as unemployed. 
Thus, the longer people are without jobs, 
the lower the insured unemployment rate. 

Rhode Island is a small state, and only 
2,500 workers were cut off from benefits 
as a result of the change. But bigger 
states are currently threatened by the 
change. The director of the Michigan Em- 
ployment Security Commission said nearly 

50.000 long-unemployed workers in Mich- 
igan stand to lose benefits under the 
change in the trigger formula. Only a new 
round of auto layoffs that pushed up the 
number of new unemployment compensa- 
tion claims prevented a triggering-off of 
the state’s extended benefits program in 
mid-September. 


Blackpool, England — The AFL-CIO and 
the British Trades Union Congress, part- 
ners for decades in the struggle to strength- 
en the international labor movement, were 
urged to join together anew to raise the 
living standards of free world workers. 

“There is extraordinary value in our in- 
dependence — and in our mutual caring and 
sharing for bread and freedom, dignity 
and human rights for all,” President Sol 
C. Chaikin of the Ladies’ Garment Work- 
ers observed at the TUC’s 113th annual 
convention in this English coastal city. 

“YET MUCH remains to be done 
where our cooperation can be meaningful 
— in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin 
America. 

“None of us who values human rights 
and decency can be neutral in the struggle 
between the forces of freedom and the 
legions of tyranny. Let us join with our 
free brothers and sisters to bring about 
the changes that are needed.” 

Chaikin, addressing the TUC as the 
federation’s fraternal delegate to its con- 
vention this year, noted that the American 
and British labor movements have en- 
joyed friendly relations and delegate ex- 


Fraser acknowledged the wage differ- 
ential between U.S. and Japanese auto 
workers, a good portion of which, he said, 
exists today because of currency fluctua- 
tions. 

“BUT OVERALL,” he said, “Japa- 
nese auto workers have not shared pro- 
portionately in the fruits of their produc- 
tivity.” 

In addition, he said, simply looking at 
the differential in wages ignores the pro- 
gressive elements of Japan’s employment 
system — such as job security, transporta- 
tion allowances, subsidized housing, and 
many more. 

“I believe that the proper solution to 
the Japanese wage differential lies in rais- 
ing Japanese wages to a level commen- 
surate with their productivity,” Fraser ob- 
served. “The answer is not to roll back 
American workers’ wages to the levels 
paid in Japan or Brazil or Korea.” 

FRASER UNDERSCORED the UAW’s 
commitment to responsible, realistic bar- 
gaining. But he stressed that this means 
more than' just intelligent restraint at the 
bargaining table. 

“Bargaining responsibly also means that 
both the union and management do every- 
thing possible to wipe out waste and in- 
efficiency in the delivery of negotiated 
benefits, thereby saving money for every- 
one — the worker, the consumer and the 
company,” Fraser said. “We at the UAW 
are committed to doing that.” 

Fraser listed a number of steps that he 
said must be taken to lift the auto indus- 
try out of its current depression, singling 
out especially the need for lowering in- 
terest rates. 

“President Reagan fails to take the 
steps necessary to deal with the problem 
of high interest rates,” he said. “The 20- 
percent prime rate is choking the life- 
blood not only from the auto industry, 
but from housing and other crucial sec- 
tors of the economy.” 

FRASER AGAIN CALLED for a U.S. 
auto policy designed to bring the industry 
back to health, saying that policy should 
include local content legislation. Such leg- 
islation, he said, is needed to limit the 
ability of GM and Ford “to pull down 
the American flag and raise the colors of 
Korea or Brazil or other countries which 
pay workers so little they can’t afford to 
buy the products they build.” 

Even more important, he said, would 
be the impact on the Japanese automak- 
ers. 

“They’ve got an $11 billion market in 
the United States, and we believe they 
should put some capital here and create 
some jobs here,” the UAW president said. 


change visits since 1895. In the years 
since then, culminating in the immediate 
post-World War II era, the two move- 
ments worked closely together to advance 
free trade unionism. 

IN 1945, with the defeat of Hitler, the 
TUC and the AFL played leading roles 
in creating closer and more fruitful rela- 
tions between national trade union cen- 
ters, and provided the bulk of support for 
the formation of the International Con- 
ference of Free Trade Unions in 1949, 
Chaikin pointed out. The two also joined 
in helping to establish the DGB (Deut- 
scher Gewerkschaftsbund) labor federa- 
tion in occupied Germany after the war, 
he recalled. 

In the past year, the TUC and the AFL- 
CIO have given practical aid and moral 
support to “those courageous workers in 
Poland who have challenged a totalitarian 
government to create their own free trade 
union movement. Solidarity,” Chaikin 
added. 

“Let us continue in these efforts,” he 
urged. “Where there is now oppression, 
poverty and disease, tears and travail, let 
there be peace and plenty,” he said. “The 


Dearborn, Mich. — Michigan labor isn’t 
waiting until 1982 to begin the drive to 
re-elect Sen. Donald Riegle (D). Delegates 
to the 13th convention of the Michigan 
AFL-CIO gave Riegle an early endorse- 
ment for what is shaping up as a tough 
re-election campaign. 

Riegle has been targeted for defeat by 
the Moral Majority, which has placed him 
number two on its “hit list,” right behind 
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). 

THE ENDORSEMENT resolution was 
adopted after Riegle told the delegates 
that the Moral Majority was out to get 
him primarily because of his pro-labor 
voting record. 

“I come here today with one of the best 
COPE voting records, and I’m proud of 
it,” Riegle said. “When the far right tar- 
geted me for defeat in 1982, they also tar- 
geted the labor movement.” 

He vowed to continue his fight against 
the Administration’s efforts to gut the so- 
cial security system, charging that Presi- 
dent Reagan and congressional Republi- 
cans “will proceed with the dismantling of 
social security piece by piece because they 
don’t believe in it.” 

When the 1982 election campaign goes 
into high gear next year, there may be a 
fully united labor movement in Michigan 
backing Riegle and other pro-labor candi- 
dates. 

IN HIS KEYNOTE speech to the con- 
vention, Michigan AFL-CIO President 
William C. Marshall welcomed the na- 
tional reaffiliation of the UAW with the 
AFL-CIO and urged immediate steps to 


only war we seek is that against hunger, 
disease, racism, totalitarian government, 
and the denial of the human spirit.” 

CHAIKIN NOTED that the AFL-CIO 
and the TUC today have much in com- 
mon. In the United States, “Thatcherism 
has finally caught up with us in the name 
of Reaganism,” he observed. 

The effects of President Reagan’s bud- 
gets and tax reductions — similar to those 
of British Prime Minister Margaret 
Thatcher — will be to “tear down the social 
and economic infrastructure of the United 
States which the trade-union movement, 
together with its liberal cooperators, la- 
boriously built up in the last four dec- 
ades,” he warned. 

Labor’s answer to Reagan’s deep slashes 
in social welfare programs such as food 
stamps and aid to education funds has 
been to marshal its resources and join 
with its traditional allies to advance work- 
ers' interests, Chaikin said. Solidarity Day 
on Sept. 19 will mark the opening shot 
in the campaign to complete the AFL- 
CIO’s “unfinished agenda” for American 
workers, he said. 


carry out the reaffiliation process at the 
state and local levels. 

Delegates then adopted a resolution call- 
ing for the establishment of a State AFL- 
CIO committee to meet with the Michigan 
UAW leadership “in the hopes of securing 
their early return to the Michigan AFL- 
CIO and every local central body in 
Michigan.” 

In his speech, Marshall lashed out at 
the Reagan Administration and its allies 
who “seem intent on destroying all of the 
progress working people made in the last 
50 years.” 

HE SINGLED out Reagan’s treatment 
of the air controllers, comparing it to the 
“yellow dog” contracts of the past when 
workers had to sign away their right to 
union representation if they wanted to 
keep their jobs. 

“Yellow dog contracts are one form of 
tyranny, whether they’re put in by govern- 
ment regulation or private power. We’ve 
fought ‘yellow dog’ contracts for 100 years 
in the private sector — and we’ll fight them 
for the next 100 years in the public sector 
if necessary,” Marshall said. 

Michigan Gov. William Milliken (R) 
told the convention that he will propose 
major changes in workers’ and unemploy- 
ment compensation benefits in order to 
improve the state’s “business climate.” 

Big business leaders have been pushing 
for reduction in benefit payments and re- 
strictions in the coverage of those pro- 
grams. While Milliken did not detail his 
proposals, he did indicate they would 
lean toward the business arguments. 

MARSHALL WAS re-elected without 
opposition to a new term as president, a 
post he has held since 1971. He served as 
executive vice president from 1960 to 
1969 and as secretary-treasurer in 1969- 
71. 

Walter Oliver, State, County & Munici- 
pal Employees staff member, defeated in- 
cumbent George B. Watts, former Steel- 
workers representative, to become the fed- 
eration’s secretary-treasurer. 

Other convention speakers included 
NAACP Executive Director Benjamin 
Hooks, UAW President Douglas Fraser, 
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Institute President Norman Hill, 
UAW Vice President Don Ephlin, and 
COPE Director A1 Barkan. 

Kits Offered Students 
On College Debate Topic 

College debaters will compete this year 
on the topic of whether the government 
should significantly curtail the power of 
unions, and the AFL-CIO Dept, of Edu- 
cation has compiled kits of background 
information for students arguing the pro- 
posal. 

The college debate kit is available with- 
out charge from the AFL-CIO Pamphlets 
Division, 815 16th St., N.W., Washing- 
ton, D.C. 20006. 


Chaikin Links U.S.^ British Labor Goals 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


^The Right of the People ’ 

T he first amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States guarantees “the right of the people peacefully to assem- 
ble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” 

Welcome to Solidarity Day! 

Lessons in Reaganomics 

W ' ITH INNOCENT astonishment, the Administration is learn- 
ing that heavy tax cuts that are supposed to fuel a new wave 
of investment by corporations and the wealthy reduce the govern- 
ment’s revenue and increase deficits. 

The President and his advisers also are discovering another 
elementary fact of economic life — that a deliberate tight-money 
policy pushes up interest rates, and since a large share of the fed- 
eral budget goes into interest payments, this invariably pushes up 
the deficit. 

And what is the Administration’s response to these lessons? 
Why, to propose still deeper cuts in government programs, of 
course, and still bigger holes in the “safety net” promised for the 
“truly needy” who are not getting four-digit tax cuts. 

Good News? 

A CASUAL READER of newspaper headlines might easily con- 
clude that President Reagan has abandoned his attack on 
social security and that working Americans can rest easy in the 
assurance that earned and promised benefits will in fact be paid 
when they come due. 

“Reagan Rules Out Social Security Cut to Reduce Deficit” 
read the Page One headline in the Sept. 16 Washington Post. 
Other newspapers had similar headlines. 

The hard news on which the headlines were based was this 
simple one-sentence statement issued by the White House press 
office: “The President has announced that he has no plans to pro- 
pose additional cuts in social security beyond those he has already 
submitted to Congress.” 

And what of the cuts the President has already submitted to 
Congress? 

Well, just as a reminder, he would drastically slash the benefit 
formula for people who retire at age 62 and make further changes 
that would hold down benefits for persons retiring at 65. He 
would also postpone cost-of-living adjustments for persons already 
retired and further curtail the already repeatedly reduced dis- 
ability insurance program. 

Beyond those, the White House assures. President Reagan will 
not now seek further cutbacks. Not for this year, that is. 

But wait until next year. 


Mti 


Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


1 John H. Lyons 
E Frederick O’Neal 
= A1 H. Chesser 
E Albert Shanker 
S Edward T. Hanley 
E William H.McClennan 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
E Wm.W.Winpisinger 
S John J. O’Donnell 
= Robert F. Goss 
E Joyce D. Miller 

S * Deceased. 

S Director of Information: Saul Miller 

= Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

= Assistant Editors: 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

5 David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

= AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 

E Washington, D.C. 20006 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, September 19, 1981 No. 38 | 

= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
E to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. 




Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason E 

S. Frank Raftery = 

Murray H. Finley E 

Sol C. Chaikin E 

Charles H. Pillard E 

Lloyd McBride E 

Alvin E. Heaps s 

Fred J. Kroll * | 

Wayne E. Glenn = 

William Konyha = 

Douglas A. Fraser = 


From the Rooftop 







Passing the Buck 

Reagan Plays Same Old Game 
On Role of Federal Reserve 


By Gus Tyler 

T HERE’S A GAME that Presidents of the 
United States play with the chairmen of the 
Federal Reserve Board. It’s called Passing the 
Buck. 

The way it has been played throughout the 
1970s and now into the 1980s, the President ap- 
points the chairman of the Fed. The President 
announces that his appointee is “independent.” 
The appointee then proceeds to raise interest 
rates, causing much pain in many places. People 
protest to the President who, presumably has a 
big say in the making of economic policy in this 
country. The President passes the buck by re- 
minding us that the Fed is beyond his or anyone 
else’s control. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN continues this tradi- 
tion followed persistently by both his Republican 
and Democratic predecessors. Speaking to a Cali- 
fornia audience, Reagan said: “The Fed is inde- 
pendent, and they are hurting us, and what we’re 
trying to do, as much as they’re hurting everyone 
else.” 

So, as the game goes, the President dumped on 
the Fed. 

But does Reagan really disapprove of the 
policies of the Fed? You would hardly guess so 
from the behavior of people high in his Adminis- 
tration. Murray Weidenbaum, the chairman of 
the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 
announced on “Meet the Press” that the Fed was 
“on target” and that its policies of monetary 
restraint (high interest rates) “needs to be con- 
tinued.” 

IF ANYTHING, the Administration wants the 
Fed to get tougher: to tighten credit, to cut 
money supply. “Right now,” reports the Wall 
Street Journal, “the Administration strongly sup- 
ports the Fed’s efforts to slow money-supply 
growth. In fact. Administration officials are trying 
to apply pressure to prevent backsliding. Reagan 
is the first President to appoint outspoken mone- 
tarists, such as Beryl Sprinkel (Treasury under- 
secretary) and Jerry Jordan of the Council of Eco- 
nomic Advisers to high policy-making positions.” 

So while the President attacks the Fed for its 
high interest rates, he uses his appointees — Weid- 
enbaum, Sprinkel, Jordan — to praise tight money 


and to push for even tighter money. He is also 
preparing to replace the present chairman and 
vice chairman of the Fed, when their terms 
expire, with “monetarists” who will continue do- 
ing what the Fed has been doing up to now — 
but more severely. 

This game of blaming the Fed was not in- 
vented by Reagan, of course. The tactic was 
standard with Nixon, Ford and Carter, whenever 
the political circumstances so required. 

Actually, the Fed is not truly “independent.” 
The chairman is appointed by Presidents who, if 
they have a policy, owe it to their conscience and 
their country to name someone whose policies are 
congenial to the Administration. Ironically, each 
President has made an appointment and then 
found it fit to dump on the appointee at chosen 
moments. 

THE FEDERAL Reserve Board, moreover, is 
not embedded in the Constitution. It was created 
by Congress, it can be abolished, enlarged, al- 
tered, reorganized by act of Congress. 

So, why, if the Fed is running the country, 
doesn’t the President do something? Is it that 
Reagan, like the other Presidents before him, 
wants a fall guy, a fellow he can denounce in 
California while backing him in Washington? 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 

Programs and Policies 
To Rally Americans 

The centennial convention of our federation 
meets at a time when workers and trade union- 
ists are deeply disturbed by the direction their 
country appears to be taking. Radical changes 
in America’s social and economic structures 
are being pressed by a business-oriented Ad- 
ministration and embraced by a compliant 
Congress. 

The labor movement must provide nation- 
wide leadership in opposition to this destruc- 
tive process. Delegates to the AFL-CIO con- 
vention face the task of establishing programs 
and policies around which workers and all 
Americans can rally. 

— From the AFL-CIO Convention Call. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiin 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


Pag^e Five 


Lasting Contribution 

Roy Wilkins Provided Strength 
During Critical Civil Rights Era 


By Bayard Rustfai 

R oy WILKINS was a gentle man with a 
strong will. He was a man of keen judge- 
ment and open-mindedness, a man who was 
willing to change his mind. In a very real sense 
he was the statesman of the civil rights movement. 

He was not a man of charisma. He was not a 
speaker who could electrify crowds with his 
rhetoric. His strength and his lasting contribu- 
tion to the civil rights movement rested in his 
thoroughness, his quiet determination, and his 
organizational talents. 

It was under Roy Wilkins’ aegis that the true 
black Declaration of Independence was written. 
It was not a single document such as the one 
drafted by America’s founding fathers. Rather, 
it was the immense project of legal proceedings 
and test cases which were initiated by the 
NAACP, which included the Brown v. Board of 
Education decision, and which continued far 
beyond it. 

THESE DECISIONS won rights for blacks in 
enclave after enclave of American society. 

I first directly collaborated with Roy Wilkins 
during the planning stages of the 1963 March on 
Washington, which was initiated by A. Philip 
Randolph, the great black labor leader. 

At first, relations between us were somewhat 
strained because Wilkins, a cautious man by 
nature, was troubled by my personal history of 
involvement in socialist qnd other radical causes. 
Yet despite initial misunderstandings, once we 
had begun working together and had come to 
understand that our goals for the black commu- 
nity were similar, we formed a close bond of 
friendship. 

Despite his initial coolness to the idea of a 
March on Washington for civil rights and eco- 
nomic justice, once Roy Wilkins was convinced 
of the project’s merits, he and the NAACP were 
to give the endeavour the strongest financial and 
organizational support it was to receive. 

THAT THE MARCH was a great success was 
in large measure due to the organizational net- 
work Wilkins had established. And it was at 
Wilkins’s insistence that Martin Luther King, Jr. 
was chosen to be the final speaker at that march 


and there delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” 
speech. 

Because Roy Wilkins had a keen sense of 
what blacks wanted and because of his effective- 
ness in expressing the needs and desires of black 
Americans, he was frequently vilified by a minor- 
ity of black extremists who sought to arrogate for 
themselves the right to speak in the name of all 
blacks. 

Wilkins played a central role in leading black 
community opposition to the black power and 
separation movements which did so much to 
weaken black political power and to heighten 
racial tensions. He was a committed integration- 
ist and he battled all the way with such extremists 
as Stokeley Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, who 
today are mere footnotes in the history of black 
political life. 

Wilkins’s contributions were great and lasting. 
They have survived him, above all, in the form 
of the NAACP, the organization which he helped 
build into a network with over 400,000 members. 
His stewardship of the NAACP encompassed the 
period of the 1950s and early ’60s in which the 
civil rights movement made its greatest progress. 
He, likewise, led his organization in the more 
difficult and frequently disappointing period 
which was to follow. 

THE DEATH of Roy Wilkins marks the final 
chapter of a great era in the history of the civil 
rights movement. It was an era of great vision- 
aries and leaders — Martin Luther King, Jr., A. 
Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, and Roy 
Wilkins. 

We are now, without question, firmly en- 
trenched in a new era, an era whose outlines are 
not yet easy to perceive. The civil rights move- 
ment stands at the crossroads. Today, its influ- 
ence is lower than at any point since its inception. 
It confronts the dangerous problems of a heredi- 
tary and ever-growing underclass of black poor, 
of economic inequality, and of an administration 
which is indifferent to the plight of the poor and 
working poor. 

The civil rights movement is at a crossroads. 
One can only hope that new Roy Wilkinses will 
emerge to lead that movement down the proper 
path. 


As Economy Flounders 

Growing Public Concern Noted 
On Impact of Deep Reagan Cuts 



lAarchfor 


A PERCEPTION is growing across the coun- 
try of the tremendous costs the Reagan Ad- 
ministration budget and tax cuts will inflict on 
millions of Americans and on the economy itself, 
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison said. 


Translated into legislative impact, Denison said 
this perception means the Administration “will 
not have as easy a time as it has had to this point” 
in enacting further cuts in people-helping pro- 
grams already in the discussion stage. 



SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


Denison pointed out on Labor News Confer- 
ence that the financial community also has had 
widespread second thoughts concerning the 
Reagan economic program. Wall Street and the 
banking community, he said — which have been 
“the closest supporters of the President” — have 
“indicated that what is happening is not going to 
work.” 

There has been no evidence “in terms of the 
economic situation improving,” he said. “Interest 
rates are still high. The housing market is in 
collapse. Cost of food is still rising. Unemploy- 
ment is increasing.” 

Denison said these conditions will create “a 
stiffening in the Congress” to the Administration’s 
proposed second round of budget cuts. He refuted 
contentions that labor and its allies are in “disar- 
ray,” pointing out that legislative events have 
fiowed from the fact that “the numbers are there” 
in Congress for the conservatives — that they hold 
absolute numerical control in the Senate and 
ideological control in the House. 

HE PREDICTED, however, moderate Repub- 
lican House members from the Northeast and 
Midwest who were pressured to support the Ad- 
ministration’s first round of budget cuts of needed 
social programs would “return to the ranks” in 
support of these programs when the Administra- 
tion seeks further slashes. 

Reporters questioning Denison on the AFL- 
CIO produced public affairs program were Dale 
McFeatters of Scripps-Howard Newspapers and 
Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

A MERICA’S PARENTS and schoolchildren are about to get a 
L lesson that’s not in the schoolbooks. 

When President Reagan and the conservative 97th Congress cut 
the federal budget by some $35 billion, they were credited with a 
great political victory. 

The budget cuts had to come from somewhere, however, and 
the nation’s 26 million schoolchildren will be among the first to 
find out when they line up for lunch. If the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s pending proposals are adopted, the school lunches will be 
smaller and the prices higher. 

WHEN CONGRESS complied with Reagan’s budget cuts and 
reduced child nutrition programs from nearly $4.5 billion to $3 
billion for fiscal 1982, it gave the Agriculture Dept, three months 
to find ways to economize, “without impairing the nutritional 
value of meals.” The department made some administrative sav- 
ings and then turned its budget ax to the school meal itself. 

To eliminate waste or thrown away food, serving portions 
would be reduced in all categories — meat or meat alternate, 
bread, vegetable/fruit and milk — for almost all age groups. For 
example, fourth, fifth and sixth graders would receive 1.5 ounces 
of meat instead of the two ounces they now receive. Pre-schoolers 
now receiving six ounces of milk would receive four ounces. 
Secondary school children receiving three-fourths of a cup of 
vegetables or fruit would receive one-half cup. 

“Crediting,” or the determination of what food counts toward 
meal requirements, also would be loosened. For example, tofu, or 
soybean curd, cottage cheese, nuts, seeds and nut butters may 
count as meat. Yogurt may count as milk or meat. The amounts 
of dry beans and eggs needed to meet the meat alternate require- 
ments have been dropped from one to one-half cup and two cups 
to one cup, respectively. Pickle relishes and ketchup may count 
as vegetables. Cake may fulfill the bread requirement. 

ON TOP OF the portion reductions and substitutions, school 
lunch prices will go up by an average of 35 to 40 cents nationally, 
according to the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), a 
public interest group. 

Congress also tightened the eligibility requirements for free and 
subsidized lunches. A child from a family of four will be eligible 
to receive a free lunch if the parents’ income is $10,990 or less. 
If the family income is between $10,990 and $15,630, a child may 
receive reduced-price lunches. Above that income, a child is 
expected to pay full price. The previous income cutoffs were 
$11,520 and $17,560, respectively. 

Arnold Mayer, vice president of the Food & Commercial Work- 
ers, which supports the coalition, said the cuts in the school lunch 
program, coupled with cuts in the food stamp program, would 
effectively end the nation’s anti-hunger efforts and could result in 
“the return of mass hunger in the United States.” 

FRAC Director Nancy Amidei said: “We feel this is compro- 
mising children’s health. The proposed new standards will not 
provide one-third of the daily nutritional requirements of children. 
On top of this, in many instances, some poor children receive up 
to half of their daily food from the school lunch program.” 

Undernourishment in children has been shown to cause growth 
and behavior abnormalities, anemia, chronic illness, impaired 
learning ability and, in severe cases, mental retardation. 

As the Administration and the conservative Congress see it, 
out of a total budget of about $700 billion they can save $1.5 
billion by reducing child nutrition programs. As we now see it, 
those alleged savings will come by literally taking food out of the 
mouths of children and risking the health of many kids at a time 
of critical physical and mental growth. 

The parents of 26 million schoolchildren and other responsible 
citizens must wonder if this is what they voted for. 



PUBLIC AWARENESS is growing of the cost impact the 
Reagan Administration’s budget and tax cuts will have on the 
nation, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison, center, 
said on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by Robert 
Cooney, left, of Press Associates, Inc., and Dale McFeatters of 
Scripps-Howard Newspapers. The program is produced by the 
AFL-CIO as a public service and aired weekly on Mutual radio. 




Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 


Sex-Segregated Jobs 

Panel Finds Wide Gap 
In Pay of Men, Women 



LOCAL AND DISTRICT leaders of the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers 
in western Pennsylvania display some of the signs they’ll be carrying at the 
Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington. Their handy work is the result of 
a sign-making party at lUE’s regional office in Pittsburgh. 

House Ignores Veto Threat^ 
Approves Housing Funds 


In a rare setback for the Reagan Ad- 
ministration, the House ignored a veto 
threat and approved a compromise appro- 
priations bill to fund housing programs, 
veterans’ services and an assortment of 
other programs for the fiscal year starting 
Oct. 1. 

The vote was 209-197, and the confer- 
ence agreement now goes to the Senate for 
final approval. There were indications, 
however, that the Senate Republican lead- 
ership might try to sidetrack the measure 
to avoid a confrontation and deal with 
appropriations for the new fiscal year 
through a temporary funding resolution. 

DEMOCRATIC managers of the hous- 
ing and veterans’ bill pointed out that the 
totals were within the budget ceilings pre- 
viously imposed by Congress and even be- 
low the budget request that President 
Reagan submitted last March. 

Reagan complained of “budget-busting 
bills” in his veto threat, but the principal 
expenditure in the $56.3 billion appropria- 
tion that exceeded his budget request was 
for veterans’ medical care. The President 

Labor Opposes 
Attempt to Relax 
Anti-Bribery Law 

The AFL-CIO urged Congress to reject 
legislation that would weaken the Foreign 
Corrupt Practices Act, which was enacted 
in 1977 after a series of scandals involv- 
ing bribery of foreign officials by U.S. 
firms in order to obtain lucrative contracts. 

An Administration-supported bill being 
considered by the Senate Banking Com- 
mittee “allows rather than prohibits 
bribery” and should be rejected, AFL-CIO 
Legislative Director Ray Denison wrote 
committee members. 

Denison disputed the assertion that the 
strict anti-bribery law hurts U.S. trade. 
“The facts show that U.S. exports in- 
creased in each of the years following the 
passage of this act,” he noted. 

“BY CHANGING the current law’s re- 
quirement that corporations keep accurate 
records in reasonable detail of payments 
of corporate funds, the bill would make it 
difficult to trace the use of slush funds to 
pay bribes,” Denison said. Without proof 
of violations, he warned, effective prosecu- 
tion would not be possible and bribery 
would continue. 

Denison also sharply challenged the 
proposal to exempt certain types of bribes 
“such as ‘grease’ payments and payments 
that are customary in the country where 
they are made.” Such exemptions would 
amount to legalizing bribery, he protested. 

As for the argument that existing penal- 
ties are too harsh, Denison noted that for- 
eign bribery scandals have been reduced 
since the law’s enactment. 


had sought to cut 5,181 staff posts and 
reduce outlays for 172 VA hospitals. 

While a number of southern conserva- 
tive Democrats — the self-styled “boll wee- 
vils” — voted with the Republican leader- 
ship, there were enough GOP defections 
to deny the President his accustomed vic- 
tory. 

THE ' BILL provides funding for 
147,000 subsidized housing units in fiscal 
1982, down from 210,000 in the current 
fiscal year. 

In other congressional developments: 

• A House-Senate conference will seek 
to reconcile bills providing a 14.3 percent 
pay raise for military personnel. The 
House version would apply the raise 
across-the-board; the Senate bill would 
give the bigger percentage increases to 
experienced officers and enlisted personnel 
with needed skills. Civilian federal em- 
ployees are due a 4.8 percent raise on 
Oct. 1. 

• Prospects for a labor-supported ex- 
tension of the Voting Rights Act were en- 
hanced by a strongly favorable recommen- 
dation from the U.S. Commission on Civil 
Rights. The commission, which is an in- 
dependent, bipartisan agency serving a 
fact-finding role, said the law should be 
strengthened rather than weakened. 

DESPITE increased political participa- 
tion in states covered by the law’s special 
provisions, the commission said, “minori- 
ties continue to face a variety of problems 
which the act was designed to overcome.” 

• The House Ways & Means Commit- 
tee sidetracked a tariff relief bill that 
would have resulted in greater imports of 
ethyl alcohol and set back the develop- 
ment of a domestic fuel alcohol industry. 

The Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers 
and the Distillery Workers had warned 
that the tariff cuts would put U.S. work- 
ers out of jobs, and the AFL-CIO urged 
that the bill be rejected. Its sponsors with- 
drew the bill from consideration at a com- 
mittee mark-up session Sept. 16 after it 
was evident that it did not have the votes 
to pass. 

Matthew Lynch Dies, 
Led Tennessee Labor 

Nashville, Tenn. — Matthew Lynch, pres- 
ident emeritus of the Tennessee AFL-CIO, 
died Sept. 15 of respiratory failure at St. 
Thomas Hospital here. 

Lynch, who was 69, was president of the 
state labor council from 1963 until his 
retirement two years ago. He also had 
served as executive secretary of the state 
CIO for 10 years and as secretary of the 
merged AFL-CIO state body for six years. 

Lynch had been a member of the Cloth- 
ing & Textile Workers since 1929. He 
served the union as an organizer during 
the 1930s and ’40s. 

Survivors include his wife, Maude, and 
five children. 


A federal advisory panel reported that 
“widespread” disparity in wages paid men 
and women for performing comparable 
work persists in the United States and said 
the concept of comparable worth — equal 
pay for jobs of equal value — “merits con- 
sideration” as one possible solution to the 
problem. 

Job segregation is more pronounced by 
sex than by race or ethnicity in today’s 
labor market and is “an important source 
of wage differentials,” the National Re- 
search Council said in a three-year study 
conducted for the Equal Employment Op- 
portunity Commission. The EEOC had 
sought its advice on how to handle a grow- 
ing number of complaints by women who 
were paid less for comparably valued jobs. 

THE NATIONAL Research Council, 
an arm of the National Academy of Sci- 
ences, attributed much of the earnings gap 
between men and women workers to the 
persistent placement of women in certain 
occupational classifications that provide 
little or no room for advancement. The 
problem is highly complex, fraught with 
social and economic implications, the 
panel stressed, and not capable of quick 
solution by any specific remedy. 

Despite a heavy influx of women into 
the job market over the past 20 years, 
“the work women do is paid less, and the 
more an occupation is dominated by 
women the less it pays,” the council 
found. Gus Tyler, assistant president of 
the Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, 
served on the study committee. 

Ann Miller, a University of Pennsyl- 
vania sociology professor and head of the 
committee, observed that women in the 
early 1960s who worked the whole year at 
full-time jobs earned less than 60 percent 
of what men did, “and that is still true 
today.” 

THE REPORT emphasized that al- 
though some women balance family de- 
mands by choosing typically low-paying 
jobs that allow easy movement in and out 
of the labor market, the predominance of 
women in low-paying jobs “also results 
from> the exclusionary practices of em- 
ployers and from the systematic under- 
payment of jobs held mainly by women.” 
The study backed up its charge that 
women are systematically underpaid when 
compared to men with three types of 
evidence: 

• When jobs held mainly by women 


The State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees filed sex discrimination charges 
against the state of Washington, accusing 
it of systematically underpaying its female 
workers. 

The union, which represents thousands 
of women employed by the state, filed the 
charges with the U.S. Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission on behalf of nine 
individual female plaintiffs. The charges 
were filed under Title VII of the 1964 
Civil Rights Act forbidding discrimination 
in compensation on the basis of sex. 

IN 1974, AFSCME’s Washington affil- 
iate pressed the state to commission an 
independent job evaluation study on the 
wage gap between state employees in pre- 
dominantly female and predominantly 
male job classifications. Results of the 
study showed that male employees re- 
ceived an average 22-35 percent more 
pay than women in job classes requiring 
the same levels of skill, effort, and re- 
sponsibility. 

Similar studies in 1976, 1978, and 1980 
produced almost identical findings. The 
Washington pay discrepancies were cited 
in a recently published National Academy 
of Sciences report prepared for the EEOC 
showing widespread wage discrimination 
based on sex in many parts of the United 
States. 


are compared with those held mainly by 
men and factors such as education, ex- 
perience and skill are equal, differences 
in average pay persist. 

• Past discriminatory practices, such 
as paying women and minorities less for 
doing the same job as white men, have 
been incorporated into wage structures 
and continue to operate even in the face 
of conscious attempts to avoid discrimi- 
nation. 

• Within firms that use job evaluation 
as an aid in setting wages, women’s jobs 
are paid less on the average than men’s 
jobs with the same rating. 

THE STUDY GROUP pointed out that 
the discrimination may not be intentional 
on the part of employers. Discrimination, 
as the term is used in the report, does not 
imply intent but refers only to outcome, 
it said. 

The ILG’s Tyler, in a supplementary 
statement endorsed by San Francisco at- 
torney Mary C. Dunlap, said that he 
backed the major thrust of the report but 
noted that it “does not offer an adequate 
strategy to cope with a continuing in- 
equity.” 

DESCRIBING THE situation as “the 
ghettoization of women in the economy,” 
Tyler suggested that the minimum wage 
be indexed at around 60 percent of the 
average manufacturing wage as one means 
of pursuing greater wage equity. 

“Such a minimum wage should apply to 
all workers, regardless of race, sex, or 
age,” he said. “If certain workers deserve 
more because they perform better, they 
should be paid more by lifting them above 
the minimum and not by paying others 
less by depressing the minimum for the 
weakest categories of workers.” 

Other ways of achieving greater equity, 
he suggested, include stricter regulation of 
imports and the introduction of a “social 
wage” to supplement the traditional wage 
for items such as rent, food stamps, and 
health care. 

The AFL-CIO has long stressed that a 
good union contract is not only the most 
effective guarantee against exploitation but 
also the basis upon which true equality 
can be built in the labor market. Union 
women working under collective bargain- 
ing contracts generally earn up to 25 per- 
cent more than non-union women, gov- 
ernment statistics show. 


“All the job evaluation studies done by 
the state since 1974 have shown the same 
results — that the state of Washington is 
an equal opportunity offender,” AFSCME 
General Counsel Winn Newman asserted. 
Newman said the union is seeking both 
equity and equality for women represented 
by AFSCME who work in job classifica- 
tions traditionally undervalued and under- 
paid. 

AFSCME President Jerry Wurf said the 
state has admitted to its discriminatory 
practices, “yet successive administrations 
have chosen to do nothing to remedy this 
blatant situation. AFSCME members have 
waited long enough — now we’re seeking 
legal relief.” 

BESIDES ITS EEOC complaint against 
Washington State, the union recently filed 
sex discrimination charges on the basis of 
pay equity against the cities of San Jose 
and Los Angeles and against the state of 
Connecticut. Wurf said the union intends 
to file additional charges and lawsuits on 
similar grounds in other states and cities. 

Last July, AFSCME members in San 
Jose successfully struck over the pay 
equity issue and won a $ 1.4-million pay 
adjustment for hundreds of city workers 
in predominantly female job classes, in 
addition to an overall wage increase for 
all 2,000 city employees. 


Washington State Bias Cited 
On Women’s Pay Ineqnities 


Page Seven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 

Kirkland Scores Irresponsible Policies 



The following is excerpted from an interview con- 
ducted with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland in his 
office Sept. 9, 1981. Reporters present were Gisela 
Bolte, Time; Howard Lineman, Newsweek; Jeffrey L. 
Sheler, U. S. News & World Report; Peter Gall, Busi- 
ness Week; Sid Levy, Kiplinger; Irving R. Levine, 
NBC-TV News; Kathleen McCleery, WETA-TV; Deb- 
orah Potter, CBS-TV News, and Barry Seraffn, ABC- 
TV News. 

REPORTER: The budget’s already been cut once for 
fiscal year ’82; now, there’s talk of finding another $10 
to $15 billion and more to cut. A lot of that might 
come further out of the social programs. Are you ready 
at this point to say, “Let’s make some more specific 
cuts here on the military side of the equation?” 

KIRKLAND: I think that the defense statement we 
adopted at the Chicago meeting answers your question. 
We said in February that we had always been pro- 
ponents of a strong defense, that a strong defense was 
necessary for the protection of the values that we 
cherish. We noted that the Constitution imposes upon 
the government the responsibility to provide for the 
general welfare and for the common defense, and that 
we did not believe there ought to be trade-offs. 

We don’t oppose increased expenditures, but we 
think that the plan should come before the money. All 
we’ve seen thus far is talk about the money, but where’s 
the plan? There are large areas of critical defense ex- 
penditures where no decisions have been made — the 
MX, the B-1, the size of the Navy, the configuration 
of ships — and no decision has been made in these 
critical areas. But they’re making budget commitments 
^on how much money the Defense Dept. gets. 

I think that’s absurd, and it’s particularly absurd 
and very harmful when accompanied by a tax bill that, 
I believe, represents the most irresponsible fiscal act 
in our times. 

REPORTER: Do you expect that the AFL-CIO will 
get into the trenches, so to speak, lobbying for or 
against particular defense items once you look at what- 
ever plan comes up to the Hill? 

KIRKLAND: I want to see the plan before I make 
that judgment. There’s nothing that goes up on the 
Hill that we disavow any interest in. 

REPORTER: What kind of position do you take on 
the second round of budget cuts in the social areas? 

KIRKLAND: Well, we didn’t like the first round. I 
assure you we won’t like the second round. 

REPORTER: When do you think you’ll have a better 
chance of getting Congress on your side? 

KIRKLAND: I think we would have a better chance 
because I think there are beginning to be strong mis- 
givings in the country about the prudence of the Presi- 
dent’s entire economic package. There are conflicts of 
philosophy even among the Administration’s support- 
ers, the advocates of the so-called Kemp-Roth and 
Laffer Curve approach, who always argue that it wasn’t 
necessary to cut the budget at all, but these tax cuts 
would release so much energy and dynamism that you 
would produce the revenues needed to pay for all these 
things. 

Then there are the fiscal purists who believe that the 
balanced budget is the cure for all ills in society. 

Then there’s a third group, the monetary cranks that 
believe it’s all a matter of M-1 and M-2. 

They’re at war with each other, whether they ac- 
knowledge it or not. They seem to have glossed over 
the fact that all of these doctrines are internally incon- 
sistent and pretend they are parts of a well thought-out 
whole. Well, it’s like putting north and south pole 
magnets together: They can’t be made to fit. 

Secondly, the Democrats in the Congress have had 
their little experiment in me-tooism. They’ve tried to 
find a market for their souls, unsuccessfully, and tried 
to compete with the Republicans in who could cut the 
budget the most, the best, or cut taxes the most, the 
best. They lost their souls and they lost the vote as well. 

Those who tried to find holding ground and fighting 
ground on hopeless amendments like the Obey-Udall 
alternative on taxes got only 40 or 50 fewer votes, and 
I think when they come back, they might have decided 
it’s about time they began to present a responsible op- 
position to the kind of madness that’s afoot in this 
town. 

REPORTER: How would you describe your feeling 
about the Reagan Administration? If antagonistic is 
not the word, what word would you use? 


KIRKLAND: I have met with a great many of the 
people in the Reagan Administration over practical 
questions and practical issues, and I have no feeling 
of venom. 

I long since stopped either falling in love or acquir- 
ing hate or vindictiveness about people in political life. 
If you fall in love, they’ll break your heart every time. 
I try to look at it as dispassionately as possible, and I 
think I do. 

I’m concerned about substance, not about style, and 
our cold appraisal of the substance ijs that it’s damaging 
to the interests of the country, that it represents a di- 
version of the energy and resources of the country from 
the path that is going to take it on to future progress 
and strength, and it’s going to be a terrible waste of 
time and a terrible waste of energy and resources that 
we’re going to have to make up. 

The farther we fall back, the more we’re going to 
have to make up. There’s a terrible need in this coun- 
try for an affirmative, benign use of the instrument of 
government in all sorts of ways. It can never be ade- 
quately left to private initiative. Our transportation 
system in this country, aside from the airlines, is in 
horrible shape. It’s not going to be restored by private 
initiative; it’s going to take public support. Hell, it’s 
only there because of public support. The whole in- 
frastructure of this country is eroding — rotting away — 
and there has to be a role, a benign role, for govern- 
ment. 

We do not accept, and we think it’s a terribly harm- 
ful idea to base a philosophy of government on and to 
appeal to the people on the premise that government is 
a malignant and destructive force. It can be, but there 
are benign uses of it that we cannot afford to dismantle 
in a modern, industrial country. 

REPORTER: Do you think that the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s professed goal of balancing the budget in 
1984 is a futile exercise, per se? 

KIRKLAND: The way they’re going about it, yes. The 
downside risk that you will have the biggest deficit in 
the history of this country by then is far more likely 
than the upside possibility of a balanced budget. 

1 think the budget will be balanced when you return 
this country to something approaching full employment. 
You cannot balance a budget on the basis of heavy 
unemployment. That philosophy was not particularly 
a product of liberal or radical thinking; it was first put 
forward, as I recall, by George Shultz with a so-called 
full-employment budget. His concept was that the 
budget should be balanced at full employment, the 
budget would show a surplus, and that’s the only way 
it’s ever going to be balanced in this country. 

The source of the imbalance is the 7.2 percent un- 
employment. For every 1 percent unemployment, 
there’s a $25 to $30 billion swing, as far as the budget’s 
concerned, and as long as you follow the doctrine of 
monetarism, which really means you cause further 
unemployment, you reduce economic activity. That’s 
the whole purpose of monetarism. The bottom line of 
that theory is that the country has to go through a 
wringer in order to lower economic activity in the hope 
of finding some base where everything is so bad that 
the CPI is zero, because there’s no market. 

I think that’s going to be ruinuous, and it’s going 
to cause deeper and deeper deficits as long as it’s 
rigidly pursued. 

My only hope — and we’d like to play a role in a 
constructive approach to the problems of this country — 
my only hope is that in a year or two, they’ll begin to 


see that this plan won’t work, and they’ll start looking 
around for alternatives. Then we’d be available for 
advice and counsel and cooperation. 

REPORTER: What are the odds you give to the pos- 
sibility of the Congress being less conservative after 
1982? 

KIRKLAND: I have great faith in the ultimate wisdom 
of the American people. I think they’ll do the right 
thing. I think there will be a turnover in the Congress. 
I believe the normal resurgence during a mid-term 
election will take place. 

A lot of things depend on events. There isn’t an 
administration in the history of this country, despite 
all of its plans and strategems, that hasn’t ultimately 
been overtaken by events and forced to deal with events 
that weren’t on the planning boards. It happened to 
Carter; it happened to Lyndon Johnson; it happened to 
Nixon. 

REPORTER: There could be a possibility that this 
Administration is just lucky. In 1982, with the economy 
being in a very sluggish state now, it may take off just 
before the election. 

KIRKLAND: Not only might it be lucky, it might even 
become wise. The path to wisdom is not very murky, 
it seems to me. I believe that this country is, inherently, 
exceedingly strong; that it’s being held back; it’s being 
repressed; it’s being disabled by a policy that’s deeply 
harmful and deeply misguided. I believe that if you 
could cut interest rates, for example, this country would 
boom, and I also believe that in that process, inflation 
would ..go down. 

Consider what this policy has done. In allegedly 
building a base for future advances, monetary policies 
have destroyed more houses than we did in Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki combined, not to mention Dresden and 
Tokyo, during the war. And if that’s a wise, prudent 
and sound policy, then I’m crazy. 

They talk about the supply of money being the 
crucial thing: at all costs, you’ve got to get it down, 
even if you destroy every unbuilt house in this country, 
every job in this country, all production in this country. 

Even if you accept the old classical theory, I always 
thought that the equation, even in monetary terms, was 
one of achieving a balance between the supply of 
money and the supply of goods. If, in the process of 
curtailing the supply of money, you destroy the goods, 
I think the only answer is ruin. And they’re killing the 
goods. They’re killing housing. They’re killing the 
automotive industry. On those two industries, I think 
one out of every three jobs ultimately depends. I can’t 
see the sanity of it. 

REPORTER: Do you think that there is any chance 
that the Federal Reserve would come around and, you 
know, undo its own policy? 

KIRKLAND: 1 would hate to bet the future of this 
country on the future course of the Federal Reserve 
Board. I think the fact that it exists in its present form 
is a great mistake and is a built-in weakness. And I 
think if you elect the right kind of Congress, it ought 
to be possible to re-examine the whole. structure of the 
Federal Reserve System and the idea of putting such 
vast power over the future of this country and the 
present of this country in the hands of a group of 
monomaniacs who are not responsible to anybody. 
Then to say, do we look to this little group for hope. 
The only thing I could look to is the dismantling of 
that little group and making it more responsive to a 
sound national policy. 


Pai^e Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 19, 1981 



SOLIDARITY DAY COORDINATORS from organiza- 
tions joining with labor in the Sept. 19 demonstration are 
briefed on transportation details for the day of the rally by 
AFL-CIO Representative Dick Wilson. The coordinators 
are from the broad range of groups supporting the march 


including religious, civil rights, Hispanic, consumer, youth, 
senior citizens, education and handicapped organizations. 
With Wilson are, foreground, Arnold Aronson, secretary 
of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and John 
Perkins, AFL-CIO Solidarity Day coordinator. 


Rockwell Aerospace Contract 
Ratified by 4 UAW Locals 


Preparations 
For Rally Hit 
Fever Pitch 

(Continued from Page 1) 

ILG Union Label Chorus, which will lead 
a songfest near the Washington Monu- 
ment. The Teachers have found a place to 
store 10,000 helium balloons. 

Work tables have overflowed into the 
halls and, when there is a need for extra 
hands, any passer-by is subject to being 
pressed into service. 

ONE FLOOR ABOVE, in the AFL- 
CIO Dept, of Information, press, radio 
and television queries from across the 
country are being fielded. Publications and 
public relations specialists from the staffs 
of affiliated unions are drafted into Soli- 
darity Day assignments. 

The Communications Workers have 
purple CWA blazers for their niembers 
who are serving as Solidarity Day mar- 
shals. Some of them will be at the Wash- 
ington railroad station at 6:20 a.m. when 
a Florida contingent is scheduled to ar- 
rive. 

The first special train is due in from 
Boston at 7:25 a.m., carrying mostly mem- 
bers of the Electrical, Radio & Machine 
Workers and the , Machinists. 

OTHER SPECIAL trains will be arriv- 
ing throughout the morning, including 
four from Philadelphia. The railroad sta- 
tion is on the subway route to the rally 
area, and the AFL-CIO has in effect 
bought the subway system for the day. All 
rides will be free. 

Every so often, a caller to the Solidar- 
ity Day office wants to know what the 
plans are in the event of rain. 

The answer is invariably the same. 

“The Solidarity Day rain date,” followed 
by a pause, “is l^pt. 19.” 

And then a chuckle. 


The Professional Air Traffic Controllers 
Organization pressed the Administration 
to return to the bargaining table as at- 
torneys for the union appealed a govern- 
ment recommendation that it be decerti- 
fied as the controllers’ representative. 

The union’s request to resume negotia- 
tions came during a hearing on its appeal 
to the Federal Labor Relations Authority 
to reverse an FLRA administrative law 
judge’s recommendation for decertifica- 
tion. 

PATCO LAWYER Richard Leighton 
asked the three-member authority to issue 
an interim order requiring the union and 
the Federal Aviation Administration to 
resume talks by Sept. 23, with any unre- 
solved issues sent to arbitration if no agree- 
ment is reached by Oct. 23. The decertifi- 
cation action would be deferred until after 
an arbitrator’s decision, at which time the 
entire matter would be re-examined by 
the authority. 

Lawyers for both the FAA and the au- 
thority opposed the union proposal to re- 
quire a new round of talks. The authority 



Los Angeles — ^Auto Workers at four 
Rockwell International aerospace plants 
have approved a new three-year agreement 
providing substantial wage, pension and 
fringe benefit improvements. 

The contract, ratified by an 83 percent 
favorable vote, covers some 10,000 UAW 
members here and 3,000 more at Rock- 
well’s aerospace facilities in Tulsa, Okla.; 
Columbus, Ohio, and Santa Susana, Calif. 

WORKERS WILL get a 7 percent wage 
hike, retroactive to July 4, with increases 
of 3 percent in the second and third 
years. Quarterly cost-of-living adjustment 
formulas will be maintained with no diver- 
sion of COLA to pay for other benefits. 

Improvements were scored in shift pre- 


has functions similar to those of the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board in the private 
sector. 

President Kenneth Blaylock of the Gov- 
ernment Employees, who also heads the 
AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept., ap- 
peared on PATCO’s behalf, along with 
AFL-CIO Special Counsel Laurence Gold. 

BLAYLOCK, urging flexibility and dis- 
cretion in the case, told authority members 
that “it is necessary whatever you do to 
make the collective bargaining process 
work.” Both he and Gold asked the au- 
thority to find suitable alternatives to re- 
voking PATCO’s certification as bargain- 
ing agent for the air traffic controllers. 

Blaylock called decertification a “tem- 
porary” solution, and warned that unrest is 
growing among other federal workers. He 
said the FAA, in seeking decertification, 
wants “a gallon of blood and punitive ac- 
tion” against the union, but warned that 
eliminating one side will not resolve the la- 
bor dispute. 

“I don’t think PATCO is on trial,” Blay- 
lock declared. “The whole federal labor 
relations system is on trial.” 

MEANWHILE, another large contribu- 
tion to the AFL-CIO’s PATCO Family 
Fund — a $100,000 check from the Auto 
Workers — pushed the total over the $400,- 
000 mark, and checks drawn on the fund 
to aid families of striking air traffic con- 
trollers who are in pressing financial need 
began going out in the mail this week. 

UAW President Douglas A. Fraser said 
the union’s executive board voted to make 
the contribution at a meeting in Detroit. 
The money will come from the UAW 
strike fund. 

The Steelworkers, Communications 
Workers, and other affiliates already have 
made large contributions to the Family 
Fund, which is administered by Msgr. 
George G. Higgins, former director of the 
U.S. Catholic Conference’s Social Action 
Dept. 


mium pay and the minimum amounts of 
promotion increases. Skilled workers will 
receive additional increases of from 15 to 
25 cents an hour, and the wage progres- 
sion system will be accelerated so that 
workers can reach the top of their pay 
grades more rapidly. 

UAW Sec.-Treas. Raymond Majerus, 
who is also director of the aerospace divi- 
sion, said the union is “particularly proud” 
of the pension provisions. That part of the 
agreement will run for four years and in- 
crease pension benefits by 33 percent by 
the final year. 

Workers covered by the new contract 
who retired after July 1, 1981, or during 
the term of the pension agreement, will 
see their basic benefits rise from a previ- 
ous $12 per month per year of credited 
service to $16 per month in the final year 
of the pact. 

BENEFITS FOR those already retired 
will increase by $1.50 per month per year 
by the end of the agreement, and the sup- 
plemental allowance for workers who re- 
tire between 60 and 62 with at least 20 
years of service was stepped up from 
$325 to $375 per month, payable in addi- 
tion to basic benefits. 

Health care improvements include in- 
creased major medical coverage, upgraded 
dental care coverage, including orthodon- 
ture, vision care, hearing aid coverage and 
increased payments for diagnostic tests 
and hospital care. 

Other improvements are two additional 
paid holidays and strengthening of the lay- 
off benefit plan. 

Majerus also pointed to the establish- 
ment of a joint union-management com- 
mittee to develop a child care plan for all 
shifts and a written commitment from 
Rockwell to provide “a workplace free 
from sexual harassment.” 


Workers 9 Allies 
Swell Ranks for 
Solidarity Day 

(Continued from Page 1) 

AFL-CIO regional meetings held last 
spring, a “strong recurring theme” was the 
desire of local union participants for a 
means of “venting their feelings in as 
dramatic a way as possible.” 

Mass demonstrations are part of labor’s 
history, Kirkland noted, although the cus- 
tom has “gotten a little rusty in recent 
years and it seems to me wholesome to 
revive that facility.” 

AT THE SAME time, he continued, 
“we all recognize that the day after Soli- 
darity Day, the budget will still have been 
cut, these programs will still be on their 
way to being dismantled. Perhaps we will 
have slowed down that process a bit, but 
we won’t change the balance and the Con- 
gress profoundly until at least the next 
election.” 

Addressing the Washington Press Club 
on Sept. 15, Donahue said the issues that 
are the focus of labor’s Solidarity Day 
protest represent “a social program that 
the vast majority of Americans have ac- 
cepted” and don’t want discarded. 

Donahue stressed the importance of 
Solidarity Day in launching the grass-roots 
campaign that labor and its allies agree is 
the essential follow-up. 

It’s “more than a one-shot protest,” he 
insisted. And while many of the non-labor 
organizations have worked with the AFL 
CIO in the past on specific issues, the ex- 
tent of involvement has gone beyond na- 
tional headquarters cooperation, involving 
local and state groups as never before. 

The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day news- 
letter reflected this theme in its Sept. 16 
issue: “When the sun goes down on 
Solidarity Day, the serious business will 
just be getting started.” 



CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION declaring Sept. 19 to be Solidarity Day in 
Washington, D.C., is presented to AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
by Councilman David Clark, second from right, who sponsored the resolution 
that was adopted unanimously. They are joined by Rev. Ernest Gibson, left, 
president of the Washington Council of Churches; Robert Petersen, president of 
the Greater Washington AFL-CIO, and Arrington Dixon, at right, the chairman 
of the D.C. City Council. 


Controllers Ask Bargaining, 
Challenge Deeertifieation Bid 






l off A.re Mat 










SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C. 




f^PORMATlOK 









Page Three 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


Massive Solidarity Day 
Gives Clear Message to 


Protest 

Reagan 



400,000 Hit 
Cutbacks in 
Programs 

By David L. Perlman 

Solidarity Day brought hundreds of 
thousands of union members to Washing- 
ton for a demonstration that destroyed the 
myth of a Reagan Administration man- 
date, sent a powerful message to Congress, 
and left an indelible impression on a city 
that normally takes rallies and demonstra- 
tions in easy stride. 

By mid-afternoon on Sept. 19, the offi- 
cial count from the mayor’s office had 
passed the 400,000 mark, including tens 
of thousands of participants from the co- 
alition of organizations that responded to 
the AFL-CIO’s call. 

FROM THE SPEAKERS’ platform at 
the Capitol, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland called out to the vast assem- 
blage that stretched to the shadow of the 
Washington Monument: 

“Look around you. You are not alone. 
Behold your numbers, as far as the eye 
can see.” 

They looked with pride and awe, these 
men and women who had risen before 
dawn, for the most part, to come to their 
nation’s capital in thousands of chartered 
buses, in special trains, and in tens of 
thousands of car pools and van pools. 

From the platform, the leaders of their 
organizations spoke with fervor of the 
grievances that had summoned such a 
huge cross-section of mainstream America. 

THEY SPOKE of the erosion of occu- 
pational health standards and of cuts in 
job safety enforcement. They spoke of the 
abandonment of compassion for the needy 
and the aged. 

They protested the undermining of pre- 
vailing wage laws and cuts in school 
lunches. They challenged the wisdom of 
ending employment and training programs, 
slashing funds for libraries and starving 
public services in order to give new tax 
incentives to an already hugely profitable 
oil industry. 

“For shame,” National Council of Se- 
nior Citizens President Jacob dayman 
rebuked an Administration that wants 
Congress to break the social security com- 
pact made with America’s workers and 
those already retired. “For shame,” his 
voice rang out with sterness. 


BLACK AND WHITE speakers alike 
assailed the turning away from equal op- 
portunity goals, and the cadence and songs 
of the historic 1963 civil rights march 
rang out again in the nation’s capital. 

In capsule form, the issues that had 
spurred the demonstration were reflected 
in the banners and placards carried along 
the Solidarity Day parade route, down 
historic Constitution Ave. toward the 
Capitol. 

There were slogans on T-shirts and 
jackets as well, and even on some of the 
balloons that floated over the Washington 
Monument grounds as markers for orga- 
nization assembly points. 

THE CENTRAL theme was symbol- 
ized by the posters carried by the leaders 
of the participating groups as they 
marched side by side. “We Are One,” they 
proclaimed. 

And the Food & Commercial Workers 
adopted as their dominant slogan an affir- 
mation that goes to the genesis of Soli- 
darity Day. “My Union Speaks for Me,” 
it proclaimed. 

That’s what President Reagan ques- 
tioned last February when the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council greeted his economic 
program as unfair and unworkable and 
put forth an alternative program — as Rea- 
gan had challenged everyone to do. 


Labor’s leaders didn’t really represent 
their membership on such issues, the Presi- 
dent suggested to a gathering of editors 
and publishers at the time. The Adminis- 
tration, he insisted, was closer attuned to 
labor’s rank-and-file. 

SO LABOR’S rank-and-file came to 
Washington, to speak for themselves. 

They came from steel mills and textile 
mills, from food markets and post offices, 
construction sites and government offices, 
schools and auto assembly lines, railroad 
yards and wharfs, everywhere. 

They were the builders of America and 
the people who make it run. They collect 
its garbage and build its roads, teach its 
children and care for its sick. 

They came in all shades of colors and 
ethnic background, and they spoke with 
Hispanic lilt, with southern softness. New 
England twang and the vowels of the New 
York waterfront. 

IN THE LINE of march were the 
proud elderly, students concerned with 
their country’s future, an array of wom- 
en’s groups carrying ERA posters, and 
the veterans of a generation of civil rights 
marches from the NAACP, Urban League 
and a multitude of others. 

“If you do not embrace the proposition 
that this President has a mandate to de- 
stroy the programs that feed the roots of 


a decent society.” Lane Kirkland told 
them, “look about you. You are not 
alone.” 

It was a miracle of organization, if 
miracle can be defined in terms of pains- 
taking preparation and execution. 

And it was a joyous occasion. 

THE AFL-CIO had bought up the sub- 
way system for the day, eliminating the 
fare cards so confusing to newcomers, and 
had lined up a ring of parking facilities 
accessible to Washington’s new subway 
system. 

Transportation marshals, mostly from 
the Communications Workers, were out 
early, directing traffic. At some locations, 
local church groups had coffee urns on 
hand. 

Follow Dave Winckel of Local 405 of 
the Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, 
who brought five others with him in his 
van on the long trip from Cedar Rapids, 
la. 

Along with other Solidarity Day groups 
that board at each stop, the lowans are 
greeted with applause and people come 
over to introduce themselves. At the sub- 
way stop serving Washington’s railroad 
station, a special train from Philadelphia 
has unloaded more than 1,000 AFSCME 
members, and the subway cars are quickly 
filled to standing room capacity. Someone 
(Continued on Page 16) 


Historic Roily Mokes Its Mork on Woshington 


By Susan Dunlop 

By dawn on Solidarity Day, the people 
had already started to gather quietly on the 
long, green slopes that stretch out from 
the Washington Monument. Organizers 
and marshals from their unions had been 
there before them, putting up banners and 
balloons in the staging area, getting box 
lunches, signs, buttons and badges ready 
for their members. 

On the highways around Washington, 
buses and cars were converging on the 
huge fringe parking areas around the city, 
many of them with banners proclaiming 
Solidarity Day. 

‘‘WE DROVE ALL night in two cars 
and a bus to get here,” Furniture Workers 
from Sumter, S.C., said. That was the 
story everywhere as union members and 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is iss 
wwkly except for the last week of the year 
^5 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20( 
S2 a year. Second class postage paid at Wj 
ington, p.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept i 
advertising in any of its official publications, 
one IS authorized to solicit advertising for 
publications in the name of the AFL-CIO. 


their allies, whose numbers pushed toward 
half a million, filled the city. 

By most estimates. Solidarity Day was 
the largest exercise of the First Amend- 
ment right of the people to peaceably as- 
semble and petition their government for 
redress of grievances the nation’s capital 
has ever seen. 

“I think this is history,” a New Haven 
construction worker told a friend. Both 
members of the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers, they had come on 
one of the extra trains that Amtrak added 
to handle the demand created by the 
demonstrators. They agreed, as they 
watched more IBEW members filling the 
park near the White House that was their 
assembly area, that most of the people 
around them, like themselves, had never 
been to a demonstration before. “But this 
is different. Reagan’s out to bust the 
unions.” 

THE GROUNDS and parks around 
the Washington Monument, one of the 
city’s most famous sites, stretch west to the 


Lincoln Memorial, east to the Capitol, 
south to the Jefferson Memorial, and 
north to the White House. 

By 8 a.m., the crowds that were gather- 
ing at the base of the monument began to 
spread. It was clear that even the early 
arrivals equaled in number some entire 
demonstrations of the past. 

In the crisp, bright morning, the 50 flags 
that surround the Washington Monument 
snapped briskly in the wind. Overhead, 
red, white, yellow and blue balloons and 
blimps signalled to marchers where to find 
their unions. 

UNION BANNERS, signs and slogans 
began to appear everywhere. The green 
of the parklands was turning every color 
of the rainbow, as thousands of marchers 
found their staging areas. 

Service Employees’ members unloaded 
hundreds of boxes of plastic trash bags, 
donated by their union, for the massive 
clean-up to follow. They dubbed them, 
affectionately, “Sweeneybags” in honor of 
their president, John Sweeney. 


Machinists, Auto Workers, Service Em- 
ployees and most other unions began ar- 
riving in matching jackets, caps, T-shirts, 
some supplied by their unions, but most 
purchased by the members themselves to 
show their solidarity as a delegation. 

The Lynchburg, Va., NAACP wore blue 
sashes, UFCW members had grocers’ 
aprons and a good supply of stickers that 
announced, “My Union Speaks for Me.” 
A big demand for the stickers developed 
among other demonstrators, and they were 
shared. 

A MOLDEIRS’ member from Cincinnati 
had covered an entire shirt with “I’m 
Proud to Be Union” buttons. Exchanging 
buttons, stickers and souvenirs quickly 
turned into a major sport. It was also a 
way to get acquainted. 

Baseball caps were the headgear of the 
day, nylon coaches’ jackets and union T- 
shirts were almost the uniform of the day. 
The women of a Ladies’ Garment Workers 
retirees club from New York had sewn 

(Continued on Page 7) 







AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


Page Fiv« 


‘Unity’ Sets Speakers’ Central The 

Coalition Leaders Stress 


Accord on Critical Issues 



^ % 

By James M. Shevis 

The massive Solidarity Day turnout of 
Americans of all descriptions protesting 
the Administration’s economic policies and 
cutbacks in social programs spoke for it- 
self, really: “In unity there is strength 
and since we must be strong, we must 
also be one.” 

Repeatedly, this was the message that 
reverberated across the National Mall 
from the speakers’ stand near the West 
Front of the U.S. Capitol. 

“BEHOLD YOUR numbers, as far as 
the eye can see,” AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland urged in the keynote of a 
speaking program televised to the nation 
by the Public Broadcasting System. “Look 
at your brothers still marching — in soli- 
darity — ^^down the historic ways of their 
capital city. 

“If you believe that governments are 
raised by the people, not as their enemies 
but as their instruments, to promote the 
general welfare, look about you. You are 
not alone.” 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride, 
as overwhelmed as anyone else by the 
sheer size of the 400,000-plus crowd, 
raised his hands from the platform and 
said: 

“I wish that you could see what I see. 
There are people wall to wall from here 
to the Monument. When we go back home 
and carry out the necessary work to undo 
what’s being done to us, we will have 
completed the job.” 

WHAT WAS CLEAR in all the Soli- 
darity Day speeches was that workers and 
their traditional allies were united as per- 
haps never before in post- World War II 
times in fighting to preserve the gains 
built over the past 50 years by organized 
labor, civil rights, consumer and other 
groups. 

Federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue, the master of ceremonies, re- 
called the words of A. Philip Randolph 
at the 1963 civil rights March on Wash- 
ington: “We here today are only the first 
wave.” 

“He was right,” Donahue said. “The 
second wave has now arrived. We are 
here today, and our voice shall be heard. 
Today is our day — Solidarity Day. Let the 


nation know that that coalition of religious, 
environmental, civil rights, consumer, 
women’s, labor, and other like-minded 
groups — a coalition that has achieved 
tremendous social and economic gains for 
all Americans — has joined together again.” 

SOME 200 NATIONAL organizations 
banded together to make Solidarity Day a 
success. Their leaders approved 14 criti- 
cal domestic issues that, Donahue said 
“unite us all and are the focus of this 
demonstration.” The issues embrace civil 
rights, education, energy, the environ- 
ment, fair trade, health and safety in the 
workplace, housing, jobs, justice, social 
security, fair taxes, lower interest rates, 
voting rights, and women’s rights. 

The speakers touched on a variety of 
themes, but the central message was that 
the time had come for the people to mount 
an offensive against additional government 
takeways from the workers, consumers, the 
elderly, the handicapped and the needy 
while making the rich even wealthier. On 
this point, there was unanimity and com- 
mitment from leaders of both union and 
non-union groups. Joyce Miller, president 
of the Coalition of Labor Union Women 
and an AFL-CIO vice president, put it in 
unmistakable terms: 

“We’re working people. We built this 
country, and, damn it, we’ll not let anyone 
tear it apart.” 

CORETTA SCOTT KING, whose hus- 
band, Martin Luther King, Jr., shook the 
nation’s conscience with his stirring “I 
Have a Dream” speech before the crowd 
Randolph assembled 18 years ago, warned 
that Americans “will not stand idly by 
while tight-money policies destroy the 
dream of home ownership in America. We 
refuse to accept massive unemployment, 
now at record levels for our young peo- 
ple, while a privileged few reap the shame- 
ful harvest of tax breaks only for the 
wealthy.” 

Women, who make up the majority of 
the nation’s poor and feel the impact of 
the Administration’s policies in many 
ways, played a prominent role in Solidar- 
ity Day. 

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Na- 
tional Organization for Women, observed 
that polls show women turning against 
President Reagan and the Republican 


Pariy because “they have turned their 
backs on us.” She vowed that women 
would not give up their gains of the past 
1 5 years, but would go on to new victories 
starting with ratification of the Equal 
Rights Amendment in 1982. 

SMEAL POINTED out that it is “no 
coincidence” that the states that have yet 
to ratify the ERA are for the most part 
the same ones that have so-called right- 
to-work laws banning union shop agree- 
ments. 

“Some profit from denying women their 
rights just as they profit from denying 
trade unionists, blacks, and ethnic minori- 
ties their rights,” she said. “Remember, if 
there were no profit to be gained, you can 
bet the ERA would already be the law 
of the land.” 

Absent from the speakers’ platform were 
elected officials and politicians. They were 
invited to listen to the voices of the work- 
ers and their leaders, as Sec.-Treas. Dona- 
hue put it, because Solidarity Day was 
“conceived as a day for the people to 
speak.” A number of senators and con- 
gressmen were in the crowd, and others 
issued statements of support. 


Favored treatment of the rich at the 
expense of those in need was a recurring 
theme of the speakers. NAACP Executive 
Director Benjamin L. Hooks drew re- 
sounding cheers as he lashed at those in 
the Administration “who wear $1,000 cow- 
boy boots while our children don’t have 
any shoes at all” and “$1,000 plates in the 
White House while they’re cutting back 
on school lunches.” 

National Urban League President 
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., declared that un- 
der Reaganomics “the rich get tax cuts, 
the poor get program cuts. Just look at 
some of them — social security minimum 
benefit, food stamps, CETA jobs and 
training, Medicaid, legal services, welfare, 
education aid, and more. . . . There’s 
something missing in Washington today — 
and that is compassion.” 

MOST AMERICANS know the econ- 
omy is in trouble, and that the times call 
for sacrifice and new ideas, “but we also 
know sacrifice has to be proportionate to 
resources,” Jordan said. 

“Congress and the Administration say 
to poor people: ‘Give up the little you 

(Continued on Page 14) 


iiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Reagan’s Policies Assailed from All Sides 


“President Reagan calls for the people 
to join him in a national renaissance. Re- 
naissance cannot be a reversion to the 
past. The true renaissance is for you and 
me and for all the people that we repre- 
sent and symbolize to come together in 
solidarity and through our collective voice 
and strength elect those men and women 
to public office and leadership who wUl 
lead this nation not backward but for- 
ward.” 

— Reese Robrahn, Director, American 
Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, Inc. 

>fe ♦ ♦ 

“The opposition to the labor movement 
in this country says that the movement is 
dead. Do you believe it? What we have 
proven here today is contrary to what our 
opposition says. They say that what the 
movement has been fighting for all these 
years does not refiect the views of the 
rank-and-file membership. You have prov- 
en today that the rank-and-file membership 
of the labor movement is supportive of the 
leadership.” 

— William H. Wynn, president. Food & 
Commercial Workers. 

♦ * ♦ 

“Ronald Reagan and his millionaire 
Cabinet are stretching and tearing the so- 
cial fabric of our nation by denying the 
poor basic subsistence; by taking jobs, 


training and opportunity from working 
people; by denying the elderly the hope of 
financial security; by retreating on equal 
rights for women and minorities. 

“Four past great Presidents have offered 
Americans a New Deal, a Fair Deal, a 
New Frontier, and a Great Society. What 
about 1981? In the first nine months of 
the Reagan Administration, we have a 
misdeal, a bad deal, a return to the old, 
lawless frontier and the development of a 
damaged society. It is a damaged society 
in which Ronald Reagan has shrewdly but 
maliciously pitted young against old, busi- 
ness against labor, and black against white. 
He has unveiled a strategy in which there 
are no victors, save for the most affluent.” 

— Tony Bonilla, president. League of 
United Latin American Citizens. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

“We did not choose this battle. It was 
thrust upon us — thrust upon us by Presi- 
dent Reagan, a President who claims to 
have a mandate from the people. 

“Well, we are the people. And I pro- 
claim. today that if the battle must be, 
let it be. We will not sacrifice the laws and 
gains that our forefathers died for. 

“I am disappointed — ^but not surprised 
— that President Reagan cleverly arranged 
to be out of town so he would not have to 


face this show of solidarity and strength. 
He may be out of town today, but he is 
going to have to eventually face up to the 
damage he is doing to the men, women, 
and children of this country who will bear 
the burdens of his economic programs 
while the rich reap its rewards.” 

— Sam Church Jr., president. United 
Mine Workers. 

* ♦ ♦ 

“President Reagan claims he has a man- 
date for his program. Does he have a man- 
date to cut social security? Does he have a 
mandate to cut occupational health and 
safety? Does he have a mandate to cut 
back the school lunches for children? The 
answer that we want to tell him is that he 
has no mandate to cut back on social pro- 
grams of the past half century.” 

— Arnold Aronson, secretary. Leader- 
ship Conference on Civil Rights. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

“Some 18 years ago, the first president 
of the Southern Christian Leadership Con- 
ference, Dr. Martin Luther King, stood 
near these hallowed grounds and pro- 
claimed to the world that he had a dream 
that this nation would eliminate poverty, 
that this nation would institute brother- 
hood, and that justice would roll down like 
the waters. You and I have come here to- 


day from North, South, East, and West — 
black, brown, red, and white — to say that 
we are building a new movement, a new 
coalition to fulfill the dream that Martin 
Luther King had 18 years ago.” 

— Rev. Joseph Lowery, president, South- 
ern Christian Leadership Conference. 

* * * 

“You know the gentleman who resides 
in the White House saw fit not to be here 
today. He’s up at Camp David. Let’s have 
one more loud yell . . . one more reminder 
that we’re here.” 

— Charles Pillard, president, Interna- 
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

“By marching today, students demon- 
strate that they will not roll over and play 
dead whUe student loans are slashed and 
job training programs are eliminated. By 
marching today, young people demon- 
strate that they support equal pay for 
equal work and they are opposed — uncon- 
ditionally — to subminimum wages. 

“Today, young people march side by 
side with trade unionists, senior citizens, 
minorities, environmentalists, farmers, and 
many others. Tomorrow, young people 
will register to vote — and we will vote.” 

— Jessica Smith, executive director. 
Front lash. 






Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 



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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


Page Seven 



Media Coverage Near 2 , 000 
At ^Banner Day for Labor ^ 


March Writes 
New Page in 
Labor Annals 

{Continued from Page J) 

long skirts and colonial bonnets from 
ILG’s “union label” printed fabric. 

The Ironworkers who build facilities for 
the Tennessee Valley Authority wore their 
work clothes and hard hats. “We got right 
on the bus after the shift,” they explained. 
It took them 1 6 hours from Nashville, and 
they were to be back on the bus at 6 p.m. 
to head home. 

THE ENTERTAINMENT started after 
George Shirley, tenor with the Metropoli- 
tan Opera, sang the National Anthem. By 
this time, the monument grounds were 
packed. Hats came off everywhere when 
Shirley began to siftg, and a roar went up 
when he finished. 

The staging area qiiickly filled as thou- 
sands of demonstrators at a time emerged 
from nearby subway stations after their 
trip from the fringe parking areas where 
they had left their buses. Washington’s 
Metro trains were packed throughout the 
morning with jacketed, capped demonstra- 
tors. They weren’t worried about missing 
the stop, they said, they were all going to 
the same place. 

Demonstrators filled every side street, 
seeking a glimpse of Washington’s historic 
sights as they waited for the long day’s 
march to begin. Some stood in the line to 
catch the early tour of the White House, 
and a Government Employee from Balti- 
more asked directions to the National 
Archives, “because I’ve always wanted to 
see the original Declaration of Independ- 
ence.” 

People came with their children, one 
family all in matching cowboy hats. Some 
carried babies. H. Claude Hudson, a mem- 
ber of the national board of the NAACP, 
came from Los Angeles, and at 97, may 
have been the oldest demonstrator. 

ON THE STAGE at the monument 
grounds, an Irish folk group had the huge 
crowd clapping time and dancing to reels 
and jigs. Labor singers on stage were 
joined by thousands of voices singing “We 
Shall Not Be Moved.” By 10 o’clock, mar- 
shals were assembling their delegations 
for the march up Constitution Avenue. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
flanked by the representatives of the coali- 
tion that had joined Solidarity Day and 
the federation’s Executive Council, got a 
cheer when he took his place behind the 
Solidarity Day banner to start the march 
at noon. 

The first wave of marchers took about 
an hour to reach the West Front of the 
Capitol for the rally. By themselves, they 
had filled the width and length of the ave- 
nue, and hours later marchers were still 
flooding the expanse of the Mall. From 
the platform, they stretched a solid mile 
back to the Washington Monument. You 
had to be impressed. 


Gospel, jazz and opera blended with 
labor songs, blues, country music and 
marching bands to entertain the Solidarity 
Day crowds. 

From a stage on the grounds of the 
Washington Monument, dozens of enter- 
tainers, themselves members of perform- 
ers’ unions, played to the thousands of 
demonstrators waiting on the slopes to 
take their places in the line of march to 
the Capitol. 

MANY OF THE groups performed 
from the Capitol rally platform as well, 
and singer-composer Stevie Wonder also 
was introduced. Wonder attended the 
rally to show support of Solidarity Day, 
but did not perform. 

Metropolitan Opera tenor George 
Shirley opened the program with the Na- 
tional Anthem, and stage actor Ossie 
Davis and “Alice” star Linda Lavin intro- 
duced the nearly three-hour outdoor show. 


Nearly 2,000 reporters, photographers 
and technicians from print and electronic 
media covered the Solidarity Day march, 
and the stories they filed reflected the im- 
pact of the huge demonstration. 

The New York Times pronounced the 
rally “a stunning success” and pointed 
particularly to the varied nature of the 
crowd. “It was young and old, black, 
white, Hispanic, construction union and 
industrial workers. Because of this diver- 
sity, it was unlike the single purpose 
crowds that gathered in the civil rights and 
antiwar days.” 

THE TIMES also noted that the mood 
of the day was one of “great camaraderie 
and happiness” among “genuine American 
workers.” 

The New York Daily News called the 


Even bus-trip weary demonstrators 
danced and clapped with the Irish songs 
and reels of Washington’s Celtic Folk and 
with the Billy Sparks Band of Austin, Tex., 
billed as “labor’s own country-western 
band.” 

Folk singer Pete Seeger was greeted 
with a roar of applause. 

Labor singers included Joe Glazer, 
Bobbie McGee, Si Kahn and “Ground- 
work” as well as 81 -year old Florence 
Reeves of Harlan County, Ky., who wrote 
“Which Side Are You On?” 

GOSPEL SINGER Jennie Burton elec- 
trified the crowd, and jazz pianist Frank 
Hinton and Spanish singer Jorge del 
Castillo were enthusiastically received. 

Other entertainment included original 
songs by AFSCME District Council 37’s 
“Serious Business,” the New York Street 
Theatre Caravan, the Howard University 
Chorus and the ILGWU Chorus. 


march “A Banner Day for Labor Protest.” 
The paper’s front page headline, “Labor 
Rally Blasts Ron,” caught the theme of the 
rally, a show of opposition to the Admin- 
istration’s economic and social policies. 

The rally was “a massive wave . . . un- 
precedented in modern labor history and 
perhaps the largest political protest in 
Washington during the past 20 years,” the 
Washington Post reported. 

THE CROWD, the Post noted, “was a 
broad slice of America ... a colorful 
patchwork of men, women and children 
. . . which might become the most power- 
ful grass roots progressive coalition since 
the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War 
days.” 

The “therapeutic value to the labor 
movement” of the demonstration was 
highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, 
which quoted AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue’s remark, “if this 
doesn’t put an end to the nonsense about 
us not speaking for our members, I don’t 
know what will.” 

Solidarity Day was meant to “send a 
clear message to the White House,” the 
Journal said, pointing out that “many 
demonstrators appeared to be Mr. Rea- 
gan’s constituents — middle class and 
middle-aged.” 

Chicago Tribune columnist Anne Kee- 
gan, commented that the city of Washing- 
ton was impressed not only by the numbers 
who came for the rally, but also the 
character of the crowds. 

“WHO WAS IT that was so impressive? 
It was Middle America,” Keegan said. “It 
was the people that built this country and 
want to keep on doing it. It was the meat- 
and-potatoes people, the ones who put in 
eight hours and have no company expense 
account. The ones who fight our wars. The 
ones who pay our taxes and have no loop- 
holes.” 

“It was the working class. And they 
came to Washington because they want to 
stay that way,” Keegan observed. 


Long Journey 
Fails to Deter 
Participants 

Virtually every state in the union was 
represented at the Solidarity Day march 
by the 400,000-plus demonstrators who 
arrived by bus, car, van, train and even on 
foot. Travel through U.S. ai& space was 
out, however, with union members stick- 
ing to ground travel to show support for 
the striking Air Traffic Controllers. 

Most demonstrators, many of whom had 
been on the road all day and night, said 
they had arrived in Washington in the 
early morning and would get back on their 
-buses immediately after the rally for the 
trip home. 

AFL-CIO Solidarity Day coordinators 
reported requests for more than 5,000 bus 
permits from unions and allied organiza- 
tions and estimated that many more buses 
would be arriving at the last minute. The 
majority of the buses were parked in 
metropolitan Washington’s fringe parking 
areas, and demonstrators rode the city’s 
subway, free for the day, to the Mall. 

Amtrak, which had added trains to its 
Northeast corridor, Florida, and Midwest 
schedules, reported that its reserved seat 
Metroliners were sold out and non-reser- 
vation trains were full. 

Although the PATCO strike led to can- 
cellations of air reservations, demon- 
strators were determined to make the trip 
to the nation’s capital no matter how long 
it took. 

“ONLY THE bus captain is allowed to 
be cranky on this trip,” Ross Rieder 
warned the 41 demonstrators in the 
caravan that left Seattle at 7 p.m., Thurs- 
day, Sept. 17. Rieder, Washington State 
AFL-CIO Solidarity Day coordinator, led 
his delegation to Vancouver, B.C., where 
they caught a night flight to Toronto and 
changed to an all-day bus to D.C. They 
reversed the process on Sunday. 

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO arranged a 
bus caravan through the state to pick up 
its delegation for a 900-mile trip. 

The Alabama AFL-CIO reported at 
least 1 1 buses from that state organized by 
central labor councils. The Iowa AFL-CIO 
changed its last convention session to 6:30 
a.m. so its buses could leave Davenport 
by 8 for the trip east. 

AT LEAST three buses and dozens of 
cars and vans -with Oklahoma union mem- 
bers made the 22-hour drive, and the 
Minnesota AFL-CIO rallied trade union- 
ists and representatives of allied organiza- 
tions in Minneapolis and St. Paul for a 
bus caravan. 

Demonstrators from dozens of unions 
and other cities told the same story: most 
had ridden on all-night buses, most were 
returning home the same way immediately 
after the Solidarity Day rally ended. 

Signs and license plates on buses, home- 
towns printed on jackets, signs and ban- 
ners read like an atlas. Among them: 
Punxsutawney, Pa.; Wheeling, W. Va.; 
Raritan Valley, N.J.; Tulsa, Okla.; 
Monck’s Corner, S.C.; Lorain, Ohio; 
Muskingum, Ohio; Waukesha, Wis. 

Demonstrators wore banners announc- 
ing they were Service Employees from 
Boston, Auto Workers from Detroit, Steel- 
workers from Alabama, or striking Teach- 
ers from Philadelphia. 

illlllillllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllilllllilllllllim 

City Counts Crowd 
At Over 400,000 

More than 400,000 demonstrators 
were on the Mall and in the march 
staging areas at the height of Solidarity 
Day, according to an official estimate 
released by Sam Jordan, acting deputy 
director of the Washington, D.C., May- 
or’s Office of Emergency Preparedness. 

Official city estimates of previous rec- 
ord crowds at Washington demonstra- 
tions logged 250,000 or more at both 
the Nov. 15, 1969, anti-Vietnam War 
protest and the civil rights “March on 
Washington” of Aug. 28, 1963. 

Illillllllilllliilllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllillllllllllillllillllllllllll^ 


Demonstrators Mark Time 
To Gospel, Jazz, Folk Beats 









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Page Nine 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 




Page Tea 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


A Starting Point 

^ REAT AS IT WAS, Solidarity Day must be viewed as a 
starting point, not a finish line, for the trade union movement 
and its many allies. 

The more perceptive members of Congress will recognize that 
the massive Solidarity Day protest touched a wellspring of back- 
home resentment that is building up against Reagan Administra- 
tion policies. 

Increasingly, this Administration is seen as callous to the poor, 
hostile to workers, indifferent to minorities, neglectful of the 
public need — and excessively generous to those who already have 
wealth and power. 

Were it otherwise, not even the meticulous organization that 
went into the making of Solidarity Day could have produced such 
a turnout. Ordinary Americans simply do not board buses at 
daybreak or drive through the night merely to listen to speeches. 
Not by the hundreds of thousands, they don’t. 

BUT THE PRESSURE must be kept up, or Congress will tend 
to relegate Solidarity Day to the status of a one-day wonder with 
no permanent impact. This must not happen. 

The answer lies partly in the shaping of effective working co- 
alitions in the cities and states by the groups that marched to- 
gether on Sept. 19. There are some such coalitions, but not nearly 
enough. “We Are One” is not just a slogan for a single day. 

Another part of the solution is to perfect the grass-roots lobby- 
ing effort that already exists in some localities and in some 
unions, but again not enough. 

Certainly, none of our organizations can do it alone. Even 
together, there is a realistic limit to what can be accomplished 
given the nature of the Congress and Administration already in 
office. But there will be other elections, and an electorate that is 
aware of the issues and the records of the candidates can make 
a difference. 


THE NEXT BATTLE is already on us. The President is asking 
Congress for still a new round of budget cuts, including a reduce 
tion in “entitlements,” such as the right to receive social security 
benefits promised by law. 

Given continued high interest rates — themselves a result of 
Administration economic policies — the President and his aides 
argue that further cuts are the only way to keep the goal of a 
balanced budget within sight. 

There is, of course, a simpler way. There is no reason why 
Congress cannot at least defer new tax breaks for oil companies 
and oil royalty holders. 


Nor is there any reason why a cap cannot be put on the indi- 
vidual income tax cut for 1982 — affecting only the top 6 percent 
of taxpayers who are now scheduled to receive 35 percent of 
the total tax cut. And was it really more important to give still 
further depreciation tax breaks to business firms than to fund job 
training or food safety? 

These are some of the things a responsive Congress should be 
thinking of in the aftermath of Solidarity Day. 







Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


= John H. Lyons 
E Frederick O’Neal 
E A1 H. Chesser 
E Albert Shanker 
E Edward T. Hanley 
= William H.McClennan 
1 David J. Fitzmaurice 
S Wm.W.Winpisinger 
s John J. O’Donnell 
s Robert F. Goss 
1 Joyce D. Miller 

= * Deceased. 


Executive Council 

Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


E Director of Information: Saul Miller S 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry S 

= Assistant Editors: S 

E Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 1 

= David L. Perlman James M. Shevis s 

5 AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 1 

1 Washington, D.C. 20006 = 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

1 VoL XXVI Saturday, September 26, 1981 No. 39 i 

= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except = 

= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
s ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
s Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= thing in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
5 to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
3 AFL-CIO. = 

^niHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimimimiiiim!R 




Turning Things Around 

Meeting on the Mall Laid Basis 
For Strong, Effective Coalition 


By Gus Tyler 

S OLIDARITY DAY was much more than a 
mass meeting; it was a meeting of the masses. 
And the difference is more than a play on words. 

You can have a huge assembly of the like- 
minded, a homogeneous gathering of political 
clones. That’s one kind of meeting. Or you can 
have an assemblage of the unlike, and even the 
unlikely, a coming together of the uncloned. That 
is another kind of meeting — a coalition of diverse 
elements in a common cause. 

EARLY ON, our country found a slogan for 
this “meeting of masses.” You will find it im- 
printed on some of our coins. It reads: E Pluribus 
Unum, “Out of Many, One.” Under that rubric 
this nation was born. 

Under the same inscription, this nation may 
be reborn at a time when there was the danger 
that we were moving toward a moment when 
these United States would go down — ^yes, down — 
historically as those “Disunited States.” 

In the last dozen years or so, we appear to 
have become unglued. John Gardner calls it 
“pluralism run amok.” Others see it as an in- 
dulgence in narcissism, a victory of “me-ism” 
over all “isms.” Politically, this fragmentation of 
our society expresses itself in the proliferation of 
single-issue groups. Whatever the description or 
diagnosis, this breakup of our society into multi- 
ple warring sects seems to fulfill the gloomy 
prophecy of Yeats about the hour when “things 
fall apart, the center cannot hold.” 

THE REAGAN REGIME threatens to make 
matters worse. The economic squeeze has been 
turning people against people in a cannibalistic 
struggle to survive. 

There is much history to suggest that wide- 
spread suffering does not necessarily unite people 
in a rational effort to stay collectively alive. Just 
as often, hardship turns eich against each. 

We have been seeing a growing trend toward 
such cold civil wars: Men are out of work because 
too many women are in the labor force; teenagers 
are unemployed because too many old fogeys 
hang on to jobs, and vice versa; workers are over- 
taxed because the poor are over indulged; the 
snow states are in trouble because the sun states 
are being favored, etc. 


As the budget is cut, each group sees the 
other as “the enemy,” as a rival in the bitter battle 
over a piece of the shrunken pie. Carried to the 
ultimate, social order falls into disorder, into a 
Hobbesian war of everyone against everyone. 

To the party or person involved, such a falling- 
out of the people may not be an unwelcome event. 
Once again a minority, responsible for the catas- 
trophe, may govern a majority by the ancient 
strategy of “divide and rule.” ^ 

What Solidarity Day did was to start turning 
things around, to name the common foe: the 
Reagan Regime, By that act, the meeting on the 
Mall laid the basis for an effective coalition in 
the years ahead. 

BUT SOLIDARITY DAY is, at best, only a 
beginning; a common foe is not a common cause; 
a shared emotion is not a shared program. 

The necessary feeling is present for a creative 
coalition, for a meeting of the masses, but we 
still need the ideas, to program a policy, for a 
meeting of the minds. 

liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 

'WeWaiBeBack 
Again and Again 

In his remarks at the beginning of this pro- 
gram, Lane Kirkland read the Sam Gompers 
statement of 1983 outlining what the people 
want. As we conclude today, let me read you a 
similar message spoken 12 years ago by Lane 
Kirkland, and even more valid today, on how 
we’re going to fight for those things. 

He said, “We are blessed and strengthened . 
by one piece of sure and certain knowledge: 
that there are no lost causes for us. . . . Though 
we may lose a round, and another and another 
and another, we will always be back again and 
again . . . and we are going to win because 
we are not going to quit, not today, not tomor- 
row, not while we breathe.” 

So spoke Lane Kirkland 12 years ago. So 
spoke each and every one of you today by your 
presence here. So spoke the more^than 400,000 
people who participated in this%ally today. 

— Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, in closing 
remarks at Solidarity Day, Sept. 19, 1981. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiii^ 


Page Eleven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


Response to Reagan's Challenge 

Solidarity Day Reaffirms Goals, 
Rejects ‘Mandate’ for Retreat 


Following is the text of AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland's address at the Solidarity Day 
demonstration. 

W E ARE HERE today to reaffirm the great 
goals that have drawn us together, in soli- 
darity, for a hundred years. 

We are here to answer a challenge to those 
goals and to all that we have gained together, in 
solidarity. 

President Reagan has told us that he alone 
speaks for the working people of this country — 
and that we do not. 

He has told us that he has a mandate from the 
people for what he wills — and that when we pur- 
sue our contrary instructions, we are simply “out 
of step.” 

THE OBJECT of governance in America, we 
are told, is but to raise armies, to foster and 
nourish commercial enterprise, and to suppress 
those forces that might check or temper its 
rapacity. 

If you reject the notion that only the state, 
through its Chief Executive, faithfully expresses 
your will — ^look about you. You are not alone. 

If you do not embrace the proposition that this 
President has a mandate to destroy the programs 
that feed the roots of a decent society, look about 
you. You are not alone. 

If you believe that governments are raised by 
the people, not as their enemies but as their in- 
struments, to promote the general welfare, look 
about you. You are not alone. 

Behold your numbers, as far as the eye can see. 
Attend their spirit, vital, strong and free. 

LOOK AT YOUR brothers and sisters, by the 
thousands, still marching — in solidarity — down 
the historic ways of their capital city. 

You are working men and women who have 
come . here with your friends and allies because 
you care deeply about the course of your country. 

. You have given up your family days of rest and 
spent long and tiring hours in buses, trains and 
cars, from every part of this land, as an act of 
devotion and testimony. 

Your testimony must be heard. The future 
course of this nation hangs upon it. 

You are the people that do the work of Amer- 
ica. You run its factories and offices, work its 
farms, transport its produce, maintain its build- 
ings, teach its children, nurse its sick, clean its 
streets and fight in its defense. 

When something goes wrong in America, you 
feel it first — before the politicians or the more 
securely placed. You know it before the pollsters 
take your pulse. 

SOMETHING HAS gone wrong and you know 
it all too well. 

Those who have risen to power in this city have 

Reagan Plan Raises Alarm 


set out to Strip our government of any capacity to 
serve your needs and aspirations. 

They have set out to cancel and dismantle the 
safeguards of a humane society and to commit 
us to the economic jungle. 

They are sacrificing the homes, health and 
hopes of millions on the altar of crank economic 
abstractions that defy the laws of simple arithme- 
tic and dismay even their friends on Wall Street, 
who never allow sentiment to blind them to the 
bottom line. 

Their tax cuts — transferring resources from the 
common good to the private purses of the rich — 
are proving the most irresponsible fiscal act in 
our times — as we said they would. 

Their monetary policies are causing record high 
interest rates — as we said they would. 

They have attacked social security and other 
covenants between the people and their govern- 
ment — as we said they would. 

THEIR INDIFFERENCE or hostility to social 
justice threatens voting rights, women’s rights, 
workers’ rights and human rights — and this too 
we warned, many months ago, would come to 
pass. 

We were right then and we are right today. 
Attention should, at last, be paid. 

Labor is here, in its one hundredth year, to 
deliver a simple message to the Administration 
and to the Congress. 

We have come too far, struggled too long, 
sacrificed too much, and have too much left to 
do, to allow all that we have achieved for the 
good of all to be swept away without a fight. And 
we have not forgotten how to fight. 

We are out of step with no one but the cold- 
hearted, the callous, the avaricious and the in- 
different. 

We are out front and we shall not fall back to 
hide and wait for better political weather. 

BUT THE WINDS are changing as they always 
do. The winter’s chill is approaching and the 
bloom is fading from false mandates. 

Today is just a start, but Solidarity is more 
than just a day. As our brothers and sisters in 
Poland have shown the world, it is a quality of the 
human spirit that can never be defeated. 

On this historic day of that new start let us 
all pledge to each other to return to our commu- 
nities and to build a new mandate for a humane 
and just America. 

Our mandate responds to the call of Gompers, 
for: 

“More school houses and less jails, more books 
and less arsenals, more learning and less vice, 
more constant work and less crime, more leisure 
and less greed, more justice and less revenge.” 

Let us bind that mandate in the spirit of Soli- 
darity — forever. 


Proposed Social Security Cuts 
A Basic Issue for Protesters 


T he SPREAD AND DEPTH of the public 
protest against President Reagan’s huge social 
security cutbacks were clearly displayed in the 
Solidarity Day demonstration Sept. 19 in Wash- 
ington, AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert 
Seidman said on a network radio interview. 

Seidman pointed to growing alarm about the 
Administration’s determination to press Congress 
for even greater benefit and protection cuts than 
those approved just before the August congres- 
sional recess. 

“There is nothing in the President’s recent 
statements that should encourage older Ameri- 
cans,” he observed. 

President Reagan is maintaining his demand 
that Congress make “huge cutbacks” on top of 
those that have already hit early retirees, disabled 
workers and students, Seidman noted. He ap- 
peared on the network radio interview. Labor 


News Conference, aired weekly by the Mutual 
Broadcasting System. 

Seidman said the President is pushing hard for 
the deep cuts because “he really believes that 
social security is doing too much” and wants a 
smaller program that does less for the elderly, 
the disabled and the survivors of deceased work- 
ers. But, he added, an even greater motivation 
for the President is to “cut benefits and thereby 
build up a surplus that can be used” to achieve 
his number-one objective of balancing the budget. 

THAT, SEIDMAN SAID, is a wrong approach. 
“The budget is used for year-to-year fluctuations 
in federal expenditures, while social security is a 
long-term commitment to the American people.” 

Reporters questioning Seidman on the AFL- 
CIO produced public affairs program were Alan 
E. Adams of Employment Relations Report and 
Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 


S OLIDARITY DAY was a spectacular success and some of the 
credit has to go to President Reagan. He is bringing America 
together again by threatening to destroy the role of the federal 
government in promoting the common good. 

In the name of balanced budgets, the Reagan Administration 
is dismantling and slashing programs that have helped the un- 
employed, the disadvantaged, the disabled, the elderly and the 
hungry. 

In the name of dubious economic theories, Reagan is using the 
presidency to shift power and resources and regulatory protection 
from workers and consumers to big business and the rich. 

Now the working people of America have drawn the line. By 
the hundreds of thousands, they assembled at the foot of the U.S. 
Capitol on Sept. 19 to tell Reagan and the 97th Congress that 
things have gone too far. 

IF THIS WAS the “silent majority,” it is silent no longer. Many 
of them opposed Reagan, but accepted his victory. Some voted for 
him, and now regret it. 

They were coal miners and steelworkers and auto workers. They 
were operating engineers, machinists and iron workers. They were 
teachers and social workers. They were the disabled and the 
elderly. They were public employees who provide social services 
and maintain public buildings and streets. 

These were the people who work hard, pay their taxes and fight 
the nation’s wars. They know the value of the G.I. Bill, student 
loans for their children, jobless pay, workers’ compensation, school 
lunches, food stamps, job health and safety, and social security. 

That’s what their placards said and what they said in interviews. 
Wall Street and the financial markets don’t believe in Reagan’s 
economic policies and are showing it. The people demonstrating 
on Solidarity Day, as much in regret as in anger were saying they 
don’t believe the Administration, either. 

SOCIAL SECURITY was perhaps the issue mentioned most 
frequently. Here is what several marchers said: 

♦ Rudy Kuzel, a member of UAW Local 72 in Kenosha, Wis. 
“Reagan didn’t have a mandate to do what he’s doing. . . . After 
he broke promises on auto imports, trade adjustment aid and 
social security, you can’t find hardly anybody in our local who 
will admit they voted for him.” 

♦ Jerry. Lozupone, a member of Washington-area Local 26, 
IBEW — “We are fighting back. Social security is a guaranteed 
thing. We paid into it.” 

• Ray Parsley, a member of Carpenters’ Local 1578 in southern 
New Jersey, complained about the housing slump and added: 
“People have worked all their lives building social security. Now 
he’s taking even that from them.” 

♦ Earl Hemick, another union carpenter from Fort Wayne, Ind., 
had voted for Reagan. But he came to protest because “we don’t 
know where he’s going to.stop — like with social security.” 

THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION has played a cruel form 
of politics with social security and other vital programs, and the 
people seem to sense it. 

The Solidarity Day rally and a new Washington Post-ABC 
News^ poll show support for Reagan on the decline. There has 
been a decided shift in the Post-ABC poll showing that people 
now perceive the President’s policies as favoring upper-income 
people and going too far in cutting social programs. 

Reagan’s downward slide lends relevance to the observation of 
the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln: “If you once 
forefeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never 
regain their respect and esteem . . . you may fool all the people 
some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the 
time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” 



SOLIDARITY DAY demonstrators clearly displayed the 
spreading public protest against President Reagan’s retirement 
benefit cuts, AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert Seidman, 
center, said on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by 
Alan E. Adams, left, of Employment Relations Report and 
Robert Cooney of Press Associates, Inc. 


Page Twelve 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER ^, Jl 981 


Page Thirteen 




Page Fourteen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 



SOLIDARITY DAY RALLIES in Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and 
Lake Charles, La., protested Reagan Administration positions on social and 
economic issues just as strongly as the demonstration in the nation’s capital. 
At left. Executive Sec.-Treas. William Robertson of the Los Angeles AFL-CIO 
addresses a crowd of 10,000 workers and their allies. In Denver, on the day 



before the Washington demonstration, President Robert F. Goss of the Oil, Chem- 
ical & Atomic Workers warned an audience of about 2,000 that Reagan’s basic 
economic thrust is to take from the poor and give to the rich. The rally was 
organized to coincide with the Denver appearance of Reagan and Vice President 
Bush before the National Federation of Republican Women. 


Message of Washington Protest 
Echoes at Rallies in Other Cities 


As hundreds of thousands of Americans 
gathered in Washington to protest Presi- 
dent Reagan’s economic policies, smaller 
but no less enthusiastic Solidarity Day 
rallies were mounted in Colorado, Louisi- 
ana, and California. 

The rallies were held to accommodate 
those at far distant points who wanted to 
attend the demonstration in the nation’s 
capital but would not fly airways con- 
trolled by non-union personnel. 

AT LOS ANGELES’ MacArthur 
Park, Executive Sec.-Treas. William Rob- 
ertson of the Los Angeles AFL-CIO told 
nearly 10,000 trade unionists and mem- 
bers of progressive organizations from 
throughout southern California: 

‘This Administration has to be stopped 
in its attempt to establish a new caste sys- 
tem with the elite at the top and the rest 
of us at the bottom. 

“This is a call to arms. We can and we 
will muster all of the forces gathered here 
today, as well as additional allies, to 
create the political clout so essential if we 
are to regain the ground we lost in the 
1980 election.” 

THE LARGEST of its kind in Los An- 
geles since the 1940s, the demonstration 
was a direct answer to the Administra- 
tion’s claim that labor leaders are out of 
step with the rank-and-file union mem- 
bership. 

Also speaking in Los Angeles were ac- 


tresses Jessica Walter and Patty Duke 
Astin, and Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). 

Colorado’s version of Solidarity Day, 
held in Denver a day before the Wash- 
ington demonstration, drew attention to 
the presence of Reagan and Vice President 
Bush who were in the city to address 
the National Federation of Republican 
Women. 

“We felt that they ducked out of the 
demonstration in Washington,” said Jack 
Easter of the Communications Workers, 
“so we decided to have one here.” 

CHANTING “Ronald Reagan’s got to 
go, hey-hey, ho-ho,” a line of marchers six 
blocks long wended its way to the Capitol, 
where a succession of speakers decried the 
Administration’s anti-labor stance and 
economic policies. 

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) as- 
sailed Reagan programs which she said do 
nothing for women, workers or the poor. 
She wore a button reading “590,” the 
average amount women are paid for every 
dollar men earn in comparable jobs. 

Schroeder pointed out that 10 years ago 
85 percent of working people could afford 
to buy a home but that today only 4 per- 
cent can. Reagan’s economic policies 
won’t change that, she said. 

President Norman Pledger of the Colo- 
rado AFL-CIO told the crowd of 2,000 
that the government badly handled the 
air traffic controllers’ walkout last month. 


He called on the Administration to end 
its “punitive” measures against PATCO, 
and engage in contract negotiations. 

In Louisiana, State AFL-CIO President 
Victor Bussie led a march to the steps of 
the Lake Charles civic center where he 
pledged: 

“We’re not letting Reagan destroy the 
union. We’ve stopped Dave Train, and we 
can stop Reagan.” The reference was to 
last summer’s unsuccessful attempt by 
Train, the state’s first Republican governor 
in 100 years, to abolish Louisiana’s pre- 
vailing wage law. 

BUSSIE ALSO predicted that Reagan 
“will be one of the most effective union 
organizers we’ve ever had” before the 
battle over his budget cutbacks is over. 
Workers increasingly will seek union mem- 
bership as the best way to counter Admin- 
istration programs and policies harmful 
to their well-being, he said. 

In San Francisco, an estimated 10,000 
Solidarity Day demonstrators jammed Jus- 
tin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market 
Street to spur on speakers who denounced 
the Administration’s “take from the poor, 
give to the rich” domestic policies and 
called for unity to repulse Reagan’s at- 
tacks on workers’ rights. 

Executive Sec.-Treas. John F. Henning 
of the California State AFL-CIO touched 
off a loud cheer when he announced the 
magnitude of the Washington demonstra- 
tion. 

“THAT’S THE greatest labor assem- 
blage ever pulled together in the nation’s 
capital in the history of the American 
trade-union movement,” he declared. 

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, 
the keynote speaker at the San Francisco 
rally, said that “the job we’ve got to do is 
to make clear the American opposition to 
the radical policies being pursued by the 
current Administration.” 

Mondale charged that the Reagan 
Administration is pursuing a policy of 
“the ' most radical opposition to orga- 
nized labor of any Administration since 
Herbert Hoover. Even Eisenhower, Nixon, 
and Ford had decent relationships with 
the leaders of organized labor.” 

Other speakers at the rally included 
Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez, 
Rep. John L. Burton (D-Calif.), Sec.-Treas. 
John F. Crowley of the San Francisco 
Labor Council, and President James Her- 
man of the unaffiliated Longshoremen & 
Warehousemen. 

Those taking part in both the San Fran- 
cisco and Los Angeles demonstrations 
included members of the Plumbers, 
Teachers, Farm Workers, Machinists, 
Service Employees, Air Traffic Controllers, 
Longshoremen as well as representatives of 
coalition organizations, including the Na- 
tional Organization for Women, the Con- 
gress of California Seniors, the NAACP, 
the National Council of Senior Citizens, 
the Union of American Hebrew Congrega- 
tions, the National Urban League, and 
other minority groups. 


‘Unity’ Forms 
Central Theme 
For Speakers 

(Continued from Page 1) 

have today and we promise you a lot more 
in the bye and bye.’ Well, we aren’t buying 
pie-in-the-sky economics,” Jordan de- 
clared. 

Jacob dayman, head of the National 
Council of Senior Citizens, called the 
President’s allegations that the social se- 
curity system will go bankrupt “a propa- 
ganda hoax.” He charged that the Ad- 
ministration’s “true intent is to use the 
slashing of social security as a means to 
balance the White House budget. No 
balancing of the budget is worth that kind 
of economic and psychological violence 
to the lives of America’s elderly.” 

UAW PRESIDENT Douglas Fraser 
scoffed at Reagan’s pledge to build “a 
shining city on the hill.” He warned that 
the Administration budget cuts scheduled 
to take effect on Oct. 1 will show people 
that “America has lost its heart, has lost 
its compassion, has lost its w^y.” Fraser 
also blasted the Administration for “act- 
ing in an extreme and cruel fashion” in 
dealing with members of the Professional 
Air Traffic Controllers Organization who 
went out on strike last month for better 
wages and working conditions. 

PATCO Local 291 President Steve 
Wallaert of Norfolk, Va., who was 
chained, shackled and jailed for leading 
his local in the strike, said he was angry 
at an Administration “that would not 
negotiate the issues important to my sur- 
vival as a worker.” 

Wallaert thanked the AFL-CIO and the 
entire labor movement for their support 
of the walkout and said PATCO members 
are proud of their leader, Robert Poli, 
and would remain on strike until Poli told 
them to return to work. 

“And you’ll have our support until you 
go back to work,” Donahue assured 
Wallaert. 

THE SOLIDARITY DAY speakers 
cautioned participants in the huge demon- 
stration not to expect immediate, tangible 
results. They stressed, though, that in the 
long run Reagan and members of Con- 
gress would have to modify their stand 
toward the poor, the elderly, minorities, 
and the workers of America or face the 
voters’ judgment at the ballot box. 

The inspirational impact of the rally 
was deemed most important. “People take 
heart from events like this,” Donahue 
said. And the remarkable show of unity 
would serve to “stiffen the spines of some 
of our friends on Capitol Hill,” Douglas 
Fraser added. 

Speakers acknowledged that the 'road 
on the drive to turn around Reagan .eco- 
nomic policies would be rough. As Presi- 
dent Jerry Wurf of the State, County & 
Municipal Employees summed up, “it’s 
going to take everything you’ve got — ^plus.” 

“In spite of this marvelous turnout, 
there is no guarantee that we will suc- 
ceed,” said Wurf. “It is the beginning, just 
the beginning, of a very long and difficult 
process.” 


‘Of the People, by the People, for the People...’ 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 


Page Fifteen 





Page Sixteen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 26, 1981 



miiW 





(Continued from Page 1) 
starts singing Solidarity Forever. It’s taken 
up quickly. 

AT THE SUBWAY transfer point, 
more marshals are on hand to point people 
in the right direction and it’s like a holi- 
day crowd. 

The assembly areas along the mall arc 
like a fairground, with huge balloons and 
helium blimps as floating signposts. The 
IBEW is one of the unions that has set 
up tents and it has prepared 16,000 box 
lunches for its members. 

In the entertainment area, it’s union 
songs and folk songs, a local Irish group, 
the Ladies’ Garment Workers Union Label 
Chorus. Some big name entertainers, un- 
ion members themselves, could have been 
brought in. But to do so would have been 
to invite the speculation that the huge 
crowd really came to see or hear some 
popular star. 

SO THE performers were not an- 
nounced in advance and for the most part 


A Boilermaker from Louisiana thought 
he knew what brought most people out for 
Solidarity Day: “People just do not like 
what is happening with Reagan. It’s every- 
thing for the rich man and nothing for 
the working man. I don’t think that’s what 
they expected when they voted for Reagan, 
but that’s what they got.” 

The same thought was on other people’s 
minds. A member of the Allied Industrial 
Workers from Muscle Shoals, Ala., re- 
marked that “people voted for a change in 
the last election, but we wanted to go for- 
ward, not backward.” 

A SERVICE EMPLOYEES’ member, 
Judy Haddon, who had driven with 12 
others in a van from Cleveland, said she 
was trying to raise three children, alone, 



were people who have strummed guitars 
on picket lines and in union halls. Tom 
Herriman, whose more usual role is edit- 
ing the newspaper of the Clothing & Tex- 
tile Workers, gets a turn before a bigger 
audience than any but a handful of pro- 
fessional entertainers has ever faced. 

Stevie Wonder, the blind singing idol 
of a generation, will march with the 
NAACP and his friend, Benjamin Hooks. 
But he’s at Solidarity Day to join his voice 
in protest, not song. 

Shortly after noon, police escorts and 
photo trucks take their place. An early 
banner of the American Federation of 
Labor, symbol of the labor federation’s 
centennial, is in its case, wheeled to the 
head of the procession. 

BEHIND THE ranks of organization ‘ 
leaders comes the city’s finest high school 
marching bands. 

And then, lined up from curb to curb, 
20 or more abreast, are block after block 
of AFSCME members. The union won 


on $15,000 a year. “I can’t save anything,” 
she said, “and now Reagan’s putting the 
financial pressure on us.” 

One demonstrator, hands stuffed in his 
jacket pockets while the wind kicked up, 
answered the question about why he was 
here, by unzipping the coat to reveal an 
“I Support PATCO” T-shirt. 

“We got sold out,” Thomas Ramsey, a 
sugar worker from Florida, insisted, and a 
Laborer from Jacksonville, Fla., com- 
plained: “He said he wouldn’t touch social 
security, but now they want to cut that. 
But they won’t touch defense.” 

A MACHINIST came to the march, 
“because I’m probably the only damn lib- 
eral in Sheffield, Ala.,” and a Carpenter 
from Clarksville, Ind., ticked off “OSHA, 
Davis-Bacon cuts” as his motivation. 

Members of the Clothing & Textile 
Workers from Johnstown, Pa., “drove all 
night to get here. We wouldn’t have missed 
this for anything. It’s great the way people 
feel united.” 

Chuck Wilkinson, a Washington, D.C., 
Ironworker, pointed to the White House. 
“If he won’t listen,” he said, turning to 
point toward the Capitol, “then they will.” 

With signs like a Musician’s “Brahms 
Not Bombs,” and “Cement Masons Stick 
Together, Baltimore Local 43,” many 
let their signs do their talking. 

DISABLED CITIZENS called out “Cut 
Curbs, Not Budgets.” Teachers, protest- 
ing cuts in the school lunch program 
which include an Administration claim 
that condiments cah be considered vege- 


the leadoff honor by having the largest 
single contingent. 

Some of the elderly and disabled are 
bused to the rally area at the Capitol, 
where members of Congress are welcome 
to listen but are not invited to speak. 

THE SCHEDULE called for the pro- 
gram to be complete at 5 p.m. to meet 
bus and train departure schedules, and 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, who served as master of ceremonies, 
came astonishingly close to the goal. 

Msgr. George G. Higgins gave the in- 
vocation, and most people in the audience 
had never heard a Father Higgins invoca- 
tion before. They gave it a hearty round 
of applause, as a good speech deserves, 
which is something that a lot of union 
convention goers have often wanted to do. 

The speeches were short enough so that 
people listened to them — in between cran- 
ing their necks to get another look at the 
size of the gathering. 

TELEVISION teams and reporters 


tables, said “Sorry Kids, No Lunch To- 
day,” and “Let ’Em Eat Ketchup.” 

“Reaganomics — Welfare for Wall 
Street” read a banner strung the length of 
a bus. There was even a UAW frisbee 
with the slogan “Buy American.” A 
Plumber from Beaumont, Tex., said, 
“Don’t Bust the Unions.” 

Signs for “Jobs Not Jellybeans” mingled 
with “Down with Bonzo Economics,” 
“Support the PATCO Strikers” and “ERA 
Now.” A Communications Worker stuck 
a picket sign, “Mr. Reagan . . . Here’s 
Your Mandate” in the back of his jeans 
with a large downward pointing arrow in 
case anyone missed the point. 

There were signs in Spanish and at 
least one in Chinese. 

‘TM ANGRY and disappointed,” New 
Jersey Carpenter John Laden said. “This 
is America. This government is supposed 
to represent the people back home. They’re 
trying to put the working man down. 
They’re trying to make this a different 
kind of country.” 

Mildred Donahue, a school librarian 
from Orange, Conn., said she wanted to 
make the point “that this Administration 
doesn’t have a mandate for what they’re 
doing. Ronald Reagan made me come 
here.” 

Kate McClure of Bethesda, Md., 
thanked the AFL-CIO and its allies for 
organizing the “opportunity to stand with 
others in support of labor and for social 
justice. It has been a lonely time for many 
of us. We needed the chance to come to- 
gether.” 


picked their way through the crowds, in- 
terviewing the people who, as Kirkland 
said, “have given up your family days of 
rest and spent long and tiring hours in 
buses, trains and cars, from every part of 
this land, as an act of devotion and testi- 
mony.” 

Solidarity Day Coordinator John Per- 
kins was the walking command post, get- 
ting reports from 60 key staffers with 
walkie-talkies. Organization & Field Ser- 
vices Director Alan Kistler and Legisla- 
tive Director Ray Denison had the best 
seats in the house earlier in the day, two 
cherry pickers near the Washington Monu- 
ment grounds from which they made de- 
cisions on how to slot groups into the line 
of march. 

As the program neared its close, a small 
group of Solidarity Day participants made 
their way to the fenced-in speakers’ area 
carrying a large carton. They had taken 
up a collection for the PATCO Family 
Fund, to help the families of striking air 
traffic controllers. Where could they leave 
the money, they asked the white-capped 
Seafarers security guard. 

The Rev. Robert L. Pruitt, from a local 
AME church, gave the moving benedic- 
tion to an historic day. 

, “EACH OF YOU take your neighbor 
by the hand,” he enjoined, and white 
hands and black hands and brown hands 
clasped. 

“May our society of solidarity not be 
temporary,” he urged, asking blessings for 
the millions who work “and the millions 
who want to work.” 

“Yes, Lord,” a voice in the crowd urged. 
“Please, Lord.” 

“Go forth with courage,” the Rev. 
Pruitt concluded. 

And then as the crowd followed the 
signs to the subway station nearest them, 
George Shirley, the Metropolitan Opera 
singer joined Bayard Rustin, the architect 
of the civil rights March on Washington 
1 8 years ago, in singing Solidarity Forever. 
And then, lest we forget, the stirring “We 
Shall Overcome.” 

So ended Solidarity Day. 
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Additional Copies 
Of News Available 

Extra copies of this issue of the AFL- 
CIO News, with its special pictorial ac- 
count of Solidarity Day, are available to 
anyone who participated in the demon- 
strtion, or to anyone who would simply 
like an additional copy. 

Requests should be sent to Pamphlet 
Division, Dept, of Information, 815- 
16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 
20006. 





t 











sr- 




iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiimiiiii 



Kirkland’s Message Stirs Solidarity Congress 



By James M. Shevis 

Solidarity, the year-old Polish labor 
federation, has brought hope and a sense 
of renewal not just to Polish society but 
to workers throughout the world, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland declared in 
a message to the second session of Soli- 
darity’s national congress in Gdansk. 

Kirkland, who was to have delivered a 
speech at the convention but was denied 
a visa by the communist government of 
Poland, conveyed fraternal greetings and 
the “deep admiration” of the AFL-CIO’s 
15-million members to the delegates for 
creating the first genuinely free labor un- 
ions in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. 

“YOU HAVE transformed the word 
‘solidarity’ from a slogan to a living moral 
force that has galvanized the universal 


cause of free and independent trade un- 
ionism,” Kirkland said. His remarks were 
distributed at the convention by Monsignor 
George G. Higgins of Catholic University, 
former director of the U.S. Catholic Con- 
ference’s Social Concerns Dept., who at- 


tended the congress as a fraternal delegate. 
(Text, Page 5.) 

In his speech, which was interrupted by 
applause repeatedly as it was read to the 
Congress, Kirkland described Solidarity 
as the sole “authentic voice” of Polish 


workers and noted that the nearly 900 
delegates “confront many difficult, even 
momentous, questions.” The AFL-CIO 
“would not presume to advise you on the 
direction you should take,” he said, add- 
ing: “You alone understand the needs of 
Poland’s workers. 

“Let Poland’s history be made by Poles,” 
he said. “To Solidarity, to the workers of 
Poland, we pledge — in the words of an 
old American labor song — solidarity for- 
ever.” 

KIRKLAND MADE no reference in 
his speech to the Polish government’s de- 
nial of visas for him and th 2 AFL-CIO 
delegation, but said in a separate state- 
ment that the American labor movement 

(Continued on Page 6) 



REJECTION OF President Reagan’s nomination of John R. Van de Water as 
chairman of the National Labor Relations Board was urged by AFL-CIO 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas Donahue in testimony before the Senate Labor & Human 
Resources Committee. Donahue said that Van de Water’s record as a manage- 
ment consultant makes him an unsuitable candidate for NLRB membership. 
Seated with Donahue is Legislative Director Ray Denison. 

Management ‘Partisan’ 
Opposed as NLRB Chief 


Congress Pressed 
To Bar Reagan’s 
New Budget Cuts 


The AFL-CIO urged the Senate to re- 
ject the nomination of John R. Van de 
Water as chairman of the National Labor 
Relations Board because of his “active and 
partisan role on the management side” of 
employer-union disputes during much of 
his career. 

“The NLRB’s institutional integrity is 
best served by consistent application of 
the rule that no one should be appointed 
to the board from the ranks of manage- 
ment or labor,” Federation Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue asserted in a con- 
firmation hearing on Van de Water’s ap- 
pointment conducted by the Senate Labor 
& Human Resources Committee. 

Sag' in Economy 
Reflects Impact 
Of Tight Money 

The nation’s economy continued to sag 
under the weight of oppressively high in- 
terest rates, which have made money and 
credit hard to come by and kept thou- 
sands of Americans from buying homes 
and automobiles. 

The Commerce Dept, reported that the 
government’s index of leading indicators 
dropped five-tenths of 1 percent in August 
after an increase of a modest four-tenths 
of 1 percent in July and declines of 1 per- 
cent in June and 1.6 percent in May. 

IN ANOTHER report, the Commerce 
Dept, said real gross national product — 
the value of the nation’s total output of 
goods and services — fell at a seasonally 
adjusted 1.6 percent annual rate in the 
second quarter. 

(Continued on Page 2) 


“One side’s armorer should not make or 
enforce the rules governing both sides in 
the ensuing contest,” said Donahue. 

VAN DE WATER, 64, headed his own 
California management consulting firm. 
Van de Water Associates, from 1949 until 
his recent appointment by President Rea- 
gan in August. Donahue told the Senate 
committee chaired by Sen. Orrin Hatch 
(R-Utah) that records of the AFL-CIO 
Los Angeles-Orange County Organizing 
Committee for 1963-1972 showed that at 
least during that period Van de Water’s 
firm served as management consultants 
to numerous employers who actively op- 
posed their employees’ attempts to or- 
ganize. 

“The role of such consultants,” Dona- 
hue observed, “is to denigrate unions and 
collective bargaining and to play on the 
insecurity bred by what the Congress and 
the Supreme Court have recognized is the 
central aspects of ‘the labor relations set- 
ting — the economic dependence of the em- 
ployees on their employers.’ ” 

HE SAID the question for the com- 
mittee and the Senate is whether it is 
proper to appoint as chairman of the 
quasi-judicial agency charged with run- 
ning representation elections and with 
judging the legality of the conduct of the 
parties “a man who has devoted a sub- 
stantial part of his professional career to 
putting together anti-union campaigns and 
anti-union materials.” 

No one should be appointed to the 
board from the ranks of labor or manage- 
ment, Donahue said, since its members 
are all supposed to represent the general 
public and not the special viewpoint 
of either side. This, he said, has been 
the AFL-CIO’s consistent position down 
through the years. 

(Continued on Page 7) 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
urged Congress to reject President Rea- 
gan’s newest proposed federal budget cuts, 
which Kirkland said can be traced to 
“miscalculations made by this Administra- 
tion only a month ago.” 

“At that time. Congress gfave the Presi- 
dent everything he asked for — and more. 
Despite promises made then, he is now 
back seeking deeper cuts in the already 
badly reduced programs so vital to the 
American people.” 

KIRKLAND’S criticism of the second 
round of cuts came in a statement issued 
after Reagan’s Sept. 24 TV address. 

At the same time, Kirkland cited an 
alternative approach which would regain 
$16 billion in lost federal revenues without 
continuing the trend of taking care only 
of those at the top of the economic ladder 
“and not by punishing the weak or creating 
new hardships.” 

A $700 cap on the proposed individual 
tax cut for 1982 would alone return $9 
billion to the U.S. Treasury, Kirkland 
noted. Another $1.3 billion is available 
from postponing oil company and oil 
royalty-owner tax breaks, and $6 billion 
could be gained by returning the business 
investment tax credit to 7 percent — espe- 
cially now that the depreciation changes 
made earlier are going to leave many 
firms with a negative tax rate, anyway. 

IN CRITICIZING Reagan’s latest budg- 
et proposal, Kirkland had more company 
than earlier in the year — and, for the first 
time, some of it was coming from the 
President’s own party. 

Northern and northeastern Republicans 
were stung by Reagan’s televised attempt 
to attribute the likely budget deficits to 
congressional tinkering with his original 


By John R. Oravec 

The Reagan Administration is pursuing 
a callous campaign to wipe out basic 
worker protections of the federal job safe- 
ty law, the AFL-CIO charged at con- 
gressional oversight hearings. 

“For the past six months, we have seen 
attempts to undermine, erode and dis- 
mantle OSHA through the circuitous route 
of administratively cutting away OSHA’s 
principal underpinnings,” Legislative Di- 
rector Ray Denison declared in a state- 
ment to a Senate Labor subcommittee. 

“APPARENTLY, strangulation in the 
closet of a government agency by deregu- 
lation and disaffirmation is the chosen 
means of silently disposing of what is seen 
as a troublesome burden,” Denison ob- 
served. 


budget and tax proposals. Some House 
Republicans, whom the press has termed 
the “gypsy moths,” began to perceive the 
damage to their districts by the harsh 
budget cuts and pull away from the rubber 
stamp they had given Reagan earlier. 

THUS, EIGHT months after the in- 
augural, the Reagan Administration’s plans 
for the four-pronged attack on taxes, budg- 
et, federal regulation and tight monetary 
restraints were more dependent than ever 
on the coalition it has struck with the most 
conservative of southern Democrats. 

Kirkland pointed out that much of what 
has gone wrong with the Reagan budget — 
troubles the AFL-CIO had predicted as 
early as February — could be corrected if 
elected officials were willing “to recognize 
a mistake and take corrective action.” 

Kirkland also issued a stern warning 
that while Reagan seemed, to back away 
from social security cuts in his televised 
speech, “nevertheless, a careful reading of 
his speech shows that he made no promise 
to preserve benefits to anyone who is not 
yet receiving social security benefits.” 

PUTTING THE best possible political 
face on his social security proposals, Rea- 
gan had told the nation “our feet were 
never embedded in concrete on this pro- 
posal” and, later on, “I therefore am 
asking for restoration of the minimum 
payment and for inter-fund borrowing as 
a temporary measure to give us time to 
seek a permanent solution.” 

The President then announced plans to 
form an executive-legislative task force on 
social security, with 10 members named 
by him and the Senate majority leader, 
Howard Baker of Tennessee, and five by 
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill. 

(Continued on Page 3) 


He cited cutbacks in enforcement and 
attacks on worker and union rights as well 
as a systematic rollback in OSHA stan- 
dards in the name of cost-efficiency. 

Other major concerns of the federation 
are over the Administration’s relaxation 
of compliance actions, reductions in 
OSHA’s enforcement staff and a return 
to ineffective state plans, Denison said. 

“THERE ARE NO indications that the 
Reagan Administration intends to main- 
tain an active enforcement program,” he 
observed. “Indeed, one of the agency’s 
fiscal year 1983 budget documents reveals 
a deliberate plan to cut the OSHA en- 
forcement efforts to pre-1975 levels, re- 
ducing the staff from its 1980 high of 
1,697 inspectors to just 983.” 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Labor Condemns Campaign 
To Hamstring Safety Law 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 



SAN FRANCISCO’S Justin Herman Plaza is jammed with in Los Angeles and Denver while more than 400,000 
an estimated 10,000 persons for a Solidarity Day demonstra- brought their protest to the National Mall in Washington, 
tion to protest Reagan Administration economic policies and The San Francisco demonstration was jointly sponsored by 
slashes in vital social programs. Similar protests were held the City Labor Council and the California AIT.-CIO. 

Impressive Solidarity Day Turnout 
Continues to Draw Wide Acclaim 


Labor Blasts 
‘Callous’ Bid 
To Gut OSHA 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Denison charged that a series of OSHA 
draft directives proposed in July to gut en- 
forcement programs are contrary to the in- 
tent of the 1970 job safety and health law. 

“Also illegal is the proposed directive 
which eliminates penalties for any em- 
ployer who abates serious or other serious 
violations,” he said. 

DENISON ALSO assailed a Sept. 18 
directive by Assistant Labor Sec. Thorne 
G. Auchter that would set up a loose 
targeting system for general schedule safety 
inspections in the manufacturing sector. 

Linking the directive to a provision of 
the labor-opposed Schweiker OSHA re- 
form bill of 1980, Denison branded it “an 
ill-conceived” scheme that would remove 
some 12.9 million workers from basic 
OSHA coverage and give “notice to most 
employers that the threat of an OSHA 
inspection is no longer a reality.” 

The federation also cited a rollback in 
programs ordered by Auchter, head of 
OSHA, which had been initiated during 
the Carter Administration. These include 
actions to revoke “walkaround” pay for 
workers and their representatives who 
accompany compliance officers on OSHA 
inspections, the weakening of a hearing 
conservation program, and withdrawal of 
a proposal to guarantee workers the right 
to know the kind of hazardous substances 
they handle on the job. 

DENISON TOLD the panel that a ma- 
jor concern of the AFL-CIO is that since 
February, “labor unions have been virtu- 
ally excluded from deliberations on chang- 
es in key OSHA policies.” 

Denison outlined a number of AFL- 
CIO recommendations for improvement 
of the federal program: 

• Maintenance and expansion of a well- 
trained and experienced compliance staff 
to assure strict enforcement of standards. 

• Development of an inspection target 
system based on injury and illness data. 

• Implementation of a right-to-know 
standard dealing with hazardous substances 
and in conformity with Supreme Court 
decisions on cotton dust and benzene. 

• Assurance of full worker rights under 
the law on inspections and implementation 
of regulations. 

• Development of effective program 
evaluation methods. 

• Better use of advisory committees 
having worker representation. 

• Continuation and expansion of fund- 
ing for job safety training and education. 

DENISON pointed out that for the past 
decade the AFL-CIO has supported and 
defended the job safety law and its effec- 
tive enforcement. He warned that the 
federation would fight very attempt to roll 
back protections. 

His testimony was delivered by Margaret 
Seminario, of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Oc- 
cupational Safety & Health. She was ac- 
companied by Legislative Rep. Jay Power, 
George Smith of the International Broth- 
erhood of Electrical Workers, Eric Fru- 
min of the Clothing & Textile Workers 
and John J. Sheehan of the Steelworkers. 

Paperworkers Counsel 
Warren Woods Dies 

A 

Warren Woods, general counsel to the 
Paperworkers and senior partner of a 
Washington law firm, died Sept. 23 of an 
aneurysm at George Washington Univer- 
sity Hospital. He was 67. 

Woods served; as a regional attorney 
for the National Labor Relations Board 
in the late 1930s and 1940s before joining 
the War Labor Board. He entered private 
practice in 1946. 

Survivors include his wife Jane and a 
daughter Jennifer. The family suggests 
expressions of sympathy be in the form 
to contributions to the George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies. 


By Susan L. Dunlop 

The massive turnout of working Ameri- 
cans at the Sept. 19 Solidarity Day rally 
in Washington continues to impress the 
news media while drawing high praise 
from individuals and organizations. 

News stories filed following the demon- 
stration that drew over 400,000 people to 
the National Mall pointed particularly to 
the diversity of people who took part in 
the day-long protest against the Reagan 
Administration’s social and economic pol- 
icies. Several stories saw the demonstra- 
tion, led by the AFL-CIO with the sup- 
port of some 200 allied organizations, as 
an indicator of growing public concern 
over the direction of the Administration’s 
policies. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES, in an edi- 
torial, said the Solidarity Day rally was 
held on the same ground that had seen 
many political demonstrations in the past 
20 years, “ but never before has the popu- 
lar army been so diverse, so mature, and 
so dominated by middle-class working 
people.” 

Solidarity Day demonstrators “wanted 
to present what they hope is a new, united 
front against the Administration’s massive 
social service program cuts, and against 
what they see as threats to worker safety 
and prevailing wage laws,” the Louisville, 
Ky. Courier-Journal observed. 

The Miami Herald called the march “a 
broad slice of America,” and the Bridge- 
port, Conn., Sunday Post, said the large 
number of union members from the state 
who participated “came to let the country 
hear loud and clear that they, at least, 
aren’t happy with the economic policies 
of President Reagan.” 

AMONG THE letters received by the 
AFL-CIO in support of the goals of Soli- 
darity Day was one from Esther Mc- 
Ghinnis of Huntsville, Mo. 

“As a mother of a Professional Air 
Traffic Controller and the wife of an 
IBEW member, I wish to congratulate 
you on the organization and success of 
Solidarity Day. I think it is one of the 
biggest steps forward the working class 
has achieved since the beginning of the 
Reagan Administration,” Mrs. McGhinnis 
said. 

Ronald K. Ikejiri, Washington repre- 
sentative of the Japanese American Citi- 
zens League, called the demonstration 
“the first step toward regaining hope in 
ourselves and our country.” 

ELEANOR L. GUERCI, of Eaton- 
town, N.J., in a letter to AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland, said, “As a slightly 
more than middle-aged teacher, who had 
never gone to a large rally before, I must 
confess I had some apprehension about 
participating. I was proud to be there, and 


I have nothing but praise for your efficient 
staff.” 

Another New Jersey teacher, John A. 
Molloy, field worker for the New Jersey 
Education Association, said that “if our 
collective roar failed to penetrate the 
walls of the White House, it was certainly 
heard in the corridors of Congress where 
perhaps sanity will return. I have a suspi- 
cion, though, that the solitude of Camp 
David was disturbed a bit by our voices.” 

Mary Morris of Old Greenwich, Conn., 
wrote that “as a trade unionist since the 
’30s, I applaud Solidarity Day with all my 
heart. I only wish I could have been there 
but I am too disabled.” 

MORRIS, an editor of the Harper Dic- 
tionary of Contemporary Usage, said, “I 
am frightened by the losses which Reagan 
would impose upon us. We have worked 
too hard and too long to give up what we 
now have. The inhumanity of this Admin- 
istration is enough to enrage a. saint.” 

Tony Lombardo, president of Musicians 
Local 402, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., 
said, “I am thrilled with what we accom- 
plished on Solidarity Day. I am only 72 
years old, but I have never been so active.” 

AFSCME member Bernard Aronowitz 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

The government’s revised estimate of 
real GNP in the second quarter showed a 
more moderate shrinkage than the pre- 
viously reported 2.4 percent annual rate 
of decline. In the first three months of 
the year, the economy grew at an 8.6 
percent annual rate. 

The report on the leading economic in- 
dicators for August showed that the 10 
indicators that were available were split 
evenly between favorable and unfavorable 
signs. Negative implications for the econ- 
omy were found in the layoff rate, new 
orders adjusted for inflation, contracts and 
orders for plants and equipment, building 
permits, and changes in raw material 
prices. , 

POSITIVE indicators were the average 
workweek, the pace of deliveries, stock 
prices, liquid assets, and money supply 
adjusted for inflation. 

Hardest hit by the Federal Reserve 
Board’s tight-money policies, the housing 
industry reeled in August as the number 
of new housing starts plunged 10.7 per- 
cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 
of 937,000, the lowest level in over five 
years. The August figure was the third 
lowest monthly level since World War II, 
and the first time this year that housing 


of the Bronx, N.Y., praised the rally as 
“the most thrilling, inspiring and effective 
demonstration I ever had the privilege to 
attend.” 

SOME SOLIDARITY DAY supporters 
sent messages to President Reagan and 
members of Congress and copies to the 
AFL-CIO. 

Rev. Dorothy M. Field, chairperson of 
the Commission on Social Concerns of the 
Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the 
United Methodist Church, told the Presi- 
dent her organization was “saddened that 
either you fail to see or choose to ignore 
the enormous human pain your policies 
are inflicting on a very large number of 
Americans.” 

Rev. Field, who was joined in signing 
the letter by the commission’s secretary. 
Rev. Thomas W. Bare, asked President 
Reagan to accept the letter “as notifica- 
that we side with the persons of Solidarity 
who this day in Washington are lifting 
their voices against the ‘profits above all 
else’ emphasis of your economic policies 
and who are urging a revision of your 
Administration’s policies so as to serve 
the safety, health and well-being of all 
Americans.” 


starts dropped below 1 million units. 

Building permits for new housing also 
were down in August. The government 
said permits for new starts totaled 863,000, 
or 5.5 percent below the July permits rate 
of 913,000. 

ALL MAJOR geographic regions felt 
the cut in housing starts, but the North- 
east was hit much more sharply than any 
other area, with starts down 34.2 percent. 

Michael Sumichrast, chief economist for 
the National Association of Home Build- 
ers, predicted further sharp declines in 
the months ahead. “The bottom is still to 
come,” he warned. 

Another government report, issued by 
the Federal Reserve Board, showed that 
the nation’s factories last month operated 
at 79.3 percent of capacity, down from 
July’s level of 79.8 percent. The August 
level was the lowest factory operating rate 
since October 1980. The capacity utiliza- 
tion rate for the motor vehicle and parts 
industry fell sharply, while the rate de- 
clined more moderately for the food, tex- 
tiles, rubber, metals and equipment indus- 
tries, the Fed reported. 

Separately, the Commerce Dept, said 
new factory orders for durable goods de- 
clined in August for the first time since 
January. 


Slumping Economy Reflects 
Impact of High Interest Rates 





AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 


Page Three 






dr. 





4 


k 

i 




§ 


At Transit Union Convention 

Labor Held Key Force 
For Defense of Rights 



ORGANIZED LABOR must play a prime role in the battle against the blatant 
attacks of the Reagan Administration on vital social programs, AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland told Transit Union convention delegates in Hollywood, Fla. 


Senate Panel Acts to Revive 
Social Security Minimum 


Hollywood, Fla.— AFL-CIO President 
Lane Kirkland declared that organized 
labor must form “the center line of de- 
fense against the naked assault on the 
rights and welfare of ordinary people” 
that marks the policies and programs of 
the Reagan Administration. 

In a speech before the 46th biennial 
convention of the Amalgamated Transit 
Union here, Kirkland said labor’s task in 
the months and years ahead is “to rally 
the. American people in the fight to restore 
human concerns to the business of govern- 
ment.” 

HE SAID he believes the majority of 
Americans are awakening to the “vast 
differences” between President Reagan’s 
“self-proclaimed mandate won in his 
campaign” and the realities of his pro- 
grams. 

“The President did not campaign among 
senior citizens for cutting social security, 
among parents for poorer schools or 
among construction workers for lower 
pay,” Kirkland said. “Nor did he cam- 
paign among workers with promises of 
higher and higher interest rates, fewer 
jobs, less concern for occupational health 
and safety, and of more tax giveaways to 
corporations and the wealthy.” 

He said that basic issues such as a 

Union Charges 
Unfair Tactics 
In Stevens Vote 

New York — The Clothing & Textile 
Workers charged J. P. Stevens & Co. with 
illegal acts during the recent representa- 
tion election at Stevens’s Rock Hill, S.C., 
plant. 

ACTWU accused the company of un- 
lawfully firing a union supporter at the 
plant “because of her membership in and/ 
or activities in behalf” of the union during 
the organizing campaign. 

In election objections filed with the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board, the union 
also claimed that Stevens threatened to fire 
workers if they engaged in a strike, illegal- 
ly questioned employees about their union 
beliefs and sympathies, made payments to 
laid-off employees to influence their votes 
and spent “inordinate sums of money” on 
employees during the campaign. 

These and other actions “destroyed the 
laboratory conditions required for the 
conduct of a valid NLRB election,” 
ACTWU said. 

The union lost the Aug. 27 election by 
a vote of 433 to .299. It was the first elec- 
tion since the giant textile manufacturer 
agreed to sign its first labor contracts with 
ACTWU last October, following a 17-year 
battle to get Stevens to negotiate with the 
union. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Kirkland characterized the Reagan so- 
cial security changes as something on 
which “Americans of all ages should not 
be misled.” The original changes were 
prompted by “paper budget-balancing” 
rather than concern for the soundness of 
the system, Kirkland noted, and were ac- 
companied by the drumbeat of propa- 
ganda that the system was “bankrupt.” 

“HE INSTEAD now supports modest 
changes that many experts had been urg- 
ing,” Kirkland noted, while the task force 
concept may delay the battle for more 
than a year — or beyond the 1982 elections. 

On the proposed cuts Kirkland asked 
Congress to reject, he observed that “the 
President’s 12-percent cut sounds easy and 
impersonal, but in real terms it means 
sharp additional reductions in child care, 
school programs, care for the disabled. 


worker’s right to freedom of association 
and to bargain collectively are in jeopardy 
if the Administration has its way and cited 
the Air Traffic Controllers’ situation as 
an example. 

“IF EVER the weight and power of 
government has been piled on the backs 
of human beings, it is the Administra- 
tion’s assault on PATCO. How ironic 
that those who talk so sanctimoniously of 
getting off our backs should rush to use 
the might and majesty of government to 
crush the legitimate claims of workers who 
are seeking a fair shake from their 
employer,” he observed. 

Furthermore, Kirkland pointed out, the 
Administration energetically supports 
compulsory open-shop laws, court injunc- 
tions and all of the other government 
restrictions on the activities of workers 
and their unions. 

He told the 526 delegates that labor is 
not only willing but also able to take on 
the challenge being posed by the anti- 
worker forces. He cited the labor-spon- 
sored Solidarity Day rally Sept. 19 in 
Washington, attended by more than 400,- 
000 trade unionists and other concerned 
citizens as evidence that the American 
people are getting fed up with Reagan 
policies. 

“THESE HUNDREDS of thousands of 
workers and their allies sent two powerful 
messages to the Administration and Con- 
gress on that day,” Kirkland said. “One 
is that the American labor movement is 
alive and well. Only the deaf and blind 
can contend American labor is out of 
step with the rank-and-file. Union mem- 
bers are their union. Second, the labor 
movement is not alone. The links forged 
on Solidarity Day will be strengthened 
all across the land in the days to come.” 

Kirkland’s views were echoed in an early 
session of the convention by Sen. Don 
Riegle (D-Mich.), who called for the gov- 
ernment to develop a “fair standard across 
the land for all people.” 

Riegle said the Reagan Administration 
doesn’t understand the needs and con- 
cerns of America’s workers, and he urged 
the labor movement to help “take this 
country back from the phony ideologues” 
presently running it. 

“IF WE DONT fight and get it back, 
all gains made by workers over the past 
decades will be stripped away one by one,” 
he said. “We must no longer be misled by 
the friendly mask put on the Reagan 
policies.” 

Other convention speakers dwelt on the 
effects the Reagan policies are having in 
areas of their particular interests. Among 
them were Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.) 
and William Hutton, executive director of 
the National Council of Senior Citizens, 
who spoke on problems confronting the 
elderly, and Norman Hill, president of the 
A. Philip Randolph Institute, who cited 
the effects on minorities. 


student loans, jobless worker aid and many 
other programs that he chose not to 
specify.” 

“No social program, regardless of merit, 
remains untouched and no beleaguered 
American, no matter how needy, is safe. 
Once again the less fortunate will be forced 
to bear the burden,” Kirkland said. 

IN CONTRAST, Kirkland said the 
AFL-CIO proposal to gain $16 billion 
from the excessive tax breaks earlier given 
the wealthy and corporations would be 
“an equitable and effective way to achieve 
the $16 billion sought and avoid adding 
to the present budgetary pain.” 

In a fact sheet released with his state- 
ment, the AFL-CIO described a plan in 
which the bulk of the money comes from 
the $700 cap on individual cuts. 

Under that plan, the tax break would 


The Senate Finance committee voted 
unanimously to restore the minimum so- 
cial security benefit for most present re- 
cipients but sought to balance the cost of 
this move by cutting back benefits in other 
areas. 

At the same time, the panel took a long 
step toward solving the immediate finan- 
cial difficulties of the systeni by approving 
the reallocation of social security tax 
revenues among the various trust funds 
along with inter-fund borrowing in future 
emergencies. 

A DAY AFTER the committee’s 19-0 
vote. President Reagan announced he was 
abandoning his insistence on elimination 
of the minimum benefit, which was 
scuttled earlier this year as part of the 
big budget cutback, and his opposition to 
inter-fund borrowing to solve short-term 
shortages in the retirement fund. 

Reagan made the announcement in his 
televised speech calling for a new round 
of budget cuts to bring the projected fed- 
eral deficit for fiscal 1982 closer to his 
target. He also proposed creation of a 
15-member task force to devise a perma- 
nent solution to social security funding 
needs. 

A FULL Senate vote on the Finance 
committee’s bill was delayed at the insis- 
tence of the Democratic leadership, to per- 
mit participation in the debate by a num- 
ber of absent members. The bill was to be 
taken up as a substitute for a House- 
passed measure that would simply re- 
store the minimum benefit for present and 
future recipients without further restric- 
tions. 

Under the Finance Committee bill, those 
currently eligible for the $122 minimum 
monthly benefit would continue to receive 


remain the same for a family earning 
$42,000 a year or less, with the cap ap- 
plying over that income level. For example, 
a family with a $45,000 income would get 
a tax cut of $700 instead of $793. 

“THE REAGAN three-year rate sched- 
ule could remain in effect, but a one-year 
cap of $700 per taxpayer would be an 
equitable way to meet the Administration’s 
self-created budget problems,” the AFL- 
CIO said. 

The flurry of action over Reagan’s 
“second-round” of budget cuts came just 
a week before the Oct. 1 effective date of 
the tax and budget changes enacted earlier 
in 1981. On that date, about 25 p>ercent 
of revenue-sharing with the states was 
dropped, 875,000 people became ineligible 
for food stamps, student loan interest rates 
jumped and some 400,000 welfare fam- 
ilies had their benefits cut wholly and 
another 279,000 in part.^ 


it in full unless they were also receiving 
a government pension of more than $300 
a month or lived outside the United States, 
Puerto Rico or U.S. territories. 

THE BENEFIT would not be payable 
to future retirees meeting present standards 
or to present recipients living abroad. 
Retired government workers would have 
their minimum social security benefit offset 
dollar-for-dollar by the amount their gov- 
ernment pensions exceeded $300 a month, 
except that they would remain eligible for 
the amount of social security benefits ac- 
tually “earned” through payroll contribu- 
tions on non-government employment. 

To offset the cost of this partial restora- 
tion, the committee bill would subject sick 
pay to full social security taxes and limit 
benefits for a family to 150 percent of the 
basic benefit in both retirement and sur- 
vivor cases. 

On financing of the system, the com- 
mittee called for reallocating the payroll 
tax distribution from the healthier disabil- 
ity and hospital insurance funds to the 
retirement and survivors insurance fund. 
This is expected to keep the retirement 
fund solvent at least through 1984 and 
possibly longer if the economy improves. 
If cash-flow problems persist, borrowing 
by the retirement fund from the disability 
fund would be authorized. 

In other congressional developments: 

• The House Appropriations Commit- 
tee and a Senate Appropriations subcom- 
mittee both voted to bar the expenditure 
of any funds to move the National Insti- 
tute for Occupational Safety & Health and 
its personnel from the present NIOSH 
headquarters in the Washington area to 
Atlanta and Cincinnati. 

THE MOVE HAS been vigorously op- 
posed by the AFL-CIO and the American 
Federation of Government Employees, 
which represents the NIOSH staff, on the 
ground that it would be harmful to the 
agency’s role to and would lead to the 
loss of many of the agency’s highly quali- 
fied staff members unable to make the 
transfer. 

• Congress approved a stopgap funding 
bill to permit federal agencies to continue 
operating at present spending levels 
through Nov. 20 pending action on regu- 
lar appropriations measures. 

THE BILL also contains provisions that 
would mean virtually automatic increases 
in the salaries of House and Senate mem- 
bers by linking them in the future to the 
annual salary raises for federal white col- 
lar workers. 

Other parts of the bill remove the 
$25,000 ceiling on outside earnings of 
senators, mostly from speeches, and the 
$3,000 ceiling on tax deductions members 
of Congress are allowed for the cost of 
living away from home. 


Kirkland Hits Reagan Bid for More Cuts 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 


Undermiiimg 0!§»HA 

1 AST YEAR we appeared before the full Senate Committee on 
i Labor & Human Resources to oppose amendments offered 
by then Sen. Richard Schweiker to the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act. Today we appear to convey our strongest opposition 
to the manner in which the Act is being administered under the 
policies of President Reagan, the Secretary of Labor and his 
assistant for occupational safety and health. 

Underlying today’s testimony is the abiding conviction of orga- 
nized labor that the right to a safe and healthful workplace is as 
basic a right as any of our freedoms. The Bill of Rights is not 
predicated on cost-benefit, or cost-efiiciency analysis, or that its 
protections should be made available only to some, but not to all 
who are employed in establishments covered by the Act. 

The Act was created 10 years ago by Congress for the fullest 
protection of all workers in covered establishments, not just some 
categories defined by occupation, by number of employees in a 
workplace, or by an arbitrary determination that some work- 
places are more hazardous than others and that these are there- 
fore entitled to all available rights and protections of the Act 
while others falling outside these sacred circles are entitled to 
nothing. 

WE BELIEVE OSHA should reinforce a principle as old as 
the Republic — equal protection under the law. 


Unfortunately, that principle is finding no advocates in the 
Reagan Administration in the conduct of OSHA. For the past six 
months we have seen attempts to undermine, erode and dismantle 
OSHA through the circuitous route of administratively cutting 
away OSHA’s principal underpinnings. 

For example, thus far we have seen: final and proposed actions 
to wipe out OSHA’s enforcement program through a system of 
exemptions, relaxation of compliance actions, reduction in en- 
forcement staff and a return to ineffective state plans; an attack 
on worker and worker representative rights; and a systematic roll- 
back in worker health and safety standards in the name of cost- 
efficiency. 

Organized labor will no more accept these efforts to squeeze 
the life from OSHA than we have accepted those efforts in past 
years. 

IT IS TRULY unfortunate that this Administration has chosen 
to gnaw away at the foundations of OSHA. President Reagan said 
only last Saturday, on Solidarity Day, that “as we progress, more 
and more working people will see they have a friend in the White 
House.” And Secretary of Labor Donovan said earlier that his 
job is to look to the concerns and needs of all American workers, 
not union members alone. 


Surely, they do not believe that choking to death a law that 
protects all workers, without regard to whether they are union 
members or not, whether they are men or women, or of whatever 
ethnic background, honors either of their statements. 

It is our belief that it is the proper role of government to do 
what its citizens cannot do alone. That’s what OSHA is meant 
to do. 

. — From, AFL-CIO testimony, Sept. 23, 1981. 





Official Weekly Publication 


of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 

Executive Council 


s John H. Lyons 
5 Frederick O’Neal 
1 A1 H. Chesser 
= Albert Shanker 
1 Edward T. Hanley 
s William H.McCIennan 
= David J. Fitzmaurice 
S Wm.W.Winpisinger 
s John J. O’Donnell 
= Robert F. Goss . 

5 Joyce D. Miller 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason E 

S. Frank Raftery E 

Murray H. Finley E 

Sol C. Chaikin = 

Charles H. Pillard E 

Lloyd McBride E 

Alvin E. Heaps = 

Fred J. Kroll * | 

Wayne E. Glenn = 

William Konyha s 

Douglas A. Fraser S 


= ♦ Deceased. ' 

= Director of Information: Saul Miller 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

E Assistant Editors: 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

I David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 

g Washington, D.C. 20006 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


E Vol. XXVI Saturday, Octaber 3, 1981 No. 40 s 


5 The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St,, N.W., Wash- 
=s ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
3 AFL-CIO. 






Polks' Back Home' Hurting 

Poison of High Interest Rates 
Spreads Through the Economy 


By Gus Tyler 

O VER THE LAST two weeks, noises have 
been issuing from Washington complaining 
about “high interest rates.” 

Why now? 

Interest rates have been climbing steadily ever 
since 1969 when President Nixon decided that 
the way to check inflation — then running at 4 per- 
cent — was to “cool the economy.” The medicine 
to bring down the fever was “high interest rates.” 

IT BECAME crystal clear — to use a Nixonian 
phrase — that high interest rates, “cooling the 
economy,” were throwing people out of work and, 
instead of pulling prices down, were pushing 
them up. 

I do not say this in hindsight. On July 24, 
1974, I wrote a column on high interest rates and 
said: “The present Administration in Washington 
started applying this cure several years ago when 
prices were rising by only 4 percent a year. That 
cure is killing us.” 

I went on to say that the rates were not only 
pushing prices up but were knocking small busi- 
nessmen down, “driven out of business by the 
intolerable interest rates.” 

ALTHOUGH THE interest rates were poison' 
labelled as medicine, it was perfectly clear that 
the powers-that-be would continue to prescribe 
the same foul cure. I quoted the then economic 
czar of the country, Kenneth Rush, as saying: “I 
think that they (interest rates) have to stay high 
until we see the inflation going down.” 

It struck me then as laughable. “Having caused 
inflation, lending institutions now explain that 
they must keep interest rates high to keep up with 
inflation.” 

That was all said more than seven years ago. 
Yet, through the Administrations of Nixon, Ford, 
Carter and now Reagan, the same sickening 
nostrum is applied. • 

BUT WHY is Congress so upset now? 

The congressmen have heard from their con- 
stituencies. They were back home in late summer 
and discovered that the folks were hurting — ^hurt- 
ing bad. 

• The '“folks” were not just plain workers, who 
have been losing ground for at least a decade as 


earnings (real earnings after taxes and inflation) 
slipped. Although they have been the biggest 
sufferers, their complaints were dismissed on the 
theory that if workers buy less then prices will 
come down sooner or later. 

The kind of “folk” who are now complaining 
are those who make up the mass base for the 
Republican Party in this country — ^the small busi- 
nessmen, shopkeepers, little farmers. These “petit 
bourgeoisie” to use a classic phrase, are being 
badly bruised by the high interest rates: they are 
going bankrupt in panic proportions. 

THEY ARE letting their Republican congress- 
men know. 

That’s why the GOP is uneasy: it is no longer 
just those “Democratic” blue-collar stiffs who are 
bellyaching; now it is those good, solid, respect- 
able “Republican” entrepreneurs who can’t live 
with those high interest rates. 

Copyright 1981, Gys Tyler Columns 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiin 

NLRB Not the Place 
For Anti-Unionist 

A decent respect for the opinion of the other 
parties regulated by the NLRB calls for the 
appointment of individuals whose careers have 
been devoted to bringing management and la- 
bor together, not of individuals who have been 
employed by one side or the other to advance 
that side’s interest or who intended to seek 
such employment when they leave the board. 

The labor movement has . . . not pressed 
for the appointment of a union lawyer or offi- 
cial to the NLRB, and there has never in the 
board’s 45-year-history been such an appoint- 
ment Management to be sure, has not shown 
similar self-restraint. . . . 

(Mr. Van de Water is) a man who has de- 
voted a substantial part of his professional 
career to putting togeth^ anti-union cmnpaigns 
and anti-union materials. 

— AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
in Senate testimony urging rejection of John R. 
Van de Water as chairman of the National 
Labor Relations Board. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 


Page Fiva 


Kirkland Message 

Spirit of All Workers Renewed 
By Poland’s Solidarity Union 


Following is a Statement by AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland, Sept. 25, 1981 . 

1 HAVE JUST been informed by the Polish 
Ambassador that his government will not 
grant visas to the AFL-CIO delegation which has 
been invited by Lech Walesa to the second session 
of the Solidarity Congress. in Gdansk. 

I had looked forward to the opportunity fo 
meet with our brothers and sisters in Solidarity 
'and to bring the greetings of the AFL-CIO to 
their Congress. 

The AFL-CIO is not only disappointed, we are 
incensed that the Polish government would deny 
Solidarity its right, as a free and independent 
union, to decide who will attend its convention. 
We pledge Solidarity our continuing support. 

In recent days, the Soviet Union has launched 
a vicious and slanderous propaganda attack on 
the AFL-CIO delegation. There is little doubt in 
our minds that this attack was aimed at discourag- 
ing our visit and preventing contact between Soli- 
darity and the AFL-CIO. 



over Lafayette Park, in front of the White House. 
There stands a statue of Gen. Thaddeus Koscius- 
zko, who fought in the American Revolution — a 
revolution for democracy and independence, a 
revolution against colonialism and foreign domi- 
nation. 

Inscribed on that statue are these words: “And 
freedom shrieked as Kosciuszko fell.” 

Freedom does not shriek today. It smiles on 
the Poland of Solidarity. 

AMERICAN LABOR owes a special debt to 
the workers of Poland, a debt incurred long be- 
fore the American Revolution. 

The first strike in my country was conducted 
by Polish glassblowers in 1619, near Jamestown, 
Va. They struck for the right to vote in the elec- 
tion of the first American legislative assembly, 
where representation was decreed limited to 
“those of English stock.” Their strike, 362 years 
ago, was successful. They won the right to vote, 
with far-reaching implications for the develop- 
ment of democracy in the New World. 


By Press Associates, Inc. 

R ecent front-page news stories described a battle of 
corporate giants to acquire Conoco, the nation’s ninth largest 
oil company. 

The public watched in suspense as the offers escalated. The 
prize finally went to Du Pont, which beat out two rivals — Mobil 
and Seagram — in plunking down a mind-boggling $7.6 billion, 
more than the yearly gross national product of many nations. 

Du Pont’s acquisition of Conoco made it the nation’s seventh 
largest corporation, just behind Ford. Before, it ranked number 
15 in the Fortune 500. 

The merger is convenient for Du Pont, which makes chemicals 
from oil. Conoco owns a lot of oil. That’s what is called a “verti- 
cal trust,” a kind of monopoly which high school textbooks rele- 
gate to the days of the 19th Century Robber Barons. 

That sort of thing has been frowned on by the law since the 
time of the “trustbusters” and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1 890. 
But no longer, it appears. 

For the Reagan Administration has been saying that big cor- 
porate mergers and other monopolistic activities are okay. In fact, 
maybe the bigger the better. And never mind what Congress or 
the Supreme Court or the Constitution have said about it. 


I have made a videotape of the speech I in- 
tended to deliver to the Solidarity Congress, and 
I have sent the tape to Poland in the hope that 
it will reach Solidarity. 

The text of the speech: 

I AM HONORED to stand before this assem- 
bly of brave men and women, and to express to 
you the warm fraternal greetings and the deep 
admiration of your 15 million brothers and sisters 
in the AFL-CIO. 

You have not only brought “renewal” to Po- 
land. You have renewed the spirit of workers 
throughout the world. 

You have transformed the word “Solidarity” 
from a slogan to a living moral force that has 
galvanized the universal cause of free and inde- 
pendent trade unionism. 

On Sept. 19, hundreds of thousands of Ameri- 
can workers and their allies demonstrated in 
Washington, in exercise of their constitutional 
rights, to protest the social and economic policies 
of our government. 

THE ISSUES we addressed were entirely do- 
mestic. But you were very much in our thoughts. 
We called this event “Solidarity Day.” 

This was not the first time that our land has 
been touched by the Polish spirit. 

From the window of my office, I can look out 


Polish workers continue to teach the world. 

For all who believe in peaceful relations among 
states, there is no task more urgent than unlink- 
ing human rights and freedom from the question 
of who owns the means of production. 

Freedom of association, of assembly, and of 
expression are the indispensable means by which 
the people of each nation can decide for them- 
selves which fortns of social and economic orga- 
nization are most appropriate to their needs, their 
traditions, and their aspirations. 

RESPECT FOR workers’ rights does not auto- 
matically flow from any economic system. It hu- 
manizes all economic systems. 

To the extent that this principle is reflected in 
the conduct of government, doors will open on 
broader avenues to peace, to normal intercourse 
among nations, and to more just allocations of 
resources. 

The delegates to this Congress confront many 
difficult, even momentous questions. The AFL- 
CIO would not presume to advise you on the 
direction you should take. You alone understand 
the needs of Poland’s workers. You alone are 
their authentic voice. 

Let Poland’s history be made by Poles. 

To Solidarity, to the workers of Poland, we 
pledge — in the words of an old American labor 
song — solidarity forever. 


Fighting Reagan's Policies 

Solidarity Day Demonstration 
Strengthens Ties of Coalition 


MAINLY BECAUSE of the green light being flashed by a 
sympathetic Justice Dept., merger fever is on the rise. Corporate 
mergers increase a third faster during the first half of this year 
than during the first half of 1980. The total dollar value of 
mergers in the first half of 1981 rose to over $35 billion, 60 per- 
cent above the first half of 1980. 

So what difference does it make, one might ask, unless you own 
stock in a particular merger candidate? 

For one thing, American consumers pay as much as $100 bil- 
lion extra a year because of economic concentration, monopoly 
power, and anti-competitive price-raising and price-fixing, accord- 
ing to a Federal Trade Commission estimate. 

Further, monopolies make it more difficult for small businesses 
to compete and for a competitive market to survive. 

THE GROWTH of monopolies concentrates economic power 
and consequently political power in the hands of an unelected and 
unaccountable few. 

Despite the constitutional mandate that the President “faith- 
fully execute” the nation’s laws, including the antitrust laws, the 
Reagan Administration is refusing to enforce the law in seven 
different kinds of antitrust violations. 

William Baxter, chief of the Justice Dept, antitrust division, 
told the Senate Judiciary Committee that mergers which are “verti- 
cal” (between buyers and sellers of the same product, like Du 
Pont and Conoco) and “conglomerate” (between firms in different 
lines of business, like Conoco and Seagram) “should be left alone.” 

BAXTER SAID this even though Congress specifically out- 
lawed these kinds of mergers in a 1950 amendment to the 1914 
Clayton Antitrust Act. The Supreme Court also has invalidated 
them. 

Although Congress and the courts make no distinction between 
so-called “good” and “bad” monopolies, Atty. Gen. William 
French Smith said recently that “bigness in business does not 
necessarily mean badness.” 

So while Reagan and his supporters preach the evils of big 
government, they appear to regard big business as a paragon of 
virtue. 


C EMENTING the foundation of a nationwide 
grass-roots coalition to work at every level 
of government to stem the Administration’s as- 
sault on social and economic gains was the key 
achievement of Solidarity Day, John Perkins, co- 
ordinator of the Sept. 19 demonstration, declared 
in a network radio interview. 

“The battle is already upon us,” Perkins 
stressed. He pointed out that the President is 
seeking a new round of budget cuts that will in- 
flict even greater damage and suffering on the 
nation and the broad range of Americans repre- 
sented by the 400,000 leaders and activists who 
came from all parts of the country to take part 
in the Solidarity Day march and rally. 

He said the- trade union movement and its 
many allies will “focus on the hard decisions” 



UNIION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEFT., AFL-CIO 


that must be made at the state, county and city 
levels as a result of the budget slashes forced by 
the Administration and approved by the Congress. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor News Con- 
ference, the AFL-CIO public affairs program 
broadcast weekly by the Mutual radio network, 
Perkins i^aid the widespread opposition to the 
Reagan budget, tax and economic policies drew 
a large number of participants beyond the coali- 
tion that has been “battling side by side” for 
civil rights and other progressive measures for 
many years. 

“WE’RE NOT IN total agreement on all is- 
sues,” he said, but those that were the focus of 
Solidarity Day “there is universal agreement.” 

Perkins, who is associate director of the AFL- 
CIO Committee on Political Education, said that 
the pre-Solidarity Day organizing and the event 
itself clearly stirred new enthusiasm at the grass- 
roots level, particularly in the handful of states 
that elect governors and legislators this year. He 
said that momentum should “give us a leg up in 
the 1982 campaign.” 

Perkins said that while there may not be a 
turnaround overnight, neither the White House 
nor Congress missed the impact of the “We Are 
One” proclamation that was made so strongly on 
Solidarity Day. 


And while the Attorney General declares war on crime in the 
streets and the President chastises the air traffic controllers for 
striking “illegally,” the Administration chooses not to enforce 
laws it doesn’t like regarding corporate activities. 



MASSIVE TURNOUT in Washington for Solidarity Day has 
added new strength to the grass-roots coalition of labor and its 
allies, John Perkins, center, coordinator of the Sept. 19 demon- 
stration, said on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by 
Robert Cooney, left, of Press Associates, Inc., and Tom 
Sherwood of the Washington Post. The public service program, 
produced by the AFL-CIO, is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 


Kirkland’s Message Stirs Solidarity Congress 


(Continued from Page 1) 

was not only disappointed but “incensed” 
that the Polish government would deny 
Solidarity “its right, as a free and inde- 
pendent union, to decide who will attend 
its convention.” 

The American delegation was to have 
been made up of Kirkland; AFL-CIO Vice 
President Martin J. Ward, chairman of the 
AFL-CIO International Affairs Committee, 
and the federation’s European representa- 
tive, Irving Brown. It had been invited by 
Solidarity’s leaders and chief founder, 
Lech Walesa, to the eight-day session, 
scheduled to end late next week. 

Pledging Solidarity “our continuing sup- 
port,” Kirkland noted that Poland’s Soviet 
patrons recently had launched “a vicious 
and slanderous propaganda attack” on 
the AFL-CIO delegation, and “there is 
little doubt in our minds that this attack 
was aimed at discouraging our visit and 
preventing contact between Solidarity and 
the AFL-CIO.” 

THE SOVIET government newspaper, 
Izvestia, among other communist organs, 
has regularly attacked Solidarity’s sup- 
porters in the West, particularly the AFL- 
CIO, which has responded to the inde- 
pendent union federation’s request for as- 


sistance and given it moral backing since 
the birth of the new labor movement, 

Also denied visas were officials of the 
International Metalworkers’ Federation, a 
trade-union secretariat in Geneva to which 
many AFL-CIO affiliates belong, and the 
International Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions in Brussels. 

KIRKLAND SAID that he was in- 
formed of the government’s refusal to 
grant visas to the AFL-CIO delegation by 
Polish Ambassador Romuald Spasowski 
during a private meeting at federation 
headquarters on Sept. 25. The Gdansk 
conference opened the following day. 

In his speech, Kirkland referred to the 
Sept. 19 Solidarity Day turnout in Wash- 
ington of more than 400,000 American 
workers and their allies protesting gov- 
ernmental social and economic policies. 
“The issues we addressed were entirely 
domestic,” he said, “but you were very 
much in our thoughts.” 

That was not the first time that Amer- 
ica has been touched by the Polish spirit, 
Kirkland noted. He cited the contributions 
to the American Revolution by Polish 
Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the strike 
by Polish glassblowers in 1619 near James- 
town, Va., to win the right to vote in the 
election of the first legislative assembly 


conducted in America by the early settlers. 

“POLISH WORKERS continue to teach 
the world,” Kirkland said. “For all who 
believe in peaceful relations among states, 
there is no task more urgent than unlinking 
human rights and freedom from the ques- 
tion of who owns the means of production. 

“Freedom of association, of assembly, 
and of expression are the indispensable 
means by which the people of each nation 
can decide for themselves which forms 
of social and economic organization are 
most appropriate to their needs, their tra- 
ditions, and their aspirations. Respect for 
workers’ rights does not automatically flow 
from any economic system. It humanizes 
all economic systems.” 

Before they conclude their first national 
congress. Solidarity delegates will elect 
officers, deal with internal union business, 
and take positions on a variety of issues. 
Some of the most extensive debate cen- 
tered on a proposed worker self-manage- 
ment law calling for cooperation between 
workers and authorities in choosing plant 
managers. 

OVERSHADOWING the debate on the 
controversial worker self-management law 
was the announcement that the Commit- 
tee for Social Self-Defense, formed five 
years ago to fight for the rights of workers 


imprisoned for participation in demonstra- 
tions, had formally dissolved itself. The 
dissident group, known by the Polish 
acronym KOR, had a small but influential 
membership which was instrumental in 
the creation of Solidarity. 

Prof. Edward Lipinski, an economist 
who helped form KOR, announced that 
it was being dissolved because it had 
achieved its purpose now that the inde- 
pendent labor federation was in existence. 
Many of its members have since joined 
the new labor movement. 

IN HIS remarks at the historic con- 
gress, Msgr. Higgins spoke of the need of 
workers the world over to form unions, 
and referred to the new and special em- 
phasis Pope John Paul II gave recently 
to workers’ right of freedom of associa- 
tion. In the third encyclical of his pontifi- 
cate, “Laborem Exercens,” John Paul 
“sounded a clarion call for worker soli- 
darity at both the national and the inter- 
n'ational level, and strongly emphasized 
the dignity and rights of labor,” Msgr. 
Higgins observed. 

Yet, “as recent events in the United 
States have demonstrated, opposition to 
unions dies very hard,” he said. “Please 
God, Pope John Paul’s new encyclical 
will help to counteract this opposition.” 



FAMILY AID FUND to help members of the striking Professional Air Traffic 
Controllers Organization meet severe financial crises is bolstered by a $10,000 
donation from the Letter Carriers, presented by NALC President Vincent 
Sombrotto to AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. Payments to PATCO 
members with pressing needs are being disbursed from the aid fund, which now 
totals nearly $500,000. 


Tuition Tax Credit Scheme 
Scored as Treasury Drain 


N.Y. Press Office 
Opened to Serve 
Solidarity Union 

New York — ^A press and information 
office has been opened in New York City 
with the assistance of American unions to 
provide reports on Poland’s independent 
union. Solidarity. 

The announcement was made at a news 
conference at the offices of the United 
Federation of Teachers by Zygmunt Prze- 
takiewicz, who arrived in the United States 
from Warsaw several weeks ago to direct 
the new office. He said its purpose would 
be to “transmit Solidarity’s information to 
the people of the United States. Solidarity 
is eager that people everywhere be in- 
formed of the true nature of its work and 
goals.” 

THE NEW YORK PRESS office will be 
independent of but in close daily contact 
with the press offices of Solidarity in 
Poland, Przetakiewicz said. The New 
York office is a project of a newly formed, 
not-for-profit corporation, the Friends of 
Poland’s Independent Trade Union, Soli- 
darity, Inc., with Przetakiewicz serving as 
president. On its board will be Bayard 
Rustin, chairman of the A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Institute, and Tadeusz Walendow- 
ski, president of the Poland Watch Center 
in Washington. 

Przetakiewicz said that the press and 
information office would receive daily 
Telex messages from Solidarity headquar- 
ters in Poland and would make them avail- 
able to the American media. He said he 
intended to issue a bulletin of news and 
analysis based on materials transmitted 
from Poland and would distribute it to a 
subscription list. 

Funds raised by subscriptions and con- 
tributions would be used to offset the cost 
of the office here, he said. 

Rustin stressed that the office is not to 
be perceived as speaking officially for 
Solidarity, but will serve “as a funnel of 
information from Poland to the Amer- 
ican news media and to the trade union 
movement.” ' 

THE OFFICE has begun its work on 
the 6th floor of 260 Park Ave., South — 
the building which houses the United 
Federation of Teachers, which, with its 
president, Albert Shanker, helped the 
office get started. Przetakiewicz expressed 
his gratitude for the assistance of the UFT 
and for the loan advanced to the press 
office by the AFL-CIO. 

The first issue of the office’s news bul- 
letin released at the news conference fea- 
tured a statement by Janusz Onyszkiewicz, 
Solidarity’s official press spokesman, on 
the union’s negotiations with the Polish 
government. 


Although the Reagan Administration is 
on record supporting tuition tax credits. 
Teachers President Albert Shanker said 
the Treasury Dept, has' offered some of 
the best arguments against tax credits. 

Shanker made his comments in testi- 
mony before a House Education subcom- 
mittee, citing earlier testimony by John 
Chapoton, assistant secretary for tax pol- 
icy in the Treasury Dept, that “this Ad- 
ministration is determined to work as 
closely as possible with Congress in con- 
structing a tuition tax credit bill.” During 
his testimony, however, Chapoton did 
acknowledge the overall revenue impact 
of tuition tax credits. 

SHANKER SAID tuition tax credits 
would be bad legislation on many grounds: 

• The full costs are unknown. 

• The federal government would be in 
the position of determining which private 
institutions are eligible. 

• Savings to parents now sending their 
children to private schools may become 
moot because private schools could dras- 
tically inflate tuition rates. 

“We are talking about a $7 billion mini- 


mum cost for those there now and a blank 
check for $14 billion or $21 billion or 
more that would be drained from the fed- 
eral treasury through tax^redits,” Shanker 
said. 

HE QUESTIONED the Treasuty Dept, 
suggestion that one way of assuring that 
the drain on the U.S. Treasury is not ex- 
cessive would be to reduce current federal 
expenditures for education. Such a course 
would only serve to harm the handicapped, 
minorities, low-income families and those 
in special education programs that depend 
on federal support, Shanker pointed out. 

“We have here direct evidence of a 
major shift in federal policy,” he said. 

Shanker also predicted that tuition tax 
credits would be found unconstitutional 
and would prompt private schools to in- 
crease fees dramatically. 

HE SAID he was “shocked” that the 
conservative Reagan Administration is not 
interested in preserving such a time- 
honored tradition as public education — 
“an institution which has had at its main 
goal the development of a common set 
of values and ideals.” 


Legislative Issues 
Mark Connecticut 
Labor Sessions 

New Haven, Conn. — ^A comprehensive 
legislative agenda was adopted by the 
Connecticut AFL-CIO convention calling 
for improvements in worker compensa- 
tion benefits, reform of the state’s regres- 
sive tax system and protections against 
plant closings. 

The 494 convention delegates called on 
the state legislature to upgrade jobless 
benefits from the current 49 percent of 
Connecticut’s average manufacturing wage 
to 66% percent and to extend coverage to 
strikers. 

The average wage in the state currently 
is $308 per week. 

ADDITIONAL improvements are need- 
ed for workers disabled by industrial acci- 
dents and disease, the convention stressed 
in urging an increase in benefits to 150 
percent of the average wage from the 
current 100 percent rate. 

The state federation’s tax reform pro- 
posal calls for lowering the 7.5 percent 
state sales tax — the highest in the nation — 
as well as reductions in excessive property 
taxes. The convention urged establishment 
of a progressive state income tax program 
that would shift the major revenue burden 
from workers earning less than $34,000 
a year. 

In an effort to discourage the flight of 
industries from Connecticut, the state body 
is seeking enactment of measures to set 
up economic penalities that runaway shops 
would pay affected workers and com- 
munities. 

DELEGATES re-elected President John 
J. Driscoll, Sec.-Treas. Betty L. Tianti, Ex- 
ecutive Sec. Dominic Badolato and 43 
vice presidents to new two-year terms. 
Wayne Gilbert of the Machinists was 
elected executive vice president to succeed 
Gordon Sawyer, who did not seek re- 
election. 

The convention also approved a 4-cent 
increase in the monthly per capita, raising 
members payments to 30 cents effective 
Oct. 1. 

In another constitutional change, dele- 
gates gave the 160-member state COPE 
committee authority to make candidate 
endorsements in primary and special elec- 
tions. The constitution had required the 
calling of a special convention to approve 
endorsements. 

During the three-day convention, the 
State AFL-CIO’s Humanities Council gave 
its premiere showing of an audio-visual 
presentation documenting the growth of 
the labor movement in Connecticut over 
the past 100 years. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 


Page Seven 


Convention Action 

Laborers Score Attack 
On Worker Protections 



REAGAN ECONOMIC POLICY is assailed by former Vice President Walter 
F. Mondale at the Minnesota AFL-CIO convention in St. Paul. State labor 
federation President David K. Roe is at left. 

Minnesota Delegates Urged 
To Mount Election Drive 


Hollywood, Fla. — ^The Laborers assailed 
the Reagan Administration’s drive to slash 
hard-won federal wage standards, job safe- 
ty programs, workers’ compensation and 
social security benefits. 

The 2,500 delegates to the union’s 18th 
convention warned in a series of resolu- 
tions that the President’s short-sighted eco- 
nomic and budgetary policies will cost 
LIU members dearly in employment op- 
portunities and entitlements. 

IN HIS KEYNOTE address. Laborers 
President Angelo Fosco charged workers 
and the elderly will have to bear the 
brunt of Reagonomics. He said Reagan 
has betrayed the trust of many LIU mem- 
bers who had voted for him last Novem- 
ber. 

.“They believed him when he said his 
economic program was for all Americans. 
They believed him when he said his Ad- 
ministration would not destroy worker 
protections. But their trust has been be- 
trayed,” Fosco declared. 

Reagan’s plan to eliminate “waste and 
extravagance” turns out to be the jobs of 
LIU members, he charged.: When Reagan 
talked about “getting government off our 
backs,” he really meant taking away the 
$122 minimum monthly social security 
checks from elderly widows, he said. 

^ THE BILLIONS of dollars slashed from 
federal construction and housing projects 
will have a severe impact on the jobs of 
Laborers, Fosco pointed out. 

“The cut in unemployment insurance 
will particularly hurt our members. Work- 
ers in seasonal industries, like construc- 
tion, will have trouble qualifying for bene- 
fits, and our unemployed members will be 
forced to abandon their trade and take 
minimum wage jobs or lose their unem- 
ployment benefits.” 

In a telephone hookup with the con- 
vention, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land told delegates that Reagan’s supply- 
side economics is just another name for 
the discredited trickle-down theory. 


Baltimore — ^A wide-ranging legislative 
agenda adopted at the Maryland-District 
of Columbia AFL-CIO convention focuses 
on the need to plug oil company tax loop- 
holes, gain full collective bargaining rights 
for public employees, and reject new at- 
tempts to enact a “right-to-work” law. 

The 312 delegates also called for im- 
provements in jobless benefits and work- 
ers’ compensation and safeguards for 
workers in the communications industry 
from company monitoring of telephone 
calls. 

PRESIDENT THOMAS M. Bradley 
noted in his keynote address to the five- 
day convention that labor succeeded in 
pushing through five key goals in the last 
session of the legislature, including strong- 
er safeguards against the occupational haz- 
ard of asbestos, improved unemployment 
compensation and benefits for survivors 
of fire fighters, and the expansion of edu- 
cation funds. 

A prime objective of the state labor 
federation is to reform Maryland’s tax 
structure to insure that oil firms pay full 
taxes on their profits. A labor-consumer 
coalition study estimates that states are 
losing more than $800 million a year in 
tax revenues as a result of questionable 
oil company accounting practices. The 
next session of the state legislature will 
open next January. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue told delegates that the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s calloused lack of concern for 
workers and the poor was made clearly 
evident in its budget and tax programs. 
Its policies reveal a devotion to giving the 
nation’s wealth to the rich and granting 
unrestricted power to corporations, he 
charged. 


“But while the theory is not new, this 
is the first time we have been asked to 
gamble so much on it,” Kirkland said. 
“Working people are asked to risk their 
jobs, their homes, their children’s educa- 
tion, their social security and their health 
and welfare.” 

Kirkland said this is not a gamble the 
AFL-CIO is prepared to embrace, and the 
point of the Sept. 19 Solidarity Day dem- 
onstration was to express the deep concern 
of trade unionists over the direction the 
nation is headed. 

Resolutions adopted at the five-day con- 
vention called for an all-out fight to pre- 
serve the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law 
and the Service Contract Act, and opposi- 
tion to efforts to undermine the Occupa- 
tional Safety & Health Administration’s 
programs and the Administration’s “tam- 
pering” with social security. 

DELEGATES ALSO opposed efforts to 
apply the Hobbs Act to picket line dis- 
turbances and endorsed the development 
of nuclear power projects with proper 
safeguards. 

The convention voted a $1.25 increase 
in per capita payments to $4 per month 
effective next Jan. 1. It also authorized 
the union’s executive board to raise pay- 
ments 25 cents a month once during the 
next five years. Minimum dues for local 
unions were increased from $7 to $9 per 
month. 

Fosco was re-elected to a new five-year 
term over token opposition. Sec.-Treas. 
Arthur E. Coia and eight vice presidents 
were re-elected by acclamation. 

The convention voted to raise the presi- 
dent’s annual salary from the current 
$120,000 to $125,000 and the secretary- 
treasurer’s from $114,000 to $120,000. 
Vice presidents were given cost-of-living 
increases on their $20,000-per-year sala- 
ries. 

The convention paid a special tribute to 
Canadian Ambassador Kent Taylor, who 
during his tour in Iran helped in rescuing 
six American hostages. 


Citing the role of Congress in embrac- 
ing the Reagan “trickle-down” economic 
policies, Donahue noted that next year’s 
congressional elections will give the Amer- 
ican people the first opportunity to pass 
judgment on the performance of their 
representatives. 

“Those who voted for the senseless bud- 
get cuts, those who endorse the crippling 
of social security, those who acquiesce in 
the dismantling of a half-century of pro- 
gressive labor legislation will be forced 
to run on their records,” he stressed. 

IN MARYLAND, he said, unions will 
have to work as never before to repel the 
right-wing attacks on labor’s supporters 
in Congress and the state house. 

The convention unanimously endorsed 
the re-election of Maryland’s Sen. Paul S. 
Sarbanes, who has been a prime target for 
defeat by the National Conservative Politi- 
cal Action Committee. Sarbanes has a 97- 
percent “right” COPE voting record in 
his first five years in the Senate. 

Delegates re-elected all top officers, in- 
cluding Sec.-Treas. Edward A. Mohler and 
30 vice presidents to new four-year terms. 
Bradley, who has been serving as presi- 
dent for the past two years, was elected 
to his first full four-year term. 

Four new vice presidents* elected to the 
executive board are James F. Combs, Lo- 
cal 37 of the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers, Cumberland; John 
C. Hazel, Local 2 of the Office & Pro- 
fessional Employees, District of Columbia; 
Charles L. Stover, Local 77 of the Operat- 
ing Engineers, D.C., and Melvin Broyles, 
Local 689 of the Amalgamated Transit 
Union, D.C. 


St. Paul, Minn. — ^The Reagan Admin- 
istration came under sharp attack at the 
Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 24th convention as 
speaker after speaker identified threats to 
existing laws beneficial to workers and 
urged the labor movement to counterattack 
in the 1982 elections. 

Former Vice President Walter Mondale 
reminded the delegates of his prediction 
during the 1980 presidential election cam- 
paign that if Reagan were elected, tax 
relief would mean a “Lincoln automobile 
for the rich” and a “hubcap for the 
workers.” 

“IN THE YEARS I’ve spoken to this 
convention, never before have threats to 
the labor movement and threats to social 
justice been greater than they are now,” 
Mondale said. He termed President Rea- 
gan’s relations with organized labor the 
worst the White House has seen since the 
days of Herbert Hoover. 

Mondale received a standing ovation 
after warning “high government officials” 
that “you cannot support free unions in 
Poland and then turn around and try to 
weaken them and cripple them in the 
United States.” 

In regard to the Air Traffic Controllers’ 
strike. Mondale questioned why no effort 
is being made by the FAA to “negotiate 
with these decent Americans” and get 
them back to work. He added that “what- 
ever point the Administration wished to 
make” by firing the controllers had been 
made. 

MORE THAN 200 striking PATCO 
members and spouses came to the stage 
and front of the ballroom for a rally while 
the delegates sang Solidarity Forever. 

PATCO Local 305 President Tom Cal- 
lopy detailed the festering problems that 
led to the strike and declared: “With your 
help, the controllers have the -strength to 
hold out until the government finds out it 
can’t do without us.” 

Minnesota AFL-CIO President David 
Roe said that basic rights for workers and 
their unions are the issue at stake in the 
PATCO strike, “They’re trying to smash 
the air controllers, and all of us know 
we’re next,” he said. 

A collection among the delegates drew 
contributions of more than $14,000 to aid 
the PATCO strikers and their families. 

THE CONVENTION voted to create 
a series of seminars around the state to 
defend workers’' compensation. Other reso- 
lutions opposed decontrol of natural gas 
prices, reaffirmed support for the Equal 
Rights Amendment, requested a shorter 
lag time on rate rulings by the state Public 
Utilities Commission, rejected the “volun- 
tary quit” disqualification for unemploy- 
ment insurance, and called for the legal 
right for public employees in Minnesota 
to honor picket lines put up by any strik- 
ing union. 

Addressing state issues. Speaker Harry 
Sieben, Jr., of the Minnesota House 
warned that Gov. A1 Quie will push re- 
ductions in workers’ compensation and 
unemployment insurance benefits to regain 
lost favor with the business community 


and will resurrect his 1978 campaign 
theme that Minnesota has a bad business 
climate. 

“We’re not going to repeal the public 
employees’ right to strike. And we’re not 
going to cut unemployment compensation 
or workers’ compensation benefits, and 
that’s a promise,” Sieben vowed. 

A SIMILAR THEME was sounded by 
State Majority Leader Roger Moe, who 
warned that the pressure to slash workers* 
compensation benefits will be strong and 
that union efforts must be united and well- 
organized to resist the pressure. 

Among the other speakers were U.S. 
Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd (D- 
W.Va.); Minnesota Democratic Reps. 
James L. Oberstar, Martin O. Sabo and 
Bruce F. Vento; State Atty. Gen. Warren 
Spannaus; Earl McDavid, AFL-CIO 
Union Label & Service Trades Dept., 
and St. Paul Mayor George Lattimer. 

NLRB Choice Hit 
On Partisan Role 
As ‘Consultant’ 

(Continued from Page 1) 

Never in the board’s 45-year history 
has the labor movement pressed for the 
appointment of a union lawyer or official 
to the NLRB, and never has there been 
such an appointment, Donahue noted. 
Management, however, has not shown 
similiar self-restraint, he said, citing the 
appointments in recent years of Chairman 
Edward Miller, General Counsel Peter 
Nash, and Board Member Peter Walther 
— men who interrupted their careers as 
employer lawyers for short stints with the 
NLRB. 

Van de Water, who has served as a 
management representative for both the 
Ford Motor Co. and North American 
Aviation and as a member of the Labor 
Relations Committee of the U.S. Chamber 
of Commerce, was sworn into office on 
Aug. 18 while the Senate was in recess. 
The Senate still must confirm his ap- 
pointment, however. 

Robert P. Hunter, 41, former chief 
counsel and chief of staff for the Hatch 
committee who was appointed to the 
board at the same time as Van de Water, 
received unanimous confirmation from the 
panel on Sept. 15. Like Van de Water, he 
is a Republican. 

VAN DE WATER replaced Democrat 
John Pennello, who resigned his member’s 
seat last January. As chairman. Van de 
Water succeeded Democrat John Fanning, 
who remains on the five-man board as a 
member. Hunter replaced John Truesdale, 
a Democrat, who resigned in January after 
Reagan withdrew his nomination for an- 
other term. 

The remaining members of the board 
are Republican Howard Jenkins, Jr., and 
independent Don A. Zimmerman. 


Maryland Unions to Seek 
Tax Reform, Bargaining Law 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 3, 1981 



Against Exploiting Employers 


Stiff Hiring Fines Urged 
To Halt Illegal Aliens 


ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION will slow only when any U.S. employer who hires 
an illegal worker is subject to stiff fines and criminal penalties, the AFL-CIO, 
the Farm Workers and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement 
told a Senate subcommittee. Testifying are AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald and Stephanie Bower, Farm Workers legislative representative. 

Harsh Results of Reagan Cuts 
Outlined to Hispanic Caucus 


One of the pernicious consequences of 
the Reagan Administration’s economic pol- 
icies is that they threaten to unleash a 
new era of social strife and tension, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland told some 
1 ,200 Hispanic- American leaders from 
across the country. 

“By slashing vital social programs in 
order to finance massive tax cuts for the 
rich,” Kirkland said, “the Administration 
sets the stage for class conflict between 
the haves and the have-nots. But it also 
pits those who have little against those 
who have barely enough. 

“IT PITS the 10 percent of Hispanics 
who are unemployed against the 15 per- 
cent of blacks who are unemployed . . . 
young workers against older workers, pub- 
lic employees against private employees, 
women against teenagers.” 

Kirkland’s keynote address at the fourth 
annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus 
dinner concluded two days of seminars 
on issues such as employment, housing, 
health and urban economic development. 
The Hispanic Caucus consists of the five 
Hispanic-American congressmen, Manuel 
Lujan Jr. of New Mexico, Robert Garcia 
of New York, Edward R. Roybal of Cali- 
fornia, and Henry Gonzalez and Kika de 


la Garza of Texas. All but Lujan are 
Democrats. Garcia is chairman of the 
organization. 

KIRKLAND SAID that organized labor 
is in “profound disagreement” with Presi- 
dent Reagan’s sense of history and phi- 
losophy, and pledged to fight for those 
programs giving all citizens an even chance 
to realize their full potential. 

Specifically, he said, the AFL-CIO will 
fight the Administration’s abandonment of 
bilingual education, its “guest worker” 
program that would provide unfair em- 
ployers with a pool of short-term' workers 
who would be used to depress the job 
market and undermine the security of 
full-time workers, and the government’s 
“mean-spirited” decision to lock up refu- 
gees from Haiti, El Salvador, and other 
tropical countries in Montana, where tem- 
peratures can drop to 40 below zero and 
there are no communities of Salvadorans 
and Haitians to give aid and comfort to 
these refugees. 

Kirkland also pledged the AFL-CIO 
will press for a humane and rational im- 
migration policy providing amnesty for 
those who have “found a way to make a 
home and lead a constructive life in our 
country.” 


“The quickest and best way to stop il- 
legal immigration is to stop giving jobs to 
illegal immigrants,” and the key is stiff 
penalties against employers who hire illegal 
workers, the AFL-CIO told a Senate sub- 
committee. 

Research Director Rudy Oswald told the 
Senate Subcommittee on Immigration & 
Refugee Policy that Reagan Administra- 
tion proposals for sanctions against em- 
ployers who hire illegal aliens are “a step 
in the right direction, but they do not go 
far enough.” 

THE AFL-CIO supports penalties of up 
to $1,000 per worker per day with no 
exclusions, Oswald said. 

The Reagan Administration proposals, 
unveiled by the Justice Dept, in July, 
propose fines of only $500-$ 1,000 per 
offense and permit the exclusion of many 
employers, including wealthy families em- 
ploying one or two domestic servants. 

The government should also provide 
employers with a secure, counterfeit-proof 
identification system for legal workers and 
increase its enforcement of existing wage 
and working standards legislation, Oswald 
testified. 

IN OTHER testimony before the com- 
mittee, Jack Otero, executive vice presi- 
dent of the Labor Council for Latin Amer- 
ican Advancement, underscored the need 
for quick passage of legislation forbidding 
U.S. employers from hiring illegal immi- 
grants. 

Otero, a vice president of the Railway 
& Airline Clerks, had served as a member 
of the Select Commission on Immigration 
& Refugee Policy, appointed by President 
Carter in 1979. 

He pointed out that, in addition to rec- 
ommending employer sanctions and a 
sound identification system, the commis- 
sion’s study called for tighter enforcement 
of existing labor laws, stepped-up border 
controls, and better funding and larger 
staffing for the Immigration & Naturaliza- 
tion Service. 

STEPHANIE BOWER, legislative rep- 
resentative for the Farm Workers, also 
emphasized the need for deterrent penal- 
ties and secure, non-discriminatory identi- 
fication such as a counterfeit-proof social 
security card. 

Bower pointed out that the use of illegal 


Housing Costs Keep Price Index Rising 


Living costs shot up again in August, 
lifting the government’s consumer price 
index eight-tenths of 1 percent as housing 
costs continued to register sharp gains. 

Compounded and annualized, last 
month’s CPI increase translated into an in- 
flation rate of 10.6 percent. Over the past 
12 months, inflation has advanced at a 
1 0.9 percent pace. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which 
released the latest monthly report on con- 
sumer prices, said the annual inflation rate 
for the first eight months of the year was 
a seasonally adjusted 9.6 percent. 


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Steep as it was, the August CPI increase 
of eight-tenths of 1 percent marked a 
sharp decline from the 1.2-percent rise in 
July, and was the result of a moderation 
in price rises for transportation, food and 
beverages. The cost of buying and main- 
taining a home rose 1 percent after jump- 
ing 1.6 percent in July and accounted for 
over half the month’s increase in the CPI. 

High mortgage rates continued to exert 
strong upward pressures on shelter costs 
in August. There were large increases in 
property taxes, property insurance, rent, 
fuel and other utilities as well. Last 
month’s 1.2-percent rise in rental charges 
was the largest in a year, BLS reported. 
The housing component of the index has 
risen 16.2 percent on an annual basis dur- 
ing June, July and August. 

Food prices climbed over the month by 
seven-tenths of 1 percent after rising by 
eight-tenths of 1 percent in July. These 
two months were significantly higher than 
any other this year and have surprised 
economists, most of whom have been ex- 
pecting continued modest advances for 
food. Among last month’s sharp food 
price hikes, beef, pork, poultry, and fresh 
vegetables led the way. 

MEDICAL CARE costs rose at a high 
rate for the eighth consecutive month, in- 
creasing a full 1 percent. Hospital rooms 
rose 2.2 percent. Charges by physicians, 
dentists, and other medical professionals 
rose nine-tenths of 1 percent, while the 
cost of medical commodities, including 


drugs and medical supplies, rose 1.1 per- 
cent. 

Transportation costs rose by six-^nths 
of 1 percent over the month, partly be- 
cause of the third consecutive sharp in- 
crease in used-car prices. Gasoline prices 
continued to fall, but at less than the rate 
in the four preceding months. Apparel 
prices rose eight-tenths of 1 percent after 
rising five- tenths of 1 percent in July. 

Housing constitutes 45.5 percent of the 
consumer price index’s weight, transporta- 
tion 19 percent, food and beverages 18.3 
percent, apparel 4.9 percent, medical care 
4.7 percent, entertainment 3.6 percent, 
and other goods and services 4 percent. 

BLS ALSO reported that workers’ real 
spendable weekly earnings increased four- 
tenths of 1 percent — ^the first monthly rise 
in four months — but were 2.7 percent be- 
low the year-earlier level. Real spendable 
earnings are what is left after taxes and 
inflation. 

A married worker in the private sector 
with three dependents who earned the 
average weekly wage of $259.88, took 
home $223.26 in August, measured in 
current earnings. That is $2.41 more than 
in July and $15.77 more than in August 
1980. 

But in “constant dollars,” keyed to the 
1977 buying power, the same worker’s 
real spendable earnings last month aver- 
aged $147.08. While 53 cents more than 
in July, the figure was still $4.26 less than 
a year earlier. 


aliens as farm workers has tempted grow- 
ers and labor contractors to avoid making 
social security payments, thus robbing the 
program of needed revenues. 

At the same time, she told the commit- 
tee^ issuing social security cards to farm 
workers would help bring them into the 
system and provide them with deserved 
benefits in their older years. 

THE “LURE OF JOBS” is what brings 
and keeps most illegal workers in the 
United States, Oswald told the panel. Il- 
legal workers take jobs away from Ameri- 
can workers and they undermine U.S. 
wages and working conditions by offering 
employers a work force “willing to work 
hard for long hours and little pay,” he 
said. 

Oswald emphasized that the need for 
work and “their continuous liability to 
deportation if they don’t behave and ac- 
cept what is offered to them” leaves them 
at the mercy of “unscrupulous, exploiting 
employers” who often deliberately seek out 
illegal aliens. 

“Decent, law-abiding employers,” he 
said, suffer from unfair competition from 
unscrupulous employers who pay low 
wages and avoid their legal and social 
responsibilities to withhold income taxes 
and make social security and unemploy- 
ment insurance payments. 

Oswald stressed the need for civil liber- 
ties safeguards to prevent any crackdown 
on illegal immigration from being turned 
into “discrimination against U.S. citizens 
with Hispanic surnames.” 

UAW, Chrysler 
Approve Plan for 
Profit Sharing 

Detroit — Chrysler workers stand to 
share in the company’s profits starting next 
year if the federal government approves 
a plan announced jointly by the company 
and the Auto Workers. 

The profit-sharing plan, agreed to in 
principle by the company and the union 
last January as part of a package of wage 
and benefit concessions to help keep the 
firm afloat, is subject to approval by the 
Chrysler Loan Guarantee Board that over- 
sees government-backed loans to the com- 
pany. 

AS A FIRST STEP, the company agreed 
to pay each of its 70,000 UAW-represent- 
ed workers a $50 bonus, effective Oct. 16. 
Additional compensation under profit 
sharing could be paid out of 1982 profits 
under a formula worked out by Chrysler 
and the UAW. 

The plan calls for union workers to re- 
ceive the equivalent of 15 percent of any 
United States and Canadian profits in ex- 
cess of 10 percent of Chrysler’s U.S. and 
Canadian net worth. UAW Vice President 
Marc Stepp, director of the union’s Chrys- 
ler Dept., said an individual worker may 
elect to take his or her share in the form 
of credit toward the purchase of a U.S.- or 
Canadian-made Chrysler vehicle at the rate 
of $1.50 for each $1 share of entitlement. 
The shares generated by the profit-shar- 
ing plan would be in addition to the stock 
currently allocated to eligible Chrysler em- 
ployees under the Employee Stock Own- 
ership Plan, Stepp noted. 

THE UNION ALSO has negotiated an 
agreement with the company under which 
workers may win one of more than 3,000 
prizes, or “purchase certificates,” for 
Chrysler products ranging from a free 
Chrysler Imperial to a $500 rebate on a 
compact Dodge Omni. The certificates 
will be distributed to workers through a 
drawing. 

Stepp also announced that the company 
has agreed to keep open its Trenton, Mich., 
chemical plant through the 1983 model 
year. The plant, which employs 230 work- 
ers, had been slated for permanent closing 
in a year. 


-1 




^■1 








Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, October 10, 1981 


No. 41 




Voting Rights Measure 
Clears House, 389 to 24 



REDUCED HEALTH CARE benefits and higher out-of-pocket expenses will 
result for workers an^ their families from poorly conceived legislation now 
before Congress, AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert Seidman told a House 
Ways & Means health subcommittee. He was accompanied by Cathy Schoen of 
the Service Employees; Melvin A. Glasser, executive director of the Committee 
for National Health Insurance, and Associate Director Robert McGlotten of the 
AFL-CIO Dept, of Legislation. 

W ith Lower Benefits 

‘Competition’ Plan Seen 
Boosting Medieal Costs 

By John R. Oravec 


Jobless Rate 
Shoots up to 
7.5 Percent 

By Janies M. Shevis 

The number of unemployed Americans 
nudged the 8 million mark in September, 
increasing by 309,000 over the month and 
heightening concern over the state of the 
nation’s economic health. 

The rise lifted the national jobless rate 
three-tenths of 1 percent to 7.5 percent. 
The rate has jumped a half-point since 
July. 

BESIDES THE 7,966,000 officially un- 
employed workers last month, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reported that there 
were 1.1 million “discouraged” workers — 
those who want to work but are not look- 
ing for jobs because they believe they can- 
not find any — and a record 4.5 mil- 
lion “partially unemployed” workers. The 
latter group includes many persons work- 
ing part time because they could not find 
full-time jobs. 

BLS said the increase in unemployment 
was concentrated among adult workers 
over 25, both men and women, but all 
major workforce categories except workers 
of Hispanic origin posted jobless rate in- 
creases over the month. Unemployment 
among blacks hit a record high of 16.3 
percent. 

At the same time, the total number of 
Americans holding jobs fell to 98,270,000 
over the month, a decline of 674,000. The 
government said the entire decline oc- 
curred among white workers, mostly adult 
women. 

BLS COMMISSIONER Janet L. Nor- 
wood told a congressional Joint Economic 
Committee hearing that the September 
figures “show continued weakness in the 
demand for workers.” She noted that un- 
employment had returned “to about the 
levels which prevailed during the second 
half of 1980” as a result of last year’s 
recession. The marked rise in unemploy- 
ment combined with the drop m total 
employment indicate that “at best the 
economy is very flat,” she said. 

“There is a very weak employment situ- 
ation, extremely weak,” Norwood said, 
adding: “There’s special distress in areas 
sensitive to interest rates, such as con- 
struction and like industries — lumber and 
wood manufacturing, and the larger dura- 
ble goods manufacturing industries which 
are related to housing. In the automobile 
industry, there’s been a decline over a 
period of many months, and it hasn’t 
picked up with the new models.” 

Construction employment, which had 
shown some growth in the latter part of 
1980 and early months of 1981, fell an 
additional 20,000 to 4,253,000 last month, 
depressing employment in the industry 
1 65,000 below the April level and slightly 
lower than that of the July 1980 recession 
trough. With mortgage interest rates at 

(Cotitmiied on Page 8) 


The House served notice to President 
Reagan that his economic program no 
longer faces clear sailing on Capitol Hill 
as it approved an $87.3 billion appropria- 
tions bill for the Departments of Labor, 
Education, and Health & Human Services, 
rejecting the President’s call for more cuts 
in education, health, welfare and jobs 
programs. 

Also rejected, in the course of debate 
on the funding bill, was a new move to 
cut back the coverage of the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act. 

AN AMENDMENT proposed by fresh- 
man Rep. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) would 
have broadened the exemption from 
OSHA inspections to firms with 25 or 
fewer workers instead of 1 0. It failed to 
attract enough support for a record vote. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison had written each House member 
urging rejection of the additional bud- 


Health insurance legislation promising 
to lower costs by supposedly instilling 
competition in the health care industry 
would actually slash benefits and increase 
medical costs for workers and their fam- 
ilies, the AFL-CIO warned at House hear- 
ings. 

Social Security Director Bert Seidman 
described the so-called competition pro- 
posal encompassed in three bills now be- 


get reductions. The federation “believes 
strongly that the course being pursued by 
this Administration and this Congress to 
drastically cut back social and economic 
stabilization spending is wrong,” Denison 
said. 

The appropriations bill was the first to 
reach the House floor since Reagan’s tele- 
vised appeal on Sept. 24 for a further 
reduction of 12 percent in discretionary 
spending programs to help achieve his 
fiscal 1982 budget target. The key vote 
came on a Republican motion to recom- 
mit the measure without instructions, 
which was rejected 168-249. 

REAGAN HAD outlined nearly $4 bil- 
lion in additional cuts he wanted in pro- 
grams covered by the Labor-HHS funding 
bill. But the House trimmed its Appropri- 
ations Committee’s bill only $74 million 
to bring it in line with the budget recon- 

(Continued on Page 7) 


fore Congress as a “Rube Goldberg con- 
traption” that would backfire. 

“IF CONGRESS were to be misled into 
enacting such a fanciful scheme to de- 
regulate the health care industry and to 
substitute competition and the marketplace 
as a cost containment strategy, the result 
would be exactly opposite of that intended 
by proponents,” Kidman told a House 
Ways & Means health subcommittee. 

“Health care costs would increase, not 
decrease,” he said, adding that more regu- 
lation would be required to make the 
industry more competitive. 

All three measures — one House bill and 
two Senate bills — would require employers 
to offer their workers a choice of prepaid 
health insurance plans. But there’s a 
catch. 

WORKERS CHOOSING a higher-cost 
plan with more comprehensive benefits 
would be penalized through higher income 
taxes because the employer’s contributions 
exceeded a specified ceiling. 

If workers elected to take a less-costly 
plan, they would receive a tax-exempt 
refund. However, Seidman pointed out, 
the workers’ out-of-pocket health care ex- 
penses would increase because of the lim- 
ited coverage in the lower-cost plan. 

“Central to the cost containment strat- 
egy of these bills is the notion that by es- 
tablishing a ceiling on employer contribu- 
tions for health insurance, employees and 
other consumers of health services would 
be encouraged to shop around for the less 
expensive physicians, hospitals, insurers 
and health maintenance organizations,” 
Seidman noted. 

Based on that assumption, competi- 
(Continued on Page 6) 


Kirkland Cites 
‘Consensus’ in 
Wide Margin 

The overwhelming House vote to extend 
the landmark Voting Rights Act “reflected 
the consensus of the vast majority of 
workers and the American people at 
large” as expressed in the Sept. 19 Soli- 
darity Day demonstration in Washington, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said. 

In a statement congratulating the House 
on its bipartisan 389-24 vote, Kirkland 
observed that on “the fundamental issue 
of the right to vote — the keystone of dem- 
ocratic equality^ — the American people are 
united.” 

HE CALLED ON the Senate to fol- 
low through “as quickly and expeditiously 
as possible to endorse and transmit this 
measure for President Reagan’s signature.” 

An extension bill has been introduced 
in the Senate by Sen. Charles McC. 
Mathias (R-Md.) with subcommittee hear- 
ings scheduled for early January, and sup- 
porters of the measure said the House 
action, in which 160 Republicans joined 
229 Democrats for passage, enhances pro- 
spects for a strong Senate bill. 

The legislation would extend for two' 
years the central provisions of the act, 
which has protected minority voting rights 
since 1965. The enforcement provisions 
require nine states and parts of 13 others 
with histories of discrimination against 
minority voters to clear with the Justice 
Dept, any changes in their election laws 
and procedures. 

UNDER A 1975 amendment to the 
original Voting Rights Act, the enforce- 
ment provisions are slated to expire on 
Aug. 5, 1982. The House-passed bill 
would extend these provisions through 
Aug. 5, 1984, and add a number of mea- 

(Continued on Page 7) 
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

New Mood on Hill 
Since Solidarity Day 

A change in mood and a “firming 
up” of Congress have been evident on 
Capitol Hill since the massive Solidarity 
Day protest against the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s policies, AFL-CIO Legisla- 
tive Director Ray Denison observed. 

As evidence, Denison cited three suc- 
cessive victories for labor on key legis- 
lation: the House’s overwhelming pas- 
sage of a bill to extend the Voting 
Rights Act, its approval of funds for the 
Departments of Labor, Education, and 
Health & Human Services without the 
further cuts sought by Reagan, and its 
rejection of a new bid to reduce cov- 
erage of the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act. (Stories, this page.) 

In addition, Denison noted, the Pres- 
ident himself has shown an awareness of 
this new mood in retreating from Ad- 
ministration plans for sharp cuts in 
social security benefits and reductions in 
the quality and quantity of food served 
in the school lunch program. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


House Adopts Funding Bill 
Without New Reagan Cuts 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 



JOB CORPS TRAINEES demonstrated their skills in building trades craftsman- 
ship at a Washington exhibition. Here, an instructor checks the efforts of a 
Cement Mason trainee. 

Job Corps Training Praised 
As Vital to Young Workers 


Public Sector 
Contracts Set 
7.3% Boosts 

Major bargaining agreements covering 
some 217,000 state and local employees 
negotiated during the first half of 1981 
provided average first-year wage increases 
of 7.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics reported. 

The figure compares to an average gain 
of 7.5 percent for all of 1980. Over the 
life of the contracts, the annual increase 
averaged 7.3 percent, down half a per- 
centage point from the 7.8 percent average 
increase in settlements reached last year. 

THE FIRST-HALF 1981 settlements 
were negotiated by 20 different bargaining 
units, one of which had two settlements. 
BLS said 55 percent of the employees 
worked for state governments, and the 
rest for local jurisdictions. 

The size of the state and local contract 
settlements, which covered units with at 
least 5,000 workers, differed sharply from 
private-sector settlements in the first half 
of 1981. BLS earlier reported that con- 
tracts covering 1,000 or more workers in 
the private sector yielded average first-year 
wage gains of 11.3 percent and over-term 
annual increases of 9.2 percent during the 
first six months of this year. 

All of the state and local contracts pro- 
vided for specified wage increases in the 
first contract year, with no cost-of-living 
clauses in any of the pacts. 

TOTAL COMPENSATION changes— 
adding benefits to wages — increased an 
average 7 percent both in the first contract 
year and annually over the life of the con- 
tracts, BLS said. The comparable figures 
for private-sector agreements negotiated 
during the same period Were 1 1 .4 percent 
for the first year and 10- percent over term. 

BLS also reported that “effective wage 
adjustments were rhade during the first six 
months of 1981 resulting from settlements 
reached during the period, deferred in- 
creases paid under agreements reached in 
prior years, and increases under COL 
clauses. About 511,000 workers in 36 bar- 
gaining units received pay raises averaging 
6.3 percent in the January- June period. 


The success of the Job Corps in getting 
training and work experience to disadvan- 
taged young people proves the value of 
cooperative efforts between labor, business 
and government to fight unemployment, 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
said. 

Donahue spoke at ceremonies honoring 
past and present directors of the training 
agency during a Job Corps exposition and 
demonstration in Washington. 

THE AFL-CKTs own long-term sup- 
port of the skill and job training program 
is based on the labor movement’s commit- 
ment to “improve the quality of life for 
all Americans,” Donahue pointed out. 

In the hundred years since the founding 
of the modern organized labor movement, 
Donahue said, the goal of labor has been 
“to increase the participation of workers 
in the economic wealth of this country.” 

A government that is mandated by the 
Constitution “to promote the general wel- 
fare” has a duty, Donahue emphasized, to 
help its disadvantaged citizens share the 
benefits of society. He added, “the entire 
economy has a stake and a vested interest 


in improving the participation of the poor 
and the disadvantaged as both producers 
and consumers.” 

DONAHUE PRAISED the Job Corps 
for “filling the gaps” between school and 
work left for many young people by the 
education system and by society. 

“The Job Corps,” he said, “has provided 
young people with a useful work experi- 
ence, many for the first time in their lives. 
It has offered them a chance to get the 
sound, basic, education they need to func- 
tion in our increasingly sophisticated and 
fast-paced world.” 

The AFL-CIO is proud of the eight af- 
filiates “who have in a real sense ‘joined 
the Jobs Corps’ by offering a wide range 
of training in useful, lifetime skills that 
lead to decent jobs,” Donahue said. 

THOSE UNIONS include the Operat- 
ing Engineers, Plasterers & Cement Ma- 
sons, Railway & Airline Clerks, Auto 
Workers, National Maritime Union, Paint- 
ers, Bricklayers and Carpenters. 

Stressing the importance of the role of 
government in curbing joblessness, Dona- 
hue said the country “needs national poli- 
cies that deal realistically and fairly with 
our economic problems, particularly with 
unemployment.” 

The AFL-CIO disagrees, he said, with 
the theory that government has no place 
in helping the disadvantaged. In a de- 
mocracy, he pointed out, government has 
an obligation to provide citizens “who 
desperately need training and job oppor- 
tunities that they have been unable to 
secure from any other sector.” 

“WE DO NOT believe,” he asserted, 
“that massive tax cuts are the answer to 
the stimulation of the economy and the 
creation of jobs. We have strongly sup- 
ported employment and training programs 
for both young people and adults, and we 
have opposed the budget cuts that have 
ended programs such as CETA and cur- 
tailed federal aid to vocational education.” 

He said direct, targeted training and job 
creation programs, fitted to the needs of 
disadvantaged workers have been “demon- 
strably more effective than past attempts 
to throw tax breaks at industry with the 
hope and prayer that the money will be 
used to create jobs — and not to acquire 
a department store chain or move opera- 
tions to Taiwan.” 

Donahue pledged the AFL-CIO’s con- 
tinued support for full funding of Job 
Corps programs. 

Morris lushewi^ Dies, 
Retired New York Leader 

New York — Morris lushewitz, who re- 
tired in 1974 as secretary of the New 
York City AFL-CIO, died Sept. 18 after a 
long illness. He was 79. 

lushewitz was a founding member of 
the Newspaper Guild and served as sec- 
retary-treasurer of the New York State 
CIO during the 1940s. He also had been 
a member of the New York City board 
of education and a trustee of the State 
University of New York. 


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October Schedule Listed 
By Labor Studies Center 

The George Meany Center for Labor Studies has five training institutes 
for full-time union officers and representatives at its Silver Spring, Md., campus 
in October. In addition, six unions, one AFL-CIO department and the American 
Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) are using the campus for their 
own training programs. The schedule: 

Issues in the Economy, Oct. 5-7 — A three-day seminar on the environment 
for collective bargaining, supply-side economics, the new tax structure and 
merger mania. 

Labor Law, Oct. 11-16 — A short course for non-lawyers covering the laws 
on internal union affairs, organizing, bargaining, duty of fair representation, 
equal opportunity, ERISA and OSHA. 

Pension Investment, Oct. 13-15 — A two-day institute for labor trustees of 
joint union-management pension plans covering investment policy, pension 
planning, and sound investment policy. 

Media Relations, Oct. 18-23 — An institute to help officers of state and local 
central bodies improve relations with television, radio and the press. Topics 
include coping with TV, speaking before the camera, radio and cable oppor- 
tunities, writing news releases and preparing beeper tapes. 

Basic Skills for Union Leaders, Oct. 25-30 — Workshops on how to read 
faster and remember more, speak more effectively, write more clearly, and 
chair a union meeting. 

Unions using the campus for. their own leadership training are the Service 
Employees, Oct. 4-9; Fire Fighters, Oct. 5-8; Operating Engineers, Oct. 8-9; 
Printing & Graphic Communications Union, Oct. 18-23; United Transpor- 
tation Union, Oct. 18-30; and Letter Carriers, Oct. 30. 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Community Services will conduct a staff training 
session on campus, Oct. 25-28. 

The AIFLD will welcome a new group of Spanish-speaking trade unionists 
from Latin America Oct. 12 for courses on industrial democracy and political 
theories, and the labor movement until Nov. 14. 

Information on these and other labor study programs can be obtained from 
Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive director, George Meany Center, 10000 New 
Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone: 301/431-6400. 

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6,000 Gain 
Joint Accord 
At Square D 

Nashville, Tenn. — A new agreement 
negotiated by a coordinated bargaining 
committee representing five unions has 
won pay boosts averaging $1.29 over three 
years for some 6,000 workers at 27 plants 
of the Square D Co. 

The pact, approved by a 10 to 1 vote 
among rank-and-file members, was reached 
here after two months of talks at various 
other locations. Square D manufactures 
electrical and electronic components. 

WORKERS’ WAGES, now averaging 
$7.84 an hour, will rise by 62 cents an 
hour in the first year of the agreement, 
34 cents in the second year, and 33 cents 
in the final year. 

In addition, a cost-of-living clause pro- 
viding quarterly adjustments of one cent 
an hour for each increase of three-tenths 
of 1 percent in the consumer price index 
was carried over from the old contract. 

Union bargainers, whose efforts were 
coordinated by the AFL-CIO Industrial 
Union Dept., resisted company proposals 
to reinstitute a “cap,” or ceiling, on COL 
payments and to require employee con- 
tributions toward health insurance. Over 
the life of the agreement, the parties esti- 
mated the value of the wage and benefit 
package at $3.52 an hour, assuming an 11 
percent annual inflation rate. 

MEMBERS OF THE coordinated bar- 
gaining team were from the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which 
represents about 3,800 of the employees; 
the Machinists, representing 1,600; the un- 
affiliated Teamsters, 375; the Molders, 190, 
and the Auto Workers, 70. 

Square D, whose largest plant employing 
about 900 workers is in Lexington, Ky., 
also agreed to a payroll checkoff of work- 
ers’ voluntary contributions to their un- 
ions’ political action committees. 

Other provisions of the new contract 
call for a new personal leave program 
giving workers four days off in each of 
the first and second years of the agreement 
and five days in the third year, a new 
prescription drug plan, and dental cover- 
age paying 80 percent of all charges up 
to a $1,000 maximum for an employee 
and each of his dependents. 

North Carolina 
Delegates Elect 
New President 

Raleigh, N.C. — E. A. Britt, secretary- 
treasurer of the North Carolina AFL-GIO 
for the past six years, was elected presi- 
dent over incumbent Wilbur Hobby at the 
state labor federation’s annual convention 
here. Britt received 30,970 weighted votes 
to Hobby’s 19,330. 

The nearly 400 convention delegates 
elected Britt’s entire slate to two-year 
terms,' including Sec.-Treas. Christopher 
Scott, seven new vice presidents and 18 
incumbent vice presidents. 

BRITT, 51, served as president of the 
Wilmington AFL-CIO and headed the 
North Carolina Council of Paperworkers 
before he was elected secretary-treasurer 
of the state labor federation in 1975. 
Hobby had been state president since 1969. 

Scott, a state legislative representative 
for the Communications Workers, defeated 
James Andrews of the Food & Commer- 
cial Workers. 

IN SETTING labor’s agenda for the 
1982 “short session” of the state legisla- 
ture, delegates put a priority on improving 
coverage of workers’ compensation be- 
yond on-the-job accidents. The state pro- 
gram currently has severe restrictions on 
providing benefits for occupational disease. 

Delegates also called on Congress to 
reject efforts to weaken the Davis-Bacon 
prevailing wage law and attempts to ex- 
tend the Hobbs Act to picket line dis- 
turbances. 








t ^ 








AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 


Page Three 


Selective Controls 

Credit Policies Pressed 
To Solve Housing Crisis 



TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES in the printing industry and their impact on 
workers are discussed by Graphic Arts Vice President William A. Schroeder and 
Alfred Kaufman, assistant secretary general of the International Graphic Federa- 
tion, at an International Labor Organization conference in Geneva. 

ILO Urged to Explore Impaet 
Of New Printing Teehnology 


The AFL-CIO renewed its call for the 
imposition of selective credit controls to 
help solve the housing dilemma facing the 
country. 

“We should turn away from the dis- 
astrous reliance on tight money to fight 
inflation,” Director Henry B. Schechter of 
the federation’s Office of Housing & 
Monetary Policy declared in testimony be- 
fore the House Subcommittee on Housing 
& Community Development. 

“THE PRESIDENT should authorize 
the ‘Fed’ (Federal Reserve Board) to use 
selective credit controls to channel credit 
for productive purposes,” Schechter said. 
Such purposes would include farming, 
home mortgages, financing of capital 
equipment, cars, and trucks, and new resi- 
dential, industrial and commercial con- 
struction. 

“If selective credit regulations were used 
to defer capital investment that is not ur- 
gent and bring interest rates down to 
affordable housing levels, the depository 
institutions specializing in home financing, 
could remain in that business, a needed 
higher level of residential construction 
could again be achieved, and the economy 
as a whole would be in a healthier con- 
dition,” Schechter said. 

The combination of inflated prices due 
to a shortage of houses, plus mortgage in- 
terest rates that have soared to 18 percent 
and more have “devastated” the housing 
market, Schechter observed. 

FROM A LEVEL of 2 million in 1977 
and 1978, annual housing unit starts de- 
clined to 1.8 million in 1979 and 1.3 mil- 
lion in 1980, Schechter pointed out. An 
annual starts rate of 1.1 million in 1981 
would be “an optimistic estimate,” he said. 

The downward trend continues, with the 
seasonally adjusted annual rate down to 
937,000 for August, he noted, adding that 
“this trend is likely to be prolonged until 
the continuation of current monetary and 
fiscal policies deepens the economic reces- 
sion to a level at which long-term funds 
for housing and business are not in much 
demand.” 


New York — A new study has taken 
sharp issue with claims that the federal 
minimum wage is a significant factor in 
the high unemployment of minority youth. 

The study, commissioned by the League 
for Industrial Democracy and written by 
social scientist B. Bruce-Briggs, declares 
that evidence of a major impact on mi- 
nority teenage unemployment is “unsub- 
stantiated and unconvincing” and urges 
that “meddling with the minimum wage 
should be well toward the bottom of 
everybody’s list of priorities.” 

Arch Puddington, executive director of 
the LID, said the organization had com- 
missioned the study “because we were 
convinced that there was a great deal of 
misinformation and downright propaganda 
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Sadat Mourned as 
Leader^ Peacemaker 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, 
in a telegram to the widow of assas- 
sinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 
praised Sadat as “one of the world’s 
great statesmen.” 

Kirkland, who extended the federa- 
tion’s sympathies and condolences, said 
that he was “deeply shocked and sad- 
dened” by Sadat’s death. “He enjoyed 
the respect of all who knew him and 
shared his dreams for peace and free^ 
dom in the Middle East,” he said. 

Kirkland and AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue sent similar mes- 
sages to Saad Ahmed, president of the 
Egyptian Federation of Labor, and to 
Ashraf A. Ghorbal, the Egyptian am- 
bassador to the United States. 

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The current economic pattern is ap- 
parent in the September jobless figures, he 
noted. Of the nearly 8 million Americans 
unemployed in September, 828,000 were 
construction workers, he pointed out. Sales 
of new and existing homes have declined 
sharply, and rental vacancies are at record 
low levels. Condominium conversions have 
further reduced the supply of rental units, 
and rental housing development has 
ground to a halt. 

UNLIKE PREVIOUS similar periods of 
sharp downturns in home building, Schech- 
ter observed, there are no emergency pro- 
grams today to provide below-market-rate 
mortgage financing. Another unique fea- 
ture of today’s housing market is the 
avowed intention of the Federal Reserve 
Board to continue its tight-money policy 
until inflation is licked, he said. This has 
resulted in a spate of construction indus- 
try bankruptcies — up 49 percent in the first 
35 weeks of 1981 compared to the same 
quarter a year earlier. 

As long as credit allocation is left to 
market forces, reinforced by a monetary 
policy that drives up interest rates, the 
home buyer simply cannot compete for 
funds with large corporations and busi- 
nesses, Schechter said. 

“EXPERIENCE BOTH here and abroad 
demonstrates that credit controls provide 
a viable alternative to slowing down the 
money supply,” he observed. The brief 
implementation of credit controls in 1980 
under the Carter Administration proved 
helpful in rapidly bringing down interest 
rates, he noted. 

As a result the decline in home build- 
ing and general economic activity was 
reversed. 

The 1969 Credit Control Act gives the 
President the authority to use flexible 
credit controls as a supplement to general 
monetary policy. Schechter pointed out. 
He said the AFL-CIO strongly supports 
making this authority permanent before its 
scheduled expiration next June, and using 
it now to bring down interest rates and 
revive key sectors of the economy. 


being circulated about the minimum 
wage.” The LID is a labor-supported re- 
search and educational organization which 
focuses on social and economic policy and 
international human rights. 

“THIS STUDY demolishes the argu- 
ments of the critics of the minimum 
wage,” Puddington said. 

While some conservatives have called 
for outright abolition of the minimum 
wage, the most commonly advanced pro- 
posal calls for the establishment of a spe- 
cial “subminimum” wage for teenagers at 
a rate lower than the minimum wage rate 
for adults. The arguments of two leading 
proponents of a teenage subminimum, 
economists Walter Williams and Thomas 
Sowell, are examined in detail in the study. 

Among the points advanced by Bruce- 
Briggs in the study, titled “The Minimum 
Wage Muddle,” are the following: 

• Minimum wage critics have con- 
sistently ignored the impact of inflation on 
minimum wage rates. The value of the 
minimum wage, after taking inflation into 
consideration, was $1.25 in 1980, a figure 
no higher than the inflation-adjusted figure 
for the year 1963. Indeed, the study con- 
cludes that the value of the minimum 
wage “has not really increased since 1950’^ 
because of inflation. 

• The minimum wage has not signifi- 
cantly changed as a percentage of the 
average wage of an individual worker for 
the past thirty years. 

• The 42 years since the inception of 
the minimum wage have seen, until the 
past decade, “our longest sustained eco- 
nomic growth, which resulted in the first 
prosperous working class in history and 
the largest business profits.” Although the 


Geneva — Employer and government rep- 
resentatives joined trade unionists in call- 
ing on the International Labor Organiza- 
tion to keep a close watch on the social 
impact of technological developments that 
are revolutionizing the printing and allied 
trades. 

“The innovations are coming so fast that 
we cannot afford to leave undetermined 
the time between meetings,” William A. 
Schroeder, vice president of the Graphic 
Arts International Union, commented af- 
ter a 10-day ILO session on the printing 
industry. 

NOTING THAT 19 years had elapsed 
since the ILO had last held a meeting on 
the printing industry, Schroeder expressed 
strong satisfaction at the unanimous call 
addressed to the ILO Governing Body for 
further sessions at intervals of no more 
than five years. 

Schroeder, who was the worker member 

Wage Claims 

Study does not suggest that the minimum 
wage caused this boom, “just as surely it 
did not hinder it.” 

• Black workers generally, and teenage 
black workers in particular, are con- 
fronted with a series of special employ- 
ment hurdles having nothing to do with 
the minimum wage, but which are often 
ignored by the proponents of a teenage 
subminimum. These problems include the 
shift of manufacturing jobs from inner 
cities to the suburbs, a large increase in 
minority birth rates which has increased 
job competition, the trend towards young 
women seeking jobs that in the past were 
filled by young males, and the increased 
number of minority youth attending col- 
lege and therefore not looking for work. 

THE STUDY concludes that “the most 
important determinant of non-white youth 
unemployment rates is most likely that of 
all unemployment rates — the overall 
health of the economy. . . . The gains to 
be made from modification of our mini- 
mum wage laws have not been demon- 
strated, and our economic condition, while 
hardly optimum, cannot be described as 
desperate. And in any event, we should 
concern ourselves with adult heads of 
family first.” 

Betty Kaye Taylor Named 
To N.Y. State Labor Post 

Albany, N.Y. — Betty Kaye Taylor, 
former assistant director of the Jewish 
Labor Committee, has been named deputy 
commissioner of the New York State’s 
Labor Dept. 

Prior to joining the JLC in 1948, Taylor 
had been an organizer for the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers in Milwaukee. 


of the U.S. delegation to the 24-nation 
meeting, said he had been impressed “by 
the genuine concern the delegates showed 
for the social consequences in all nations 
of the industry’s rapidly changing tech- 
nology.” 

The conference agreed that the continu- 
ing structural and technological develop- 
ments require close study of their impact 
on employment and job and income se- 
curity of the industry’s workers. Working 
conditions and occupational safety and 
health should also be included on the 
agenda of the next meeting, the report 
said. 

CONSIDERATION of possible reduc- 
tions in working times as a means of pre- 
serving jobs was likewise urged. A com- 
prehensive analysis on how such reductions 
could help safeguard employment is to be 
undertaken by the ILO in preparation for 
the next meeting on the printing and allied 
trades. 

Schroeder also welcomed the confer- 
ence’s call for an extensive study of the 
“full range of possible psychological, phys- 
ical and other effects” on workers from 
their increasing use of video display units 
on the job. 

After some hesitation, employer dele- 
gates went along with a resolution ask- 
ing the Governing Body to include the 
printing industry among those in which 
the social and labor practices of multina- 
tional firms are being examined by the 
ILO. 

“At least we will be taking a look at 
what is going on,” Schroeder commented 
after remarking that many frontier-jump- 
ing companies are “without social consci- 
ence.” 

The GAIU had a second representative 
at the ILO session. Vice President Leonard 
Paquette was the worker member of the 
Canadian delegation and served as vice 
chairman of a committee that explored 
the training and the retraining of workers 
in the industry to meet the challenge of 
technological changes. 

Alfred Shibley Dies, 
Retired AFL-CIO Staffer 

Lorain, Ohio — Alfred C. Shibley, who 
retired in 1973 as an AFL-CIO field rep- 
resentative, died Oct. 1 after a heart at- 
tack. He was 73. 

Shibley had served as treasurer of the 
Lorain County AFL-CIO since the mid- 
1950s and had been secretary-treasurer of 
county federation of labor for 15 years 
prior to merger. He also had been a mem- 
ber of the International Typographical 
Union for more than 50 years. 

Survivors include his wife Gloria and 
three daughters. Services were held Oct. 
5 and burial was at Ridgehill Memorial 
Park. 


Study Ref utes Subminimum 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 


Reagan^s Very Own Rudget 

P RESIDENT REAGAN doesn’t have Jimmy Carter’s budget to 
kick around any more. As of the new fiscal year, the federal 
budget is all his. So were the mistaken economic projections on 
which he based it. So is the formidable deficit that he now belatedly 
foresees, and so are the reckless tax cuts that caused it. 

Anyone can make mistakes, and Mr. Reagan could easily cor- 
rect his. He could do it simply by asking Congress to rescind or 
delay the effective date of some of the most flagrantly misguided 
and unneeded tax windfalls that he has distributed to the rich. 

But that would be the easy way. Rather than allow a single rain- 
drop to fall on the rich, Mr. Reagan chooses to further soak the 
poor, including the unemployed who are already struggling to 
keep their heads above water. 

THE AFL-CIO has pointed out two actions that would save the 
Treasury $10 billion in 1982 alone: First, eliminate the tax give- 
aways to oil companies and oil royalty owners; second, limit the 
individual income tax cut to $700 in 1982, cutting back some 
of the huge tax windfalls to the extremely wealthy. Every Amer- 
ican earning less than $42,500 a year would get his full tax cut; 
those earning more would get $700. 

Mr. Reagan is urging Congress to keep hands off the enorm- 
ous largess earmarked for energy suppliers and, instead, to impose 
new income taxes on unemployment benefits and to eliminate the 
modest tax credits that encourage home conservation of energy. 

At the same time, he has called for another round of budget 
cuts affecting domestic programs that have already been slashed 
to levels that are less than humane. 

In assuring the public that the proposed new cuts would reduce 
all federal programs other than defense and guaranteed programs 
such as social security by “only” an additional 12 percent, Mr. 
Reagan has understated his intentions. 

THE FACT IS that in many programs these 12-percent cuts 
would be taken from the base he set in his original budget pro- 
posals of last March, not from the spending base to which Con- 
gress ultimately agreed, with Mr. Reagan’s approval. 

Here are a few of the cuts that would go far beyond 12 percent: 

• Aid to low-income families to meet soaring energy costs 
actually would be cut 34 percent. 

• Education aid for the handicapped actually would be cut 
29 percent. 

• Guaranteed student loans actually would be cut 43 percent. 
• Federal highway programs would be cut 14 percent. 

• The Economic Development Assistance program for needed 
local public works projects actually would be cut 89 percent. 

• Education assistance to needy children actually would be 
cut 29 percent. 

• Amtrak actually would be cut 46 percent, and Conrail 
w'ould be cut 89 percent. 

Mr. Reagan’s political and social philosophies are perfectly 
consistent. Those who benefit the most from his policies are to 
reap the benefits even of his mistakes. Those who have been most 
injured by those policies have to pay for his blunders, as well. 



Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretarv-Treasurer 


Executive Council 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Alvin E. Heaps 
William H. Wynn Fred J. Kroll * 


John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


5 John H. Lyons 
= Frederick O’Neal 
s A1 H. Chesser 
E Albert Shanker 
E Edward T. Hanley 
= William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
E David J. Fitzmaurice 
E Wm.W.Winpisinger 
E John J. O’Donnell 
E Robert F. Goss 
E Joyce D. Miller 

S * Deceased. = 

= Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry 1 

S Assistant Editors: S 

1 Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec | 

§ David L. Perlman James M. Shevis i 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. e 

E Washington, D.C. 20006 = 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

s VoL XXVI Saturday, October 10, 1981 No. 41 s 

S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except E 

E for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
E ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

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Washington Today 

Absurd School Lunch Rules 
Product of Broader Absurdity 


By Gus Tyler 

R EAGAN’S TROUBLE with his ill-fated 
school lunch program is one of those little 
things that tells us much about many bigger things. 
The fuss offers an insight into a state of ‘mind that 
is so absurd it is no longer recognizable as absurd. 

The first absurdity was to cut the school lunch 
program from $4.5 to $3 billion in 1982 to save 
$1.5 billion. If Uncle Sam could not afford that 
billion or so, he could easily have picked up the 
necessary funds by denying tax cuts to million- 
aires who will be fattened by billions in 1982. But, 
in the topsy turvy world of Washington today, the 
richest were made richer at the expense of kids. 

THE SECOND absurdity was the set of regula- 
tions that came from the Dept, of Agriculture on 
just how to save the billion and a half dollars. The 
responsibility was placed with Agriculture be- 
cause the whole idea of a school lunch program 
did not originally spring from compassion for the 
kids but from a desire to provide a solid, steady, 
subsidized market for farm products. 

That, in itself, may seem like an absurdity to 
some. But what struck many as tragi-comic were 
the actual dietary “regs” put out by the depart- 
ment. 

The pundits had a field day with their verbal 
punts, kicking around an Uncle Sam turned Uncle 
Scrooge, turning our children into so many Oliver 
Twists begging for two more ounces of milk or a 
less transparent hamburger. The one “reg” that 
promised endless entertainment officially certified 
catsup and pickle relish to be true-blue vegetables. 

THE FIRST RESPONSE of various Adminis- 
tration spokesmen was to defend the “regs.” 
Despite all these cutbacks on nutrients, they said, 
there would be a “safety net” underneath the 
truly needy bellies. But the more they spoke, the 
more ridicule they inspired. 

Finally, the President himself stepped in. He 
was against these regulations. Indeed, he said, 
they were so obviously absurd that they must be 
an act of “bureaucratic sabotage.” 

How could anyone have put together such 
stupid regulations? Obviously there was someone 
in the Dept, of Agriculture who was out to em- 
barrass the Reagan regime and had carried 
through this reductio ad absurdum as an act of 
“sabotage.” 


Reagan’s comment, of course, prompted an 
immediate investigation. After which the Secre- - 
tary of Agriculture announced: - 

“It’s safe to say he (Reagan) no longer feels it 
was sabotage, and that it was a legitimate attempt 
to change the standards in response to budget 
needs.” 

The poor soul who wrote the regs! How was he 
to know what was absurd in the world of the 
absurd that is Washington today? 

Copyright 1981 , Gus Tyler Columns •, 

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Even the ^Trickle' 

Has Halted for Poor ^ 

The myth-makers are wrong: Poverty has not 
been abolished — and there are no signs that it 
will be in the near future. Growth in the private 
economy has largely ceased to ‘trickle down’ to 
the poor in the form of jobs, better income, ^ 

and a more rewarding and productive role in _ 

society. ... 

In the immediate future — as well as in the 
long run — our national priorities must take 
into account the millions of Americans who, ‘ 
through no fault of their own, cannot find jobs 
and who are in desperate need of basic social 
services. ^ 

Attempts to balance the budget — at the ex- 
pense of social programs — and efforts to de- 
liberately shift the economy into a recession — * 

with its concomitant hardships for those who 
are least able to withstand its effects — will not 
only fail to make significant inroads towards 
reducing inflation, but will aggravate our eco- 
nomic problems as well. 

Moreover, they may also make it even more 
difficult to balance the budget if the result is 
sharply increased unemployment. It is esti- ^ 
mated that each one percent increase in unem- 
ployment will cost the federal government, and - 
the nation as a whole, approximately $29 bU- ^ 

lion as a combination of lost revenue and in- 
creased transfer payments. Thus, such policies 
may bring the budget more rather than less out 
of balance. 

— From 'Poverty in the Eighties,' the final ^ 
report of the National Advisory Council on 
Economic Opportunity, September 198 L 

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AFX-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 


Page Fiv« 


^Rube Goldberg Contraption' 


Consumer ‘Choice’ Health Plan 
Would Lift Costs, Cut Benefits 


The following summarizes AFL-CIO testimony 
to a House Ways & Means subcommittee oppos- 
ing legislation that would limit tax exemptions 
for employer-paid health care plans. 

W E CANNOT ACCEPT the unfounded prem- 
ise that competition in the health care in- 
dustry can contain health care costs as proposed 
by three bills now before Congress. 

If Congress were to be misled into enacting 
such a fanciful scheme to deregulate the health 
care industry and to substitute competition and 
the marketplace as a cost containment strategy, 
the result would be exactly the opposite of that 
intended by the proponents. Health care costs 
would increase, not decrease. More, not less, 
regulation would be required to force the non- 
competitive health industry into a competitive 
mold. 

There is no magic solution to cost containment 
in the health care field other than placing con- 
trols and/or incentives on physicians. Fee sched- 
ules in lieu of open end reimbursement could 
control costs as could cost containment incen- 
tives such as capitation payments for physician 
services. 

ALL THREE BILLS would require employers 
to offer their employees a choice of more than 
one insurance or prepayment plan. They would 
require employers to contribute the same amount 
for each employee in the plan. The employer con- 
tribution would be subject to a ceiling. After the 
ceiling is exceeded, the employee would be sub- 
ject to income tax for the excess contributions. 

Employees who might desire a plan with com- 
prehensive benefits and no co-payments would 
have to pay extra out of gross or pretaxed in- 
come. Those who elected a plan with minimal 
benefits and with deductibles and co-payments (6r 
other limitations) costing less than the employer 
contribution would receive a tax-exempt refund 
for electing to be covered by the low-cost plan. 
In effect, this is a bribe for employees to dis- 
insure themselves and try to pay out-of-pocket 
for health services they may require if they be- 
come sick. 

CENTRAL TO the cost containment strategy 
of these bills is the notion that by establishing a 
ceiling on employer contributions for health in- 
surance, employees and other consumers of health 
services would be encouraged to shop around for 
the less expensive physicians, hospitals, insurers 
and health maintenance organizations and that in 
turn, through the invisible hand of competition, 
providers and insurers would be forced to reduce 
costs. 

Deepest in 25 Years 


It is, therefore, assumed by the proponents of 
these bills that the delivery of health services can 
be adapted or transformed into the competitive 
economic model now exceedingly rare today 
where the national marketplace is dominated by 
major corporations and even the world market 
is dominated by multinational corporations. The 
fact that the medical care market is dominated 
by physicians is ignored. Any rational cost con- 
tainment strategy must address itself to this issue. 
These bills do not. 

Even the most enthusiastic supporters of the 
competition theory know it is the doctor who con- 
trols medical care costs so they have concocted 
an indirect way of pressuring physicians to con- 
trol health care costs. 

IN ORDER TO appeal to the presumed “cost 
conscious” consumer, third parties would com- 
pete for customers on the basis of lower pre- 
mium costs. Insurers would, then, pressure physi- 
cians to control medical care costs who in turn 
would then be motivated to form health mainte- 
nance organizations or other forms of organized 
health care delivery systems. 

This Rube Goldberg contraption is supposed 
to in some way, somehow contain health care 
costs. 

One of the bills proposes to allow Medicare 
beneficiaries a choice of public or private insur- 
ance. It is alleged this will reduce medical care 
costs for the disabled and the elderly. The cost 
of administration of the Medicare program is only 
3.1 i>ercent of benefit payments. The cost of pri- 
vate insurance exceeds 12 percent. 

IT WOULD BE impossible, therefore, for pri- 
vate insurance to match the overhead cost of the 
public program. It can be suspected that the 
sponsors of the bill may have their doubts since 
the bill prohibits a Medicare beneficiary from 
returning to the public program once he or she 
opts out. Freedom of choice would be denied to 
Medicare beneficiaries if they made a mistake. 

All of the competition bills would levy a re- 
gressive tax on all employees having comprehen- 
sive health insurance coverage. For example, for 
an average family of four, one-half of the recently 
enacted tax cut would be taken away. Many poor 
families with below average incomes or large 
families could lose their entire cut. 

Unions have fought over the years for com- 
prehensive health insurance programs. This is 
what union members and all consumers want. The 
AFL-CIO is determined to preserve the gains that 
have been made through collective bargaining. 


High Mortgage Rates at Root 
Of Severe Slump in Housing 


nPHE HOUSING INDUSTRY is suffering the 
lowest production of new units since the post- 
war economic dislocation period 25 years ago, 
AFL-CIO housing expert Henry Schechter, said 
on Labor News Conference. 

The problem is not lack of demand for housing 
units, Schechter said. He pointed out that fewer 
than half the units needed just to keep pace with 
demand will actually be built this year. Tlie sever- 
ity of the short supply of housing has been on the 
rise over the last two years, he said, and is re- 
sulting in a substantial reduction of living stan- 
dards. 

“More than 1.6 million American families are 
forced to live doubled up — two families living 
together in a single unit,” Schechter pointed out. 
He said the lag in production — though not as 
severe as it is this year — stretches back to the 
Seventies, when some 2.5 million units were add- 
ed “by making two-family homes out of one- 
family homes,” many built in attics and base- 
ments. 

Schechter said the Administration’s tight-money 
and high-interest rate policies have forced almost 
everyone “except the very well-to-do, most of 
whom are already well-housed,” out of the hous- 
ing market. 


“Similarly,” he said, “there will be practically 
no multi-family rental housing construction . . . 
except for a few luxury apartment projects and 
some subsidized housing still in the pipeline,” 
until the Administration and the Federal Reserve 
Board ease their policies, which are the “central 
factor” in the recession that grips the housing and 
construction industries. 

Schechter noted that nearly 900,000 construc- 
tion workers are now jobless and the direct impact 
of that unemployment is probably double, be- 
cause for every job in housing construction there 
is a non-construction job to supply materials. 

HE SAID THE so-called all-savers certificate 
scheme will not prove to be much help to the 
housing industry. While it will probably draw a 
lot of new money into savings and loans and 
other institutions, it is only a “one-shot, one-year 
deal,” and lenders “will be very wary of putting 
one-year money” into long-term housing mort- 
gages, he predicted. 

Schechter renewed the call for the kind of 
credit controls used for a short period last year, 
which quickly brought down both prime and 
mortgage interest rates and boosted both the hous- 
ing industry and the overall economy. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T here is a certain knack in Congress for attaching 
worthy-sounding labels to bills to make them more palatable 
and even enticing to legislators. 

Who could be against “consumer choice” health plans? What 
sounds more American? Or call them “competition” health plans. 
What could be more efficient? 

There are some 50 million Americans lacking adequate health 
coverage. Entire areas are underserved, such as Appalachia, the 
rural South and the ghettos. 

Instead of moving toward more universal coverage and effective 
cost control, perhaps along the lines of the successful program in 
Canada, Congress is threatening to go in the opposite direction. 

A House Ways & Means panel has taken up several so-called 
competition plans to lower costs through price competition, and 
union experts do not like what they see. 

“These are not health insurance programs; they are ‘have less’ 
plans,” declared Douglas Fraser, president of the United Auto 
Workers and head of the Committee for National Health Insurance. 

“WORKERS WOULD have increased costs and union-nego- 
tiated contracts would be undermined,” Fraser said. He also said 
attempts by employers to introduce co-insurance and deductibles, 
which the health care competition bills seek to do, have caused 
strikes in the auto and mining industries. 

Three competition health insurance proposals are before Con- 
gress in bills introduced by Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), 
Sen. David F. Durenberger (R-Minn.) and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch 
(R-Utah). The Administration also is reported to be considering 
its own health care reform legislative proposal based on the com- 
petition idea, but it won’t be introduced until later in the year. 

All three bills use a similar approach. Employers would be re- 
quired to offer a choice of more than one insurance or pre-payment 
plan to employees, usually a high, medium and low-cost plan. Em- 
ployers, who may now deduct their contributions to employee 
health insurance from business income taxes, would be allowed 
to deduct only a certain maximum premium payment. 

The economic theory behind the bills is that employees would 
be encouraged to select lower-coverage, lower-cost health insur- 
ance plans, and insurance companies would be encouraged to 
compete by offering low-cost plans. This competition among insur- 
ance companies theoretically would lower health care costs. 

But that’s not how it would work in reality, in labor’s view. 

“In effect, this is a bribe for employees to disinsure themselves 
and try to pay out-of-pocket for health services they may require 
if they become sick,” AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert Seid- 
man told the House panel. 

The causes of rising costs in the health care industry are the 
fee-for-service system of reimbursing physicians and cost-plus 
reimbursement of hospitals, it was pointed out. 

THE FIRST encourages physicians to order unnecessary visits 
or other treatment to increase their income. The second encourages 
hospitals to compete for doctors, and indirectly for patients, by 
investing in high-cost technological equipment, which doctors pre- 
fer, without regard for cost or cost-effectiveness. 

Other criticisms leveled at the competition heatlh care proposals 
include these points: 

• Lower-cost health insurance would mean fewer benefits and 
higher deductibles. Total health care costs would not be lowered 
by higher deductibles. Consumers would merely be absorbing high 
costs through out-of-pocket payments. 

• Although the bills purport to reduce regulation, they merely 
introduce different, not less, regulation into the industry. 

• The bills assume that consumers with health insurance that 
costs them little tend to go to doctors more frequently, thus driving 
up health care costs. Only 16 percent of doctors’ office visits are 
initiated by patients, Seidman pointed out. 



TIGHT MONEY and high interest rates are stifling housing 
production and fueling high unemployment in construction 
and allied supply industries, AFL-CIO housing expert Henry 
Schechter, center, said on Labor News Conference. Schechter 
was questioned by Robert Cooney, left, of Press Associates, 
Inc., and Dale McFeatters of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 



Page Six 


AFX-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C, 


OCTOBER io, 1981 


Panel Warns Reagan Cuts Add to Plight of Poor 


Administration cuts in job training, 
social services and anti-poverty programs 
* will only add to the despair of disadvan- 
taged Americans and “could very well 
shatter the social equilibrium of our 
nation,” a government advisory panel 
warned in its final report on poverty in 
the United States. 

“Attempts to balance the budget — at 
the expense of social programs-r—and ef- 
forts to deliberately shift the economy 
into a recession — with its concommitant 
hardships for those who are least able 
to withstand its effects — ^will not only fail 
to make significant inroads toward re- 
ducing inflation, but will aggravate our 
economic problems as well,” the National 
Advisory Council on Economic Opportu- 
nity added in its report, “The American 
Promise: Equal Justice and Economic 
Opportunity.” 

THE “TRICKLE-DOWN” economic 
policies of the Reagan Administration will 
not work, the council warned, and “only 
those comprehensive and national eco- 
nomic revitalization efforts targeted spe- 
cifically toward disadvantaged communi- 
ties and the jobless” will be effectively 
combat poverty in the 1980s. 

Arthur I. Blaustein, who chaired the 
panel, accused the Administration of sepa- 
rating economic theory from social policy 
and pursuing the former at the expense of 
the latter.” He warned that there will be 
a price to pay for the cuts in human 
and social services. 

“That price is that these cutbacks will 
not reduce crime; they will increase it. 
They will not reduce the use of drugs; 
they will increase it. They will not reduce 


alcoholism; they will increase it. They will 
not promote better family life; they will 
destabilize it. They will not increase re- 
spect for the law; they will weaken it,” 
said Blaustein. He is director of the 
National Economic Development & Law 
Center, which provides assistance to legal 
service attorneys and community orga- 
nizations. 

THE NATIONAL Advisory Council on 
Economic Opportunity, which itself was 
abolished when the Administration’s $35 
billion cuts in social and other federal 
spending took effect Oct. 1, was created 
in 1967 as part of President Johnson’s 
“war on poverty.” Its presidentially ap- 
pointed members included UAW Vice 
President Irving Bluestone, who has since 
retired. 

Chairman Blaustein warned that the 
“radical changes” effected by the Reagan 
budget reductions have not yet sunk in on 
the national consciousness, “but the day 
of reckoning will come shortly.” Oct. 1 
“will be remembered as a day of infamy, 
for it will mark the worst massacre of 
social and human-service programs in 
American history,” he said. 

Blaustein said his remarks and the re- 
port of the committee were not influenced 
by partisan considerations or the council’s 
administrative death. “These conclusions 
were reached long before there was an 
announcement of phaseout for the coun- 
cil,” he said. 

Instead of cutting programs for the 
poor, the council said, the President and 
Congress should extend the 1 964 Eco- 
nomic Opportunity Act, which established 
the 15-member panel. 



LEGISLATION IS SIGNED by California Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr., permit- 
ting local government bodies to negotiate agency shop agreements with public 
employee unions. Present for the signing ceremony were Assemblyman Curtis R. 
Tucker, seated left, a chief sponsor of the bill; John F. Henning, executive 
secretary-treasurer of the California AFL-CIO, and Tim Twomey, vice president 
of the Service Employees; standing, Ron Woods of the State Council of Operating 
Engineers, left, and James S. Lee, president of the State Building & Construction 
Trades Council. 


New California Law Allows 
Local Agency Shop Pacts 


Sacramento, Calif. — Labor-backed leg- 
islation authorizing all local government 
bodies to negotiate agency shop contracts 
with public employee unions was signed 
into law by Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. 

The measure, which takes effect next 
Jan. 1, permits bargainings for contract 
language to require city, county and dis- 
trict public employees to join the union 
that represents them or pay a service fee 
covering the cost of representation. State 
employees are not covered by the law. 

PASSAGE OF the agency shop bill 
culminated a 1 0-year campaign in the state 
legislature by the California AFL-CIO. 
Final approval came on the last day of the 
1981 session with an Assembly vote of 
43 to 32. The Senate had passed the mea- 
sure earlier by a vote of 21 to 16 after 
rejecting a series of crippling amendments. 

John F. Henning, executive secretary- 
treasurer of the State AFL-CIO, hailed 
passage of the bill “because it helps to 
strengthen public employee unions in Cali- 


fornia at a time when the national admin- 
istration has launched the most massive 
assault on the rights of workers — both 
public and private — in the past half-cen- 
tury.” 

At a bill-signing ceremony. Brown said 
the legislation “recognizes the basic service 
which unions perform for their members.” 
He noted that all employees would now 
pay a fair share toward the cost of union 
contract bargaining and union protection. 

THE MEAlSURE exempts management, 
supervisory and confidential employees 
from the agency shop provision. It also 
exempts workers who are members of 
religious groups which historically have 
objected to the support of employee orga- 
nizations. For those workers, the law 
requires they pay an equal sum to non- 
religicus, non-labor charitable organiza- 
tions. 

Several local unions already have con- 
tracts providing for the agency shop pend- 
ing the effective date of the new law. 


The council attacked what it called 
the “myth” that poverty has been abol- 
ished in the United States, and disputed the 
“mistaken” view of some economists that 
the reduction in the poverty population 
had been a result of growth in the private 
sector. Despite significant gains in the bat- 
tle against poverty, there are still 25 mil- 
lion poor Americans and another 30 mil- 
lion near poor, “so that, in effect, one- 
third of our citizens are materially de- 
prived,” the panel observed. 

“The myth-makers are wrong: Poverty 
has not been abolished — and there are no 
signs that it will be in the near future. 
It is not simply that some groups have 
not done as well as others, or that we 
have not gone far enough. The problem 
is deeper,” the council said in its report. 

“Growth in the private economy has 
largely ceased to ‘trickle down’ to the poor 
in the form of jobs, better income, and a 
more rewarding and productive role in 
society. This is increasingly true, even in 
the South and rural areas where in ear- 
lier years economic development had the 
strongest impact on poverty rates.” 

THE STUBBORN persistence of pov- 
erty in the face of economic growth 
results in part from changing nature of 
the poverty population, the council noted. 
Unbalanced national growth in the inner 
cities in the past decade has spawned a 
growing number of what it called the 
“new” poor, heavily made up of female 
householders and their children, and even 
more disproportionately minority than in 
the past. 

Because few of these people can be 
absorbed into the private economy with- 


out special assistance and support, the 
council said, the “massive suffering” that 
the Reagan budget cuts will bring “cannot 
be balanced by any credible long-range 
benefits from the Administration’s pro- 
gram — even under the most optimistic 
assumptions. Any economic “renewal” 
that might take place from Administra- 
tion policies would occur at the expense 
of “stable, rewarding family lives and 
genuine work opportunities for the poor 
and their children,” it declared. 

Blaustein added that “we are watching 
a great tragedy unfurl before us. The 
steady drumbeat of rhetoric emanating 
from Administration officials and shrewdly 
orchestrated by the White House is in- 
tended to create, and has heretofore suc- 
ceeded in creating, a counter-reality and 
new myths with respect to social policy. 

“FOR EXAMPLE, by continuously re- 
ferring to economic opportunity and equal 
justice programs as ‘welfare’ programs, the 
Administration has misled the American 
public. These programs are, in fact, de- 
signed to achieve the opposite, to create 
jobs and economic opportunities and to 
encourage people who are dependent upon 
welfare to become productive citizens and 
taxpayers. 

“By seeking to eliminate these programs 
and substituting its own policies, the Ad- 
ministration will deny upward mobility 
to millions on welfare and will force many 
of the working poor into welfare depen- 
dency. By shifting program authority from 
the federal government to the states 
through block grants, the Administration 
has created a bureaucratic nightmare that 
will result in government by provisional 
catastrophe.” 


‘Competition’ Health Schemes 
Would Boost Patient Costs 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tion would result and force a reduction 
in costs. 

The trouble is that this theory will not 
work, Seidman told the panel, because it is 
the doctor, not the patient, who dominates 
the demand for health services. 

“PHYSICIANS ‘control 70 to 75 percent 
of all health care expenditures,” he pointed 
out. “Patients cannot just check into a 
hospital; they have to be admitted by their 
doctor. Patients do not order lab tests; 
doctors do.” 

A Congressional Budget Office report 
indicated that the impact on overall costs 
of the “competition” plan would be neg- 
ligible, possibly lowering costs 1 to 2 per- 
cent by 1988. 

But Seidman warned that all three bills 
would levy a regressive tax on workers 
who carry comprehensive health insurance. 

“Unions have fought over the years for 
comprehensive health insurance programs,” 
he stressed. “The AFL-CIO is determined 
to preserve the gains that have been made 
through collective bargaining.” 

“WE ARE confident that Congress will 
not vote to increase taxes on the working 
population nor to vote to disinsure most 
Americans,” he said. 

Auto Workers President Douglas A. 
Fraser, chairman of the Committee for 
National Health Insurance, reinforced that 
point in his testimony. He stressed that 
the so-called “competition and consumer 
choice” legislation would not only fail to 
achieve intended goals, but would reverse 
years of progress in negotiated health care 
insurance programs. 

“Perhaps the least understood aspect of 
these plans,” Fraser said, “is that they are 
revenue-raising measures.” 

WHILE COSTS of health care programs 
would increase in total, coupled with high- 
er out-of-pocket payments for consumers 
because of reduced coverage, the govern- 
ment would reap a huge windfall in new 
tax collections, Fraser warned. He cited 
government estimates that the resultant 
new tax take would amount to $4.1 bil- 
lion in the first year of operation and rise 
to $9.4 billion by 1986. 

Cathy Schoen, special assistant to the 


president of the Service Employees, told 
the panel that the measures before Con- 
gress would impose an especially heavy 
burden on low-wage workers. 

“Many of our members in hospitals and 
nursing homes still cannot afford to pay 
for the care they deliver each day,” Schoen 
stressed. 

“The price we pay each year for pro- 
tection against the cost of a possible illness 
and for access to decent care long ago 
impelled us to work for enactment of 
national health care legislation,” she testi- 
fied. 

1980 Pay Boosts 
Average 14% for 
Top Executives 

The pay of top corporate executives 
increased, an average 14 percent during 
1980, a private survey conducted for the 
Financial Executives Institute revealed. 

Typically, executive pay increases are 
about 25 percent above the annual infla- 
tion rate but last year, with some industry 
exceptions, the average increase was essen- 
tially only equal to the rate, the institute 
observed. 

The survey reviewed the salary and 
bonus pay levels of jobs in the executive 
and financial departments of 1,425 com- 
panies. By industry, the survey found the 
highest average total compensation — about 
$160,000 — ^was paid to top executives in 
the mining, chemical, and petroleum indus- 
tries. At the other end of the scale, the 
commercial banking industry paid its top 
executives the least, but still a hefty aver- 
age of $84,500. 

Increases ranged from a high of 23 
percent in mining and 18 percent in busi- 
ness services, food products, and instru- 
ments to a low of 9 percent in wholesale 
trade and 3 percent in transportation 
equipment. 

Executives in the Northeast earned the 
most, with average total compensation of 
$128,600, while executives with the lowest 
average pay, $94,900, lived in the South- 
west. 


■ ■■ ■ 

Voting Rights 
Extension Bill 
Sent to Senate 

(Continued from Page 1) 

sures, including one allowing jurisdictions 
for the first time to end their coverage 
under the law. 

This “bail-out” opportunity would come 
into play beginning in August 1984, and 
would allow those jurisdictions with dem- 
onstrably good records of non-discrimina- 
tion to escape coverage under the Voting 
Rights Act if they can show that for the 
10 years prior to 1984: 

‘ • They used no test or device designed 
to deny or limit an individual’s right to 
vote because of race, color, or language. 

• No federal court has found that they 
denied or abridged a person’s voting rights. 

• It was not necessary to send federal 
examiners into the jurisdiction to enforce 
election laws. 

• They engaged in constructive efforts 
to eliminate intimidation and harassment 
of groups whose voting rights are pro- 
tected under the law and to expand op- 
portunities for registration and voting by 
minorities. 

The nine states covered by the Voting 
Rights Act are Alabama, Georgia, Louisi- 
ana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, 
Alaska, Texas and Arizona. The areas in 
1 3 other states still covered by the law are 
generally characterized by low voter par- 
ticipation by blacks and other minorities 
despite a high concentration of those 
groups within the jurisdictions. 

PRESIDENT REAGAN has not taken 
a firm stand on the legislation, although he 
told a news conference last week that he 
was “wholeheartedly in favor, let’s say in 
principle, of the Voting Rights Act.” 

Passage of the measure to extend the 
law’s provisions is a high-priority objective 
of the AFL-CIO and civil rights groups. 

House Spurns 
Reagan ^s Plea 
For More Cuts 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

ciliation measure. It cut $43.7 million 
from the Work Incentive (WIN) program 
and $30.2 million from agency salaries 
and expenses. 

The bill, which is second in size only 
to that of the defense appropriations bill, 
exceeds Reagan’s request of last March by 
about $796 million, but is $3.9 billion 
more than the President sought in his 
Sept. 24 call for more cuts in these areas. 

During debate on the measure, there 
was sp>eculation that Reagan might veto 
the bill if it clears Congress as passed by 
the House. “It’s excessive, and the Presi- 
dent will surely consider it unacceptable,” 
Republican leader Robert H. Michel (R- 
111.) said. 

BUT WHILE GOP leaders appear to 
have the votes to sustain a veto, the heavy 
majority against recommittal shows wide- 
spread opposition to the President’s bid 
for additional cuts. 

Remaining in the bill is $400 million 
for youth employment and training under 
Title IVA of the Comprehensive Employ- 
ment & Training Act, which the Adminis- 
tration did not request. The House in- 
serted the funds after the Appropriations 
Committee recommended the money to 
ease the “unacceptably high” jobless rate 
among young people. The bill also in- 
cludes $766 million for summer youth 
jobs, and $1.4 billion for continuation of 
Title IIB and IIC employment and training 
programs under CETA. 

Gregg’s proposal to reduce OSHA’s 
coverage originally sought exemption from 
the law of businesses employing fewer 
than 50* workers. Had the House gone 
along, two-thirds of all the nation’s firms 
would have been exempt from periodic 
safety inspections. The current exemption 
applies to firms with 10 or fewer em- 
ployees — 1.6 million small businesses. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 


Page Seren 



CIVIL RIGHTS COMMITTEE of the AFL-CIO reviews Civil Rights’ current and future programs. The meeting 
federation’s activities at its semi-annual meeting at federation focused on action to head of! Reagan Administration plans to 
headquarters. The committee, chaired by Actors & Artistes weaken federal contract compliance regulations that now 
President Frederick O’Neal, center, discussed the Dept, of open job opportunities to women and minorities. 


Transit Union Convention 
Elects Rowland President 


^Trickle-Down ’ 
Policies Hit at 
Vermont Parley 

Bennington, Vt. — ^The trickle-down eco- 
nomic policies the Reagan Administration 
is pursuing are clearly against the best 
interests of the nation’s workers and the 
needy, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas Thomas R. 
Donahue told the 25th anniversary conven- 
tion of the Vermont State Labor Council. 

Rather than making government respon- 
sive to the needs of its citizens, Donahue 
observed, the Administration is headed in 
the opposite direction. 

“IT IS DEVOTED instead to making 
government less humane, giving an in- 
ordinate share of the nation’s wealth to 
the rich and returning unrestricted power 
to the corporations,” he declared. “That’s 
what this Administration stands for, and 
that’s why we oppose it.” 

Donahue expressed concern that Presi- 
dent Reagan’s actions could polarize the 
country — causing serious division in so- 
ciety. 

“We have to hope that we can prevent 
that polarization from becoming too ex- 
treme,” he said, “that we can continue to 
work in, and for, an America that doesn’t 
perceive itself as a society rigidly divided 
by class, and with those classes at war 
with one another.” 

FOR THE PAST 100 years, the labor 
movement has sought to make America a 
better place for all its people, and it 
continues to play that role today, Donahue 
stressed. 

In convention action, the 85 delegates 
voted a 5-cent increase in the per capita 
tax, raising monthly payments to 30 cents. 

President Robert E. Clark, who has 
headed the State AFL-CIO since 1975, was 
re-elected to a new two-year term. Sec.- 
Treas. Carla Thomas and Executive Vice 
President Maurice Fortier were elected 
to their first full two-year terms. Delegates 
also elected 19 vice presidents. 

FOCUSING ON legislative issues, the 
convention called for closing loopholes in 
the state’s tax structure to insure that oil 
companies pay full taxes on profits, lifting 
limitations on workers’ compensation ben- 
efits for permanent disability and death, 
and opposing attempts to set fixed pay- 
ments on unemployment compensation 
rather than gearing benefits to two-thirds 
of the average state wage. 

Speakers at the three-day convention in 
addition to Donahue included Vermont’s 
congressional delegation — Senators Robert 
T. Stafford (R) and Patrick J. Leahy (D), 
and Rep. James M. Jeffords (R). 

Hawaii AFL-CIO Names 
Epstein to Executive Post 

Honolulu — Henry B. Epstein has been 
appointed executive secretary-treasurer of 
the Hawaii AFL-CIO, President Walter 
H. Kupau of the State federation an- 
nounced. 

Epstein, formerly a staff representative 
of the State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees and AFSCME Local 646, fills a 
position with the state body that has been 
vacant since Phil Mayer resigned last De- 
cember. 


Hollywood, Fla. — Delegates to the 
Amalgamated Transit Union’s 46th bien- 
nial convention here elected John W. Row- 
land as the union’s new international pres- 
ident. Rowland defeated the incumbent, 
Dan V. Maroney, who had served in the 
position since 1973. 

Rowland, 60, had served since 1976 as 
the union’s executive vice president. For 
two years before that he was secretary- 
treasurer. His election as president marks 
the first time in the 89-year history of the 
union that one person has held all three 
top international offices. 

ROWLAND BECAME a vice president 
of the ATU in 1964, after holding all 
elected positions in his home local in St. 
Louis. 

James LaSala, a vice president since 
1969, was elected executive vice president 
and Sec.-Treas. Raymond C. Wallace was 
re-elected, both by acclamation. 

In other actions, the delegates adopted 
a resolution decrying the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s proposed phasing out of federal 
transit operating subsities over the next 
three years. The subsidies curently account 
for about 1 3 percent of public transit 
revenues. 

“THE ELIMINATION of operating 
subsidies will result in a lessening of tran- 
sit services and/or steep increases in fares, 
either or both of which will wipe out the 
significant progress mass transit has made 
in this country in the past decade,” the 
resolution said. “Rather than ignore mass 
transit in the pursuit of the nation’s en- 
ergy conservation, economic and jobs 
goals, the Administration and Congress 
should actively promote and support it.” 

The convention also spoke out strongly 
against deregulation of the intercity bus 
industry, declaring that such a move would 
ignore the service needs of the general 
public, particularly those in smaller com- 
munities. 

In other resolutions, the union renewed 


is call for implementation of no-fare or 
low-fare transit on a nationwide basis to 
increase the use of mass transit and at the 
same time help in the nation’s energy con- 
servation fight, opposed federal policing 
of pickets under the Hobbs Act, opposed 
decontrol of natural gas prices, endorsed 
extension of the Voting Rights Act, called 
for reduction in interest rates and a more 
equitable tax program, and opposed any 
further attempts by the Administration to 
tamper with the social security system. 

Jobless Periods 
Hit 21.4 Million 
Persons in 1980 

About 21.4 million workers 16 years 
and older were unemployed at some time 
during 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics reported. This is nearly 3 million more 
than 1979 and is the largest annual in- 
crease since 1974. 

Persons who encountered some unem- 
ployment in 1980 represented 18.1 per- 
cent of all persons 1 6 years and older who 
worked or looked for work during the 
year. This prop>ortion was significantly 
higher than the 15.8 percent in 1979 but 
still below the 20.2 percent recorded in 
1975. 

Of the 21.4 million affected work- 
ers, 18.8 million held at least one job 
during the year, while the remaining 2.6 
million never worked although they made 
efforts to find work. 

Among the workers with some unem- 
ployment, the proportion with two or 
more spells of joblessness was the same 
in both years — 32 percent. However, the 
length of total unemployment did increase 
in 1980. In 1979, 33 percent of the unem- 
ployed looked for work 1 5 weeks or more. 
In 1980, that proportion increased to 41 
percent. 



NEW PRESIDENT of the Amalgamated Transit Union John W. Rowland, cen- 
ter, clasps hands with other members of the union’s top leadership, Raymond C. 
Wallace, left, secretary-treasurer, and James LaSala, executive vice president. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 10, 1981 


Jobless Rate 
Shoots up to 
7.5 Percent 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

18 and 19 percent, house sales have 
screeched to a halt and sent the home- 
building industry into a tailspin. 

THE SEPTEMBER rise in the jobless 
rate marked the second successive increase 
after three months of decline last summer. 
From 7 percent in July, the low for the 
year, the rate jumped to 7.2 percent in 
August before moving up to 7.5 percent 
last month. 

“It’s difficult to recall a quarter of the 
year in which we’ve had a rise of half a 
percentage point in the unemployment 
rate,” said Rep. Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.), 
chairman of the Joint Economic Commit- 
tee. He termed the September figures 
“very disturbing.” 

Of special concern to Reuss and other 
economists is the continuing high rate of 
unemployment among blacks and other 
minorities. Their rate taken together inched 
up over the month to 15.1 percent from 
a previous record high of 15 percent in 
August, while the jobless rate for whites 
rose from 6.1 to 6.5 percent. Last month’s 
16.3 percent rate for blacks alone com- 
pared with 16.2 percent in August. 

BLACK JOBLESSNESS has failed to 
show any improvement over the past year. 
Commissioner Norwood observed. Even 
though the jobless rate for black teenagers 
fell back to 37.5 percent in September 
after “an abnormally sharp” rise to 45.7 
percent the month before, the rate for 
black teens remains much higher than for 
any other worker group, she noted. 

Joblessness among white teens last 
month was 17 percent, up 1.4 percentage 
points from the August level. Overall, teen- 
age unemployment rose five-tenths of 1 
percent during the month to 19.3 percent. 

Unemployment rates for adult men and 
women, at 6.2 and 6.8 percent, respective- 
ly, rose three-tenths of 1 percent each in 
September. The jobless rate for full-time 
workers jumped five-tenths of 1 percent to 
7.2 percent while that of Hispanic workers 
declined four-tenths of 1 percent to 9.3 
percent. 

The number of nonfarm payroll jobs, 
at 91.9 million in September, remained 
about unchanged for the second month in 
a row. The only major over-the-month 
movements were a decline of about 
150,000 in state and local government 
employment and an increase of 84,000 in 
service jobs. 

BLS SAID the drop in state and local 
government employment occurred primari- 
ly in local school systems, which hired 
fewer teachers and other personnel in 
September than they usually do. In the 
past year, state and local government jobs 
have declined by 400,000, a substantial 
shift from the previous pattern of continu- 
ing increases. 

The average workweek of nonfarm pay- 
roll workers declined by three-tenths of an 
hour to 34.9 hours in September. In man- 
ufacturing, the workweek fell nine-tenths 
of an hour to 39.1 hours and average fac- 
tory overtime dropped to 2.6 hours from 
three. These sharp drops in hours are 
generally harbingers of future layoffs. 


18/01/01 



PATCO Aid 

Fund Passes 
Half-MiUion 


Another Turn of the Screw 



fMi 


Labor Cites Anti-Unionism 
Of Reagan ’s NLRB Choice 


Anyone who doesn’t accept the central 
thrust of basic national labor policy — that 
the right of workers to form and join 
unions is proper and contributes to indus- 
trial peace and justice — ought not to head 
the agency charged with administering that 
policy, the AFL-CIO said in pressing its 
opposition to President Reagan’s nomina- 
tion of John R. Van de Water as chair- 
man of the National Labor Relations 
Board. 

Expanding on his earlier testimony 
against the Van de Water nomination, 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
said in a letter to Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, 
chairman of the Senate Labor & Human 
Resources Committee: 

“WE OPPOSE Mr. Van de Water to be 
NLRB chairman because his management 
consultant activities, as we understand 
them, show him to be an active anti-union 
partisan, opposed to the exercise by em- 
ployees of their right to choose union rep- 
resentation, and opposed to people’s efforts 
to gain access to collective bargaining. 

“We do not believe that union organiz- 
ers or management opposers of organiza- 
tion should serve on the NLRB.” 

Donahue submitted materials with his 
letter showing that the 64-year-old Cali- 
fornia attorney* has “demonstrated an 
anti-union animus” through much of his 
career. 

In an article titled “How to Deal with 
the Union,” published in the early 1970s, 
Van de Water repeatedly “stresses that 
union organization is an evil which man- 
agement should fight and that where or- 
ganization has already occurred it can 
and should be undone,” Donahue ob- 
served. 


ers union that started the picketing was 
there,” Van de Water said. “We got both 
of them involved in this particular cam- 
paign, had an election held, and the vote 
was only 17 percent of Disney employees 
for the two unions combined.” 

IN THE SAME article. Van de Water 
describes how he guided a division of Gen- 
eral Dynamics to declare an impasse in 
bargaining, put in a wage increase uni- 
laterally, bring the 4,500 workers together 
in groups of 35 for captive audience meet- 
ings and win a decertification vote in a 
relatively short time. 

The key to the victory. Van de Water 
wrote, was the patriotic message of the 
captive audience meetings. “This union is 
building a class war with its attacks on 
management. We build Atlas missiles to 
protect our nation against the nations 
that represent the class war ideology 
abroad. And here we have class war fo- 
mented right here.” With that completed, 
Van de Water reported, the workers voted 
70 percent for decertification. 

Donahue urged the committee to look 
into those cases to determine whether 
Van de Water was engaged in “persuader 
activities.” Advising employers during a 
campaign would be a persuader activity, 
and would have to be reported under the 
Landrum-Griffin Act. 


The AFL-CIO fund to help striking 
members of the Professional Air Traffic 
Controllers Organization and their families 
meet severe financial problems pushed past 
the half-million-dollar mark as contribu- 
tions from unions and individuals poured 
in from all over the country. 

As of Oct. 6, the PATCO, Family Fund 
had received $521,968, said Director 
Walter G. Davis of the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Community Services, which oversees dis- 
bursement of the funds. Msgr. George G. 
Higgins of Catholic University is trustee 
of the fund, which was created in August 
following the mass firing of PATCO mem- 
bers by the Reagan Administration. 

“WE HA VENT turned anybody down,” 
Davis said. So far, more than 300 claims 
have been approved and checks totaling 
over $150,000 mailed out. Hundreds of 
other applications for aid are being 
handled by the department’s staff; 

Davis said requests for assistance of one 
kind or another have been averaging about 
1 00 a day. Because of the heavy response, 
amounts of assistance have been limited 
to $450 per family. 

In a letter to AFL-CIO unions and their 
members, PATCO President Robert E. 
Poli thanked all for their help, and said: 
“You have given us the added strength 
to withstand the oppressive actions and 
policies laid down by the Reagan Admin- 
istration. We will never forget your sup- 
port, and with your continued assistance 
we will win.” 

RECENT LARGE contributors to the 
fund include the Machinists, $28,000; New 
York Local 3 of the International Brother- 
hood of Electrical Workers, $25,000; 
Newspaper ^Guild, $25,000; Minnesota 
AFL-CIO, $14,000; Washington State 
AFL-CIO, $7,500; Farm Workers, $5,000, 
and the Railway Signalmen, $2,500. 

Earlier, contributions of $100,000 each 
were made by the Steelworkers, Commu- 
nications Workers, and the Auto Workers. 

By and large, however, average dona- 
tions have been smaller and, as Davis 
pointed out, none is too small. One check 
for $2 that came in last month was par- 
ticularly poignant. “I’m an unemployed 
student,” wrote Julie Cuellar of El Toro, 
Calif. “Sorry that all I can- afford is $2. 
I’m with you all the way.” 

In determining eligibility for aid, con- 
sideration is given to the need for funds 
to avoid home foreclosure or eviction, 
and for medical emergencies, clothing, fuel 
and food. 

Checks for the fund should be made 
payable to the PATCO Family Fund and 
mailed to AFL-CIO national headquarters, 
8 15-1 6th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 
20006. 


Illlllllllllllllillllliilllilllllllilllllillililllllllllllllllilllililllllllllilllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllilllllilllillliilllllllllliillllllllllllll 

Air Controllers Say Thanks 
For Morale Financial Aid 


Donahue also submitted a list compiled 
by the AFL-CIO’s Los Angeles-Orange 
County Organizing Committee for 1964-72 
showing that the nominee’s management 
consulting firm. Van de Water Associates, 
served in at least 18 campaigns to defeat 
efforts of workers to organize unions. 

IN “HOW TO DEAL with the Union,” 
which constituted excerpts Van de Water 
had given at a seminar, the Californian 
admitted that he had been personally in- 
volved in 1 30 employer campaigns to 
block organizing efforts, and boasted that 
unions lost the election in 125 of those. 

In one of those cases. Van de Water 
described how he defeated an organizing 
campaign at Disneyland by calling the 
Teamsters and asking them to get on the 
ballot. 

“They went in and had a fight trying to 
organize their people — ^who happened to 
be the office workers — and the office work- 


The following letter is addressed to AFL-CIO unions and their members: 

Dear Brothers and Sisters: 

On behalf of the striking controllers in this country, I v^ish to extend our 
deepest gratitude for the support (both moral and financial) received from 
AFL-CIO unions and their members. 

Every member of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization has 
been touched in some way by the unity and generosity of the AFL-CIO — 
whether it be picketing, letters to the editors of major newspapers, newspaper 
adverisements educating the public as to what our goals are, or financial dona- 
tions to assist our members and their families. Solidarity is the theme of the 
labor movement in this country, and you have proven that this is not just a 
mere word — it is a feeling of brotherhood that comes from the heart. 

You have given us the added strength to withstand the oppressive actions 
and policies laid down by the Reagan Administration. 

We will never forget your support, and with your continued assistance we 
will win. 

Fraternally, 

Robert E. Poli, President 

Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization 



Social Security Floor Restored 



Senate Bill 
Trades Off 
Other Cuts 

The Senate passed up a chance to ap- 
prove full restoration of the minimum 
social security benefit and adopted instead 
its own plan for a partial restoration of 
the pension floor financed by benefit cut- 
backs in other areas. 

Substituting a bill drawn up by its Fi- 
nance Committee for the full restoration 
bill adopted overwhelmingly by the House, 
the Senate voted unanimously to revive 
the $122 minimum monthly retirement 
benefit for most present recipients — but 
not for workers living overseas or receiv- 
ing more than $300 a month in a govern- 
ment pension. 


BANNER OF SOLIDARITY, Poland’s free trade-union report of his trip to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
federation, was brought back from Gdansk by Msgr. George Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. The flag bears the sig- 
G. Higgins as a gift to the federation. Higgins attended Soli- nature of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. The Polish gov- 
darity’s first national congress there last month. He gave a ernment denied Kirkland a visa to attend the conference. 


THESE PLUS other cutbacks would 
mean that for the first time many cur- 
rently retired persons would actually have 
their social security benefits reduced. And 
no future retirees would be eligible for the 
minimum benefit under the Senate plan. 



Renews Call for National Board 


Kirkland Presses Plan 
To Revitalize Industry 


The AFL-CIO called for a “new part- 
nership” with business and government to 
revitalize the nation’s economy through a 
program of reindustrialization of the coun- 
try’s ailing industries and decaying com- 
munities. 

In remarks prepared for a conference 
on setting national priorities, Federation 
President Lane Kirkland renewed labor’s 
proposal for creation of a tripartite 
National Reindustrialization Board that 
“would take into account more than just 
short-term profits for a corporation; rather 
it would be attuned to the long-term de- 
velopment and welfare of the nation.” 

KIRKLAND WARNED that “the ob- 
session of business with short-term goals 
needs to be balanced by a longer term 
perspective of the needs and aspirations of 
the American people.” President Reagan’s 
economic policies are wrong, he declared, 
because they are steeped in 1 8th and 1 9th 
Century theoretical models that are in- 
appropriate today. 

“And we think America — both Wall 
Street and Main Street — is beginning to 
wake up to that fact,” he said. Kirkland’s 
remarks were read at the George Wash- 
ington University-sponsored conference by 
Director Rudy A. Oswald of the Dept, of 
Economic Research. Kirkland was unable 
to attend because of a prior commitment. 

Also participating in the conference 
from labor were Assistant Research Direc- 
tor Arnold Cantor, Sec.-Treas. Jacob 
Sheinkman of the Clothing & Textile 
Workers, and former Auto Workers gen- 
eral counsel Stephen Schlossberg. 

AS WELL AS the resuscitation of sick 
industries and dying inner cities, the re- 
industrialization board proposed by Kirk- 
land would seek to develop new industries 
with promise for the future. 

The board would encourage economic 
growth, greater productivity, the spread of 
research and development findings and a 
balanced use of national resources, and 
would target industrial sectors and regions 
that need the most help. It would also 
direct the activities of a financing agency, 


similar to the Reconstruction Finance 
Corp. of the 1 930s and 1 940s, which 
would guarantee loans for approved re- 
industrialization projects. 

“Instead of using industrial development 
bonds to support more McDonald’s and K 
Marts — currently the biggest recipients of 
industrial development bonds financing — 
the RFC would be concerned with the in- 
dustrial base of the country,” Kirkland 
said. “That industrial base is threatened 
today by both domestic monetary policies 
as well as unfair foreign trade policies.” 

PRIVATE PENSION funds would be 
encouraged to underwrite the agency’s fi- 
nancing arrangements as a way of support- 
ing and expanding industrial employment 
in the United States, Kirkland said. 

Denouncing Reaganomics as “a replica 
of the European disease called Thatcher- 

(Continued on Page 6) 


The Reagan Administration’s action lift- 
ing a 40-year ban on homework in the 
knitted outerwear industry “reopens the 
door to exploitation of wages, hours 
and working conditions,” the AFL-CIO 
warned. 

Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan or- 
dered an end to the homework restriction 
in knitted outerwear, effective Nov. 9, de- 
spite strong opposition from unions, em- 
ployers and trade associations encompass- 
ing seven industries that the Labor Dept, 
sought to exclude. 

WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING that com- 
ments ran almost 4 to 1 against lifting 
homework restrictions from among the 
several thousand the Labor Dept, received, 
Donovan contended that few comments 
addressed the knitted outerwear industry. 

He said the industrial homework restric- 
tions will be retained in six other indus- 
tries: women’s apparel, jewelry, gloves and 


House Rejects 
Reagan Bid on 
AWACS Sale 

The House overwhelmingly turned down 
President Reagan’s proposed sale of so- 
phisticated radar planes and other aircraft 
equipment to Saudi Arabia, setting the 
stage for a Senate showdown on the $8.5 
billion arms package. 

By a vote of 301 to 111, the Demo- 
cratic-controlled House disapproved an 
Administration plan to sell the Saudis five 
Airborne Warning and Control System 
(AWACS) planes as well as equipment and 
missiles to enhance the performance of 
F-15 aircraft that the United States agreed 
to sell to Saudi Arabia three years ago. 

THE DEFEAT was the biggest rebuff 
President Reagan has yet received from 
members of his own party. Despite Rea- 
gan’s argument that the deal is crucial to 
the success of his Middle East policy, 108 
Republicans voted for the disapproval 
resolution. 

Meanwhile, members of the Senate For- 
eign Relations Committee voted 9 to 8 
against the arms sale, reflecting the un- 
certainty over the proposal in the full 
Senate. 

Strongly opposed to the AWACS sale, 
the AFL-CIO and other groups charged 
that it would be dangerous to sell such 
sophisticated radar planes to a potentially 
un^able regime. The aircraft could be 
used to coordinate F-15s in an attack 
against Israel, and might fall into the 
hands of U.S. enemies, they pointed out. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


mittens, buttons and buckles, handker- 
chiefs and embroideries. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald said the federation remains opposed 
to lifting homework restrictions in any in- 
dustry. 

Donovan’s order “renews the danger for 
the same child labor abuses which existed 
so extensively prior to the ban on home- 
work imposed under the Fair Labor Stan- 
dards Act,” Oswald said. 

He pointed out that lifting of the 
homework bans has been opposed by both 
management and labor and by five former 
secretaries of labor. 

“Since these regulations on industrial 
homework have been given the force of 
law by congressional action, we question 
whether the Secretary of Labor even has 
the authority to make retrogressive 
changes,” Oswald stressed. 


The vote on the measure was 95 to 0. 

Earlier the Senate had rejected, 65 to 
30, a labor-supported amendment that 
would have cut $14.2 billion from tax 
breaks voted for the oil industry last 
summer, using the funds instead to 
strengthen the social security system. In 
urging support for the amendment, intro- 
duced by Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.), 
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Deni- 
son said the fund reserve would guarantee 
stability for the program “and peace of 
mind” for workers and retirees. 

THE MINIMUM benefit is designed to 
give an income base to retired persons 
whose past earnings in covered employ- 
ment were not enough to make them 
eligible for a benefit of more than $122 
a month. It was a major target in the 
Reagan Administration’s budget-balancing 
drive earlier this year and was eliminated 
in the budget reconciliation bill that swept 
through Congress. 

Before the final action on the budget 
measure, however, the Ho«se had second 
thoughts and voted 404 to 20 for separate 
legislation to restore the minimum benefit. 

In the face of a growing public uproar 
over the attack on the social security pro- 
gram by the Administration and its con- 
servative Republican supporters in Con- 
gress, President Reagan later retreated 
from his stand favoring elimination of the 
benefit floor and enactment of sharp re- 
ductions in other promised benefits. 

INSTEAD, the President announced he 
would go along with inter-fund borrowing 
to resolve short-term problems of the 
social security trust funds and proposed 
creation of a 15-member task force to 
come up with a permanent solution to the 
system’s funding needs. 

The Senate bill includes provisions for 
(Continued on Page 8) 


President Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers expressed concern that 
the deregulation would deeply affect tradi- 
tionally exploited workers. 

“Donovan’s action turns American in- 
dustry’s calendar back to the darkest days 
of industrial exploitation,” Chaikin de- 
clared. 

“BY TAKING advantage of the most 
deprived members of our society — undoc- 
umented aliens, the poor and the unpro- 
tected — unscrupulous employers will de- 
prive thousands of American workers, 
both organized and unorganized, of decent 
jobs and decent conditions of employ- 
ment,” he warned, adding that “they will 
cheat the government out of millions of 
dollars in revenues.” 

Chaikin noted that past experience 
shows there is no way of policing indus- 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Lifting of Homework Ban Assailed 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


Labor Mobilizes Forces for ERA Ratification 


The AFL-CIO and its state and local 
labor bodies are mobilized to press for final 
ratification of the Equal Rights Amend- 
ment, federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. 
Donahue told the National Organization 
for Women. 

The federation will cooperate with 
NOW in testimony, lobbying and other 
action in support of ERA by the June 
30, 1982 ratification deadline, Donahue 
pledged at NOW’s annual issues confer- 
ence in Washington. 

HE POINTED OUT that throughout 
history the trade union movement has 
been a means for women workers to im- 
prove their working conditions and to 
“redirect the course of society.” 

ERA is “in harmony” with the prin- 
ciples of individual human dignity on 
which the labor movement is founded, 
and it “demands action,” Donhaue 
stressed. 

Thrity-five states, representing about 72 
percent of the population, have ratified 
the amendment since it passed Congress 
in 1972. Three more state legislatures 
must vote in favor of the amendment be- 
fore the deadline for it to become part of 
the U.S. Constitution. 


The first duty of the trade union move- 
ment has been to represent the interests 
of its members throughout collective 
bargaining, Donahue told the delegates, 
pointing out that “the pragmatic process 
of barganiing and representation” is 
founded on high ideals of human dignity 
and justice. 


On Sept. 19, Donahue declared, “the 
mandate paid a call on Washington, but 
they were not marching to the Adminis- 
tration’s drummer. They were calling out 
‘ERA, Yes’; ‘Social Security, Yes’; ‘Affir- 
mative Action, Yes’; and they were saying 
‘no’ to budget cuts that will stop progress 
in its tracks.” 


The interests of women workers have 
been important to the trade union move- 
ment, Donhaue said, “first of all because 
they are the concerns of workers, but also 
because women have been singled out for 
special exploitation.” 

HE CHARGED that the same “noisy 
minority” that opposes ratification of ERA 
“also applauds the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s program of dismantling safety and 
health programs for workers, of choking 
off funding for training and employment 
programs, stripping wage and hour pro- 
tections, and squeezing the social security 
systems which ought to be adjusted in- 
stead in the direction of increasing its pro- 
tections and removing its inadequacies and 
inequities, particularly as they affect 
women.” 

The Administration’s promise to “un- 
burden” employers from the “paperwork” 
of affirmative action is “clearly a signal to 
employers that they need not worry about 
affirmative action.” Management will find 
it more “cost-effective,” Donhaue pre- 
dicted, to use the excuse that no qualified 
women are available for jobs rather than 
spend the time and money to train women 
or place them in jobs that lead to pro- 
motion. 


“We believe that as the trade union 
movement has fought to improve the 
wages, working conditions and indeed the 
standard of living of our members, every 
American has benefitted,” he said. 

All of society, Donahue asserted, has 
gained as all those concerned with the 
human rights movement “have worked to 
bring this country closer in reality to the 
rich dreams on which it was founded.” 

SOLIDARITY DAY helped to dispel 
the idea that Americans want to reverse 
that progress, Donahue said. The Solidar- 
ity Day demonstrators “came straight out 
of the shops, the offices, the factories and 
backyards of America,” he pointed out, 
adding: “They were the average main- 
stream working people the Reagan Admin- 
istration has been boasting made up its 
‘mandate’ for dismantling 50 years of so- 
cial progress.” 


The demonstration provided “a lift of 
the spirits and sense of community” to 
the labor movement, the women’s move- 
ment and their allies, Donahue said, and 
it strengthened the “long-standing and 
time-tested” human rights coalition. 

DIFFERENCES of opinion and inter- 
est within that coalition, he said, are 
“healthy and normal because we are so 
secure in our beliefs, so bound by our 
common goals” and “linked by an over- 
riding belief in equality and justice.” 

Donahue emphasized the labor move- 
ment’s long history of concern for women 
workers, pointing out that within a year 
of its founding the organization which 
became the American Federation of Labor 
had acted to guarantee the equal status of 
women trade unionists and by 1883 had 
called for equal pay for equal work by 
men and women workers. 



ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA award, presented posthumously to Sea- 
farers President Paul Hall, is accepted by his widow. Rose, and his successor as 
president of the union, Frank Drozak, at a New York dinner. AFL-CIO Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, who spoke at the dinner, praised Hall for his life- 
time work in organizing maritime labor. The award, given annually by the United 
Seamen’s Service, honors individuals in the maritime industry or government for 
contributions to the American merchant marine. 

Car Dealer Rebates Slow Rise 
In Prices at Wholesale Level 


Donahue Affirms Labor Stand 
For Strong Merchant Marine 


Inflation at the wholesale level slowed 
in September as producer prices for fin- 
ished goods rose only two-tenths of 1 
percent, the smallest monthly increase in 
more than three years. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics attrib- 
uted the slowdown largely to stable food 
prices, moderate increases in energy prices, 
and a once-a-year dealer discount for new 
cars. 

THE DISCOUNT, or “liquidation al- 
lowance,” that domestic automakers gave 
their dealers to close out the 1981 model 
year had the heaviest influence on the 
September price figure. Without the re- 
bates, the government’s producer price in- 
dex for finished goods would have risen 
seven-tenths of 1 percent, BLS said. 

Last month’s increase was the smallest 
rise since August 1978, when wholesale 
prices edged up just one-tenth of 1 percent. 
The September increase followed rises of 
three-tenths of 1 prcent in August and 
four-tenths of 1 percent in July. 

The September index was 7.8 percent 
higher than the year-earlier level, which 
itself was 13.1 percent above the .level 12 
months earlier. 


Many economists believe that October 
producer prices will climb higher than in 
September. Agriculture Dept, experts 
predict substantial price increases for food 
the rest of the year, especially for meat, 
and automakers will be introducing higher- 
priced 1982 models over the month. 

Among finished goods, consumer food 
prices at the wholesale level were un- 
changed in September, following a two- 
tenths of 1 percent increase in August. 
Finished consumer foods include unpro- 
cessed foods such as eggs and fresh vege- 
tables, as well as processed foods such as 
bakery products and meats. 

PRICES FOR processed poultry fell 8.2 
percent last month following a sharp 
August increase, and pork prices turned 
down after no change the month before. 
On the other hand, prices for beef and 
veal increased 3.3 percent following a 
decrease in August. 

BLS said natural gas prices rose con- 
siderably more last month than in August 
and gasoline prices continued to fall, but 
at a smaller rate than in the previous four 
months. 

Heating oil prices edged down one-tenth 
of 1 percent. 


New York — The AFL-CIO will lend its 
full support to the fight to give the nation 
a strong merchant marine, “and we are 
going to throw heart, mind, and hand into 
the fight in the spirit of Paul Hall.” Fede- 
ration Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue 
pledged at an award ceremony honoring 
the late Seafarers president. 

Hall gave a large share of his life to sav- 
ing and restoring the merchant marine, 
“which he knew to be absolutely essential 
to the health and safety of the nation,” 
Donahue said. Now, the American labor 
movement must do its best to prevent fur- 
ther deterioration of the industry, he de- 
clared. 

“FOR TOO MANY years, we have 
watched that industry falling to pieces. We 
have seen too many American shippers 
and shipowners turning their backs on 
America, building ships in foreign yards, 
manning them with foreign crews, running 
up foreign flags in order to escape Amer- 
ican wages, prices, and taxes and Amer- 
ican working conditions, safety regula- 
tions, and training standards,” Donahue 
said. 

“We find ourselves in a dangerous state 
of almost total dependence on the re- 
sources of other countries because of a 
total lack of a positive, unified national 
maritime policy,” he added. “No other 
major trading nation has been so foolish. 

“Other countries make no apology for 
defending their industries and their econ- 
omies from assault and destruction from 
economic piracy. Ours provides no such 
defense.” 

DONAHUE SPOKE at a dinner at 
which Hall was given the first posthumous 
Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award by the 
United Seamen’s Service in recognition of 
his contributions to the maritime industry. 
Hall, an AFL-CIO vice president and pres- 

llllillllllllllllilililillllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllillllllll^ 

Stamp Club Offers 
Solidarity Day Cachet 

To commemorate Solidarity Day, the 
Samuel Gompers Stamp Club issued a 
special cachet, or souvenir envelope, on 
Sept. 19. The cover honors the 400,000 
Americans from all walks of life who 
gathered on the National Mall to protest 
the Reagan Administration cuts in social 
programs. 

A limited number of covers may still 
be obtained by writing the Samuel 
Gompers Stamp Club, P.O. Box 1233, 
Springfield, Va. 22151, and enclosing 
50 cents for each or $1.25 for three. A 
self-addressed envelope should accom- 
pany each order. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiin 


ident of the Maritime Trades Dept., died 
last year. 

In his address, Donahue observed that 
the booming market for American coal 
that has been developing since the Organi- 
zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries 
began inflating oil prices has given the 
United States “a golden opportunity to 
begin a little remedial action” toward re- 
vializing the U.S. merchant marine. 

The various port development programs 
that are finally getting started should in- 
clude guarantees that U.S.-flag ships will 
handle “a decent percentage” of the new 
business that is generated, he said, and the 
labor movement is pressing hard toward 
that end. At the same time, organized 
labor will fight to prevent a sellout of 
Alaskan oil and the jobs that depend on 
it, Donahue declared. 

Dock Union Wins 
Cargo Container 
Ruling at 3 Ports 

The Longshoremen won a limited vic- 
tory in their legal fight to implement rules 
giving the union job protection rights in 
the handling of van-sized containers. 

Administrative Law Judge Joel Har- 
matz of the National Labor Relations 
Board found that the rules, which were 
negotiated in 1973 with maritime employ- 
ers, were a lawful response to “reduced 
job opportunities” brought on by contain- 
erization. 

The rules apply to ports from Maine 
to Texas and require that much of tbjs 
handling of cargo containers must be done 
by ILA members, including their packing 
and unpacking. The rules apply to 50-mile 
zones around the ports. 

The rules have been contested over the 
years by shippers and truckers and, except 
for a six-week period earlier this year, 
they have never been put into effect. 

The rules currently are enjoined by a 
federal appeals court in Philadelphia. The 
Supreme Court, on an appeal of the in- 
junction by the union, refused to review 
the federal court order. The injunction is 
likely to remain in effect until the NLRB 
issues a final decision on whether the rules 
are legal. 

In his finding, Harmatz recommended 
dismissal of charges that the rules had 
been illegally applied in ports in New 
York, Philadelphia, and Jacksonville, Fla., 
but said that the ILA had unfairly sought 
to apply them in Baltimore, Hampton 
Roads, Va., and Miami. 


AFX-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


Page Three 


Full Slate Chosen 


URW Elects Milan Stone 
To Succeed Bommarito 



Hmufii 


Bal Harbour, Fla. — Milan Stone, who 
has held the second-ranking office with the 
Rubber Workers since 1977, was decisive- 
ly elected president of the URW to suc- 
ceed Peter Bommarito at the union’s 31st 
convention. 

Bommarito, an AFL-CIO vice president, 
declined to run for a new three-year term. 
He has headed the 1 50,000-member URW 
for the past 1 5 years. 

THE 850 CONVENTION delegates 
also unanimously elected URW District 2 
Director Joseph H. Johnston to the vice 
presidency vacated by Stone, re-elected 
Sec.-Treas. Donald C. Tucker by acclama- 
tion and elected 15 executive board mem- 
bers — all on Stone’s slate. Stone defeated 
Glenn Ellison, a URW district director, by 
a vote of 1,058 to 287. 

The convention approved a constitu- 
tional amendment authorizing the call for 
a special merger convention upon a two- 
thirds vote of the executive board. 

The URW has been exploring a merger 
proposal with the Auto Workers, and 
Stone, head of the Merger Committee, had 
described the discussions as “friendly and 
fruitful.” But he ruled out the possibility 
of the two unions reaching a merger agree- 
ment before URW contracts with major 
U.S. rubber firms expire next Apr. 20. 

In his keynote address, Bommarito 
called on the union’s negotiating commit- 
tee to put a high priority on job security 
in the 1982 contract talks. 

THE TIME has come “to move toward 
the concept of a guaranteed workweek . . . 
to insure true job security for our mem- 
bers,” Bommarito declared. 

Delegates overwhelmingly aproved a 
resolution commending Bommarito for his 
leadership and conferred on him the title 
of president emeritus. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland also 
praised the retiring URW president for his 
contributions to the federation’s Executive 
Council and as chairman of the AFL-CIO 
Community Services Committee. 

Kirkland said the demand for services 
of the nationwide network of union volun- 
teers has never been greater because of the 
Reagan Administration’s dismantling of es- 
sential jobs and social programs. 

“EVERY CITIZEN will pay a heavy 
price for the social blindness and indiffer- 
ence of those now in power in Washing- 
ton,” Kirkland warned. 

“All of this — along with cutbacks in 
social security and unemployment benefits 
and the wholesale abandonment of govern- 
ment regulations that protect the health 
and pocketbooks of workers and consum- 


ers — is undertaken, so we are told, to get 
government off our backs,” he observed. 

“The President claims that his program 
of stuffing the rich and starving the poor 
has a mandate from the people, won in his 
campaign,” Kirkland said. 

“BUT MR. REAGAN did not cam- 
paign among senior citizens for cutting so- 
cial security, among parents for poorer 
schools, among workers for fewer jobs and 
less concern for occupational health and 
safety. He did not campaign among con- 
sumers or small businesses for higher and 
higher interest rates and more and more 
bankruptcies.” 

Those were the very issues that brought 
the massive turnout of Solidarity Day pro- 
testers to Washington, Kirkland noted. 

In convention action, delegates voted to: 

• Retain the union dues structure link- 
ing increases to hourly wage boosts. 

• Direct all local unions to establish 
organizing committees. 

• Press for the restoration of full trade 
adjustment benefits to workers laid off by 
import competition. 

• Reinforce the URW’s boycott of 
Michelin tires and intensify organizing ef- 
forts at Michelin plants in the United 
States and Canada. 

• Resist Administration attempts to de- 
stroy OSHA protections. 

• Work for efforts to combat plant 
shutdowns and to ease the economic im- 
pact on affected workers and communities. 

• Call on URW locals to support and 
participate in AFL-CIO Industrial Union 
Dept, coordinated bargaining efforts. 

STONE, 54, has been a member of the 
Rubber Workers since 1946 when he 
joined URW Local 19 in Eau Claire, Wis. 
He served as vice president of the local 
and president of the Eau Claire AFL-CIO 
in the early 1960s. He joined the URW 
staff as a field representative in 1963 and 
the following year became the union’s 
time-study engineer. 

In 1972, Stone was appointed a special 
representative of the URW’s pension and 
insurance department and in 1974 became 
director of URW District 4 based in Rock 
Island, 111. He was appointed the union’s 
vice president in 1977 and was elected to 
a full three-year term the following year. 

Convention speakers in addition to Kirk- 
land included Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), 
Sec.-Gen. Charles Levenson of the Inter- 
national Federation of Chemical, Energy 
& General Workers, President Jacob Clay- 
man of the National Council of Senior 
Citizens and President Noriyoshi Matsu- 
moto of the Japanese Rubber Workers. 



TOP OFFICERS of the Transport Workers welcome California AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Sec.-Treas. John Henning to the union’s convention in San Francisco. 
From left are TWU President William G. Lindner, President Emeritus Matthew 
Guinan and Sec.-Treas. Roosevelt Watts. 

TWU Convention Launches 
New Mass Transit Division 


San Francisco — The Transport Work- 
ers’ 16th Convention launched a new Mass 
Transit Division paralleling the union’s 
existing Railroad and Air Transport Divi- 
sions. 

With most of TWU’s 130,000 members 
involved in mass transit, the 400 delegates 
resolved that the new division “would 
help focus more sharply on the particular 
problems of the workers in our transit 
locals and permit quicker and stronger 
actions to seek solutions.” 

THE NEW DIVISION will follow the 
same organizational structure and have 
the same functions as the air transport and 
railroad arms, addressing itself “to the 
formulation and coordination of efforts 
to meet the needs of our mass transit mem- 
bers on pay, hours, benefits and working 
conditions.” 

In other business, TWU President Wil- 
liam G. Lindner was re-elected along with 
Sec.-Treas. Roosevelt Watts and Executive 
Vice President John E. Lawe, who also 
serves as president of the union’s largest 
local. Local 100 in New York. 

Among the more than 50 resolutions 
adopted by the convention was an expres- 
sion of firm support for the Air Traffic 
Controllers’ strike. The union urged its 
locals to contribute to the special fund to 
aid the PATCO strikers and their families. 

ANOTHER RESOLUTION called for 
further study by the union’s executive 
council and board of a possible merger 
with the Amalgamated Transit Union, a 
concept which both unions had eyed over 
the last few years. 


Construction Jobs Victims of Tight Money 


High interest rates spurred by federal 
“tight money” policies threaten to destroy 
the construction industry, the AFL-CIO 
Building & Construction Trades Dept, 
told Congress. 

In testimony before the Senate Small 
Business Committee, Department Presi- 
dent Robert Georgine pointed to the steep 
reductions in residential, industrial and 
commercial construction and the 16.7- 
percent rate of unemployment in the in- 
dustry. Construction workers are “cannon 
fodder” in the “misguided campaign” to 
reduce inflation by tightening the supply 
of money and availability of credit, 
Georgine said. 

THE ECONOMIC effects of the Federal 
Reserve Board’s Administration-supported 
monetary policies are “socially unaccept- 
able and economically inefficient,” he 
stressed. 

Selective credit controls that direct 
credit to productive purposes are a better 
solution, Georgine told the committee. 

High interest rates themselves fuel infla- 
tion, Georgine charged, since they drive 
up the cost of goods and services. 

The high cost of money has choked off 


housing starts, frozen most buyers out of 
the housing market, and “devastated” the 
traditional mortgage lenders, savings and 
loan associations, Georgine told the com- 
mittee. 

Combined effects of high interest rates 
and the Reagan Administration’s income 
tax cuts that favor the wealthy have “de- 
stroyed the market for state and local 
bonds,” which finance public construction, 
Georgine said. He pointed out that this 
squeeze on municipal bond markets comes 
at a time when the Administration’s bud- 
get and tax cuts are causing state and local 
revenues to decline and their borrowing 
needs to increase. 

IN THE SECOND quarter of 1981, the 
seasonally adjusted volume of new public 
construction was 15V^ percent below its 
level in 1978, Georgine pointed out. 

Interest on the federal debt, which 
Georgine called the fastest rising segment 
of the federal budget, is also linked to high 
rates, he stressed. During the year ending 
in June 1981, he said, this figure increased 
by an estimated 32 percent, requiring 
more federal borrowing “that raises inter- 
est rates even higher.” 

A better solution to inflation, Georgine 


suggested, would be selective credit con- 
trols of the type advocated by the AFL- 
CIO. 

The joint Reagan Administration/ Fed- 
eral Reserve policy of slowing down the 
money supply must be abandoned, he 
stressed. 

“WE SHOULD turn away from the di- 
sastrous reliance on tight money to fight 
inflation,” he said, “because tight money 
results in rationing credit through high 
interest rates, thereby often favoring non- 
productive uses of credit.” 

Instead, Georgine said, selective credit 
controls should be used to channel credit 
to productive purposes such as home 
mortgages, new residential, industrial, state 
and local bonds. 

EXPERIENCE with credit controls in 
the United States and abroad have shown 
them to be a “viable alternative” for slow- 
ing down the money supply, Georgine said. 

Authority for flexible controls is pro- 
vided under the Credit Control Act of 
1 969, Georgine pointed out. He urged that 
these measures be used now to bring down 
interest rates and made permanent before 
they expire in June 1982. 


In viewing the possible merger, TWU 
pointed out that “consolidations and gov- 
ernmental authority takeovers of present 
transit systems are threatening the pay 
rates, benefits and working conditions of 
our members.” It said “the Amalgamated 
Transit Union has proposed a merger with 
TWU as the best way to counter the grow- 
ing threat from an unfriendly national 
administration and increasing attacks on 
our wages, benefits and working condi- 
tions by managements and their co-con- 
spirators in the media and local govern- 
ments.” 

The council merger committee was in- 
structed to report back to the full council 
within a year. 

IN OTHER business, the convention 
called for reform of New York State’s 
Taylor Law, which mandates heavy union 
and individual fines for striking public 
employees. 

As a result of Local lOO’s 11 -day New 
York City transit strike of April 1980, the 
union has already been hit with $1,250,- 
000 in fines. Individual members who took 
part in the strike were fined $18 million, 
and the local learned just this month of 
an impending 18-month suspension of its 
dues check-off, a penalty certain to be ap- 
pealed. In each case the penalties were 
mandated by the Taylor Law. 

In his keynote address, Lindner called 
for a stepped-up COPE campaign to coun- 
ter reactionary groups and politicians. 

HE PRAISED a new spirit of awaken- 
ing in labor, telling the delegates: 

“Those of you who were down in Wash- 
ington for Solidarity Day probably got 
the same feeling that I did. When you 
looked around and saw the variety of 
people from all parts of the country, from 
all economic levels, from all types of un- 
ions and many other organizations, there 
was a grass-roots feeling of comradeship, 
of unity of purpose and of oneness that 
tells me that this thing is going to turn 
around.” 

Major addresses to the delegates also 
were given by California Gov. Edmund G. 
Brown, Jr.; State AFL-CIO Executive 
Sec.-Treas. John F. Henning, and Rep. 
Norman Mineta (D-Calif.). 

P. J. Ciampa Dies at 61, 
AFSCME Area Official 

Baltimore — Panfilo J. Ciampa, area di- 
rector of the State, County & Municipal 
Employees and a former official of the 
Auto Workers, died of cancer at Franklin 
Square Hospital here Sept. 21. He was 61. 

Ciampa had been a UAW regional di- 
rector for the southeastern states and 
served on the union’s executive board from 
1953 to 1955 before he joined AFSCME 
in 1964. He also served as director of field 
services and took part in the 1968 sanita- 
tion workers strike in Memphis, during 
which Martin Luther King, Jr., was as- 
sassinated. 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


Speak Out for the ERA 

E conomic justice, pure and simple, is the real issue in the 
debate over the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. 

This constitutional guarantee is needed to establish once and 
for all — without danger of repeal — 2 l national policy that will lead 
to an end to discrimination because of sex. 

Its passage would be the best assurance that all citizens, men 
and women alike, will have fair, equal and reasonable opportuni- 
ties in employment, education, benefits and retirement plans, in- 
surance, credit, and financial matters in marriage and divorce. 

OPPONENTS OF the Equal Rights Amendment have mastered 
the old divide-and-conquer strategy. They seek to distract atten- 
tion from the real purpose of ERA by manufacturing a set of 
ludicrous, emotional issues which in most cases have nothing at 
all to do with equal rights or the ERA. 

The fact is, women are America’s cheap labor pool, and the 
opponents of BRA want to make sure things stay that way. 

Women today, even in professions, are paid about half of what 
man are paid in similar jobs. Most women workers are stuck in the 
lowest paying, least promotable jobs. 

It is no accident that the same people who oppose the Equal 
Rights Amendment favor of the dismantling of OSHA protections. 
They favor a youth subminimum wage and the gutting of most 
other fair labor standards that govern decent wages and condi- 
tions. They want to see the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Con- 
tract Act weakened or repealed. They support any measure to 
lower wages, or keep them low. 

ERA will help change that for women. And that is what the 
opposition to ERA fears most. 


IT IS NO accident, either that nearly all the states that have not 
ratified the Equal Rights Amendment are also “right-to-work” 
states that outlaw union shop agreements. That alone should be a 
clue to the real motives of ERA’s opponents. 

The argument that state or federal laws are good enough to 
“protect” women ignores reality. All such laws can be repealed 
or thwarted by administrative action. In the past, many such laws 
have been thin disguises for actually excluding women and minori- 
ties from jobs rather than “protecting” them. 

In the past twenty years, the number of working women, has 
risen to the point that more than half of all women now work out- 
side the home, and they make up almost half the U.S. workforce. 

They work for one simple reason: they need the money to pro- 
vide a decent life for their families. 

More and more women are joining unions because they realize 
that the union contract is a vital tool for achieving equality through 
improved wages, better jobs, equal benefits and the almost price- 
less guarantee of a fair grievance procedure on the job. 

The union contract should be backed up by the strength of the 
Equal Rights Amendment as the law of the land. 

THIRTY-FIVE states have ratified the amendment, and by 
June 30, 1982, three more states must pass it for the ERA to 
become part of the Constitution. 

The labor movement and its Coalition of Labor Union Women 
have joined the National Organization for Women and other allies 
in this all-out campaign for ratification. We will speak out for 
the Equal Rights Amendment, and more, we will fight for it. 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


♦ Deceased. 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


= Vol. XXVI Saturday, October 17, 1981 No. 42 = 

S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W,, Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 

5 AFL-CIO. = 

ainiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmE 



The Moat 



Simplistic Notion 

U.S. Economic History Refutes 
Arguments for Gold Standard 


By Gus Tyler 

A RETURN TO THE gold standard is the 
latest conversation piece in Washington. 
They’re talking about stabilizing prices. Putting 
an end to inflation — once and for all. If a dollar is 
redeemable for such and such an amount of gold, 
we know what the true worth of the buck is, and 
that will stop depreciation of our money. 

The notion is so simple that it is almost irresis- 
tible — as it will be to simpletons who know 
nothing about the century we spent living with 
the gold standard. During those years, prices rose 
and prices fell repeatedly. The rises were 
staggering and the drops were murderous. But, 
good or bad, the cost of living shot up and down, 
despite the gold standard. 

1815 IS A GOOD date to start tracing the 
fluctuation of prices in the United States, since it 
was a time of peak inflation, brought on partly by 
our own War of 1812 and by the Napoleonic wars 
in Europe. From 1815 to 1843, wholesale prices 
dropped by almost 60 percent. But that “defla- 
tion” did not last too long. 

Between 1843 and 1864 (end of Civil War) 
prices leaped upward by 157 percent — in spite of 
the gold standard. The war itself was the biggest 
reason for the jump. 

In the next ten years prices fell again in the 
United States. But in Europe, which was on a 
metallic standard of gold and silver, prices con- 
tinued to rise by 60 percent between 1843 and 
1873. 

AFTER THAT TIME, as the western world 
moved away from silver exclusively into gold, 
prices began to fall again up to 1896. But then the 
price level rose by 233 percent from 1896 to 1920 
— again getting its chief impetus from the First 
World War. 

What is evident from these few facts is that 
gold standards are no guarantee against inflation 
or deflation. Your dollar may be as good as gold, 
but the goodness of gold varies from time to time. 

What is also clear is that the price rises are 
most startling in wartime because of the great 
drain on resources that do not go to fill con- 
sumer needs. What holds for war times is equally 
valid obviously for periods of heavy armament — 
and for the same reason: use of resources that do 
not go to meet consumer needs. 


These morsels of monetary history are but a 
few of the facts that are contained in an illuminat- 
ing article by Edward M. Bernstein, a monetary 
expert of international renown, who is currently 
a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. In 
his piece, appearing in the Brookings Bulletin, he 
notes that in the 100 years from 1815 to 1914 
there were 12 crises and panics in the United 
States and seven in England. 

‘‘THE PANICS were extreme crises, usually as- 
companied by numerous bankruptcies,” Bernstein 
says. “In England, the crises were due to the 
rigidity of the Bank Charter Act of 1 844. ... In 
the United States the national banking system pro- 
vided no flexibility at all in the issue of currency, 
and that was the cause of the recurrent crises.” 

In the table listing the exact dates of each of 
these crisis or panics between 1815 and 1914, 
Bernstein attaches a small footnote: “Does not 
include fourteen recessions in the United States 
and nine in the United Kingdom that are not 
classified as crises or panics.” 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

Opening the Lid 
For Exploitation 

Mr. Donovan’s action (lifting the ban on in- 
dustrial homework on knitted outerwear) turns 
American industry’s calendar back to the 
darkest days of industrial exploitation. 

By taking advantage of the most deprived 
members of our society — undocumented aliens, 
the poor and the unprotected — unscrupulous 
employers will deprive thousands of American 
workers, both organized and unorganized, of 
decent jobs and decent conditions of employ- 
ment, and they will cheat government out of 
millions of dollars in revenues. 

With one rash stroke, the Labor Dept, has 
removed one of the major areas of protection 
that took American workers and employers 
more than 100 years to build. 

The Labor Dept, simply does not have the 
right to remove restrictions that were imposed 
by an act of Congress. 

— President Sol Chaikin of the Ladies' Gar- 
ment Workers. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


Page Five 


Tripartite Role 

‘New Partnership’ Holds Key 
To Revival of Industrial Base 


The following is from remarks by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland to a conference on na- 
tional priorities, Oct. 13, 1981. 

O NE OF THE KEYS to attaining full employ- 
ment and solving some of the nation’s eco- 
nomic problems is to reindustrialize America. 
That can best be achieved through a new partner- 
ship between government, management and labor. 

To that end, the AFL-CIO proposes the crea- 
tion of a tripartite National Reindustrialization 
Board — including representatives of labor, busi- 
ness and government — which would develop a 
balanced program to insure the revitalization of 
the nation’s sick industries^ and decaying com- 
munities, while at the same time encourage the 
development of new industries with promise for 
the future. The board would encourage produc- 
tivity growth, dissemination of research and de- 
velopment finding, and a balanced use of the 
nation’s resources. It would target industrial sec- 
tors and regions that particularly need help. 

This board would also direct the activities of 
a financing agency, patterned after the Recon- 
struction Finance Corp. of the 1930s and 1940s, 
which would be authorized to make and guarantee 
loans to finance approved reindustrialization 
ventures. 

INSTEAD OF using industrial development 
bonds to support more McDonald’s and K Marts 
— currently the biggest recipients of industrial de- 
velopment bonds financing — the RFC would be 
concerned with the industrial base of the country. 
That industrial base is threatened today by both 
domestic monetary policies as well as unfair 
foreign trade policies. 

Private pension funds could be encouraged to 
make investments in such financing arrangements 
to support and expand industrial employment in 
the United States. National policies that encourage 
investment abroad rather than in the United States 
undermine domestic employment opportunities. 

A common thread that runs through the eco- 
nomics of countries that have grown faster than 
ours is their adoption of a coordinated industrial 
policy that systematically includes the views of 
labor, industry and the public. 

The Reindustrialization Board would take into 
account more than just short-term profits for a 
corporation — but rather would be attuned to the 
long-term development and welfare of the nation. 

THE BOARD would bring together all of the 
elements in economic society. It would insure 
that the interests of capital, of labor, and of the 
people are all made an integral part of the eco- 
nomic decision-making process. 

We believe that credit allocation is preferable 
to destroying the housing industry, while funds 
are siphoned off for corporate merger activities 
and speculative investments, and margin pur- 


chases. We believe that the Administration and 
the Federal Reserve Board should use their 
authority under the Credit Control Act to direct 
the allocation of credit. Instead of finding $7 bil- 
lion of funds overnight to underwrite a Conoco 
oil merger, the credit sources should be targeted 
to developing new productive facilities, and 
rescuing the crippled housing and auto industries. 
The United States should learn from foreign ex- 
perience with credit allocations. 

IT IS TIME for the United States to formulate 
a national industrial policy and abandon the irra- 
tional attachment to policies that threaten to 
bring about the wholesale condemnation of entire 
industries and regions. We reject the Administra- 
tion’s attempt to cast government as the whipping 
boy — government spending, government deficits, 
government taxes, government borrowing, gov- 
ernment employees, etc. 

They are not the cause of every problem that 
can be identified as the Administration would 
have us believe. The solution to America’s prob- 
lems is not to hamstring the federal government 
by cutting its programs and its sources of income 
and weakening or undermining its laws, regula- 
tions, and standards used to protect health, safety, 
civil rights and the environment. 

We are unwilling to accept a return to the 
burned-out America of the 1930s, when the willy- 
nilly movement of investment capital left the farm 
mortgage foreclosed, the top soil eroded and no 
hope of revival because no one had the purchas- 
ing power to lift an economy or reopen a bank. 
We believe that government must enter into a 
new partnership with business and labor to re- 
vitalize the nation’s economy. 

We insist that, to succeed, any plan for eco- 
nomic recovery must be fair and equitable. But 
the Administration’s cuts in social programs will 
have a disproportionately large and negative im- 
pact on unemployed workers, on the pcx)r, on the 
needy, at the very time that its tax cuts will have 
a large and beneficial effect on the rich, the 
affluent, and highly profitable businesses. 

ADD TO THIS a deregulation policy that 
weakens the impact of laws protecting the con- 
sumer, the environment, and the health and safety 
of workers — and it is clear that the Administra- 
tion’s proposals do not meet the test of equity. 

We in the AFL-CIO have studied carefully all 
that has been unveiled since Inauguration Day 
1981, and have found Reaganomics lacking in 
comparison to our national economic, serial and 
international goals. We reject the idea that there 
is anything resembling a “new beginning” in the 
revival of the hoary old trickle-down economics 
in the guise of “supply-side.” 

But more important, we reject the policies 
themselves, simply because they will not work. 
And we think America — both Wall Street and 
Main Street — is beginning to wake up to that fact. 


Away from Public Eye 

Rule Changes Skirt Congress, 
Undermine Worker Protections 


HE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION’S attack 
on worker protections shaped by Congress has 
grown to alarming proportions through regulation 
changes that draw less public attention than direct 
legislative proposals. Machinists Legislative Rep. 
Dorothy Ellsworth charged in a network radio 
interview. 

Ellsworth cited quiet moves in the Labor Dept, 
that skirts the intent of the Service Contract Act 
without giving Congress a chance to assess 
changes that will adversely affect tens of thou- 
sands of workers. She said such administrative 
steps are “undermining and weakening the collec- 
tive bargaining” that Congress clearly intended to 
safeguard when it approved the act 15 years ago. 
The act establishes standards for prevailing wages 
and working conditions of workers employed by 
firms holding service contracts with the govern- 
ment. 

Questioned by reporters on Labor News Con- 


ference, Ellsworth predicted that House hearings 
on the Service Contract Act later this month 
will show a pattern of regulation changes that 
have had “tragic effects on both union and non- 
union workers.” 

She said the impact of the Sept. 19 Solidarity 
Day protest against the Administration’s budget 
and tax p>olicies is already beginning to show up 
on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress who earlier 
in the year questioned rank-and-file opposition to 
Reaganomics “now know that union members are 
aware, that they are concerned and that they are 
going to fight,” she said. 

THE MOMENTUM of Solidarity Day, Ells- 
worth said, is also seen at the local grass-roots 
level, and this is bound to increase as the harsh 
effects of the new budget, which took effect Oct. 
1, “filter down to the state and local levels” and 
make it increasingly clear that the Administration 
is “cutting very close to the bone.” 




By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he REAGAN ADMINISTRATION has put the low-income 
and poor families of America on a very strict diet. 

Beginning in October, nearly one million people will be dropped 
from the food stamp rolls, as ordered in the omnibus budget recon- 
ciliation bill passed by Congress in July. These people lost their 
benefits because the legislation raised the income eligibility limit 
for the program. 

Persons with income over 130 percent of the poverty level are 
no longer eligible for food stamp benefits. The only exceptions 
made or special circumstances recognized were for elderly and dis- 
abled people living on social security or Supplemental Security 
Income (SSI). 

The cut-off for a typical family of four is now $916 a month 
or less in earned income to be eligible for stamps. The previous 
cutoff was $705 per month. 

MANY OF THE more than 21 million still getting benefits will 
see them reduced. Families with earned income will lose 2 percent 
in deductions allowable in calculating benefits. 

Also, despite rising food costs, the new food stamp law will 
not increase benefits as often to keep pace with inflation, so food 
stamp dollars will buy less food in the years ahead. According to 
estimates, benefits will lag two years behind actual grocery store 
prices. 

The Food Research & Action Center, a public interest group, 
developed some hypothetical examples to show how the food stamp 
changes might affect individuals. FRAC used data gathered from 
federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration and 
Agriculture Dept., and detailed analyses of the food stamp law 
changes to develop the profiles. 

Here is what some of them show: 

• The Smiths are an elderly couple whose only source of in- 
come is $397 a month in SSI benefits. Before the law change, they 
would have been eligible for $84 in food stamps every month. 
Now they will receive $70 per month. 

• Frank earns the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour and sup- 
ports three dependents. His housing costs are about $150 per 
month, with other expenses average. Frank now will be eligible 
for only $151 in food stamps each month, instead of the $201 
allowed under the previous law. 

• George earns $5.25 an hour and has three dependents. His 
wife needed surgery and developed a handicap that requires special 
care and adds extra expenses. Because of the law change, George’s 
special circumstances no longer will be recognized. He will be 
eligible for only $64 per month in food stamps, instead of $104 
per month under previous law. 

ANOTHER GROUP that will feel the pinch of the new rules is 
strikers and their families. They are now ineligible. 

Previously, if a striker met all the program’s eligibility rules, 
that is, had little or no supplemental income and few assets, he 
could receive food stamps on the basis of need. Strikers accounted 
for only some 28,000 households out of eight million receiving 
food stamp benefits in 1980. 

The aim of cutting the food stamp program, as in other budget 
cuts, was to reduce overall federal spending — part of Reagan’s 
“economic recovery program.” 

But, despite tightening of the food stamp program, it is still ex- 
pected to cost more than the Administration anticipated because 
unemployment is rising and more people will become eligible for 
benefits. 

Also, since the law changes primarily hurt the working poor, 
there may be some incentive for those earning a marginal living to 
quit work, go on welfare and collect full food stamp benefits. 



WORKER PROTECTIONS are being undercut by Labor Dept, 
regulation changes that disregard congressional intent of the 
Service Contract Act, Machinists Legislative Rep. Dorothy Ells- 
worth charged on Labor News Conference. She was questioned 
by Calvin Zon, left, of Press Associates, Inc., and Frank Swo- 
boda of the Washington Post. The AFL-CIO produced public 
affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 


fage Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


House Group 
Calls for New 
PATCO Talks 

Thirty-seven House Democrats urged 
the Reagan Administration to reopen con- 
tract talks with the striking Air Traffic 
Controllers, saying that a negotiated set- 
tlement “offers the most promising and re- 
sponsible course for resolving” the 11- 
week dispute. 

An agreement between the Federal 
Aviation Administration and PATCO 
“would be in the national interest, and 
would reflect great credit upon all parties,” 
the congressmen said in a letter to Presi- 
dent Reagan initiated by Rep. James Ober- 
star (D-Minn.). 

MEANWHILE, flight delays at major 
airports mounted and a House staff analy- 
sis warned that the nation’s air traffic con- 
trol system could be in “serious trouble” 
by the winter of 1983 because of overly 
optimistic projections on replacing the 
11,000 controllers fired by President Rea- 
gan after they went on strike Aug. 3. 

Administration officials have insisted 
that they do not intend to rehire the con- 
trollers, and have begun training new con- 
trollers to replace those who were fired. 
At the same time, flight schedules through- 
out the country have been scaled down 
as a safety measure. As a result, delays 
at major airports the last two weeks in 
September doubled from the same period 
last year, the FAA reported. 

In an analysis of the FAA’s plans to re- 
place the striking controllers, the House 
Post Office & Civil Service Committee said 
“the only way to lessen the strain on the 
system is to rehire a substantial number 
of the striking controllers.” The commit- 
tee’s staff said FAA Administrator Lynn 
Helm’s position that strikers are forever 
barred from federal employment “is legal- 
ly untenable.” 

REP. WILLIAM D. FORD (D-Mich.), 
who heads the committee, said in an Asso- 
ciated Press interview that the airline in- 
dustry is suffering undue hardships and 
that the Administration must consider re- 
hiring experienced controllers. 

“The real world is that the people in 
labor and management relations resolve 
their differences without it turning into a 
permanent problem, and that’s what we 
have now,” Ford said. 

Florida Delegates 
Back Expanded 
Public Services 

Miami Beach — Delegates to the Florida 
AFL-CIO convention endorsed a proposal 
to expand police and fire protection and 
needed improvements in education and 
mass transportation that would be financed 
through a I-cent increase in the state 
sales tax. 

The 360 delegates also called for rein- 
statement of Florida’s “little Davis-Bacon 
Act” to assure payment of prevailing 
wages on state funded construction and 
urged Congress to reject attempts to repeal 
the federal Davis-Bacon law. 

OTHER KEY resolutions adopted at 
the three-day convention expressed strong 
opposition to the Reagan Administration’s 
efforts to dismantle the Occupational Safe- 
ty & Health Administration and wage pro- 
tections provided by the Service Contract 
Act, stressed the need for expanded labor 
political action programs through wider 
COPE checkoff contributions, and gave 
strong support to the striking Air Traffic 
Controllers. 

Delegates overwhelmingly re-elected 
State AFL-CIO President Daniel J. Miller, 
Sec.-Treas. Joseph E. Martin and First 
Vice President Dongal G. Resha to new 
four-year terms. All district vice presidents 
were elected to new two-year terms. 

Convention speakers included union 
Presidents William W. Winpisinger of the 
Machinists, Frank Drozak of the Seafarers 
and Sol C. Chaikin of the Ladies’ Gar- 
ment Workers, National COPE Director 
A1 Barkan and Rep. Claude Pepper (D- 
Fla.). 





JOB CORPS TEAMS trained by the Carpenters union swept teams constructs a frame structure under accuracy and time 
three top prizes in their category at the Job Corps Anni- requirements. Teams from a number of other construction 
versary Expo held in Washington. Here, one of the winning trades also participated in the contest. 


Administration Backs Proposals 
To Gut Model Job-Injury Benefits 


The Reagan Administration has pro- 
posed wholesale changes in the Longshore- 
men’s & Harbor Workers’ Compensation 
Act that would cut off thousands of work- 
ers from coverage, sharply restrict benefits 
and weaken protections. 

The law, which was strengthened in 
1972 with broad support from labor, the 
insurance industry and the Republican Ad- 
ministration then in office, has been cited 
by the AFL-CIO as the “best workers’ 
compensation law in the nation” and a 
model for the states. It is closely in line 
with the recommendations of the National 
Commission on State Workmen’s Com- 
pensation Laws. 

THE FEDERATION had recommended 
extension of the provisions of the act to 
all workers in testimony earlier this year 
before the Senate Labor & Human Re- 
sources Committee, which is now consi- 
dering amendments that would gut the act. 

The Administration’s proposals are 
similar but not identical to the bill before 
the committee. Deputy Labor Under Sec. 
Robert Collyer told the committee the 
Administration favors returning coverage 
under the act to the pre-1972 definition 
of “the water’s edge.” Onshore dock and 
harbor workers would be ineligible for 
coverage except under state workers’ com- 
pensation laws, most of which fall far 
short of the National Commission’s stan- 
dards. 

The proposals also call for returning 
some “over the water” injuries to state 
programs. 

The law now covers dock and shipyard 
workers, all private employment in the 
District of Columbia, employees at over- 
seas military bases and workers at military 
post exchanges and other self-supporting 
federal activities. 

BENEFIT increases under the Adminis- 
tration’s plan would be capped at 6 per- 
cent a year for permanent total disability 
and death beneficiaries. The current law 
provides for an increase tied to the per- 
centage increase in the national average 
weekly wage. 

A cap would “not recognize current 
reality” in the increasing cost of living and 
inflation rate, the AFL-CIO contends. 

The Administration also backs the pro- 
posal to reduce benefits by computing 
them on a base of 80 percent of the em- 
ployee’s spendable earnings rather than 
the present base of two-thirds of gross 
weekly wages. A proposal to deduct state 
and local taxes along with federal income 
taxes and social security taxes would lower 
the base even more. 

IN CONTRAST, the National Commis- 
sion recommended a different 80 percent 
spendable earnings formula that would 
take into account fringe benefits and de- 


duct only federal income and social se- 
curity taxes. 

The Administration also proposes to 
cut off benefits to workers with partial dis- 
abilities when their current income reaches 
the point that it exceeds pre-disability in- 
come. 

Another proposal would eliminate the 
disabled workers’ right to choose the doc- 
tors treating their injuries if an employer 
lodges an objection to a particular physi- 
cian. The Administration would give the 
Labor Dept, authority to make a final de- 
cision on the appropriateness of the doctor 
in disputed cases. 

THIS PROPOSAL is less harsh than the 
Senate bill which would permit employers 
to give the Labor Dept, their own list of 
recommended doctors to be “authorized” 
under the law, but the AFL-CIO warned 
that any restriction of choice would take 
away the assurance of impartial examina- 
tions. 

Other Administration proposals would 
increase the amount of benefit payments 
that could be offset by other compensa- 


(Continued from Page 1) 

ism,” Kirkland assailed the monetarist 
views that are the underpinning of Admin- 
istration economic policy. Monetarism “de- 
pends upon the rigorous assumption that 
all economic elements are determined by 
the money supply. But the monetarists 
cannot even tell us how it can be ac- 
curately measured, or even what money 
is,” he said. 

As seen in Britain, where Prime Min- 
ister Margaret Thatcher has applied mone- 
tarist theories for the last two and a half 
years, such policies are anachronistic and 
only exacerbate economic conditions, 
Kirkland observed. Britain’s unemploy- 
ment rate under Thatcher has more than 
doubled to 12.4 percent and its rate of 
inflation — about 8 percent when she 
adopted a strict monetarist approach to 
keep down prices — is now 11.5 percent, 
he added. 

RATHER THAN trusting to the out- 
dated classical economic theories of 18th- 
Century natural philosopher Adam Smith 
or 1 9th-Century supply-side economist 
Jean Baptiste Say, “the true father of what is 
better known as trickle-down economics,” 
the Administration could get a better 
handle on inflation by focusing on its true 
causes, Kirkland said. 

These, he said, “are to be found in 
energy, food, health care, housing costs. 


tion programs such as social security and 
income protection programs and sharply 
curtail the usage of the “second injury 
fund.” This fund, paid for by insurance 
companies and self-insured employers, 
pays benefits to a worker whose on-the-job 
injury aggravates a pre-existing injury. The 
proposals would tighten the definitions of 
existing disability, give the Labor Dept, 
more authority to limit the fund’s use and 
charge administrative and legal costs to it. 

THE ADMINISTRATION has also 
asked that authority be returned to the 
Labor Dept, to review compensation 
cases and make binding decisions on them. 
The role of administrative law judges 
would be eliminated. 

Other provisions recommended by the 
Administration include a stiff increase in 
the penalty against workers for misrepre- 
sentation, from a fine of $1,000 to $50,000 
and from a year in jail to five years, along 
with an increase in the fine against em- 
ployers who fail to secure a means of pay- 
ing compensation, from $1,000 maximum 
to $1,000 a day. 


and the unconscionably high cost of 
money,” and attacking the problems “re- 
quires an array of specific, targeted 
measures.” 

One such measure would be the use of 
government authority under the 1969 
Credit 'Control Act to lower interest rates 
by channeling available credit to produc- 
tive use, Kirkland said. 

“WE BELIEVE that credit allocation is 
preferable to destroying the housing in- 
dustry, while funds are siphoned off for 
corporate merger activities and specula- 
tive investments and margin purchases,” 
Kirkland said. “Instead of finding $7 bil- 
lion of funds overnight to underwrite a 
Conoco oil merger, the credit sources 
should be targeted to developing new pro- 
ductive facilities, and rescuing the crippled 
housing and auto industries.” 

In summary, Kirkland said, the AFL- 
CIO has carefully studied the Adminis- 
tration’s proposals over the past nine 
months and found them completely want- 
ing in what it takes to meet America’s 
economic, social, and international goals. 

“We reject the idea that there is any- 
thing resembling a ‘new beginning’ in the 
revival of the hoary old trickle-down eco- 
nomics in the guise of ‘supply-side’ eco- 
nomics,” he said. “But more important, 
we reject the policies themselves, simply 
because they will not work.” 


Kirkland Presses Program 
To Revitalize U.S. Industry 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


Pmge SeTcn 


Convention Action 

Bricklayers Restructure 
Key Executive Positions 



STRONG SUPPORT for the goals and programs of the labor movement was 
pledged by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) at the Bricklayers convention in 
Toronto. Kennedy is welcomed to the convention by Bricklayers President John 
T. Joyce, left, and Executive Vice President L. Gerald Carlisle. 

Iowa Spurs Coalition Effort 
To Counter Reagan Policies 


Toronto — The 75th convention of the 
Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen restruc- 
tured the union’s executive board, elected 
officers and adopted a comprehensive pro- 
gram to keep the union on a course of 
progress toward its objectives. 

Some 1 ,500 delegates and guests attend- 
ed the sessions, held here to honor the 
100th anniversary of the affiliation of two 
Canadian local unions — Local 1 of Hamil- 
ton, Ont., and Local 2 of Toronto — which 
gave the union international status. 

PRESIDENT JOHN T. JOYCE, Treas. 
L. Gerald Carlisle, Sec. Edward M. Bel- 
lucci and First Vice President James F. 
Richardson were re-elected without oppo- 
sition. 

The convention revised the executive 
board by combining the offices of secretary 
and treasurer and adding a fifth member. 
As now constituted the board includes 
Joyce, Bellucci as secretary-treasurer, and 
three executive vice presidents, Carlisle, 
Richardson and Louis Weir, formerly 5th 
vice president. 

Donald Williams of Toronto was named 
first vice president. His appointment “un- 
derscores the union’s awareness of the im- 
portant issues and concerns of our Cana- 

Donovan Scored 
On Move to Lift 
Homework Ban 

(Continued from Page 1) 

trial work done in the home, thus leaving 
sweatshop conditions to flourish. 

He also expressed concern that by elim- 
inating protections in one of the seven in- 
dustries, the spillover of abuses into the 
other areas “is inevitable and unstoppable.’’ 

Clothing & Textile Workers officials 
stressed similar points. ACTWU President 
Murray H. Finley and Sec.-Treas. Jacob 
Sheinkman said, “The United States has 
long prided itself on ending the blight of 
sweatshops and child labor. Now, . more 
than 40 years after passage of the 1938 
Fair Labor Standards Act, the Reagan 
Administration has turned back the clock 
and opened the doors to inhumane abuses 
which characterize exploitive nations.” 

THE UNITED Knitwear Manufac- 
turers League denounced the deregulation 
as a danger to the four decades of progress 
in upgrading conditions in all sectors of 
the knitted apparel industry. 

“Donovan’s disregard for the ban and 
its purpose — to bring order, decency and 
industrial progress to the apparel trades 
in America — seriously threatens our do- 
mestic factories, our investment and our 
workers, and will promote the return of 
industrial homework to all branches of the 
apparel industry,” the league charged. 

Survey Finds 

Natural gas heating costs will rise an 
average 25 percent this winter and will go 
even higher if the Reagan Administration 
wins its campaign to decontrol natural 
gas prices, according to a survey of gas 
utilities by the Citizen/ Labor Energy 
Coalition. 

“Home heating costs continue to rise at 
a terrifying rate, far outstripping inflation,” 
said William R. Hutton, executive direc- 
tor of the National Council of Senior Citi- 
zens, who serves as the coalition’s secre- 
tary-treasurer. 

“EACH WINTER mor^ senior citizens 
and working households have trouble pay- 
ing their heating bills,” Hutton noted. “The 
Reagan Administration’s plan to acceler- 
ate this cost increase by decontrolling gas 
prices is cruel and unrealistic,” he de- 
clared. 

Some 60 percent of the nation’s house- 


dian members,” Joyce told the delegates. 

Williams will attend executive board 
meetings and play a key role in the newly 
established Canadian Advisory Board. That 
board will consist of representatives of 
Canadian local unions and provincial con- 
ferences and will enable BAC to better 
meet the needs of its Canadian members, 
Joyce said. 

Also, the delegates endorsed a proposal 
to hold BAC conventions every five years, 
rather than every four. That provision, 
however, will not take effect until after 
the 1985 convention. 

The convention also expressed its con- 
cerns at attacks on labor, moves to weaken 
prevailing wage and job safety laws and 
the Reagan Administration’s effort to cut 
back social security provisions. 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
brought delegates to their feet as he prom- 
ised to “oppose the attempt by the Reagan 
Administration and its allies to destroy the 
strength of the labor movement. I will 
oppose their attempt to apply antitrust 
laws against unions,” he said. 

PROPOSALS TO extend anti-extortion 
provisions of the Hobbs Act to union ac- 
tivity drew heavy criticism from Kennedy. 
“The criminal code should be used to fight 
crime. It should never be misused as a 
tool for anti-union employers and anti- 
union prosecutors to deny the legitimate 
rights of organizd labor,” he said. 

Kennedy charged that the Reagan Ad- 
ministration’s economic recovery program 
is simply a “policy of tax cuts for the 
privileged, social security cuts for the 
elderly and Davis-Bacon wage cuts for 
construction workers.” 

He suggested more of the Administra- 
tion’s tax benefits should be geared to 
workers, adding: “Conditions on a con- 
struction site are not quite as plush as 
they are in the deep-carpeted, well-deco- 
rated offices of David Stockman.” 

In other action, the convention approved 
an increase in monthly per capita dues of 
$1 on Jan. 1, 1983, and an additional $1 
the following year. The increases are ne- 
cesary to maintain funding levels for major 
BAC programs, including the death bene- 
fit fund. 

THE UNION’S Louis Sullivan Award 
for Architecture was presented to Henry 
Klein, senior partner in the Henry Klein 
Partnership in Mt. Vernon, Wash. 

The award and accompanying $5,000 
prize was established in 1970 to demon- 
strate the concern of masonry craftsmen 
for architectural and environmental qual- 
ity. It is presented every two years to the 
practicing U.S. or Canadian architect 
whose work is judged to best exemplify 
the ideas and accomplishments of Sullivan, 
the father of modern architecture. The 
award program is administered by the 
American Institute of Architecture, and 
winners are chosen by a jury selected 
jointly by the AIA and BAC. 


holds heat with gas. Costs for the Nov. 1- 
Mar. 31 heating season generally represent 
two-thirds to three-fourths of a home- 
owner’s gas bills for^ the year. 

“This study shows that, even without 
decontrol, most households will pay out 
more in higher gas bills this winter than 
they will get back in federal tax cuts,” 
said Robert M. Brandon, Washington di- 
rector of the Citizen/ Labor Energy Coali- 
tion. “Gas decontrol would mean a giant 
step backward in the standard of living of 
most Americans.” 

The survey shows that the typical resi- 
dential gas-heating customer will pay $398 
for gas this winter. Costs vary by region, 
with New England customers averaging 
$618 and homeowners in the west south 
central region averaging $210. The coali- 
tion warned that the Administration plan 
for immediate decontrol could push 1982- 


Waterloo, Iowa — Delegates to the Iowa 
State AFL-CIO’s 26th annual convention, 
bent on transforming the spirit of Solidari- 
ty Day into action, resolved to organize 
grassroots coalitions of likeminded groups 
to protest the impact of President Reagan’s 
economic policies on workers and their 
families. 

The 300 delegates — many of whom 
joined 2,000 other lowans in an 18-bus 
caravan to the Sept. 19 demonstration in 
the nation’s capital — approved a resolution 
calling for the establishment of chapters 
of the Iowa Progressive Coalition in every 
kev city and town in the state. A major 
task of the coalition is to draw up an 
“economic bill of rights” based on the 
principles of “jobs, dignity, and justice.” 
The coalition was formed about six months 
ago by leaders of Iowa minority, labor, 
church, civil rights, women’s, and other 
progressive groups. 

CHAPTERS ALREADY exist in several 
cities, and State AFL-CIO President James 
J. Wengert said he expects others to be 
formed bv the end of the year. The reso- 
lution called upon all affiliates to assist 
the State AFL-CIO in the establishment 
of still others. 

In a keynote address, Wengert warned 
that labor’s struggle for economic and 
social justice is “threatened by an Ad- 
ministration in the total service of the rich 
and powerful. Today we confront a con- 
centration of wealth, income, and power 
greater than at any time in our history.” 

Wengert added that “virtually every ele- 
ment of the progressive movement of this 
century is on the chopping block: social 
security, employment and training pro- 
grams, unemployment insurance benefits. 


83 gas bills to nearly double last year’s 
levels and even higher in some regions. 

“PRESIDENT REAGAN is in for a 
rude awakening if he tries to push through 
a bill to decontrol natural gas,” said How- 
ard Marlow of the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Legislation. 

“Even the Republicans are deserting him 
when they come face-to-face with angry 
constituents and the combined muscle of 
labor, senior, minority, farm and consumer 
groups.” 

The coalition, which represents over 200 
labor, senior and citizen-action organiza- 
tions, has joined the AFL-CIO in a na- 
tional Campaign to Stop Natural Gas 
Decontrol. The campaign’s sponsors aim 
to win pledges of opposition to decontrol 
from a majority of Congress. Already, 
one-fourth of the House of Representa- 
tives has lined up against decontrol. 


food stamps, the Davis-Bacon prevailing 
wage law, and worker safety and health 
laws.” 

HE DESCRIBED “Reaganomics” as an 
economic policy that steals from poor and 
working people and rewards rich individ- 
uals and corporations. “This is not the 
time to retreat,” he exhorted. “It is time 
to take a stand.” 

“We have to take concrete steps to 
build solidarity in our ranks and solidarity 
with our allies — the poor, the elderly, 
blacks, Hispanics, women, peace, farm, 
and religious organizations,” he said. “You 
can be sure that if we don’t unite around 
a program worth uniting for, corporate 
America will walk through the door and 
play its old game of divide and conquer.” 

Another resolution condemned irrespon- 
sible “runaway” corporations that have 
“levied great social and economic hard- 
ships on workers and the communities in 
which they reside for the sake of greater 
profits.” The measure called on corpora- 
tions to give advance notice before closing 
a factory and institute job retraining pro- 
grams. It recommended government take- 
over as a last resort to protect workers 
from economic disaster in the event of 
sudden plant closures. 

CONVENTION resolutions also called 
on the Administration to negotiate a new 
contract with members of the striking Pro- 
fessional Air Traffic Controllers Organiza- 
tion, pledged support to the PATCO Fam- 
ily Fund established by the AFL-CIO, and 
opposed any expansion of corporate tax 
breaks. 

Wengert and Sec.-Treas. Mark L. Smith 
both were elected to new terms of office. 
Also elected to the federation’s executive 
board were Executive Vice Pres. Donald 
P. Rowen, at-large Vice Presidents Lloyd 
J. Freilinger, William F. Fenton and Steve 
Elliott, and district Vice Presidents Leo 
Ruth. Pat Marshall, Gene Redmon, Perry 
Chapin, Ken Rains, and Joan Little. 

Auto Workers Rejoin 
Industrial Union Dept. 

The Auto Workers will rejoin the AFL- 
CIO Industrial Union Dept, on Nov. 1, 
ending a 13-year absence, lUD President 
Howard D. Samuel announced. 

UAW President Douglas A. Fraser said 
the Auto Workers are looking forward to 
working closely with the lUD in areas of 
vital interest to its members as well as to 
continued participation in coordinated bar- 
gaining and cooperative organizing efforts. 

The lUD was formed in 1955 and was 
headed by the late UAW President Walter 
Reuther until the union withdrew from 
the AFL-CIO in 1968. The UAW reaffili- 
ated with the AFL-CIO July 1. 


Gas Heating Costs Soaring 


Paj(e Eight 


AFL-CIO news, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 17, 1981 


*Bracero* Experience Cited 

Guest Worker Plan Hit 
As Threat to U.S. Jobs 


A so-called guest worker program would 
aggravate U.S. unemployment and under- 
mine wages and working conditions, the 
AFL-CIO warned a congressional com- 
mittee studying illegal immigration. 

AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald told the House Subcommittee on Im- 
migration, Refugees & International Law 
that a program to admit temporary work- 
ers from Mexico would not stop or even 
reduce illegal immigration as its supporters 
claim. 

THE REAGAN Administration has 
proposed a program that would allow up 
to 50,000 Mexican workers into the 
United States annually for a two-year trial 
period. 

“It is difficult to understand,” Oswald 
said, “wny a guest worker program is 
being considered today when we have 
eight million unemployed and an unem- 
ployment rate of 7.5 percent.” 

He branded as “fiction” the argument 
that temporary foreign workers are needed 
to fill jobs U.S. workers refuse to take. 
He cited the findings of a Los Angeles 
Times poll that 75 percent of unemployed 
Americans would apply for and accept 
menial work at or near the federal mini- 
mum wage. A job that pays $4.50 an hour, 
Oswald pointed out, yields an annual full- 
time income just barely above the poverty 
level for a family of four. 

HE REJECTED claims that wages are 
not an issue and that U.S. workers refuse 
to work in remote areas. The adequate 
supply of workers for construction of the 
Alaska pipeline demonstrate that wages 
“are indeed the issue,” Oswald told the 
committee. 

The AFL-CIO is convinced, he said, 
“that fair wages and decent working con- 
ditions would solve most so-called labor 
shortages, and we are even more con- 
vinced that the program being proposed 
would generate significantly more prob- 
lems that it would solve.” 

Oswald cited the failure of the. “bracero” 
guest worker program in effect from 1951 
to 1964. 


The program was introduced when the 
unemployment rate was at 3.3 percent, 
Oswald said, adding that when Congress 
abolished it in 1964 because unemploy- 
ment had topped 5 percent for seven years, 
there was evidence that the program was 
neither desirable nor successful. 

During the period when half a million 
braceros were legally entering the country, 
Oswald told the committee, “more than 
twice that number of illegals were being 
picked up by the Immigration & Natural- 
ization Service.” 

The federation economist also pointed 
to the European experience with guest 
working programs, noting that even when 
such programs were ended in 1973, illegal 
workers continued to enter the same coun- 
tries. 

RACIAL CLASHES between foreign 
and domestic workers competing for a 
limited number of jobs, almost unknown 
in Europe before the era of guest worker 
programs, are now widespread, Oswald 
noted. 

He told the committee the Administra- 
tion’s proposal recognizes some problems 
of guest worker programs, but its lan- 
guage covering wages and working stan- 
dards is too vague. For example, he said, 
the proposal says only that “normal” 
wages and conditions would apply, but it 
does not define “normal.” 

Excluding guest workers only from 
those states that certify there is an “ade- 
quate” supply of American workers might 
tempt states “to interpret ‘adequate’ to 
mean workers who will work at substan- 
dard pay under poor conditions,” Oswald 
pointed out. 

THE PROGRAM is not restricted to 
farm workers, he stressed, adding that 
workers could be brought in to work in 
textile and apparel industries, in hotels 
and restaurants and in both skilled and 
unskilled jobs. 

Although the Mexican government has 
not taken an official position, he noted, the 
temporary worker plan is opposed by the 
Mexican trade union movement. 


House Rejects Reagan Plan 
For AW ACS Sale to Saudis 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

In a letter to House members before the 
vote, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison warned that the sale would be 
“an act of irresponsibility and high poten- 
tial risk to the peace of the world.” 

THE PROPOSED arms sale — the big- 
gest arms deal in history — is still alive, 
however, since a 1974 amendment to the 
Arms Export Control Act provides that 
both houses of Congress must pass a joint 
resolution to block a sale. The outcome in 
the Senate, which has until Oct. 31 to act 
on the resolution, remains in doubt as 
Reagan has restated his intention to per- 
suade a majority of senators to go along 
with the measure. 

In an apparent move to give Reagan 



♦ more time to lobby senators, Senate Major- 
ity Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr. (R- 
Tenn.), postponed full Senate action on the 
measure from next Tuesday, as originally 
scheduled, until sometime during the week 
of Oct. 26. 

EVEN IF both congressional chambers 
reject the arms sale, Reagan might seek to 
invoke emergency powers to consummate 
the transaction. The Arms Control Act 
allows a President to go ahead unilaterally 
with a sale if he deems it “important to 
the security interests of the United States.” 

In the four hours of debate preceding 
the House vote, Rep. Lee Hamilton (D- 
Ind.), chairman of the House Near East 
subcommittee said that he feared the sale 
would “fuel, not dampen, the spiraling 
Middle East arms race.” 

Controversy over the proposed sale 
erupted immediately after the Reagan Ad- 
ministration announced it last March. 
Those supporting the AWACS sale argued 
that refusal to approve it would jeopardize 
continued U.S. access to Persian Gulf oil 
and lose Saudi Arabia as an ally. 

BUT IN MAY, the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council warned that, used in conjunction 
with enhanced F-15s, the radar planes 
would serve only to further destabilize the 
Middle East arms balance. 

“The assassination of Egyptian Presi- 
dent Anwar Sadat and indications of con- 
tinued unrest in the Middle East have not 
changed the APL-CIO position of opposi- 
tion to the proposed AWACS sale,” Leg- 
islative Director Denison said in his letter 
to congressmen. “Rather, our position has 
been reinforced.” 



GUEST WORKER program proposed by the Administration will increase U.S. 
unemployment and undermine wages and working conditions, AFL-CIO Re- 
search Director Rudy Oswald testifies at House subcommittee hearings. Appear- 
ing with him were left, Stephanie Bower, legislative representative of the Farm 
Workers, and Evelyn Dubrow, vice president and legislative representative of 
the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 


New Social Security Cutbacks 
Mar Senate Vote on Minimum 


(Continued from Page 1) 

reallocation of the revenues from the 
social security payroll tax, drawing from 
the healthier disability and hospital insur- 
ance trust funds to shore up the retirement 
and survivors’ insurance fund. This is ex- 
pected to keep the funds solvent at least 
through 1984, and possibly longer if the 
economy improves. If the financing prob- 
lems continue, the bill authorizes borrow- 
ing by the retirement fund from the dis- 
ability fund. 

But the Senate also set a heavy price for 
partially restoring the retirement benefit 
floor as it sought to recover $3.7 billion of 
the $5 billion estimated cost of that con- 
cession through other changes that would 
mean benefit reductions for many present 
and future retirees. These include: 

• A dollar-for-dollar offset in the mini- 
mum benefit for retired government work- 
ers by the amount their pensions exceed 
$300 a month, except that they would 
remain eligible for the amount of social 
security benefits actually “earned” through 
payroll contributions in non-government 
employment. 

• Extension of social security payroll 
taxes to the first six months of all sick pay. 

• Reduction of the maximum family 
benefit from 188 percent to 150 percent 
of the primary insurance amount in both 
retirement and survivor cases. 

A HOUSE-SENATE conference com- 
mittee must now attempt to reconcile the 
two bills before the elimination of the 
minimum benefit takes effect with the De- 
cember 1981 payment. The heavy House 
vote for full restoration points to a strong 
fight in the conference to wipe out the 
Senate cutbacks. 

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats 
reacted warily to Reagan’s proposal for a 
1 5-member task force on "the social secur- 
ity system’s long-term problems. 

House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, in a 

lillllilllllllllllilllllllliilllllillllllllllllllllllilllllllllilllll^ 

Operating Costs 1,5% 
For Social Security 

Although administrative costs of the 
Social Security Administration amount 
to only $1.50 for every $100 collected, 
a public opinion survey found that most 
people think the costs are much higher. 

The survey, based on interviews with 
2,000 adults, showed that respondents 
thought SSA spent a median of $53 for 
every $100 it receives from social se- 
curity taxes — nearly 35 times higher 
than the agency’s actual administrative 
expenses in 1980. 

Only 2 percent of the persons inter- 
viewed by the Roper Organization 
thought the administrative costs were 
below 10 percent of contributions. SSA 
noted that the 1.5 percent expense ratio 
for 1980 was one-tenth of 1 percent 
lower than it spent in 1979. 


letter to the President, expressed a willing- 
ness to go along with the task force con- 
cept, but rejected Reagan’s plan to have 
it report back in January 1983 so as to 
keep the issue out of the 1982 congres- 
sional elections. 

O’NEILL SAID he and Senate Majority 
Leader Howard Baker have agreed on an 
earlier report — by next Apr. 15 — after 
which he said Congress “should proceed 
promptly” with legislation. 

Under Reagan’s plan, the Senate and 
House leaders each would name five mem- 
bers of the “bipartisan” task force and 
the President would fill the remaining five 
slots. 

Job Losses Laid 
To ‘Zero Tariff 
Trade Program 

American industries and workers are 
being unnecessarily burdened by repeated- 
ly having to fight off unfair competition 
from a growing list of duty-free imports 
that are flooding U.S. markets, the AFL- 
CIO charged. 

Federation Research Director Rudy 
Oswald, in testimony before an interagency 
panel of the U.S. Trade Representative, 
traced the problem to the administration 
of the Generalized System of Preferences. 

ALTHOUGH special “zefo tariffs” on 
imports were designed to help developing 
countries, Oswald said the GSP program 
continues to cost U.S. jobs and production 
while benefiting countries and companies 
already enjoying industrial prowess in 
world trade. 

Oswald told the GSP Trade Policy sub- 
committee that a wide range of items pro- 
posed for exclusion from tariffs would 
have a dire impact on many U.S. workers. 

He noted that the list includes such items 
as leather and luggage, woven fabrics, 
fabricated steel, radio and electronic in- 
struments, food products, steel wire, dolls 
and bicycle tires, as well as many chemi- 
cals — all produced by a number of en- 
dangered U.S. firms. 

The tariff preference system is not free 
trade or fair trade, Oswald stressed. 

“THIS IS A special privilege given in 
U.S. law supposedly to help the neediest 
countries get some competence in trade 
without harming U.S. industries and work- 
ers. Instead, the list of items to be added 
suggests that there is no screening of the 
impact on the United States before the 
item is accepted for formal consideration,” 
he observed. 

Oswald noted further that countries 
such as Brazil and South Korea — ^which 
are not considered developing nations — 
can be granted special treatment unless 
contested by representatives of American 
firms and workers. 




Building Crafts Blast Interest Disaster 


Heavy Loss 
Of Jobs Cited 
By Kirkland 

By John R. Oravec 

Atlantic City, N.J. — Excessive interest 
rates are turning construction workers into 
unemployment statistics by the hundreds 
of thousands, AFL-CIO, Pres. Lane Kirk- 
land said in assailing the Reagan Admin- 
istration’s economic policy. 

Kirkland noted in an address to the 
Building & Construction Trades Dept, con- 
vention that 17 percent of the nation’s con- 
struction industry workforce was jobless 
last month — some 800,000 skilled crafts- 
men — and the toll is rising steadily. 

THE FALLOFF in construction jobs 
stems from an interest rate scheme, he told 
the BCTD delegates, that is robbing home 
buyers, crippling the housing industry and 
bankrupting small contractors. 



Recession Grips Nation, 
Output Drop Continues 




OUTDOOR SCULPTURE commemorating the Camp David peace accord 
between Egypt and Israel was dedicated at the George Meany Center for Labor 
Studies in Silver Spring, Md., with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and the 
ambassadors of Israel and Egypt as speakers. (Story, Page 3.) 


PATCO Slates Appeal 
In Decertification Case 


“What was criminal loan-sharking a few 
years ago is now standard practice,” he 
said, “and it is as damaging and demoral- 
izing to the producers as to the consumer. 
When the banker takes his 18 or 20 per- 
cent off the top, the builder either sells a 
shoddier product at a higher price or he 
goes under.” 

Kirkland charged that President Reagan 
failed to level with the American people 
when he campaigned for their votes last 
year. 

‘‘HE DID NOT try to win the hearts of 
building tradesmen or other workers with 
promises of higher and higher interest 
rates, fewer and fewer jobs, less and less 
concern for occupational health and safety 
and more and more tax breaks for banks 
and corporations.” 

Since 1969, Kirkland said, “when Rich- 
ard Nixon introduced his tight-money, 
high-interest rate policies under the tutel- 
age of Arthur Burns, the construction in- 
dustry has dragged along in a state of 
chronic recession'” 

And the new super-saver certificate re- 
cently introduced means even higher lend- 
ing rates, he warned. “Other gimmicks 
and formulas, such as variable interest 
rates, are not aimed at controlling inflation 
but only at insulating money lenders against 
inflation at the expense of homebuyers.” 

BCTD PRESIDENT Robert A. Geor- 
gine observed in his keynote address that 
over the years Administrations and Con- 
gresses have attempted without success to 
reduce interest rates through ineffective 
tactics. 

“Only one option has not been tried 
fully, the one we have repeatedly put for- 
ward for national debate: the regulation of 
credit,” he said. 

Georgine stressed the need for easing 
credit restrictions on productive invest- 
ments such as housing and new plant con- 
struction, improvements in existing fac- 
(Continued on Page 7) 


President Reagan’s insistence on a new 
round of spending cuts and his apparent 
hostility to a voting rights bill that has 
strong bipartisan support is shaking the 
once-solid lineup of congressional Repub- 
licans. 

In the House, a swing group of northern 
Republicans has balked at the Adminis- 
tration’s demand for an additional 1 2 
percent federal spending cut — on top of 
the drastic cutbacks already imposed. 

The first signs of resistance came early 
this month, when 37 Republicans joined 
all but 22 House Democrats to defeat an 
Administration attempt to make further 
cuts in appropriations for the Labor Dept., 
the Dept, of Health & Human Services 
and the Education Dept. 


The Professional Air Traffic Controllers 
announced the union will appeal the ac- 
tion of the Federal Labor Relations 
Authority stripping the union of its right 
to bargain for the 11,500 striking con- 
trollers employed by the FAA. 

PATCO Attorney Richard Leighton 
said that pending the appeal, the union 
would move quickly to seek a stay of the 
FLRA order from the U.S. Court of Ap- 
peals. 


Since the House has already passed the 
bulk of its appropriations bills, the next 
round will be fought in the Senate, where 
most of the spending bills are still in 
committee. 

Senate Republican leaders have already 
told White House officials that the cuts 
the President wants for the current fiscal 
year are too extreme. But rounds of nego- 
tiations involving House and Senate Re- 
publican leaders and the Administration 
found the President’s party unable to reach 
a consensus. Senate Republicans reportedly 
got the White House to agree to a pack- 
age of new taxes as a partial alternative 
to budget cuts. But House Republicans 
said they couldn’t go along with higher 
taxes and would rather risk a bigger budget 
deficit. 

(Continued on Page 8) 


The FLRA voted 2 to 1 to decertify 
PATCO as exclusive bargaining represen- 
tative of the controllers, upholding the 
finding of an administrative law judge that 
the union had violated the no-strike pro- 
vision of the law governing federal em- 
ployees by engaging in the strike, which 
began last Aug. 3. 

THE FLRA majority in the case con- 
sisted of Members Henry Frazier III and 
Leon B. Applewhaite. Dissenting from the 
revocation order was Chairman Ronald 
W. Haughton. 

While agreeing with the majority that 
the strike constituted an unfair labor prac- 
tice under federal law, Haughton said the 
record was insufficient to determine the 
appropriate remedy, whether it be revoca- 
tion of bargaining rights or other action. 
He would have remanded the case to the 
chief administrative law judge for further 
hearings. 

THE DECISION was issued just two 
days after union officials renewed their 
appeal to the Reagan Administration for 
reinstatement of the striking controllers 
and cited the spreading economic conse- 
quences of the Administration’s continuing 
refusal to do so. 

PATCO President Robert Poli told the 
House Post Office & Civil Service Com- 
mittee that since the walkout began, more 
than 25,000 airline employees have been 
laid off, while others have been forced to 
take pay cuts. 

“THE LAYOFFS are now spreading to 
associated industries, such as aircraft man- 
(Continued on Page 8) 


GOP Moderates Balking 
At Hard-Line Reaganomics 

By David L. Perlman 


GNP Down 
2nd Quarter 
In Succession 

By James M. Shevis 

The nation has sunk into its eighth 
business-cycle recession since the end of 
World War II, according to government 
statistics. 

“Real,” or infiation-adjusted, gross na- 
tional product^ — the total output of goods 
and services — contracted at a seasonally 
adjusted rate of six-tenths of 1 percent 
from July to September, the Commerce 
Dept, reported, the second consecutive 
quarterly decline in economic growth. 

At the same time, the government said ^ 
inflation was running at an annual rate 
of 9.4 percent, considerably above the 
second quarter’s 6.4-percent rate, with the 
rise attributed mainly to higher costs for 
food and services. 

THE DOWNTURN was shrugged off 
by Commerce Sec. Malcolm Baldrige as 
“almost necessary” to hold down inflation 
— and the AFL-CIO sharply dissented. 

“Joblessness, already high, is likely to 
grow further,” AFL-CIO Research Direc- 
tor Rudy Oswald warned. 

“The Administration’s only response,” 
he charged, “is to propose further budget 
cuts that will worsen the suffering of the 
growing numbers of unemployed. Mean- 
while, the tight monetary policies that the 
Administration has been encouraging for 
the past 10 months have severely crippled 
the housing and auto industries, and led to 
increased bankruptcies.” 

Oswald pointed out that the indicators 
(Continued on Page 8) 

Perkins Named 
COPE Director, 
Succeeds Barkan 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has 
announced that he will appoint John Per- 
kins as director of the federation’s Com- 
mittee on Political Education (COPE), 
succeeding Alexander E. Barkan who is 
retiring at the end of 1981. 

Perkins, 48, has served as a COPE area 
director, assistant director on the national 
staff and associate director since 1977. 

He joined the Carpenters Union in Elk- 
hart, Ind., in 1952 and served as business 
manager of his local for 1 1 years. He also 
was an officer of the Indiana State Build- 
ing & Construction Trades Council and 
held various offices in the local central 
labor body. 

Perkins joined the AFL-CIO national 
(Continued on Page 2) 


Page Two 


AFL-aO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 



NORDIC TRADE UNION LEADERS met with AFL-CIO Christensen of the Danish Federation of Trade Unions, dis- 
President Lane Kirkland, Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue cussed free trade unionism in Poland and the status of talks 
and other federation i leaders to discuss matters of mutual on AFL-CIO reaffiliation with the International Confedera- 
concern. The delegation, headed by Vice President Knud tion of Free Trade Unions among other topics. 

World Problems Explored 
By Nordic Unions, AFL-CIO 


Leaders of the AFL-CIO exchanged 
views with a delegation of trade union 
representatives from Nordic countries on a 
wide variety of topics of common concern 
at a two-day meeting at federation head- 
quarters. 

The meeting with the 16 delegates rep- 
resenting the Council of Nordic Trade 
Unions was marked by frank and open 
discussions on the status of AFL-CIO 
reaffiliation with the International Con- 
federation of Free Trade Unions, the 
situation in Poland where the independent 
labor federation, Solidarity, is struggling 
to survive, and other matters. 

THE COUNCIL of Nordic Trade Un- 
ions comprises the national labor federa- 
tions of Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, 
and Denmark. All but Iceland were rep- 
resented at the meeting. 

Bilateral discussions between the two 
labor bodies began last year with AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland’s visit with 
council leaders in Stockholm. It was de- 
cided at this year’s meeting to continue the 
exchanges. 

Other discussions focused on the eco- 
nomic situation in each of the countries 
represented, with particular emphasis on 
government policies toward unemployment 
and economic growth, and the position of 

Ohio Unionist Honored 
By State Arts Council 

Cincinnati — ^Ben Shouse, cultural arts 
committee chairman of the Cleveland 
AFL-CIO-sponsored United Labor Agen- 
cy, received a top award from the Ohio 
Arts Council for his service to the arts 
on behalf of organized labor. 

Shouse, who retired last year as presi- 
dent and business manager of Upholster- 
ers Local 48, has headed the arts com- 
mittee since its founding five years ago. 

Among its numerous community ser- 
vice projects, the committee produced a 
1976 hit play, John L. Lewis, Disciple of 
Discontent. 


trade unions with regard to government 
policies in their own lands. Delegates also 
discussed assistance to trade union move- 
ments in other countries, particularly 
South Africa. 

AFL-CIO LEADERS involved in the 
talks were Kirkland; Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue; the federation’s European 
representative, Irving Brown; Research Di- 
rector Rudy A. Oswald, Assistant to the 
President Dale Good, and Vice President 
Sol Chaikin, a member of the. federation’s 
International Affairs Committee and presi- 
dent of the Ladies’ Garment Workers. 

While in Washington, the delegation at- 
tended a dinner in its honor at the home 
of the Swedish ambassador. The visitors 
also spent two days in New York City, 
visiting Chaikin and other ILGWU offi- 
cers before returning to their own coun- 
tries. 

The Nordic trade unionists included 
Vice President Knud Christensen and In- 
ternational Sec. John Svenningsen of the 
Danish Federation of Trade Unions; 
President Kirsten Stallknecht and Hans 
Martens of the Danish Federation of Civil 
Servants & Salaried Employees Organize 
tion; President Pertti Viinanen and Inter- 
national Sec. Markku Jaeaeskelaeinen of 
the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Em- 
ployees; President Matti Kinnunem and 
International Sec. Kari O. Virtanen of the 
Central Organization of Finnish Trade 
Unions. 

ALSO, PRESIDENT GUnnar Nilsson 
and International Sec. Erik Karlsson of 
the Confederation of Swedish Trade Un- 
ions; President Lennart Rodstroem and 
International Sec. Sven Fockstedt of the 
Swedish Central Organization of Salaried 
Employees; International Sec. Kaare 
Sandegren of the Confederation of Nor- 
wegian Trade Unions, and Gen. Sec. Len- 
nart Forsebaeck and Sec. Christer Ahlen 
of the Council of Nordic Trade Unions. 
Labor Attache Sune Ahlen of the Swedish 
Embassy also was a member of the dele- 
gation. 


Illinois Adopts 
2- Year Interval 
For Conventions 

Chicago — Almost 2,000 delegates to 
the 24th annual convention of the Illinois 
AFL-CIO approved a series of constitu- 
tional amendments to streamline the op- 
eration of the state federation, reaffirmed 
legislative goals and attacked pK>licies of 
the Reagan Administration that put new 
burdens on working families and the poor. 

Convention speakers toasted the success 
of national Solidarity Day on Sept. 19 and 
Illinois Labor Lobby Day on June 2, 
the largest labor demonstrations ever held 
in Springfield and Washington. 

CHANGES IN the State AFL-CIO con- 
stitution provide for biennial instead of 
annual conventions starting in 1982, ad- 
justments in the apportionment of dele- 
gates to attend conventions, enlarging the 
executive board from 19 to 23 vice presi- 
dents and streamlining election procedures. 
The convention also added a Committee 
on Public Employment to the list of con- 
stitutional committees. 

Delegates called for legislation to ban 
the contracting out of work done by pub- 
lic employees and urged new efforts to 
pass a public employee collective bargain- 
ing bill. 

IN HIS KEYNOTE address. State AFL- 
CIO President Gibson stressed the need 
for labor unity to combat “the siren songs 
of the left and the right” and bring “the 
real issues into the workplaces and the 
homes of our members and to everyone 
else we can reach.” 

“Right and justice are on our side,” 
Gibson declared.” That was the message 
of Solidarity Day in Washington. . . .” 

In addresses to the delegates, the state’s 
U.S. senators both denounced proposals to 
cut back social security benefits. 

SEN. ALAN J. DIXON (D) said any 
Administration that would eliminate the 
$122 minimum benefit for the elderly “is 
an Administration without heart.” 

Sen. Charles H. Percy (R) assailed ef- 
forts “to pull the rug out from under those 
who have been pouring into the social se- 
curity system for 35 or 40 years and give 
them seven months notice that their re- 
tirement date on Jan. 1 is going to be 
changed.” 

Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-Ill.) cited the 
Solidarity Day demonstration as a loud, 
clear appeal for economic democracy. 
She said the right-wingers must be chal- 
lenged firmly to prevent America from 
returning to the days of unsafe working 
conditions, sweat shops, child labor and 
low pay. 

GOV, JAMES R. Thompson (R) said 
his top priority is jobs for the people of 
Illinois. Thompson, who will seek re-elec- 
tion next year, urged labor not to tie itself 
to one party and to support those who 
have backed the trade union movement’s 
program. 

National COPE Director A1 Barkan 
urged unions to start the 1982 election 
drive now and to initiate the dues check- 
off system to raise funds for COPE-en- 
dorsed candidates. 


Panel Rejects 
Move to Kill 
Usury Laws 

A labor-opposed bill that would invali- 
date state interest rate ceilings on con- 
sumer loans was rejected by a House sub- 
committee by an 8-1 vote despite Admin- 
istration endorsement. 

Consumer organizations had charged 
that federal pre-emption of state usury 
laws which limit interest rates on loans 
and credit purchases would amount to le- 
galization of “loan sharking.” 

CONGRESS LAST year exempted 
mortgage and auto loans from state in- 
terest rate ceilings on the assumption that 
this would make financing more rapidly 
available. In fact, AFL-CIO Legislative 
Director Ray Denison noted, the removal 
of interest ceilings contributed to an esca- 
lation of interest rates that left both the 
homebuilding and auto industries worse off. 

In a letter to the House Banking Sub- 
committee on Consumer Affairs that was 
considering the bill, Denison stressed that 
the real problem Congress should be ad- 
dressing is “the high level of interest rates,” 
rather than state laws that seek to hold 
interest costs down. 

Encouraging higher rates for consumer 
loans, he warned, would only “saddle con- 
sumers with high debt burdens and lead 
to increased bankruptcies.” 

ASSISTANT TREASURY Sec. Roger 
Mehle testified for the bill, contending that 
interest ceilings “dampen economic 
growth.” But a senior Republican on the 
subcommittee. Rep. Chalmers P. Wylie of 
Ohio, explained the near-unanimous rejec- 
tion of the measure by noting that con- 
stituents back home would be likely to per- 
ceive a vote for the bill as a vote for high 
interest rates. 

An interest pre-emption clause is, how- 
ever, included in an omnibus bill being 
considered by the Senate Banking Com- 
mittee. 

Perkins Named 
COPE Director, 
Succeeds Barkan 

(Continued from Page 1) 

staff in 1968 as COPE area director for 
Illinois and Indiana and moved to Wash- 
ington in 1971 as assistant director. 

He was the coordinator of the Sept. 19, 
1981, Solidarity Day demonstration. 

Barkan, 72, has been on the COPE staff 
since the merger of the AFL and CIO in 
1955, serving as an assistant director, 
deputy director and as director since 1963. 

A native of Bayonne, N.J., he graduated 
from the University of Chicago and joined 
the Textile Workers Organizing Commit- 
tee, predecessor of the Textile Workers 
Union of America, as an organizer. After 
service in the Navy he became veterans 
director for the CIO Community Services 
Committee, served as executive secretary 
of the New Jersey CIO Council and in 
1948 rejoined TWUA as political action 
director. He was named assistant director 
of COPE in 1955, deputy director in 1957. 



JOHN PERKINS 


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Corporate Dividends Surge 
To Record Rate for Quarter 

Corporate dividends climbed to a record level in the third quarter of 1981, 
despite a drop in the stock market and a generaUy v^eakening economy. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that American companies paid out divi- 
dends at an estimated rate of $62.9 billion in the July-Septemher period, a record 
for any quarter. The rate was nearly $1 billion higher than in the second quarter 
of the year and $6.2 biUion more than in the third quarter of last year. 

Thanks to the recent surge, dividend payments in the last year have risen 
about 11 percent, matching fairly closely the comparable increase in consumer 
price rises, the Journal noted. 

Interest income has recently risen even more sharply than dividend payments, 
a report by Merrill Lynch Economics Inc. shows, ^individuals will earn roughly 
$307 billion of interest income this year,” the report estimates. ‘‘This is twice 
the level of just four years earlier.” 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 


Page Three 


Merger Goals Pressed 

Solidarity Theme Marks 
Graphic Arts Sessions 



CLOSING RANKS in defense of organized labor’s gains for working people was 
a key theme of the Graphic Arts International Union’s convention in Detroit. 
GAIU President Kenneth J. Brown welcomes Auto Workers President Douglas 
Fraser for a major address to the delegates. 

Camp David Pact Inspires 
Sculpture at Labor Center 


Detroit — The Graphic Arts Interna- 
tional Union carried on two traditions at 
its third constitutional convention here. 

One was the transferring of its conven- 
tion from Honolulu to Detroit as an act 
of solidarity with the striking Air Traffic 
Controllers. This made it possible for dele- 
gates to travel by means other than air. 

IT WAS THE third time in 12 years 
that the GAIU had transferred its conven- 
tion site on short notice for trade union 
reasons. In 1969 and 1978, it switched 
convention sites because of strike action 
by hotel workers. 

The other tradition was the reaffirmed 
goal of unifying all graphic arts unionists 
into a single union. Major steps toward 
that objective were the merger of the 
Lithographer and Photoengraver unions in 
1964 and the subsequent merger with the 
Bookbinders union in 1972. The Lithog- 
rapher craft was the first to unionize in 
1882, so the convention was “on the eve” 
of the union’s centennial. 

Unanimously adopted by the delegates, 
the resolution directed GAIU officers to 
pursue the goal of unity. It said dramatic 
changes in technology and in corporate 
restructuring “mean the day is past when 
we can afford wasteful competitiveness of 
all the resources of all the unions in the 
graphic arts industry to obtain better con- 
tracts, greater job security and maximum 
unionization.” 

GAIU PRESIDENT Kenneth J. Brown 
extended convention invitations to the 
other unions in the industry to “compare 
notes” on the need “to close ranks at this 
most critical moment.” 

Newspaper Guild President Charles A. 
Perlik, Jr., expressed the hope to conven- 
tion delegates that all four unions would 
“sit down and talk — talk about what we 
can do to forge the kind of solid unity we 
desperately need. And then I hope some- 
thing else.” 

Robert L. Wartinger, a Typographical 
Union vice president, stated: “We can do 
a better job in the years ahead by working 
together— by ‘closing ranks.’ We are 
pledged to find the formulas and, hope- 


Everett, Wash. — ^The Washington State 
AFL-CIO combined a special constitu- 
tional convention with a series of work- 
shops on pressing issues to draw an over- 
flow number of delegates to a three-day 
meeting here. 

Only 300 delegates had been expected 
to attend the event. The actual turnout of 
more than 500 attested to the fact that 
the labor movement in Washington is ac- 
tive and growing, State AFL-CIO Presi- 
dent Marvin L. Williams observed. 

THE FEDERATION’S executive board 
called the meeting to update and amend 
the organization’s constitution, which had 
not been rewritten since the AFL-CIO 
merger in 1955. The delegates adopted 
nearly all of the proposed changes. 

Besides streamlining constitutional lan- 
guage and attending their choice of seven 
different workshops, the delegates ap- 
proved a series of resolutions. The mea- 
sures included support for a proposed 
boycott of Cudahy Bar-S products for the 
company’s union-busting tactics at its 
Seattle plant, an initiative campaign next 
year to roll back interest rates in the state, 
and plans for a labor rally at the state 
capitol during the 1982 legislative session. 

One of the workshops dwelt on the 
critical need for effective plant-closure 
legislation to protect workers faced with 
sudden job loss. The need for such protec- 
tion has become starkly evident in Wash- 
ington, where the important lumber and 
sawmill industry is being devastated by the 
crippling construction slowdown. Unem- 
ployment rates of 20 and 30 percent in 


fully, the elusive merger formula that will 
again make us one.” 

IN ANOTHER major address. Auto 
Workers President Douglas A. Fraser 
branded the Reagan Administration a 
“government of the rich, by the rich and 
for the rich” and accused President Rea- 
gan of “making something of his victory 
that it isn’t. Reagan did not get a mandate 
to repeal the New Deal, Fair Deal, Great 
Society, he said’. 

However, Fraser added, “the Democrats 
are covered with no glory, as shown by 
their voting windfall tax credits for big 
oil and the wealthy.” 

To complement the organizing program 
of the union, for which the members last 
year voted a 50-cent per capita increase 
to add six more fulltime organizers, the 
convention approved a new education pro- 
gram that will go to a unionwide member- 
shin referendum during November. 

Based on statistics showing that 50 j>er- 
cent of GAIU members have been in the 
union less than five years and 30 percent 
less than three years, the proposal would 
divide the education department into two 
divisions. The craft training division, 
which has established 60 local training 
programs since 1966, will remain. A new 
division would concentrate on shop stew- 
ard and membership education. 

The convention marked the end of the 
nine-year merger agreement that created 
GAIU in 1972. The original GAIU Inter- 
national Council had 50 members (18 offi- 
cers and 32 councilors). It will now be 
reduced to 24 (10 officers and 14 coun- 
cilors), with all posts open to any craft. 

Brown, first elected to his post in 1960, 
is unopposed for re-election as president, 
as are five of seven vice presidents. For 
the 14 councilor posts, there are 24 can- 
didates. Elections will be by membership 
referendum in December. 

Two veteran leaders announced their 
retirement as of Mar. 31, 1982. They are 
Sec.-Treas. Joseph Heilman and Vice Pres- 
ident Edward V. Donahue, who heads the 
union’s political and legislative activities. 


lumber-dependent towns are common, 
delegates were told. 

ANOTHER TOPIC dealt with the state’s 
current financial crisis. Gov. John Spell- 
man has called a special session of the 
legislature next month to find a way out 
of the financial morass that the state now 
finds itself in. Republicans have called for 
cutbacks in programs and services for the 
needy, while the State AFL-CIO is seek- 
ing more equitable solutions. 

A workshop on the issue of sex harass- 
ment and comparable worth was especially 
timely. The State AFL-CIO, along with 
Council 28 of the State, County & Mu- 
nicipal Employees, recently filed sex dis- 
crimination charges against the state with 
the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission on behalf of nine individual 
female plaintiffs. 

The charges cite the state’s own pay 
equity studies showing that male state em- 
ployees are paid 22-35 percent more than 
females in job classes requiring the same 
levels of skill, effort, and responsibility. 

WORKSHOPS BY State AFL-CIO Pres- 
ident Williams and Sec.-Treas. Larry Ken- 
ney outlined labor’s goals in Washington 
State and focused on the federation’s fi- 
nancial picture. 

Kenney said that the success of this 
year’s workshops could make them a 
feature of the federation’s off-year con- 
ventions. Regular conventions will con- 
tinue to be held every two years, he noted. 


The AFL-CIO pledged its continued 
support for the security of Israel while at 
the same time reaffirming its commitment 
to a lasting Middle East peace as en- 
visioned in the Camp David agreement. 

Federation President Lane Kirkland 
warned that “terrorism is the enemy of 
civilization,” the big threat to peace. 

AT A CEREMiONY at the George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies dedicat- 
ing a steel sculpture to commemorate the 
Camp David peace accord, Kirkland noted 
that the assassination of Egyptian Presi- 
dent Anwar Sadat has once again given 
the world a glimpse of the “terrible reality 
of the terrorism that would destroy not 
only great men but an entire nation and 
people.” And he vowed: 

“The AFL-CIO will vigrously oppose 
any actions by oiir government that lend 
legitimacy and respectability to terrorist 
organizations — whether or not they rec- 
ognize Israel’s right to exist.” 

Dedication of the three-piece sculpture, 
created by noted American artist Vivienne 
Thaul Wechter, had been scheduled before 
Sadat’s assassination. In the wake of 
Sadat’s death, the ceremony took on a 
special meaning, Kirkland observed. 

“ANWAR SADAT’S faith in humanity 
cost him his life,” he said. “As we stand 
before this work of hope, we are reminded 
that all who share that hope are also 
victims of the assassins who destroyed the 
peacemaker.” 

Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf A. Ghor- 
bal, who spoke at the dedication cere- 
monies along with Israeli Ambassador 
Ephraim Evron, said that while Sadat is 
gone “his legacy is with us and will so 
continue. . . The peace that he charted 
and we unanimously support will continue, 
I daresay, with more conviction and more 
vigor.” 

The overwhelming election of Hosni 
Mubarak to succeed Sadat as president of 
Egypt “confirms our unwavering stand to 
enhance and maintain the Camp David 
accord as a framework of a comprehen- 
sive peace that encompasses all the peo- 
ples and countries in the area,” he said. 

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Mediation Service 
Shuts 4 Offices 

The Federal Mediation & Concilia- 
tion Service announced consolidation of 
its eight regional offices into four geo- 
graphical areas to conform to the Rea- 
gan Administration’s order for cutbacks 
in government agencies. 

The headquarters office for each area, 
Eastern, Southern, Central, and West- 
ern, will be situated in New York, At- 
lanta, Chicago, and San Francisco, 
respectively. 


Ambassador Evron warned that the Pal- 
estine Liberation Organization can never 
be a partner to the peace process because 
it is committed to the destruction of Israel. 
“There can never be any dialogue with 
people who are committed and determined 
to eliminate you,” said Evron. 

The ambassador said the Israelis were 
encouraged by Mubarak’s expressed inten- 
tion to “follow in the road to peace that 
was charted by his illustrious predecessor,” 
and that the peace talks are continuing. 
But he cautioned that peace means more 
than words. 

“THERE CAN BE no peace if Israel is 
weakened, if Israel is put in a situation 
where it cannot defend itself. A weak 
Israel is a temptation and an invitation 
to war,” Evron said, “and therefore secur- 
ity is an indivisible part of the peace 
process.” 

Formally titled “Leap into Faith — 
Homage to the Camp David Accord,” the 
commemorative sculpture was crafted by 
members of the Steelworkers in Pitts- 
burgh and assembled early this month as 
a permanent addition to the Meany Center. 
Its creator describes the work as “a 
tangible affirmation of the always possible 
strength of the human spirit.” 

Continued Ban 
Urged on Export 
Of Alaskan Oil 

Existing restrictions on ex|>orts of crude 
oil from Alaska’s North Slope are in the 
nation’s interest and should be retained, 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland urged 
in a letter to Interior Sec. James G. Watt. 

Kirkland expressed concern that a Cab- 
inet committee is considering supporting 
legislation that would lift export restric- 
tions so that Alaskan oil could be sold to 
Japan or “swapped” for oil from other 
nations. 

CONGREISS HAS mandated that Alas- 
kan oil be kept in the United States, with 
rare exception. But Kirkland noted that 
repeated pressures to allow its export have 
discouraged the construction of new West 
Coast refineries and west-to-east pipeline 
facilities. 

In any emergency, Kirkland stressed, 
the United States “will need all the oil it 
can get” and shouldn’t have to depend on 
foreign sources. 

Further, he noted, consumers are un- 
likely to benefit from any export profits, 
and the economy will suffer “from de- 
creased employment, oil transportation 
and shipbuilding.” 


Workshop Sessions Highhght 
Washington State Convention 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 


Our Backs^ 

O KAY, now government is off our backs. It happened Oct. 1, 
the start of a new federal fiscal year, when Reagan budget 
and tax cuts went into effect. 

It’s a great feeling, isn’t it? Getting the government off your 
back? Following is a partial listing of whom the government is 
getting off the backs of. 

• Government is now off the backs of more than one million 
jobless workers who’d previously been eligible for extended un- 
employment benefits. No such benefits will be loaded on their 
backs anymore. 

• Government is now off the backs of 234,000 workers, job- 
less because of imports. Special unemployment benefits are no 
longer available to them. 

• Government is now off the backs of millions (nobody’s sure 
just how many) who will lose their eligibility for health care 
under the Medicaid program. Most of these are the working poor. 
In fact, most of those whose backs government is getting off of 
in a whole range of programs are the working poor. 

• GOVERNMENT is now off the backs of some 340,000 
workers who held jobs under the CETA program and whose jobs 
provided needed community services. 

Government is now off the backs of several hundred thou- 
sand college students and students-to-be — ^most of them the chil- 
dren of workers — ^who now will be ineligible for low-interest 
loans for their education. 

• Government is now off the backs of more than 400,000 fami- 
lies previously getting help under Aid to Families With Dependent 
Children (another 258,500 families will have benefits reduced). 

• Government is now completely off the backs of 875,000 
families that previously got food stamps and partly off the backs 
of 1.4 million families representing five million persons who’ve 
had their food stamp benefits reduced. 

• Government is now off the backs of millions of elderly 
Americans. The deductible amount of hospital costs they must 
pay under Medicare rises 27 percent. 

— Memo from COPE. 


^Almoist Necessary’ 

I F THERE is any chagrin on the part of the Reagan Adminis- 
tration that the first fruit of its economic policy is a recession, 
you won’t find it in the reaction of Secretary of Commerce Malcolm 
Baldrige. 

“A slight recession,” he told reporters, is “almost necessary 
right now.” 

The policies that put the economy into reverse, he suggested, 
are what the nation needs to hold down inflation. 

With no visible regret, Mr. Baldrige said the economy’s “slug- 
gishness” is likely to continue. “I don’t think there is any way 
out of it.” 

THERE IS, of course, a way out through the job-creating, 
economic stimulus programs that previous Administrations, both 
Democratic and Republican, have used to counter unemployment. 
But this is not the way of the Reagan Administration. 

Unfortunately, for workers without jobs because of an “almost 
necessary” recession, it is “almost necessary” to eat and pay the 
rent. 





Official Weekly Publication 


of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

* Deceased. 


Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
Fred J. Kroll * 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, October 24, 1981 No. 43 | 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 



Foot in the Door 



Going Down in Flames 


Rise in Arson for Hire Reflects 
Continuing Decline of Economy 


By Gus Tyler 

F or many businessmen, the light they 

see at the end of the tunnel is the burning of 
their own business property. 

Whether landlords, manufacturers or small 
storekeepers, they look to the flames for their 
financial salvation. Faced with nothing but loss 
upon loss, they seek the only gain of which they 
can be certain: collect insurance. 

AS IN SO MANY other social phenomena, 
one of the surest indicators of what is happening 
to our society is what goes on in the world of 
crime, where arson is the most rapidly growing 
business in the criminal world. Last year arson 
cost the nation $15 billion. The sum is big, but 
it will soon be bigger. Arson is rising at the rate 
of 20-25 percent a year. 

Not all arsonists, of course, are in it for the 
buck. There are just plain nuts, firebugs, who 
like to set things aflame just to see the flash and 
the flare. 

The number of such psychos, however, does 
not rise appreciably. The great increase in arson 
comes from those who apply the torch for prbfit. 
Those crimes are rising even more rapidly than 
arson in general. 

EVIDENCE THAT arson is big time is the 
change in the entrepreneurs now engaged in the 
burning business. At one time, the arsonist was 
a loner, some individual who, for a couple of 
bucks, would pour the gasoline and strike the 
match. 

That is no longer so; arson is now the jurisdic- 
tion of organized crime. Which means that setting 
fires for profit is a highly profitable business, for 
otherwise it would not be worth the time and 
trouble of the biggies to enter the racket. 

Organized crime people are also, of course, 
more reliable folk with whom to deal. They are 
professional; they leave fewer telltale clues; they 
are not likely to squeal, fearing that they will be 
punished for hurting the good name of the “fam- 
ily” for whom they work. 

ARSON IS on the rise because there are more 
arsonists around and more people who want to 
hire the torch for profit. And both factors are 
basically caused by the same fact: an economy in 
trouble. 


The high unemployment rate puts more people 
on the street who are ready to make a buck by 
arson. The failing economy puts more business 
people in the desperate position where they try 
to “liquidate” their assets by burning down their 
property to collect insurance. 

THE NECESSARY correlation between the 
downward movement of the economy and the 
upward movement of crime — such as arson — is 
such that the number of fires-for-profit might well 
be used as a key indicator. 

Viewed in this manner, it is more than 
metaphor to suggest that our economy may go 
down in flames. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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'Terrorism Itself 
Is the Enemy . . . ' 

Anwar Sadat’s faith in humanity cost him 
his life. As we stand before this work of hope 
we are reminded that all who share that hope 
are also victims of the assassins who destroyed 
the peacemaker. 

They have reminded us of the boundless 
brutality that animates their cause.. They have 
revealed the heart of darkness into which they 
would draw the world. 

In the assassination of Anwar Sadat the 
world has once again glimpsed the terrible 
reality of the terrorism that would destroy not 
only great men but an entire nation and people. 
The AFL-CIO will vigorously oppose any ac- 
tions by our government that lend legitimacy 
and respectability to terrorist organizations — 
whether or not they recognize Israel’s right to 
exist. One cannot pick and choose the agents of 
terrorism that one will support or reject. It is 
terrorism itself, stripped of its political rational- 
izations, that is the enemy of civilization. 

In dedicating this work of art, we rededicate 
ourselves to the spirit it symbolizes and the 
course it commends. 

— AFL-CIO Lane Kirkland at dedication of 
sculpture commemorating Camp David peace 
accord. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 


Page Five 


Safeguards Termed Inadequate 

‘Guest Worker’ Plan Attacked 
As Reviving Bracero Program 


The following is from AFL-CIO testimony be- 
fore the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immi- 
gration, Oct. 14, 1981. 

T he REAGAN Administration’s proposal to 
import temporary labor from Mexico is 
euphemistically labelled a “guest worker” pro- 
gram. 

It would provide for up to 50,000 guest work- 
ers to be admitted annually for a two-year trial 
period. The Labor Dept, would be responsible for 
allocating the 50,000 job slots among the states 
which certify that there is an inadequate supply 
of American workers. 

We had a guest worker program in this coun- 
try for some 13 years — from July 1951 to De- 
cember 1964. That program, known as the 
bracero program, was instituted when the unem- 
ployment rate was 3.3 percent and there were 2 
million unemployed persons in the United States. 

^ AT THAT TIME, the case was made that with 
a relatively small number of unemployed, it was 
" virtually impossible to meet the seasonal needs of 
employers who use temporary workers for limited 
periods of time. 

The bracero program was abolished by the 
Congress in 1964, in part, at least, because un- 
employment had remained at or above 5 percent 
for a seven-year period, and there was reason to 
believe that a guest worker program, with its 
attendant problems, was neither essential nor 
desirable. 

If Congress eliminated the bracero program 
when unemployment had risen to 3.8 million 
workers and the unemployment rate was 5.2 per- 
cent, it is difficult to understand why a “guest 
worker” program is being considered today when 
we have 8 million unemployed and an unemploy- 
ment rate of 7.5 percent. 

We are aware that there may be a few prob- 
lems in recruiting seasonal workers for certain 
jobs even when the pool of unemployed workers 
is 8 million, but we insist that the problem is one 
of wages and working conditions. 

We urge you to reject the undocumented but 
: oft-repeated charge that temporary foreign work- 
ers must be brought into the United States to take 
jobs which American workers refuse to take. The 
charge is a fiction. 

THE PROPOSAL for a guest worker program 
notes that “normal” wage and working standards 
would apply but does not define “normal.” In 
fact, despite considerable experience in the field 
of labor standards, I have never encountered the 
word “normal” as applied to a standard for wages 
or working conditions. 


Our experience with guest worker programs 
would lead us to require more than an assertion 
by a state that they require guest workers. We 
are not reassured by the requirement that guest 
worker jobs would be excluded in a state only if 
the state certifies that there is an adequate supply 
of American workers. 

I do not wish to sound cynical but I can fore- 
see instances in which states might well interpret 
the word “adequate” to mean workers who will 
work at substandard pay under poor conditions 
and, lacking a pool of such workers, would feel 
justified in asking for guest workers. 

There is nothing in the program which restricts 
it to farm workers. Workers could be brought in 
to work in the textile and apparel industries as 
well as in hotels and restaurants, and in skilled 
and unskilled jobs. 

WE NOTE that the advocates for this program 
see it as a means of improving relations between 
Mexico and the United States. However, the 
National Committee for Full Employment, a 
coalition of church, civil rights, Hispanic Ameri- 
cans and labor groups, has said that “it makes 
no sense to bring additional workers to the United 
States when there are 8 million unemployed.” 

Other groups have opposed the program be- 
cause they foresee the creation of a group of 
employees ripe for exploitation. 

To my knowledge, the Mexican government 
has not taken an official position on the issue but 
the Mexican trade-union movement has indicated 
opposition to the program. 

Also, Mexican officials have expressed concern 
not only that they might lose workers with needed 
skills but also concern with the social problems 
which would be generated by requiring that guest 
workers leave their spouses and minor children 
at home. 

THE AFL-CIO has frequently stated its sup- 
port for a coordinated, integrated immigration 
policy. 

We have also endorsed the use of strong and 
effective federal sanctions against employers who 
hire illegal immigrants, including injunctions 
backed by criminal penalties for repeat violators. 

We do not view the guest worker program as a 
means of stopping or even reducing illegal immi- 
gration. We see it only as aggravating our already 
serious unemployment problem and as a tool for 
undermining wages and working conditions. 

A thorough review and overhaul of the na- 
tion’s immigration policy is long overdue. The 
AFL-CIO pledges that organized labor will taken 
an active role in the effort to pass constructive 
legislation. 


Policies Not Working 

Downturn in Economy Linked 
To Reagan’s Failed Programs 


T he ADMINISTRATION’S economic plan 
has plunged the economy to a new low that 
is hurting millions of ordinary Americans while 
high-income individuals and corporations reap in- 
creasing benefits, AFL-CIO Research Director 
Rudy Oswald charged in a network radio inter- 
view. 

Stressing that half-a-million more workers have 
hit the unemployment rolls in the last two months 
and that bankruptcies are running substantially 
ahead of last year, Oswald scored President 
Reagan’s new push for more budget cuts “just 
two months after he had signed a bill that he 
said contained more than everything he wanted.” 

In effect, the President is admitting that “his 
program of budget cuts and tax policies is not 
working the way he predicted it would work,” 
Oswald asserted. He was questioned by reporters 
on the AFL-CIO public affairs program, Labor 
News Conference. 

Oswald said that with “very minor changes” 
in the tax cuts, the President could get the $16 
billion he wants without “compounding the prob- 
lems” caused by undercutting essential programs. 


He urged a $700 cap on the individual tax cuts 
scheduled for 1982, return of the business tax 
investment credit to 7 percent, and repeal of the 
“windfall oil profits loophole that was put into 
the recent tax changes.” 

The $700 tax cut cap would affect only those 
individuals with incomes over $42,000, Oswald 
pointed out, and assure that individuals with very 
high incomes would bear a fairer share of the 
burden of balancing the budget. He noted that 
under the “open-ended” cuts now scheduled, 
many very wealthy persons would get cuts of 
$2,000 and more. 

OSWALD ALSO URGED that the makeup of 
the Federal Reserve Board, which sets the na- 
tion’s basic monetary policy, be changed to make 
it more responsive to the agricultural, labor and 
“broad consumer interests of this country.” 

He said the current board is a “reflection of a 
group of bankers and persons who previously 
served in congressional or administration posts.” 

Such a body, he protested, ignores the vast 
majority of Americans, who are workers, farmers 
and consumers. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

P RESIDENT REAGAN and the men around him keep repeat- 
ing that the federal government has grown out of control and 
the country is in the greatest economic mess since the 1930s. 
They say the “mess” will disappear if federal regulations of busi- 
ness are scrapped and the federal tax burden cut. 

If Reagan’s economic theory turns out to be sound, a score 
of trade union and university economists will be as surprised as 
they are relieved. The group gathered for an economic policy 
seminar recently at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies 
in Silver Spring, Md. They came away convinced that the facts 
fail to support the President. 

Here are some of the examples they cited of Reagan’s assump- 
tions that ignore the realities. 

• Reagan — The federal government is growing out of control. 

Reality — Federal employment and federal purchases of goods 
and services actually have been declining when measured against 
total wage and salary employment and the total of all goods and 
services- produced in this country (GNP). 

Federal employment was 4.19 percent of all wage and salary 
employment in 1960, but only 3.16 percent in 1980. Federal 
employment declined from 6.9 percent of total U.S. employment 
in 1955 to 4.1 percent in 1979. Between 1969 and 1979, the total 
number of federal employees did not increase at all. 

Federal purchases were 10.60 percent of GNP in 1960, 9.64 
percent in 1970, and only 8.77 percent in 1980. 

• Reagan — The federal debt has been increasing dangerously. 

Reality — The federal debt has increased much less than most 
other debt since 1950. In 1979, it was only three times higher 
than in 1950. The relative numbers for other forms of debt were: 
consumer installment, 14 times more; mortgage debt, 16 times 
higher; corporate debt, 13 times, and state and local government 
debt, 14 times more. 

• Reagan — Government efficiency will be increased and gov- 
ernment costs reduced if responsibility can be shifted from the 
federal to state and local governments. 

Reality — The growth in government expenditures and employ- 
ment has been mostly at the state and local levels. Between 1 949 
and 1979, federal government employment increased by 850,000 
or 41 percent while state and local governments increased em- 
ployment by 9.7 million or 400 percent. 

Between 1958 and 1977, purchases of goods and services by 
the federal government increased from $53.9 billion to $143.9 
billion or 167 percent. In the same period, state and local gov- 
ernment expenditures increased from $44.3 billion to $270 bil- 
lion or 500 percent. 

PROF. RAY MARSHALL of the University of Texas, former 
Secretary of Labor, summed up the seminar’s misgivings about 
the Reaganite faith in private industry as an economic cure-all: 

“While the private market can be a marvel at promoting short- 
run efficiency, it cannot do many things. It cannot prevent reces- 
sion and inflation or create the environment for relatively free 
trade and competition. Markets also have difficulty in protecting 
the environment, and the health and safety of workers, eliminating 
discrimination, promoting equal opportunities, fostering long-run 
basic research and innovation and ensuring national security.” 

When the George Meany Center seminar ended, the consensus 
was that America’s future depends on a sensible division of re- 
sponsibilities among government, the private market and mechan- 
isms such as collective bargaining that promote cooperative prob- 
lem-solving. 



MILLIONS OF ORDINARY Americans are hurt while wealthy 
persons and corporations reap bigger breaks as the Adminis- 
tration subbornly holds to its unwise economic plan that has 
plunged the economy into an ever-deepening low, AFL-CIO 
Research Director Rudy Oswald, center, charged on Labor 
News Conference. He was questioned by Jerome Cahill, left, 
of the New York Daily News and Drew Von Bergen of United 
Press International. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs 
program is aired on Mutual radio. 


'I© 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 


Key House Rollcalls on Voting Rights 


The House defeated all weakening amendments and passed a labor 
supported bill extending enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights 
Act on Oct. 5, sending the measure to the Senate. 

Column I shows the 277-132 defeat of an amendment that would 
have abolished the present requirement that suits seeking to end court 
supervision of elections must be heard by a three-judge federal panel 
in the District of Columbia, rather than in the state affected. Right votes 
(R) were cast by 202 Democrats and 75 Republicans. Voting wrong 
(W) were 30 Democrats and 102 Republicans. 

Column II is the 284-128 defeat of an amendment to drop the re- 
quirement that bilingual election material must be provided in counties 
with significant Hispanic or other language-minority groups. Voting 
right were 219 Democrats and 65 Republicans; 16 Democrats and 112 
Republicans voted wrong. 

Column III shows the 389-24 vote to pass the bill. On this, 229 
Democrats and 160 Republicans were right; 7 Democrats and 17 Re- 
publicans were wrong. 

PR — paired right; PW — paired wrong; A — absent and not paired. 


I n m 


ALABAMA 


1 . Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

R 

2. Dickinson (R) 

W 

W 

W 

3. Nichols (D) 

w 

W 

W 

4. Bevill (D) 

w 

W 

R 

5. Flippo (D) 

w 

R 

R 

6. Smith (R) 

w 

W 

R 

7. Shelby (D) 

w 

W 

W 

ALASKA 



AL Young (R) 

R 

R 

R 

ARIZONA 



1. Rhodes (R) 

W 

R 

R 

2. Udall (D) 

R 

R 

R 

3. Stump (D) 

W 

W 

W 

4. Rudd (R) 

W 

W 

W 

ARKANSAS 



1. Alexander (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. Bethune (R) 

R 

R 

R 

3. Hammerschmidt(R)R 

W 

R 

4. Anthony (D) 

R 

R 

R 

CALIFORNIA 



1. Chappie (R) 

W 

W 

R 

2. Clausen (R) 

W 

R 

R 

3. Malsui (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. Fazio (D) 

R 

R 

R 

5. Burton, John (D) 

A 

A 

A 

6. Burton, Phillip (D) R 

R 

R 

7. Miller (D) 

R 

R 

R 

8. Dell urns (D) 

R 

R 

R 

9. Stark (D) ' 

R 

R 

R 

10. Edwards (D) 

R 

R 

R 

11. Lantos (D) 

R 

R 

R 

12. McCloskey (R) 

R 

W 

R 

13. Mineta (D) 

R 

R 

R 

14. Shumway (R) 

W 

W 

R 

15. Coelho (D) 

R 

R 

R 

16. Panetta (D) 

R 

R 

R 

17. Pashayan (R) 

A 

A 

A 

18. Thomas (R) 

PW 

PW A 

19. Lagomarsino (R) 

W 

W 

R 

20. Goldwater (R) 

W 

R 

R 

21. Fiedler (R) 

A 

A 

A 

22. Moorhead (R) 

W 

W 

R 

23. Beilenson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

24. Waxman (D) 

R 

A 

R 

25. Roybal (D) 

R 

R 

R 

26. Rousselot (R) 

W 

W 

W 

27. Dornan (R) 

R 

R 

R 

28. Dixon (D) 

R 

R 

R 

29. Hawkins (D) 

R 

R 

R 

30. Danielson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

31. Dymally(D) 

R 

R 

R 

32. Anderson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

33. Grisham (R) 

W 

W 

R 

34. Lungren (R) 

W 

W 

R 

35. Dreier(R) 

W 

W 

R 

36. Brown (D) 

R 

R 

R 

37. Lewis (R) 

A 

R 

R 

38. Patterson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

39. Dannemeyer (R) 

PW PW A 

40. Badham (R) 

W 

W 

R 

41. Lowery (R) 

W 

W 

R 

42. Hunter (R) 

R 

W 

R 

43. Buigener (R) 

W 

W 

R 

COLORADO 



I. Schroeder (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. Wirth (D) 

R 

R 

R 

3. Kogovsek (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. Brown (R) 

W 

W 

R 

5. Kramer (R) 

W 

R 

R 

CONNECTICUT 



1. Vacancy 

2. Gejdenson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

3. DeNardis (R) 

R 

R 

R 

4. McKinney (R) 

R 

R 

R 

5. Ratchford (D) 

R 

R 

R 

6. Moffett (D) 

PR 

R 

R 

DELAWARE 



^L Evans (R) 

W 

W 

R 

FLORIDA 



1. Hutto (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. Fuqua (D) 

R 

R 

R 

3. Bennett (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. Chappell (D) 

W 

W 

R 

5. McCollum (R) 

W 

R 

R 


6. Young (R) W 

7. Gibbons (D) R 

8. Ireland (D) R 

9. Nelson (D) R 

10. Bafalis (R) W 

11. Mica (D) 'R 

12. Shaw(R) W 

13. Lehman (D) R 

14. Pepper (D) A 

15. Fascell (D) R 

GEORGIA 

1. Ginn (D) R 

2. Hatcher (D) W 

3. Brinkley (D) W 

4. Levitas (D) W 

5. Fowler (D) R 

6. Gingrich (R) W 

7. McDonald (D) W 

8. Evans (D) W 

9. Jenkins (D) W 

10. Barnard (D) W 

HAWAH 

1. Heftel (D) R 

2. Akaka (D) R 

IDAHO 

1. Craig (R) W 

2. Hansen (R) W 

ILLINOIS 

1 . Washington (D) R 

2. Savage (D) R 

3. Russo (D) R 

4. Derwinski (R) R 

5. Fary (D) R 

6. Hyde (R) W 

7. Collins (D) R 

8. Rostenkowski (D) R 

9. Yates (D) R 

1 0. Porter (R) R 

11. Annunzio (D) R 

12. Crane, Philip (R) PW 

13. McClory (R) W 

14. Erlenborn (R) W 

15. Corcoran (R) R 

16. Martin (R) R 

17. O’Brien (R) W 

18. Michel (R) W 

19. Railsback (R) R 

20. Findley (R) R 

21. Madigan (R) W 

22. Crane, Dan (R) W 

23. Price (D) R 

24. Simon (D) R 

INDIANA 

1. Benjamin (D) R 

2. Fithian (D) R 

3. Hiler(R) R 

4. Coats (R) R 

5. Hillis (R) R 

6. Evans (D) R 

7. Myers (R) W 

8. Deckard (R) R 

9. Hamilton (D) R 

10. Sharp (D) R 

11. Jacobs (D) R 

IOWA 

1. Leach (R) R 

2. Tauke (R) R 

3. Evans (R) R 

4. Smith (D) R 

5. Harkin(D) R 

6. Bedell (D) R 

KANSAS 

1. Roberts (R) W 

2. Jeffries (R) W 

3. Winn (R) W 

4. Glickman (D) R 

5. Whittaker (R) W 

KENTUCKY 

1. Hubbard (D) A 

2. Natcher (D) R 

3. Mazzoli (D) ^R 

4. Snyder (R) W 

5. Rogers (R) W 

6. Hopkins (R) R 

7. Perkins (D) R 


n HI 


W R 
R R 


W R 
W W 


PW A 
W R 


W R 
W R 




I 

n 

HI 


I 

n 

m 


I 

n 

HI 


LOUISIANA 



13. Courier (R) 

R 

R 

R 

9. Shuster (R) 

W 

W 

R 

1. 

Livingston (R) 

W 

R 

R 

14. Guarini (D) 

R 

R 

R 

10. McDade (R) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Boggs (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1 5. Dwyer (D) 

R 

R 

R 

11. Nelligan(R) 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Tauzin (D) 

W 

R 

R 

NEW MEXICO 



1 2. . Murtha (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Roemer (D) 

W 

R 

R 

1. Lujan (R) 

R 

R 

R 

13. Coughlin (R) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Huckaby (D) 

W 

R 

R 

2. Skeen fR) 

W 

W 

R 

14. Coyne, William (D)R 

R 

R 

6. 

Moore (R) 

W 

W 

R 

NEW YORK 



15. Ritter (R) 

R 

W 

R 

7. 

Breaux (D) 

w 

R 

R 

1. Carney (R) 

W 

W 

R 

16. Walker (R) 

R 

R 

R 

8. Long (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. Downey (D) 

R 

R 

R 

17. Ertel (D) 

R 

R 

R 


MAINE 




3. Carman (R) 

W 

W 

R 

1 8. Walgren (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

Emery (R) 

R 

R 

R 

4. Lent (R) 

R 

W 

R 

19. Goodling (R) 

W 

A 

A 

2. 

Snowe (R) 

R 

R 

R 

5. McGrath (R) 

R 

W 

R 

20. Gaydos (D) 

R 

R 

R 


MARYLAND 



6. LeBoutillier (R) 

R 

W 

R 

21. Bailey (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

Dyson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

7. Addabbo (D) 

R 

R 

R 

22. Murphy (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Long (D) 

R 

R 

R 

8. Rosenthal (D) 

R 

R 

R 

23. Clinger (R) 

W 

R 

R 

3. 

Mikulski (D) 

R 

R 

R 

9. Ferraro (D) 

R 

R 

R 

24. Marks (R) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Holt CR) 

R 

R 

R 

10. Biaggi (D) 

R 

R 

R 

25. Atkinson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Hoyer (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1 1. Scheuer (D) 

R 

R 

R 

RHODE ISLAND 



6. 

Byron (D) 

R 

R 

R 

12. Chisholm (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1. St Germain (D) 

R 

R 

R 

7. 

Mitchell (D) 

R 

R 

R 

13. Solarz (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. Schneider (R) 

R 

R" 

R 

8. 

Barnes (D) 

R 

R 

R 

14. Richmond (D) 

R 

R 

R 

SOUTH CAROLINA 



MASSACHUSETTS 
. Conte (R) R 

. Boland (D) R 

. Early (D) R 

. Frank (D) R 

, Shannon (D) R 

Mavroules (D) R 

Markey (D) R 

, O’Neill (D) 

Moakley (D) R 

Heckler (R) R 

Donnelly (D) R 

, Studds (D) R 

MICHIGAN 

Conyers (D) R 

Pursell (R) R 

Wolpe (D) R 

Siljander(R) W 

Sawyer (R) W 

Dunn (R) R 

Kildee (D) R 

Traxler (D) R 

Vander Jagt (R) W 

Albosta (D) R 

Davis (R) R 

Bonior (D) R 

Crockett (D) R 

Hertel (D) R 

Ford (D) R 

Dingell (D) PF 

Brodhead (D) R 

Blanchard (D) R 

Broomfield (R) R 

MINNESOTA 
Erdahl (R) R 

Hagedorn (R) W 

Frenzel (R) W 

Vento (D) R 

Sabo (D) R 

Weber (R) R 

Stangeland (R) W 

Oberstar (D) R 

MISSISSIPPI 

Whitten (D) W 

Bowen (D) 

Montgomery 
Dowdy (D) 

Lott (R) 


Speaker 
R R 


(D) 


15. Zeferetti (D) 

1 6. Schumer (D) 

1 7. Molinari (R) 

18. Green (R) 

19. Rangel (D) 

20. Weiss (D) 

21. Garcia (D) 

22. Bingham (D) 

23. Peyser (D) 

24. Ottinger (D) 

25. Fish (R) 

26. Gilman (R) 

27. McHugh (D) 

28. Stratton (D) 

29. Solomon (R) 

30. Martin (R) 

31. Mitchell (R) 

32. Wortley (R) 

33. Lee (R) 

34. Horton (R) 

35. Conable (R) 

36. LaFalce (D) 

37. Nowak (D) 

38. Kemp (R) 

39. Lundine (D) 

NORTH CAROLINA 

1. Jones (D) 

2. Fountain (D) 

3. Whitley (D) 

4. Andrews fD) 

5. Neal (D) 

6. Johnston (R) 

7. Rose (D) 

8. Hefner (D) 

9. Martin (R) 

10. Broyhill (R) 

1 1 . Hendon (R) 

NORTH DAKOTA 

AL Dorgan (D) R 

OHIO 

1. Gradison (R) R 

2. Luken (D) R 

3. Hall (D) R 

4. Oxley (R) W 

5. Latta (R) W 

6. McEwen (R) W 

7. Brown (R) R 

Kindness (R) 


Hartnett (R) W R 

Spence (R) W W 

Derrick (D) R R 

Campbell (R) W R 

Holland (D) R R 

Napier (R) W R 

SOUTH DAKOTA 
Daschle (D) R R 

Roberts (R) W W 

TENNESSEE 
Quillen (R) W W 

Duncan (R) 


R 

R 

3. 

Bouquard (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Gore (D) 1 

R. 

R 

R 

W 

A 

5. 

Boner (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 

6. 

Beard (R) 

A 

A 

A 

W 

R 

7. 

Jones (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

8. 

Ford (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 


TEXAS 




PR 

A 

1. 

Hall, Sam (D) 

W 

R 

R 

W 

R 

2. 

Wilson (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Collins (R) 

W 

W 

W 

R 

R 

4. 

Hall, Ralph (D) 

W 

R 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Mattox (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

6. 

Gramm (D) 

W 

R 

R 

A 


7. 

Archer (R) 

W 

W 

W 

PR 

A 

8. 

Fields (R) 

W 

W 

R 

W 

R 

9. 

Brooks (D) 

A 

R 

R ^ 

R 

R 

10. 

Pickle (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

11. 

Leath (D) 

W 

R 

R 

R 

R 

12. Wright (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

W 

13. Hightower (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

14. 

Patman (D) 

W 

W 

R 

R 

R 

15. 

de la Garza (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 

16. 

White (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

17. 

Stenholm (D) 

W 

R 

R 

W 

R 

18. 

Leland (D) ‘ 

R 

R 

R 



19. 

Hance (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

20. 

Gonzalez (D) 

R 

R 

R 



21. 

I-oeffler (R) 

W 

R 

R 

R 

R 

22. Paul (R) 

PW 

A 

A 

R 

R 

23. 

Kazen (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

24. Frost (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 


UTAH 




W 

R 

1. 

Hansen (R) 

W 

W 

R 

W 

R 

2. 

Marriott (R) 

R 

R 

R 

A 

A 


VERMONT 



W 

R 

AL 

Jeffords (R) 

W 

W 

R 


W 

W 


MISSOURI 



9. 

Weber (R) 

R 

R 

R 


VIRGINIA 



R 

R 

1. 

Clay (D) 

R 

R 

R 

10. 

Miller (R) 

W 

W 

R 

1. 

Trible (R) 

w 

W 

W 

R 

R 

2. 

Young (D) 

R 

R 

R 

11. Stanton (R) 

R 

W 

R 

2. 

Whitehurst (R) 

w 

W 

w 



3. 

Gephardt (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1 2. Shamansky (D) 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Bliley (R) 

w 

W 

w 

R 

R 

4. 

Skelton (D) 

R 

R 

R 

13. 

Pease (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Daniel, Robert (R) W 

W 

w 

R 

R 

5. 

Bolling (D) 

R 

R 

R 

14. 

Seiberling (D) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Daniel, Dan (D) 

w 

W 

w 

W 

R 

6. 

Coleman (R) 

W 

W 

R 

15. 

Wylie (R) 

R 

W 

R 

6. 

Butler (R) 

w 

W 

w 

R 

R 

7. 

Taylor (R) 

W 

W 

R 

16. Regula (R) 

R 

W 

R 

7. 

Robinson (R) 

w 

W 

w 

W 

R 

8. Bailey (R) 

R 

R 

R 

17. 

Ashbrook (R) 

A 

A 

A 

8. 

Parris (R) 

w 

W 

w 

R 

R 

9. 

Volkmer (D) 

R 

R 

R 

18. Applegate (D) 

W 

W 

R 

9. 

Wampler (R) 

w 

W 

w 

W 

R 

10. 

Emerson (R) 

W 

W 

R 

19. 

Williams (R) 

PR 

PR 

A 

10. Wolf(R) 

w 

W 

R 

R 

R 


MONTANA 



20. Dakar (D) 

A 

R 

R 


WASHINGTON 



R 

R 

1. 

Williams (D) 

R 

R 

R 

21. 

Stokes (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

Pritchard (R) 

A 

W 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Marlenee (R) 

W 

W 

R 

22. Eckart OD) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Swift (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 


NEBRASKA 



23. 

Mottl (D) 

W 

W 

R 

3. 

Bonker (D) 

A 

A 

A 



1. 

Bereuter (R) 

W 

R 

R 


OKLAHOMA 



4. 

Morrison (R) 

W 

W 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Daub (R) 

R 

W 

R 

1. 

Jones (D) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Foley (D ) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Smith (R) 

W 

W 

R 

2. 

Synar (D) 

R 

R 

R 

6. 

Dicks (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 


NEVADA 



3. 

Watkins (D) 

R 

R 

R 

7. 

Lowry (13) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

AL Santini (D) 

W 

R 

R 

4. 

McCurdy 0^) 

R 

R 

R 


WEST VIRGINIA 


R 

R 


NEW HAMPSHIRE 


5. 

Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

R 

1. 

Mollohan (D) 

R 

W 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

D’ Amours (D) 

R 

R 

R 

6. 

English (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Benedict (R) 

PW 

W 

R 



2. 

Gregg (R) 

R 

W 

R 


OREGON 



3. 

Staton (R) 

W 

W 

R 

W 

R 


NEW JERSEY 



1. 

AuCoin (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Rahall (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 

1. 

Florio (D) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Smith (R) 

W 

W 

R 


WISCONSIN 



W 

R 

2. 

Hughes 03) 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Wyden (D) 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

Aspin (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

3. 

Howard (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Weaver 0^) 

R 

R 

R 

2. 

Kastenmeier (D) 

R 

W 

R 

W 

R 

4. 

Smith (R) 

R 

R 

R 


PENNSYLVANIA 


3. 

Gunderson (R) 

R 

R 

R 



5. 

Fenwick (R) 

R 

R 

R 

1. 

Foglietta 0^) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Zablocki (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 

6. 

Forsythe (R) 

R 

W 

R 

2. 

Gray ff>) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Reuss (D) 

R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

7. 

Roukema (R) 

R 

W 

R 

3. 

Smith (D) 

R 

R 

R 

6. 

Petri (R) 

R 

W 

R 

R 

R 

8. Roe (D) 

R 

R 

R 

4. 

Dougherty (R) 

R 

R 

R 

7. 

Obey (D) 

R 

R 

R 

W 

R 

9. 

Hollenbeck (R) 

R 

R 

R 

5. 

Schulze (R) 

R 

W 

R 

8. Roth (R) 

A 

W 

R 

W 

R 

10. 

Rodino (D) 

R 

R 

R 

6. 

Yatron fD) 

R 

R 

R 

9. 

Sensenbrenner (R) R 

R 

R 

R 

R 

11. 

Minish (D) 

R 

R 

R 

7. 

Edgar 0^) 

R 

R 

R 


WYOMING 



R 

R 

12. 

Rinaldo (R) 

R 

R 

R 

8. 

Coyne, James (R) 

R 

R 

R 

AL Cheney (R) 

W 

W 

R 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 


Page Seven 


Job Losses Mount 

Building Trades Blast 
High-Interest Policies 



WILLIAM L. DAWSON AWARD of the Congressional Black Caucus is pre- 
sented to Associate Director Robert McGlotten of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Legis- 
lation by Rep. Barren J. Mitchell (D-Md.). The award cited McGlotten’s con- 
tributions to progressive legislation benefitting minorities. 

Oregon State Labor Elects 
Fletcher, Baugh to Top Posts 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tories, and the modernizing of public 
facilities. 

“INVESTMENTS that yield jobs and 
improve the nation’s productive base are 
so important to the economy that they 
should not have to compete against specu- 
lators and corporate takeover bids for the 
limited amount of credit available,” he said. 

“Until interest rates come down to more 
sane levels, we will never know whether 
the Reagan tax program can be translated 
from theory into reality. 

“The most valuable contribution this 
convention can make to improving the 
health of the economy is to speak clearly 
and forcefully to the issue of reducing 
interest rates,” Georgine told the delegates. 

Both Georgine and Kirkland warned 
that attempts to repeal and weaken the 
Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law could put 
added burdens on construction workers. 

“THE ATTACKS on unions, on labor 
protections, on wages and hours are little 
more than an attempt to legislate the wage- 
busting conditions that led to the Great 

Tennessee Labor 
Approves 10-Cent 
Per Capita Rise 

Nashville, Tenn. — ^The Tennessee AFL- 
CIO convention approved a 10-cent in- 
crease in per capita payments and drafted 
a legislative agenda focused on winning 
full collective bargaining rights for public 
employees and improved administration of 
the state workers’ compensation program. 

The 328 convention delegates unani- 
mously endorsed the re-election of Sen. 
James R. Sasser, who has been targeted 
for defeat by right-wing political action 
groups. Sasser, a Democrat, will be seek- 
ing a second term in 1982. He has com- 
piled a 71 percent “right” COPE voting 
record in the Senate. 

THE PER CAPITA increase, effective 
Oct. 1, raises monthly payments to 35 
cents. 

Delegates called on the state legislature 
to explore alternatives to the current court- 
administered system of determining work- 
ers’ compensation benefits and urged leg- 
islation mandating all employers to make 
payroll deductions available to cover un- 
ion dues. 

Turning to federal legislative issues, the 
convention called on Tennessee’s congres- 
sional delegation to reject all attempts to 
gut the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law 
and urged adoption of measures to halt 
the export of U.S. jobs. 

STATE AFL-CIO President James G. 
Neeley reported that membership in the 
state labor council had increased 17,000 
over the past two years to exceed the 
100,000 mark. Neeley was elected to a 
new two-year term. 

Delegates paid a special tribute to Lee 
Case, who retired as secretary-treasurer 
after 18 years. In 44 years of service to 
labor. Case has been president, financial 
secretary and business agent of Plurnbers 
& Pipe Fitters Local 43 in Chattanooga. 
He also served a stint as Tennessee’s labor 
commissioner. 

Eddie Bryan, administrative assistant to 
Neeley, was elected to succeed Case. 
Bryan is a member of the Communica- 
tions Workers. 

THE CONVENTION also elected First 
Vice President H. T. Powell and Second 
Vice President Ross Hudson and 19 vice 
presidents to new terms. 

Speakers at the three-day convention 
included Sasser, Democratic Representa- 
tives Marilyn Bouquard, Albert Gore, Jr., 
William H. Boner, Harold Ford and Ed 
Jones, Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton 
and President Norman Hill of the A. 
Philip Randolph Institute. 


Depression,” Georgine warned. Kirkland 
reinforced that point, declaring. 

“In the name of fighting inflation, the 
enemies of Davis-Bacon tell us the lowest 
bidder on any government construction 
project should be free to auction off the 
jobs to the lowest bidder among workers” 
— the ones with the lowest skills and the 
most desperate workers in a depressed 
industry, he said. 

“The argument that this would boost 
productivity and open new opportunities 
for deserving contractors is cynical non- 
sense. 

“It would put conscientious, fair-minded 
contractors out of business. It would put 
government construction in the hands of 
scab-herders and short-cut artists. It would 
injure local businesses, local workers and 
local communities by reducing earnings to 
the lowest common denominator.” 

KIRKLAND CHARGED that the Ad- 
ministration is making other attempts to 
fight inflation at the expense of workers. 
He cited efforts to repeal overtime wage 
protections, remove minimum wage guar- 
antees for young workers and lift restric- 
tions on industrial homework. 

Kirkland and Georgine also warned dele- 
gates of similar efforts to undermine job 
safety and health standards and to impose 
Hobbs Act penalties on strikers. 

OSHA is vital to the interests of build- 
ing trades workers, Georgine declared. To 
those who would undermine it, he warned, 
“keep your hands off OSHA.” 

GEORGINE ALSO stressed that the 
nation’s energy needs cannot be ignored, 
and he called for wider use of alternative 
fuels and the development of synthetic 
energy sources. 

“Similarly, America must not make the 
mistake of halting the development of safe 
nuclear power without having alternative 
sources on line and ready to fill the needs 
for energy,” he declared. 

It would be sheer folly to endanger the 
future health of the economy by ignoring 
any source of energy, he said. 

Other speakers addressing the -delegates 
on opening day of the convention included 
Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan, OSHA 
Director Thorne G. Auchter, and Robert 
Bonitati, special assistant to Reagan. All 
three speakers defended the Administra- 
tion’s policies, contending that their aims 
were the same as those of the labor move- 
ment although the Administration’s ap- 
proach may be different. 

DONOVAN promised the delegates that 
the President would not allow the Davis- 
Bacon Act to be repealed. 

He said the changes the Labor Dept, 
has proposed are intended to make the 
program more workable, not to destroy 
labor standards. 

Donovan insisted that the new regula- 
tions would be less “burdensome.” 


Springfield, Ore. — Irvin H. Fletcher of 
the Teachers is the new president of the 
Oregon AFL-CIO and Robert C. Baugh, 
also of the Teachers, is the new secretary- 
treasurer. Nellie Fox of the Food & Com- 
mercial Workers continues as director of 
legislation and political education. 

Fletcher unseated Robert G. Kennedy 
of the Machinists for the state federation’s 
executive position in elections at the Ore- 
gon AFL-CIO’s 25th annual convention. 
Kennedy had held office since 1975. 

Baugh, at 32, is the youngest of the 
three full-time officers in the State AFL- 
CIO’s history. He narrowly defeated Glenn 
H. (Pat) Randall for the administrative 
post. Randall, of the Carpenters, had 
served since 1967. 

FOX RETAINED the political director- 
ship, which she has filled since 1975, turn- 
ing back a challenge from Lloyd B. Knud- 
sen of the IBEW, who previously held 
the job from 1969-75. 

Fletcher, 49, had been executive secre- 
tary-treasurer of the Lane County AFL- 
CIO in nearby Eugene for 10 years and 
also worked as director of an apprentice- 
ship information center. 

Nine persons were re-elected to federa- 
tion executive board posts along with 10 
new members. Only two races were con- 
tested. 

Delegates gave standing ovations to the 
new and former officers and board mem- 
bers in a demonstration of solidarity as the 


outgoing leaders pledged to work with 
their successors. 

EARLIEIR IN the five-day convention, 
delegates recognized the need for stepped- 
up political action by unanimously enact- 
ing a special 5-cent per capita tax in- 
crease earmarked for assisting COPE- 
endorsed candidates for statewide and leg- 
islative district races. The special levy will 
run for two years until Oct. 1, 1983. 
Delegates also voted to continue a special 
one-cent per capita tax for organizing 
purposes. 

The importance of political action by 
labor to offset the threats posed by the 
Reagan Administration and its right-wing 
allies was stressed by major speakers, in- 
cluding Representatives Les AuCoin and 
James Weaver, and State Sen. Ted Ku- 
longoski, all Democrats; President Keith 
Johnson of the Woodworkers; Vice Presi- 
dent Stanley Jensen of the Machinists, and 
Walter Gray, regional COPE director. 

Johnson noted that Oregon’s official un- 
employment rate had just hit 10 percent, 
third highest in the nation, but said the 
actual jobless figure is closer to 20 percent. 
The state’s bellwether timber industry has 
been especially hard hit along with con- 
struction, and there have been plant shut- 
downs and layoffs in steel, textiles, fish 
processing and other industries. It is esti- 
mated that unemployment in the building 
trades is at 40 percent and that 49 per- 
cent of the workers in the state’s timber 
industry are jobless or working reduced 
hours. 

GOV. VICTOR Atiyeh (R) also ad- 
dressed the convention urging labor to 
work with management and government in 
addressing the state’s economic problems. 

The 445 delegates, their ranks swelled 
by nearly 300 fraternal delegates and 
guests, acted on 90 resolutions covering a 
broad range of subjects. Among the goals 
pressed by the convention were improve- 
ments in the state workers’ compensation 
system, enactment of plant closure legisla- 
tion, equal pay for work of comparable 
worth, deepening of the Columbia River 
channel and other public works projects, 
lowering of interest rates, federal funding 
for Public Health Service programs for 
maritime workers, strengthening of the 
merchant marine, and establishment of a 
state ethics commission for the media. 

Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) was com- 
mended for his leadership in clearing 
through the Senate Appropriations Com- 
mittee a postal subsidy bill to continue the 
present rate system for second-class non- 
profit publications. 



NEW PRESIDENT of the Rubber Workers, Milan Stone, left, is congratulated 
at the URW Convention in Bal Harbour, Fla., by outgoing President Peter Bom- 
marito, who is retiring. Stone, 54, has been a URW vice president since 1977. 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 24, 1981 




THE COST OF TRAINING replacements for the 11,500 air traffic controllers 
fired for walking off their jobs in August will be about $1.4 billion, far more 
than the $100 million estimated by the Reagan Administration, Executive 
Director John F. Leyden of the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, told a House 
committee. He urged the Administration to resume negotiations with the Pro- 
fessional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Leyden, left, was accompanied 
b}^ Steven Pruitt, PED legislative affairs coordinator. 


Employer Penalties Asked 
To Halt Illegal Immigration 


Penalties against employers are needed 
to stem the tidal wave of illegal immigra- 
tion that has depressed wages and added 
to unemployment, union witnesses testi- 
fied at House hearings. 

Ladies’ Garment Workers Executive 
Vice President Frederick R. Siems blamed 
the return of sweatshops in the apparel 
industry on the absence of any penalty for 
employers who seek out and hire undocu- 
mented workers. 

ALONG WITH employer penalties, 
Siems urged a generous amnesty policy 
for undocumented workers already in the 
United States and*a tamper-proof identi- 
fication card. 

The need for such an identification 
card, linked to a worker’s social security 
number, was stressed also in testimony by 
the AFL-CIO Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept. 

Peter Allstrom, the department’s re- 
search director, told the House committee 
that restaurants are the largest single em- 
ployer of illegal aliens, who are preferred 
over U.S. residents because “they work 
hard and scared,” often for substandard 
wa^es. He cited studies that found wages 
of illegal aliens averaging 40 percent be- 
low that of legal workers and repeated 
instances of unpaid overtime. 

GOP Moderates Balk 
At New Round of Cuts 

(Continued from Page 1) 

The voting rights issue appeared to put 
the President at odds with the majority of 
House Republicans who joined in the 389- 
24 passage of the bill. (Rollcall, Page 6) 

At a meeting with newspaper editors, 
Reagan commented that the House “has 
been pretty extreme in what it’s done” 
and expressed the hope that the Senate 
will be more “reasonable.” 

His comment was later linked by a 
White House aide to a section of the 
House bill that makes clear that an elec- 
tion law which has the effect of discrimi- 
nating against a racial minority is illegal 
even if the federal government can’t prove 
that the intent of the law was to dis- 
criminate. 

A Supreme Court decision last year ap- 
peared to impose an obligation to show 
intent to discriminate, and civil rights 
groups consider it essential to tighten the 
law. 

Meanwhile the House-passed bill has 
been placed on the Senate calendar — a 
safeguard against the risk that it would be 
bottled up in a hostile Judiciary Com- 
mittee. 


ALLSTROM ALSO testified at com- 
panion hearings being held by a Senate 
Judiciary subcommittee on the Adminis- 
tration’s so-called “guest worker” pro- 
posal to bring up to 50,000 Mexican na- 
tionals into the United States in each of 
two years for stays up to 12 months. 

The Reagan Administration seems to be 
abandoning its “marketplace” philosophy 
by advocating importation of labor to re- 
lieve supposed shortages of workers, All- 
strom suggested. Without government ac- 
tion, he said, wages and working condi- 
tions would be improved in order to at- 
tract the needed workers. 

HE REMINDED the panel of the 
abuses of the bracero program with Mexi- 
co, which Congress ended in 1964, and the 
social tensions generated by the guest 
worker programs in Europe. 

At the House subcommittee hearings, 
Siems pointed out that the ILGWU’s mem- 
bership is made un largely of women, mi- 
norities and recent immigrants — groups 
who^e hard-won gains are most vulnerable 
to the unfair competition of sweatshop 
operators who exploit undocumented 
workers in fear of deportation if they com- 
plain. 


Controllers 
Set Appeal on 
Union Rights 

(Continued from Page 1) 

ufacturers and suppliers,” Poll noted. 
“While almost everyone has an opinion 
as to who is at fault for the controllers’ 
strike, surely these employees who have 
lost their jobs are blameless.” 

The impact on the airline industry and 
the general economy has been staggering, 
Poli said, adding that the amount of 
money that the Administration has spent 
since Aug. 3 in its efforts to rebuild the 
nation’s air traffic control system from 
the ground up “far outweighs any con- 
tract proposal ever made by this union.” 

Other witnesses reinforced Poli’s obser- 
vations. They told the committee, chaired 
by Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), that 
machinists, flight attendants, and workers 
in related businesses are losing their jobs 
because airlines have reduced operations 
to cope with the cutback in the air traffic 
control system. 

JOHN F. PETERPAUL, general vice 
president of the Machinists, said about 
3,200 lAM members have been laid off 
as a direct result of the strike and that 
as many as 50 percent of the union’s 
88,000 airline industry members could be 
laid off if flight schedules at major airports 
are reduced when the Federal Aviation 
Administration revises its flight schedules 
in December. 

“Fewer flights generally result in fewer 
jobs for our members in the manufacture, 
construction, servicing, and staffing of air- 
craft,” said Peterpaul. “The Administra- 
tion has waged an all-out war and has 
won the war. It should now win the peace 
with reason and tolerance.” 

Executive Director John F. Leyden of 
the AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
said the current aviation service disruption 
could well be “the most costly labor- 
management impasse in recent labor his- 
tory,” and he called on the Administra;* 
tion to reconsider its position on rehiring 
the controllers. 

“A MID-COURSE correction by the 
Administration will not be perceived as 
weakness but as a sign of strength and 
compassion,” said Leyden, the immediate 
past president of PATCO. 

Meanwhile, the FAA announced plans 
to scale back already curtailed air traffic 
at 20 of the nation’s major airports start- 
ing Dec. 1. The agency said it will reduce 
airline activity nationwide to about 79 per- 
cent of the operating level before the 
strike. It claims that airline activity now is 
at about 84 percent of prestrike flight 
levels. 




(Continued* from Page 1) 

that define a recession translate into “lost 
jobs and lost output of goods and ser- 
vices.” 

Despite the Reagan rhetoric of increas- 
ing “supply,” he noted, its policy has 
been to reduce the supply of goods and 
services. 

WHILE A FINAL, technical judgment 
still is to be given by the National Bureau 
of Economic Research, a private organiza- 
tion, the U.S. economy appears to have 
entered its latest recession in July or 
August. That is when industrial production 
started to fall off, initial claims for un- 
employment benefits jumped and new fac- 
tory orders began to dwindle. 

A recession is usually defined as two 
consecutive quarters of decline in real 
GNP. In the second quarter, real output 
fell at an annual rate of 1.6 percent after 
rising abnormally at an 8.6 percent rate 
in the first three months of the year. 

Even before the government announced 
the latest drop in real output. President 
Reagan conceded that the nation was in- 
deed in a recession. Responding to White 
House reporters’ questions about the un- 
usually sharp decline in September indus- 
trial production, he said: 

‘T THINK this is a light, and I hope 
short, recession. Yes, I think everyone 
agrees on this.” 

Reagan’s remarks were the first ac- 
knowledgement from the Administration 
that the economy was in a recession, de- 
spite an abundance of signs that had 
pointed in that direction over the summer. 

For months, the housing and automobile 
industries had been in a state of depression 
as prospective buyers held back under the 
pressure of prohibitive interest rates. As 
the September report on industrial produc- 
tion underscored, however, the weakness 
in the economy had spread. 

THE FEDERAL Reserve Board said 
that industry output last month fell eight- 
tenths of 1 percent, the second monthly 
drop in a row and the largest in 1 6 months. 
A wide range of industries reported pro- 
duction declines, and these cutbacks were 
leading to layoffs. Industrial production 
constitutes about one-third of the nation’s 
gross national product. 

In the past two months, the unemploy- 
ment rate has jumped half a percentage 
point to 7.5 percent as many adult men 
and women lost their jobs. Nearly 8 mil- 
lion Americans were out of work in Sep- 
tember, and their number is growing daily. 

Joblessness is on the upswing at U.S. 
Steel and Bethlehem Steel because of 
“soft” orders and high interest rates. 
Caterpillar Tractor recently laid off 2,300 
workers indefinitely. Lumber mills in the 
Pacific Northwest reported joblessness of 
20 to 30 percent. Westinghouse plans to 
lay off 1,300 at its Fairmont, W. Va., 
lamp plant. 

Jerry L. Jordan, a member of the Pres- 
ident’s Council of Economic Advisers 
responsible for forecasting, said he expects 
the unemployment rate to climb above the 
8 percent mark this winter and average 8.1 
or 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 1982. 


X8/f^3/0l 


55 ■* 

■* «» » 
• a* Ok 

III 

ag.M 




U.S. Economy 
Sinks Deeper 
Into Recession 



CPI Revision Branded Politieal 



HOUSTON ORGANIZING Project, announced at this press conference, will 
seek to build union membership in the fast-growing area through the co- 
ordinated efforts of the AFL-CIO, 30 international unions and the city’s labor 
movement. From left, are Director Alan Kistler of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Orga- 
nization & Field Services, President Harry Hubbard of the Texas AFL-CIO, 
Sec.-Treas. Don A. Horn of the Harris County AFL-CIO, Project Coordinator 
Robert Comeaux, and President Maynard White of the county labor federation. 

Coordinated Project 

30 Unions Pool Forces 
For Houston Organizing 


Senate Vote 
Clears Sale of 
Radar Planes 

By David L. Perlman 

President Reagan persuaded a 52-48 
majority of the Senate to allow the sale of 
sophisticated AW ACS radar planes to 
Saudi Arabia despite concerns that it will 
tilt the military balance in the Middle East. 

The Senate vote cancelled out the 301- 
1 1 1 resolution of disapproval adopted by 
the House two weeks earlier. Both the 
House and Senate would have had to vote 
against the arms sale in order to block it. 

THE AFL-CIO Executive Council had 
urged Congress to reject the agreement to 
sell five highly secret Airborne Warning and 
Control Systems aircraft to the Saudis. The 
council termed the sale irresponsible and a 
threat to world peace. 

There were strong signs that Congress 
shared labor’s concerns. At the time of the 
one-sided House vote disapproving the 
sale, a majority of senators were on record 
in opposition to putting America’s most 
sensitive and sophisticated technology in 
the hands of a feudal power that has called 
for Israel’s destiiiction. 

But an intensive personal lobbying ef- 
fort by Reagan switched enough votes to 
change the outcome. The $8.5 billion sale 
to the oil-rich Saudis includes missiles and 
fuel tanks to increase the range and fire- 
power of 60 F-15 fighter planes Saudi 
Arabia is buying from the United States. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council noted 
that when the sale of the F-15 fighters 
was consummated three years ago, Con- 
gress was assured that the planes would 
not carry the offensive armaments and ca- 
pabilities that are now being provided. 

In the domestic area, the President lost 
a round in the Senate despite a Republi- 
can majority. 

The test came on a multi-billion-dollar 
appropriations bill for the Interior Dept, 
that took on significance because it was 

(Continued on Page 2) 


The AFL-CIO called on the Reagan Ad- 
ministfation to end its “vendetta” against 
the striking Professional Air Traffic Con- 
trollers Organization now that the Federal 
Labor Relations Authority has revoked the 
union’s right to represent its members. 

Continued refusal to rehire the con- 
trollers “would not be justice but revenge,” 
Federation President Lane Kirkland said 
in a statement following the federal panel’s 
decertification announcement. 

DEPLORING THE 2-1 decision, Kirk- 
land said that “FLRA’s action does, at 
least, remove the last semblance of an 
excuse” for the government’s refusal to 
address the real question still at stake, 
namely, how to restore the air traffic sys- 
tem to full operation promptly while pro- 
viding controllers with fair working con- 
ditions. 

Within hours of the FLRA’s Oct. 22 
decertification order, a federal appeals 


Houston — The Houston Organizing 
Project was publicly launched here by the 
AFL-CIO, 30 international unions and the 
city’s labor movement to build trade union- 
ism in the nation’s fastest-growing and, 
now, fourth-largest city. 

Alan Kistler, director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Organization & Field Services, 
told a gathering of nearly 200 Houston 
and international union representatives 
that with the city central body providing 
the spark, unions in the city have pooled 


court issued a temporary stay that was 
subsequently discontinued as “unwar- 
ranted.” The court, which criticized the 
government’s presentation of reasons for 
going ahead with the decertification, gave 
the union 10 days to file papers appealing 
the FLRA decision. 

The agency’s decertification decision 
marks the first time it has stripped a un- 
ion of its status as legal representative of 
a group of federal workers. The FLRA, 
created three years ago as part of the Civil 
Service Reform Act, functions in the fed- 
eral sector much as the National Labor 
Relations Board in the private sector. 

IN VOTING against the decision to 
decertify, FLRA Chairman Ronald W. 
Haughton agreed with the majority that 
the strike constituted an unfair labor prac- 
tice under federal law, but said the record 
was insufficient to determine a remedy. 

(Continued on Page 6) 


their resources and drawn on those of the 
entire labor movement to press their de- 
termination to match the city’s growth. 

THE PROJECT, modeled to some ex- 
tent on a successful organizing campaign 
begun 20 years ago in Los Angeles, com- 
mits organizers from most of the 30 inter- 
national unions involved, along with AFL- 
CIO field staff and project staff to strength- 
en the organizing efforts of Houston’s lo- 
cal unions. 

The drive confronts directly the chal- 
lenges of Sunbelt economics and the bur- 
geoning use of union-busting labor man- 
agement “consultants” to stifle union mem- 
bership in this “right to work” state. 

“Labor has much to face down the 
road,” said Service Employees Sec.-Treas. 
Richard Cordtz at the kickoff. “Unions 
must reach out to millions. . . . But the 
real challenge is organizing in the South. 
I feel certain this organizing program will 
be a success.” 

STEELWORKERS District Director 
Edward Ball, speaking on behalf of USWA 
President Lloyd McBride, stressed that or- 
ganizing “is the lifeblood of the labor 
movement,” vital to build its strength and 
effectiveness in serving the needs of work- 
ing people. 

“Sometimes we just pay lip service to 
the principle of ‘in unity there is strength’,” 
Ball observed, “but through the efforts 
of this organizing project, we are clearly 
working together.” 

The project has the strong support of 
the Harris County AFL-CIO Council and 
the Houston Gulf Coast Building & Con- 
struction Trades Council. 

The Houston project offers the local 
(Continued on Page 7) 


Kirkland Hits 
Shift to New 
‘Yardstick’ 

By James M. Shevis 

The Labor Dept.’s planned revision of 
the housing cost component of the con- 
sumer price index is a p>oliticaI expedient 
that undercuts the nation’s most important 
measure of inflation, the AFL-CIO 
charged. 

“Since the Administration’s anti-infla- 
tion program is clearly not working,” 
Federation President Lane Kirkland said 
in a statement, “the Administration is seek- 
ing a new solution — change the method of 
computing the consumer price index. In 
other words, if you don’t like the measure- 
ments, invent a new yardstick. . . . 

“THE AFL-CIO will continue to fight 
for an effective, comprehensive anti-infla- 
tion program, without regard to the Ad- 
ministration’s tinkering with the CPI,” 
Kirkland declared. 

The planned change in the computation 
of home ownership costs in the CPI would 
occur in two stages, the first in January 
1983 and the second in January 1985, and 
could eventually reduce social security and 
wage and benefit increases for millions of 
workers and retirees. Existing contracts 
are not affected. 

The reason for the two-stage revamping 
of the housing component is that there are 
two CPIs — the consumer price index for 
all urban consumers (CPI-U), which covers 
about 80 percent of the population, and 
the consumer price index for urban wage 
earners and clerical workers (CPI-W), 
which covers about half the population 
covered by CPI-U. The indexes are issued 
monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
which has authority to define how they are 
calculated. 

BLS COMMISSIONER Janet L. Nor- 
wood said the CPI-U will be changed with 
publication of price data for January 1983 
and the CPI-W with data for January 1985. 
The latter is the index widely used for cost- 
of-living adjustments under thousands of 
labor contracts. It is also used in formulas 
for COL adjustments in a number of gov- 
ernment programs, including social secur- 
ity, civil service and military pensions, and 
food stamps. 

The BLS had planned to revise the index 
by 1985 or 1986. “However,” Norwood 
told a news conference, “a number of 
things which have occurred during the 

(Continued on Page 3) 

‘Real’ Earnings 
Of U.S. Workers 
Decline Sharply 

Another sharp rise in consumer prices — 
1.1 percent — coupled with a drop in hours 
worked, reduced the typical American 
worker’s “real” spendable earnings 1 .9 per- 
cent in September, the largest one-month 
decline in almost two and a half years. 

Spendable earnings — what’s left after 
taxes and inflation are stripped away — 
came to $221.05 a week for a married 
worker who had three dependents and 
earned the average wage. The figure, which 
is $2.20 less than the August level, is ex- 
pressed in current dollars. 

IN “CONSTANT DOLLARS ” keyed 
to 1977 buying power, however, the same 
worker’s real spendable earnings last 
month averaged $143.91 a week — S2.80 
less than in August and $6.83 below the 
year-earlier level. Over the year, real 
spendable earnings were down 4.4 percent. 

The last time workers’ purchasing power 
declined so precipitously was in April 
1979, when the drop was 2.2 percent. The 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported 
the latest figures, said the steep September 
decline in real spendable earnings resulted 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Rehiring of Air Controllers 
Pressed to End ^Vendetta^ 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 



ROLLING BACK excessive interest rates and repelling at- issues for the Building & Construction Trades Dept., Presi- 
tacks on the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law are priority dent Robert A. Georgine told convention delegates. 


Building Trades Key Per Capita Hike 
To Legislative, Organizing Campaigns 


By John R. Oravec 

Atlantic City, NJ. — ^The Building & 
Construction Trades Dept.’s campaigns to 
preserve worker protections and expand 
organizing activities were reinforced by 
convention delegates with the approval 
of a 5-cent increase in per capita tax. 

The convention expressed unanimous 
agreement on the need to finance efforts 
to combat attacks on the Davis-Bacon pre- 
vailing wage safeguards, repel an anti- 
union drive in Congress to impose Hobbs 
Act penalties in picket line disturbances, 
and improve the department’s services to 
affiliates and BCTD councils. 

THE INCREASE in the per capita tax, 
effective next Jan. 1, will raise monthly pay- 
ments by affiliates to 21 cents per member. 

Stressing the need to intensify political 
action, the 270 delegates also called on 
affiliates to establish check-off programs 
for contributions to meet the challenge of 
well-funded corporate and right-wing po- 
litical machines. 

“Anti-labor forces have been working 
steadily in Congress and in the states,” the 
political action resolution noted, “target- 
ing Davis-Bacon, state prevailing wage 
laws, health and safety protections, and 
other hard-won rights and benefits of 
working Americans for weakening or re- 
peal.” 


Albert J. Zack, the official spokesman 
of the AFL-CIO for nearly a quarter cen- 
tury, died of a heart attack Oct. 29 at his 
Sarasota, Fla., home. 

Zack, 63, retired as director of public 
relations for the AFL-CIO in January 
1980, very shortly after George Meany 
stepped down as AFL-CIO president. 
Zack and his wife Jane had lived in Flor- 
ida and Washington since his retirement. 

IN A LETTER to his widow, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue expressed the shock 
and sadness felt by federation officers and 
staff members on learning of Zack’s death. 

“Al’s extraordinary powers, personal and 
professional, were a tremendous asset to 
the labor movement, they said, noting that 
since his retirement, the AFL-CIO had 
continued to draw on his experience and 
judgment in a wide range of matters. 

“The high standards of truth and accu- 
racy that made A1 a news source of un- 
questioned reliability to generations of 
labor reporters brought honor to the fed- 
eration he served, as well as to himself,” 
Kirkland and Donahue said. 

BEFORE HIS appointment as AFL-CIO 
public relations director in 1957, Zack 
served as assistant director and, prior to 
the 1955 merger, was assistant publicity 
director of the CIO. From 1947 to 1952, 
he was publicity director of the Ohio CIO 
Council and for much of that time served 
as executive secretary of the Columbus 
CIO Council. 


The convention pledged an all-out fight 
against efforts to repeal Davis-Bacon, as 
well as “tampering” by the Reagan White 
House with provisions of the existing law. 

It noted that recent proposals by the 
Labor Dept, to alter Davis-Bacon regula- 
tions “would have the effect of lowering 
wage rates on federal projects, permitting 
many workers to be paid substandard 
wages under the fiction that they are mere- 
ly ‘helpers,’ and weaken the mechanism 
for detecting violations and enforcing the 
law.” 

IN HIS REPORT to the convention, 
BCTD President Robert A. Georgine ob- 
served that “the right wing has taken con- 
trol of both the White House and the 
Senate, making it extremely difficult to 
pass pro-worker legislation and defend 
past gains. Therefore, it is no surprise that 
the Davis-Bacon Act is now encountering 
the most severe attack in its 50-year his- 
tory.” 

Georgine charged that the Administra- 
tion’s “misguided” economic policies have 
caused interest rates to soar, depressing 
the construction industry and triggering a 
new surge in unemployment among con- 
struction workers. He said the nation’s en- 
tire economy is feeling the impact. 

The convention called for immediate 
action by the Administration, Congress 


A long-time member of the Newspaper 
Guild, Zack played a major role in one of 
the longest Guild strikes on record, the 
16-month strike against the Springfield 
(Mass.) newspapers in 1946 and 1947. At 
the time of the strike, he was news editor 
of the Springfield Daily News. 

Earlier he had been a reporter and copy 
desk editor on New England dailies and 
had radio news experience as well. He was 
a native of Holyoke, Mass. 

Besides his wife of 41 years, the former 
Jane Nesworthy, Zack is survived by two 
children and five grandchildren. His chil- 
dren are Linda Tarr-Whelan, director of 
government relations for the National Edu- 
cation Association, and Allen Y. Zack, a 
former AFL-CIO public relations staff 
member and now a senior associate with 
the Kamber Group, a Washington, D.C., 
public relations firm. Also surviving are a 
brother, Eugene C. Zack of Herndon, Va., 
and three sisters, Ruth Fuller of Norwell, 
Mass., Madeline Noll of West Haven, 
Conn., and Carol Bouchard of Enfield, 
Conn. 

Funeral services in Florida were private. 
A memorial service will be held at 1 1 a.m., 
Monday, Nov. 2, at the George Meany 
Center for Labor Studies, 10000 New 
Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 

The family asks that expressions of sym- 
pathy be in the form of contributions to 
Save the Children, 48 Wilton Road, West- 
port, Conn. 06880, or the Community for 
Creative Non-Violence, 1345 Euclid Street, 
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009. 


and the Federal Reserve Board to lower 
interest rates “to levels which will support 
a healthy construction industry and a 
healthy economy.” 

IT URGED Congress to adopt reforms 
that would assure the availability of ade- 
quate capital at reasonable interest rates 
to finance investments in new industrial 
capacity and housing by imposing credit 
controls on excessive speculation and cor- 
porate takeovers; restricting investment 
abroad, and expanding membership on the 
Federal Reserve Board to include repre- 
sentation of labor, industry, agriculture 
and consumers. 

To alleviate the housing shortage that 
is driving up home prices and rents, dele- 
gates urged government action to ease 
tight-money policies and establish pro- 
grams to expand the supply of low-income 
and middle-income housing. They also 
cited the need to encourage union pension 
fund investments in government-guaran- 
teed mortgages and discourage conversion 
of rental housing to condominiums. 

Other key resolutions adopted at the 
two-day convention call for: 

• Congressional action on legislation 
to ease the impact of sudden plant clos- 
ings on workers and corhmunities. 

• Federal legislation giving construc- 
tion workers full rights to picket struck' 
employers at construction sites. 

• Support for continued development 
of nuclear power plants and upgrading 
safety margins. 

• Wider participation by unions in a 
coordinating committee promoting multi- 
employer pension plans. 

Speakers on the closing day of the con- 
vention included Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 
(D-Mass.), who pledged to help lead the 
fight in the Senate against the repeal of 
Davis-Bacon and other anti-worker mea-. 
sures; Rep. James J. Florio (D-N.J.), the 
Democratic candidate for governor of 
New Jersey; President William H. Wynn 
of the Food & Commercial Workers, and 
President Norman Hill of the A. Philip 
Randolph Institute. Earlier speakers in- 
cluded AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
and President Howard D. Samuel of the 
Industrial Union Dept. 



ALBERT!. ZACK 


Hearing Set 
On Hobbs Act 
Amendment 

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee has 
scheduled a Nov. 4 hearing on a bill that 
seeks to transform a 35-year-old federal 
anti-racketeering law into a bludgeon 
against union members engaged in lawful 
strikes for legitimate goals. 

The Hobbs Act amendment is spon- 
sored by Senate Judiciary Committee 
Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and 
15 other right-wing Republicans. The push 
for its enactment comes chiefly from the 
National Right to Work Committee, which 
has long sought to link unions to acts of 
violence. 

AT THE SENATE hearings, the anti- 
union “work” committee will argue the 
case for the Thurmond bill, and AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland is scheduled to 
testify in opposition. 

At issue is whether Congress will rewrite 
the Hobbs Act in order to nullify a 1973 
Supreme Court decision. 

In that landmark case, the Supreme 
Court found that Congress had intended 
in the 1946 law to deal with extortion in 
the guise of union action, not with mis- 
conduct in pursuit of lawful ends. Thus, 
a racketeer who threatened an employer 
with a strike or picket line if he didn’t pay 
protection money could be prosecuted 
under the Hobbs Act. 

But the Supreme Court majority ruled 
that the anti-racketeering law, with its 
potential penalty of 20 years in prison and 
heavy fines, couldn’t be used to prosecute 
“the worker who threw a punch on a 
picket line or the striker who deflated the 
tires on his employer’s trucks.” 

THERE ARE laws — local, state and 
federal — to deal with specific offenses, the 
court noted. But it found no evidence in 
the language or legislative history of the 
Hobbs Act to support the conclusion “that 
Congress intended to put the federal gov- 
ernment in the business of policing the 
orderly conduct of strikes.” 

That’s what Thurmond and his co-spon- 
sors are trying to change. 

Senate Approves 
Radar Plane Sale 
To Saudi Arabia 

(Continued from Page 1) 
the first funding bill to reach the Senate 
floor since Reagan called for a new 12 
percent budget slash on top of the heavy 
cuts Congress had already adopted. 

The Senate would have had to slash 
$1 billion from the Interior Dept, bill to 
meet the Administration’s goals, but it 
backed its Appropriation Committee’s de- 
cision to trim only $160 million. 

Sen. Mack Mattingly (R-Ga.) sought to 
cut back - the funding by another $380 
million — still well below the White House 
demands. But the Senate rejected his 
amendment by a 61-35 vote.. 

Meanwhile, the Appropriations Com- 
mittee cleared for the Senate floor a $10.6 
billion money bill for the Dept, of Trans- 
portation, which is in line with the Presi- 
dent’s original budget request but is $637 
million below his new budget target. 

In the area of social programs, a sharper 
test will come when the Senate Appropri- 
ations Committee completes its markup of 
the House-passed bill carrying funds for 
the Labor Dept., the Education Dept, and 
the Dept, of Health & Human Services. 

The House, early in October, rejected 
the Administration’s call for a further 12 
percent reduction in non-mandatory pro- 
grams. Its bill was nearly $4 billion over 
the President’s revised request. 

In the Labor Dept, segment of the fund- 
ing bill, the Senate committee will be 
making decisions involving job health and 
safety enforcement, coverage under the 
mine safety law, and the wholesale layoffs 
of experienced Labor Dept, staff that 
would be required under the Reagan 
budget. 


Al Zack Dies, AFL-CIO 
Spokesman for 25 Years 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


Pagre Three 


‘iVcM? Yardstick’ Invented 

Kirkland Scores Shift 
On CPI Housing Costs 



PENNSYLVANIA COALITION of labor and citizens groups rallies at the 
state Capitol in Harrisburg in support of legislation to curb high interest rates and 
plant shutdowns. Addressing the more than 1,000 demonstrators of the Pennsyl- 
vania Public Interest Coalition is State AFL-CIO Treas. Robert McIntyre. 

Relaxed S&L Controls Seen 
Aggravating Housing Slump 


(Continued from Page 1) 

past year require that the time schedule 
for improving the housing component of 
the CPI be shortened.” 

Norwood said the revision was being 
made sooner to have the new CPI-U index 
in place by the time it determines the tax 
brackets under an indexing provision of 
the new tax law which takes effect in 1985. 
She said that a Senate Finance Committee 
report estimated that the tax bracket in- 
dexing will cut federal revenues by nearly 
$13 billion. 

BECAUSE SOME major labor con- 
tracts which use the CPI-W run for as long 
as three years, Norwood said, substantial 
advance notice of the change is needed so. 
that these users will have adequate time to 
adjust to the new indexes. 

The new method of calculating the 
housing component will be based on the 
concept currently employed in BLS’s ex- 
perimental CPI with its built-in “rental 
equivalence” measure — in BLS’s technical 
parlance, the CPI-U X-1 . Home ownership 
costs under CPI-U and CPI-W are deter- 
mined by combining house prices and 
mortgage interest rates, both of which have 
been highly volatile in recent years. Under 
the rental equivalence measure, BLS tries 
to figure out how much it costs homeown- 
ers to rent their houses. 

KIRKLAND POINTED out that the 
shift is being made at a time when interest 
rates have pushed home-buying costs out 
of reach for most Americans and in spite 
of the fact that two-thirds of all families 
are buying homes rather than renting. 

“It is true that high interest rates are 
squeezing out prospective home-buyers, 
but dropping this component from the 
CPI will not help these Americans buy 
a house,” he said. 


(Continued from Page 1) 
from a drop of nine-tenths of 1 percent in 
average weekly hours and no change in 
average hourly earnings accompanied by 
the 1.1 -percent rise in consumer prices. 

The rise in the government’s consumer 
price index last month was mostly due to 
another jump in mortgage interest rates, 
but BLS reported higher prices across the 
board. Food, transportation, and health 
costs rose at substantially higher rates than 
in previous months. 

MORTGAGE RATES were up 2.5 per- 
cent over the month and are now above 17 
percent on a national average. BLS said 
overall housing costs rose 1.3 percent and 
accounted for about half of the September 
CPI increase. Other shelter costs that rose 
last month were house prices, up six-tenths 
of 1 percent; rents, up eight-tenths of 1 
percent, and fuel and other utilities, up 1.1 
percent. 

Over the past 1 2 months, prices have 
risen 10.8 percent as measured by the 
consumer price index. Inflation jumped at 
an annual rate of 13.2 percent during the 
July-September quarter, compared with 
7.4 percent in the second. 

“September’s CPI emphasizes that in- 
flation continues to be a serious problem,” 
said Chairman Murray L. Weidenbaum of 
the President’s Council of Economic Ad- 
visers in a statement. 

LOOKING AT actual price perform- 
ance for the year so far, the CPI has risen 
at an annual rate of 10.1 percent from 
January to September. The Administration 
has forecast a 9.9 percent increase in the 
index for all of 1981. 

Consumer food costs, which had been 
keeping the CPI down in the spring and 
early summer, rose nine-tenths of 1 per- 
cent in September and were up at an an- 
nual rate of 9.9 percent in the third quar- 
ter. BLS reported sharp increases for beef, 


Norwood stressed that the new rental 
equivalence measure “won’t be exactly like 
the experimental X-1 measure but the X-1 
is the closest to it.” 

She said that BLS has no way of know- 
ing whether the new system will mean a 
higher or lower CPI, but that the experi- 
mental measure using the rental equiv- 
alence method resulted in figures almost 
always lower than either of the two cur- 
rent indexes. In September, for example, 
CPI-U would have dropped from 1 1 to 

9.2 percent at an annual rate and from 

1 .2 to eight-tenths of 1 percent on a 
monthly basis. 

Some of the sharpest criticism of the 
proposed changes in the CPI was ex- 
pressed by groups representing retired 
persons. The National Council of Senior 
Citizens said that it was concerned over 
the timing of the new calculations. 

“THE BLS DECISION was made un- 
expectedly and at a time when the govern- 
ment is preoccupied with cutting the cost 
of federal programs,” the council said in a 
statement. “Although we have never stood 
in the way of honest improvements in the 
CPI, the National Council of Senior Citi- 
zens fears that the proposed changes could 
reduce benefits in several social programs, 
including social security. 

“We therefore have serious reservations 
about the new formula, and intend to care- 
fully examine its impact on the elderly and 
on others who will be affected by the 
change.” 

Norwood insisted at her news conference 
that the decision to change the CPI was 
not political nor was it influenced by pro- 
jected federal deficits. 

“It is a technical decision, a professional 
decision that I made, and I will accept 
responsibility for it,” she said. 


pork, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Medical care costs continued to surge, 
rising nine-tenths of 1 percent after an 
increase of 1 percent in August. Medical 
care costs have been rising at high rates 
for the past nine months. 

Transportation costs rose 1.2 percent, 
the largest increase since February, as used 
car prices went up sharply for the fourth 
consecutive month. New car prices, even 
after accounting for rebate programs, were 
up also. 


Tuition tax credits will do more harm 
than good to the District of Columbia’s 
residents, a coalition of labor, religious, 
business and civic organizations charged 
as it closed ranks in the fight to defeat a 
proposal for such credits on the city’s 
Nov. 3 ballot. 

The scheme would allow District resi- 
dents to take up to $1,200 off their city 
income taxes for a child attending private 
school. 

THE BALLOT measure has drawn na- 
tional attention because it is one of the 
first local tests of the tax credit concept, 
which has the backing of the Reagan 
Administration and conservative organi- 
zations including the right-wing National 
Taxpayers’ Union. 

The American Federation of Teachers 
strongly opp>oses tuition tax credits, and 
the AFL-CIO has joined the union in testi- 
fying against a national tax credit bill in- 
troduced in Congress this year. 

Opposition to the D.C. ballot question 
has been led by the Greater Washington 
Central Labor Council, the Washington 
Teachers Union, an affiliate of AFT, as 
well as the Government Employees and 


Legislation proposed to help savings in- 
stitutions out of a financial squeeze would 
worsen the already severe depression in the 
nation’s homebuilding industry, the AFL- 
CIO warned at Senate hearings. 

Bills being considered by the Senate 
Banking Committee would allow savings 
and loan associations and other federally 
charted thrift institutions to take on many 
of the characteristics of commercial banks. 

THRIFT INSTITUTIONS are a major 
source of mortgage funds, Henry B. 
Schechter, director of the AFL-CIO Office 
of Housing & Monetary Policy, stressed. 
Allowing alternate and more lucrative in- 
vestments would result in “an even more 
restricted flow of funds for residential fi- 
nancing at affordable rates than presently 
exists.” 

Further, he suggested, “increased com- 
petition for savings will keep interest rates 
high,” to the further detriment of the 
housing market. 

Schechter cited the experience with 
state-chartered mutual savings banks, 
which originally were primarily residential 
mortgage lenders. After they were allowed 
to invest a greater portion of their assets 
in commercial loans, the percentage of 
assets in residential mortgages dropped 
from 63 percent in 1970 to 48 percent in 
1980. 


the State, County & Municipal Employ- 
ees. 

THE CENTRAL labor council and the 
unions stress that adoption of the tax credit 
would seriously damage free public edu- 
cation, drain the city’s already hard- 
pressed treasury, force up other taxes for 
all D.C. residents and destroy jobs held 
by teachers, school workers and other city 
employees. 

No reduced costs to public education 
would result from the plan, the coalition 
points out, because fixed costs of operat- 
ing the schools will remain the same even 
if there is an exodus of children to private 
schools. Instead, there will be less money 
for books and supplies, reduced opportu- 
nities for students needing remedial, spe- 
cial or accelerated education, and drastic 
cuts in funds for after-school activities and 
sports. 

“Our system of universal public educa- 
tion” could be “destroyed” if children 
flock to private schools, leaving public 
schools “to our poorest citizens only,” the 
coalition stresses. 

ALL CITY services will feel the loss of 
tax revenue, since the bite could be as 
much as $75 million in the first year 


The tight-money policy enforced by 
the Federal Reserve Board has increased 
unemployment, forced home-buying costs 
out of reach of most families and failed 
to curb inflation, Schechter stressed. 

He reiterated the AFL-CIO’s call for 
the use of selective credit controls to make 
funds available for the most productive 
uses and “bring interest rates down to af- 
fordable housing levels.” 

If this were done, Schechter suggested, 
“it might then be possible for many of the 
thrift institutions to remain primarily in 
the business of making mortgage loans at 
affordable rates instead of being merged, 
becoming commercial banks, or closing 
their doors.” 

ON OTHER issues before the commit- 
tee, Schechter expressed the AFL-CIO’s 
opposition to federal preemption of state 
consumer credit interest ceilings and urged 
“a reasonable cap” on the increase in in- 
terest rates allowed under adjustable rate 
mortgages. 

He noted that Canada, which has used 
adjustable rate or rollover mortgages for 
many years “currently faces the prospect 
of large numbers of home foreclosures be- 
cause many mortgagors will have to renew 
their mortgages at such high interest rates 
that they will not be able to make required 
payments.” 


alone if the tax credit scheme is approved. 
Public services such as fire and police pro- 
tection, trash collection and transporta- 
tion would have to be cut back, the coali- 
tion predicts. Thousands of city workers 
could be fired, and the coalition estimates 
that for every two public employees laid 
off, at least one private sector worker 
would lose a job as well. 

The tax credit would benefit mostly 
taxpayers who need it least, since the 
amount of the credit is linked to income. 
To qualify for the full $1,200, a family of 
four would need an annual income of 
$25,300. As much as 75 percent of the 
benefit, the coalition says, would go to 
families with incomes over $40,000. 

Although the initiative would give D.C. 
businesses the right to take a credit for 
up to 50 percent of their tax liability by 
providing “scholarships” to send children 
to private schools, the measure is opposed 
by the city’s Board of Trade and other 
business groups on the ground that it will 
not only undermine the public education 
system where many workers are taught, 
but also erode the tax base and force up 
taxes on property and business to make 
up for lost revenues. 


‘Real’ Earnings of Workers 
Down Sharply over Month 


D. C. Coalition Hits T uition Tax Credit Bid 




Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


111 the Name of Freedom 

D emagogues who demand in the name of freedom that 
government get off “our” backs have no concern for any- 
body’s freedom but their own. They are contemptuous of the 
freedom and opportunity that vital government programs have 
brought to school children and old people, the unemployed, the 
disabled and the disadvantaged. 

They have no desire to lift any burdens from the backs of 
workers. They energetically support compulsory open-shop laws, 
the imposition of tougher penalties under the Hobbs Act, court 
injunctions and all of the other restrictions on the activities of 
workers and their unions. 

In the name of fighting inflation, the enemies of Davis-Bacon 
tell us the lowest bidder on any government construction project 
should be free to auction off jobs to the lowest bidders among 
workers — that is, those with the lowest skills and the least bar- 
gaining power, the most desperate workers in a depressed industry. 

THE ARGUMENT that this would boost productivity and 
open new opportunities for deserving contractors is cynical non- 
sense. 

There are other proposals to improve productivity and fight 
inflation at the expense of workers. One is to repeal the eight- 
hour day, the first and oldest labor standard on the books, so as 
to relieve employers of overtime pay. Another is to remove mini- 
mum-wage protection from youngsters at the bottom of the eco- 
nomic ladder. A third is the return of industrial processes to the 
home, so that employers can exploit helpless workers — and their 
children — without paying the rent, or worrying about hours and 
overtime, or health and safety, oi; minimum wages, or fringe 
benefits, or unions. 

THERE ARE PROPOSALS to remove the restrictions that 
restrain industry from polluting the air and water, or from strip- 
ping the natural resources that the government holds in trust for 
the people, and a continuing effort to dismantle the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act. 

These are elements of a general assault on the whole body of 
laws and regulations through which the government carries out its 
responsibilities to the people. 

Throwing out and destroying that machinery for the ostensible 
purpose of “getting the government off our backs” has a certain 
appeal — but only to those who believe that the function of gov- 
ernment is to look out for the rich and powerful and to look the 
other way when ordinary people are injured. 

WHAT LIFTED burdens from the backs of the American peo- 
ple was a government that stood at the side of the people, carry- 
ing out the plain duty prescribed for government in the Constitu- 
tion — the duty to “promote the general welfare” and “provide for 
the common defense.” 

We in the labor movement take those words at face value. We 
have spent a hundred years in the struggle to make them real. 
All our experience reinforces our conviction that, to promote the 
general welfare requires government to protect the interests of 
the poor and weak. The rich and powerful can look out for them- 
selves, and they do that extremely well. 


— From an address by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to 
the Building & Construction Trades Dept, convention in Atlantic 
City, N.J„ Oct, 21, 


Ijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 





Official- Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Alvin E. Heaps 
William H. Wynn Fred J. Kroll 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H.McClennan J. C. Turner 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

* Deceased. 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St.. N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


I Vol. XXVI Saturday, October 31, 1981 No. 44 | 


= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 

= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 

= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
5 AFL-CIO. _ 

nlUlllimilllllllillilllllllllllilillllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllllillllllllllllllllllllil^ 




Higher Local Taxes 


Federal Budget-Balancing Act 
Dumps Burden on States, Cities 


By Gus Tyler 

I N 1981, 30 states in the United States raised 
their taxes by $2.5 billion a year. They did so 
because the federal government in its drive to 
balance the budget in Washington is unbalancing 
the budget in the states. The states have to get 
more from their taxpayers, because less comes 
from Washington. 

What is true of the states is equally true for 
the cities, towns and counties. They, too, are 
raising their taxes and for the same reason — to 
make up for the federal funds they are losing. 

THE PRESSURES on local governments are 
piling up to the breaking point. Thus, the Nation- 
al Association of Counties, through its executive 
director, Bernard F. Hillenbrand, warns of a com- 
ing collapse of the counties. Referring to Presi- 
dent Reagan’s recent request for a second round 
of budget cuts, Hillenbrand said: “If these pro- 
posed cuts become reality you may soon read 
about dozens of counties going bankrupt. We 
will be lucky to have limited fire and police 
protection.” 

Counties — like all local government — will be 
caught in a squeeze play. As Washington cuts off 
funds for job training and education programs, 
more “people will have to go on welfare.” At 
just that time, there will be fewer funds from 
Washington to cover welfare or anything else. 

That leaves local government with no alterna- 
tive but higher taxes. So the taxes are going up 
and will continue to do so. 

FOR THE AVERAGE taxpayer, this means 
that any tax benefits from Washington will be 
cancelled by consequent tax increases locally. 
This will not apply with equal validity to all tax- 
payers, however. 

The hardest hit will be the poor and the 
middle-income people, because the kind of taxes 
levied by local government fall heaviest on these 
classes. For instance, of the $2.5 billion in added 
taxes levied by 30 states in 1981, almost all of 
it consists of general sales taxes, or of specific 
consumer taxes on gasoline, tobacco, alcoholic 
beverages. Since the “average” family spends the 
bulk of its earnings on consumer goods, the bulk 
of its spendable income is taxed. Those families 
that put the bulk of their income into investment 
find the bulk of their spendable dollars untaxed. 

As a consequence, the shift in the burden of 


taxation from Washington to the localities is also 
a shift in the burden of taxation from the more 
affluent to the less affluent and to the poor. 

IRONICALLY, however, this dumping the 
dirty job on local government could work out to 
the political advantage of the President. He looks 
like an efficient, prudent, business-like statesman 
who is cutting taxes and cutting expenditures. By 
contrast, the local governments look like ineffi- 
cient, improvident wastrels, imposing oppressive 
new taxes on their citizens in a time of hardship. 

As a result, public protest is very likely to be 
directed at county executives, city mayors, and 
state governors who will be asked why they don’t 
do like Reagan does. These local officials could 
reply, of course, that the whole mess is due to 
Reagan. But will the people understand? 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

iiiiiiiHiiiiiiliiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiliiiiiiliiiiliiiiiililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Fed’s Tight Money Cure 
Making Inflation Worse 

The record of recent decades shows that re- 
liance on the Federal Reserve’s policy of tight- 
ening up the money supply to control inflation 
is ineffective. 

It is ineffective because the resultant high 
interest rates add to inflation both directly and 
indirectly. 

The cost of goods and services that must be 
financed rises as interest expenses are directly 
rolled into prices. The skyrocketing cost of 
purchasing a home is perhaps the most striking 
example of this process. 

Because high interest rates discourage de- 
mand, the manufacturing capacity utilization 
rate declines, and businesses can’t operate at 
levels of peak efficiency. This increases the cost 
of production. 

A longer-run effect results from the increased 
unemployment of men and machines. Hundreds 
of billions of dollars of national product and 
income are foregone. The economy is left with 
less adequate stocks of housing and industrial 
equipment than could have been produced and 
is more susceptible to the next round of infla- 
tion. 

— From AFL-CIO testimony at Senate Ban- 
ing Committee hearings, Oct. 28, 1981. 
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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


Papfc Fi\f 


A Modest Proposal 

Inflation-Fighting Made Easy 


The following commentary was broadcast on 
CBS Radioes ''Newsbreakr Oct, 27, 1981. 

By Charles Osgood 

T he government would like to get the 
consumer price index down for a change, so 
would a lot of other people. But how can you, 
when interest rates are so high that hardly any- 
body can afford a mortgage to buy a house any- 
more? Well, where there’s a will, there’s a way 
and the government has come up with an inge- 
nious plan. 

What they’re going to do is — and they’re an- 
nouncing it today — they’re going to remove the 
cost of buying a house from the index. It’s as 
simple as that. With mortgage interest rates no 
longer a factor in computing the index, the index 
will go down and everybody will be happy. Now, 
why didn’t you and T think of that? 

The reasoning behind this might well be ap- 
plied to some other things, too. Then, you’d really 
see an improvement in the old CPI. A modest 
proposal, in just a moment. 

* * * 

WHEN I SAY that hardly anybody can afford 
to buy a house anymore. I’m not just talking 
through my hat. At a mortgage interest rate of 
17.5 percent, which is the going rate, a modest 
$60,000 mortgage will run you $880 a month. 
That’s about double what it would have cost you 
two years ago. And, who can afford that? 

Facing reality, then, the consumer price index 
will, effective in 1983, simply assume that every- 
body^ is renting and take house-buying out of 
the index because house-buying has gotten so 
expensive. 

To End Exploitation 

Opportunity for 

From AFL-CIO testimony at Senate hearings: 

T he AFL-CIO supports a fair and generous 
program to legalize the status of illegal im- 
migrants who have become part of the American 
community, but that program must operate in 
tandem with an effective program for cutting off 
the further flow of illegal immigration. Condi- 
tions consistent with a compassionate regard for 
the families involved should be set with a mini- 
mum of formality to make citizenship possible 
for individuals who presently have a strong at- 
tachment to this country. 

We have serious reservations about the Admin- 
istration’s proposal for “temporary resident status 
for illegal aliens.” There would be a 10-year wait- 
ing period of continuous residence before this 
“temporary” status, renewed every three years, 
could be converted to permanent resident status 
after a demonstration of English language pro- 
ficiency. 

Under the Administration proposal, an alien 
with “temporary resident status” could not bring 

Reagan's Budget Knife 

Education Aid 

ALTHOUGH CONGRESS turned down some 
of the massive education program cuts sought 
by the Reagan Administration, the battle to save 
the nation’s public school system from cata- 
strophic budget slashes is far from over, AFL- 
CIO Education Director Dorothy Shields warned. 

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Shields 
stressed, pointing out that the Administration is 
still calling on education for further “sacrifices 
to the Office of Management & Budget to make 
things balance.” She said the support for public 
education shown in the Solidarity Day demonstra- 
tion in Washington helped persuade Congress to 
reject the President’s appeal to convert categorical 
aid for disabled and disadvantaged children into 
block grants that could be used for any purpose. 

Questioned by reporters on the network radio 
interview Labor News Conference, Shields said 
that the Administration is persisting in its “long- 
term plans to fold all of the major education aid 
programs into block grants.” 

She warned that without a federal leadership 
role in directing aid to severe problem areas that 


It’s such a terrific idea, why not go all the way? 
Food, clothing and shelter are the three basic 
necessities. If we’re going to remove shelter, why 
not remove food and clothing too? Food and 
clothing prices are up, too, as anybody knows 
who’s bought a pork chop or a new pair of shoes 
lately. 

Once we have taken food, clothing and shelter 
off the consumer price index, we ought to see 
inflation, as measured by the CPI, come way 
down. See what I mean? 

In fact, if we pretend that we don’t need to eat, 
don’t need anything to wear or any place to live, 
we can pretend we’ve got this inflation thing 
licked for once and for all. 

Why stop there? In addition to removing things 
that have been going up from the consumer price 
formula, why not add a few things that are going 
down? 

IF WE’RE going to take the price of buying a 
house ofit of the inflation indicator for the simple 
reason buying a house is so much more expensive 
than it used to be, well, why not do the other 
things? Why not throw in there something that is 
cheaper than it used to be? Like what, you may 
ask? What in the world is cheaper than it used to 
be? Well, why not tie the consumer price index 
to the stock market, say? We all know that the 
prices of stocks on the stock market tend to go 
down when interest rates go up. And, sure enough, 
they have been going down. 

Tie the consumer price index to the Dow Jones 
industrial average instead of such frivolous stuff 
as food, clothing and shelter, and inflation as we 
know it will be a thing of the past. 


Citizenship 

his spouse or children to the U.S.A. and would 
not be^ eligible for a variety of social programs, 
including unemployment compensation. 

We believe citizenship should be possible 
for individuals who presently have a strong 
attachment to this country. Under the Administra- 
tion’s proposal, no such hope is held out to illegal 
residents, who, therefore will be far less likely 
to register, far more likely to continue in an 
illegal work status and to undermine the wages 
and working conditions and job opportunities for 
U.S. citizen workers. 

Curbing future illegal immigration — including 
stronger border controls and interior enforcement,* 
and more support for the Immigration and Nat- 
uralization Service — must be accomplished before 
any legalization program is put into effect. There 
is a need to absorb the full effect of a decade 
of large-scale legal immigration and refugee flow 
and to regularize the status of illegal alien resi- 
dents and their relatives before increasing the 
present levels of legal immigration. 


Still Threatened 

may not speak with a “strong political voice,” 
many children most desperately in need of assis- 
tance would lose “vital help” they now get be- 
cause the federal funds are earmarked for such 
specific purposes. 

SHIELDS SCORED the tuition tax credit 
scheme that is now before Congress and a similar 
proposal that is at issue in a Nov. 3 referendum 
in the District of Columbia. She said that the 
Reagan Administration has “made it clear that 
if the national bill passes,” the revenue loss “will 
be taken from other programs in public educa- 
tion that are funded at the federal level.” 

She said that the District of Columbia tuition 
tax credit bill would be “very, very detrimental 
to a public school system that already is having 
problems,” and would force a tax increase. The 
real effect, she said, would be to create an “op- 
portunity for the affluent families in the District 
of Columbia to wipe out their tax liability by 
claiming credits for children already enrolled in 
private schools.” But it would not help “a family 
that does not already have money.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T he list of social programs — schools lunches, food stamps, 
extended jobless benefits, health services, student loans and 
many more — isn’t the only thing the Reagan Administration is 
cutting back. 

Less visible, but no less alarming, has been a cutback of the 
federal commitment to hard-won civil rights protections for 
minority groups and women. 

In a number of areas of government efforts to help victims of 
past discrimination improve their lives, or at least hold their own, 
the Administration is backtracking. These areas include affirma- 
tive action, school desegregation, the right to vote, and the Equal 
Rights Amendment. 

The Labor Dept, in August unveiled a new set of department 
rules which will weaken anti-discrimination requirements for fed- 
eral contractors. 

UNDER THE proposed rules, which the department plans to 
put into effect later this year following the standard period for 
public comment, written affirmative action programs would be 
required only from government contractors having 250 or more 
employees and contracts worth at least $1 million. The current 
thresholds are 50 employees and a $50,000 contract. 

Labor Dept, officials, unfurling the Reagan banner of “deregu- 
lation,” say the new rules aim to lesson the paperwork “burden” 
on smaller businesses. 

But civil rights experts note that a large majority of job and job 
training opportunities are available in the smaller companies — the 
same ones to be released from the requirement of showing a plan 
to hire minorities and women. 

The new rules would slash by 75 percent the number of com- 
panies covered by an affirmative action program — 145,000 com- 
panies employing nearly 7 million people would be excluded. 

ALSO, THEY would cut back the definition of the appropriate 
number of minority members and women for which contractors 
set hiring goals and timetables in different areas of the country. 

But the new rules, say civil rights advocates, are important not 
only for their details and possible effects on hiring patterns, but 
also for what they symbolize. They are viewed as a reversal of a 
bipartisan government anti-discrimination policy going back to 
Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

.Since Roosevelt in 1941 issued an Executive Order barring 
discrimination by military contractors, seven Presidents — up to 
the current one — have extended and strengthened the “contract 
compliance” program. 

As for the question of extending the Voting Rights Act, Reagan 
has slowly backed away from his longstanding outright opposition, 
but a recent newspaper report said the President will support 
moves to significantly weaken the act when the Senate takes it up 
next year. 

The 1965 Act, which has dramatically increased the percentage 
of blacks registered to vote in the South and of registered His- 
panics in the Southwest and elsewhere, has been called the most 
successful civil rights law in the nation’s history. 

On Oct. 5, the House of Representatives rejected several amend- 
ments aimed at weakening the Voting Rights Act and voted by a 
resounding 389 to 24 margin to extend its key provisions for 10 
years. 

The House did the right thing. The Senate should follow. And 
so should the Reagan Administration on voting rights and the 
other civil rights issues. 

The government ought to lead the way against discrimination, 
not sound a retreat. 



THE BATTLE to save public schools from an unfair burden in 
the drive to balance the budget is far from over, despite the 
refusal of Congress to go along with some of the massive pro- 
gram cuts the Administration has demanded, AFL-CIO Educa- 
tion Director Dorothy Shields, center, warned on Labor News 
Conference. She was questioned by Robert Cooney of Press 
Associates, Inc., and Ann McFeatters of the Scripps-Howard 
Newspapers. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs program 
is aired on the Mutual radio network. 




Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


PATCO Families Express Thanks for the Help 


“This past weekend I did not know how 
I was going to survive for the month of 
October,” the letter read. “However, as I 
opened my mail Monday I found the as- 
sistance check to relieve some of my finan- 
cial burden. 

“I only wish I could describe my feelings 
at that moment, and that I will have the 
rest of my life for organized labor.” 

THE LETTER is from only one of 
scores of striking air traffic controllers and 
their families who have written the AFL- 
CIO thanking the American labor move- 
ment for the emergency help they’ve re- 
ceived since the Professional Air Traffic 
Controllers Organization struck over wages 
and working conditions Aug. 3. 

To date, the PATCO Family Fund has 
disbursed over $600,000 contributed by 
AFL-CIO affiliates and ordinary citi- 
zens. Director Walter G. Davis of the 
federation’s Dept, of Community Services, 
which has handled the fund, reported this 
week that a total of 1,264 claims averag- 
ing between $200 and $450 were processed. 


Even more have been distributed in the 
field by community service representatives, 
he said. 

“ONCE AGAIN, the American labor 
movement has risen to the occasion, and 
come to the aid of its own,” said Davis. 

Letters have come in to Davis, in care 
of the Family Fund, from contributing 
unions and individuals as well as recipients. 
This one from Furniture Workers Local 
136 in Poultney, Vt., reflects the empathy 
shared by donors with the striking con- 
trollers: 

“We know what it’s like to be out on 
strike and how grateful it is for each strike 
donation,” wrote Sec.-Treas. Josephine 
Quinn. “This is known as ‘solidarity,’ and 
we must .stick together and help each 
other.” A check for $25 was enclosed. 

A SAMPLING of Davis’s mail shows 
how welcome the checks were, and how 
relieved the recipients were knowing that 
they were not alone in the struggle. 

“Things are really rough,” wrote a 


PATCO member in Swantz Creek, Mich. 
“It seems like the whole world is against 
us for doing something we so strongly 
think we have the right to do. I may end 
up broke, but I’ll be able to hold my head 
high knowing I had to do it and I’d do it 
again. I cannot express in words our thanks 
for your help at this time.” 

Another wrote: “As you can imagine, 
these are very difficult times for us and our 
families. But we have not lost faith in the 
strength of our country and its people. We 
all refuse to believe that they can forget 
that America was built by the sheer power 
of its labor and not its management. What- 
ever happens to PATCO, the ideals for 
which it stands will remain intact, we 
promise you that.” 

A PATCO member in Mendota Heights, 
Minn., wrote that “since this is my first 
strike, the past two and a half months have 
seemed very long. Since I’ve received the 
check, I’ve found that old spring in my 
step as I walk the sidewalk carrying my 
picket sign, holding my head high, and 
keeping my creditors happy.” 


From Grand Island, Neb., a PATCO 
member wrote that “being on strike in a 
small, anti-union, farming community, I 
was feeling very much alone in my fight. 
The AFL-CIO support of PATCO shows 
me I was wrong.” 

Union contributions ranged from $100,- 
000 each from the Steelworkers, Commu- 
nications Workers, and Auto Workers to 
$1 per member from Furniture Workers 
Local 376 in Athens, Tex. ■ -■ 

Other recent donations have included 
$10,000 each from the Clothing & Textile 
Workers, Letter Carriers, New York State 
United Teachers, Electrical, Radio & Ma- 
chine Workers -and the unaffiliated United 
Electrical Workers. The State, County & 
Municipal Employees gave $15,000. 

Of individuals, the letter from Jay Mor- 
gan in La Jolla, Calif., was representative: 
“Enclosed is a check for $5. Wish it could 
be much more but I am a retiree on a 
fixed income, the same since 1961. Yours 
is the good fight against a heartless and 
anti-labor Administration.” 



MARYLAND LABOR DELEGATION marches at the White House to protest 
Reagan Administration attacks on job safety and environmental protections. 
The group was headed by President Thomas M. Bradley, second from left, of 
the Maryland-District of Columbia AFL-CIO. The rally was part of a series 
of demonstrations sponsored by the federation’s Industrial Union Dept. 

Colorado Delegates Explore 
Alternatives to Reagan Cnts 


Administration 
Urged to Rehire 
Air Controllers 

(Continued from Page I) 

Haughton said he would concur in the 
decision if the union failed to call off the 
walkout within five days and to pledge that 
it would abide by legal strictures against 
federal strikes. 

Following a meeting in Baltimore, 
PATCO’s executive board said it is willing 
to end the strike but would not declare it 
officially over until the FAA ended its 
lockout of the 11,500 strikers. 

“The only way we could comply (with 
Haughton’s request) is to order our mem- 
bers to return to work,” the board said in 
a two-page statement. “However, PATCO’s 
members have been locked out by their 
former employer and could not return 
even if so ordered.” 

PATCO’s executive board sent a letter 
to Transportation Sec. Drew Lewis urging 
him to accept the union members back on 
the job. 

“In the interests of restoring the air 
traffic control system to its former efficient 
operation, all of our members are ready, 
willing and able to return to their facilities 
immediately,” the letter read. 

PATCO PRESIDENT Robert Poli, in 
announcing the union’s decision to appeal 
the decertification order, said the union 
should not yet be counted out. 

“I don’t think PATCO will ever be 
dead,” he said. “We are in a situation 
right now where the American public and 
the Congress are going to decide when 
this thing is over.” 

Poli said PATCO will argue to the ap- 
peals court that the FLRA, in decertifying 
the union for striking against the Federal 
Aviation Administration on Aug. 3, did 
not consider using lesser penalties imposed 
in past cases of walkouts by federal work- 
ers. 

Meanwhile, Transportation Sec. Drew 
Lewis forwarded to Congress the govern- 
ment’s proposed pay package for control- 
lers now working in airport towers and 
air traffic control centers. 

The package calls for an increase' of 
1 1 .4 percent in wages and benefits, includ- 
ing a 4.8-percent rise granted all fedtral 
employees on Oct. 1 — the same overall in- 
crease contained in the proposal the Ad- 
ministration offered PATCO before the 
strike. 

REP. WILLIAM D. Ford (D-Mich.), 
who chairs the House Post Office & Civil 
Service Committee that has jurisdiction 
over the pay package, expressed disap- 
pointment over the government’s decerti- 
fication of the union. 

“It is unfortunate that the FLRA did 
not reach a solution that would have left 
room for a just resolution of the dispute 
between the government and the air traf- 
fic controllers,” Ford said. 


Colorado Springs, Colo. — Problems fac- 
ing Colorado labor as a result of Reagan 
Administration actions occupied the 300- 
plus delegates at the State AFL-CIO’s 
14th biennial convention here. 

President Robert Goss of the Oil, Chem- 
ical & Atomic Workers lashed out at the 
Administration for “dismantling social and 
health programs, school lunches, social 
security, and all the other things he’s 
wrecking.” 

“NONE OF US mandated him to do all 
the damage he’s doing,” said Goss. He 
warned that there exists today “the great- 
est concentration of anti-labor forces ever 
in this country,” adding: 

“Big money is massing in Colorado, and 
is in the hands of anti-union interests.” 

Earlier, convention keynoter Victor 
Bussie, president of the Louisiana AFL- 
CIO, warned that the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s anti-union stance bodes ill for all 
workers, especially those belonging to un- 
ions. 

Bussie spoke of the “unfairness of bal- 
ancing the budget at the expense of those 

Canada’s Jobless Rate 
Surges to 8.2 Percent 

Ottawa — Canada’s unemployment rate 
took its sharpest jump ever, rising to 8.2 
percent in September from 7 percent in 
August. 

Statistics Canada, a federal agency, 
said the 1.2-percent increase brought the 
jobless rate to its highest level since No- 
vember 1978, when it also was 8.2 per- 
cent. The agency also reported a sharp 
drop in employment. 


least able to afford the sacrifice, and re- 
capped the plight of striking air traffic 
controllers fired by President Reagan after 
endorsing his candidacy last year. 

During the three-day meeting, dele- 
gates approved a number of resolutions 
and constitutional changes to deal more 
effectively with the problems facing Colo- 
rado labor. Among the major issues in the 
state are redistricting — Colorado was 
awarded an additional House seat in 
Congress — and attempts by the Repub- 
lican majority in the state legislature to 
gerrymander state districts; development 
of new energy sources, including oil, oil- 
shale and solar energy, and renewed at- 
tempts to impose open shop conditions on 
state employees. 

The delegates also voted to expand the 
Denver-based labor community agency, 
transforming it to a statewide operation 
from its present four-county operation. 

State AFL-CIO President Norman 
Pledger and Sec.-Treas. Zelda Bransted 
were unanimously re-elected, and 29 vice 
presidents were named. 

OTHER CONVENTION speakers in- 
cluded Gov. Richard Lamm; Rep. Ray 
Kogovsek (D-Colo.); Esther Foster, na- 
tional representative for the Coalition of 
Labor Union Women, and Jane Adams, 
western director of COPE VIP. 

President John Haggerty of Local 501, 
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Orga- 
nization, in Longmont, brought delegates 
up to date on the PATCO strike and 
thanked them for their moral and financial 
support. Contributions of more than 
$1,000 were collected for the PATCO 
Family Fund. 


Telegraph Union 
Delegates Adopt 
Increased Dues 

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Delegates to 
the Telegraph Workers convention voted 
increases in per capita payments, called 
for stepped-np organizing activities, estab- 
lished a study committee on restructuring 
the union and re-elected top officers. 

After approving a constitutional change 
transferring per capita tax authority from 
membership referendum to convention ac- 
tion, the 170 delegates voted to raise 
monthly payments for UTW locals to 
$7.75 from the current $4.75. For the 
union’s autonomous divisions — composed 
of members employed by the Associated 
Press, United Press International and the 
Canadian Pacific Railroad — the per capita 
was increased to $2.60 from $1.60. 

THE UNION’S leadership sought the 
increased funding to meet higher operating 
expenses and to offset debts incurred after 
the 1979 convention adopted a deficit 
budget. 

One of the major considerations that 
the union’s restructuring committee will 
undertake is the possible consolidation of 
the UTW’s regional operations. 

Re-elected to new two-year terms were 
President Richard C. Brockert, Sec.-Treas. 
Jerry Grim and Vice President Reva Ko- 
ciolek. 

In other action, the convention called 
for expanded voluntary political action 
contributions through payroll deductions 
and urged Congress to repeal sections of 
the Communications Act that prohibit 
Western Union from entering the inter- 
national market. Delegates turned down a 
proposal to hold conventions every four 
years rather than biennially. 

Stevens Settles 
Pay Claims for 
Nearly $400,000 

New York — J. P. Stevens & Co. has 
paid nearly $400,000 in settlement of 47 
backpay cases arising out of charges filed 
against the company in 1979 by the Cloth- 
ing & Textile Workers. 

At that time, ACTWU charged that the 
company had instituted major unilateral 
changes in working conditions and other 
policies at its West Boylston, . Ala., plant 
without negotiating with the union. 
ACTWU had been designated by the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board as the bar- 
gaining representative at the plant. 

In the national settlement agreement 
reached by the union and the company on 
Oct. 19, 1980, the West Boylston case was 
reserved for further negotiations. As a re- 
sult, 47 workers have received awards, 
many exceeding $10,000 each. - - 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


PafCe Seven 


Suit Seeks to 
Keep Ban on 
Homework 

Unions and employers in the apparel 
industry have asked a federal court to stop 
the Labor Dept, from lifting a 40-year ban 
oh industrial homework in the knitted out- 
wear industry. 

Joining in the request for an injunction 
were the Ladies’ Garment Workers, two 
ILGWU locals representing workers di- 
rectly affected, the Clothing & Textile 
Workers, employer associations represent- 
ing knitted outerwear manufacturers and 
a number of individual companies. 

The union-industry complaint, filed in 
federal district court in the District of 
Columbia, cites adverse effects on both 
workers and manufacturers. 

it warns that allowing commercial knit- 
ting to be done in the homes of workers 
will make it impossible to enforce the Fair 
Labor Standards Act, resulting in payment 
of substandard wages, violations of hours 
limitations and probable violations of child 
labor laws. 

Manufacturers will lose business to com- 
petitors using low-paid home workers and 
may be forced to lay off employees or 
close down, it asserts. 

LABOR SEC. Raymond J. Donovan 
ordered the lifting of homework restric- 
tions, effective Nov. 9, even though the 
bulk of comments the Labor Dept, had 
received were opposed to relaxing existing 
prohibitions. The ban on work at home 
will remain for six other covered indus- 
tries. 

The AFL-CIO protested at the time that 
the exemption for knitted outerwear “re- 
opens the door to exploitation” of home- 
workers that led to the original sanctions 
against kitchen sweatshops. 

The union-industry suit contends that 
the administrative record does not support 
the Labor Dept, action. 

Houston Project 
Teams 30 Unions 
For Organizing 

(Continued from Page I) 

unions the organizing resources of their 
affiliation with international unions, plus 
20 staff organizers on, the project itself, 
seven division coordinators, research and 
public relations services, and advanced 
word processing technology. The staff and 
international organizers come from diverse 
unions and backgrounds. The coordinators 
are mostly AFL-CIO field representatives. 

Robert Comeaux, AFL-CIO Region IV 
assistant director and coordinator of the 
Houston Project, told reporters at a news 
conference that “this is a program to 
come head-to-head with the growth of this 
city and secure the right of collective bar- 
gaining against the design of business, 
management and industry in Houston. Lo- 
cal unions sought this coordinated effort 
because they have wanted and needed it.” 

HARRIS COUNTY AFL-CIO Sec- 
Treas. Don Horn was joined by Texas 
State AFL-CIO President Harry Hubbard 
in emphasizing the role of local unions in 
initiating the project. 

“We worked five years for this kind of 
program,” Horn said. “Houston is among 
the most oragnized cities in Texas, but it 
is also the home of three of the top la- 
bor management consultants in the coun- 
try. They spend their time, and the money 
of management, to destroy unions. We 
have sought this organizing project to pre- 
serve the rights of collective bargaining 
for the workers of our area, including 
those not now organized.” 

Kistler said the Houston Project will 
seek to emulate the successful Los Angeles 
campaign, which developed more than 
400,000 new union members, and con- 
tinues to function today. It will also draw 
on the experience gained during campaigns 
against “right-to-work” legislation. 



LEADERS OF EL SALVADOR’S Popular Democratic 
Unity coalition, an alliance of moderate organizations in- 
cluding trade unions representing the majority of that coun- 
try’s urban and rural workers, discuss their goals with 
AFL-CIO leaders. Joining Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land were William C. Doherty Jr., executive director of the 


American Institute for Free Labor Development, and Mi- 
chael Boggs, assistant director of the AFL-CIO’s Dept, of 
International Affairs. TTie Salvadoran trade unionists, who 
are seeking free elections and continued land reform, are 
Francisco Zaldana, Jose Luis Grande, Gabriel Pilona, Jose 
Nicolas Orellana, and Salvador Carazo. 


Cargo Preference Included 
In Seaport Improvement Bill 


Rehirings End 
Teachers Strike 
In Philadelphia 

Philadelphia — The city’s 22,000 public 
school teachers and other employees who 
went out on strike Sept. 8 returned to their 
jobs after a court ruled the school district 
must rehire 3,500 1 aid-off teachers. 

The court decision came as Philadelphia 
labor leaders prepared for a city wide strike 
in support of the teachers. President John 
Murray of the Philadelphia Federation of 
Teachers, following the court ruling, an- 
nounced cancellation of the citywide walk- 
out, scheduled for Oct. 28. 

THE PFT CALLED the strike after the 
school board laid off the teachers, cancelled 
a 10-percent pay raise that had been ne- 
gotiated a year earlier, and imposed other 
economies to balance its 1981-82 budget 
as required under state law. 

Commonwealth Court Judge James 
Crumlish ruled that the school district 
must honor provisions promised in the first 
year of its two-year contract with the 
teachers, but could legally negate certain 
economic provisions of the pact without 
terminating the agreement. 

The court ruling meant that the school 
district must rehire the laid-off employees, 
but need not implement the 10-percent 
pay increase it promised at the start of the 
second year. 

“We are teachers and our primary con- 
cern is the children,” said Joe Pizzo, a 
member of PFT’s executive board. “We 
brought back the programs we said the 
children needed. We won our battle.” 


The AFL-CIO and 1 1 federation affili- 
ates have petitioned OSHA to reduce 
worker exposure to formaldehyde “to the 
lowest feasible levels” because of new 
findings that the chemical poses a serious 
cancer risk to humans. 

Citing laboratory studies conducted over 
the past several months, the petitioners 
called on the federal job safety agency to 
issue an emergency temporary standard to 
upgrade workplace protections. 

THE EXISTING OSHA standard does 
not adequately protect workers from the 
cancer hazard, the petition said, noting that 
an estimated 1.6 million workers are ex- 
posed to the chemical in more than 60 
industrial categories. 

OSHA currently limits exposure to three 
parts of formaldehyde to one million parts 
of air (3 ppm) over an eight-hour shift, 
but allows a maximum peak surge of 10 
ppm. 

In citing the results of the new scientific 
studies, the petitioners noted that labora- 
tory animals developed nasal cancer after 
being exposed to formaldehyde vapors 
comparable to workplace levels. 


The House Merchant Marine Commit- 
tee has voted bipartisan approval of a 
union-supported port development bill that 
includes a cargo preference clause for 
U.S.-built, American-flag vessels. 

If enacted, the legislation would spur 
upgrading of U.S. ports to end the bottle- 
necks that have held coal exports substan- 
tially below the potential market. 

KEY PROVISIONS of the bill are along 
lines that were urged by maritime unions 
and by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
last August in a letter to Committee Chair- 
man Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.). 

The bill, which reportedly was approved 
by a unanimous voice vote of the com- 
mittee, would speed the granting of permits 
for port improvements and provide for 
federal-local cost-sharing. 

It envisions bilateral agreements between 
the United States and its trading partners 
that would assure a gradually rising share 
of all dry bulk cargo for U.S. vessels. The 
dry bulk cargo preference would not be 
limited to coal shipments. 

INITIALLY, the U.S. share would be 
set at 4 percent of the two-nation trade, 
rising by 4 percent a year to reach the 
goal of 40 percent within 10 years. That 
would bring the division in line with what 
is becoming a norm for international trade 
of 40 percent carried in the ships of each 
of the trading nations, with 20 percent 
allowed for vessels of other nations. 

While the Administration has not taken 
a formal position on the measure, Biaggi 


The petition, initiated by the Auto 
Workers, also pointed out that as far 
back as 1976, the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety & Health had recom- 
mended lowering the formaldehyde expo- 
sure limit to 1 ppm. 

Joining in the petition, in addition to 
the UAW and the AFL-CIO, are the In- 
dustrial Union Dept., Allied Industrial 
Workers, Clothing & Textile Workers, 
the State, County & Municipal Employees, 
Machinists, Chemical Workers, Molders, 
the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, 
Carpenters, Rubber Workers and Steel- 
workers. 


Alexandria, Va. — Bobbie J. Creque has 
been named assistant director of the Labor 
Participation Dept, of the United Way of 
America. The appointment was announced 
by Jordan L. Biscardo, director of the 
United Way department, and AFL-CIO 
Community Services Director Walter G. 
Davis. 

Creque began her career with the AFL- 
CIO Dept, of Community Services in 1968 
and became an AFL-CIO intern in 1970 


said he had been informed that the cargo 
preference provision adopted by the com- 
mittee would be acceptable to the Dept, 
of Transportation. Bulk cargo carriers for 
the preferencee trade would be built in 
U.S. shipyards without construction sub- 
sidies and would not be eligible for govern- 
ment operating subsidies. 

Less certain is the Administration’s po- 
sition on federal expenditures for harbor 
improvement and maintenance. 

IN THE HOUSE, the Public Works 
Committee shares jurisdiction over port 
development and will be shaping its own 
bill. There is likely to be an effort by both 
panels to join in bringing a single mea- 
sure to the House floor, possibly before the 
end of this first session of Congress. 

Previous cargo-preference battles in 
Congress have been over efforts to assure a 
share of oil imports into the United States 
for American-flag tankers. President Ford 
vetoed one such bill in 1974 and another 
measure was defeated in the House in 
1977, despite Administration endorse- 
ment. 

George Pierson, 
Stove Workers 
President, Dies 

St. Louis — George E. Pierson, president 
of the Stove Workers for the past seven 
years, died Oct. 27 after a heart attack 
while attending a union conference in Co- 
lumbia, Tenn. He was 54. 

Pierson, who began his career with Stove 
Workers Local 32 in Kankakee, 111., was 
chairman of the local’s executive com- 
mittee before being made an international 
representative. He was elected to the un- 
ion’s executive board in 1971 as a vice 
president. He was first elected president 
of the union in 1974. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, in 
a letter to Pierson’s widow, praised him 
as an “effective officer truly dedicated to 
the interests of his union and its members.” 
His loss, Kirkland said, “will be deeply felt 
by the labor movement which he loved and 
served so well.” 

Survivors include Pierson's wife, Irene, 
and three children. Services were held Oct. 
30 in Bradley, 111. 


after completing the staff development 
program at the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies. She joined the United Way 
as a representative in 1972 after serving 
as labor liaison representative with the 
National Center for Voluntary Action. 

A specialist in child care and consumer 
affairs, Creque organized the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Community Services’ first child 
care conference in 1970. She is a member 
of the Office & Professional Employees. 


Labor Asks Stricter Limit 
On Formaldehyde Exposure 


United Way Appoints Creque to Key Labor Post 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 31, 1981 


GOP Political Ploy 


Poll on Aging Parley 
Draws Sharp Protest 


A Republican-sponsored poll of dele- 
gates to a White House Conference on 
Aging drew sharp protests on Capitol Hill 
and was assailed by the National Council 
of Senior Citizens as part of an attempt to 
“politicize” a traditionally non-partisan 
event. 

Hearings by the House Select Commit- 
tee on Aging revealed that the chairman 
of the Republican National Committee had 
received a list of conference delegates from 
Health & Human Services Sec. Richard S. 
Schweiker after having been turned down 
by conference officials. Requests by other 
organizations for delegate lists had all 
been rejected. 

More than 900 delegates were inter- 
viewed by phone, the hearings disclosed, 

Mediation Agency 
Reports Decline 
In Strike Rate 

The rate of strikes and contract rejec- 
tions in labor-management disputes han- 
dled by the Federal Mediation & Concili- 
ation Service dropped to its lowest level 
in several years during the 1980 fiscal 
year, the agency said in its most recent 
annual report. 

Only 1 2.9 percent of the dispute media- 
tion cases handled by the agency during 
the period involved strikes, down from 
14.2 percent in fiscal 1979 and the lowest 
percentage since the 11.4 percent rate of 
1973. Also, the number of cases involving 
strikes — 2,764 — ^was lower than in four of 
the last six years. 

THE PERCENTAGE of joint meeting 
cases involving contract rejections was the 
lowest since 1976 and the second lowest 
since 1973. Only 1,101, or 10.7 percent, 
of these cases involved rejections, down 
from 1,219 and 11.9 percent last year. 

The agency also reported that it han- 
dled its second highest number of con- 
tract negotiation cases in a decade. The 
total of 21,505 was 5 percent higher than 
the previous year. Most of the increase 
was in nonjoint meeting cases, which re- 
quire only informal mediation. 

Wages continued to head the list of 
issues involved in FMCS joint meeting 
cases, followed by pensions and insurance, 
contract duration, and vacations and holi- 
days. The number of joint mediation cases 
rose only 1 percent, and the continuing 
increase in public sector cases accounted 
for all of the rise. 

PUBLIC SECTOR cases have grown 
from 47 in 1970 to 1,010 last year, and 
now account for 10 percent of its caseload, 
FMCS said. 

The agency’s arbitration activity in- 
creased during fiscal 1980, with a 10 per- 
cent rise in requests for arbitration panels. 
There were a total of 7,539 arbitration 
awards, and the overwhelming majority 
involved disputes over interpretation or 
application of existing contracts. The 
average elapsed time in arbitration cases 
was 243.7 days, a slight decrease from the 
previous year. 


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by persons asserting they were calling in 
regard to the conference, but not revealing 
the connection with the Republican Na- 
tional Committee. 

Witnesses testified that they were asked 
what they thought of President Reagan 
and his performance in office, what orga- 
nizations they belonged to, whether they 
thought the infirm aged should be cared 
for by government or by their immediate 
families, whether people should be respon- 
sible for their own financial support in 
their older years, and their views on what 
sort of social security cuts people would 
accept. 

Committee Chairman Claude Pepper 
(D-Fla.) expressed concern that the poll 
results would be used to stack key com- 
mittees to avoid criticism of the Adminis- 
tration’s efforts to cut back social security. 

THE CONFERENCE is scheduled to 
open Nov. 30. In addition to delegates pre- 
viously appointed by governors and mem- 
bers of Congress, the Administration has 
authorized the appointment of additional 
delegates chosen by the White House. 

A statement adopted by the general 
board of the National Council of Senior 
Citizens cited other examples of Adminis- 
tration efforts to “manipulate and control” 
the conference, including: 

• Removal of the executive director of 
the conference, David A. Rust, less than 
six weeks before the conference was to 
begin. Rust, a Republican who served for 
a number of years as minority counsel of 
the Senate Special Committee on Aging, 
was “promoted” to another HEW post 
after he had recommended against turning 
over the delegate list to the Republican 
National Committee. 

• A voting procedure adopted by an 
Administration-controlled advisory com- 
mittee that will allow delegates only a 
single “up-or-down” vote on a package of 
14 committee reports. 

The Senior Citizens statement charged 
that this would deny the majority of dele- 
gates “any voice in most of the important 
decisions made during the conference.” 

The NCSC board said it will urge dele- 
gates to resist attempts to use the confer- 
ence as a “political football” and instead 
to carry out the original goals of the 
gathering — “to fully explore the problems 
of older Americans and to make appro- 
priate recommendations for solving those 
problems.” 



SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE was host to an AFL-CIO delegation at a 
breakfast meeting to discuss legislative issues. Shown here, from left, AFL-CIO 
Vice President John H. Lyons, Committee Chairman Robert Dole (R-Kan.), 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and Sen. Russell B. Long (D-La.), ranking 
minority member. The AFL-CIO group included Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue, Vice Presidents Kenneth T. Blaylock and William Konyha and state fed- 
eration officials from New York and Virginia. Twelve other senators attended. 

Inequities Assailed in Slashes 
Of Jobless Pay for Retirees 


Workers entitled to unemployment com- 
pensation should not have their benefits 
reduced because they are receiving a pen- 
sion from their previous employer or are 
drawing social security payments, the 
AFL-CIO urged at House hearings. 

That’s one of a number of inequities in 
the unemployment insurance program that 
Congress should remedy, AFL-CIO Social 
Security Director Bert Seidman told a 
House Ways & Means subcommittee head- 
ed by Rep. Harold E. Ford (D-Tenn.). 

SEIDMAN, accompanied by Associate 
Legislative Director Robert McGlotten, 
also protested denial of unemployment 
compensation to persons leaving the armed 
services after completion of an enlistment. 
That’s one of the restrictions Congress im- 
posed earlier this year as part of its bud- 
get-cutting package. 

On the pension offset issue. Congress 
last year modified a harsh provision that 
was to have taken effect Mar. 31, 1980. 
But major inequities remain, Seidman »md. 

Persons whose pensions are paid by 
their last employer for work during the 
“base period” on which the unemployment 
compensation benefit is computed have 
their entitlement reduced dollar-for-dollar 


Halting Flow of Illegal Aliens 
Called Vital to Amnesty Plan 


The AFL-CIO called for “effective ac- 
tion to stop illegal immigration” as a 
prelude to a “generous” amnesty policy 
that would make U.S. citizenship possible 
for undocumented aliens “who have be- 
come part of the American community.” 

In testimony at Senate hearings. Federa- 
tion Economist Markley Roberts expressed 
the labor movement’s understanding of 
the desire for a better life that has brought 
so many people across 'America’s loosely 
controlled borders, and its concern for the 
impact on the U.S. economy. 

“TOO OFTEN,” he noted, “unscrupu- 
lous employers prey upon these newcom- 
ers, forcing low wages and substandard 
working conditions upon them in an atmo- 
sphere of fear and intimidation with the 
threat of deportation. Such exploitation 
undermines wages, working conditions and 
job opportunities for U.S. citizen workers.” 

Roberts said the AFL-CIO rejects the 
concept of “mass deportations” and favors 
citizenship opportunities, with fewer ob- 
stacles than the Administration plan would 
impose, “for individuals who presently 
have a strong attachment to this country.” 

Under the uncertain second-class status 
offered by the Administration plan, he 
cautioned, illegals “will be far less likely 
to register with the Immigration & Nat- 


uralization Service, will be far more 
likely to continue in an illegal work 
status, and thus will be far more likely to 
continue to undermine . . . working con- 
ditions and opportunities.” 

Roberts stressed, however, that “the 
legalization process should not begin until 
the massive flow of illegal aliens into the 
United States has been stopped. Other- 
wise, the legalization process would sim- 
ply encourage additional flows of illegal 
aliens.” 

THE AFL-CIO favors reunification of 
families, a humanitarian policy toward 
refugees and safeguards for American 
workers as “essential components” of a 
long-term immigration policy, he testified. 

“There is a need to absorb the full effect 
of a decade of large-scale legal immigra- 
tion and refugee flow and to regularize the 
status of illegal alien residents and their 
relatives before increasing the present 
levels of legal immigration,” he urged. 

In separate testimony before a House 
subcommittee, Roberts expressed the AFL- 
CIO’s opposition to any weakening of the 
present requirement for Labor Dept, cer- 
tification that persons admitted into the 
United States to work, either temporarily 
or perm^ently, will not adversely affect 
wages and working conditions of Ameri- 
can workers. 


by the amount of their pension. In the 
case of a contributory plan, states may 
make an allowance for the worker’s pay- 
ment into the pension plan, but do not 
have to do so. 

SEIDMAN PROTESTED that the off- 
set provision imposes a “means test” for 
unemployment insurance that applies only 
to pension income and not to other non- 
wage income. 

‘ “It does not recognize that retirement, 
in many cases, is involuntary,” he stressed. 
Workers who are forced to retire for such 
reasons as plant closings, plant relocation 
or layoffs should receive full unemploy- 
ment benefits while seeking other employ- 
ment, Seidman said. At the least, he urged, 
states should be required, not merely al- 
lowed, to take into account contributions 
workers made to their pension benefits. 

In another area, Seidman protested a 
provision that exempts farm employers 
from paying unemployment insurance tax 
on the wages of alien workers admitted to 
the country for temporary employment. 

“THIS EXEMPTION has created a 
competitive disadvantage for U.S. agri- 
cultural workers by providing an incentive 
to hire aliens when thousands of domestic 
farmworkers are unemployed,” he noted. 
Employers can avoid both the unemploy- 
ment and social security taxes by switch- 
ing to alien workers, Seidman pointed out. 

Other inequities the AFL-CIO urged be 
corrected include exclusion from unem- 
ployment compensation coverage of work- 
ers on fishing boats who receive a share 
of the proceeds of the catch instead of 
wages, and the exclusion of students over 
21 whose employment is part of a work- 
study program. 

Warning Served 
Against Trading 
Jobs for Exports 

Discrimination by foreign countries 
against services provided by U.S. firms 
should be dealt with on a bilateral case- 
by-case basis, AFL-CIO Research Director 
Rudy Oswald told a Senate panel. 

Multinational negotiations, involving 
broad tradeoffs and concessions, are inap- 
propriate and could result in losses of U.S. 
jobs in return for concessions to American 
firms operating overseas, he warned. 

Oswald’s testimony came on a bill call- 
ing for a government study on steps to 
promote export opportunities for U.S. ser- 
vice industries. 

“The United States cannot and should 
not negotiate away the jobs of service em- 
ployees or let them be exported, as manu- 
facturing jobs and service jobs in the past 
have been exported,” Oswald said. 






Vol. XXVI 



Saturday, November 7, 1981 (gxj^^^^a No. 45 




Reagan’s Policy Failure 
Cited as Slump Deepens 



THE AFL-CIO SUPPORTS legislation to impose tougher penalties on corrupt 
union officials who betray the trust of workers, Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land testifies at Senate hearings. With him are Legislative Director Ray Denison, 
left, and AFL-CIO Special Counsel Laurence Gold. 

Kirkland Cites Betrayal of Trust 

Stiffer Penalties Backed 
To Combat Corruption 

By David L. Perlman 


Speakers Set 
On Key Issues 
At Convention 

The AFL-CIO’s centennial convention 
will be addressed by political and civil 
rights leaders, by public figures from a 
variety of fields, and by representatives of 
the Free World’s trade union movement. 

Delegates will represent some 15 million 
members of 102 affiliated unions, and the 
AFL-CIO’s state and local central bodies. 
The convention will open at the Sheraton 
Centre Hotel in New York at 10 a.m. on 
Nov. 16, just 100 years and one day after 
the Pittsburgh convention that gave birth 
to the Federation of Organized Trades & 
Labor Unions. 

FROM THE political sector, conven- 
tion speakers will include former Vice 
President Walter F. Mondale, House 
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., and Sen. 
Edward M. Kennedy. 

Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director 
’ of the NAACP, will address the conven- 
tion, as will Eleanor Smeal, president of 
the National Organization for Women, 
and Henry Lacayo, president of the Labor 
Council for Latin American Advancement. 
The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, the Uni- 
versity of Notre Dame president whose 
most recent government role was chairman 
of the Select Commission on Immigration 
& Refugee Policy, will also be a speaker. 

Entertainer Danny Thomas will appear 
as the recipient of the AFL-CIO’s Murray- 
Green-Meany Award for community ser- 
vice. 

INTERNATIONAL speakers will in- 
clude Otto Kersten, general secretary of 
the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions; Canadian Labor Congress 
President Dennis McDermott, and Tom 
Jackson, fraternal delegate from the Brit- 
ish Trades Union Congress. 

The call to the AFL-CIO’s 14th consti- 
tutional convention stresses the challenge 
the nation’s labor movement faces from 
“a business-oriented Administration” that 
is seeking to impose “radical changes in 
America’s social and economic structure.” 

The task of the delegates^ the call de- 
clares, is to shape “programs and policies 


Lech Walesa, the leader of the Soli- 
darity labor federation in Poland since 
its inception 14 months ago, had been 
invited to accept labor’s first George 
Meany Human Rights Award on behalf 
of Solidarity at the AFL-CIO conven- 
tion. But, in a cable to Federation Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland, Walesa said he 
was forced to cancel his visit. 

have much counted on the possi- 
bility of our mutual talks,” Walesa said. 
“In the present situation, I find it im- 
possible to leave Poland even if only for 
a very short period.” 


around which workers and all Americans 
who believe in freedom, democracy and 
the public interest can rally in the hard 
struggle that lies ahead.” 

It’s up to the trade union movement to 
provide leadership, the convention call 
affirms. 


The outlook for an improved system of 
collecting and processing labor force data 
dimmed following Labor Sec. Raymond 
Donovan’s rejection of several key pro- 
posals recommended by the AFL-CIO and 
a blue-ribbon federal panel. 

Citing budgetary restraints as the con- 
trolling factor in postponing or ruling out 
some revisions of data, Donovan con- 
tended in a report to Congress that while 
some recommendations of the nine-mem- 
ber National Commission on Employment 
& Unemployment Statistics were meritori- 
ous, others were not feasible at this time. 

AMONG THE programs caught in the 
Reagan Administration’s budget squeeze is 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly 
report on “real” spendable earnings, which 
Donovan proposes to eliminate altogether. 


The AFL-CIO endorsed legislation to 
toughen federal penalties against corrupt 
union officials as both good for the nation 
and in the “best interests” of the trade 
union movement. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland went 
before the Senate’s Permanent Subcom- 
mittee on investigations to give high marks 
to a bill introduced by Sen. Sam Nunn 
(D-Ga.) which would crack down harder 
on union officials who take employer pay- 
offs and on employers who bribe union 
officials. 

AS FAR AS the trade union movement 
is concerned, Kirkland made clear, be- 
trayal of the trust workers put in their 


The presidentially-appointed panel had 
recommended a new quarterly earnings 
series based on an expanded survey. Real 
spendable earnings, or income stripped of 
taxes and the impact of inflation, measure 
purchasing power. 

In turning down the NCEUS’s recom- 
mendation, Donovan cited problems in 
achieving the appropriate sample size and 
adjustments for tax deductions that are 
compatible with earnings data. 

The decision to eliminate the series re- 
verses the stand taken by former Labor 
Sec. Ray Marshall who, in an interim 
report on NCEUS’s recommendations, 
proposed changes in the data base and 
directed BLS to develop a new real spend- 
able earnings index. 

(Continued on Page 2) 


unions is a heinous wrong. Racketeers who 
prey on unions “are our natural enemies,” 
he said. 

Kirkland endorsed, “with two narrow 
exceptions,” provisions in the Nunn bill 
that would strengthen the existing disquali- 
fication from union or pension fund re- 
sponsibility of persons who have abused 
their posts for personal gain. A section of 
the bill which the AFL-CIO does support 
would require removal from union or 
pension office after conviction of a serious 
crime instead of waiting until all appeals 
have been exhausted. If a conviction is 
reversed, reinstatement to office would in- 
clude lost pay. 

Disqualification provisions in existing 
law already go beyond penalties against 
comparable offenses in the business world, 
Kirkland noted. But “the morals of the 
marketplace will not suffice” for the trade 
union movement, he stressed. 

“UNION OFFICE is a calling, not a 
business,” he insisted, and those who enter 
it “are, and should be, held to a higher 
standard.” 

A union officer who “takes an employer 
payoff for a substandard contract” or “pil- 
fers from the union treasury” tarnishes the 
entire trade union movement, he testified. 

In fact, Kirkland noted, “every measure 
shows that the integrity and dedication of 
union officers, as a group, is superior to 
that of other groups.” 

But “the labor movement is not perfect,” 
and “can only be strengthened” by getting 
rid of crooks. 

KIRKLAND SPOKE frankly of the 
AFL-CIO’s “perplexing problem” of 
whether, to avoid government interference 
with an autonomous trade union structure, 
“we should attempt to run a full scale pri- 
vate law enforcement scheme parallel to 

(Continued on Page 7) 


Signs Point 
To Further 
Weakening 

By James M. Shevis 

The sharp 2.7-percent drop in the gov- 
ernment’s September index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators, a measure of future eco- 
nomic activity, confirms that the nation is 
in a recession and that conditions will 
worsen, the AFL-CIO warned. 

“More ominous, however, is the fact 
that the Administration has nothing in the 
works — or even on the drawing board — 
to stop the downturn and prevent high 
interest rates from continuing to under- 
mine the economy and destroy jobs,” ob- 
served Rudy Oswald, director of the fed- 
eration’s Dept, of Economic Research. 

“THE ADMINISTRATION’S policies 
are a failure and must be overturned and 
replaced by a direct attack on unemploy- 
ment and inflation,” Oswald declared. 

President Reagan has endorsed the Fed- 
eral Reserve Board’s tight-money policy, 
which is ostensibly designed to reduce in- 
flation but has instead resulted in the 
country’s eighth business-cycle recession 
since the end of World War II. 

The day after the Commerce Dept, an- 
nounced the plunge in the index of leading 
indicators, the steepest since a 4-percent 
drop in April 1980, the Federal Reserve 
cut its discount rate from 14 to 13 per- 
cent in a move that could accelerate the 
slide in short-term interest rates. The dis- 
count rate is the interest rate the Fed 
charges member banks for loans. 

THE DISCOUNT rate cut marked the 
first significant easing of credit in over a 
year and was expected to lead to lower 
prime rates in the banking industry. 

(Continued on Page 3) 

1981 Settlements 
Produce Average 
Pay Gain of 11.59& 

Major collective bargaining contracts 
negotiated in the first nine months of 
1981 provided for wage increases averag- 
ing 1 1 .5 percent in the first year of the 
agreement and 9.3 percent a year when 
averaged over the term of the agreements, 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. 

The increases compared with boosts of 
9.2 percent in the first contract year and 
7.8 percent over the life of the contract 
when the same parties previously bar- 
gained — on average, about 32 months ago. 

THE SETTLEMENTS reached during 
the first nine months of 1981 covered 1.5 
million workers in 418 bargaining units 
of at least 1,000 workers. The settlement 
data exclude possible wage adjustments 
under cost-of-living provisions. 

Agreements in the construction indus- 
try covered 38 percent of all workers un- 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Labor Dept, to Eliminate 
Reports on Real Earnings 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


Labor Dept. 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

The study commission reported its 
recommendations on Labor Day 1979. 
The law that established the panel re- 
quired the Labor Secretary to comment 
on disposition of its recommendations 
within two years. Other major proposals 
ruled out by Donovan included one that 
would have doubled the size of the gov- 
ernment’s monthly sampling of households 
to improve the accuracy of state and local 
jobless statistics. 

The panel, whose members included 
AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Os- 
wald, was chaired by Sar A. Levitan of 
George Washington University’s Center 
for Social Policy Studies, who warned that 
by refusing to implement the commission 
recommendations Donovan “places public 
trust in labor force statistics in jeopardy.” 
Levitan added: 

“Our labor force data system appears 

Volkswagen Pact 
Sets Parity With 
General Motors 

New Stanton, Pa. — Workers at the 
Volkswagen of America car assembly 
plant here approved a new 16-month, con- 
tract that will bring the company’s pay 
scale into basic conformity with that of 
General Motors Corp. 

Ratified by a vote of 1,981 to 1,502 
among members of Auto Workers Local 
2055, the pact increases the average as- 
sembler’s wages by 50 cents an hour, 
bringing it to $11.26 immediately. An 
additional 1 0-cent-an-hour increase will 
be paid next June. 

VOLKSWAGEN ALSO agreed to con- 
tinue making quarterly cost-of-living ad- 
justments and, beginning in March 1982, 
to revise the COL formula to provide 
higher payments later on. Adjustments 
currently follow the formula of one cent 
an hour for each rise of three-tenths of a 
point in the consumer price index. The 
new formula will provide one cent for 
each .26-point rise in the CPI. 

The firm also agreed to raise wages by 
an amount equal to any annual improve- 
ment factor negotiated by the Auto Work- 
ers at General Motors. The GM contract 
is up for renegotiation next September. 

Local 2055 President Richard Ferchak 
said “we’re satisfied with the agreement. 
We’ve gained parity with most of the 
General Motors plants with the new hour- 
ly wage.” About 4,600 workers are cov- 
ered by the contract, the second agree- 
ment ever negotiated at the VW assembly 
plant. 

VW ALSO agreed to add $1 million to 
the UAW fund that pays supplemental 
unemployment benefits to laid-oflF work- 
ers and improved health and life insurance 
benefits to employees. There is no pension 
plan at the Volkswagen plant. 

Workers will gain two new paid holi- 
days under the contract — the first day of 
the deer hunting season, Dec. 1, and one 
other day during the season. 

The short contract duration— the pact 
expires on Mar. 7, 1983 — is designed to 
enable the parties to negotiate a master 
contract in 1983 for all three VW plants 
in the United States. 

CLUW Convention 
Postponed to 1982 

New York — The Coalition of Labor 
Union Women postponed its Nov. 5-8 con- 
vention in Los Angeles rather than ask 
delegates to use the airlines during the air 
traffic controllers’ strike. 

CLUW President Joyce Miller, an AFL- 
CIO vice president, said she hoped Pres- 
ident Reagan would realize that his “stub- 
born refusal to bend” in the dispute be- 
tween the Professional Air Traffic Con- 
trollers Organization and the Federal 
Aviation Administration has led to eco- 
nomic hardships for PATCO members and 
airline industry workers. 


to Scrap Reports on Real Earnings 


to be in for some tough times. There is a 
major difference between rational budget 
constraints and the starvation diet offered 
by Sec. Donovan. The irony is that the 
latter in the long run will wind up costing 
us more money than the former.” 

IN THE PANEL’S 1979 report, Os- 
wald argued that one important reason for 
continuing the spendable earnings series 
is to maintain the historic continuity of 
gross and spendable average weekly earn- 
ings of private-sector workers in current 
and constant dollars going back to 1947. 

“Real spendable earnings provide useful 
and reasonable measures of trends in earn- 
ings-related welfare after deduction of 
federal income and social security taxes,” 
he said. 

Furthermore, the current series uses 
“hard” payroll data which are easily and 
quickly calculated monthly “and thus are 
available on a more timely basis” than the 
quarterly earnings report that the panel 



EDWARD ASNER 


Screen Actors 
Elect Ed Asner 
New President 

Hollywood, Calif. — The Screen Actors 
Guild elected Edward Asner president of 
the 50,000-member union over incumbent 
William Schallert in national mail ballot- 
ing. 

Asner, the star of the “Lou Grant” 
weekly television series, received 9,689 of 
the 18,632 votes cast in the three-way con- 
test, according to final results released by 
SAG election auditors. 

SCHALLERT, who was seeking re- 
election to a second two-year term, re- 
ceived 7,188 votes and Morgan Pauli 
garnered 1,197. 

Asner will begin his two-year term Nov. 
9. He has not previously held office in 
the union. An issue in the contest was the 
current SAG contract with motion picture 
producers, which was negotiated last year 
to end a 13-week strike. Asner had op- 
posed ratification of the settlement, which 
Schallert had endorsed as president. 

Although losing the SAG presidency, 
Schallert was elected to a three-year term 
on the union’s executive board represent- 
ing the Los Angeles area. 

Board members are elected on a local 
or regional basis. Forty-five candidates 
were vying for the 14 board seats open 
for election this year. 

IN CONTESTS for two other national 
offices, Sumi Haru was elected recording 
secretary over incumbent Philip Sterling 
by a vote of 8,799 to 8,109, and Peter 
Haskell defeated Yale Summers for trea- 
surer, 9,321 to 7,190. Haru and Summers 
were on Asner’s slate. 

SAG reported that partial returns from 
branches showed that Kent McCord was 
elected first vice president, Ron Soble third 
vice president, Marvin Kaplan ninth vice 
president and Jessica Walter eleventh vice 
president. 


had proposed, Oswald said. 

One of the panel’s 88 formal recom- 
mendations accepted by Donovan was a 
proposal to include military personnel in 
the labor force for the first time. Their 
inclusion — limited to armed forces sta- 
tioned in the United States — ^will begin 
early in calendar year 1983, the Labor 
Dept. said. 

THE DRAFT was the primary reason 
for excluding the military from the na- 
tion’s jobs data. With the change to a 
volunteer system, however, the panel rea- 
soned that armed forces members should 
no longer be excluded from the labor 
force since they compete in the same 
labor market as other workers. “Individ- 
uals are free to choose between employ- 
ment in the military or the civilian sector,” 
the NCEUS said two years ago. 

At the time, Levitan said that counting 
the 1.4 million U.S.-based military per- 
sonnel in the labor force total would 


The Reagan Administration is counting 
on the regulatory changes it has initiated 
to lower prevailing wage levels on govern- 
ment-funded construction and is not seek- 
ing outright repeal of the Davis-Bacon 
Act. 

That’s the gist of the response by Presi- 
dent Reagan and Labor Sec. Raymond J. 
Donovan to a letter sent to the President 
last month by leaders of building trades 
unions. 

THE LETTER to Reagan was part of a 
continuing effort by the AFL-CIO Build- 
ing & Construction Trades Dept, to 
counter attacks on the 50-year-old Davis- 
Bacon Act, which employer groups and 
conservatives in Congress have tried to 
paint as inflationary. 

It reminded Reagan of his election cam- 
paign commitment to oppose repeal or 
weakening of the Davis-Bacon Act and 
protested “penny-wise and pound-foolish” 
administrative changes that the Labor 
Dept, has proposed. 

“Tell your leaders in Congress,* the La- 
bor Dept., and the Office of Management 
& Budget that Ronald Reagan is an hon- 
orable man who keeps his word,” the let- 
ter urged. “Tell them to stop tampering 
with Davis-Bacon.” 

Its signers included BCTD President 
Robert A. Georgine, Sec.*Treas. Joseph F. 
Maloney and presidents of the depart- 
ment’s 15 affiliated unions. 

REAGAN WROTE Georgine that 
Donovan would “respond directly” to the 
letter. But Reagan added that he could 
assure the building trades leaders “that I 
will continue to support my campaign 
pledge to not seek repeal” of the Davis- 
Bacon Act. 

A few days later, speaking to the board 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland has 
notified all affiliates that the National As- 
sociation of Broadcast Employees & Tech- 
nicians has been found to be in non-com- 
pliance with the decision of an impartial 
umpire under the AFL-CIO’s internal dis- 
putes procedures and is therefore subject 
to sanctions under the federation’s con- 
stitution. 

The finding was reached by a subcom- 
mittee of the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
consisting of Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue and Vice Presidents Kenneth T. Blay- 
lock and Dan V. Maroney. 

The finding, Kirkland said, followed the 
refusal of NABET “to withdraw from a 
raid at NBC.” 

IN HIS notification to affiliates, Kirk- 
land said the union, effective Oct. 27, 
1981, would be subject to the following 
provisions of Section 15 of Article XX of 
the AFL-CIO Constitution: 


reduce the national jobless rate by about 
one-tenth of 1 percent. 

Donovan also accepted the panel’s 
recommendation on the designation of 
“discouraged” workers — those who have 
given up looking for work because they 
believe, that employment for them does not 
exist. The panel urged, and Donovan 
agreed, that criteria for the number of 
discouraged workers should be changed to 
add the stipulation that they must have 
looked for work sometime during the pre- 
ceding six months. 

BLS PUBLISHES the figures on dis- 
couraged workers quarterly and will con- 
tinue to exclude them from the official 
jobless count. 

Oswald disagreed with the NCEUS 
recommendation on discouraged workers, 
saying that their inclusion in the labor 
force count would “shed real light on 
many labor market related events.” 


of directors of the Associated General 
Contractors, Donovan made clear that the 
Administration was not backing down on 
regulatory changes that building trades 
unions charged would “gut” the prevailing 
wage law. 

Donovan told the employer group that 
the proposed changes will bring down 
wage costs on government contracts and 
urged that both contractors and unions ac- 
cept that “compromise.” 

Although the phrase was not in his pre- 
pared speech, a Bureau of National Af- 
fairs report on the meeting quoted Dono- 
van as telling the contractors that the 
Davis-Bacon Act will not be repealed 
“during the first Administration.” 

In an Oct. 21 speech to the Building & 
Construction Trades Dept, convention, 
Donovan further defended the changes in 
Davis-Bacon regulations and added, “We 
had to fight hard just to hold the line 
against repealing the law in toto.” 

THE LABOR DEPT, has received com- 
ments on its proposed changes in Davis- 
Bacon Act regulations from interested 
parties, but has not yet issued the regula- 
tions in final form. 

Meanwhile, the open-shop segment of 
the construction industry has been con- 
ducting a major lobbying campaign for 
Senate approval of a military construction 
bill that would exclude all defense con- 
struction from the prevailing wage require- 
ment. 

The public relations campaign launched 
by the building trades, including press kits 
and broadcast material, seeks to “clear up 
confusion” about the nature of the law, 
Georgine said, and demonstrate its value 
to both the construction industry and the r 
nation. 


“1. The non-complying affiliate shall 
not be entitled to file any complaint or ap- 
pear in a complaining capacity in any 
proceeding under this article until such 
non-compliance is remedied or excused as 
provided in Section 16; 

“2. The federation shall, upon request, 
supply every appropriate assistance and 
aid to any organization resisting the action 
determined to be violation of this article; 

“3. The federation shall appropriately 
publicize the fact that the affiliate is not 
in compliance with the constitution; 

“4. No affiliate shall support or render 
assistance to the action determined to be 
in violation of this article.” 

In addition to NABET, the following 
unions are currently in non-compliance 
with an impartial umpire’s decision: the 
International Typographical Union and the 
Graphic Arts International Union. 


Building Trades Pledge Fight 
On Davis-Bacon Tampering 


Article XX Sanctions Placed 
On Broadcast Employees 












AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


Pmge Thre« 


Index Points 
To Deepening 
Of Recession 

(Continued from Page 1) 

But the high rates have already taken 
their toll on the economy, particularly the 
housing and auto industries. The Com- 
merce Dept, reported that sales of new 
single-family houses plunged by 12.6 per- 
cent in September to their lowest level on 
record, and sales of domestically produced 
cars are scraping the bottom. 

The decline in the leading indicators in- 
dex was the fourth in the last five months. 
White House spokesman David Gergen 
said Reagan’s aides agree that the latest 
figures are “further evidence of a reces- 
sion,” but continue to believe that the 
recession will be “mild.” 

THE INDEX’S decline was paced by a 
sharp drop in the length of the average 
workweek and negative readings in seven 
other categories. The others were the lay- 
off rate, new orders, vendor performance, 
contracts and orders for plant and equip- 
ment, building permits, stock prices, and 
the money supply. The change in crude- 
materials prices was the only indicator that 
increased. Total liquid asset levels re- 
mained unchanged. 

^ Evidence of the economic slump also 
appeared in a series of other Commerce 
Dept. ^ reports. Durable goods orders, a 
bedrock of employment, were down 1.8 
percent in September. Construction ex- 
penditures for September were down four- 
tenths of 1 percent, and without govern- 
ment construction included the decline 
would have been 1.5 percent. 

Inventories which grow fatter when de- 
mand falls, went up 1.1 percent in Sep- 
tember, the most since February. And 
capital spending outside of defense-related 
business fell 8 percent over the month, 
the most since February and the fourth 
month of decline this year. 

THE NEW-HOME sales figures for 
September were the latest in' a long line of 
increasingly dismal statistics on the hous- 
ing industry, which is in its longest and 
deepest slide of the postwar era. The an- 
nualized rate of sales for September was 
312,000 homes, significantly below the 
previous low point in April 1980, and a 
45-percent drop from the year-earlier. 

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics reported that productivity in the na- 
tion’s businesses, excluding farms, dropped 
at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.2 
percent in the July-September quarter, 
after rising 1.4 percent in the previous 
quarter. 

Steel Union Curb 
On Outside Funds 
Slated for Review 

The Supreme Court has agreed to re- 
view an appellate court decision nullifying 
a section of the Steelworkers constitution 
that deals with funding of union election 
campaigns. 

At issue is the provision adopted by 
the USWA’s 1978 convention prohibiting 
candidates for union office from obtain- 
ing campaign contributions from outside 
groups and from individuals not members 
of the union. 

The Court of Appeals for the District 
of Columbia held last April that the curb 
on contributions violated Landrum-Griffin 
Act guarantees of rights of union members. 

USWA President Lloyd McBride wel- 
comed the Supreme Court’s granting of 
the union’s petition for review. McBride 
said the 1978 amendment had been adopt- 
ed to assure that union officers “are be- 
holden only to the members of the union 
and not to corporations and wealthy con- 
tributors.” 

The legal challenge was brought by 
Edward Sadlowski, who ran unsuccessfully 
for president in 1977, losing to McBride. 
Contributions to the Sadlowski campaign 
from outside groups and individuals were 
an issue in the election. 


House Panel 
Rejeets New 
Pension Cuts 



CONTINUING REVIEW of conditions in the world’s iron and steel industry 
aimed at reducing work time and improving safety was endorsed at a 10-day 
International Labor Organization conference in Geneva. U.S. worker delegation 
included, from left, Steelworkers Legislative Director John J. Sheehan, Vice 
President Joseph Odorcich and District 28 Director Frank Valenta. President 
Carl W. Studenroth of the Molders and USWA International Affairs Director 
Francis X. Lunney were also in the delegation. 

ILO Steel Panel Focuses 
On Work Hours, Training 


Geneva — A continuing review of the 
possibility of further cutbacks in working 
hours in the iron and steel industry was 
urged at a conference here of the Inter- 
national Labor Organization. 

Industry as well as government repre- 
sentatives joined trade unionists from in- 
dustrialized and developing countries in 
calling for the “periodic examination” of 
possible reductions in the normal work- 
week as well as longer paid vacations. 

THE IMPROVEMENT of working con- 
ditions in the iron and steel industry gen- 
erally and the assurance of adequate train- 
ing for workers in developing countries 
where this industry is at an early stage 
were the main subjects of the 10-day ses- 
sion. 

The 27 nations represented by tripartite 
delegations of worker, employer and gov- 
ernment representatives account for 85 
percent of the industry’s world output, 
according to the ILO. 

The calls by the conference for reduc- 
tions in workloads and for the use of mod- 
ern techniques to promote job safety and 
a better working environment were “two 
important steps,” Joseph Odorcich, vice 
president of the Steelworkers, said of the 
discussions. 

ODORCICH AND Carl Studenroth, 
president of the Molders & Allied Work- 
ers, were the U.S. worker delegates at the 
session, the 10th of the ILO’s iron and 
steel committee. They were backed up by 
the Steelworkers’ International Affairs di- 
rector Francis X. Lunney, Legislative Di- 
rector John Sheehan, and District 28 Di- 
rector Frank Valenta. 

Studenroth, who was a member of the 
committee on worker training in the de- 
veloping countries, said trade unionists 
from the industrialized states stressed the 
importance of union, employer and gov- 
ernment cooperation at all levels to assure 
that workers can attain the skills required 
for the jobs to be filled. 

“The problems we discussed were not 
of direct concern to us,” Studenroth ob- 
served, “but we gave the developing coun- 
tries the benefit of our experience so that 
they can learn from our mistakes.” 

California Student Group 
Endorses Coors Boycott 

Riverside, Calif. — The Graduate Stu- 
dent Council of the University of Califor- 
nia’s Riverside campus has endorsed 
labor’s boycott of Coors beer. 

Ron Balestrieri, president of the 1,300- 
member student association, said the GSC 
voted to boycott all products made by 
Adolph Coors Co. and urged student asso- 
ciations at other University of California 
campuses to do likewise. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council sanc- 
tioned the Coors boycott in April 1977 
after members of the Brewery Workers 
Directly Affiliated Local Union 366 struck 
the Golden, Colo., brewery. 


On the questions of safety and health, 
the conference noted that automation and 
mechanization have reduced some of the 
industry’s hazards, but have introduced at 
the same time new threats to the well- 
being of workers. 

FOR THIS reason one of the unani- 
mous recommendations was that continu- 
ing emphasis be placed “on the detection, 
analysis and elimination of hazards.” 

Odorcich, who was the worker vice 
chairman of the committee on health and 
safety, described the recommendations as 
forming a “code” to be disseminated by 
the ILO. While this represented forward 
njovement, he said, “continuous pushing” 
would be required to see that governments 
and employers live up to the moral obliga- 
tions they have accepted. 

“Free collective bargaining,” the con- 
ference said in a resolution, should be used 
to “attain better, safer and healthier work- 
ing and living conditions.” 


State compensation programs should be 
reconstructed “from the ground up” to 
meet the needs of occupational disease 
victims, the Workers’ Institute for Occu- 
pational Safety & Health told a House 
Labor Standards subcommittee. 

Warren J. Smith, secretary-treasurer of 
the Ohio AFL-CIO and chairman of the 
Workers’ Institute, charged that the pro- 
grams are severely shortchanging workers 
who have been disabled by toxic substances 
on the job. 

“THERE IS NOT now, and never has 
been, a system of compensation in this 
country for occupational disease victims,” 
Smith said in calling for a complete over- 
haul of the system. He said existing state 
programs can’t be adequately patched up 
to make them workable. 

Most of the heavy cost of occupational 
disease — running into billions of dollars 
each year — now must be borne by the 
social security system and workers them- 
selves, Smith observed. 

Using data compiled by the Labor Dept, 
for a report to Congress, the Workers’ In- 
stitute estimated that the social security 
system expended $2.4 billion for victims 
of job-related disease in 1980. Of that 
amount, $1.9 billion came from the So- 
cial Security Disability Insurance fund and 
an additional $500 million was paid out 
for medical care. 

Subcommittee Chairman George Miller 
(D-Calif.) said that social security’s costs 
for occupational disease could approach 
$3 billion a year. 

EVEN BY conservative estimates. Mil- 
ler said, the amount social security paid 


The House Ways & Means Committee 
rejected a subcommittee proposal that 
would have cut back future social security 
benefits and pushed up the “normal” re- 
tirement age. 

It then cleared the way for a conference 
with the Senate on restoration of the mini- 
mum social security benefit of $122 a 
month, which Congress eliminated earlier 
this year by adopting intact a Reagan Ad- 
ministration budget proposal. 

SINCE THEN, the House voted over- 
whelmingly to restore the minimum bene- 
fit. The Senate voted to restore the mini- 
mum for some, but not all, beneficiaries. 
The Senate bill also provides for shifting 
revenue among the various social security 
trust funds to alleviate short-range funding 
problems. 

A Ways & Means subcommittee headed 
by Rep. J. J. Pickle (D-Tex.) had advanced 
a less drastic reduction of future social 
security benefits than the Administration 
had initially sought as a means of averting 
a funding crunch. Republicans on the 
committee supported the measure, but 
House Democratic leaders made clear 
their opposition and it was beaten on an 
1 8-14 vote. 

It would have pushed the normal re- 
tirement age from 65 to 66, with an in- 
centive to wait until a later age. It also 
would have lowered the benefit formula 
for future retirees and reduced future 
cost-of-living increases. 

EARLIER IN the week, Senate Demo- 
cratic Leader Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.), 
obtained a 72-0 vote for a resolution de- 
claring the opposition of Congress to any 
taxation of social security benefits. 

Byrd said the Republican staff of the 
Senate Budget Committee had included 
such a plan as an option for raising reve- 
nue. 

The resolution was attached to a bill 
extending the Older Americans Act for 
another three years, which the Senate 
passed unanimously. 


disabled workers last year far exceeded the 
system’s $1.1 billion shortfall in revenues. 

Rather than charging the costs to em- 
ployer-paid compensation programs, Miller 
observed, other sources of funds are used. 
The result, he said, is that taxpayers must 
subsidize hazardous industries. 

About half the workers disabled by oc- 
cupational disease rely on social security 
as a major source of income, Smith said. 

While payments for victims of occupa- 
tional disease are virtually nonexistent. 
Smith charged that the insurance industry 
has been reaping huge profits from work- 
ers’ compensation premiums. 

Another problem victims of occupa- 
tional disease encounter is discrimination 
in hiring when they try to find a new job, 
Smith testified. He told the panel that 
some employers are using computer ser- 
vice firms to screen out workers who had 
been disabled by job-related diseases. 

WHILE THE labor movement is vitally 
interested in assuring compensation for 
victims of industrial disease, its primary 
goal is to prevent the job-related illnesses 
from occurring. Smith said. And it views 
“with great alarm” recent actions of the 
Reagan Administration aimed at weaken- 
ing safety and health standards. 

One of the victims of the Administra- 
tion’s policies is the Workers’ Institute 
itself, which had its Labor Dept, project 
grant funds abruptly cut off in August. 

The institute was set up in 1979 by the 
AFL-CIO, the Industrial Union Dept., sev- 
eral state federations and a number of 
unions as a demonstration project to as- 
sist disabled workers in filing for work- 
ers’ compensation benefits. 


State Compensation Systems 
Neglecting Disease Victims 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


Dodging Ballot Bullets 

G overnment by referendum, in states that allow legisla- 
tive issues to be put on the ballot through petitions, is a high- 
risk system of lawmaking. 

Granted, an occasional good piece of legislation may result. But 
more often a proposal considered and rejected by the legislature 
will be put before the voters in a deceptive package, backed by a 
media advertising blitz. 

Too often, such tactics have been successful. 

That was the danger, this year, in a proposed amendment to the 
state constitution that had been put on the Ohio ballot by a group 
calling itself the Committee for Free Enterprise Constitution. Its 
“free enterprise” proposal was to abolish the state’s economical 
and impartial exclusive workers’ compensation insurance system 
and throw the business open to private firms. The insurance com- 
panies that would profit liked the idea so much that they put up a 
multi-million dollar campaign kitty. 

THERE WAS EVEN graver danger in a proposal on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ballot — courtesy of the local affiliate of the 
right-wing National Taxpayers Union. 

It offered the seemingly irresistible lure of an education tax 
credit of up to $1,200 per pupil that could be used for the private 
school of one’s choice. It would have meant the demise of public 
education in the nation’s capital. Apart from the many other sound 
arguments against such a scheme, the fact is that the city simply 
could not afford to give away huge sums in tax credits and still 
fund a viable public school system. 

Fortunately, the attacks were turned back in both D.C. and 
Ohio, thanks in large part to a massive effort by labor and its allies. 

All this is good news, and a tribute to the trade union move- 
ment. But legislating by referendum is still no way to run a 
government. 

Truly Gritty 

A RECENT ISSUE of the Wall Street Journal brought home 
vividly the human impact of the Reagan Administration’s 
savage budget cuts. 

It told of the case of “Mary D.,” identified as a store clerk who 
was the sole support of her two children, and who had been getting 
a $169-a-month welfare check to supplement earnings of $520 
a month. 

On Oct. 1, the Journal related, the welfare supplement was 
ended — “a casualty of federal budget cuts sought by President 
Reagan and approved by Congress last summer.” 

But “Mary D. has grit,” and the news story relates that to avoid 
becoming a full-time “welfare mother,” she is prepared to take 
a second job as a waitress. 

“IT WILL MEAN le'aving home at 8:15 a.m., as usual, but not 
returning until midnight; it will also mean hiring a baby sitter,” 
the article continues. TTien it adds: 


“The Reagan Administration is hoping that most working 
mothers will share Mary’s determination to stay on the job and 
get along without federal-state Aid to Families with Dependent 
Children.” 

So much for the Administration’s promised “safety net.” 


'^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary ’■Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 


Kenneth T. Blaylock Alvin E. Heaps 


John H. Lyons 
Frederick O’Neal 
A1 H. Chesser 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
William H. McClennan 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
Joyce D. Miller 

♦ Deceased. 

Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 
Assistant Editors: 

Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec 

David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 

AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington. D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


William H. Wynn 
John DeConcini 
Dan V. Maroney 
John J. Sweeney 


Fred J. Kroll 
Wayne E. Glenn 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 


I VoL XXVI Saturday, November 7, 1981 No. 45 | 

= The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 




Growth Lag Started in '70s 

Current ‘Certified’ Recession 
Continues Decade-Long Slump 

By Gus Tyler sion, I think, is almost necessary now,” he told 


S O NOW WE ARE officially in a recession. It is 
“official” not only because the President of the 
United States says that we are in a “slight reces- 
sion,” but because the slump in the third quarter 
of 1981 fits into the certified definition of a “re- 
cession.” 

Formally, a recession exists when the gross 
national product (the sum of all goods and ser- 
vices in the country) goes down in two successive 
quarter years. By the count, the GNP went down 
1.6 percent in the second quarter (April-June) and 
then sank by another .6 percent in the third- 
quarter (July-Sept ember). 

NOW, JUST WHY two bad quarters — not one, 
not three or four, but two — should constitute a 
recession, nobody knows. Somebody somewhere 
at sometime made up the definition and now it is 
officialese. 

The truth is that we have been in a “recession” 
through the entire 1970s, although only the period 
1974-75 was so designated officially. From 1969 
to 1979, the average annual growth rate was under 
3 percent. 

That’s a “recession” when stacked up against 
what our growth rate could have been and would 
have been if ' we had not decided that it was desir- 
able to check growth. To take an example from 
the world of baseball: if a man has a batting aver- 
age of .300 for a season and then runs into a 
couple of weeks when he is batting only .150, we 
say he is in a slump, even if he does get a hit now 
and then. 

LIKEWISE, WHEN the American economy, 
which was hitting a growth rate of about 5 percent 
a year under Truman and about 5.5 under Ken- 
nedy and Johnson, drops to less than 3 in the 
1970s, the economy is in a slump. We are not 
living up to our potential. 

The White House is distressed, of course. There 
is an election coming up exactly a year from now. 
The Administration promised an economy that 
was up and up, and now it seems to be going down 
and down. 

But not everybody around the President is un- 
happy. The Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm 
Baldrige, says that he thinks a recession may 
have its virtues, despite the pain. “A slight reces- 


the press. 

THE THEORY behind this thinking — if that’s 
what it is — is precisely what put us in our present 
predicament to begin with. The notion is that a 
recession brings down prices, checks inflation. 

But if Baldrige just looked at what happened 
to prices in the two recession quarters, he would 
have found that as the GNP shrunk, prices did not 
fall, they rose — at an accelerated rate: from 7.2 
percent in the first quarter to 7.9 in the second 
and to 9.2 (nearly double-digit) in the third. 

The lesson of history is clear from the last two 
quarters and from all of the ’70s: Recessions do 
not make for lower prices. But as Heinrich Heine 
said: “We learn from history that we don’t learn 
from history.” 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

liimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim 

Black Unionism Best 
Hope for South Africa 

Apartheid negates the fundamental princi- 
ples on which our society is based. It denies 
basic rights to tens of millions of people purely 
on the basis of their color. It seeks to deprive 
the worker of the rewards of his labor. It per- 
petuates the unmitigated tyranny of a minority 
over a majority. It has posed a long standing 
challenge to free societies everywhere and the 
time has come for us to say: “no more.” 

The AFL-CIO sees the development of a 
viable black labor movement as practically the 
only chance remaining to effect peaceful change 
in South Africa. . . . 

We believe that a massive infusion of skills- 
training to black workers and the introduction 
of a more hopeful view of the quality of life 
in store for them will avert the final bloody 
confrontation which most right-thinking peo- 
ple wish to avert. To implement this program, 
however, will require the cooperation of all 
who wish to give peaceful change a chance. 

— From AFL-CIO statement to House Foreign 
Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Oct. 30, 1981. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


Pace Five 









Charity Alone Not Enough 


Nobel Peace Prize Puts Focus 
On Shocking Plight of Refugees 


By Bayard Rustin 

T he awarding of the 1981 Nobel Peace 
Prize to the Office of the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees is an act that should 
be heartily applauded. The award will serve to 
focus world attention on an international problem 
which has reached epidemic proportions: the 
plight of the world’s refugees. 

It is estimated that this year there are between 
14 million and 18 million refugees in the world. 
These millions upon millions of men, women, 
and children have been forced to flee their home- 
lands as a consequence of war, disease, and pov- 
erty. Since 1980, well over one million people 
have fled Ethiopia as a consequence of war and 
,the policies of a barbaric Leninist regime. Refu- 
gees from Afghanistan now number over 1.4 
million. 

THESE FIGURES are shocking and horrible. 
And yet they are dwarfed by the number of re- 
fugees from Indochina. These total over six mil- 
lion and include approximately four million dis- 
placed Cambodiaps who have been forced to 
abandon their towns and villages as a direct result 
of the Pol Pot regime’s barbarism, and as a con- 
sequence of a Vietnamese and Soviet-backed in- 
vasion. 

Organizations such as CARE, the International 
Rescue Committee, and the French-based Phy- 
sicians Across Borders have exhibited remarkable 
skill in coordinating support for refugees the 
world over. Many such organizations have ad- 
dressed the refugee problem without regard to 
political considerations and have provided charit- 
able aid to Haitian refugees fleeing dictatorial 
oppression, Soviet Jews fleeing Kremlin-inspired 
anti-Semitism, Vietnamese boat people, and 
Cuban refugees fleeing Castro’s prison island. 

Yet the flood of refugees cannot be dealt with 
by charity alone. The problem must also be re- 
solved by attacking it at its roots — the absence of 
democracy, the expansion of totalitarianism, and 
the upsurge in war. War, much of it a consequence 
of Soviet expansionism, and a large part of it a 
consequence of ultra-nationalism and chauvinism 
is one of the great scourges of our times. Clearly, 
the efforts of charitable organizations must be 


complemented by an American foreign policy 
which has as its aim the limiting of Soviet aggres- 
sion and the construction of a stable and peaceful 
world. 

THE PLIGHT OF refugees has not been al- 
leviated by the economic difficulties that have 
afflicted Western Europe and the United States. It 
is these countries which have supplied the bulk 
of assistance to the poor of the world. Yet at a 
time when their own populations are feeling the 
serious effects of an economic downturn which is 
eroding their own standard of living, it is often 
difficult for many Americans and their West 
European counterparts to understand why mas- 
sive aid to refugees is of vital importance. 

Black Americans disproportionately suffer from 
unemployment and poverty. And some blacks 
have argued that we should take care of our own 
problems first and not worry about those of the 
rest of the world. Yet this, in my judgment, is a 
remarkably short-sighted and narrow point of 
view. For if America is not willing to help in re- 
lieving the plight of those refugees who are starv- 
ing and near death, how can we be sure it will be 
compassionate enough to solve the problems which 
afflict our own nation’s poor and working poor? 
It is important for blacks and all Americans to 
realize that suffering knows no boundaries. 

Our country has historically provided a haven 
for the world’s refugees. In part, it is their contri- 
bution which has helped to make our country 
great. American policy must continue to reflect 
this tradition. This policy must reflect the spirit 
of the Nobel Committee’s award statement. 

“REFUGEES WHO DARE not return to their 
native land must be given an opportunity to start 
a fresh life in their host country. Still more im- 
portant in the long run is the work of insuring 
that people are not compelled to save their lives 
by escaping from their native land with no pros- 
pect of ever returning.” 

America can continue to help alleviate the 
plight of the world’s most unfortunate. Yet Amer- 
ica will only do so if its leaders recognize that 
compassion knows no boundaries and the govern- 
ment must play a vital role in alleviating suffering 
both at home and abroad. 


Pressure on Delegates 

GOP Scored on Bid to Control 
Direction of Aging Conference 


AFL-CIO SOCIAL SECURITY Director Bert 
•^Seidman charged in a network radio inter- 
view that Administration operatives are putting 
political pressures on delegates to the 1981 White 
House Conference on Aging to support and pro- 
mote President Reagan’s policies. 

Seidman, a member of the Conference Ad- 
visory Committee, cited a recent telephone sur- 
vey commissioned by the Republican National 
Committee in which delegates were quizzed about 
“their political views, which political party they 
support, and whether they agree with President 
Reagan’s budget cuts.” He said the survey was 
part of a “last-ditch effort to intimidate the dele- 
gates” into supporting the policies of the Reagan 
Administration. 

SEIDMAN SAID the Secretary of Health & 
Human Services had Turned the delegates list 
over to the Republican National Committee but 
had refused the same information to the National 
Council of Senior Citizens and other organizations 
that represent elderly Americans who wanted to 
inform the delegates of thier organizations’ views 
on issues that will come before the conference. 
He made these charges on Labor News Confer- 
ence, the AFL-CIO public affairs program. 

Seidman branded such tactics “outrageous and 
unprecedented” in the 30-year history of White 
House Conferences. These sessions have been held 
during both Republican and Democratic Admin- 
istrations to recommend legislation and other 
steps to improve the lives of elderly Americans. 


Attempts to “manipulate the conference are en- 
tirely inappropriate,” he declared. 

Previous White House Conferences on Aging 
have made important contributions to the welfare 
of the nation’s elderly, Seidman noted. The last 
conference, for example, took up the question of 
discrimination against the aging in employment. 
Earlier meetings made significant recommenda- 
tions for instituting Medicare and improving so- 
cial security and the Older Americans Act. 

He said he had hoped that this year’s conference 
would continue that pattern, but White House 
preparations for the meeting thus far have inspired 
little confidence. 

“It just isn’t being efficiently organized,” Seid- 
man said. “No information has been sent out to 
delegates, despite the fact that a great deal of 
information has been assembled by various tech- 
nical committees on issues that the conference will 
be dealing with — retirement income, health, hous- 
ing, employment, and the role of the elderly in 
society.” 

ALSO, AT THE very last minute, the confer- 
ence’s executive director — a Reagan appointee — 
has been fired and replaced by a person who did 
not participate in the early planning of the meet- 
ing, he noted. 

' Reporters questioning Seidman on Labor News 
Conference were Stephenie Overman of the Na- 
tional Catholic News Service and Robert Cooney 
of Press Associates, Inc. The program is aired 
weekly on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

W HY WOULD THE Reagan Administration want to rig and 
stack a national conference of elderly citizens to make it as 
predictable as a Soviet party congress? What would it gain by 
resorting to “dirty tricks?” 

Those were the questions that baffled observers after the Re- 
publican National Committee admitted it financed a private tele- 
phone poll of half the 1,700 delegates to the White House Confer- 
ence on Aging, which opens Nov. 30. 

At a tumultuous meeting of Rep. Claude Pepper’s Select Com- 
mittee on Aging, RNC Chairman Richard Richards testified he 
obtained a list of delegates after meeting with Health & Human 
Services Sec. Richard Schweiker. The conference had gotten some 
300 requests for the list and rejected them all, but Schweiker 
sprung the names for Richards. 

Witnesses at the Pepper hearing said the pollsters represented 
themselves as calling on behalf of the White House Conference on 
Aging. 

THE QUESTIONS were designed to learn the delegate’s specific 
interests, degree of activism and membership in organizations. A 
typical question: “Concerning the budget cuts enacted by Congress 
earlier this year — do you think, on the whole, these cuts had to be 
made or not?” 

Another question: “For older people who cannot care for them- 
selves, do you think the* primary responsibility for their care should 
rest with (a) the federal government; (b) state and local govern- 
ment; (c) their immediate family?” 

Then this question: “Generally speaking, do you think social 
security benefits should be reduced the same as other government 
programs are being reduced, should be reduced somewhat but not 
by as much as other programs, or should not be reduced in any 
way? 

Then the delegate was asked whether he or she feels “things in 
this country” are “going in the right direction” or “have pretty 
seriously gotten off on the wrong track?” 

THE REACTION of delegates to these questions, according to 
testimony before the Pepper committee, ranged “from confusion to 
shock to outrage to intimidation and fear.” 

RNC Chairman Richards claimed the goal of his poll was to 
determine whether Reagan’s position on elderly issues was under- 
stood by the delegates, but some delegates saw more sinister 
motives. They suspected the real reason was to stack committee 
assignments, prevent caucuses, and mute criticism of the Admin- 
istration, especially on social security. 

Adding to the suspicion were reports that the White House was 
selecting about 400 more delegates, bringing the total to about 
2,200. The aim is to “pack” the conference with Reagan support- 
ers, witnesses charged. 

What is the Reagan Administration afraid of? The grassroots 
character of hundreds of meetings, involving many thousands of 
responsible elderly citizens, is so thoroughly American that it can 
strike terror only in the hearts of Reagan ideologues who distrust 
democracy. 

The 1981 conference promised to be the scene for debate 
and recommendations on social security, health care and housing. 

Apparently it was these emerging issues which caused the Reagan 
ideologues to panic and over react. As Chairman Pepper angrily 
shouted at GOP Chairman Richards: “What -you were afraid of 
was the delegates would criticize the Reagan Administration.” 

Eleanor Litwak, a New York delegate who also speaks for re- 
tirees of the State, County & Municipal Employees, expressed 
“livid anger” at the GOP tactics. The delegates want open debate 
and “we do not want to be a rubber stamp,” she declared. 



AN OPINION SURVEY by the Republican National Commit- 
tee of delegates to the White House Conference on Aging is 
nothing more than a blatant attempt at political manipulation, 
AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert Seidman. charged. He 
was questioned on Labor- News Conference by Stephenie 
Overman of the National Catholic News Service and Robert 
Cooney, right, of Press Associates, Inc. The program is pro- 
duced by the AFL-CIO as a public service and is aired weekly 
on the Mutual radio network. 



Pai^e Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


Kirkland Testimony: 

“^Marketplace Morals’ Not for Labor 


The following is from the testimony of AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland before the Senate Subcommit- 
tee on Investigations, Nov, 3, 1981. 

I TNION OFFICE IS a calling, not a business. The 
^ morals of the marketplace will not suffice. Those 
who enter that calling are, and should be, held to a 
higher standard. If a person holding union office takes 
an employer payoff for a substandard contract, misuses 
the right to strike for his own benefit or pilfers from the 
union treasury, that person does not simply stain his 
own honor. He tarnishes the bright efforts of the scores 
of men and women who have labored to create and 
maintain organizations worthy of the members we are 
privileged to represent and of society’s good judgment. 

There is much in theory to be said for internal union 
discipline as the proper response to misconduct by 
union officers. Democracy requires free trade unions not 
state dominated unions. Thus, one of our paramount 
responsibilities is protecting our institutional autonomy. 
Permitting the government to set the terms of union 
office is a substantial threat to that autonomy. But, the 
interest in preventing government interference is not 
our only interest, nor is every threat to that interest of 
the same gravity. 

PASSAGE OF THE Landrum-Griffin Act marked a 
new stage in the federal government’s regulation of 
unions. That act granted the Labor and Justice Depts. 
far-reaching authority to supervise internal union af- 
fairs. Not only is the applicable federal criminal law 
wide-ranging, it has been vigorously enforced. Thou- 
sands of hours and millions of taxpayer dollars have 
been spent looking into every aspect of union affairs. 
The FBI, the Justice Dept., the U.S. Attorneys, the 
Strike Forces and the Labor Dept, have pushed both 
the laws I have enumerated and the investigatory 
powers those laws created to their very extremes. That 
has been true in Democratic and Republican Adminis- 
trations alike. 

Indeed, every national union at which a finger of 
suspicion has been pointed has been subjected to 
thorough grand jury investigation. Those investigations 
normally cover every book and record, every expendi- 
ture, every voucher or the lack thereof, every meeting, 
every trip, and every other aspect of the union’s affairs. 
The federal prosecutorial forces have immense author- 
ity to get at the facts. 

For the past 20 years, the AFL-CIO has sought to 
orient itself to a course that takes proper account of the 
new order. The most perplexing problem has been 
whether we should attempt to run a full-scale private 
law enforcement system parallel to that run by the 
federal government. 

SO LONG AS there was little or no applicable law, 
we had a plain obligation to do the best we could in 
this regard, no matter what our doubts on the efficacy 
of our efforts, an obligaiton we strove to fulfill. But 
Congress’s judgment to turn the full power of the 
federal investigators and prosecutors to defining, ferret- 
ing out and bringing to book wrongdoing by union 
officers has brought our own limitations into sharp 
focus. 

We simply do not have the resouces — the trained 
manpower, the subpoena, the grand jury, the authority 
to uncover and punish perjury, the due-process trial 
procedures that settle with authority questions of in- 
nocence and guilt, and the effective sanctions to punish 
the guilty. We have learned through hard experience 
that the allegations of criminal wrongdoing everyone 
supposes to be well founded do not always stand up 
when all the facts are brought out. We have also learned 
that occasionally the union officer one would unhesi- 
tantly vouch for can suddenly plead guilty to a serious 
crime. Neither the adage that where there is smoke 
there is fire nor its converse — ^that where there is no 
smoke there is no fire — has proved a sound guide for 
our efforts at internal regulation. 

THE LESSON we draw from the foregoing is the one 
that George Meany stated during the debate on the 
proposal eventually enacted as the Civil Rights Act of 
1964. The question he addressed was whether Title VII 
of that Act should make unlawful discrimination by 
unions as well as discrimination by employers. His 
unequivocal answer was: 

The leadership of the AFL-CIO, and of the sepa- 
rate federations before merger, has been working 
ceaselessly to eliminate prejudices. . . . We have come 
a long way in the last 20 years — a long way farther, I 
might say, than any comparable organization. . • • 

But we have said repeatedly that to finish the job 
we need the help of the U.S. government. 


We are idealists enough to wish there was no such 
need, but we are realists enough to know that in an 
imperfect world, there are occasions that call for use of 
the criminal law. One such occasion is corrupt action 
by union officers. 

The trade union movement can only be strengthened 
by law enforcement that dislodges those with a criminal 
bent who may find a toehold in our structure. One of 
the benefits government provides is the protection of 
the law. As spokesman for organized labor, the AFL- 
CIO asks for that protection, emphasizes that the trade 
union movement sees such protection as a benefit, and 
pledges its cooperation in a joint endeavor with the 
federal government to maintain the hard-earned honor 
of our institutions. 

IT IS SIMPLE enough to state support for good 
morals and opposition to wrongdoing. But we do not 
content ourselves with these easy pieties. The conse- 
quence of recognizing that the government has a legiti- 
mate police role to play is the obligation to support 
fair-minded legislation that provides the authorities 
the wherewithal to do the necessary job. We do not 
shrink from that obligation. I have already outlined 
S.1785’s provisions. By and large, the proposals fill 
recognized gaps in the present law and do so in a ra- 
tional manner. The bill deserves and has the AFL-CIO’s 
support. 

By far the most problematic step S.1785 takes is to 
provide that disqualification from union or benefit fund 
office or employment takes effect on the trial court’s 
judgment that the defendant is guilty of one of the 
enumerated crimes rather than after the appeals from 
that judgment have run their course. 

The Federal Reporter shows that such appeals may 
be meritorious. And it is not a small matter for an 
individual who has over the years been a colleague in 
arms and who continues to maintain his innocence to be 
turned out of his position. But the disqualification issue 
is, we have come to believe, distinct from the ultimate 
issue of guilt or innocence. There is no infallible pro- 
cedure for recapturing a past event and applying a 
general rule of conduct to the participants. Not even 
our elaborate system of appeals is foolproof. 

NONETHELESS, with full recognition of the perils, 
at a certain point the information available requires a 
prudent person to act. We cannot gainsay that a jury 
or trial court verdict, reached after a full trial, that the 
defendant is guilty of a serious crime — particularly of 
a crime involving a breach of union or benefit fund 
trust — is sufficiently reliable information to justify re- 
moval from union or benefit fund office. There is force 
in the contention that in determining how to act in the 
world of practical affairs, such a verdict tilts the balance 
against the presumption of innocence. 

This is a hard rule; one which may be unjust in 
particular applications and which raises troubling civil 
liberties issues. The alternative, however, raises even 
more troubling questions for the continued good health 
of the trade union movement. Torn as we are between 
these concerns, we believe that our obligation to the 
membership and the integrity of our organizations must 
be put first. The sponsor’s decision to provide that the 
convicted defendant’s salary will be held in escrow and 
paid to him if his appeal succeeds does tend to alleviate 
the harshest consequence of this suggested change in 
the law. 

So that there is no misunderstanding, I wish to stress 
that we accept the most stringent regulation not because 
on a comparative basis there is a case for such regula- 
tion, but because the rules comport with our own sense 
of what is right. Human weaknesses and the corruption 
of the spirit are constants. The labor movement is not 
perfect, neither are those who serve it. The same may 
accurately be said of every other sector of our society 
and of their leadership. 

INDEED, EVERY measure shows that the integrity 
and the dedication of union officers, as a group, is 
superior to that of other groups. There are over 100 
AFL-CIO national and international unions and over 
50,000 local unions. With very rare exceptions, the men 
and women who staff these organizations are of the 
highest character. They sometimes must operate in 
milieus in which it is not easy to maintain one’s stan- 
dards; there are communities and callings in which 
keeping to the straight and narrow is an heroic enter- 
prise. It is no wonder that a few succumb to temptation. 

I would be less than candid if I did not also stress 
that we approach any increase in federal prosecutorial 
power with trepidation. The criminal law is the gov- 
ernment’s most stringent power over the citizen; such 
power should be used in a fair and balanced manner. 


with due respect for the principles of free association. 
That is not what we in the trade union movement find. 
I am told that the laws regulating unions are being used 
to bring indictments based on the prosecutor’s theory 
of what the union’s constitutions should say or what 
types of expenditures union members should be per- 
mitted to authorize. Such approaches strain the law 
beyond wise, reasonable or intended limits. 

There are several reasons, 'having nothing to do with 
the merits, that explain why the issue labeled “union 
corruption” or “labor racketeering” is treated in a 
manner that suggests that the law addressing the sub- 
ject is inadequate or that the law is not being enforced. 

FIRST, THE inference is fostered that wrongdoing 
by a union officer is not evidence of an individual’s 
weakness but an attribute of the labor movement. While 
bankers, businessmen, government officials and others 
are judged on their individual merits, union officers are 
judged according to the worst examples. I believe I 
speak for all my brothers and sisters when I say that 
I deeply resent being treated in that fashion. Corruption 
is always and inevitably individual, not institutional. 

Second, there are politicians and businessmen who 
have no use for the labor movement because free, 
vigorous and aggressive unions threaten their privileged 
position or profits. These individuals seek to beat us 
about the head with any stick that is handy. They view 
wrongdoing by a union officer as a public relations 
opportunity and exploit it accordingly. ' 

Third, there are law enforcement officials whose 
authority and budget depend on sustaining the illusion 
that the union movement is corrupt. That is a con- 
venient allegation because it does not require proof in 
a court of law, but only repetition in . congressional 
budget hearings and in off-the-record session with 
journalists. 

NONETHELESS, we are willing to run the risks 
entailed in broadening the present law as proposed in 
S.1785. Failing to do so would be to tempt even graver 
risks. We do so in the hope that, in this instance, and 
contrary to the norm, the grant of greater power will 
induce a greater sense of responsibility in the exercise 
of power. 

There are, as I have noted, two aspects of S.1785 
that we believe should be reconsidered. The first con- 
cerns the proposed amendment to Section 302 of the 
Taft-Hartley Act; the second is the proposal to increase 
the period of disqualification from five years to ^10 
years. 

Section 302 goes considerably beyond the prohibi- 
tion of employer “payoffs” to union officers. That pro- 
vision also regulates, in detail, a myriad of perfectly, 
proper transactions having principally to do with the 
financing of joint labor-management employee benefit 
funds. The web of rules that has emerged is both tech- 
nical and complex, and those rules are also in a con- 
stant state of fiux. For example, this term, thirty-five 
years after the provision became law, the Supreme 
Court will decide whether the District of Columbia 
Circuit Court of Appeals was correct in deciding that 
Section 302 sets limits on the pension eligibility rules 
employers and unions may set through collective bar- 
gaining. Plainly an error in making one’s way through 
this legal labyrinth that has nothing to do with under- 
table employer payments, should not be treated as a 
felony. The intended scope of the bill in that regard is 
not clear. We would hope that the sponsors would 
include language that draws a rational line between the 
matters covered by Section 302 that are to be dealt with 
through the criminal law and those matters that are to 
be dealt with through the civil law. 

WE BELIEVE that the proposed uniform 10-year 
disqualification period goes too far. If it were certain 
that the provision would apply only to those who, on an 
objective measure, deserve the epithet “racketeer” 
there would be no cause for just concern. But that is 
not the case. There are situations that come to my mind 
in which I would agree that a five-year disqualification 
would be insufficient. But I suggest that both reason and 
human feeling support the view that there are also 
situations in which a 10-year disqualification is too 
severe. It is, therefore, our view that the statute should 
provide a necessary measure of flexibility authorizing 
the trial judge on conviction of one of the enumerated 
crimes to set an appropriate disqualification period of 
not more than 10 years. 

Throughout organized labor’s history, there have 
been racketeers who have sought to prey upon, and to 
misuse, unions for their own benefit. They are not part 
of the trade union movement. They are our natural 
enemies. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 Page Seren 


Kirkland Gtes Betrayal of Trust 

suffer Penalties Asked 
To Fight Corruption 



SOCIAL DISABILITY benefits have been cut off for Rockland, 111., roofer 
John Bristol who cannot work at his trade after major job accidents permanently 
injured his spine. Bristol, who is appealing the ruling, was told benefits were 
being terminated on the basis of a review that judged him able to perform some 
work. The review was part of a program stepped-up by the Reagan Administra- 
tion to reduce the disability benefit rolls and tighten eligibility. 


Disabled Workers Victims 
Of Law Change, Budget Cuts 


(Continued from Page 1) 
that run by the federal government.” 

He reminded the subcommittee that be- 
fore there was a body of federal laws regu- 
lating internal union conduct the AFL- 
CIO sought to enforce its high standards 
of ethical conduct. “We had a plain obliga- 
tion to do the best we could ... an obli- 
gation we strove to fulfill,” he said. 

But since passage of the Landrum- 
Griffin Act in 1959, he noted, both the 
Labor Dept, and the Justice Dept, were 
granted and have used extensive federal 
powers to supervise internal union affairs 
and to ferret out and prosecute wrong- 
doing. 

Kirkland testified that the AFL-CIO 
simply doesn’t have the resources or legal 
powers to uncover perjury, to conduct a 
trial that settles with authority and without 
violation of due process questions of in- 
nocence and guilt. 

CRIMINAL allegations are properly 
matters for government action, he testified. 

“We have learned through hard experi- 
ence,” Kirkland said, “that the allegations 
of criminal wrongdoing everyone* supposes 
to be well founded do not always stand up 
when all the facts are brought out. We 
have also learned that occasionally the 
union officer one would unhesitantly 
vouch for can suddenly plead guilty to a 
serious crime.” 

Kirkland suggested an analogy to the 
position taken by the AFL-CIO’s first 
president, George Meany, when Congress 
was considering whether Title VII of the 
Civil Rights Act — the equal employment 
opportunity section — should outlaw dis- 
crimination by unions as well as by em- 
ployers. 

MEANY TESTIFIED to the ceaseless 
effort by the labor movement to eliminate 
prejudice and discrimination — and to the 
substantial progress made. Nevertheless, 
Meany went on to say, “to finish the job, 
we need the help of the U.S. government.” 

. Point by point, Kirkland went over the 
provisions of the Nunn bill, which is co- 
sponsored by Sen. Warren B. Rudman 
(R-N.H.). 

“By and large,” he said, the bill would 
“fill recognized gaps in the present law and 
do so in a rational manner.” While there 
are those who seize upon every isolated 
misdeed to smear all unions, “the trade 
union movement can only be strengthened 
by law enforcement that dislodges those 
with a criminal bent who may find a toe- 
hold in our structure.” 

A benefit of government is protection of 
the law, Kirkland testified. The AFL-CIO 


American companies operating in South 
Africa should be required to provide equal 
job opportunities and equal pay to black 
workers, the AFL-CIO urged. 

Legislative Director Ray Denison, in a 
statement submitted to a House Foreign 
Affairs subcommittee, stressed the AFL- 
CIO’s long and continuing hostility to 
apartheid,, the South African government’s 
doctrine of racial separation to perpetuate 
white minority rule. 

THE OPPORTUNITY for achieving 
non-violent change is rapidly disappearing, 
Denison warned. As of now, he said, the 
AFL-CIO sees “development of a viable 
black labor movement as practically the 
only chance to effect peaceful change in 
South Africa.” 

Yet, he noted, “contrary to all rational 
thinking. South Africa has chosen the path 
of confrontation. It has embarked on a 
massive campaign of intimidation, deten- 
tion and arrest of hundreds of black trade 
union leaders in an attempt to cripple the 
embryonic black labor movement.” 

The subcommittee has before it a bill by 


“asks for that protection . . . and pledges 
its cooperation in a joint endeavor with 
the federal government to maintain the 
hard-earned honor of our institutions.” 

KIRKLAND acknowledged that there 
are “perils” in the decision to provide for 
removal of an office-holder on conviction 
rather than after the appeals process. This 
could on occasion lead to unfairness, he 
noted. But he stressed that allowing per- 
sons convicted of crimes involving breach 
of trust to stay in their posts pending 
lengthy appeals “raises even more troub- 
ling questions,” and “our obligation to the 
membership . . . must be put first.” Reim- 
bursement of lost pay if the appeal suc- 
ceeds helps “alleviate the harshest conse- 
quence,” he noted. 

Two sections of the bill should be 
amended, Kirkland urged. 

One section attempts to regulate in 
detail the myriad transactions involved in 
the financing of joint labor-management 
employee benefit funds. 

“Plainly an error in making one’s way 
through this legal labyrinth, that has noth- 
ing to do with under-table employer pay- 
ments, should not be treated as a felony,” 
Kirkland said. 

HE URGED that the language of the 
bill be clarified to draw “a rational line” 
between matters that are to be dealt with 
through the criminal law and those dealt 
with through civil law. 

Kirkland also suggested that the pro- 
posed mandatory 10-year period of dis- 
qualification — up from the present five 
years — is too rigid. 

There are cases, where the epithet of 
“racketeer” is clearly justified, where a 
five-year disqualification would be insuf- 
ficient, Kirkland acknowledged. 

But there are other cases, often involv- 
ing an individual with a previously unblem- 
ished record who gave in to a moment of 
temptation, where the proposed 10-year 
term would be too severe. 

THE AFL-CIO’S view, Kirkland said, 
is that the law should provide some flex- 
ibility by “authorizing the trial judge, on 
conviction of one of the enumerated 
crimes, to set an appropriate disqualifica- 
tion period of not more than 10 years.” 

Kirkland’s concerns on these points 
were well-founded and would be given 
serious consideration, subcommittee mem- 
bers agreed. 

The Nunn bill will also be the subject 
of hearings before the Senate Labor sub- 
committee. Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), 
the subcommittee chairman, set Jan. 26 
and 28 as the hearing dates. 


Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) that would 
require U.S. firms operating in South 
Africa to adopt fair employment policies, 
integrate employment facilities, end racial 
wage distinctions and recognize and deal 
with unions freely chosen by workers. Pen- 
alties fqr violation would include denial of 
U.S. tax credits for taxes paid to South 
Africa and export curbs. 

A SEPARATE BILL by Rep. William 
H. Gray (D-Pa.) would bar U.S. financial 
institutions from making loans to South 
Africa until the President certifies the 
country has made “substantial progress” 
toward eliminating discrimination through- 
out the society. 

Denison said the AFL-CIO supports the 
intent of both measures. 

He reiterated the AFL-CIO position that 
if such steps prove inadequate, the United 
States should move toward a selective ban 
on the importation of South African prod- 
ucts — and to a full boycott if necessary. 

But “experience has shown that such a 
boycott can only be effective if taken in 
concert with our allies,” Denison added. 


By Susan Dunlop 

John Bristol, a 44-year-old roofer from 
Rockford, 111., didn’t work for four years 
after a 1964 accident on the job left him 
with a crushed spinal disc and constant 
pain. 

A series of operations, and massive 
doses of painkillers and aspirin helped him 
to return to work, but a severe and still 
unhealed intestinal ulcer linked to the 
medication forced him back into the hospi- 
tal. In 1973, he was hospitalized again 
for burns over most of his upper body 
suffered when he fell into hot asphalt after 
his injured back gave way on the job. 

HE HAS since been frequently hospita- 
lized for treatment, but his doctors rec- 
ommend against further spinal surgery be- 
cause of a risk of paralysis. 

Bristol, who completed only three grades 
of school, has been relying on social 
security disability insurance payments to 
help support his wife and two children. 

But now he faces the loss of that income 
because, the Social Security Administration 
informed him, a review of his case finds 
him ineligible for further disability pay- 
ments. He is capable of work “that does 
not require bending, stooping or lifting,” 
the government says. 

Bristol’s predicament grows out of a new 
federal budget-cutting drive aimed at trim- 
ming back the number of persons on the 
Social Security disability insurance rolls 
and discouraging new applications. 

THE AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security 
estimates that the stiff new standards of 
review being applied to disability cases 
could mean that as many as 20 percent 
of those receiving disability benefits could 
be cut off. 

The Social Security Administration, op- 
erating under a 1980 law authorizing the 
review procedure, has said it will review 
nearly all current non-permanent disability 
and many permanent disability cases. Re- 
views will be conducted by designated 
agencies within the states that will forward 
their recommendations to the federal 
agency. 

Most disabled beneficiaries are unaware 
that the reviews are in progress, AFL-CIO 
Social Security Director Bert Seidman 
said, expressing the federation’s concern 
that the stepped-up review program ap- 
pears to be linked to the Administration’s 
budget-balancing goals. 

LOCAL COMMUNITY services repre- 
sentatives helping Bristol with the appeal 


of his case anticipate a growing volume 
of disabled workers facing a sudden end 
to payments on which they have been 
depending for subsistence. 

The review of disability cases was begun 
under the Carter Administration, but was 
intensified shortly after President Reagan 
took office. The Social Security Adminis- 
tration said it has already sent about 
220,000 cases to states for action, and 
plans to send back about 500,000 more 
in 1982. 

Under the social security disability in- 
surance program, benefits are provided to 
persons who cannot “engage in substantial 
gainful activity” for at least 12 months, 
generally as a result of medical problems. 
Monthly payments average about $413 
nationwide. 

THE 1980 LAW establishing the review 
system requires that most non-permanent 
disability cases be reviewed at least once 
every three years. Permanent cases are 
also subject to review but without a time- 
table. The program was slated to begin 
in January 1982, but was moved up to 
August 1980 and accelerated in March 
1981 by the current Administration. 

Illinois officials report a backlog of 
roughly 22.000 cases to review and the 
turn-down rate for existing and new ap- 
plications may run as high as 60 percent, 
according to AFL-CIO community services 
representatives in the state. 

New Jersey Social Services Commission- 
er Timothy L. Garden says benefits are 
being terminated in that state in about a 
third of all cases being reviewed. 

Union officials also are concerned that 
medical cases are being reviewed by doc- 
tors who are not specialists in the type of 
disability under scrutiny. 

BENEFICIARIES are given only 10 
days to appeal a cut-off of payments before 
the state’s decision is sent to Washington. 
Once that happens, only two more checks 
will be mailed to the recipient. 

Both the disability insurance program, 
which aids some 4.9 million individuals 
and their dependents, and the Supple- 
mental Security Income program, which 
affects about 2.3 million disabled persons, 
are subject to the review program. 

The disability insurance program would 
face further cutbacks under proposals be- 
ing pressed by the Reagan Administration. 
These include a stricter definition of dis- 
ability so as to rule out consideration of 
age, education or work experience; a lon- 
ger waiting period for benefits, and tighter 
standards of eligibility. 


Stronger U.S. Action Urged 
On South Africa’s Apartheid 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 7, 1981 


D.C.f Ohio Ballot Issues 


Tuition Tax Credit Plan, 
Insurance Grab, Beaten 


‘Where’s That Safety Net?’ 


Voters in the District of Columbia 
trounced a labor-opposed tuition tax credit 
initiative in the Nov. 3 elections and Ohio 
citizens followed labor’s lead in rejecting 
a constitutional amendment that would 
have let private insurance companies sell 
workers’ compensation plans to employ- 
ers in place of the state-run program. 

The tuition tax credit fight spurred a 
heavy turnout of D.C. voters for an off- 
year election. Some 89 percent rejected 
the measure in a hot contest both sides 
saw as the first major test of the idea at 
the polls. 

THE OPPOSITION was led by a coali- 
tion that included the Greater Washington 
AFL-CIO, the American Federation of 
Teachers and its Washington local, the 
Government Employees and the State, 
County & Municipal Employees. The coa- 
lition was supported also by D.C. officials, 
the business community, civic organiza- 
tions, area ministers, senior citizens and 
civil rights organizations. 

The tuition tax credit proposal, spear- 
headed by the National Taxpayers Union, 
would have allowed District residents to 
deduct up to $1,200 from their D.C. taxes 
for each child attending private school. 
City businesses could have cut their tax 
liability up to 50 percent for contributions 
to the tuition of D.C. students. 

The labor-led coalition pointed out that 
the measure would undermine public edu- 
cation, deeply erode the city’s tax base 
and destroy thousands of jobs for teachers 
and other workers. The sharp drop in reve- 
nues, the coalition stressed, would force 
up property, sales and other taxes in the 
District. 

ALTHOUGH THE coalition success- 
fully persuaded voters that the initiative 
favored the wealthy, election results also 
showed heavy opposition to the scheme in 
the city’s most affluent wards. 

AFT President Albert Shanker, com- 
menting on the 9-1 rejection of the plan, 
noted that “this was the first chance the 
people have had to say whether they 
wanted tax credits — and they turned it 
down overwhelmingly.” 

In Ohio, the State AFL-CIO led the 
effort that beat back by a 4-to-l margin 
a measure that would have allowed private 
insurance firms to replace the present state- 
operated workers’ compensation system. 
The federation was joined by a coalition 
that included business, farm, civic, con- 
sumer, civil rights and church groups. 


The AFL-CIO Executive Council last 
summer urged all AFL-CIO affiliates to 
work for defeat of the proposal. Under the 
existing plan, it noted, investment income \ 
from employer premiums is retained by \ 
the state fund to pay benefits and lower 
costs. 

Ohio is the largest of six states that 
have exclusive state funds to provide 
workers’ compensation coverage. Its sys- 
tem dates from a 1913 law sponsored by 
then-Sen. William Green, who later was 
to succeed Samuel Gompers as president 
of the American Federation of Labor. 

State AFL-CIO President Milan Marsh 
called defeat of the issue “a victory for 
workers who saw through the multi-million 
dollar media campaign that stressed ‘free 
enterprise and competition.’ ” 


THE AMENDMENTS supporters 
poured more than $6 million into the 
campaign, much of it contributed by in- 
surance companies, the state federation 
said. Marsh praised the efforts of Ohio 
unions to raise funds for the opposition 
campaign urging voters to reject the 
amendment. 

In another victory for labor-supported 
positions in Ohio, voters turned down 3- 
to-2 a Republican proposal for a constitu- 
tional amendment to change the formula 
for state legislative and congressional 
districts. 

Washington state citizens passed an in- 
itiative requiring voter approval of the 
state utility system’s construction budget 
and financing plans. 

KENTUCKY VOTERS turned down a 
proposal to allow state officers, including 
incumbent Gov. John Y. Brown, Jr., to 
succeed themselves in office, and in an- 
other surprise loss. West Virginia rejected 
a $750-billion road bond issue that had 
statewide business and labor support. The 
state AFL-CIO attributed the defeat to a 
fear of higher taxes and economic uncer- 
tainty. 

Elsewhere, voters picked and chose 
among ballot issues. In New York, New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania bond issues to 
improve public facilities were cleared. But 
Rhode Island turned down spending pro- 
posals for road and bridge repair and senior 
citizens transportation, and Texas voters 
rejected a local water projects issue. In 
Maine, bond issues for park improvements 
and public broadcasting equipment were 
voted down, but a $ 15-million issue to aid 
Bath Iron Works won approval. 




mt 

barnings 


4 



1 981 Settlements Produce 
Average Pay Gain of ll.Sfd 


(Continued from Page 1) 

der pacts reached during the first nine 
months of the year. The soft-coal mining 
settlement covered 1 1 percent of the work- 
ers, and settlements in retail food stores 
covered 10 percent. 

BLS noted that the average first-year 
wage boost was 13.9 percent in the con- 
struction industry. In other industries, 
the first-year average was 10.1 percent. 
Other highlights of the report: 

• Manufacturing industry settlements 
covering 312,000 workers provided for an 
average first-year wage increase of 9 per- 
cent and an average annual raise of 7 
when measured over the life of the pacts. 

• Settlements in nonmanufacturing in- 
dustries covering 1.1 million workers pro- 
vided for an average first-year increase of 
12.2 percent and an average 9.9 percent 
annual increase over term. 

• Construction pacts covering 49,000 
workers provided for an average 11,4 per- 
cent annual increase over the life of the 
contracts. 

• Contracts negotiated during the nine- 


Virginia, New Jersey Eleet New Governors 


President Reagan’s personal campaign- 
ing failed to keep Virginia in the Repub- 
lican column, and a Democrat was elected 
governor for the first time since 1965. 

In New Jersey, the only other state to 
elect a governor this year,- Republican 
Thomas H. Kean, a millionaire business- 
man, held a paper-thin lead over James J. 
Florio, a labor-backed Democratic Con- 
gressman. 

Reagan had carried both states handily 


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last November and personally campaigned 
for the Republican gubernatorial candi- 
dates. 

In Virginia, Democrat Charles S. Robb 
took 54 percent of the vote to defeat 
Reagan-endorsed J. Marshall Coleman. 

Robb, the son-in-law of former Presi- 
dent Lyndon B. Johnson, campaigned as 
a “moderate conservative.” But black 
voters and other groups hard hit by Rea- 
gan budget slashes turned out in large 
numbers to give him strong support. Robb 
had the backing of a number of unions. 
The Virginia State AFL-CIO refrained 
from an endorsement of either candi- 
date. 

THE NEW JERSEY campaign was 
hard-fought from the start, with Florio 
urging voters to send “a message across 
the nation” of opposition to the Reagan 
program and Kean urging a “time-for-a- 
change” after two terms of retiring Demo- 
cratic Gov. Brendan T. Byrne. 

With more than 2.3 million votes cast, 
the lead shifted repeatedly during the long 
count and tally of absentee ballots. Kean 
eventually wound up with a lead of only 
1,158 votes, subject to the official canvass 
and a possible recount. 

Local issues dominated most mayoral 
elections, with incumbents generally win- 
ning re-election. 


New York Mayor Edward Koch, who 
ran with both Democratic and Republican 
endorsement, was an easy winner. Buffalo’s 
Mayor James Griffin also had two-party 
support. Both were first elected as Demo- 
crats. 

Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, a 
Republican, won re-election with a record- 
high 76.5 percent of the vote. In Minne- 
apolis, liberal Democrat Don Fraser won 
an easy 2-1 re-election, and Democrat 
Coleman Young won his third term as 
mayor of Detroit. 

DEMOCRAT RICHARD Caliguiri was 
easily re-elected in Pittsburgh and Repub- 
lican Margaret Hance continues as mayor, 
of Phoenix. 

In Albany, Democrat Erastus Coming 
was elected to an 11th term. He has been 
mayor for 40 years. And in Hartford, 
Democrat Thirman L. Milner became the 
first black mayor of a major New England 
city. 

In Houston, where the mayor gets $82,- 
000 a year, incumbent Jim McConh fin- 
ished fourth, and a runoff will decide be- 
tween City Controller Kathy Whitmere 
and Sheriff Jack Heard. In Miami, a run- 
off will pit incumbent Maurice Ferre, a 
native of Puerto Rico, against Manola 
Rebosa, a native of Cuba. 


month period had an average duration of 
31.2 months. 

• Key contracts — those covering bar- 
gaining units of 5,000 or more workers — 
provided an average 11.8 percent first- 
year increase in combined wage and 
fringe-benefit improvements. 

FIRST-YEAR negotiated increases in 
contracts with COL clauses averaged 7.9 
percent, compared with 12.4 percent in 
those without such clauses, BLS said. An- 
nual wage adjustments over the life of 
the agreements averaged 6.4 and 10 per- 
cent, respectively. 

COL clauses covered 306,000 workers 
or 21 percent of those under settlements 
concluded during the first nine months of 
1981. About 45,000 workers were covered 
by seven agreements which introduced 
COL clauses for the first time or re-estab- 
lished a COL provision that had been 
dropped ^ earlier. COL clauses were 
dropped in nine agreements. 

About 7.7 million of the 9 million 
workers includecf in BLS’s major collec- 
tive bargaining series received “effective” 
wage increases averaging 8.4 percent dur- 
ing the first nine months of 1981, while 
1.3 million workers had no change during 
the period. 

EFFECTIVE WAGE increases result 
from settlements reached . during the pe- 
- riod, deferred raises paid under agree- 
ments negotiated earlier, and increases 
under cost-of-living clauses. When pro- 
rated over all 9 million workers under 
major agreements, the wage adjustments 
put into effect during the nine-month pe- 
riod averaged 7.1 percent. 

In the current quarters, 108 major 
agreements covering 285,000 workers, are 
due to expire or may be reopened for 
wage negotiations, BLS said. 

California State Units 
Pick AFL-CIO Unions 

The Communications Workers and the 
State, County & Municipal Employees 
scored major victories in runoff elections , 
against the unaffiliated California State 
Employees Association to represent more 
than 1 1,000 state health service employees. 

eWA Local 11555 won representation 
rights for 8,000 psychiatric technicians in 
state hospitals by gaining 57 percent of 
the vote over the CSEA in an election 
conducted by California’s Public Employ- 
ment Relations Board. 

AFSCME Local 2620 also defeated the 
CSEA for a 3,100-member unit of health 
and social service professionals by gaining 
a majority of the vote in a tight election. 


Council Pledges Renewed Fight 
For Social, Economic Progress 



AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland told delegates to the Metal Trades 


Dept, convention that their goal of rebuilding the American shipping industry 
has the support of the entire labor movement. (Story, Page 2) 

Price of Reaganomics 

‘Engineered Recession’ 
Brings 8 % Jobless Rate 


Donahue Hits 
Wage-Busting 
On Standards 

The AFL-CIO and unions representing 
workers whose pay and benefits are threat- 
ened accused the Reagan Administration 
of abusing the regulatory process to cut 
back coverage of the Service Contract Act. 

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue told the House Subcommittee on 
Labor-Management Relations that the La- 
bor Dept, has subordinated enforcement of 
worker protection laws to the Administra- 
tion’s goal of cutting wage costs. 

“WE WANT to see the Dept, of Labor 
rededicate itself to the protection of the 
American worker,” Donahue testified. 

The Service Contract Act, passed in 
1965 and twice strengthened by Congress, 
was intended to assure that workers em- 
ployed by firms that provide services to 
the government receive locally prevailing 
wages and benefits. It is comparable to 
Davis-Bacon Act protections for construc- 
tion workers. 

New regulations proposed by the Labor 
Dept, last August would exempt from the 
law many contracts now covered, and un- 
ions have charged it would lead to a re- 
newal of the wage-cutting that led to pas- 
sage of the law. The department has not 
yet made the regulations final and will 
hold its own hearings later this month to 
supplement written comments by inter- 
ested parties. 

SUBCOMMITTEE Chairman Philip 
Burton (D-Calif.) termed the proposed 
regulations cause for “serious concerns,” 
and union officials who testified during 
two days of hearings clearly shared these 
concerns. 

AFL-CIO witnesses included: 

• Service Employees President John 
Sweeney, who said the Labor Dept, should 
be working to improve the often lax en- 
forcement of the law instead of seeking 

(Continued on Page 20) 


Seven AFL-CIO unions representing 
nearly a half-million workers on major 
railroads tentatively approved new 39- 
month agreements providing wage in- 
creases of 32.5 percent plus fringe benefit 
improvements. 

The accord, announced at a news con- 
ference by President Richard Kilroy of 
the Railway & Airline Clerks, the largest 
of the seven unions, retains the previous 
contract’s cost-of-living clause with its for- 
mula for pay increases of one cent an hour 
for each rise of three-tenths of 1 percent 
in the consumer price index. 

THE AGREEMENT also calls for im- 
provements in health and welfare plans, 
pension benefits, and vacations, and gives 
workers another paid holiday, the day 
after Thanksgiving Day. 


By James M. Shevis 

American workers, hobbled by persis- 
tent inflation and an unemployment rate 
of 8 percent that is likely to climb higher 
as the economy declines, are now paying 
the price for what the AFL-CIO saw nine 
months ago as President Reagan’s “high- 
risk gamble” with the nation’s future, Fed- 
eration President Lane Kirkland declared. 

The Administration’s budget cuts and 
tight-money policies “have not produced 
a flourishing economy as Reagan promised, 
but rather are the major factors in the 
rapid increase in unemployment,” Kirk- 


Kilroy, who became BRAC president 
on the death of Fred Kroll earlier this 
year, described the settlement as “an ex- 
cellent agreement” given today’s economic 
conditions, and predicted its overwhelming 
ratification by the union’s members, who 
will be voting on it in the next four 
weeks. Results of the balloting will be 
known by Dec. 1 1 , he said. 

KILROY SAID the new agreement was 
“a significant step forward,” marking one 
of the few times in railroad negotiations 
that the union and the National Railway 
Labor Conference, negotiating for man- 
agement, had been able to reach an accord 
without recourse to mediation, arbitration 
or a threatened or actual strike under the 
Railway Labor Act. 

(Continued on Page 4) 


land said in a statement on the half- 
percent jump in the October national job- 
less rate. 

INSTEAD OF addressing the problems 
of a badly slumping economy, the Admin- 
istration offers no alternatives to its “en- 
gineered recession” — “just more of the 
same,” Kirkland said. 

“It is time to undo some of the damage 
resulting from the budget cuts, the tax 
giveaways, and the monetary squeeze on 
the housing and auto industries,” he 
warned. 

The increase of five-tenths of 1 percent 
in the unemployment rate in October was 
the largest one-month jump since the rise 
from 6.9 to 7.6 percent in May 1980, near 
the end of last year’s recession. 

The number of jobless workers is now 
more than 8,520,000, a rise of over one 
million in three months. 

LAST MONTH’S unemployment in- 
crease was felt most by blue-collar work- 
ers. Their jobless rate soared from 10.2 
to 1 1 percent while white-collar unem- 
ployment remained unchanged at 4.1 per- 
cent. The jobless rate for construction 
workers leaped from 16.3 to 18 percent 
over the month. 

The suffering of blacks and other mi- 
norities was particularly severe as their 
unemployment level as a whole rose from 
15.1 percent in September to 15.5 percent 
in October, a post-World War II record. 
The rate for black teenagers shot up from 
37.5 to 42.9 percent. 

Kirkland noted, though, that there is 
no shading of distinction in the percent- 
ages of unemployed groups among the 

(Continued on Page 20) 


Centennial 
Keys Report 
To Delegates 

By David L« Perlman 

New York — America’s trade union fed- 
eration enters its second century com- 
mitted to a ceaseless struggle for social 
and economic justice — and to the search 
for more effective ways to advance la- 
bor’s cause. 

That’s the thrust of the Executive Coun- 
cil’s report to the AFL-CIO’s 14th con- 
vention, covering the nearly two years 
since the retirement and death of George 
Meany. 

IT WAS A period of new leadership 
for the nation as well as for its labor 
movement. But while the AFL-CIO moved 
ahead under new leaders, the Reagan 
Administration brought a drastic turn- 
about in the direction of government. 

In the opening section of the Executive 
Council report, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland refers to the “counter-revolu- 
tion” launched by the Administration to 
dismantle government programs that “pro- 
tect society.” 

The AFL-CIO, he said, has emerged 
as “the strongest and most coherent 
voice” against Reagan policies. 

WHEN THE President challenged his 
critics to come up with an alternative pro- 
gram, Kirkland noted, “we did just that.” 

He cited labor’s insistence that defense 
needs “be met by fair taxation, not by 
dismantling vital social programs, and the 
AFL-CIO’s proposal for tax incentives 
targeted for revitalization of essential in- 
dustries instead of “throwing tax money 
at business in a wholesale fashion.” 

And labor warned, as the nation now 
realizes, “that the Administration’s high- 
interest, tight-money policies would en- 
courage both inflation and unemploy- 
ment,” Kirkland noted. 

The labor movement lost “a towering 
world figure” with the death of George 
Meany, Kirkland said. “But the institu- 
tion he shaped remains strong, rooted 
in the needs and aspirations of working 
men and women.” 

HE CITED the influx of new leader- 
ship at all levels to replenish the trade 
union movement, including the addition 
of the first woman to the AFL-CIO Ex- 

(Continued on Page 19) 

Davis-Bacon Act 
Rules Preserved 
By Senate Vote 

The Senate upheld the Davis-Bacon Act 
on a key 55-42 vote that preserved pre- 
vailing wage protections for workers em- 
ployed on military construction contracts. 

Open-shop employers had sought to use 
the military construction bill as a spring- 
board toward outright repeal of the Davis- 
Bacon Act, which since 1931 has re- 
quired federal contractors to meet local 
pay scales and conditions. 

THEY HAD WON an initial victory 
when the Senate Armed Services Commit- 
tee wrote an exemption from Davis-Bacon 
coverage into the $6.5 billion military con- 
struction authorization bill. 

On the Senate floor, the burden was on 
labor’s friends to amend the bill so as to 
delete the Davis-Bacon Act exemption. 

Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) in- 
troduced the amendment to restore Davis- 

(Continued on Page 2) 


Tentative Railroad Accord 
Sets Gains for Half-Million 


Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Senate Votes 
To Preserve 
Davis-Bacon 



KEYNOTING the Metal Trades Dept.’s 60th convention, the U.S. naval and merchant fleets and scored the Adminisr 
President Paul J. Burnsky cited the critical condition of tration for retreating from its commitment to shipbuilding. 


Metal Trades Spur Federal Action 
To Reverse Naval^ Maritime Decline 


By John R. Oravec 

New York — Overdue federal support of 
domestic ship construction projects to re- 
verse the shrinkages of U.S. naval and 
maritime fleets is critical to the nation’s 
security, the industry and the jobs of 
thousands of shipyard workers, the 60th 
Metal Trades Dept, convention warned. 

Delegates also stressed the need for 
stepping up departmental organizing ef- 
forts as they endorsed a six-point program 
drafted by a convention committee. 

THE CONVENTION called on Con- 
gress to restore funding for construction 
differential subsidies (CDS) which had 
been deferred by the House Merchant 
Marine & Fisheries Committee under pres- 
sure from the Reagan Administration. 

At the same time, delegates pressed Con- 
gress to eliminate an amendment in the 
Budget Reconcilliation bill that would pro- 
vide operating ^ subsidies for U.S. firms 
having ships built or reconstructed in for- 
eign yards. 

In his keynote address to the conven- 
tion, MTD President Paul J. Burnsky 
cited the critical condition of the U.S. 
naval and merchant fleets. 

NOTING THAT in a dozen years the 
Navy’s active fleet has shrunk from 926- 
to 446 ships, Burnsky observed that “if a 
war started tomorrow, the Navy would be 
worse off than it was on the morning after 
the attack on Pearl Harbor.” 

The merchant marine is in even worse 
shape, he said. “Thirty years ago nearly 

4.000 American-flag ships carried 60 per- 
cent of the nation’s import-export cargo. 
Fewer than 600 ships remain, carrying 
only 4 percent of it,” he said, and merely 
a “handful would be fit for duty as mili- 
tary transports.” 

Burnsky charged that the Administra- 
tion has retreated on its commitment to 
rebuild the naval and merchant fleets. 

“THE FIRST to go was assistance for 
cargo carriers,” he said. “The long-stand- 
ing construction subsidy program was 
scorned. The obvious preference is for 
foreign-built vessels — even warships, ac- 
cording to the Secretary of the Navy.” 

Burnsky warned that U.S. -owned run- 
away vessels that fly foreign flags and are 
operated by foreign crews can’t be de- 
pended upon in an emergency. 

But neither Congress nor the White 
House has been able to determine if a 
U.S.-flag fleet is worth having, he said. 
The Navy isn’t sure about it either, he 
added. 

“UNLESS THERE is -a continuing flow 
of merchant ship construction in the na- 
tion’s commercial shipyards during the 
next five years,” Burnsky cautioned, “there 
won’t be enough shipyards, enough spe- 
cialty suppliers and, worst of all, enough 
skilled workers to build the warships the 
Navy will be ready to order.” 

The department repiesents more than 

650.000 workers in 22 affiliated unions 
under contracts negotiated by MTD coun- 
cils with private industry and at federal 
facilities. 


Burnsky noted that there are only 24 
private U.S. shipyards remaining that are 
capable of handling naval construction and 
with the withdrawal of merchant ship con- 
struction subsidies others may soon close. 

A NUMBER of convention speakers 
voiced similar concerns over the deteriora- 
tion of shipping and naval strength. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
delegates that “your goal of rebuilding 
your industry and restoring America’s 
shipping and shipbuilding capacity is not 
yours alone. It is a goal of the entire la- 
bor movement, because there is no way 
this country can guarantee its own sur- 
vival, let alone reach its potential with- 
out it.” 

Kirkland said the labor movement is 
entering its second century during a period 
of severe economic dislocation and is 
faced with an Administration whose social 
philosophy is a throwback to the big busi- 
ness barons of 1 00 years ago. 

“AS WE CROSS the threshhold of our 
second century, the labor movement stands 
as the strongest, most unified force de- 
fending the rights of the American peo- 
ple, and we have a fight on our hands,” 
he stressed. 

Kirkland noted that hundreds of thou- 
sands of workers responded on the Sept. 
19 Solidarity Day demonstration “to Pres- 
ident Reagan’s claim that he, not the labor 
movement speaks for American workers 
. . . showing that they have lost none of 
their desire to speak for themselves 
through the democratic institutions they 
created for the purpose.” 

He said the trade union movement and 
its allies are working for another demon- 
stration of solidarity on Election Day 1982 
when “we intend to do everything in our 
power to elect a Congress that will reverse 
Mr. Reagan’s program and restore the 
human equation to the process of govern- 
ment providing for the general welfare.” 

THE CONVENTION’S endorsement of 
an expanded organizing effort includes a 
recommendation for the department to es- 
tablish a pilot program that will be used 
as a model by Metal Trades Councils 
across the country in future organizing 
activities. 

The department’s major organizing gain 
since its last biennial convention came in 
a representation election in Panama earlier 
this year for 8,000 professional employees. 
The campaign was coordinated by an 
AFL-CIO Maritime/ Metal Trades coali- 
tion. 

Delegates also approved a 2-cent in- 
crease in the per capita tax that was rec- 
ommended by the convention’s audit com- 
mittee. Monthly payments by the MTD’s 
affiliated unions and councils will rise to 
12 cents per member effective next July 1. 

Other key resoluticyis adopted at the 
two-day convention call for: 

• Affiliates and councils to establish 
voluntary COPE check-off contributions 
by members. 

• Strong opposition to Administration 
attempts to place tight limits on the wages 
of federal workers. 


• Rejection of proposals to slash cov- 
erage and benefits through amendments to 
the Federal Employee Compensation Act. 

• Extending full OSHA protections to 
federal workers. 

• Continued opposition to proposals to 
tax workers’ fringe benefits. 

• Improvements to inland waterway 
transportation facilities, development of bi- 
lateral coal shipping agreements, and re- 
jection of new attempts to export Alaskan 
oil. 

Convention speakers in addition to 
Kirkland included President Frank Drozak 
of the Maritime Trades Dept.; Sec.-Treas. 
Earl McDavid of the Union Label & Ser- 
vice Trades Dept.; retired Admiral Isaac 
C. Kidd who headed the Navy’s Atlantic 
fleet and NATO naval forces; Admiral 
E. B. Fowler, commander of the Naval 
Sea Systems Command, and Robert E. 
King, industrial relations director of the 
Energy Dept, and NASA. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Bacon coverage, with Sen. Edward M- 
Kennedy (D-Mass.) as co-sponsor. It 
passed with the votes of 39 Democrats 
and 16 Republicans, including Majority 
Leader Howard H. Baker. Only seven 
Democrats joined 35 Republicans in vot- 
ing against Davis-Bacon. 

A factor in the battle for Republican 
votes was the Reagan Administration’s 
position on the issue. 

SEN. STROM THURMOND (R-S.C ), 
author of the Davis-Bacon exemption 
clause, told the Senate that it was his 
“understanding” that the White House 
took no position on the issue. 

But other senators interpreted a letter 
from Office of Management & Budget Di- 
rector David A. Stockman as signalling 
Administration opposition to piecemeal 
repeal of Davis-Bacon. 

Stockman said the Administration’s pol- 
icy “of not seeking repeal of Davis-Bacon” 
also applies to the military construction 
controversy. Stockman noted that - “the 
Dept, of Labor, at the President’s direc- 
tion, has developed and proposed admin- 
istrative changes, designed to improve the 
administration of the Davis-Bacton Act 
and reduce costs.” 

Thurmond told the Senate that the new 
regulations “will take too long to imple- 
ment” and argued that the military con- 
struction bill could be used as a “market- 
place” test of operating without Davis- 
Bacon coverage. 

JACKSON RETORTED that the 
Davis-Bacon Act has been “a stabilizing 
force in the cyclical construction industry 
and continues to serve a valid purpose of 
preventing the development of unfair 
wage-busting tactics. 

Kennedy warned that exemption from 
prevailing wage protection would lower the 
quality of workmanship. 


Senate Rollcall to Restore 
Davis-Bacon Act Coverage 

The Davis-Bacon Act assures payment of prevailing wages and benefits on 
federal construction contracts. A military construction hill before the Senate 
would exclude contracts totaling billions of dollars from Davis-Bacon coverage. 

The Senate on Nov. 5 voted 55-42 for a labor-supported amendment by Sen. 
Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) restoring Davis-Bacon coverage. 


Baucus (Mont.) 
Biden (Del.) 
Bradley (N.J.) 
Bumpers (Ark.) 
Burdick (N.D.) 
Byrd, R. (W.Va.) 
Chiles (Fla.) 
Cranston (Calif.) 
DeConcini (Ariz.) 
Dixon (111.) 

Andrews (N.D.) 
Baker (Tenn.) 
Chafee (R.I.) 
D’Amato (N.Y.) 


FOR LABOR’S POSITION 

Democrats 39 


Dodd (Conn.) 
Eagleton (Mo.) 
Exon (Neb.) 

Ford (Ky.) 

Glenn (Ohio) 
Hart (Colo.) 
Heflin (Ala.) 
Hollings (S.C.) ' 
Huddleston (Ky.) 
Inouye (Hawaii) 


Jackson (Wash.) 
Johnston (La.) 
Kennedy (Mass.) 
Leahy (Vt.) 

Levin (Mich.) 

Long (La.) 
Matsunaga (Hawaii) 
Melcher (Mont.) 
Metzenbaum (Ohio) 
Mitchell (Me.) 


Moynihan (N.Y.) 
Pell (R.I.) 
Proxmire (Wis.) 
Randolph (W.Va.) 
Riegle (Mich.) 
Sarbanes (Md.) 
Sasser (Tenn.) 
Tsongas (Mass.) 
Williams (N.J.) 


Republicans 16 

Danforth (Miss.) Mathias (Md.) Percy (111.) 

Domenici (N.M.) McClure (Ida.) Specter (Pa.) 

Durenberger (Minn.)Murkowski (Alaska) Stafford (Vt.) 
Heinz (Pa.) Packwood (Ore.) Weicker (Conn.) 


AGAINST LABOR’S POSITION 

Democrats 7 


Bentsen (Tex.) 
Boren (Okla.) 

Abdnor (S.D.) 
Armstrong (Colo.) 
Boschwitz (Minn.) 
Cochran (Miss.) 
Cohen (Me.) 
Denton (Ala.) 
Dole (Kan.) 

East (N.C.) 

Garn (Utah) 


Byrd, H. (Va.) 
Nunn (Ga.) 


Pryor (Ark.) 
Stennis (Miss.) 


Republicans 35 


Gorton (Wash.) 
Grassley (Iowa) 
Hatch (Utah) 
Hatfield (Ore.) 
Hawkins (Fla.) 
Hayakawa (Calif.) 
Helms (N.C.) 
Humphrey (N.H.) 
Jepsen (Iowa) 


Kassebaum (Kan.) 
Kasten (Wis.) 
Laxalt (Nev.) 
Lugar (Ind.) 
Mattingly (Ga.) 
Nickels (Okla.) 
Pressler (S.D.) 
Quayle (Ind.) 

Roth (Del.) 


Zorinsky (Neb.) 


Rudman (N.H.) 
Schmitt (N.M.) 
Simpson (Wyo.) 
Symms (Ida.) 
TLurmond (S.C.) 
Tower (Tex.) 
Wallop (Wyo.) 
Warner (Va.) 


Absent: Cannon (D-Nev.); Goldwater (R-Ariz.); Stevens (Alaska) 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Three 


Keyed to Corporate Strategies 

Food, Beverage Trades 
Press Organizing Goals 



MSGR. GEORGE G. HIGGINS, addressing the Food & Beverage Trades Dept, 
convention in New York, gave delegates a firsthand report on the recent national 
congress held by Poland’s Solidarity trade union federation. Higgins, of Catholic 
University in Washington, spoke at the historic congress. Solidarity’s first since 
its creation a year ago. 

Workers Defense League 
Honors SEIU^s Sweeney 


New York — Delegates to the Food & 
Beverage Trades Dept, convention called 
for continued development of new organiz- 
ing techniques keyed to the department’s 
corporate strategies program. 

The convention stressed the need to de- 
velop imaginative tools and techniques to 
combat the effects of “open government 
hostility toward unions” which it said is 
encouraging many employers to attack 
labor through the use of union-busting 
consultants. 

THE FBTD corporate strategies pro- 
gram is designed to ferret out the strengths 
and weaknesses of targeted firms through 
extensive research before specific tactics 
are developed to meet a union’s organizing 
and collective bargaining goals. 

In his keynote address to the conven- 
tion, FBTD President Robert F. Harbrant 
said organizing is the most serious chal- 
lenge facing the trade union movement. 
He noted that “80 million unorganized 
workers are already out there in the work- 
force without a voice, without a vote, 
without a grievance system.” 

Harbrant underlined the need to up- 
grade the organizing approach to reverse 
the decline in membership of some unions 
and bring representation to the unorga- 
nized. 

“WE NEED to collectively examine 
specific industries or certain conglomerates 
and decide as a department to target such 
concerns for concentrated, coordinated 
campaigns,” he said. “Locals, even inter- 
nationals, cannot effectively confront these 
giants who stare us in the face and want 
only to deny workers their most funda- 
mental rights.” 

New organizing strategies are particu- 
larly essential in making maximum use of 
the limited resources of unions and in the 
face of a government that “is unabashedly 
antagonistic toward workers, not just un- 
ions,” he declared. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland' ex- 
panded on that theme in his address to 
the convention, noting that the Reagan 
Administration espouses a social philoso- 
phy developed by business leaders 100 
years ago, and which the labor movement 
has struggled to refute ever since. 

“THEY BELIEVE that the job of gov- 
ernment is to help accumulate more cap- 
ital at the expense of all who are not 
'rich,” Kirkland said. “They object to any 
government efforts to reduce inequality 
among the American people and to pre- 
vent the exploitation of the weak by the 
strong.” 

The same forces object to all govern- 
ment programs that labor has fought to 
establish, including health care, housing, 
education, jobs creation, social security, 
occupational safety and consumer protec- 
tions, he pointed out. 

“It is ironic,” Kirkland observed, “that 
those who complain the most about gov- 
ernment on their backs are the first to 
applaud when government is used to break 
the back of a union.” 

THE CONVENTION re-elected Har- 
brant to a new two-year term by acclama- 
’ tion and elected Rhonda Allgaier to her 
first full term as secretary-treasurer. All- 
gaier, who also is secretary-treasurer of 
Hotel Employees-Restaurant Employees 
Local 8 in Seattle, filled the unexpired 
term of Harry R. Poole, who retired in 
August. 

Delegates also voted to raise the month- 
ly per capita tax affiliates pay the depart- 
ment to 5 cents, a IV^-cent increase. 

To give delegates a broader perspective 
on the department’s corporate strategy, a 
panel of specialists outlined various ap- 
proaches to conduct research on targeted 
companies. 

THEY EXPLORED avenues for acquir- 
ing vast amounts of information through 
the examination of proxy statements and 
shareholder reports, interlocking director- 
ships, credit sources, real estate holdings, 
pension fund investments, stock purchases 


in other companies, as well as records filed 
with numerous government agencies, , in- 
cluding the Securities & Exchange Com- 
mission, Federal Trade Commission, La- 
bor Dept., NLRB, OSHA, ERISA, Justice 
Dept.’s Antitrust Division and EEOC. 

A prototype of the FBTD’s approach 
was used successfully by the Clothing & 
Textile Workers in its J. P. Stevens cam- 
paign. It was instituted after the company 
flouted numerous decisions for violations 
of federal labor law. 

Jeffrey Fiedler, director of the FBTD 
program, noted in summing up the panel 
discussion that corporate strategies pro- 
vide unions with alternative approaches 
to organizing and collective bargaining ef- 
forts. When combined with the traditional 
tools of strike, boycott and NLRB elec- 
tions, the odds of winning are vastly im- 
proved. Other panelists were Ray Rogers, 
ACTWU consultant; FBTD Counsel Ron 
Rosenberg and John Wilhelm of HERE. 

KEY RESOLUTIONS adopted at the 
two-day convention called for: 

• Opposition to Administration efforts 
to weaken the Freedom of Information 
Act, a vital means of acquiring informa- 
tion for the department. 

• Safeguards against attempts by the 
SEC to relax regulations governing cor- 
porate reports. 

• Stronger federal legislation protect- 
ing workers, from the use of “lie-detector” 
tests by employers. 

• Improved federal safeguards against 
pesticides and other toxic hazards facing 
workers. 

• Stricter OSHA standards to better 
protect workers against explosions at grain 
elevators and mills. 

• Opposition to the Administration’s 
“guest worker” program and implementa- 
tion of an effective, but compassionate, 
immigration policy. 

• Reversal of the Administration’s eco- 
nomic policies that are having a disastrous 
impact on workers and their families. 

• A congressional investigation into the 
practices, control and cross-ownership of 
cgmmercial media and expansion of the 
public’s voice in the Corporation for Pub- 
lic Broadcasting. 

Convention speakers included Msgr. 
George G. Higgins, who gave delegates a 
comprehensive report on Poland’s Soli- 
darity convention, which he attended; Sen. 
Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Sen. Paul 
Tsongas (D-Mass.), Rep. David Obey (D- 
Wis.), occupational health experts Dr. Ir- 
ving Selikoff and Dr. Jeanne Stollman, 
Sec.-Treas. Earl McDavid of the Union 
Label & Service Trades Dept, and Team- 
ster organizer Vicky Saporta. 


New York — AFL-CIO Vice President 
John J. Sweeney told more than 500 labor 
and liberal leaders at a Workers Defense 
League dinner in his honor that the im- 
petus so dramatically produced by Solidar- 
ity Day must be “only the first shot” in a 
continuing campaign to defeat the Reagan 
Administration’s program of “benefits for 
the truly greedy, not the truly needy.” 

Sweeney, who is president of the Service 
Employees, stressed that labor begins its 
second century much as it did its first — 
“battling injustice and prejudice and fight- 
ing for the rights of working men and 
women everywhere.” 

He cited Hubert Humphrey’s “moral 
test” of how government treats children, 
the aged, the sick, the needy and the 
handicapped. After almost ten months of 
the Reagan presidency, Sweeney charged, 
“the Administration fails such a test miser- 
ably on all counts.” 

Joyce D. Miller, president of the Coali- 
tion of Labor Union Women, presented 
the WDL’s 1981 David L. Clendenin 
Award for distinguished service to labor’s 
rights to Sweeney, lauding his achieve- 
ments in both “bringing women workers 
into the labor movement and bringing the 
labor movement to women workers.” 

She said the SEIU has worked unceas- 
ingly “to include the neglected women 
and minority workers of the service econ- 
omy, household workers, health care 
workers and clerical workers, into the 
movement of free and united labor.” 

DINNER CHAIRMAN Albert Shanker, 
president of the American Federation of 
Teachers, hailed the 45th anniversary of 
the WDL and reminded the audience that 


he had testified in 1971 before the WDL 
Commission of Inquiry into the use of the 
injunction and jail sentences against pub- 
lic employees. The WDL, he said, worked 
hard then to call attention to the discrep- 
ancies between the rights the nation grants 
to some workers and not to others. 

Today, Shanker said, “we still face a 
world of double standards: the same argu- 
ments that are used against public em- 
ployees here, such as air traffic controllers, 
are used by the Soviets against Polish 
workers.” 

Bayard Rustin, chairman of the A. 
Philip Randolph Institute, hailed the role 
of the Workers Defense League in initiat- 
ing the Joint Apprenticeship Project, which 
later blossomed into the Recruitment & 
Training Program (RTP). That succeeded 
in bringing more than 20,000 black and 
Hispanic youngsters into union appren- 
ticeship programs in construction and 
other unions. 

THE RECURRING theme of peonage 
and forced labor was broached by Harry 
Fleischman, chairman of the WDL’s ex- 
ecutive committee. Back in 1950, he re- 
ported, the WDL testified before a United 
Nations committee on forced labor among 
black sharecroppers in the South, while 
denouncing forced labor in the Soviet 
Union, its satellites, and in South Africa. 

But it’s happening again, said Fleisch- 
man. Last month, two migrant crew lead- 
ers were arrested for conspiring to kidnap 
and enslave eight migrant workers and 
causing the death of one man. Thousands 
of undocumented aliens have been held in 
virtual slavery in the United States, he 
said. • 

TTie Workers Defense League, Fleisch- 
man reported, has responded to this cruel 
situation by bringing together more than 
170 prominent Americans who are calling 
upon President Reagan to order the Jus- 
tice Dept, and the Immigration & Naturali- 
zation Service to enforce the nation’s 
anti-peonage statutes, and help wipe out 
the blight of peonage in America. 

Other projects were detailed by Philip 
van Buren, the WDL’s new executive di- 
rector. They include: building a system of 
private litigation to fight violations of min- 
imum wage and maximum hour laws, pro- 
viding new voluntary avenues of internal 
union dispute settlements, and a program 
to help bust the union-busters. 

Textile Industry Reports 
Joblessness of 12 Percent 

Unemployment in the textile industry 
rose to 12 percent in October, compared 
to 8 percent for the nation as a whole, the 
American Textile Manufacturers Institute 
reported. 

The October jobless rate for the indus- 
try was the highest since the 1974-75 re- 
cession. Labor Dept, statistics show that, 
in addition to those unemployed, 8 per- 
cent of the nation’s 835,000 textile work- 
ers were working less than 35 hours per 
week for lack of full-time work. 



SERVICE EMPLOYEES President John J. Sweeney, second from left, is hon- 
ored by the Workers Defense League for his service to labor. President Joyce 
D. Miller of the Coalition of Labor Union Women presented Sweeney with the 
WDL’s David L. Clendenin Award. At the presentation were Harry Fleischman, 
chairman of WDL’s executive committee, left; Teachers President Albert 
Shanker, and Bayard Rustin, chairman of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 



NEW RAIL AGREEMENT is discussed by President Richard Kilroy of the 
Railway & Airline Clerks at a Washington news conference. BRAC and six 
other unions representing workers employed by the nation’s major railroads 
have tentatively agreed to a pact providing wage increases of 32.5 percent over 
a 39-month period. 

South Carolina Fed Elects 
First Full-Time President 


Rail Carriers, 
Unions Reach 
National Pact 

' (Continued from Page 1) 

The six other unions that tentatively 
agreed to the same settlement are the Ma- 
chinists, the International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers, the Maintenance of 
Way Employees, the Carmen, the Boiler- 
makers & Blacksmiths, and the Sheet 
Metal Workers. BRAC represents over 
100,000 workers affected by the agree- 
ment, and the others about 140,000. 

Meanwhile, six other unions with mem- 
bers employed by the country’s big rail- 
roads are at various stages of negotiations 
with management. Representing a total of 
about 200,000 workers, the six are the 
Locomotive Engineers, Signalmen, Fire- 
men & Oilers, Yardmasters, United Trans- 
portation Union, and the American Train 
Dispatchers Association. 

KILROY SAID the new pact, reached 
after nearly three' months of negotiations, 
is fully retroactive to Apr. 1, when the 
previous agreement expired, and will run 
through June 30, 1984. The estimated 32.5 
percent pay raise assumes an inflation rate 
of 10 percent this year, 8 percent in 1982, 
and again in 1983, he said. 

The agreement calls for a 2-percent 
wage increase retroactive to Apr. 1. An- 
other retroactive 3 -percent wage increase 
dates back to Oct. 1. Next July, a 3-per- 
cent pay raise will be added, and another 
3-percent increase will become effective in 
July 1983. 

Cost-of-living adjustments include one 
of 32 cents, retroactive to July 1, to be 
added to the 58-cent-per-hour COL allow- 
ance in effect at that time. A second COL 
allowance of 35 cents an hour would be 
added Jan. 1, 1982. COL payments there- 
after would be made semi-annually. 

VACATIONS ARE improved to three 
weeks a year for workers with eight years 
of seniority and to four weeks for those 
with 17 years or more of service. 

Kilroy said that in addition to improve- 
ments in the industry’s health and welfare 
plan, the parties agreed to set up a joint 
labor-management committee to look into 
“other alternatives.” The objective, he ex- 
plained, would be to get better coverage 
and protection for employees at lower cost 
to them. 

Workers employed by Conrail, the fed- 
erally subsidized freight line in the North- 
east and Midwest, are covered by the new 
agreement but not those employed by 
Amtrak, the quasi-public passenger ser- 
vice. 


Savannah, Ga. — The 400 delegates to 
the Georgia AFL-CIO’s annual convention 
adopted an eight-point legislative program 
that will serve as a rallying point for 
Georgia Solidarity Day. 

Modeled after the Sept. 19 national 
Solidarity Day in the nation’s capital, the 
statewide observance is set for January 
1982, when the Georgia General Assembly 
convenes. State AFL-CIO President Her- 
bert H. Mabry said that labor would de- 
mand on that day that state legislators 
take a stand on the eight key issues debat- 
ed at the convention. 

THE STATE AFL-CIO seeks passage 
of legislation to give public employees 
the right to bargain collectively, increase 
consumer protection, improve workers’ 
and unemployment compensation benefits, 
ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, per- 
mit voter registration by mail and carry 
out tax reforms. 

Mabry noted that more than 3,000 
Georgians made the trip to Washington 
in September for the national Solidarity 
Day and called for even broader partici- 
pation in the state rally “so there will be 
no doubt in the minds of politicians about 
where Georgia’s workers stand on these 
issues.” 


Myrtle Beach, S.C. — Delegates to the 
25th convention of the South Carolina 
AFL-CIO elected Randall Kiser of Co- 
lumbia as the first full-time president of 
the state federation, scored the “destruc- 
tive direction of the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s social and economic policies,” and 
pledged to maintain the momentum of 
Solidarity Day by designating the 1982 
general election. Solidarity Day II. 

Kiser, 26, a member of the Bakery, 
Confectionery & Tobacco Workers Union, 
has been the state federation’s political 
director since 1978. The oath of office 
was administered by his father, George 
Kiser, an AFL-CIO Region V field repre- 
sentative since 1963. 

KISER SUCCEEDS James A. Johnson 
of Andrews, a vice president of the Cloth- 
ing & Textile Workers and manager of 
its South Carolina Coastal Joint Board. 
Johnson did not seek the full-time state 
federation position. He has held the part- 
time presidency for the last three years. 

In opening remarks to the 350 dele- 
gates, Johnson pointed to increased union 
impact on the state legislature, reinstitu- 
tion of the combined North and South 
Carolina Labor School and “development 
of a mature and effective COPE program 
in a fiercely right-wing atmosphere” as 
among “your proudest accomplishments 
during the last three years.” 

Sec.-Treas. Harold Reynolds reported 
that affiliations have grown substantially 
since the 1980 convention, with member- 


Breaking with a long-standing pK>licy of 
not inviting political figures to address 
the convention, Mabry asked Rep. Wyche 
Fowler (D) of Georgia’s 5th District to 
speak because he was the only member 
of the state’s congressional delegation to 
vote “right” in labor’s view on President 
Reagan’s budget reductions. Fowler at- 
tacked Reagan’s economic plan as unfair 
to workers. 

OTHER SPEAKERS at the three-day 
convention included Machinists President 
William W. Winpisinger; AFL-CIO Region 
V Director James Sala; Tim Ryles, admin- 
istrator of the Georgia Consumer Affairs 
Dept.; Sherry Schulman, president of ERA 
Georgia; Area COPE Director Clem Dow- 
ler, and Chester Dunham, president of the 
state A. Philip Randolph Institute. 

Delegates re-elected the federation’s top 
three executive officers — Mabry, Sec.- 
Treas. Martha True, and Executive Vice 
President H. F. Ellington — without oppo- 
sition. In addition, they elected 10 district 
vice presidents, four of them new, and 
honored Michael J. Counihan, executive 
vice president of the Georgia AFL-CIO 
for the past 19 years, who left office a few 
months before the convention for personal 
reasons. 


ship now standing at more than 33,000. 
He said the record-high membership was 
achieved largely through the new re- 
sources made available by the two-step 
per capita increase voted by the 1980 
convention. 

REYNOLDS, a member of the Com- 
munications Workers and president of 
CWA’s Florence local, did not seek re- 
election to the post that he has held since 
1978. Delegates chose R. H. Harmon, a 
member of the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers, to succeed him. 

ACTWU Sec.-Treas. Jacob Sheinkman 
delivered a stinging attack on Reagan- 
omics in his keynote address to the con- 
vention. He charged that although the 
Administration had promised that its 
budget-cutting and program-slashing would 
not force more suffering on the poor and 
the disadvantaged, what it actually de- 
livered were protections for the rich and 
powerful, with no effective safeguards for 
those at or near the bottom of the eco- 
nomic scale. 

Sheinkman called upon working people 
to “hunker down, persist in unity” to stem 
inflation, cut unemployment, lower inter- 
est rates, protect human rights and “over- 
come the catastrophe of Reaganomics.” 

AFTER HEARING a status report 
from PATCO negotiator Dennis Reardon, 
the delegates shouted approval of a reso- 
lution calling on the Administration and 
the Dept, of Transportation to rehire the 
12,000 experienced air traffic controllers 
fired in August, and to “end the union- 
busting vendetta against their union, 
PATCO.” 

The delegates also spelled out policy in 
a series of resolutions and heard from a 
number of other speakers. 

Among these were Steelworkers Dis- 
trict Director Bruce Thrasher; AFL-CIO 
Region V Director James Sala; Regional 
COPE Director Clement Dowler, Rep. 
Butler Derrick (D-S.C.); Jean B. Savoy, 
United Way Southern Region labor liaison 
representative; E. T. Kehrer, AFL-CIO 
Southern Area civil rights director, Nor- 
man Hill, president of the A. Philip Ran- 
dolph Institute and attorney James Bell. 

Container Deposit Bill 
Sets High Cost in Jobs 

The cost in lost jobs is too high a price 
to pay for the uncertain benefits of a man- 
datory deposit on beverage containers, the 
AFL-CIO testified at Senate hearings. 

Legislative Rep. Kenneth Peterson ac- 
knowledged “the good intentions” of spon- 
sors of mandatory deposit bills, but stressed 
that disposal of beverage cans and bottles 
is only part of the overall problem of solid 
waste disposal and increased recycling of 
discarded packaging. 

Congress has already directed a com- 
prehensive study of resource conservation 
issues, Peterson noted. Consideration of 
mandatory deposit legislation should await 
the study’s findings, he suggested. 


Price Climb 
At Wholesale 
Level Persists 

Wholesale prices rose six-tenths of 1 
percent in October, largely the result of 
the higher cost of 1982 model passenger 
cars, the Bureau of Labor Statistics re- 
ported. 

The increase in BLS’s producer price 
index for finished goods followed smaller 
rises of two-tenths of 1 percent in Sep- 
tember and three-tenths of 1 percent in 
August. 

Farther back in the supply pipeline, the 
prices for intermediate goods showed no 
change, and prices for raw materials fell 
1 .7 percent over the month, the third 
consecutive monthly decrease. 

DESPITE CHEAPER energy and food 
bills, the October wholesale price increase 
was the highest since a jump of eight- 
tenths of 1 percent last April. The gov- 
ernment’s producer price index was 7.3 
percent higher than 12 months earlier. 

Besides new cars, higher prices were - 
posted for newspapers, periodicals, books, 
tobacco products, costume jewelry, drugs 
and cutlery. In contrast, prices declined 
for cosmetics and sterling flatware. 

Prices for finished consumer food items 
edged down two-tenths of 1 percent, fol- 
lowing no change in September. Beef and 
veal prices declined after rising in the 
previous month. Prices also fell sharply for 
fresh and dried vegetables, peanut butter, 
and milled rice. On the other hand, prices 
advanced for fresh fruits, eggs, soft drinks, 
fish, roasted coffee, vegetable oil end prod- 
ucts, and refined sugar. 

THE COST OF home heating oil for 
dealers fell 1.4 percent, the fourth consec- 
utive monthly decline. Gasoline prices 
moved up four-tenths of 1 percent, how- 
ever, after falling in each of the previous 
five months. 

Capital equipment costs rose nine-tenths 
of 1 percent after showing no change in 
September. Most of the upturn was due 
to higher motor vehicles prices. Among 
other capital goods, machinery prices were 
higher last month in construction, printing, 
the bakery industry, and mining. 

Prices fell for aircraft, railroad equip- 
ment, office machinery, and industrial ma- 
terial handling equipment. 

Emmet Andrews 
Dies at 64; Led 
Postal Workers 

Walnut Creek, Calif. — Emmet Andrews, 
former president of the Postal Workers 
and a vice president of the AFL-CIO un- 
til his retirement last August, died here 
at the age of 65 after a stroke. 

In a letter to his wife, Elizabeth, AFL- 
CIO President Lane Kirkland and Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue quoted from 
the resolution adopted by the Executive 
Council when Andrews retired. It cited his 
steadfast “devotion to the cause of democ- 
racy and human rights” and a lifetime of 
“service to American workers.” 

ANDREWS BECAME a union member 
when he went to work as a postal clerk 
in San Francisco. He moved through the 
ranks to become president of his local, 
was elected a full-time regional vice presi- 
dent in 1962 and came to the union’s 
Washington headquarters in 1966 in the 
elected post of executive aide. He was the 
APWU’s director of industrial relations 
when he was chosen by the union’s execu- 
tive board in 1977 to fill the unexpired 
term of President Francis S. Filbey, who 
died in office. 

At the AFL-CIO convention later that 
year, Andrews was elected a vice president 
of the federation. He won election to a 
full two-year term as president of the 
APWU in 1978, but lost his bid for re- 
election in a four-way contest last year. . 

Contributions in his memory may be 
made to the union’s E. C. Hallbeck Foun- 
dation, the Andrews family advised. 


Georgia Convention Slates 
State Solidarity Day Rally 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Pmge Five 


Convention Caps Celebration 

Centennial Observance 
Highlights Labor’s Role 



SOLIDARITY POSTER widely distributed by the Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept, this year is displayed by FBTD Sec.-Treas. Rhonda Allgaier, right, and 
New York City Councilwoman Carol Bellamy, who addressed the department’s 
convention. The poster was designed by Peter Allstrom, research and communi- 
cations director of the department. 

Japan Labor Backed on Call 
For Soviet Return of Islands 


New York — The celebration of the mod- 
em labor movement’s 100th anniversary 
has given labor an opportunity to high- 
light its role in a democratic society, the 
Executive Council report points out. 

The AFL-CIO convention that opens 
Nov. 1 6 in New York will cap a year-long 
observance of the modern trade union 
movement’s first century of service to 
working people, the council report said, 
emphasizing that the centennial celebration 
has been linked to labor’s present-day 
activities and future goals while using the 
lessons of the past to illustrate the impor- 
tance of organized labor in protecting 
workers’ rights and interests. 

THE AFL-CIO is the direct descendant 
of the Federation of Organized Trades & 
Labor Unions, launched Nov. 15, 1881, 
in Pittsburgh by 107 delegates represent- 
ing unions and local labor assemblies. Its 
founding established the first continuing 
national trade union organization in Amer- 
ican history. 

The council report emphasizes that the 
centennial has been a vehicle for increas- 
ing public understanding of the role and 
functions of unions at a time when labor’s 
programs are under attack and its gains 
threatened. 

CENTENNIAL materials prepared for 
the observance include major films and 
books describing labor history, a centen- 
nial emblem and slogan, posters, press 
materials, brochures and pamphlets, fact 
sheets and television spot announcements. 

Special events include the publication of 
a new biography of the late AFL-CIO 
president, George Meany, as well as in- 
auguration of the AFL-CIO’s new Human 
Rights Award established in his memory. 
The award will go to Solidarity, the Polish 
labor movement. 

Federation President Lane Kirkland 
issued the call for a centennial observance 
in December 1980, the 25th anniversary 
of the merger of the AFL and CIO. 

A centennial subcommittee of the Ex- 
ecutive Council was established, the report 
notes, and members include AFL-CIO 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue and Vice 
President Frederick O’Neal, Charles Pil- 
lard, Sol C. Chaikin, Albert Shanker and 
Glenn E. Watts. 

GUIDELINES approved at the August 
1980 meeting of the council stressed that 


New York — A number of significant 
organizing achievements have been made 
by AFL-CIO affiliates since the federa- 
tion’s last convention, despite the stepped- 
up activities of management “consultants” 
seeking to thwart workers’ efforts to form 
unions and bargain collectively, the Execu- 
tive Council reported. 

“Perhaps even more important than the 
gains actually registered in the past few 
years is the fact that the AFL-CIO and 
its affiliates are increasing the amount of 
resources devoted to organizing, including 
programs aimed at improving organizing 
effectiveness,” the council observed. 

ORGANIZING statistics for private 
sector representation provided by the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board revealed sig- 
nificant improvement over the two years 
prior to the last convention. And statistics 
for the 1979 fiscal year and the first three 
quarters of the 1980 fiscal year show an 
even greater rate of gain, with AFL-CIO 
affiliates organizing 209,682 employees. 

“Assuming that this level of growth 
continues through the final quarter of 
fiscal year 1980, when ail of the figures 
are in,” the council said, “a total member- 
ship representation increase for the two- 
year period in excess of 230,000 will oc- 
cur.” 

One of the most successful organizing 
strategies developed in recent years has 
been the concept of cooperative organiz- 
ing, the council said. Such strategies over 


the year-long program would emphasize 
labor’s future challenges as well as its past 
accomplishments, explore new means to 
serve workers and increase public under- 
standing of labor’s role in strengthening 
American democatic society. 

Union members and their families were 
urged to plan and participate in anniver- 
sary events, the council report notes, add- 
ing that emphasis was placed on linking 
some activities to Labor Day. 

Centennial activities spotlighted by the 
council report include: 

• Design and distribution of a cen- 
tennial emblem that incorporates the 
clasped hands symbol used by the AFL- 
CIO since the founding of the first federa- 
tion in a modern format. 

• Creation of a slogan, “A Century of 
Achievement/ A Challenge for the Fu- 
ture,” for use on bumper stickers, pos- 
ters, banners, postal indicia and in printed 
materials. 

• Posters for use in schools and union 
halls based on Samuel Gompers’ 1 893 
“More” quote, and an original lithograph 
and poster designed by American artist 
Robert Rauschenberg. 

• A new, concise illustrated history of 
the American labor movement in both a 
36-page, color format and a condensed 
version reproduced in the American Fed- 
erationist. Additional centennial articles in 
the Federationist included histories of the 
Carpenters and the Boilermakers, also ob- 
serving centennials, as well as the history 
of the use of the union label and biogra- 
phies of the presidents of the AFL and 
the CIO. 

• “A Time of Challenge,” a 27-minute 
color film with a soundtrack featuring 
labor songs, which traces the growth of 
the American trade union movement, and 
a 12-minute color presentation, “Achieve- 
ment and Challenge,” for use in schools 
and union halls and available in film, 
videotape and filmstrip. 

• Six “Centennial Moment” television 
spots, each featuring a significant event in 
labor history, which have been distributed 
to television networks and stations. 

The council report points out that cen- 
tennial events at the convention will in- 
clude distribution of a new biography by 
Archie Robinson, published by Simon & 
Schuster, Inc., titled “George Meany and 
His Times.” 


the years have proved highly successful 
in the Los Angeles area; in Florida, Puer- 
to Rico, Cincinnati, Indiana, and Arkan- 
sas. 

RECENTLY, the New England AFL- 
CIO regional office established a New 
England Organizing Committee involving 
regional vice presidents and directors of 
organization from 22 international unions. 
The formation of this program signals a 
determination by union leaders in New 
England to reverse the downward organiz- 
ing trend in that region in the past few 
years, the report observed. 

The Houston cooperative organizing 
program will be the most ambitious pro- 
gram to date, the council said. A report 
of the council’s Committee on Organiza- 
tion & Field Services in February 1980 
noted that there were more than 700,000 
organizable employees in the metropolitan 
area. 

A well-developed media campaign will 
be an integral part of the Houston drive, 
along with involvement of community sup- 
port groups and the use of polling and 
computers, the council said. 

LABOR’S continued organizing gains 
are all the more remarkable considering 
the intensified activity of labor-manage- 
ment consultants who “skirt, and frequent- 
ly violate, the law in an unbridled effort” 
to prevent workers from unionizing, the 
council observed. 

“Available information indicates that la- 


Nosappu Point, Japan — The AFL-CIO 
reaffirmed its support for the return of the 
disputed “northern territories” to Japanese 
sovereignty and control at a rally here 
sponsored by the Japanese Confederation 
of Labor (Domei). 

“It is time for the Soviet Union to re- 
turn these islands to Japan,” Federation 
President Lane Kirkland said in a mes- 
sage delivered by AFL-CIO International 
Affairs Rep. James Ellenberger. 

“IT IS TIME for the USSR to negoti- 
ate a treaty with Japan formally estab- 
lishing peace between your two countries. 
It is time to end this shameful chapter 
in relations between countries,” Kirkland’s 
message stressed. 

Close to 1,000 trade unionists from all 


bor-management consultants are involved 
in two of every three elections. In larger 
units their involvement is even greater,” 
said the council. One study showed that 
in 65 percent of the cases, consultants re- 
main involved long after the election is 
won to thwart attempts to gain a contract. 

“Even where there has been a long 
established and mutually satisfactory col- 
lective bargaining relationship,” the coun- 
cil pointed out, “consultants are being 
employed to destroy that relationship and 
break the union.” 

A DISTURBING trend has been the 
labor-management consultants’ involve- 
ment with Japanese firms operating in the 
United States, the report noted. Such firms 
have turned increasingly to union-busting 
consultants to block efforts to their U.S. 
employees to organize, it said. 

The AFL-CIO has initiated a number of 
programs and special projects to expose 
and limit the effectiveness of management 
consultants, and state and local central 
bodies have been active on the local level 
in responding to the threats posed by them. 

On the legal front, the NLRB, at the 
urging of the Teachers, has proceeded 
against the biggest union-busting firm. 
Modern Management, Inc., by issuing a 
complaint against it for its role in an AFT 
organizing campaign. If the firm is found 
in violation, it should have a substantial 
impact on its tactics in future campaigns 
involving other employers, the council 
noted. 


parts of Japan attended the rally follow- 
ing a seminar on the territorial issue at 
Nemuro, the closest city to the northern 
islands. From Nosappu Point, all but one 
of the islands were visible to the crowd. 

The northern territories, comprising 
Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Ha- 
bomai, have always belonged to Japan. At 
the close of World War II, however, the 
Soviet Union occupied the islands and 
expelled more than 16,000 Japanese. 
Meanwhile, the USSR has refused to nego- 
tiate a treaty with Japan formally ending 
the war and since 1978 has built up its 
military forces on the islands. 

DOMEI, WHICH has been at the fore- 
front of efforts to get the Soviets to re- 
turn the northern territories, sets aside 
August and September each year to cam- 
paign intensively for a settlement of the 
issue. The AFL-CIO has consistently sup- 
ported its efforts. 

“These islands are part of Japan, and 
that fact cannot be changed by the illegal 
actions and occupation by the Soviet Un- 
ion,” Kirkland said. “This issue is not 
only one of national pride over the own- 
ership and control of land. It involves the 
fundamental question of human rights and 
human dignity.” 

KIRKLAND SAID that Soviet seizure 
of the northern territories in 1945 estab- 
lished “an imperialistic pattern of expan- 
sionism” which Moscow has manifested 
time and again in Eastern Europe and most 
recently in western Asia. He questioned 
Soviet intentions toward Japan and other 
Asian countries, noting the military build- 
up over the past four years on the Japa- 
nese islands. 

In addition, Soviet naval strength in the 
Far East today totals a million and a half 
tons, an increase of 270,000 tons in the 
past three years, he pointed out. 

NLRB Bars Boycott 
Of Cargoes to Russia 

The National Labor Relations Board 
has ruled against the Longshoremen’s 
1980 boycott of goods destined for or 
originating in the Soviet Union, rejecting 
an NLRB administrative law judge’s find- 
ing that the boycott was a political dispute 
outside the board’s jurisdiction. 

The boycott began on Jan. 9, 1980, two 
weeks after the USSR invaded Afghanis- 
tan. 


Stepped-Up Organizing Produces Gains 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


White House 
PoKcies Spur 
Anti-Unionism 

New York — The collective bargaining 
climate “is becoming polluted by growing 
anti-union smog” fed in part by the Reagan 
Administration’s position on the air con- 
trollers strike, the Executive Council 
warned in its report to the convention. 

Members of the Professional Air Traffic 
Controllers Organization, failing to achieve 
a satisfactory contract, struck last August 
for shorter hours, earlier retirement and 
better salaries. The Administration’s re- 
sponse was to fire the 1 1,500 striking con- 
trollers, and take steps to destroy the 
union, the council noted. 

MEANWHILE, it said employers — ^tak- 
ing their cue from the Administration — 
are seeking to undercut existing bargaining 
relationships and to roll back many hard- 
won contract terms and conditions. De- 
spite this strategy, the council said, unions 
are showing strength and resiliency in 
improving contract terms. 

American workers over the last 10 years 
have been forced to shoulder unfair bur- 
dens, the council declared. Average hourly 
earnings increased between May 1979 and 
May 1981 from $6.08 to $7.17 but due to 
inflation, the real value of those earnings 
represented a net loss of 7 percent. 

Union members have done better than 
the average worker in facing up to infla- 
tion. Wages and salaries of non-union 
workers increased 8.5 percent between 
1978 and 1979 while the union members’ 
wages rose 9 percent. The same compari- 
son for 1980 is 8 percent for the unrepre- 
sented worker and 10.9 percent for the 
worker under union contract. 

THE AVERAGE union wage increase 
taking effect in major agreements during 
1980 was 9.9 percent, up modestly from 
9.1 percent in 1979 and 8.2 percent in 
1978. However, these wage increases fell 
short of the increases in prices of 12.5 
percent in 1980, 13.4 percent in 1979, and 
9 percent in 1978. 

Federal employee pay continues to be 
used for political purposes, the council 
charged, and pay increases have been less 
than for comparable private sector jobs 
even though the 1970 Pay Comparability 
Act requires such comparability. Major 
state and local government settlements 
also have lagged behind in living costs. 

JOB SECURITY and income protection 
remain matters of major concern, the 
council said, but the methods of dealing 
with the prospect of layoff and plant relo- 
cation have differed widely. 

The report cited the Food & Commer- 
cial Workers’ agreement with A&P cover- 
ing 12,000 workers in 265 supermarkets 
which provides a lump-sum payment of 
$300 for each consecutive year of employ- 
ment for the long-term employee in the 
event the store is closed. 

20 Local Unions 
Shift Affiliation 
To Internationals 

New York — ^Twenty local unions di- 
rectly affiliated with the AFL-CIO chose 
during the past two years to become affil- 
iated with national or international unions, 
the Executive Council reported to the con- 
vention. 

The transfers, the council noted, were 
carried out in accordance with established 
policies and procedures, and reflected the 
desires of the members of the. locals for 
active participation in the affairs of na- 
tional or international unions with similar 
concerns. 

Since the last convention two years ago, 
three directly affiliated local unions with 
a membership of 106 were disbanded and 
one with membership of 96 merged. 

As of June 30, 1981, there were 78 
directly affiliated locals with a membership 
of 23,839. This compares with 102 locals 
with 27,057 members at the start of the 
two-year period. 


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Percent 


over 


WHO ARE THE UNEMPLOYED? 
July 1981 


Unemployment Rates 


over 


16-19 


Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. 




-t*.- A 


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Job Losses, Social Program Cuts 
Products of Reagan Budget Drive 


New York — Drastic job losses and 
deep cuts in the nation’s basic social and 
public investment programs will result 
from Administration cuts in the federal 
budget for the 1982 fiscal year, the Exec- 
utive Council warned in its report on the 
state of the economy. 

Direct job losses from the cuts will 
amount to well over one million, the coun- 
cil predicted. And additional jobs will be 
lost from the secondary or “ripple” effects 
of the program slashes. 

THE 1982 CUTS total $40 billion and 
are concentrated in social programs. The 
reductions are key parts of the Adminis- 
tration’s reallocation of income and 
wealth from low and middle-income fami- 
lies to the rich and to the big corporations, 
the council observed. 

“The federal spending reductions will 
devastate programs that build up the na- 
tion’s economic infrastructure through 
public investment,” the report warned. “In 
essence, workers, children, retirees, stu- 
dents, the unemployed, and the sick are 
the ones who are forced to sacrifice. 

“At a time when the after-tax incomes 
of the wealthy are being increased, there 
is no justification for the devastation of 
social security. Medicare, Medicaid, un- 
employment insurance, trade adjustment 
assistance. Comprehensive Employment & 
Training Administration programs, student 
loans, food stamps. Aid to Families with 
Dependent Children, and housing assis- 
tance.” 

THE 1982 BUDGET cuts are only the 
beginning. In fiscal 1983, there are pro- 
posals for additional, as yet unspecified, 
reductions of $30 billion, cuts of $44 bil- 
lion in 1984, additional cuts of $39 billion 
in 1985, and more cuts totaling $42 billion 
in 1986. 

The negative effects of the budget cuts 
are magnified by inflation, which at double- 
digit levels during the last two years robbed 
workers’ paychecks of almost 10 percent 
in real buying power, the council observed. 

Meanwhile, the economic expansion that 
brought the country back from the severe 
1974-75 recession came to a halt last year 
as real gross national product — the econ- 
omy’s total output of goods and services — 
dropped at an annual rate of 9.9 percent 
during the second quarter. This was the 
largest quarterly decline recorded since the 
end of World War II. Growth over the 
next few quarters offset the sharp decline, 
but the economy again turned down in the 
second quarter of 1981, as real GNP fell 
by 2.4 percent. 


Layoffs and the inadequate increase in 
job opportunities produced a sharp in- 
crease in the number of jobless workers. 
Unemployment soared from 5.6 to 7.6 per- 
cent between July 1979 and July 1980, 
and was still at 7 percent a year later. Since 
the period covered by the council report, 
the jobless rate has climbed to 8 percent. 

Since the 1974-75 recession, joblessness 
never has dropped below 5.6 percent, com- 
pared to unemployment rates of less than 
5 percent prior to that recession and less 
than 4 percent in the 1960s, the council 
noted. The figures are monthly averages. 
The total number of men and women un- 
employed during the course of a year is 
substantially higher, generally three or 
four times the number of jobless persons 
in any month. 

Thus, in 1980, there were 25 to 30 mil- 
lion workers who suffered periods of job- 
lessness, the council pointed out. Unem- 
ployment has worsened critically for blacks 
and other minorities, but jobless rates also 
rose sharply for white adult males. 

THE INCREASE in unemployment re- 
sulted from direct layoffs and a failure of 
jobs to increase in line with the growing 


New York — The AFL-CIO Internal Dis- 
putes Plan, adopted at the 1961 conven- 
tion, continues to serve as the primary 
mechanism for resolving disputes between 
affiliates, the Executive Council said in a 
report to the 14th biennial convention 
here. 

Since the plan went into effect, 1,219 — 
or 57 percent — of the 2,129 complaints 
filed with the AFL-CIO president’s office 
have been settled through discussions and 
mediation between the organizations in- 
volved, the council said. 

IN THE TWO-YEAR period through 
June 30, 1981, 90 cases were settled 
and 21 were still pending at the end of 
the period. 

In cases not resolved in mediation, 
which is the first step of the internal dis- 
putes machinery, three impartial umpires 
hear the parties and issue determinations. 
Since the program began, 904 umpires’ 
determinations have been issued. In the 
past two years, determinations by umpires 
resulted in violations being found in 53 
cases and not found in 25. Justification 


labor force. Between July 1979 and July 
1981, the total number of jobs increased 
by 1.9 million, the smallest rate of growth 
over any similar period in the past 25 
years except for the deep recession of 
1974-75. 

Inflation, the other scourge of workers 
in recent years, has made workers and 
their families, retired persons, and low- 
income groups particularly vulnerable, the 
council observed. Increases in the prices 
of the necessities of life have been espe- 
cially serious during the last two years. 

Consumer prices rose by 12.5 percent 
in 1980, slightly slower than the 13.4 per- 
cent rate of 1979, and by 10 percent in the 
12 months ending in July 1981. Energy 
prices rose 14 percent, reflecting the oil 
decontrol early in 1981. 

RISING PRICES have washed away the 
value of dollar gains in paychecks during 
the past two years so that workers and 
their families have suffered deep cuts in 
purchasing power and in their standard 
of living, the council said. After inflation 
and taxes, the buying power of the average 
wage and salary earner’s paycheck in July 
1981 was 9.7 percent below the July 1979 
level. 


reports were issued in three instances and 
three cases remained pending. 

Appeals from the decisions of umpires 
are considered by a rotating three-member 
subcommittee of the Executive Council. 
In the two-year period since the last con- 
vention, umpires’ determinations were sus- 
tained in 26 appeals, eight appeals were 
withdrawn, 10 were submitted to the full 
council where the determinations were 
affirmed, set aside or modified, and six 
were pending at the end of the period. 

THE COUNCIL reported that since the 
beginning of the plan through last June 30, 
15 affiliates were found to have failed to 
comply with decisions of impartial um- 
pires or directions of subcommittees in 26 
cases. Compliance was later achieved in 
most instances. 

At the time of the report, two unions 
remained in noncompliance and subject 
to sanctions required by the AFL-CIO 
constitution: the International Typograph- 
ical Union and the Graphic Arts Interna- 
tional Union. 


Mediation Proves Success * 
In Resolving Most Disputes 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Pmge S«Ten 


Legislative Roundup 

‘Right-to-Work’ Defeats 
Highlight State Sessions 


New York — ^Attempts to impose “right- 
to-work” laws prohibiting the union shop 
were made in 11 states during the past 
two years — and were unsuccessful in all. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council re- 
port to the convention noted also positive 
gains in three other states which adopted 
legislation authorizing union security 
agreements for public employees. New 
Jersey provided for a modified agency 
shop in public employee contracts; New 
York extended existing agency shop au- 
thorization, and a California law allowing 
agency shop agreements at the city, county 
and district level becomes effective Jan. 
1, 1982. 

THE CLOSEST the “right-to-work” 
forces came to a victory was in New Mex- 
ico, where Gov. Bruce King’s veto kept 
a union shop ban from becoming law. 

In Idaho, an R-T-W bill passed the 
House but was killed in the Senate. 

Otherwise, “right-to-work” bills were 
soundly beaten in votes of one or both 
houses of the legislatures of Illinois, 
Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Okla- 
homa, and Vermont. 

The anti-union bills were killed in com- 
mittee in Maryland and West Virginia, 
and an initiative petition in Colorado seek- 
ing a constitutional ban on union security 
for public employees failed to get the 
signatures needed to get on the ballot. 

AS IN PAST campaigns, the Executive 
Council notes, “state labor councils were 
able to muster support from all segments 
of the labor movement.” 

The past two years also saw a strong 
employer-pressed attack, on prevailing 
wage statutes — so-called “little Davis- 
Bacon Acts.” Here, the results were 
mixed. 

State prevailing wage laws were re- 
pealed in Alabama and Utah and killed 
by an unfavorable court decision in Ari- 
zona, the council report noted. A veto 
was necessary to prevent repeal in Colo- 
rado and New Mexico. 

ON THE PLUS side, efforts to weaken 
or repeal prevailing wage laws were de- 
feated in the legislatures of Arkansas, Cal- 
ifornia, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kan- 
sas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ne- 
vada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Penn- 
sylvania and Texas. 

In other areas, there were modest gains 
although generally short of what the labor 
movement had sought. 

Major improvements in unemployment 
benefits were reported in Illinois and 


Michigan, and in a number of states the 
ceilings on unemployment insurance and 
workers’ compensation moved up auto- 
matically as a result of higher average 
weekly wages in the states. 

THESE GAINS were more than offset, 
however, by the sharp curtailment of the 
extended unemployment insurance pro- 
gram and other regressive steps adopted 
by Congress at the urging of the Reagan 
Administration. 

A separate section of the council re- 
port dealing with unemployment compen- 
sation contrasts the backward actions 
taken with the ignored recommendations 
of the National Commission on Unem- 
ployment Compensation, which last year 
recommended federal minimum benefit 
standards and other improvements. 

Likewise, in the area of workers’ com- 
pensation, not a single state is yet in com- 
pliance with all of the recommendations 
made by a national commission nearly 10 
years ago. 

THE COUNCIL noted that the 1972 
report recommended that the states be 
given until mid-1975 to comply with the 
essential recommendations, and that Con- 
gress should then act to impose federal 
standards that would assure compliance. 

“Rather than requiring states to correct 
deficiencies in their laws,” the council re- 
ported, “both the Reagan Administration 
and some members of Congress are pro- 
posing changes in the Longshoremen’s & 
Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and 
the Federal Employees’ Compensation 
Act . . . that would slash benefits and 
reduce coverage.” 

On the positive side, the council noted 
that California has established a special 
state fund to assist victims of asbestosis 
and has required employers to post warn- 
ings to workers of any exposure to toxic 
substances. 

NEW JERSEY adopted legislation al- 
lowing payroll deductions for public em- 
ployees for voluntary contributions to un- 
ion welfare, political action, charity, legal 
defense and educational funds. The coun- 
cil report also cited a constitutional 
amendment in Minnesota placing cam- 
paign spending limits on candidates in 
state elections who accept public funds. 

The council reported active union sup- 
port for efforts, still unsuccessful, to get 
the Equal Rights Amendment ratified in 
additional states. It also noted success in 
turning back attempts in seven states to 
rescind previous ratifications. 


Anti-Union Climate Spurs 
Attack oh Wage Standards 


New York — Long-established labor stan- 
dards that provide workers basic protec- 
tions on wages and hours have come un- 
der increasing attack by conservatives and 
business groups since the 1980 elections, 
the Executive Council noted in its report 
to the convention. 

The Davis-Bacon Act, which requires 
that construction workers be paid the pre- 
vailing local wage on government-funded 
projects, is the target of legislation in Con- 
gress ranging from outright repeal to ex- 
tensive cutbacks in coverage. 

THE COUNCIL noted that protections 
are also being eroded by actions of the 
Reagan Administration affecting the cov- 
erage of both the Davis-Bacon and Ser- 
vice Contract Acts. 

The council’s report also cited attempts 
by conservatives to enact a reduced mini- 
mum wage for teenagers through amend- 
ments to the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

This campaign for a subminimum wage 
is based on the false premise that the high 
rate of unemployment among minority 
youth is justification for paying lower 
wages, the council noted. 


Warning that a subminimum wage 
would destroy the law, the council charged 
that “the true goal of advocates of a sub- 
minimum wage is lower wages and high 
profits, not a reduction in unemployment.” 

IT ALSO pointed out that the existing 
minimum wage has not kept pace with the 
rate of inflation, with the current $3.35 
an hour minimum yielding far less in pur- 
chasing power than the $1.40 an hour pro- 
vided in 1967. 

Another prime concern of the council 
is Labor Sec. Raymond J. Donovan’s 
move to rescind a 40-year-old federal re- 
striction on industrial homework, which 
would roll back worker protections on 
wages, hours and child labor. Last month, 
Donovan lifted the ban on homework in 
the knitted outerwear industry. 

The convention report also warned that 
one of the oldest labor standards — the 
eight-hour day — is being threatened by 
legislation now before Congress that would 
allow a 10-hour day, four-day workweek 
without the payment of overtime under 
the Walsh-Healey and Contract Work 
Hours & Safety Standards Acts. 



ON 
STRIKE 

local 370 

■ il.t I 0. ^ 


CEMENT, LIME & GYPSUM workers involved in a bitter dispute with the 
union-busting Moore-McCormack Co., picket the firm’s Kosmosdale, Ky., plant. 
Among other demands, the company wants to wipe out job security, cut holi- 
days, and impose overtime. Workers have been on strike since May. 


Labor’s Community Services 
Confront Test of Recession 


New York — A challenge to the quality 
of community life must be met by the 
expanded involvement of organized labor 
in community services, the Executive 
Council stressed in its report to the con- 
vention. 

The council pointed out that the Rea- 
gan Administration’s budget cuts “will 
have a negative impact on local voluntary 
agencies” and that there is “little hope” 
they can make up losses in federal funds 
from private contributions. 

THE AFL-CIO can play an important 
role in aiding those agencies, it noted. 

There are now 262 full-time AFL-CIO 
community services representatives who 
conduct union counseling training pro- 
grams, organize fund-raising drives and 
operate referral services. The total in- 
cludes 72 who have been designated to 
work with the federation’s Dept, of Com- 
munity Services since the 1979 convention, 
the report noted. 

As the economy turns down, the coun- 
cil observed, more community services 
labor representatives will be needed to 
provide services to workers facing a va- 
riety of needs and hardships. 

ONE OF THE major concerns, the 
council report emphasized, is preparations 
to ease the harsh impact of plant closings 
on workers and their communities, a grow- 
ing problem as more companies close or 
relocate both in the United States and 
overseas. 

The report also calls for greater devel- 
opment of employee assistance programs 
as part of collective bargaining agree- 
ments. These benefits, which began as al- 
coholism counseling programs, have grown 
in recent years to include help for work- 
ers with many other family and personal 
problems, the council noted. 

The council reported that 30 local cen- 
^tral bodies and two AFL-CIO state fed- 
erations provide community services pro- 
grams to union members through United 
Labor Agencies. 

THE COUNCIL stressed the strong re- 
lationship between the United Way of 
America, the American Red Cross and 
other voluntary charitable agencies. 

The report pointed out that American 
workers through payroll checkoffs provide 
$841,999,246 of the United Way funds, 
62.4 percent of the total and double the 
amount of corporate giving. 

Since 1979, the council noted, a memo- 
randum of understanding has existed be- 
tween the AFL-CIO and United Way 
which pledges labor’s cooperation with 
the agency’s programs and encouragement 
of giving and participation among union 
members. 

THE COUNCIL noted, however, that 
some United Way agencies have attempt- 
ed to prevent their employees from orga- 


nizing unions or have ignored other provi- 
sions of the memorandum. It urged local 
unions to report violations of the agree- 
ment to the federation’s Dept, of Commu- 
nity Services. 

The AFL-CIO and the American Red 
Cross have enjoyed close relations since 
1923 when Samuel Gompers joined the 
agency’s governing board, the council re- 
port said. 

Labor’s cooperative programs with the 
ARC, which is also celebrating its cen- 
tennial in 1981, include bloodbanking, 
safety programs, disaster relief, first aid 
training, help for the unemployed and 
other volunteer services. 

THREE UNIONS, the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the 
Clothing & Textile Workers and the 
American Federation of Teachers, have 
signed agreements with the agency to step 
up participation in the blood bank pro- 
gram. Similar agreements have been signed 
by state federations in Ohio, Michigan, 
Illinois, Florida, Arkansas and Maryland, 
the council reported, and the Machinists 
and ACTWU each set aside a month in 
1981 as blood donor recognition month 
for their members. 

A new agreement will expand the use 
of union halls by the Red Cross for dis- 
aster relief services, with the IBEW, 
Communications Workers, Plumbers and 
Carpenters already participating in the 
program. 

Fair, Humane 
Policy Backed 
On Immigration 

New York — The nation’s immigration 
policy should be fair and humane yet pro- 
tect the “well-being of American work- 
ers,” the AFL-CIO Executive Council 
said in its report to the convention. 

The council report praised the findings 
of the Select Commission on Immigra- 
tion & Refugee Policy, appointed under 
the Carter Administration. Many of the 
commission’s recommendations parallel 
AFL-CIO positions, the council observed. 
It said the Reagan Administration’s pro- 
posals, released in July, provide “a frame- 
work for action” but include several seg- 
nificantly negative features.” 

The commission’s report made public 
in March offered “a positive step toward 
establishing a fair and comprehensive ap- 
proach to immigration reform,” the coun- 
cil said. 

The commission, headed by Rev. Theo- 
dore M. Hesburgh, president of Notre 
Dame University, included among its 16 
members Vice President J. F. Otero of 
the Railway & Airline Clerks. 


Page Eight 


AFX-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Our Second Century 


‘Steady as She Goes!’ 


W E BEGIN our second century at a time of severe economic 
dislocation, facing an Administration whose social philosophy 
shows no advance from the thinking of business leaders of a hun- 
dred years ago. 

They believe that the job of government is to help the rich to 
accumulate more capital at the expense of all who are not rich. 

They object, in the name of freedom, to any efforts by govern- 
ment that tend to reduce inequality among the American people 
and to prevent the exploitation of the weak by the strong. 

THEY OBJECT to the use of public resources to heal the sick, 
to feed the hungry, and to house the homeless. 

They object to federal programs that help educate children, 
train the unskilled, create useful jobs for the unemployed and 
stave off destitution among the aged and the disabled. 

They object to federal health and safety regulations that pro- 
tect workers. 

All of these programs, labor fought for. 

This year, as we cross the threshold into our second century, 
the labor movement stands as the strongest, most unified force 
defending the rights of the American people — and we have a fight 
on our hands. 

There’s nothing new in that. There has never been a time when 
our gains were safe or secure. 

WE HAVE FOUGHT against entrenched and determined op- 
position for a hundred years, many times against greater odds than 
we face today, and we are certainly not about to abandon the 
struggle now. 

On Sept. 19 — Solidarity Day — ^American workers gave their 
response to President Reagan’s claim that he, and not the labor 
movement, speaks for American workers. 

Hundreds of thousands of trade unionists and their allies 
marched in the largest protest demonstration ever held in the na- 
tion’s capital to show that they have lost none of their desire to 
speak for themselves through the democratic institutions they 
created for that purpose a hundred years ago. 


NO ONE demonstration, however massive and spirited, can 
reverse the course of this Administration. But Solidarity Day 
1981 was only the beginning. 

In the months ahead, the trade union- movement and its friends 
will be working together for a successful Solidarity Day 1982 — 
which falls on Nov. 2. 

On that day. Election Day, in every state and congressional 
district, we intend to do everything in our power to elect a Con- 
gress that will reverse Mr. Reagan’s program and restore govern- 
ment to its constitutional purpose of promoting the general wel- 
fare and providing for the common defense. 

We have exactly 51 weeks. I have every confidence that the 
affiliates will do their part — and more. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to the Metal Trades 
Dept, convention, Nov. 9, 1981. 





s John H. Lyons 
i Frederick O’Neal 
s A1 H. Chesser 
1 Albert Shanker 
s Edward T. Hanley 
= William H.McClennan 
5 David J. Fitzmaurice 
1 Wm.W.Winpisinger 
1 John J. O’Donnell 
= Robert F. Goss 
1 Joyce D. Miller 

= * Deceased. 




Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 
Peter Bommarito 
Jerry Wurf 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner 


Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Murray H. Finl6y 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
Lloyd McBride 
Kenneth T. Blaylock Alvin E. Heaps 
William H. Wynn Fred J. Kroll * 

John DeConcini Wayne E. Glenn 

Dan V. Maroney William Konyha 

John J. Sweeney Douglas A. Fraser 


Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

5 Managing Editor: John M. Barry 1 

S Assistant Editors: = 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec i 

1 David L. Perlman James M. Shevis = 

1 AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 1 

= Washington, D.C. 20006 S 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

i VoL XXVI Saturday, November 14, 1981 No. 46 E 

S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
= for the last week of_ the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
S ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
se Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. = 

aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiml^ 




Multi-Flavored Menu 

Political Party Smorgasbord 
Offers All Things to All Voters 


By Gus Tyler 

P OLITICIANS are Crooks. That is not my 
opinion, necessarily. It is the name of a politi- 
cal party that ran its candidates in the recent elec- 
tions. The initials for the outfit are, of course, 
PAC — an acronym that usually stands for Politi- 
cal Action Committee. 

“Politicians Are Crooks” is not the only party 
with an exotic name to run candidates this year. 
There are, literally, dozens of such organizations, 
offering up to Americans an extensive smorgas- 
bord for all those who are fed up with the usual 
two-party diet. 

CONSIDER, for example, the names of the 
parties that appeared on the ballot in the New 
York, New Jersey, Connecticut area this last Elec- 
tion Day. 

There are the “down-with-them” folk who pro- 
claim their dissatisfaction with institutions. “Poli- 
ticians Are Crooks” falls into this category. Then 
there are the DWL — ^Down with Lawyers — and 
the even more irreverent CC — “Contempt of 
Court” — with its open assault on the judiciary. 

Several parties take sharp aim at specifically 
oppressive circumstances. Over in Bergen Coun- 
ty, N.J., there is the BHR — the Bergen Home 
Rule Party — that seeks liberation from the tyran- 
ny imposed by the State of New Jersey. The UT 
comes right to the point by translating its initials 
into the Upset Taxpayers Party. Even more spe- 
cific in its anger is the STI — the Stop Transit In- 
creases Party. 

NOT ALL WRATH is as focused as in the 
examples just cited. There is TSM, for instance, 
that expresses a sort of diffuse malaise in the 
name of The Suffering Majority Party. That nega- 
tive mood has its positive counterpart in the 
EQA, an obvious play on the ERA (Equal Rights 
Amendment) by calling itself the Equality for All 
Party. 

Then there are the righteous parties, wearing 
their bleeding hearts on their sleeves, reminding 
us of good old-fashioned American virtues. There 
is LEE, for instance, standing for Leadership By 
Example — a noble posture. There is IHA, Inde- 
pendent-Honest-Available — a rara avis in the 
world of realpolitik. 

LO speaks forthrightly for the Law and Order 
Party — the basis of any solid civilization. In line 


with the ancient American belief in things forever 
going forward and upward and betterward, there 
is CFP — Citizens for Progress. A pragmatic modi- 
fication of that theme is repeated by FNC, the 
For Needed Change Party. 

ONE PARTY goes by one initial, F, standing 
for the Federalist Party, which we thought had 
gone out of business around 1812. Then there is 
a party that is a non-party called NP — the Non- 
Partisan Party. 

We have omitted more obvious names that ap- 
peared on the ballot, like Conservative, Liberal, 
Right to Life, Libertarian, Free Libertarian, So- 
cialist Workers, Socialist Labor — and several 
lesser-known like Coalition, Independent Taxpay- 
ers, Taxpayers, Middle Class Candidate parties. 

All in all, this is quite a multi-flavored menu, 
enough to suit the taste of even the most fussy. 
But if it doesn’t please you, then you may — in this 
multiparty tradition — simply organize yourself 
into an FU — Forever Unsatisfied. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Wage Standards Tied 
To Broader Issues 

The basic purpose of remedial labor stand- 
ards is to protect workers’ wages, job security, 
benefits, and working conditions in the com- 
petitive process for government contracts* 

Without these remedial labor standards, the 
competition for government contracts places 
workers on the horns of a dilemma — reduced 
wages or loss of jobs. They don’t have even 
that option if the work moves to a new locality 
or a new employer. 

The issue is much broader than simply wage- 
busting. It involves job security and the waste 
of our basic national resource — the skill and 
training of our citizens. It involves community 
disruption by the movement of contract per- 
formance to low-wage areas. It encourages 
management to compete for government con- 
tracts through wage-busting and job-poaching 
rather than sound management techniques and 
innovation. 

— From testimony of AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue at House hearings. 

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7 



“All the News 
That’s Fit to Print" 


el^e iNIettr JJork ©Imes 


THE WEATHER 

MetropoKtan area: Variable cloudi- 
neaa, breezy and cool today and to- 
night. Temperature range: today 5S- 
71; yesterday 58-66. Details, page 45. 


VOL.CXXXI ....No. 45,077 


Copyrifht 0 1961 The New York Timee 


—NEW YORK SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1981— 


f 1 beyood 60-mile tone from New York City 
Higher in eir delivery citiee 


ONE DOLLAR 



240,000 IN CAPITAL 
RALLY FOR PROTEST 
OF REAGAN POLICIES 


MARCH ON SOLIDARITY DAY 


Labor and Civil Rights Leaders 
Deplore Proposals to Cut 
Major Social Programs 


By SETHS. KING 

Special to The New York Times 

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — Members 
of organized labor and civil rights 
groups, angry over President Reagan’s 
deep cuts in the social programs and 
changes in job safety rules that unions 
have promoted so fervently, streamed 
into Washington today by the tens of 
thousands of people to register their re- 
sentment in person. 

The marshalling of the participants 
by the American Federation of Labor 
and Congress of Industrial Organiza- 
tions for the Solidarity Day rally 


Labor leaders * remarks, page 34, 


marked the first effort by that organiza- 
tion fo regroup its scattered forces and 
halt the decline of labor’s political influ- 
ence in the capital. 


* VOL.CXXXI.... No. 45,078 —NEW YORK, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1981— 


25 CENTS 


“It cannot be doubted that the 
"groups that sponsored the rally 
achieved a stunning success.” 

— BiM Serrin, N.Y. Times 


WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — The 
A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the 200 organizations 
that yesterday turned out a stunningly 
large crowd for Solidarity Day now face 
an even more difficult problem: organ- 
izing a movement, keeping 
it together, and bringing 

Analysis P^ss^ on the Reagan Ad- 
mmistration and Congress. 

Little indication exists 
that leaders of the groups involved in 
the Solidarity Day protest had given ex- 


tensive thought to what lies ahead. The 
question that Lane Kirkland, the 
merged labor movement’s president 
and chief oiganizer of the demonstra- 
tion, was musing is, “What do we do for 
an encore?” 

The giant crowd stretched from the 
Washingt(Hi Monument to a speakers’ 
stand at the West Front of the Capitol 
was estimated by the National Park 
Service at 260,000 people and may have 
been larger. None of the speakers who 


Sunday SunTimes 

Ww Chicago, September 20, 1981 


300,000 march on D.C. 

‘Reagan says cut back; 
we say fight back!’ 


By James Warren 

5^- Times Correspondent 

WASHINGTON— With suppressed anger. 300,000 Ameri- 
cans streamed into the capital Saturday to warn President 
Reagan and Congress they are being bled by budget cuU. 

iteagan relaxed at Camp David. Md., as a vivid croM-aection 
of citizens maintained that he does not represent them, 
marching peacefully to an area spanning a mile between the 
Capitol and the Washington Monument. 

“Reagan says cut back— we say fight back," the marchers 
shouted. Their words tod songs were not new, but the 
marchers reflected an unmistakable dignity in an ancient rite, 
a protest against the established order, pitting the concerned 
against the comfortable. 

Lane Kirkland, the steadfastly intellectual president of the 
AFL-CIO, underlined the theme of a rally that he conceived in 









Reasan Policies 


AEL-CIO and.200 Other Groups 
Launch Counterattack in Capital 


By HARRY BER:NSTEIN and WILLIAM J. EATON, Tirnei, Stafj Writers 


WASHINGTON-a massive 
counteratuck against the economic, 
and social policies of the Reagan 
Administration was launched here 
Saturday at one of the largest politi- 
cal demonstrations ever held in this 
country. 

Leaders of the 

sponsor of the <^^darij^^ 
march, and the nearly''2D0oth^ Dr- 
ganizations • that participated pro- 


AFL-CIO Secretary -Treasurer 
Thomas Donahue told the crowd 
there were 400,000 of them, but 
park police put the figiire at 260.000. 
The largest previous* protest was 
the April, 1971, anti-war demon- 
stration here that attracted 320,000. 
The Saturday demonstration- was 
the largest protest'‘*march'‘ever 
staged ^ this country by organized 
labor. 






Weather 

Today— Partly cloudy, breezy and cool, 
high 70-75, low tonight 45-55. The 
chance of rain is near 0 percent. Mon- 
day — Sunny and pleasant, high 70-75. 
Yesterday — - 3 p.m. AQI: 25; temper- 
ature range: 69-54. Details on Page B2. 


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104th Year 


No. 289 


vfO 1981, The Washington Post Company 


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$ 1.00 


250,000 March to 


Protest Reagan’s Policies 


Crowd Proclaims 
Labor^s Solidarity 


By Eric Pianin and Warren Brown 

Washington Post Stan Writers 

A massive wave of more than 250,000 persons 
gathered' around the Washington Monument and 
marched to the Capitol yesterday to protest Pres- 
ident Reagan’s bud^t cuts and tax policies and to 
reaffirm the solidarity of the nation’s labor move- 
ment behind its leaders. 

Yesterday’s Solidarity Day demonstration, or- 
ganized by the AFL-CIO and civil rights groups 
and partly inspired by the successM workers’ 
movmnent in Poland, was unprecedented in mod- 
em labor history and perhaps the largest political 
protest in Washington during the past 20 years. 
City (^cials reported only two arrests, both for 
minor incidents of disorderly conduct in another 
'incklent,a CBS rep<^r was injmed wheii he was 
ejected ftom a restricted area. 

The crowd was a broad slice of America — a 
38-year-old tool maker from Cincinnati who com- 
plained that only the rich were getting a break; a 
fourth-grade school teacher from Mahopac, N.Y., 
wearing a long flowing black cape bedecked with 
protest buttons, angry over cutl^ks in the school 
lundi program. 

Tlieie were ironworkers fr<nn New Jersey, sip- 
ping beer while they lamented the shortage of 


THE CHRISTIANSCaiCE MONTIDR THE CINCINNATI ENQCIRER 


‘‘As Solidarity Day ended, it proved at least one thing about the unions: 
they stUI know how to organize. From start to finish the march was 
orchestrated with near perfection. Buses and the subway system, which was 
chartered by the AFL-CIO, moved the thousands with few m^jor hitches. 
Even as the rally was concluding on the west side of the Capitol, clean-up 
crews at the starting point of the march were gathering rubbish around the 
Washington Monument.” — Julia Malone, Christian Science Monitor 

Marchers fly union banner; 
say Reagan favors the rich 


Will rally restore 
labor’s influence? 

By Richard L. Stront 
Suit correspo.Klent ot 
The Christian Science Mcnitor 

Waxhuictim 

There could be no doubt attor in't’inft 
perhaps a quartef'inlllion anti-Kcaitan 
protesters aKst'mbled over. the w wkend 
un the grassy Wasliington Mull by Lune 
Kirkland, president of the AKL-CIO, 
that the eignt-month-old Keogan ad* 
ministration ><31 domestic trouble on Its 
hands. 

President Keagan promises more of 
the same in his fight against inflation, 
and charges that labor leaders don't re- 
present Uie rank and liie. 

Mr, Kirkland and feilo*.v' leaders of 
the speiuacuiar outdoor solidarUy rally 
here Sept. 19 retort that the {'resident 
bas no mandate for cutting sociaroro- 
grams to make way for tax cut^ and in- 
creases in defense. 

On both sides it is an unusual kmd of 
eoriror.tation. Ti:r physical succcr.s of 


Nearly eve rybooy seemec f o fcri me 
sreat meeting was somehow histo'ic. 
hilt It was unecrfaln f -r wl-al. Suv.o- 
men's from polltIc.Tl leaders lii'IOACd; 
Mr. Keagan from Camp David - n'acn- 
»ory; Vlce-Pre-ildenl Oeorcc Bush In 
Denver qucstiunlng 0 C;*!n >aU'>r '(-.Td 
ers' aulhority; Ucniocrau c'l.ifit.ng 
that the administration is out of timrS. 

Trade unions now hate m>‘i:i!A..-..i ip 
of around 15 million. Menue’iMiip 
hasn t kept pace with populailnn and to- 
day four out of five I'S wor'xers are out- 
side unions. Inflalion has been srr-ink- 
Ing purchosing power, rhorc a yhift 
from bl-j- -collar to whilc-coii.-r n-»n. 
and the trovtih at miiltin.'Uionai coii- 
glome.-a'vi niakcs it pasv'iilc t-i rinfi 
jobs flbi lad. When the jiito -*-.»rkrrs 
helped haii pu» '.'hrv'.lcr. ihe union Mve 
up an est i>ial<-d hillU-'i iloii.-irs -lerth of 
promised -,vnge*< ami lietwiits. 


UnlOTiS have ar.other problem - cor- 
ruption. Some charge this U growing. 
US orgae-zc'd i.ibiV Is olov amont: 
Wcstc.n dc-iiUH i/tek's in iu> mifti>it-o- 
logical chur.ictcr and me npholdcr of 
e.Ttabi:ste<l t-alues eiiiiin the capiia!i:.t 
';.«em .M.ist p;iK U-.Mlem from .Siiniuoj 
Honiper;* down, o-.hewed radical wv 
ela! teforrn tui.l iiicnlification with par- 
ticular panics. I'hismay bechanttitig. 

The unions nolillcal in.'lijc.-nee 
seem*a at the Itiwest ebh since its high 
•water mark alter Worl-J War U. U-ad- 
?rs h-ive .seen a con-cr.athc r.i!i..inm- 
tr.-.tior lake on.r’ tin While Hoiw,*: 
there i.s n>j ir.r.idcr ihi-rc wiUi -whoin 
they tan talk I|ii:«g> c-.er and uriciio- 
rafe Ot.se,k/v* t.u .iti- r,-l.iln>ni, wiiii la- 
b.irSi-cri-t«:.. It.i.-inor-rt.l. rKiii v.in arc 
frlij.d. and tii- . -l.tiiri.-t; «!'.n s pro- 
gram uf bu ilt'. I I’Jt.-. -.te .leii ii' -n- .<-s 
for .vnieh union;, l-a-.i- h<i,i.'iil lur ; i .irs 


By Jnlia Malone 
Staff correspondent ot 
The Christian Science Monitor 

Wasbiagtoa 

It was huge. The sea uf people, banners, ami bal- 
looas flowec from the W.-ishInglon ,Monumoiil .ilni'rti to 
the door of the Capitol. With .m estimated -'Pi.iioo 
protesters, it was Uie largest demonstration i>ui-e the 
V ietnam War era. it may be the biggest crowd - and 
maybe the most diverse - ever to n:»rch on 
Washington. 

Civil rights marches had brought thousands of 
black people and tticir supporters. War prot-.->i , had 
brought young people. But Soltdaniy l>ay vix in 
brought Macks from .South Carolina, white union nn-n 
in hard hatk from Arkonras. middle-aged women «n 
pantsuita. and young cmipk-s with children :t broiiciu 
New Jersey trachers, .niembers of tlie .Aciois liuilt;. 
and environmentalists from the Clear. Air Coahtnn 
They came peacefully luid almost festl-.eiy to tell 
the President and Congress that they don't iike the di- 
rection the th--'lr ecenwnic poiJcy has taren 

A little girl weanng an .Air.cncan K<?di.-ralion o( 
Teachc.-s hat. earned an ••fc.'KA" iiiqu;il Kmhis 
Amendment) si-.yi. one of :nou.-;andii of EHA signs niov- 


RNAL EOmON/NEWSSTAND PRICEYSC 


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1981 


A GANNETT NEWSPAPER 


Angry Unionists 
Gather At Rally 


BY DON CAMPBELL 

Gannett News Service 

WASHINGTON-More than a 
quarter of a million people, wear- 
ing the colors of organized labor 
and chanting the slogans of the 
dvil rights era, massed on the 
Washington Mall Saturday to 


afternoon of speeches when he 
said, “We have come too far, 
struggled too long, sacrificed too 
much, and have too much left to 
do, to allow all that we have 
achieved for the good of all to be 
swept away without a fight And 
we have not forgotten how to 
fight” 




FINAL EDITION Price 50c i:;;.'*.':; 


Labor’s Masses Rake Reagan 


WASlilNCTON lAP) — Orga- 
nized labor massed more than a 
quaner ol a million people within 
sight o( the While House on Satur- 
day to proclaim their disgust with 
federal budget cuts and characrr* 
Ize the Reagan administration as 
“cold-hearted" and “callout." 

The AhX-CIO borrowed from 
the Polish union movement and 
called Its rank-and-file protest 
'-Solidarity Day." 

President Reagan, spending the 
weekend 6.' miles away at Camp 
David. Md.. received telephone re- 
ports on the demonstration. 


"The president recognizes and 
apprecialea the frustration that 
comet because there are no Instant 
miracles and he also appreciates 
that the medicine Is hardly sweet." 
said Whiu House spokesman David 
Cergen. adding that Reagan be- 
lieves that "the true enemy of 
working men and women It a tick 
economy." 

Addressing the huge throng, la- 
bor federation president Lane Kirk- 
land referred to Reagan's conten- 
tion that labor leaders are out of 
touch with the rank and file nnd 
said. "We are out of step with none 


but the cold-hearted, the callous, 
the avaricious and the Indifferent." 

U.S. Park police estimated the 
crowd at about 260,000. At the 
demonstrators began to disperse. 
AFL-CIO officials quoted Sam Jor- 
dan. deputy director of the d'.y’t 
Office of Emergency Preparedness, 
at having estimated It at 400.000. 

The AFL-CIO abandoned Us 
tradltionsl disdain of mass protest 
In hopes of impressing President 
Reagan and his congressional allies 
with the depth of opposition to his 
domestic policies. 

Though Reagan had defeated 


labor and its allies in every budget 
battle in Congress. Kirkland said. 
"The winter's chill is approaching 
and-the bloom It lading from fall's 
mandiiet." 

Labor leaders interpreted the 
size of the crowd — it rivaled the 
numbers who came to thr city In 
the IVbOs — as sign of growing 
disenchantment with the Reagan 
administration. 

The rally' began under sunny 
skies that later became overcast. 
People ate picnic lunches and lined 
up to buy ice cream and soft drinks. 
The expressions of anger and pro- 


test were limned to signs and 
speeches and balloons 

Shortly qflrr noon, marchers 
moved up the mall from the Wash- 
ington Monument grounds. At the 
Capitol, more than 14 speakers ad- 
dressed the crowd In a program 
lasting more than two hours 
Toward the end. the crowd slowly 
began lo drift away. 

It was a protest without poilii- 
cians. The march and rally had the 
support of Ihe Oemocraiic National 
CommiUec. but pols were invited 
to listen to the speeches, not make 


Democraltr Party chairman 
Charles T. Manall wni a iHrgf.im 
saying Ihe turniMi drinonstraii-d 
"strong disapproval of the Reagan 
adminisiralion'a anli-labor. anll- 
family. anll-eMerly, and anli-niid- 
dle class policies." 

Other poliiical voices heard 
were former Vice Pri-sTdeni Walter 
F. Mondale aod Sen. Edward M 
Kennedy, expected lo be nval.\ lor 
the IVX4 Democratic presidential 
nomination 

In's stali-mrnl iMUcd from hn. 

.See UNIONISTS-Page Alt 


ALLENTOWN. PA.. 
SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER 20. 1981 


CALL-CHRONICLE 


•Call-Chronicle Newspapers. Inc. 

All rights reserved C 1981 (USPS 526-800) 60 CENTS 


Union thousands protest Reagan policies 


people within tight of the White House 
yesterday to proclaim their disgust with 
federal budget cuU and characterize the 
Reagan administration as "coid-bearted " 
and "callooi." 

. The AFL-CIO borrowed from the PolBh 
union movement and called Its rank-and-file 
protest "Solldaiity Day." 

President Reaaan. torn 

65 miles away at Camp Da> 

telepbooe reports on the demonstration. 

“The President recognizes and ap- 
preciates tfie frustration that comes because 
there are no Instant miracles and he also 
appreciates that the medicine is hardly 
sweet." said White House spokesman David 
Cergen. adding that Reagan believes that 
"the true enemy of working men and women 
Is a lick economy " 

Addressing Um 
atioo president Li 


Reagan's contention that labor leaders are 
out of touch with the rank and file and said, 
"We are out of step with none but the cold- 
hearted. the calloas. the avaricious aod the 


US. Park police estimated the crowd at 
about 260.000 As the demonstrators began to 
disperse. AFL-CIO officials quoted Sam Jor- 
dan. deputy director of the city's Office ot 
Emergency Preparedness, as eatlmating it 


The rally began under sunny skies that 
later became overcast. People ale picnic 
lunches and lined up to buy ice cream and 
soft drinks. The expresstons of anger and 
protest were UmlM to signs and speeches 


Shortly after noon, marchers moved up 
the mall from the Weshington Monument 
grounds. At the Capitol, more than U speak- 
ers addressed the crowd la a program lasting 
more than tsro hours Toward the end. the 
crowd slowly began to drift away . 

It was a proteii without politicians. The 
march and rally bad the support of the 
Democratic National Commitloe. but pols 
were invited to listen to the speeches, not 
make tfatm. 


The AFL.CIO abandoned Its traditional 
disdain ol mass protest In hopes of impres- 
sing President Reagan and hit congretslonal 
allies with the depth of oppotltioo to his 


allies with the d^th of oppotltioo to his 
domestic policies. 

Though Reagan had defeated labor and iti 
tlUes in every budget battle In Coogreaa. 
Kirkland said. "The winter's cblliis ap- 
proaching and the bloom la fading from fall's 
mandates." 

Labor leaders interpreted the size of the 
crowtf - It rivaled the numbers who came lo 
. the city In the 1960s — as sign of growing 
disenchantment with the Reagan admlntstra- 


The 'cause' ^ 

draws well 
from Valley 

By MARY ANN FAY 

Of the Call-Chronicle ^ 

WASHINGTON. DC -The SIX 
chartered buses carrying more than 
200 steelworkers from the Lehigh 
Valley to Washington drove caravan. -P 

style onto Route 22. their winking red 
tailUghts the only splash of color m 
yesterday's rainy, early-momlng 
darkness ^ 

Inside Bus 2424. the only sounds ^ 

were the monotonous swish swish ol 
the windshield wipers and Ihe occa- 


METRO 

EDITION 


In the Heart of the Lehigh Valley 

BETHUSBEM, PA., SAniRDAY, S EPTEMBER II, IMl 

200,000 Crowd into Washington 
For Union ^Solidarity’ Rally 


(Moo members Jammed Wadiingtoo subways and streets on 


and economic poUdea. It promised lo be ihe capital's Uggesl iheir way to the grassy Mall area', where they sang "SoUdarUy 


protest since Ihe angry days of the Vietnam War 


Forever" as they assembled for their march down i 


Thecrowd — 100,000 strong at noomimo and expected lo swell Avejue to the foot of the Capitol. 

10 more than twice that — began arriving at dawn for the "Soil- "We are America's sinew, muscie, owou. mn 
darlty Day" demonstration . The rally was organized by the AFL- actor Ossie Davis told the burgeoning crowd ‘ 

aO. which has been stung by President Resgsn's victories In people." 


On the city streets, grot^ of protestors, many wearing flag • 
decked bard iMts and colorful union jackets and shirts to ward off 
the morning chill, streamed toward the Washington Monument 
gathering area. 

"Ironworkers for SoUdarlly." said the blue - and • white 
sweatshirts sported by some In the lens oMhousands gathering on 
the Mail Others carried gsecn - and . white placards reading 
"Jote. Justice and Co m p^ i oo." 


O^hic^o CGritnme 


Sunday, Septembn- 20. 1981 


260,000 in 
labor protest 


While tbt Pmldent worked 
OD even further budget cuu at 
his Oomp Datrtd retreat, leaders 
of labor, ehll rlgbtt and women’s 
iroups took turns denouncing 
nis administration as "eold- 
bearted,” ‘callous” and "matl- 
eloua” 

The rally, termed BoUdarlty 
Day tn iU sponeor, the AFL-CIO. 
drew 580,000 people by esUmou ot 
the OJB. Berrlce police and 
WOjBOO by eeUmete of city offi- 
dola By either count, it was the 
lorBcet protect demonstration In 
the modem history of the eopltoL 


husband ltd a 

hers 18 ysort ago, echoed: -Let 
this dsmonstratlon be a clear dg- 
nal to the lawmakers that 
American working people of all 
rocee will not euffor m silence 
while the orchltecu of reaction 
.eeek to shatter the hard-won eo- 
clol and economic gotne of the 
loct 80 years.” 

United Mine Workers Presi- 
dent Bom Church, taking note of 
Mr. Reagan’s absence on the day 
of protest, laid: *T{e may be out of 






Columnists, Editorials 
Find Much, to Rehash 


Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, September 22, 1 981 Section 1 9 J 

Jffashington meets the nation— and discovers the people are us 


By Anne Keegan 
Chicago Tribune Press Service 

WASHINGTON— Even the people of 
Washington were impressed. 

And they’ve gotten so very used to 
these things — marches, rallies, and pro- 
tests in their town. 

But the one over the weekend that 
brought a quarter of a million people 
from all over the United States — and that 
was no mean feat considering none of 
them would cross PATCO picket lines 
and fly — this one impressed them. 

It was not the size of the crowd that 
impressed them. It wtis who was in that 
crowd. 

One did not have to look at the signs in 
their hands or the placards on their backs 
to know. A long, steady gaze at them 


gathering on the Mall told every Wash- 
ingtonian who these people were. 

They were a cluster of Slavic women 
from New York gabbing merrily in their 
own language, members of the Interna- 
tional Ladies Garment Workers Union. 

THEY WERE three sUver-halred black 

women hiding in the shade from the sun 
— a common-sensical Southern tradition 
— up from the land of cotton and tobac- 
co. 

They were suburban-looking ladies in 
pastel pantsuits, teachers down from New 
England. 

They were five mustachioed Detroit 
auto workers in hard hats and parka 
vests watching the girls saunter by. 

They were clumps of bronze-skinned 
families with slick black hair picnicking 
on the grass, farmworkers up from Texas. 


Anne 

Keegan 

They were bearded miners from West 
Virginia, steelworkers from Chicago, 
electrical workers from Michigan, chemi- 
cal workers from Rhode Island. 

They were bricklayers, carpenters, en- 
gineers, crane operators, government em- 
ployes, butchers, television writers, teach- 
ers’ aides, checkout clerks, aluminum 
workers, and dock loaders. 

SOME HAD COLLEGE edncatioiu, 
others never finished high school. Some 


had thick foreign accents, others spoke 
perfect English. 

They were black, white, and every 
other possible color of human skin. They 
were old and they were young. Some had 
just gotten their first jobs. Others had 
been retired for years. 

They were from the Deep South, the 
West Coast, the cold North, the vast 
Midwest, and the East. 

They were Catholic, Protestant, and 
Jewish. They were Republicans and Dem- 
ocrats. 

They were the people Washingtonians 
too often forget about and seldom see, 
the ones scattered out there for thousands 
of miles beyond the Potomac. The ones 
who make Washington, with its genteel 
life, possible. 

THEY ARE THE ones who do not 


often come to Washington — perhaps once 
in a lifetime, when their kids are old 
enough, and then only to look through 
the fence bars at the White House and to 
climb the Washington Monument. 

They are the ones who couldn’t give 
you the home address of one influential 
man in Washington. But they are the 
ones everyone in Washington courts every 
four years. Who suddenly meet important 
politicians at their plant gates every four 
years or at a construction site or maybe 
even a union retirement party. 

They were well-dressed. They stayed 
sober. There was no odor of marijuana 
along the Mall. They respected the law. 

They met for one day in Washington, 
looked around at each other, and liked 
what they saw. And then, after giving 
each other strength, they climbed aboard 
their 15,000 buses and left, happy to 


have come yet happier still to be going 
back to their homes. 

They were not a violent mob. They 
were not even an angry crowd. 

No wonder Washingtonians were im- 
pressed. Impressed not by the numbers 
that were there but WHO was there. For 
they don’t sec them very often. 

WHO WAS IT that was m taapteadve? 

It was Middle America. It was the people 
that built this country and want to keep 
on doing it. It was the meat-and-potatoes 
people, the ones who put in eight hours 
and have no company expense account. 
The ones who fight our wars. The ones 
who pay our taxes and have no loop- 
holes. 

It was the working class. And they 
came to Washington because they want to 
stay that way. 


The Washington Post 


Marh: Shields 


Labor Fights Back 


/^Anierican organized labor is one of those con- 
trary institutions— the Catholic Church may be 
another — that seem to thrive in adversity and 
to decline in prosperity. In recent times, the 
^^idest triumphs of labor have been recorded 
among the shipyard and texile workers of the 
anti-union South, where labor’s organizers over- 
came threats, the entire establishment and 


worse. 

-^The leadership of organized labor has deter- 
mined the present time to be a period of great 
adversity for the labor movement. To get that 
message out to trade unionists and others, or- 
ganized labor is putting together a giant rally 
hj^re tomorrow in support of “a fair and hu- 
mane America.” The event is called Solidarity 
and its sponsors are confident enough of 
turnout to predict that 100,000 will partici- 
jj^e. By the rules of low-balling crowd predic- 
4*ais, that means the event’s sponsors expect at 
least twice as many. All of this should be very 
good news for the political allies of organized 
lalior and especially for the Democrats, who can 
use any and all encouraging news. 

To say that labor has been, politically speak- 



ing, alternately petulant and sullen in its deal- 
ings with the Democrats is not to deny the va- 
lidity of labor’s beefs. For some irrational rea- 
son; lalxir has been consistently held to higher 
standards of nobility aiul altruism than ,any 
other private institution. The historic civil 
rights bills never would have become law with- 
out the savvy, the clout and the all-out support 
of American labor. Yet, there are those who 
falsely and cruelly indict laboring people for al- 


leged racism. It never occurs to these careless 
individuals to inquire as to the role of the For- 
tune 500 in the civil rights struggles In Con- 
gress. Apparently, only labor is expected to 
have a legislative and social agenda larger than 
its own interests. And virtually alone among our 
political' and private institutions, labor does 
have just such an agenda. 

Labor and its friends now find themselves 
answering over and over again the question of 


whether labor may have simply outlived its use- 
fulness. These same people are never suffi- 
ciently curious to inquire about the relevance of 
football half-time shows or the Dow-Jones 30 
industrials (which, by the way, have not been 
accused lately of being defenders of the status 
quo, another charge against labor). Do the 
Democrats — or wmebody else?— have some 
long progressive program they now want 
enacted that we missed? Lately, defending the 
status quo in budget items in health and wel- 
fare seems to be more a liberal than a conserva- 
tive political act 

But the long labor record has not helped the 
current labor reputation. In spite of much of the 
unfairness of the criticism, a lot of it has obvi- 
ously stuck. In statewide surveys conducted this 
year, organized labor did not get good reviews. 
When asked whether labor was **a positive or 
negative force” in the life of their stat^ voters in 
state after state (including labor states) rated 
labor as a negative influence by more than two- 
to-one. Among others, the women’s movement 
and environmentalists rated ahead of labor, win- 
ning positive scores In most cases. In fact, there 


were only two groups that the voters consistently 
ranked lower than labor major oil companies and 
welfare recipients. Labor has a large image prob- 
lem to attend to before it can be an effective mes- 
senger for its message. 

None of this^ prevented the AFL-CIO’s Com- 
mittee on Political Education from jumping to- 
tally into 1981 ^)ecial house races in Maryland, 
Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In all but 
01^ t^ COPE-backed candidate won, and in 
Mississippi that victory may have stopped a 
stampede to the GOP. In fact, in the 1981 special 
House elections, labor has a better won-loet 
reo^ than either the Democrats or the Republi- 
cans. 

Now American labor, which came within a few 
thousand votes of electing Hubert Humphrey to 
the White House in 1968, is determined to get 
politically active once again. Its numbers are re- 
di^, its ranks thinned. In 1958 one of three 
no%f3arm workers belonged to a union; today it’s 
one out of five. But labor can be awfully effective 
in the political foxhole. Take it from someone 
who’s deen it in action; labor can be toi^ in ad- 
versity. 


Shreveport Journal 

Solidarity American Style 


Gary (Ind.) Post-Tl’ibune 

The message was there 


TAKING A PAGE out of recent Polish 
history, the AjELsClO-organized its own 
solidarity day last week. The march and 
speeches in Washington Saturday were 
aimed not so much at sending a message 
to President Reagan, but at revitalizing 
America’s seemingly moribund labor 
movement while simultaneously remind- 
ing other politicians of labor’s disenchant- 
ment with Reaganomics. 

The sheer size of the turnout, estimated 
by the National Park Service at 260,000 
with some estimates going even higher, 
surpassed even the AFL-CIO’s most op- 
timistic projections. The crowd perhaps 
added a further illustration that the presi- 
dent’s honeymoon has come to an end. 

From his^ Camp David retreat, Presi- 
dent Reagan sent out the word that he 
could understand the concerns of working 
people in the current economy but that his 
programs were needed and would be con- 
tinued. There is little reason to be sur- 
prised at the president’s response. No 
gathering, not even one that drew more 
people than the civil rights and anti-war 
rallies of the 1960s, is going to turn policy 
perspectives around 180 degrees. 

Expressing anger over a range of ad- 
ministration policies (from Social Security 
cuts and high interest rates to shrinking 
school lunch programs), the crowd reflect- 
ed ideas that went beyond any form of 
narrow single issue politics. The president 
is fond of pointing out that while labor 
leaders may have opposed him, the people 


they supposedly represented were among 
his constituents. These constituents were 
to be an important part of America’s new 
majority, not a group of transient sup- 
porters. 

But Saturday’s rally, at the very least, 
calls into question the easy emergence of 
this new majority. Actions taken by the 
administration have exposed the cracks in 
the new majority and stimulated the soli- 
darity outpouring. Those cracks may be 
resealed. Labor may not be able to build 
on solidarity day in any meaningful way. 
Yet those cracks can neither be ignor^ 
nor wished away. 


It was impressive to see, 
the crowd that showed up 
in Washington last week- 
end for Solidarity Day. 

Estimates of exact num- 
bers in the throng ranged 
from 250,000 to 500,000. 
They were there to show a 
united front a.mong union 
members and some other 
groups a'gainst President 
Reap^T^’s economic poli- 


ings to the demonstration, 
depending on which mean- 
ing best fit their purposes. 
But looking past the labor 
leaders’ words and the 
opinions of various experts, 
those faces in the crowd 
reflected a working class 
fed up with an unstable, 
inflationary and frustrating 
economy. 

They lielped put Reagan 
in the White House be- 
cause he promised eco- 
nomic relief. Now they 
find more and more gov- 
ernmental services being 
cut; more and more school 
programs being cut or 
deleted for lack of money; 
more and more public 
safety regulations being 
watered down — and the 
economy showing no sign 
of recovery. 

And, whether true in the 


he got the mes- 
not, he should 
re were more 


^ of the 

of a million 
■X in r blc^k camped 

lettinp tf 


t m 


it 

hat they were 
with the way 
the country. 


■'Giant Rally Hao a 

AiiAecAfifc for RodS^^ 

MOSSaS^ e,u.l rights sine. 


that 


GENERALhVs^;J^^g-«^“' 
subscribe ««politics at the 


tion/ 
polls. 
We 


We prefer 


4is.pp«*«> . 

demonstrate" p^rtcmarly dUap- 

Vietnain. ^ _ 


WE MAV have 
ceptio®. 


seen another ex- 

^mated 260,000 ««» . 

the **’”‘'* 

.ttiedeep ce at 
-* the raUy 

te«encW« . nVvas vr*- serve »■ _,ane 

o-;rv. s»«sS; >^^ oi 


Christian Scianca htenitor^^^^^ Solidarity marches 

news coverage nf buried in who joined in r> ^ sheet metal worker 

Mflwaukaa Journal «ara frn.n ,=h„ pattern orRVa'^arhna,'.';.^',?,'^'”'"® tram the 


^an 


" niiHrfrtf oMj-1 *. 

What next after ‘Solidarity’? 


the 

cah 


«\ ptofeTa"*" loW cau >6 

s0t<iet^„ad«t«vts^;ttv. 


The quarter of a million people who gathered in 
Washington for Saturday’s “Solidarity” rally were 
intent on making a statement. The theme of the 
get-together, sponsored by the AFX-CIO, was op- 
position to the Reagan administration’s economic 
policies, particularly its often excessive constraints 
on social spending. 

That was made clear bv the hann 


CIO, has been fashioning an increasingly intimate 
alliance with the Democratic Party to give labor a 
more influential voice within party councils. 

The Kirkland strategy aims to revive the sag- 
ging coalition that has defined the Democratic Par- 
ty since the New Deal and mobilize it as a Reagan 
roadblock. Given the administration’s whacks at 
inized labor, often rightly, 
locial justice, Kirkland’s ap- 
able. It may even -"ise Rea- 
le of Hi- 


^968 dvete' 

* V.ou'®'L^Yv’s OaV 

Pteslden\3r *e ,v,etn -.c Vvave -- « . f A If-T- T"l 

THE PRESIDENT WHO WASN’T THERE 

By skipping town during the massive Soiidarity Day protest, Reagan reveaied hte rei. --- ^ 

other sort. He has evidently de- ^ers belated^ labor 

WUIAM J»rime»en 

SAHRE 


A 




Cor oeWoloesP^ g.ott „ 

“'TPe '>«dml»>2«fv“rtCVly 


other sort. He has evidently de- 
cided to conduct his presidency 
once removed from the public. He 
wants to avmd having his sculpted 
generalities challenged in the mve- 
and-take of hard •J- 

‘ 



lab?I «,p- 

, 11 * 


tVvoTVve 

latest 




Mt"''" III 


lions 


oiticer 


;baractei 


■rized 


“small-. ,^aUed ntotc I 

ts recaw „„mi>ep-. 


aiiaf^ 


Yi iti 1^® 




as 


steaming ur *’ npstsan ^ 1 • J • J_ 

Rally showed union s solidarity 

DrACC^ 


ir.rtSs.«s 


Ypsilanti Press 

With last weekend’s massive 
Solidarity Day rally, organized 
labof showed it wasn’t dead yet 
and still has plenty of fight and 

^^Ever since the AFL-CIO, the 
UAW and the other big unions 
weren’t able to boost Jimmy 
Carter back into the White House 
last November, pundits of all 


reaction to Reagan, is helping to 
revitalize the union movement. 

The big Washington Solidarity- 
Day Rally, as perhaps nothing 
else could have, showed that 
working people have some real 
concerns about social equity and 
economic progress that differ 
from those of Ronald Reagan s 
wealthy friends and his backers 
;« Kitj business’s executive 



I .an worVting • c a\so 

-.ons,:. ^^ways ^ ;ahot cronot^^'C 

, .. 

^ Afil\ ^ " 

r^g t 

declining pobticai opagan adminis- to change tn social issi 

/.artital and a hosti . h«lD nroach to econo . imnrossion in 




?r«»Wr. 

A sliow ©* 

,, . Elmira Post-Gazette 

reorganized labor, 


to as 






T 


The message of Solidarity Day 


( Szczesny is a Press staff writer who specializes 
in business and labor reporting. ) 


Providence Bulletin 


A protest that deserved 
Reagan’s attration 


It was an impresdve showing, 
some 250,000 citizens representing a 
cross-section of America, who turned 
out on the grassy Washington Mall 
last weekend at the invitation of the 
I AFL-C IO to protest Presddent Rea-. 
‘‘giSrs^ economic policies. Never at a* 


gets what portion of the national 
economic pie, albeit one wrapped in 
the rhetoric of morality by pleading 
the cause of widows and orphans.. 

As such, it was not without its 
ironies. The 250,000 persons who 
gathered at the behest of the AFL- 


Philadelphia Tribune 

Several hundred thousands union members, 
union sympathizers, social service activists and 
senior citizens converged on Washington, D.C., 
last Saturday (Sept. 19) in support of the AFL- 
CIO Solidarity Day march. 

The message these thousands of concerned 
citizens took to the nation’s seat of government 
was clearcut — they were totally displeased with 
Reaganomics. 

Reaganomics, they argued is anti-union, anti- 
poor and anti-people. They wanted President 
Reagan and his conservative backers in the 
United States Congress to know that they have 
no intentions of taking the brutality of 
Reaganomics lying down. 

Those folks who trod on down to Washington 
from every comer of this country had been 
forewarned prior to last November’s general 


Senior citizens across this nation identified 
with candidate Reagan because they believed he 
would represent their interests for the obvious 
reason that he is an elderly gentleman himself 
and understood what it meant to be on social 
security. They, too, are now feeling the 
shockwaves of his anti-senior citizen axe- 
wielding moves. 

The battle lines have become more pronounced, 
and now that everyone or group knows where 
they stand with Reagan, maybe a more 
consistent effort can be made to stop him — if it 
isn’t already too late. 

The Solidarity Day march should be only the 
beginning of a consistent onslaught to stop the 
right-wing conservative elements whose only 
goal is to take this country into another war to 
prave-America’s greatness. 


Overseas Press Also Reacts 


London Times 


Mass labour rally sets serious 
challenge for Reagan policies 

From Nicholas Hirst, Washington, Sept 20 


President Reagan will have 
to answer this week the 
strongest protest yet mounted 
against his economic policies. 
The union demonstration orga- 


the most irresponsible fiscal 
act of our time. The Admini- 
stration, Mr Kirkland claimed, 
was pursuing monetary policies 
that caused record interest 
rates. 


opposition where r 
The new round, with s 
cuts promised for 1 
1984, will be more diff 

In Denver he round< 
critics. If he were c 



Soiidanty,„against Reagan 


MORE than a quarter of a million peop 
tes put the figure at 400,000 — demonsi 
ton at the weekend .against President 
and economic policies. 

The ’’Solidarity Day" demonstration 
in Washington since the protests against 
over a decade ago, heard calls for oppos 
dent's cuts in social spending from u 
groups representing American women, 
elderly. 

One demonstrator turned up wearing 
mask. The president himself stayed av 
Camp David, Maryland, working on ne 
UPl, AP pictures 


China Hews 

Independent H ^ 0 ^ Objective 

An Enlightened Public Is The Best Security Of A Nation 
Vol. 32, No. 82 Taipei, Sunday, September 20, 1981 Eight Pages Today 

260 , 000 Americans 
Stage Anti-Reagan 
Rally Near Capitol 

WASHINGTON — (UPI-AP) event and, like Richard Nixon dur- be told in no uncertain terms today 
— More than a quarter of a million ing a huge 1971 antiwar protest, that he did not win a mandate to 
cheering, chanting union members spent the day at Camp David. A wreck the health, education and 
}ammed the streets near the white House spokesman urged that employment programs that the 
Capitol Saturday for a “Solidarity labor realize it has a "good friend Democratic party and the labor 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Thirteen 


\ 


*Out of Sight, Out of Mind' 

Cutback in Federal Information 
Conceals Program Destruction 


The following is from an address by John W. 
Leslie, who served as information director of the 
Labor Dept, during six Administrations, to the 
National Association of Government Communi- 
cators. 

I HAD A CALL from a reporter for a national 
magazine asking me to comment on rumors 
that government career employees were sabotag- 
ing the programs of the Reagan Administration, 
and asking whether I had seen evidence of this 
while I was in the Labor Dept. 

I replied that my experience was just the op- 
posite. You have dedicated men and women wait- 
ing and wanting to serve who are without leader- 
ship or direction. They go through the motions of 
keeping the machinery running, but are aware 
that their efforts are ineffective and useless — that 
their programs are slowly being turned off. 

And there are those — the real heroes in my 
book — who carry on day after day doing the 
public’s business, when they know in their own 
hearts that some computer somewhere is printing 
their names on pink slips. 

IN SIX MONTHS as director of information 
for the Labor Dept, during this Administration, 
I watched programs to serve and protect working 
people, which I had helped develop and promote, 
be slowly strangled. 

I sat for six months and watched a department 
in which I had worked most of my adult life be 
systematically dismantled. I watched programs to 
serve and protect working people, which I had 
helped develop and promote, be slowly strangled 
or gutted. 

And I decided, finally, I could no longer sit 
idly by and do nothing to stop the destruction of 
the department and its effectiveness as a guardian 
and protector of the working people of this coun- 
try. 

. Rather than explain why I survived so long, I 
would like to tell why I left when I did. 

The details are simple. The facts uncompli- 
cated. 

I was not mistreated. I was not asked to do 
anything with which I disagreed. I was just ig- 
nored. 

Since I could do nothing constructive inside 
the government to change what was happening, I 
left. 

THIS PRESENT Administration would have 
us believe that government has no business pro- 
tecting the weak, aiding the poor or defending the 
disfranchised. 


Government has no business, we are told, to 
police the marketplace too closely, to protect 
workers and consumers. 

We are told the poor will be protected by the 
wealthy. We are told that business, through its 
own good nature, will look to the safety and 
health of its employees, assuring them of a living 
wage, the right to organize and bargain collec- 
tively, and equality of opportunity. 

They would have us believe that the predators 
of the marketplace have changed their stripes and 
no longer need to be restrained and controlled. 

If you believe all this, you should also believe 
that pigs will grow wings and fly. 

THE AMERICAN people are being told that 
their government is somehow their enemy. . . . 
This is not the message of those who would im- 
prove the function of government. It is clearly a 
call for the deliberate destruction of government 
as a defender of the rights of the people against 
the privileged few. 

The efforts throughout government to cut pub- 
lic information and public affairs activities are a 
cynical attempt by this Administration to cover 
up efforts to destroy programs and services the 
people want and need. 

“Out of sight, out of mind” is this Administra- 
tion’s battle plan of action. 

Recent newspaper headlines make this point 
most clearly: “Administration Calls the Freedom 
of Information Act Overrated and Seeks Wide- 
Ranging Restrictions on It,” one proclaims. An- 
other heralds “Reagan Proposals to Broaden 
Secrecy Powers.” 

AND WHERE, I might ask, during this attack 
on the government’s means of communicating with 
the public, are the so-called defenders of the pub- 
lic’s right to know — the press, television, radio 
and other media of mass communication? 

They have, for the most part, joined in the 
attack on the government public information sys- 
tem. 

They, who were originally responsible for the 
creation of a public information network in gov- 
ernment, have now joined its enemies in an at- 
tempt to degrade and destroy it. 

How more hypocritical can anyone get, than to 
editorially support an attack on “flicks and flacks” 
in the government, yet decry the lack of the pub- 
lic’s access to information on government actions 
critical to the public’s welfare? 


Less Protection, Higher Cost 

‘Gompetition’ Health Plans Hit 
As Poor Value for Consumers 


ADMINISTRATION-BACKED proposals to 
convert the U.S. health insurance system to 
a so-called competition system would force many 
Americans to pay more for even less protection 
than they now have. Auto Workers health care 
consultant Melvin Glasser warned in a network 
radio interview. 

Glasser labeled the competition proposals 
“have-less insurance programs that take us no- 
where.” He said that the idea has little or no sup- 
port beyond “a small handful of politicians and a 
few medical economists.” Glasser, who is execu- 
tive director of the Committee for National 
Health Insurance, appeared on the AFL-CIO 
public affairs program. Labor News Conference, 
broadcast weekly by Mutual Radio. 

; The various competition plans now before 
Congress, Glasser . said, all have the same basic 
approach: 

■ # They limit the amount of employer-paid 
health insurance premiums that would be tax 
exempt. 

• They give tax credits to individuals who 
have little or no health insurance. 

• They put the burden of choosing among 
various competing health insurance plans on in- 


dividual consumers rather than groups, as is now 
the practice. 

He also pointed out that some of the proposals 
would give “cash rebates to individuals who elect 
limited-protection, low-benefit health insurance 
plans.” 

GLASSER SAID the bill favored by President 
Reagan’s Budget Director, David Stockman, calls 
for individual plans rather than group plans, 
which would drive the costs to consumers sub- 
stantially higher than they now are. He noted that 
the cost of administering group insurance pro- 
grams is about 9 percent of the premium, while 
administration of individual insurance programs 
is about 45 percent. 

Glasser said the labor movement remains solid- 
ly committed to “a decent national health insur- 
ance program,” but acknowledged that with the 
Administration and Congress putting such heavy 
stress on budget-cutting, the main battle “in the 
present climate” is to preserve the present health 
care system. 

Reporters questioning Glasser on Labor News 
Conference were Judith Randal of the New York 
Daily News and Jerome Brazda of Washington 
Report on Medicine & Health. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

I F SOMEONE WERE to make a bona fide offer to sell the 
Brooklyn Bridge for a bargain basement price, it might be an 
offer which one could refuse— considering the cost of repairs. 

Bridges, roads, highways, mass transit systems, water and sewer 
systems and other nuts and bolts elements of the nation’s “infra- 
structure” have been wearing out at a much faster rate than they 
are being repaired or replaced. 

This deterioration of basic capital facilities in most communities 
across the land is a problem which has been chronicled by studies 
and congressional hearings over the past decade. 

But government inaction, coupled with a lack of media and 
public attention to this vital, although undramatic, subject has 
permitted a problem to grow into a major crisis for the nation’s 
cities. 

THIS HAS occurred, unfortunately, at a time when cities are 
more financially strapped than ever because of revenue losses, 
when the Reagan Administration and Congress have cut federal 
aid, and when high interest rates have made local borrowing much 
costlier and more difficult. Municipal bonds have been a main 
source of financing capital projects by cities and states. 

Testifying recently before the House Subcommittee on Eco- 
nomic Stabilization, Pat Choate, co-author of “America in Ruins” 
and a senior policy analyst for the TRW company, said serious 
deterioration of vital public facilities “afflicts three of every four 
American communities.” 

“Today,” said Choate, “one of every five bridges requires major 
rehabilitation or total reconstruction. The nation’s interstate high- 
way system has deteriorated to the point that almost one of every 
four miles requires replacement. Conrail faces the prospect of 
abandoning half its lines.” 

He added that “one-half of the water lines are so decrepit that 
they need to be replaced.” New York City, for example, loses 
about 100 million gallons of water every day because of leaks. 

DESPITE THE nation’s pressing need for reindustrialization 
and economic growth, Choate estimated that half the cities could 
not allow substantial industrial expansion because of inadequate 
water and sewage systems. He said another quarter of the cities 
couldn’t improve their economies because their roads, streets and 
bridges are worn out, obsolete or already used to capacity. 

Over the past 15 years — when more, not less, was needed — 
Choate said funds for public works repair and maintenance 
dropped 28 percent because of tight budgets, inflation and bad 
public policy. When public facilities are allowed to run down, of 
course, it costs much more to fix or replace them later on. 

Picking some examples of cities which have been studied: 

• New York City needs to invest $5 billion in mass transit to 
rebuild its dilapidated and unsafe rail and bus systems and pre- 
vent further erosion of jobs and population. The city also needs 
to spend $40 billion to repair and rebuild its pothole-studded 
streets, its leaking water and sewer systems, and its bridges. 

• Chicago needs $3.3 billion over the next five years to re- 
habilitate its aging facilities — roads, bridges, sewers and mass- 
transit. The city’s sewer system often overflows raw sewage into 
houses, lakes and rivers. 

• Baltimore must spend nearly $1.5 billion’, or $1,880 per 
capita, to get its sewers and waste treatment system in shape. 

• Cleveland needs $124 million to rehabilitate more than 40 
of its crumbling bridges. 

• Houston needs to invest heavily in mass transit or new free- 
ways to prevent the traffic congestion that could strangle its 
growth. 



WORKERS WOULD PAY more for health insurance and get 
even less protection than they now have if Congress goes along 
with Administration plans to convert the health insurance system 
to a so-called competition system. Auto Workers health care 
consultant Melvin Glasser, center, warned on Labor News 
Conference. Glasser, who is director of the Committee for Na- 
tional Health Insurance, was questioned by Judith Randal of 
the New York Daily News and Jerome Brazda of Washington 
Report on Medicine & Health. The AFL-CIO produced pub- 
lic affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Fourteen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Social Cuts Threaten Support for Strong Defense 


New York — The Reagan Administra- 
tion’s posture on national defense reflects 
a myopic view that actually threatens the 
nation’s welfare, the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council reported to the federation’s 14th 
convention. 

“Popular support for a strong defense 
and foreign policy cannot be sustained by 
unjust social and economic policies which 
generate social tension and political polari- 
zation,” the council stressed. 

WHILE THE AFL-CIO remains stead- 
fast in its support for a strong national 
defense — not as a source of jobs, but as a 
necessary precondition to the survival of 
democratic institutions including free trade 
unions — it holds that government has a 
constitutional responsibility to “promote 
the general welfare” as well as “provide 
for the common defense,” the council 
observed. 

“The Administration fails to see that 
increasing defense spending while sharply 
decreasing spending for vital social pro- 
grams will result in lack of support for a 
strong defense,” the council said. 

It attacked wasteful spending, huge cost 
overruns and poor management of defense 
resources as “indefensible and intolerable” 
— particularly at a time when the defense 
burden is being shifted more and more to 
-workers and the poor. 

“NOR CAN VAST increases in defense 


spending be justified without having re- 
solved, in the face of the Soviet build-up, 
important issues of strategy, and having 
decided what weapons systems are required 
to implement that strategy,” the council 
added. 

“A vast increase in military appropria- 
tions will not in itself strengthen the U.S. 
military position in the areas required.” 

The council warned that Soviet actions 
against Afghanistan must be weighed in 
the context of the USSR’s strategy against 
the “rimlands” of the Middle East oil- 
producing countries. 

THE CULMINATION of years of sub- 
versive activity against Afghanistan, the 
Soviet invasion of that country must be 
considered together with the establishment 
of Soviet influence, if not hegemony, in 
Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola, and Mo- 
zambique, the council said. 

“The Soviet Union is thus almost in the 
position of being able to deny through 
military means the West’s access to its 
major energy source,” the council warned. 

“Control over Afghanistan is an exten- 
sion of Soviet influence over the northern 
rimlands of the Middle East’s oil fields. 
Angola and Mozambique straddle the 
Cape oil route, and Soviet air capability 
was impressively demonstrated by the air- 
lift ferrying Cuban troops and Soviet 
equipment to Angola.” 


ELSEWHERE IN its report, the council 
traced labor’s interest and involvement in 
American foreign policy since the found- 
ing convention of the Federation of Orga- 
nized Trades & Labor Unions in 1881 to 
the present. 

One of its major concerns has been the 
furtherance of free trade unionism 
throughout the world, the report notes, 
and the AFL-CIO’s support of the new 
trade union federation in Poland is con- 
sistent with this belief. The American labor 
movement, through the Polish Workers 
Aid Fund, has contributed over $250,000 
to Solidarity, the first free and independent 
trade union movement in the communist 
world. 

The council stressed that the federation’s 
support for free labor movements means 
also having nothing to do with so-called 
unions in dictatorship countries. Over the 
years, the council noted, the AFL-CIO has 
refused contacts with the state unions in 
the Soviet Union, Franco’s Spain, the 
People’s Republic of China, and other 
totalitarian countries. 

REPORTING ON other AFL-CIO ac- 
tions since the last convention, the council 
said that since rejoining the International 
Labor Organization in February 1980, 
after an absence of two and a half years, 
the federation has 'participated in two 
ILO conferences as well as sessions of the 
Governing Body and other meetings of the 


ILO. The AFL-CIO’s European represen- 
tative, Irving Brown, who took part in 
this year’s conference, reported that the 
meeting came close to accomplishing the 
true purposes of the organization. 

“Attempts to inject political issues were 
handled in such a way that the conference 
was able to devote most of its time to 
those technical questions on which the 
future welfare of workers so largely de- 
pends,” the council said. The federation’s 
reason for leaving the ILO in 1977 was 
the ILO’s growing politicization. 

THE COUNCIL also reported that a 
committee of its members appointed by 
President Kirkland met with a delegation 
from the International Confederation of 
Free Trade Unions in June to discuss the 
question of AFL-CIO reafliliation with 
that body, and found the meeting “useful.” 

On other foreign policy matters, the 
council focused attention on the plight 
of refugees throughout the world, reiter- 
ated its support of the land-reform pro- 
gram in El Salvador, and denounced the 
South African government’s suppression 
of unions of black workers. 

The council report also contained a 
summary of activities of the AFL-CIO’s 
overseas arms, the American Institute for 
Free Labor Development, the African- 
American Labor Center, and the Asian- 
American Free Labor Institute. 


Administration Raises Bar 
To Effective Energy Policy 


Central Bodies 
Continue to Show 
Rise in Members 

New York — State and local central 
bodies over the past two years added to 
their total membership, but the level of 
affiliation still remained far below the 
optimum, the Executive Council said in its 
report to the convention. 

Total membership in AFL-CIO central 
bodies at the end of last year was 7,673,- 
989, an increase df 280,770 over the total 
reported at the 1979 convention. But, even 
with the slight increase, the total repre- 
sented only about 56 percent of the poten- 
tial number of members. 

“SINCE THE ability of central bodies 
to respond to the needs of the federation 
and their own affiliates is directly related 
to the level of affiliation, it is vitally im- 
portant to continue and improve upon the 
upward trend in affiliation that started in 
1978,” the council said. 

“The federation’s field staff has directed 
its attention to this problem in recent 
years and will continue to do so in the 
future,” the council’s report said. 

State and local central bodies’ activities 
were the focus of a series of regional con- 
ferences held from March through June 
of this year. The conferences dwelt on 
current problems and explored new direc- 
tions in pursuit of the federation’s goals. 

While central bodies remain active in 
traditional programs, there appears to have 
been an increase in legislative activities 
at the local, state, and national levels, the 
council said, noting the larger volume of 
legislation in recent years. 

AS IN PREVIOUS periods, central 
bodies have responded very favorably to 
requests for assistance in special projects 
over the past two years, the council ob- 
served. These projects included the annual 
program of the President’s Committee for 
Employment of the Handicapped, rallies 
and demonstrations conducted by interna- 
tional unions, boycotts, and organizing 
campaigns. 

As of last June, there were 50 state 
central bodies, one commonwealth body, 
and 746 local central bodies. In the past 
two years, seven new central bodies were 
chartered, three were dissolved, and three 
mergers were completed. 

“In view of the vital role of central 
bodies in advancing the programs and 
goals of the federation and its affiliates 
and the direct services which they provide 
to local unions,” the council said, “every 
possible effort should be made to add to 
their resources by strongly encouraging 
full support and participation from all 
affiliates.” 



CROSS COMMEMORATING the 

25th anniversary of the revolt of 
Hungarian freedom fighters against 
oppressive Soviet rule is emblazoned 
in the windows of the Philip Murray 
building, headquarters of the Electri- 
cal, Radio & Machine Workers in 
downtown Washington. The building 
directly faces the Soviet embassy. 

Consumer Aid 
Consigned to 
Back Burner 

New York — Consumer safeguards are 
very much on the back burner in the Rea- 
gan Administration, the AFL-CIO Execun 
tive Council made clear in its report to 
the convention. 

Labor helped protect the Federal Trade 
Commission from the most drastic pro- 
posals made in the 96th Congress to cur- 
tail its authority, the council noted. The 
attack on the FTC had been led by busi- 
ness groups. 

This year, the Administration has used 
the budget-cutting weapon, as well as its 
appointive powers, to weaken consumer 
protection agencies. 

The council noted that the initial Ad- 
ministration proposal “included a near 
phaseout of the Consumer. Product Safety 
Commission and an end to antitrust ac- 
tivities by the Federal Trade Commission.” 
The National Consumer Cooperative Bank, 
set up in 1978 to provide loans and tech- 
nical aid to consumer cooperatives, was 
to be abolished by next year. 


New York — The Reagan Administra- 
tion is undermining the progress that 
America has made since 1972 in efforts 
toward an effective national energy policy, 
the Executive Council charged. 

“The Administration’s action has cut 
back programs that foster development of 
new energy sources, energy conservation 
and energy efficiency standards,” the coun- 
cil’s report to the convention declared. 

IT SAID White House policies “have 
abandoned a cogent, carefully developed 
national program in favor of outmoded 
theories that will yield high profits to oil 
companies and result in hardship for the 
American people.” 

Much of the damage, the report noted, 
has resulted from a $2. 8-billion budget cut 
for energy programs. These include: 

• A 50-percent reduction in research 
and development funds for fossil fuels, in- 
cluding projects in coal gassification and 
liquefaction. 

• Elimination of nearly all direct sub- 
sidies for development of synfuels. 

• A 45-percent reduction in solar en- 
ergy research and development funds. 

• A 17-percent reduction of fusion en- 
ergy research. 

• Fund slashes of 50 percent in pro- 
grams for geothermal, hydropower and 
electric energy systems, as well as in low- 
income weatherization programs. 

• Elimination of standards for new 
construction. 

THESE BUDGET cuts will not only 
jeopardize the country’s energy security, 
the council warned, but will also eliminate 
about 110,000 jobs needed to make the 
programs work. 

“Job security for Americans depends 
on secure energy supplies,” the council 
stressed. “And solving the nation’s energy 
problems means putting hundreds of thou- 
sands of people to work to conserve en- 
ergy and to develop new supplies.” 

The council cited the need for workers 
for construction of new energy production 
facilities and the manufacture of energy 
machinery and equipment as well as 
weatherization, conservation and solar 
equipment. 

IT ALSO reaffirmed the AFL-CIO’s op- 
position to decontrol of energy prices 
even though the Administration complete- 
ly lifted controls on oil earlier this year. 
The council stressed the need to continue 
full controls on natural gas. prices. 

New proposals to remove the controls 
“would quickly double home heating bills 


for those who heat with natural gas,” the 
council warned. 

The report stressed continued support 
for national efforts to protect and restore 
the country’s environment and cited con- 
siderable progress in cleaning up water 
and air pollution. 

These gains have created thousands 
of jobs in the construction of state and 
local water treatment plants and in the 
manufacture of water and air pollution 
equipment, the council observed. 

Tax Equity Drive 
Hits Roadblock, 
Burden Shifts 

New York — ^Tax justice appeared an 
achievable goal at the time of the last 
AFL-CIO convention, but all the move- 
ment since then has been in the other 
direction, the Executive Council said. 

When the Reagan Administration un- 
veiled its tax proposals last February, the 
Executive Council charged they would 
“require more sacrifice from those who 
have little, to give more to those who al- 
ready have much.” 

Instead, the AFL-CIO urged an alterna- 
tive “which would have been about half 
as costly, while providing more tax relief 
in the &st year to the great majority of 
working people and spurring business in- 
vestment through specifically targeted busi- 
ness tax reductions.” 

' AT CONGRESSIONAL hearings, the 
council noted, AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland warned that the Reagan tax pack- 
age “would add to inflation, exaggerate 
fundamental economic problems and dissi- 
pate funds needed for their resolution.” 

The Democratic “alternative” was only 
“marginally less inequitable than the Ad- 
ministration version.” 

Congress went on to pass the Adminis- 
tration bill, the more inequitable of the 
alternatives, which the council said will: 

• “Shift hundreds of billions of dollars 
from the paychecks and programs that 
sustain working Americans to the rich and 
the corporations. 

• “Add to the economic problems and 
social tensions that are the inevitable result 
of shoestring budgets financed by inequi- 
table tax structures. 

• “Assure a continuance of inflation 
and skyhigh interest rates.” 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Fifteen 


Conservatives in Saddle 

Legislative Progress 
Stifled by ^80 Election 


‘Keep Cooking ’Til We Fudge!’ 



Urban Areas Face Crunch 
From Tax, Budget Slashes 


The Executive Council’s report on la- 
bor’s legislative efforts over the past two 
years points up the watershed nature of 
the election that turned the Executive 
Branch of government over to the Reagan 
Administration and put control of Con- 
gress in the hands of a conservative coali- 
tion. 

In 1 980, the final year of the 96th Con- 
gress and of the Carter Administration, 
legislative attacks on labor’s gains were 
turned back and some slight progress was 
made. 

A THREAT TO the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act was blocked after 
an intensive grass-roots campaign eroded 
the initial support for the labor-opposed 
Schweiker bill. Attacks on the Davis- 
Bacon Act were turned back in both the 
House and Senate. 

A windfall profits tax, although short 
of what labor and the Carter Administra- 
tion had urged, did soak up some of the 
oil industry’s gains from decontrol of 
prices and replenished federal revenues. 

The Musicians won a long campaign to 
repeal the long-irrelevant but clearly anti- 
union Lea Act, which restricted the bar- 
gaining area in negotiations with broad- 
casters. And the Senate broke two fili- 
busters, making possible the confirmation 
of William A. Lubbers as general counsel 
of the National Labor Relations Board 
and Donald A. Zimmerman as a member 
of the NLRB. Business lobbies and con- 
gressional right-wingers had fought both 
nominations. 

IN WHAT the Executive Council 
termed “the most significant environ- 
mental achievement of the 96th Congress,” 
a labor-supported bill was enacted just 
before adjournment establishing an in- 
dustry-financed “superfund” to clean up 
chemical toxic waste dump sites. 

There were disappointments, too, in the 
1980 legislative year. There was no prog- 
ress made toward comprehensive national 
health insurance or labor law reform. Im- 
ports continued to erode U.S. jobs, and a 
House-passed bill to expand trade adjust- 
ment assistance to cover supplier firms 
died with adjournment. The end-of-the- 
session renomination of John Truesdale to 
the NLRB was blocked by a filibuster 
threat and withdrawn after the change of 
administration. 

The council report documents the sav- 
aging of labor-supported programs in the 
first months of the Reagan Administra- 
tion, primarily through a twisting of the 
budget-setting procedure into a vehicle for 


New York — Facilities at the 12-year-old 
George Meany Center for Labor Studies 
are operating at capacity, providing quality 
training for union leaders and staff mem- 
bers, the Executive Council reported. 

Since the last AFL-CIO convention, en- 
rollment at the 47-acre residential campus 
in Silver Spring, Md., has risen to 4,000 
a year. Programs conducted at the center 
include weeklong courses in such areas as 
arbitration, organizing, collective bargain- 
ing, labor law, psychology for union lead- 
ers, computers, economics, public speak- 
ing, union publications, issues for working 
women, and other labor subjects. 

THE ORGANIZING institute has been 
particularly well attended, so much so 
that a three-week advanced organizing 
workshop is now offered in cooperation 
with the AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization 
& Field Services. 

Unions also use the center’s facilities to 
conduct their own staff programs or hold 
executive board meetings. 

Several new projects have been com- 
pleted at the center since the last AFL- 
CIO convention, including an oral history 


rewriting legislation and wiping out gov- 
ernment functions. 

IT RELATES the virtual elimination of 
the public service employment program — 
the nation’s key anti-recession “safety net” 
— and the gutting of the trade adjustment 
program. 

Also achieved through the budget rec- 
onciliation shortcut, the council noted, 
was the rewriting of unemployment com- 
pensation and the reduction of the ex- 
tended benefits program, despite continu- 
ing high unemployment. The food stamp 
program, public housing, health programs 
and energy development were other 
budget victims. 

The tax cut bill enacted over labor’s 
protests tilts the lion’s share of benefits 
to the wealthiest individuals and the most 
profitable corporations. 

IT REVERSES the action of the previ- 
ous Congress by wiping out a substantial 
part of the oil industry’s tax obligations. 

In an action that the council said “defies 
logic,” the 97th Congress “reduced taxes 
by $12 billion for oil interests, despite 
their continuing record profits, but re- 
jected a Democratic proposal of tax cred- 
its for six distressed American industries: 
autos, steel, paper, railroads, mining and 
airlines.” 

The modest achievements labor can 
point to in the first year of the 97th Con- 
gress are along the lines of keeping the 
roof from falling in completely. 

THUS, CONGRESS balked at the 
sweeping cutbacks the Administration 
initially sought in social security protec- 
tions and has had some second thoughts 
about the elimination of the $122-a-month 
minimum social security benefit rriandated 
by the budget reconciliation bill it passed 
into law. Also, some programs that Presi- 
dent Reagan wanted to eliminate by lump- 
ing heavily reduced funding for them 
into “block grants” to the states will re- 
main on the statute books as federal pro- 
grams. 

The Executive Council report takes 
note of the new round of the budget bat- 
tle brought on by Reagan’s demand for 
additional spending cuts and his use of 
spending “deferrals” to push funding for 
programs below even the heavily-cut level 
that Congress has decreed. 

But it cites increased resistance from 
Congress, which has already rejected some 
of the Administration’s latest round of cut- 
backs. 


funded by the National Endowment for 
the Humanities. The project involved 
taped interviews of 49 persons who had 
a role in the 1955 merger of the AFL 
and the CIO. The transcripts of the inter- 
views soon will be available to scholars. 

Work is virtually completed on a fed- 
erally funded program leading to an as- 
sociate degree in labor studies, and several 
labor textbooks are being compiled under 
the Tripartite Program for Apprenticeship. 

ANOTHER NEW project has been a 
series of two-day briefing sessions on union 
pension fund investments cosponsored with 
the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security. 

Despite an end to previous support from 
the National Endowment for the Arts, the 
center’s art activities are continuing, the 
council report notes. Gifts and loans make 
the art displays and exhibits at the campus 
possible. 

The center’s college degree program 
continues to be an important part of its 
operations, the council reported. The pro- 
gram, conducted with Antioch University, 
has enrolled 213 full-time union staffers, 
and 30 have already graduated. 


New York — Many cities, states and 
most larger urban areas face a severe fi- 
nancial crunch and neglect of important 
services due to “tax-cut fever,” high inter- 
est rates, and the Reagan Administration’s 
budget cuts, the Executive Council noted 
in its convention report. 

The council cited a recent congressional 
study. Trends in the Fiscal Condition of 
Cities: 1979-81, showing that more than 
30 percent of cities surveyed had operat- 
ing deficits in both 1979 and 1980. For 
1981, the survey found 86 percent of the 
cities anticipated deficits, 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS in particu- 
lar cities have been highly exacerbated by 
the downturns that have resulted in hard 
times for certain major industries such as 
steel and autos. 

“Federal budget cutbacks — threatened 
and actual — feed into the trouble mixture, 
threatening the well-being of states and 
communities which depend on federal as- 
sistance to meet the needs of citizen^ and 
to create and maintain public facilities 
necessary for job creation, economic 
growth and development,” the council ob- 
served. 

“Such assistance, now targeted for re- 
duction, runs the gamut from revenue 
community and regional development,” 
the Executive Council report noted. 

Many cities this year experienced seri- 
ous fiscal problems, the council noted. 
There were threatened school shutdowns 
in Boston and, in April, the closing of 
fire companies and police substations. De- 
troit, whose budget is heavily dependent 
on federal programs, faced a crisis that 
would be worsened by the reduction of 
government activities. 

UNEMPLOYMENT in the nation’s 
metropolitan areas reflects the continuing 
economic problems of major urban centers. 
Last June, when the U.S. jobless rate was 
7.3 percent, there were 67 metropolitan 
areas with 8.5 percent or higher unemploy- 
ment. 

“The revitalization of urban areas is 
essential to the economic well-being of the 
nation,” the council said. “Urban poverty 
and unemployment result in lost output 
and lower tax revenues, and a greater need 
for public expenditures in social services, 
welfare and unemployment assistance — a 
vicious cycle that must be interrupted by 
a federally financed, comprehensive urban 
economic development program,” the re- 
port declared. 

The Reagan Administration, as part of 
its budget-cutting policies, has urged the 


elimination, cutting back and consolidation 
of community development programs. Last 
June, it ordered a rescission of $188 mil- 
lion in Economic Development Adminis- 
tration project funds, already approved 
for fiscal 1981 . 

For the 1982 fiscal year, the budget 
reconciliation process further reduced 
EDA to a program level of $290 million, 
down from a projected level of over $650 
million the council noted. 

Federal support for urban mass transit 
is another critical element of urban de- 
velopment which the Reagan Administra- 
tion proposes to cut back. 

The council report also dealt with the 
pressing needs of the nation’s entire trans- 
portation system — shipping, railroads, air- 
ports, and the interstate highway system. 

Report Details 
Four Mergers, 
Return of UAW 

New York — The AFL-CIO Executive 
Council approved the re-affiliation of the 
Auto Workers, four mergers involving 
eight affiliates and name changes by two 
unions during 1980 and 1981, the coun- 
cil’s convention report notes. 

The UAW had been an affiliate of the 
federation from 1955, when the AFL and 
CIO merged, but had disaffiliated in 1968. 
The council approved the issuance of a 
new charter July 1, 1981, following a 
favorable vote on reaffiliation by dele- 
gates to the previous convention of the 
Auto Workers. 

The four mergers approved by the 
council involved the Jewelry Workers and 
the Service Employees as of July 1, 1980; 
the Railway Supervisors and the Railway 
Clerks, Aug. 6, 1980; the Barbers & Beau- 
ticians and the Food & Commercial Work- 
ers, Sept. 1, 1980, and the Aluminum 
Workers and the Brick & Clay Workers, 
Sept. 1, 1981. 

The council approved the requests by 
the United Cement, Lime & Gypsum 
Workers to change the union’s name to 
United Cement, Lime, Gypsum & Al- 
lied Workers International Union and 
by the Hotel & Restaurant Employees & 
Bartenders International Union to change 
its name to Hotel Employees & Restaurant 
Employees International Union. 

In both cases the union’s jurisdiction 
remains unchanged. 


Steady Enrollment Growth 
Reported for Studies Center 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Sixteen 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi 

Federation ’s Membership 
Reaches Post-Merger High 

New York — Membership in AFL-CIO unions rose to about IS million with 
reaflfiliation of the Auto Workers, the highest since the merger of the AFL and 
the CIO in 1955. 

In terms of the two-year average of per-capita payments since the last convenp 
tion, the Executive CouncU report showed the total as of last June 30 at 13,602,- 
000, a decline of 19,000 in the face of rising unemployment and depressed con- 
ditions in many industries and not fully reflective of the UAW’s return. The 
figures reflect U.S. membership only, since affiliates do not pay per capita tax to 
the AFL-CIO on Canadian members. 

In another section of the report, Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue noted an 
increase in the AFL-CIO’s net worth of $4,469,945 in the two-year period end- 
ing last June 30. This represents the difference between total income of $61,- 
934,913 and total expenses of $57,464,968. Net worth stood at $25,544,708. 

During the two-year period since the last convention, the AFL-CIO repaid 
the remaining balance of $1,250,000 on a note payable under a bank line of 
credit, increased current investments by $2,660,000, and disbursed $1,150,000 
more than was received on behalf of the defense and special purpose funds, as 
well as funds for the Hubert H. Humphrey Chair and the AFL-CIO Legal Ser- 
vices Center. 

The report details income and expenses for the defense and special purpose 
funds and presents summaries of the activities in connection with special assess- 
ments and contributions for funds established for a chair at the Hubert H. Hum- 
phrey Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and the AFL- 
CIO Legal Services Center. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Redistricting Clouds Prospects 


Prog 


ress 


4 Years of OSHA 
Undermined by Labor Dept. 


New York — ^The Reagan Administra- 
tion is attempting to reverse four years 
of steady improvement in the administra- 
of the federal job safety law, the Execu- 
tive Council charged. 

The council said in its convention re- 
port that the Administration’s policies and 
programs are calculated to wipe out or 
frustrate gains in OSHA and constitute 
a serious threat to worker protections. 

“IN CARRYING out the anti-OSHA 
thrust of the Reagan Administration, the 
Dept, of Labor has instituted retrogressive 
changes in the act’s administration,” the 
council said. 

It cited the impact of President Rea- 
gan’s Executive Order requiring federal 
agencies to clear proposed rules with the 
Office of Management & Budget. The 
order requires that all proposals be put to 
a cost-benefit analysis and that regulations 
least costly to employers be adopted. 

“Key health standards proposed or 
promulgated by the previous Administra- 
tion have been victims either of the Presi- 
dent’s 60-day freeze on regulations or 
other subsequent actions by the Dept, of 
Labor,” the council said. It charged that 
requirements of the Executive Order “will 
stagnate OSHA rulemaking, particularly as 
it involves the development of health 
standards.” 

THE ONLY significant gains in work- 
er protections since Reagan took office 
came in Supreme Court decisions that up- 
held the labor movement’s position on the 
cotton dust standard and key sections of 
the lead standard. 

Even so, the council observed, OSHA 
has sided with the lead industry in efforts 
to block certain provisions of the stan- 
dard and has twice delayed regulations 
requiring the removal of workers from 
exposure to high levels of lead. 

Former Stevens Mill 
Signs ACTWU Pact 

New Milford, Conn. — A textile plant 
formerly owned by J. P. Stevens & Co. 
has signed a contract with the Clothing & 
Textile Workers. 

The plant — sold in July while litigation 
involving Stevens and the union still was in 
progress — was purchased by the New Mil- 
ford Non-Woven Corp., which has had 
harmonious relations with ACTWU at 
other textile mills. 

The union’s agreement with New Mil- 
ford provides for 9 percent wage increases 
in each of the three years of the contract 
period. 


Right-Wing PACs Pose 
’82 Election Challenge 


Other setbacks in worker protections 
ordered by the Labor Dept, include: 

• Withdrawal of a proposed rule re- 
quiring employers to identify toxic sub- 
stances in the workplace. 

• Revocation of a rule for payment of 
full wages to workers accompanying OSHA 
compliance officers on inspections. 

• Postponement of key provisions of 
a hearing conservation program. 

• Withdrawal of an OSHA policy de- 
signed to conform to the Supreme Court’s 
decision on the benzene cancer hazard. 

• Reduction in the OSHA compliance 
staff and a 10 percent cut in inspections. 

• Destruction of brochures on cotton 
dust hazards and halting the distribution 
of other OSHA information. 

THE COUNCIL cited further attempts 
to undermine worker protections through 
the firing of the former director of the 
National Institute for Occupational Safety 
& Health and efforts to dismantle NI- 
OSH’s headquarters operations. 

A, 39-percent slash in NIOSH’s 1982 
budget and renewed attempts in Congress 
to reduce coverage of OSHA and Mine 
Safety & Health Act also pose threats to 
worker safeguards, the council said. 


New York — ^Well-heeled corporate and 
right-wing political action committees will 
pose a serious challenge for labor-backed 
candidates in the 1982 Senate and House 
elections — ^just as they did in 1980, the 
Executive Council warned. 

Noting that campaign contributions by 
conservatives and business PACs last year 
ran five times higher than those of unions, 
the council said the financial margins must 
be substantially narrowed. 

“THERE IS NO available method for 
labor to match opposition PACs dollar for 
dollar, nor is there a need to,” the council 
said, pointing out that the PACs lack a 
broad constituency. 

“Unions can increase funding sufficient- 
ly to keep endorsed candidates competitive 
with their opponents through all-out efforts 
toward voluntary political check-offs by 
members,” the report suggested. 

And when the additional funds are com- 
bined with labor’s improving registration, 
education and get-out-the-vote programs, 
parity with opposition PACs can be 
achieved or even exceeded, the council 
said. 

ON THE 1982 congressional elections, 
the council observed that prospects for 
gains for progressives are clouded by arith- 
metic and redistricting. 

In the Senate there will be 20 Demo- 
cratic seats and only 12 Republican seats 
contested. Only a handful of GOP seats 
appear vulnerable, and some of these are 
held by moderates. 

The real impact of redistricting on the 
House is still unknown, although the shift 
of 17 seats from the Northeast and Mid- 


west to the Sunbelt could enhance oppor- 
tunities for conservatives, the report noted. 

Labor’s overall outlook for the 1982 
elections is much brighter than the set- 
backs suffered last year when conserva- 
tives captured the White House and Sen- 
ate, as well as ideological control of the 
House, the council observed. 

“THERE WERE, nevertheless, encour- 
aging victories in a generally disappointing 
year. Overall, COPE was able to help elect 
59.5 percent of all endorsed candidates for 
Congress. While several long-time Senate 
friends fell to reactionary challengers, 
COPE helped the successful re-election 
battles of at least four who were under 
concentrated attack — Thomas Eagleton, 
Patrick Leahy, Alan Cranston and Gary 
Hart. 

The council report traced the setbacks 
to weakness at the top of the ticket, which 
was beset by the twin plagues of mounting 
inflation and high unemployment — “issues 
traditionally most influential among our 
own members and large segments of the 
electorate at-large.” 

Despite that impact, the council noted 
that COPE motivated union members to 
participate in the election by a larger per- 
centage than the overall electorate. 

“NEARLY 65 percent of union mem- 
bers voted; less than 53 percent of all 
voters cast ballots,” the council said. 

A COPE ' post-election survey also 
showed that about 58 percent of voting 
union members supported President Car- 
ter, although he received only 41 percent 
of the popular vote. 


HRDI Forced to Regroup 
By Training Fund Cutback 


New York — ^The AFL-CIO and its affili- 
ates have a strong interest in employment 
and training opportunities for jobless and 
disadvantaged workers, and the Executive 
Council report on the federation’s Human 
Resources Development Institute stresses 
labor’s commitment to continue this effort 
despite cuts in the budgets of federal job 
and training programs. 

During 1980, HRDI had stepped up its 
assistance to labor organizations to help 
them use programs such as the Compre- 
hensive Employment & Training Act to 
train workers and place them in jobs while 
continuing its own job services. 

BUT SHARP reductions in the federal 
budget for national employment and train- 


Basic Protections Periled 
By Regulatory ^Reforms ’ 


New York — The AFL-CIO Executive 
Council report indicts the Reagan Admin- 
istration for abusing the regulatory pro- 
cess “in a massive campaign to eliminate 
worker, consumer and environmental pro- 
tections.” 

It has done this, the council charged, by 
emasculating regulations already in effect, 
delaying or abandoning standards that had 
been scheduled to go into effect, and cut- 
ting back on enforcement “so that em- 
ployers may violate standards without fear 
of sanction.” 

THE COUNCIL noted with concern 
the effective shift of regulatory decision- 
making from the specialized agencies re- 
sponsible for their enforcement to the 
Office of Management & Budget. 

Such a shift of power, the report sug- 
gested, conflicts with the intent of Congress 
in the Administrative Procedure Act. 

The drive for a “regulation-free, pro- 
business environment,” the council noted, 
“ignores the fact that regulations were 
established at the public’s insistence to ad- 


dress serious abuses.” 

It warned that “with regulations being 
gutted, there will be an inevitable resur- 
gence in abuses against workers, consum- 
ers and the environment.” 

The direct attack on regulatory protec- 
tions isn’t the only way the Administration 
has sought to weaken law enforcement, 
the council report pointed out. 

The Administration’s anti-regulation 
campaign is reflected also in the officials 
appointed to administer the regulatory 
agencies. “Many appointees have little or 
no knowledge or experience and only lim- 
ited interest in determining the purpose 
of the regulations and situations they were 
designed to correct,” the report charged. 

IT SCORED the Reagan Administra- 
tion also for curtailing enforcement 
through budget cuts that reduce the num- 
ber of compliance officials. 

The chief targets of the Administra- 
tion’s efforts, the report noted, “are pre- 
cisely those that protect workers and con- 
sumers.” 


ing programs resulted in a 37 percent slash 
in HRDI’s 1981 Labor Dept, contract. 
This forced the institute to reorganize its 
structure and reduce its staff in order to 
maintain a national program and as many 
services as possible. 

HRDI and AFL-CIO affiliates developed 
23,408 jobs and placed 7,857 people in 
jobs between January 1980 and April 1981, 
including 1,325 out-of-work union mem- 
bers, the council report said. The average 
starting wage for all HRDI placements in 
union jobs was $5.30 an hour. 

In 1981, HRDI stepped up its develop- 
ment and placement efforts to help workers 
who were losing their jobs as a result of 
the dismantling of CETA’s public service 
jobs program. The institute helped labor 
organizations obtain funds for 396 pro- 
grams to provide skill-training and jobs 
for 7,674 workers. 

AMONG THE special HRDI programs, 
the council report notes that in the period 
from January 1980 to April 1981: 

• 1,143 women and minorities were 
assisted in entering apprenticeship pro- 
grams by . 26 Targeted Outreach Programs. 
Budget cuts have since forced the closing 
of nine TOPs. 

• The Navajo Construction Industry 
Manpower Program, in which 13 unions 
participate, had provided training in 21 
occupations to 783 Navajos as of July 
1981. As part of the program, 415 train- 
ees became apprentices or were placed in 
jobs. HRDI’s Native American Appren- 
ticeship Outreach Program, ended in 
March 1981, placed 237 Native Americans 
in apprenticeship programs. 

• 662 disabled persons were placed in 
jobs under the Handicapped Placement 
Program. 

OTHER PROGRAMS included a de- 
monstration youth program to introduce 
young people to careers; a demonstration 
apprenticeship opportunity center in 
Houston, ended in March, and the non- 
closed HRDI Veterans’ Assistance Pro- 
gram in Oakland, Calif., which had coun- 
seled more than 75,000 veterans since 
1971. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Seventeen 


Federal Cuts 
Stymie Goals 
For Education 

New York — ^The labor movement’s goal 
of quality education for workers and their 
families is being sharply challenged by the 
policies of the Reagan Administration, the 
Executive Council said. 

“At a time when education in America 
was beginning to reflect the benefits of the 
categorical programs funded in the last 
two decades, this Administration has mis- 
read an election victory as an overwhelm- 
ing mandate to ease federal responsibility 
for educational services to workers and 
their children,” the council charged in its 
report to the convention. 

IT SAID the Administration’s budget 
cuts and spending decisions have put an 
unfair burden on public education that 
is discouraging to working people hoping 
for a “quality education program from 
kindergarten through college for them- 
selves and their children.” 

The council report emphasized that the 
labor movement, as it has for the past cen- 
tury, “must be prepared to marshal its 
forces to sustain the gains” of the past 100 
years and offer a program that responds 
to crucial education needs. 

Among the important educational areas 
threatened by Administration policies, the 
council cited: 

• Elementary and secondary school 
systems which will suffer from the virtual 
repeal of the federal aid law of 1965 and 
the folding of 28 categorical aid programs 
into block grants. 

• Impact aid to school districts with 
heavy concentrations of federal workers 
and armed forces, already cut by 50 per- 
cent and facing further cuts that will add 
to the burden of communities hard-pressed 
for adequate tax revenues. 

• Career education aid, cut 50 percent 
and made part of the block grant plan. 

• Vocational education programs that 
provide essential ' job skills to some three 
million students. The Administration has 
cut funds by $49 million and is asking for 
another 30 percent reduction in these pro- 
grams. 

• Higher education programs, for 
which Administration cutbacks include 
the phasing out of social security benefits 
for orphaned students and severe limita- 
tions on the availability of student loans. 

THE AFL-CIO believes the federal gov- 
ernment should play a leading role in edu- 
cation, the council said. 

The AFL-CIO Education Dept., the 
council report observed, has stepped up its 
efforts to introduce more and improved 
labor education into school curricula. Ef- 
forts now under way include successful 
programs in California, Michigan, Mary- 
land and Wyoming. 

Public Affairs 
Institute Termed 
Vital Resource 

New York — Creation of a Labor Insti- 
tute for Public Affairs “would provide a 
realistic and effective resource” for getting 
across organized labor’s viewpoint to union 
members and the general public, the Ex- 
ecutive Council reported. 

Establishment of the institute was ap- 
proved by the council this summer, follow- 
ing adoption of a proposal by AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland. The nonprofit 
body would be governed by the council, 
and its staff recruited from experts in the 
electronic media field. 

The institute would provide expertise 
on media technology, coordinate public re- 
lations programs, produce programs ad- 
vancing labor’s views, assist AFL-CIO 
affiliates upon request, and carry out other 
functions. 

The council’s Committee on Public Re- 
lations, re-established in February, said 
that a federation per capita increase should 
be considered to fund the institute. 





north 

DAKOTA 


MINNESOTA 


ISCONSII 


SOUTH 

DAKOTA 




IOWA 


NEBRASKA 


ILLINOI! 


COLORADO 


KANSAS 


VIRGINIA 


KENTUCKY 


MISSOURI 


,RKANSAI 


OKLAHOMA 


ARIZONA 


Mexico 


GEORGIA 


ALASKA 


CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT BY STATE 
May 1979-1981 


HAWAII 


Source: Bmployment and Barnings, BLS. 


JOB GAINS I I 
JOB LOSSES r~~i 


Victories on OSH A Enforcement 
Highlight Record Before Courts 


New York — In terms of labor’s concern, 
the most significant Supreme Court deci- 
sions since the last AFL-CIO convention 
were those supporting the federal govern- 
ment’s power to provide safety and health 
protection in the workplace. 

The ’’Labor and the Law” section of 
the Executive Council report cites these 
cases as “one of the few areas in which 
decisions favorable to labor have given 
affirmative protection to employees’ in- 
terests.” 

OVERALL, unions fared well on a 
won-and-lost “scorecard” of 52 labor- 
related cases decided by the Supreme 
Court. But most of the “wins” came in 
staving off attacks on union rights and 
worker protections, the council noted. 
There was less success in cases where un- 
ions were seeking to assert legal and con- 
stitutional rights. 

The cases decided in accord with labor’s 
position, the council report suggested, are 
symptomatic of the Supreme Court’s pres- 
ent tendency “to discourage resort to legal 
remedies rather than of any sympathy for 
labor’s goals and concerns.” 

In the occupational safety and health 
areas, the Supreme Court spoke with rare 
unanimity in upholding an OSHA regula- 
tion prohibiting employers from punishing 
a worker who refuses a task because of a 
“reasonable” fear of death or serious in- 
jury.” 

ANOTHER PLUS was the Supreme 
Court’s holding that a search warrant 
wasn’t necessary for mine inspections un- 
der the Federal Mine Safety & Health 
Act. The court made a distinction between 
the hazardous nature of mines, which by 
law must be regularly inspected, and rou- 
tine OSHA inspections which it had pre- 
viously held required a warrant if an em- 
ployer refused access. 

The court was more divided on the issue 
of occupational health standards. 

It split three ways in dealing with an 
OSHA standard that sought to reduce ex- 
posure to benzene, a cancer-causing toxic 
substance, to the lowest level feasible. 
The prevailing decision invalidated the 
standard because, it held, OSHA has not 
proved that the levels of benzene exposure 
previously allowed constituted a “signifi- 
cant risk” to the health of workers. 

THE OUTCOME was more to labor’s 
liking in a 5-4 decision upholding OSHA’s 
standard regulating cotton dust exposure. 
The majority rejected the contention that 
OSHA must justify its standards by a 
“cost-benefit” test. 

Instead, the court majority held, it need 


only show that a standard is economically 
and technically feasible. 

The council report noted apparent con- 
tradictions in decisions involving “free 
speech” constitutional rights that suggest 
a double-standard on the right to picket. 

It found in the Supreme Court decisions 
a “profoundly dispiriting message” that 
“organized labor cannot expect to be ac- 
corded the very same constitutional pro- 
tection accorded other groups.” 

ON FREE SPEECH issues, labor’s view 
is most likely to prevail “when the posi- 
tion of the opposing party will lead to 
more court access, more litigation, and 
more interference with the right of state 
governments to act free from federal over- 
sight.” 

In contrast to previous periods, there 
was a dropoff in cases involving discrim- 
ination in employment — perhaps because 
past decisions have dealt with most of the 
central issues. 

But “in the yeasty area of affirmative 
action ... the court continues with its 
cautious, indeterminate, step-by-step ap- 
proach.” 

A series of decisions affirmed, as labor 


More than a dozen consumer, business, 
labor, agricultural and citizen action 
groups have created a national organiza- 
tion to fight high interest rates and reform 
the Federal Reserve Board. 

The new National Council for Low In- 
terest Rates announced it will lead a 
campaign against high interest rates and 
to achieve targeted Federal Reserve Board 
policies. It also will campaign to get more 
non-bankers on the board. 

“THE ADMINISTRATION and the 

Congress have conspired to plunge us into 
economic chaos by recklessly cutting ex- 
penditures and taxes,” said J. C. Turner, 
president of the Operating Engineers and 
chairman of the council. “Now we want 
them to apply some of that same zeal 
toward cutting interest rates so we can 
rescue this country financially.” 

The council has two objectives. Turner 
said. The first is to pressure the Federal 
Reserve to make less money available for 
corporate take-overs, commodity specula- 
tion and condominium conversions and 


had urged, the enforceability of collective 
bargaining agreements in federal court. 
Another decision, clearly supported by evi- 
dence of the intent of Congress, affirmed 
that a union may bargain to impasse and 
strike if necessary to compel an employer’s 
participation in an existing pension and 
welfare trust fund. 

IN RECENT YEARS, unions have fre- 
quently been faced with dubious but po- 
tentially destructive lawsuits seeking huge 
sums in damages, and three Supreme 
Court decisions rejecting such suits may 
help discourage others. 

The council report suggested that in 
this area, “the general predilection of the 
present court to avoid expanding the rem- 
edies available in federal court has worked 
in favor of organized labor.” 

Two important cases involving the Em- 
ployee Retirement Income Security Act 
(ERISA), more commonly known as the 
pension reform law, were decided in ac- 
cord with labor’s views. 

The decisions, the Executive Council 
noted, “show a favorable attitude toward 
the federal law, which is designed to pro- 
tect the interests of employees under pri- 
vate pension plans.” 


therefore more money and credit available, 
at lower interest rates, for housing, con- 
structioii and manufacturing. 

The second aim is to democratize the 
board, which at present, he said, is con- 
trolled “by financial and academic types” 
whose “narrow viewpoints and experience 
have created the current unwise policies.” 

TURNER NOTED that high interest 
rates are keeping the construction industry 
depressed and have caused residential 
housing starts to dwindle to an annual 
rate of 918,000, half the 1978 rate. He 
said nearly 10 months of 20 percent-range 
interest rates have “dealt body blows” to 
auto and auto parts manufacturing, steel, 
iron, utilities and agriculture. 

Members of the council include repre- 
sentatives of the National Farmers Union, 
Full Employment Action Council, Nation- 
al Housing Conference, NAACP, General 
Contractors of New York, Auto Workers, 
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept., Car- 
penters, U.S. Conference of Mayors and 
American Public Power Association. 


New AlKance Opens Drive 
Against High Interest Rates 


Page Eighteen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.G., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 



MONUMENT HONORING fire fighters who died in the line of duty was dedi- 
cated at the National Emergency Training Center at Emmitsburg, Md., by Fire 
Fighters President John Gannon. Gannon said the memorial represents welcome 
national recognition of the hazards of the firefighting profession. About 150 fire 
fighters die each year as a result of fires. 

Stronger Labor, Rights Ties 
Pressed to Preserve Gains 


*A Force for Stagflation’ 

Housing Crisis Fuels 
Inflation, Joblessness 


New York — The labor movement and 
organizations concerned with civil and hu- 
man rights “need each other as never be- 
fore” in the face of growing assaults on 
affirmative action, equal opportunity and 
equal employment, the Executive Council 
stressed in its report to the convention. 

Labor will continue to build coalitions 
. with civil rights groups, women’s organiza- 
tions, religious organizations and others 
concerned with “human rights, equal op- 
portunity and social and economic jus- 
tice,” the report said. 

THE COUNCIL said it was “alarmed 
by what appears to be a low ebb in the na- 
tion’s commitment to civil rights” and 
noted that “the strident voices of the rad- 
ical right” are urging those who already 
oppose organized labor to “grow more 

Delegates Shape 
Legislative Goals 
In West Virginia 

Charleston, W.Va. — The West Virginia 
AFL-CIO convention adopted a state legis- 
lative program that includes collective bar- 
gaining rights for public employees. 

The 450 convention delegates also called 
on the legislature to: 

• Raise the ceiling on workers’ com- 
pensation and make other improvements. 

• Add a dependents’ benefit to unem- 
ployment insurance, raise the formula for 
determining the maximum benefit and in- 
crease the amount of incidental earnings 
allowed before payments are reduced. 

• Bar polygraph tests in employment. 

• Preserve the state’s prevailing wage 
law on construction contracts. 

The convention re-elected President 
Joseph W. Powell and Sec.-Treas. Jack R. 
McComas to four-year terms. 

On national issues, delegates firmly op- 
posed any reduction in social security ben- 
efits. And they gave strong applause to 
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), the Sen- 
ate’s minority leader, who denounced the 
Reagan Administration’s slashing of bud- 
gets for programs to assist workers, stu- 
dents, the aged and the needy. 

Gov. John D. Rockefeller IV addressed 
the convention as did a number of other 
public figures and state officials. 


and more anti-labor and anti-civil rights.” 

The need to end discrimination in the 
workplace remains acute, the council said, 
adding that civil rights enforcement by the 
federal government, relegated “to the back 
burner” by the Reagan Administration, 
is essential. The council pointed to “dis- 
abling” budget cuts by the Administra- 
tion that have hurt civil rights programs 
as well as social programs that aided mi- 
norities, women and the poor. 

THE VOTING RIGHTS Act, which re- 
sulted in a dramatic rise in black voter 
registration and helped in the election of 
more black public officials, will be up for 
renewal in 1982, the council noted, and 
vital provisions of the act should be re- 
newed to remove all remaining barriers 
to black voter participation. 

Other areas of civil rights concern cited 
by the council report include: 

• The need to expand affirmative ac- 
tion plans including the increased recruit- 
ment and preparation of women and mi- 
norities for jobs, training programs and 
promotion, particularly through the col- 
lective bargaining process. 

• Greater commitment of public re- 
sources for job development and training 
programs, such as the Comprehensive Em- 
ployment & Training Act now slashed 
by the Administration’s budget. “The like- 
lihood of minority youth never holding a 
job spells deep trouble in many central 
cities,” the council stressed. 

• Effective enforcement of civil rights 
laws that are being weakened by changes 
in procedures and practices in some fed- 
eral rights agencies. 

THE COUNCIL praised the civil rights 
activities of the A. Philip Randolph Insti- 
tute, the Coalition of Labor Union Women 
and the Labor Council for Latin Ameri- 
can Advancement, all active in commu- 
nity programs such as voter registration. 

APRI, CLUW and LCLAA also provide 
•a bridge between the labor movement and 
minorities and women, encouraging them 
to take an active role in their unions, par- 
ticipate in political activities and work for 
passage of the Equal Rights Amendment 
as well as in organizing efforts, the coun- 
cil said. 

It cited also the strong ties the labor 
movement maintains with organizations 
such as the NAACP, the Urban League, 
the National Urban Coalition, the Martin 
Luther King Center for Nonviolent 
Change, and Southern Regional Council. 


New York — High interest rates fostered 
by the Federal Reserve Board and the 
Reagan Administration have depressed the 
housing industry to the point where mil- 
lions of families cannot buy homes, the 
Executive Council noted in its report to 
the AFL-CIO convention. 

The startling decline in new home starts 
means continued joblessness in a weaken- 
ing economy, the council said. Almost 17 
percent of construction workers were un- 
employed in August, along with many 
workers in construction material indus- 
tries. 

“IN THE ABSENCE of increased pro- 
duction, housing will be a force for stag- 
flation, with continued shortages and high 
prices,” the report predicted. 

“The housing industry is being squeezed 
in a vise of high interest rates and declin- 
ing starts that is certain to aggravate infla- 
tion in housing costs for many years. 
Home buyers and other housing con- 
sumers are the victims of these forces.” 

In another section of its report, the 
council charged that the Reagan Admin- 
istration has encouraged the Federal Re- 
serve Board to maintain tight monetary 
policies to provide the semblance of an 
anti-inflation program. The result has been 
mortgage interest rates of 17 percent or 
more that have devastated the housing 
industry and its consumers. 

TO THE EXTENT that the inflation 
rate has declined this year, the council 
said, it is due to a change in the demand- 
supply situation in the world oil and food 
markets rather than the Fed’s tight-money 
policies. 

The council noted that in 1980 the brief 
implementation of credit controls proved 
to be helpful in bringing down interest 
rates significantly and reversing the pre- 
ceding decline in home building and gen- 
eral economic activity. 

Today, in the mortgage financing mar- 
ket, financial institutions and regulators 


New York — Unfair trade practices, in- 
cluding dumping and foreign government 
subsidies, continue to erode the U.S. in- 
dustrial base and destroy American jobs, 
the Executive Council said in its report 
to the convention. 

At the same time, the council noted, 
budget slashes pushed through Congress 
by the Reagan Administration have virtu- 
ally wrecked the trade adjustment assis- 
tance program for workers injured by im- 
ports. 

WHILE THE dollar volume of both im- 
ports and exports rose substantially in the 
past two years, the nation’s deficit in mer- 
chandise trade exceeded $32 billion in 
1980 and increased to an annual rate of 
$38 billion in the first half of 1981, the 
report observed. 

Problems stemming from foreign trade 
have affected more than just basic do- 
mestic Industries such as steel, autos and 
textiles, hitting many smaller industries 
and parts of industries as well. 

The council noted th^t trade in manu- 
factured goods exceeds the total U.S. out- 
put of these items by as much as 30 per- 
cent. As a result, it said, America must 
depend either partially or wholly on other 
countries for such items as aircraft parts, 
autos and auto parts, bearings, industrial 
fasteners, forgings, castings, steel and elec- 
trical products. 

THE RAPID spread of multinational 
firms and banks is also causing problems 
for U.S. service industries, affecting such 
areas as broadcasting, shipping, and air 
travel, the report noted. 

The council charged that the mechan- 
ism for relief for industries and workers 


are vigorously promoting use of variable 
rate and renegotiable mortgages that shift 
the risk of higher interest rates from lend- 
ers to homeowners, making home owner- 
ship more difficult to attain for workers. 

HOUSING STARTS in the first half of 
1981 averaged 1.3 million at an annual 
rate, the level of the previous year, but 
since then have averaged only about 1 
million. 

“The acute housing shortage, reflected 
in a second-quarter 1981 national rental 
vacancy rate of 5 percent and a 1.3 per- 
cent homeowner vacancy rate, is both an 
economic and a social problem,” the coun- 
cil observed. “It contributes to inflation 
in the sale and rental of housing and, at 
the same time, traps families in sub- 
standard housing or poor neighborhoods.” 

The poor suffer especially in a housing 
shortage, the council said. The tight rental 
housing situation continues as construc- 
tion starts of structures of five or more 
units lag below the levels needed. While 
low-income families have the greatest 
need for rental housing, there was little 
relief promised in the low rate of total 
housing construction starts in 1981. 

THE REAGAN Administration’s pro- 
posed budget authority revisions for the 
current fiscal year were intended to reduce 
the number of added low-income rental 
units that could be supported by the U.S. 
Dept, of Housing & Urban Development 
from 260,000 to 175,000 units. This was 
further reduced by Congress in the budget 
reconciliation process to about 154,000, 
the council noted. The HUD home- 
ownership assistance program had no Ad- 
ministration support at all. 

Also, the council noted, the budget rec- 
onciliation bill for 1982 raised the re- 
quired tenant rent payment for subsidized 
housing over a period of five years from 
25 to 30 percent of income. 

“This directly affects the poor, who are 
least able to cope with today’s high prices,” 
the council pointed out. 


threatened or injured by imports “has be- 
come a mockery.” It pointed out that re- 
lief was granted in only nine of 45 cases 
brought before the International Trade 
Commission since 1974. 

“Relief for the auto industry was not 
even recommended by the International 
Trade Commission, despite import injury 
affecting close to one million jobs in autos, 
parts and services,” the council said. 
“Some temporary action was taken by 
Japan in 1981 to restrain minimally auto 
exports, but no help was forthcoming for 
parts producers.” 

THE COUNCIL noted that when the 
ITC found that the leather apparel and 
shoe industries had been injured by im- 
ports, the President failed to grant relief 
in either case. 

And the minimal relief granted to the 
color television,- specialty steel and fastener 
industries was subsequently phased out or 
reduced. 

A major problem afflicting U.S. indus- 
tries and workers, the report noted, is that 
the burden of proof falls upon the injured 
party. 

‘’‘FOREIGN governments increasingly 
subsidize microprocessing devices, robots 
and telecommunications development and 
production,” the report said. Countervail- 
ing duty actions have been taken against 
subsidized imports of construction castings 
and industrial fasteners from India, but 
such actions have been few. 

The council also pointed out that the 
codes of conduct established in the 1979 
Multilateral Trade Negotiations have not 
produced substantive results since most 
nations have not endorsed the action. 


Industrial Base Threatened 
By Unfair Trade Practiees 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 


Page Nineteen 


Council Presses Struggle for Justice 


Convention Report Renews 
Century-Old Commitment 



LEADERS of American labor over the past 100 years are portrayed on the 
cover of the Executive Council’s report to the 14th convention of the AFL-CIO. 
Top row, left to right, are Lane Kirkland and George Meany, the only ones to 
serve as president of the AFL-CIO since its formation in 1955, and Walter P. 
Reuther. Center row, are. William Green, left, and Philip Murray. Bottom row, 
left to right, depicts John L. Lewis, John McBride, and Samuel Gompers. 
Reuther, Murray, and Lewis headed the CIO while Gompers, Green and McBride 
were heads of the AFL. 

Unions Take Stronger Role 
On Pension Fund Investment 


(Continued from Page 1) 
ecutive Council “and a renewed commit- 
ment to strengthen minority participation 
on the council and at every level of the 
trade union movement.” 

Reaffiliation of the Auto Workers brings 
back “a union with an outstanding tradi- 
tion of struggle for social and economic 
justice, and advances the cause of labor 
unity,” he said. 

Kirkland reported enthusiastically on 
the series of AFL-CIO regional confer- 
ences held last spring which brought of- 
ficers and national staff of the AFL-CIO 
into a “free-flowing and candid” inter- 
change of views with grass-roots union 
leaders throughout the country. 

The AFL-CIO “has met the challenge of 
transition,” Kirkland said. 

HE NOTED organizing achievements 
and the launching of a coordinated orga- 
nizing drive in Houston involving more 
than 30 international unions. 

But “the most memorable event of our 
centennial year was Solidarity Day,” Kirk- 
land said. 

That mammoth demonstration “was a 
powerful answer to the President’s charge 
that American labor is out of step with its 
rank-and-file,” he observed. 

While “no single demonstration can re- 
verse the Administration’s course,” Soli- 
darity Day sent a message that was fol- 
lowed by a partial retreat by Reagan on 
social security and school lunch cuts, and 
signs of stiffening resistance by Congress 
to Administration policies, Kirkland 
noted. 

THE FINANCIAL section of the Ex- 
ecutive Council report, by Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, cited an increase 
in the federation’s net worth over the past 
two years and includes detailed, audited 
financial statements covering AFL-CIO 
income and expenditures. 

Despite the impact of the recession, 
membership averaged over the past two 
years was virtually unchanged from the 
previous record — at 13.6 million. If the 
full membership of the newly reaffiliated 
UAW were included, the total would rise 
to about 15 million. Mergers involving 
eight unions since the last convention 
leave the number of AFL-CIO affiliated 
national and international unions at 102. 

The 35-member Executive Council in- 
cludes 13 vice presidents elected since 
1977, eight of them since the opening of 
the 1979 convention. 

A SPECIAL section of the Executive 
Council report deals with the AFL-CIO’s 
centennial year program, stressing that the 
anniversary “has provided a golden oppor- 
tunity for labor to present its story to the 
American public, as well as to its own 
members.” 

The opening of the AFL-CIO’s 14th 
convention on Nov. 16 comes 100 years 
and one day after 107 delegates met in 
Pittsburgh to establish the Federation of 
Organized Trades & Labor Assemblies, 
which evolved into the American Federa- 
tion of Labor and then the AFL-CIO. 

Sections of the council report deal with 
activities of AFL-CIO headquarters de- 
partments, the George Meany Center for 
Labor Studies, the federation’s Human 
Resources Development Institute and 
other specialized functions. 

LABOR’S international role is spot- 
lighted in a 20-page section that points up 
the AFL-CIO’s staunch commitment to 
human rights everywhere in the world. It 
reports on the federation’s assistance to 
the Solidarity trade union federation of 
Poland, participation in international or- 
ganizations, and the activities of the AFL- 
CIO’s own American Institute for Free 
Labor Development, African-American 
Labor Center and the Asian-American 
Free Labor Institute. 

In the domestic area, the Executive 


Council report covers 1980 and 1981 de- 
velopments in Congress and the Supreme 
Court and examines in substantial detail 
the shape of the U.S. economy. 

It cites the abnormally small growth in 
jobs and the squeeze on workers’ pay- 
checks as wage increases continue to trail 
living costs. 

AFTER INFLATION and tax deduc- 
tions, the report notes, the average work- 
er’s buying power decreased by 9.7 per- 
cent over the July 1979 to July 1981 
period. 

In dozens of specific subject areas cov- 
ered by the council report, the impact of 
the Reagan Administration’s policies and 
budget cuts is a recurrent theme. 

The report cites the shortchanging of 
city and state needs through elimination 
and underfunding of federal grant pro- 
grams. 

It cites the severe decline in housing 
starts under the battering of tight money 
and high interest. 

ENERGY conservation programs have 
been discarded, clean air goals virtually 
abandoned, and transportaiton needs un- 
met, the council notes. 

Occupational safety and health progress 
has been set back, the report details, 
through retreat on regulations as well as 
through budget cuts and legislative 
changes. 

The Reagan Administration has “sub- 
stituted dollar costs for human values,” 
the council charges. “No longer is the 
safety and health of workers the prime 
concern, but rather the protection of 
management from being requested to pro- 
vide a safe and healthful workplace.” 

THE REPORT takes note of the virtual 
abandonment of trade adjustment as- 
sistance for workers whose jobs have been 
wiped out by imports, and the severe cuts 
in food stamps, social services and welfare 
for the needy. 

All of the government’s prevailing wage 
and labor standards are threatened by ad- 
ministrative changes in regulations as well 
as legislative attacks, the council reports. 
At stake is the preservation of “the basic 
principle that businesses should not com- 
pete for government contracts by exploit- 
ing workers and endangering their health 
and safety.” 

A civil rights section of the Executive 
Council report points up the fact that 
progress made over the past quarter-cen- 
tury is endangered by budget actions as 
well as “by what appears to be a low ebb 
in the nation’s commitment to civil rights.” 

IT NOTES that “the Reagan Adminis- 
tration’s meat-axe slashing of employment 
and training funds falls heaviest on minor- 
ity, women and disadvantaged young work- 
ers.” And with unemployment “at dan- 
gerously high levels,” black joblessness is 
more than twice the rate of whites. 

A political activities section of the Ex- 
ecutive Council report cited the nation’s 
economic ills and “weakness at the top 
of the ticket” as factors contributing to the 
conservative takeover in the 1980 elec- 
tions. And “the Democratic Party, na- 
tionally and in most states, was at its 
weakest level in many years.” 

Nevertheless, the report points out that 
COPE helped bring a 65 percent turnout 
of union members — compared with less 
than 53 percent for the nation as a whole. 
Key precinct checks gave President Carter 
58 percent of support from union mem- 
bers compared with his 41 percent overall 
vote. 

CONSIDERING the record of the Rea- 
gan Administration since taking office, 
Kirkland wrote in the introduction to the 
council report, “the labor movement can 
be proud of COPE’s efforts.” 

In opposing Reagan’s candidacy, “we 
were right a year ago,” Kirkland said, and 
“we are still right.” 


New York — Considerable progress has 
been made at all levels of the labor move- 
ment during the past two years on issues 
involved in the investment of union pen- 
sion funds, the Executive Council reported. 

The council cited the response of AFL- 
CIO affiliates to the recommendations of 
its special committee on pensions that 
member unions take an active role in shap- 
ing the investment and management of 
their funds with the aim of serving the 
best interests of participants and benefici- 
aries. 

NATIONAL, regional and local labor 
organizations have undertaken a wide 
range of actions outlined by the Committee 
on the Investment of Union Pension 
Funds, the council noted in its report to 
the convention. These have included: 

• Establishment of investment accounts 
to target portions of union pension funds 
toward union-built construction and other 
enterprises. 

• Negotiation of collective bargaining 
agreements providing for a greater union 
voice in the management of employer- 
controlled plans. 

• Development of new accounts by 


state public employee pension funds to 
provide for low-cost home mortgages, in- 
vestment in construction and other eco- 
nomic activity aimed at creating jobs. 

• Exercise of shareholder rights to ad- 
vance union interests in collective bargain- 
ing. equal employment opportunity, job 
safety and health, and plant closings. 

THE COUNCIL noted that some prog- 
ress also has been made in the administra- 
tion of the federal Employee Retirement 
Income Security Act, but that many prob- 
lems still exist — largely because admin- 
istrative duties are split between the Labor 
and Treasury Departments. 

The report welcomed legislation, signed 
into law last September, strengthening ter- 
mination insurance provisions on multi- 
employer pension plans. Another major 
development in the past two years was a 
recommendation of a presidential com- 
mission calling for a universal pension sys- 
tem for all workers, although the council 
noted that other proposals of the commis- 
sion could be detrimental. 

The council also reported that the AFL- 
CIO Mortgage Investment Trust is being 
reorganized to widen investment oppor- 
tunities for union pension funds. 



Page Twenty 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 14, 1981 



CHANGES PROPOSED by the Reagan Administration in regulations govern- 
ing the Service Contract Act would deprive tens of thousands of workers of the 
law’s prevailing wage guarantees, union witnesses charged at House hearings. 
Testifying here is Machinists Vice President George J. Poulin. With him are 
lAM Economist Stanley Wisniewski, left, and Atty. Joseph Manners, right. 

Social Programs Victims 
Of Budget-Cutting Overkill 


Donahue Hits 
Wage-Busting 
On Standards 

(Continued from Page 1) 
changes “that undermine wages, working 
conditions and quality of work.” 

A proposed change that would apply 
the law’s protections only to contracts in 
which the provision of services is the 
“principal purpose” would exclude more 
than two-thirds of. the men and women 
employed to clean government-leased fa- 
cilities, he protested. 

OTHER PROPOSED changes, Sweeney 
testified, in effect “guarantee” that contrac- 
tors located in low-wage areas will be 
given preference. 

• Machinists Vice President George J. 
Poulin stressed that Congress demon- 
strated its support of the prevailing wage 
principle by enacting amendments in both 
1972 and 1976 that enlarged the law’s 
protections. The 1972 amendments re- 
quired contractors to honor the terms of 
prior collective bargaining agreements if 
they successfully bid on a contract, and 
the 1976 change expanded coverage to 
include white collar as well as blue collar 
workers. 

Changes sought by the Labor Dept., in- 
cluding exemption of maintenance and re- 
pair of high technology equipment, “will 
practically repeal” portions of the law, he 
charged. 

“Government departments are supposed 
to carry out, not subvert, congressional 
intent,” Poulin said. 

• Laborers Legislative Director John 
T. Curran said enactment of the Service 
Contract Act made it possible for “some 
of the most exploited and some of the 
most victimized workers” to begin to im- 
prove their conditions. Previously, when- 
ever workers organized or obtained a raise, 
their gains would be wiped out when a 
competing employer took over the contract 
on the basis of a substandard wage scale, 
without fringe benefits. 

THE PRINCIPLE of the law remains 
as valid today as when it was first en- 
acted, Curran insisted. “Quite simply, it 
is not the role of government to force 
down wages.” 

The economic impact analysis on which 
the Labor Dept, justifies its regulatory pro- 
posals, Curran stressed, deals exclusively 
with the effect on industry and the govern- 
ment agencies contracting for services. “In 
not one sentence does it examine the eco- 
nomic cost to workers of having their 
wages cut, of forfeiting their health cov- 
erage, of retiring with no pension plan . . . 
or losing their jobs because of the con- 
stant turnover of service contracts.” 

In the AFL-CIO’s testimony, Donahue 
challenged the Administration’s apparent 
assumption that something must be wrong 
with a program to protect labor standards 
if it results in a higher cost to the gov- 
ernment. 

Federal procurement procedures that 
bar awarding contracts on the basis of the 
lowest wages and most substandard condi- 
tions “are expected to result in higher 
costs” than with a lack of standards, Don- 
ahue commented. If that were not the 
case, “there would be no need for them,” 
he said. But a proper regulatory analysis, 
he suggested, should consider “the bene- 
fits which flow to the workers and society 
as a whole.” 


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New York — Social security protections, 
health programs, welfare reform, social 
services and food stamp assistance have 
been among the most visible targets of the 
Reagan Administration and its allies in 
Congress. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council re- 
port points up the overkill of President 
Reagan’s recommendations for slashing 
social security benefits to meet funding 
problems that can be resolved through 
less drastic means. 

PUBLIC UPROAR over the Reagan 
plan forced the Administration to pull 
back in what the council termed “a tempo- 
rary retreat while the President explores 
social security cuts by other means.” 

Both Medicare for the elderly and 
Medicaid for the poor have been cut back 
as a result of Administration budget pres- 
sure, although not quite as heavily as the 
President had sought. 

The council termed the Medicare cuts, 
which include a requirement that the elder- 
ly pay more in out-of-pocket deductibles, 
a breach of Reagan’s “pre-election pledge 
not to cut social security benefits for the 
aged.” 

THE COUNCIL noted also the substan- 
tial cutback in the food stamp program, 
including the dropping of assistance to 
more than 1 million persons, reduction of 
help for others, and banning outright food 
stamps to families of workers who are 


(Continued from Page 1) 

victims of the Reagan recession. “For 
them, the desolation is 100 percent,” he 
said. 

AT THE WHITE HOUSE, Deputy 
Press Sec. Larry Speakes said the Presi- 
dent considers the unemployment situation 
to be a “natural short-term consequence 
of unwinding the deeply rooted inflation 
that is embedded in the American econ- 
omy. . . . We anticipate that the rate 
could move somewhat higher over the 
next few months before declining as the 
economy strengthens in 1982.” 

But House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill 
Jr. (D-Mass.), in remarks at a conference 
of business leaders in New York, said the 
current recession is a “deliberate and con- 
scious policy” of the Administration. 

THE AFL-CIO Executive Council last 
February warned that Reagan’s budget, 
monetary, and regulatory proposals would 
require “more sacrifice from those who 
have little,” and make those who are 
already wealthy the only “sure winners” 
in a hazardous “high-risk gamble with the 
future of America.” 

Reflecting the pervasiveness of the re- 
cession throughout the economy, employ- 
ment gains in October were registered by 
only one-third of the 172 industries that 
report monthly to the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. BLS Commissioner Janet L. 


on strike, even though they are eligible 
on the basis of need. 

Looking at the health care field, the 
council report cited the continuing escala- 
tion of costs, coupled with the Adminis- 
tration’s determination to reduce federal 
programs and shift costs to the states and 
private sector. 

The federal health programs that were 
continued intact, rather than consolidated 
into reduced-funding block grants to the 
states, have had their spending authoriza- 
tions cut 25 percent as part of the budget 
process. 

WELFARE REFORM proved to be an- 
other victim of the Reagan Administra- 
tion, the council report observed. 

Action already taken through the con- 
gressional budget process includes: . 

• Reducing aid to families with de- 
pendent children (AFDC), “in some cases 
to less than 50 percent of the poverty 
level.” 

• Slashing payments to the working 
poor, “thus punishing mothers who under 
the most adverse circumstances are trying 
to work their way off the welfare rolls.” 

• Imposing work-without-pay obliga- 
tions for persons receiving AFDC assis- 
tance. 

• Disqualifying the family of a striker 
from obtaining welfare assistance based 
on loss of income. 


Norwood, at a congressional Joint Eco- 
nomic Committee hearing, said the Oc- 
tober statistics showed a “substantial de- 
terioration” in the labor market. The larg- 
est employment decline was in manufac- 
turing, led by transportation equipment, 
lumber and wood products, and electrical 
equipment. 

NORWOOD NOTED that the number 
of persons working part time because their 
hours were cut back or they were unable 
to find full-time work reached a record 5 
million in October. One experimental mea- 
sure of unemployment, which counts part 
of these workers as unemployed, put the 
jobless rate for the month at 10.4 percent, 
instead of 8 percent. 

Most of the increase in joblessness was 
among workers who lost their jobs and 
people who had worked previously, then 
left the labor market and were looking for 
jobs again, BLS said. 

The rise in unemployment among adult 
males was particularly sharp, from 6.2 to 
6.7 percent. Teenage joblessness jumped 
from 19.3 to 20.6 percent, the highest level 
in six years. Unemployment among full- 
time workers rose over the month from 
7.2 to 7.7 percent. 

THE LAST TIME the overall national 
jobless rate was as high as 8 percent was 
in December 1975, when it reached 8.2 
percent. The postwar unemployment peak 


Rail Carriers, 
Labor Back 
Safety Plan 

For the first time in their long relation- 
ship, railroad labor and managenient have 
cooperated in working out proposed fed- 
eral safety rules that promise safer condi- 
tions for workers, increased efficiency for 
the carriers and greater safety and savings 
for the public. 

Chairman Fred Hardin of the Railway 
Labor Executives Association announced 
that the RLEA safety committee headed 
by J. R. Snyder hammered out the safety 
proposals with the American Association 
of Railroads. 

THE RLEA AND AAR presented to 
Federal Railroad Administrator Robert 
W. Blanchette their proposed changes in 
safety regulations on power brake rules, 
track standards, and the strict enforcement 
of penalties for violations. 

A significant change calls for a “car 
inspector” to make a thorough inspection 
of a train and certify its safety to the engi- 
neer before its departure from the initial 
terminal. The inspector will check the 
brakes and look for cracked wheels, bro- 
ken flanges and other unsafe conditions. 

The proposed new rule probably would 
have averted a serious runaway train acci- 
dent near Kelso, Calif., a year ago which 
took the lives of three rail workers and 
caused $1.2 million in damage. Just a few 
weeks ago, the National Transportation 
Safety board criticized the Union Pacific 
Railroad for the faulty braking system on 
the 20-car work train. The train had gone 
out of control down a long grade at 120 
miles an hour, crashing into a UP freight 
train which had speeded up to 80 miles an 
hour to avoid the collision. 

TO PUT TEETH in the safety inspec- 
tion proposal, the RLEA and AAR agreed 
that penalties for violation of the regula- 
tions “will not be compromised.” At pres- 
ent, penalties of $250 to $2,500 are as- 
sessed for violations, but the practice is to 
let them accumulate and then bargain them 
downward. 

Another key proposal would strengthen 
track standards by requiring that a quali- 
fied supervisor be on the scene while seg- 
ments of track are being repaired or re- 
newed. 

HARDIN AND Snyder said the pro- 
posed changes would substantially improve 
the safety conditions for rail employees and 
also save the railroads and the public mil- 
lions of dollars now lost because of unsafe 
trains, track and accidents. 


of 9 percent occurred in May 1975. Dur- 
ing the 1980 recession, the rate topped 
off at 7.6 percent. 

Total employment was unchanged over 
the month at 98,217,000 as a decline 
among adult men and teenagers was offset 
by an increase among adult women. But 
nonfarm payroll employment declined sig- 
nificantly, by 200,000. 

Two-thirds of the over-the-month de- 
crease in factory employment took place 
in durable goods industries. The service- 
producing sector as a whole registered a 
gain of 90,000 jobs over the month, al- 
though the only sizable increases were in 
the services industry and in retail trade. 

Over the last three months, employment 
in steel has dropped by 35,000 jobs, autos 
by 80,000, lumber and wood products by 
40,000, and state and local government 
employment by 160,000. Construction 
over the past year is down by 130,000 
jobs. 

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The next issue of the AFL-CIO News 
will be published Nov. 28, 1981, because 
of the convention and Thanksgiving holi- 
day schedules. 

That issue will contain detailed cov- 
erage of the actions of the AFL-GIO’s 
100th anniversary convention. 

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Reaganomics Blamed for 8fo Jobless Rate 






Convention Charts Conrse 
To Advance Labor’s Goals 


Vol. XXVI No. 4*7 

Saturday, November 28, 1981 


Per Capita Rise 
Voted to Fund 
New Programs 

New York — Major programs to expand 
the actvities and services of the AFL-CIO 
drew the support of the convention with 
its approval of a two-step increase in the 
federation’s per capita payment to pro- 
vide the necessary funds. 

Beginning with payments for next Jan- 
uary, the monthly per capita tax paid by 
affiliates on their U.S. membership will in- 
crease from the present 19 cents to 24 
cents. Starting with payments for January 
1983, the payment will go up another 3 
cents, for a total of 27 cents. 

THE CONVENTION unanimously 
adopted the Executive Council’s recom- 
mendation for the per capita increase 
based on a study by the council’s finance 
committee, which projected added costs 
for the new program at almost $11 million 
a year. 

The council listed five areas of expanded 
activity and initiatives by the federation: 

• Creation of the Institute for Public 
Affairs, continuation of the regional con- 
ferences held for the first time last spring, 
work with the Budget Coalition and simi- 
lar special activities, which will require 
expenditures of about $3 million a year. 

• Reaffiliation of the AFL-CIO with 
the International Confederation of Free 
Trade unions, just approved by the coun- 
cil and endorsed by the convention, which 
involves dues of $1.5 to $1.6 million a 
year plus $175,000 a year in contributions 
to the ICFTU’s Solidarity Fund. 

• Construction of the George Meany 
Memorial Library and Archives at the 

(Continued on Page 2) - 


TOP OFFICERS of the AFL-CIO, President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue, salute the convention delegates following their re-election 
by acclamation to new two-year terms. 


New Century 
Opens on Era 
Of Challenge 

By John M. Barry 

New York — The AFL-CIO opened a 
new century for the organized^ American 
labor movement with a program to build 
on the foundations of its pioneers and sur- 
mount the challenges facing the nation’s 
workers and their unions. 

The 14th convention was the celebra- 
tion of a century of achievement since the 
AFL-CIO’s birth in November 1881 as the 
Federation of Organized Trades & Labor 
Unions. 

BUT THE CONVENTION was much 
more than a tribute to past victories. Its 
overriding theme was the determination of 
the 836 delegates to carry forward the 
spirit of solidarity with policies and pro- 
grams to spur union growth, preserve 
workers’ rights and deal with economic 
and political change. 

“We are here in strength and vigor,’’ 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland told 
the delegates, “because those who went 
before us and built this great instrument 
of progress did indeed adapt its role and 

(Continued on Page 3) 


Kirkland Dissects Reagan Policy Failures 


By David L. Periman 

New York — AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland keynoted the federation’s cen- 
tennial convention with a sharp-edged dis- 
section of Reagan Administration policies 
and a summons to the trade union move- 
ment to get America back on course. 

On the domestic front, Kirkland scored 
the President’s “carrot-and-stick’’ policy 
of lavish rewards for the rich and “for the 
poor, a stick.” 

HE SPOKE OF the shambles the Rea- 
gan Administration has made of the 
economy and noted that its lauded “mas- 
tery of Congress” has pushed unemploy- 
ment to new heights while depressing the 
“real wages” of those still employed. 

Kirkland contrasted the “amiable” pub- 
lic image of President Reagan with the 
“cold heart and hard fist” he displayed to 
the fired air traffic controllers. After hav- 
ing used “the full force of government to 
break a small union,” was it then necessary 
to “shoot its wounded,” Kirkland asked. 

Administration foreign policy blunders 


have dismayed America’s allies, Kirkland 
charged, and its human rights policy seems 
to be based on a fine distinction “between 
lice who are totalitarian and lice who are 
authoritarian.” The labor movement still 
stands for “freedom of association every- 
where,” Kirkland declared. 

DELEGATES repeatedly interrupted 
Kirkland with applause and especially de- 
lighted in his tongue-lashing of David 
Stockman, the director of the Office of 
Management & Budget who admitted in a 
magazine interview that the Administra- 
tion’s “supply-side” theory is merely 
trickle-down economics in sheep’s clothing. 

Nothing the Administration’s critics 
could say is even half as devastating as the 
“fleeting spasms of honesty of its leading 
hatchet man,” Kirkland suggested. 

“You don’t have to be an old sailor to 
know what it means when the smartest rat 
on board heads for the hawsepipe,” he 
said. 

KIRKLAND admitted a lack of sym- 
pathy for the embarrassment of Stockman, 


whose “proudest boast” is the destruction 
of public service employment and trade 
adjustment assistance programs. 

“He was the original interior decorator 
of this economic house of ill repute,” 
Kirkland said, and now claims “he was 
only the piano player in the parlor” and 
“never knew what was going on upstairs.” 

Kirkland’s keynote was more than a 
biting commentary on an Administration 
that “promised us a boom and brought us 
a bust.” 

He spoke of the drastic changes that 
have taken place in the nation and its labor 
movement in the hundred years of the 
AFL-CIO and its immediate predecessor 
trade union federations. 

THE NEXT century will see equally 
drastic changes, Kirkland predicted, and 
the labor movement will meet the chal- 
lenge. 

Labor has sometimes lagged behind and 
“at times we have surged ahead” of the 
curve of change, he noted. “Like our na- 
(Continued on Page 3) 





Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 



Per Cap Rise 
Voted to Fund 
New Services 


(Continued from Page 1) 

Labor Studies Center campus in Silver 
Spring, Md. 

• Full funding from general revenues 
of the activities of the Committee on Po- 
litical Education at a level of $3.5 million 
a year, along with the full assumption by 
the federation of the grants now being 
made by a number of affiliates to help fi- 
nance the activities of such support groups 
as Frontlash, the A. Philip Randolph Insti- 
tute and the Labor Council for Latin 
American Advancement. 


NEW VICE PRESIDENTS elected to the AFL-CIO Execu- 
tive Council are shown with Federation President Lane 
Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. They are, 
from left, Letter Carriers President Vincent R. Sombrotto; 


Glass Bottle Blowers President James E. Hatfield; Donahue; 
AFGE Women’s Affairs Director Barbara B. Hutchinson; 
Kirkland; Railway & Airline Clerks President Richard I. 
Kilroy, and Seafarers President Frank Drozak. 


Kirkland^ Donahue Get New Terms, 
Five Newcomers Elected to Council 


New York — AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Don- 
ahue were re-elected by acclamation to 
their second two-year terms at the federa- 
tion’s centennial convention. 

They will share leadership with 33 other 
Executive Council members, the vice presi- 
dents of the AFL-CIO. 

FIVE NEW members elected to the 
council are Frank Drozak, president of the 
Seafarers; James E. Hatfield, president of 
the Glass Bottle Blowers; Barbara B. 
Hutchinson, director of women’s affairs for 
the Government Employees; Richard I. 
Kilroy, president of the Railway & Airline 
Clerks, and Vincent R. Sombrotto, presi- 
dent of the Letter Carriers. 

The 28 incumbent vice presidents re- 
elected are John H. Lyons, Thomas W. 
Gleason, Frederick O’Neal, Jerry Wurf, 
S. Frank Raftery, Martin J. Ward, Mur- 
ray H. Finley, Albert Shanker, Glenn E. 
Watts, Sol C. Chaikin, Edward T. Hanley, 
Angelo Fosco, Charles H. Pillard, J. C. 
Turner, Lloyd McBride, David J. Fitz- 
maurice, Kenneth T. Blaylock, Alvin E. 
Heaps, William W. Winpisinger, William 
H. Wynn, John J. O’Donnell, John De- 
Concini, Wayne E. Glenn, Robert F. Goss, 
William Konyha, Joyce D. Miller, John J. 
Sweeney and Douglas Fraser. 

Kirkland, 59, succeeded George Meany 
as president of the federation at the 1979 
convention shortly before Meany’s death. 
He earned his union card as a merchant 
marine officer in World War II, in the 
Masters, Mates & Pilots, which is now an 
affiliate of the Longshoremen. 

HIS APPRENTICESHIP for the AFL- 
CIO presidency included nine years as 
executive assistant to Meany, followed by 
a decade as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. 

ILA President Thomas W. Gleason 
placed Kirkland’s name in nomination, 
and the president of the Masters-Mates, 
Robert Lowen, and Operating Engineers 
President J. C. Turner seconded it. Retir- 
ing AFL-CIO Vice President William H. 
McClennan, who was presiding, reported 
no further nominations. Vice President 
John H. Lyons moved for a unanimous 
ballot — ^^and the delegates welcomed Kirk- 
land back to the microphone with a stand- 
ing ovation. 

“We have a great deal of work to do 
together,” he told them, “in carrying out 
the strong mandates of this convention. 

. . . Let’s buckle down to it.” 

DONAHUE, 53, a former assistant sec- 
retary of labor, had been a vice president 
of the Service Employees before becoming 
executive assistant to Meany in 1973, and 
SEIU President John J. Sweeney placed 
his name in nomination, with New York 
City Central Labor Council President 
Plarry Van Arsdale seconding it. 

Donahue responded to his re-election 
with a pledge that the federation’s leader- 


ship team will continue “to advance the 
interests of the members we serve and to 
assure for them the kind of decent, mili- 
tant, progressive, scrupulously honest la- 
bor movement they deserve.” 

Drozak, 53, is president of the AFL- 
CIO Maritime Trades Dept, as well as the 
Seafarers. In both posts, he succeeded the 
late Paul Hall. Drozak was born in Ala- 
bama, went to work in a Mobile shipyard 
at 16, went to sea during World War II 
as a boatswain, and held increasingly im- 
portant SIU posts during the post-war 
years. 

HATFIELD, 50, has been president of 
the GBBA since 1977 and previously was 
the union’s secretary-treasurer. He is a 
native of Pennsylvania, but joined the un- 
ion when working at the Kimble Glass Co. 
in Columbus, Ohio. He moved through 
the ranks to become president of his local, 
a union organizer and regional director 
before becoming secretary-treasurer. 

Hutchinson,* 35, as director of women’s 
affairs for the Government Employees, is 
one of the four national elected officers of 
the union. She is an attorney, most recent- 
ly with the Equal Employment Opportu- 
nity Commission, and started as a shop 
steward for her AFGE local. She is a 
graduate of the University of Pittsburgh 
and the Dickinson School of Law. Her 
husband is an attorney in private practice, 
and they are parents of sons aged three 
and five. 

Kilroy, 54, became president of the 
Railway & Airline Clerks on the death of 
Fred J. Kroll earlier this year. He became 
a railroad telegrapher on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad in Baltimore in 1951 and moved 
through that union’s ranks to become the 
system general chairman. A merger made 
the union part of BRAC, and he was 
elected an international vice president in 
1973. 

SOMBROTTO, 58, has headed the Let- 
ter Carriers since 1979 and previously led 
the NALC’s big New York local. He 
joined the postal service in 1947 and came 
to national attention in 1970 as a leader 
of the New York postal strike that turned 
out to be a key factor in achieving bar- 
gaining rights for postal workers under 
the Postal Reorganization Act. 

The election of Hutchinson to the Ex- 
ecutive Council, like the earlier election 
of Joyce D'. Miller, a vice president of the 
Clothing Workers, was the outgrowth of a 
mandate from the previous AFL-CIO con- 
vention to explore ways to bring the view- 
point of women and minorities to the 
highest levels of trade union leadership. 

Last year, the Executive Council con- 
cluded that this could best be done by 
waiving, for two council seats, the tradi- 
tions that only a general officer of a union 
would be considered for the Executive 
Council and that there would be no more 


than one representative of any union 
among the federation’s vice presidents. 

Both the AFGE and the Clothing & 
Textile Workers now have*^ two council 
members. 

AT A SESSION immediately after the 
end of the convention, the new council 
adopted resolutions praising the record of 
service of the four members who left the 
council — Peter Bommarito of the Rubber 
Workers, A1 H. Chesser of the United 
Transportation Union, William H. Mc- 
Clennan of the Fire Fighters, and Dan V. 
Maroney of the Amalgamated Transit 
Union. 

The convention itself memorialized the 
late Fred J. Kroll of BRAC and other 
union leaders who died since the 1979 
convention. 


New York — The AFL-CIO convention 
moved to improve the federation’s internal 
disputes procedures under Article XX of 
the constitution through the use of a per- 
manent mediator or mediators and crea- 
tion of a nine-member Appeals Committee. 

The convention adopted the report of 
its Constitution Committee that Section 8 
of Article XX be amended to provide for 
the appointment by the president of the 
permanent mediator or mediators and that 
Section 13 be amended to cover the new 
Appeals Committee. 

THE RECOMMENDATIONS grew out 
of a study by an Executive Council com- 
mittee which found that the existing sys- 
tem of naming mediators on an ad hoc 
basis had not proved entirely, satisfactory. 
The council said the availability of a per- 
manent mediator would speed considera- 
tion of internal disputes cases. 

The council also found that the present 
system of dealing with appeals from the 
rulings of impartial umpires, first through 
a council subcommittee and then through 
the full council, cuts too deeply into its 
meeting time. 

The nine-member Appeals Committee 
approved by the convention will consist of 
the president, the secretary-treasurer and 
seven vice presidents drawn from various 
sectors of the labor movement. The vice 
presidents on the committee will be nomi- 
nated by the president for two-year terms 
and approved by the council. No more 
than four vice presidents may be nomi- 
nated for a second term, and no vice presi- 
dent may serve more than two consecutive 
terms. 

While the rulings of the Appeals Com- 


• Operation of the cooperative orga- 
nizing program recently launched in Hou- 
ston, with the allocation of $250,000 a 
year for the next four years as an addi- 
tional fund for this and subsequent cam- 
paigns. 

COMMENTING on its projection of 
nearly $11 million a year in added costs as 
a result of these activities, the council ob- 
served that the federation has been striv- 
ing to cut expenses and improve efficiency 
of current operations, but it noted that 
they are affected “by all of the long-run 
factors which are pushing up costs for all 
affiliates.” 

On the full funding of COPE activities 
from general revenues, the report said this 
would replace the past system of direct 
COPE quota payments by affiliates and 
help the AFL-CIO develop an even more 
effective program to insure the political 
education and encourage the political ac- 
tivism of union members. Affiliates that 
continue to conduct joint fund-raising 
drives for voluntary political contributions 
will receive “a suitable exoneration” of a 
portion of the per capita payment, with 
the amount to be decided by the council. 

On the Meany Memorial Library and 
Archives, approved by. the council last year 
as the AFL-CIO’s chief tribute to its late 
president, funds would be set aside for 
construction costs in the amount of $1 mil- 
lion in 1983 and $2 million in 1984. In 
addition, administrative costs are antici- 
pated at $125,000 in 1983 and $250,000 
a year subsequently. 


mittee will be final, the council as a whole 
will retain authority to issue policy state- 
ments “having prospective effect on the 
implementation of Article XX” for the 
guidance of umpires, council subcommit- 
tees and the Appeals Committee. 

IN OTHER constitutional amendments, 
the convention approved revision of: 

• Article IV, Section 8, dealing with 
the method for computing convention 
voting strength of affiliates. Henceforth the 
basis will be average monthly per capita 
payments for the 24-month period of the 
AFL-CIO’s two fiscal years before the con- 
vention. 

• Article XI, Sections 3 and 4, to strike 
references to the Railway Employes’ Dept., 
which has disbanded. 

• Article XI, Sections 6 and 7, to pro- 
vide for annual reports to the AFL-CIO 
from each of its constitutional depart- 
ments, rather than quarterly reports, and 
for the attendance by the chief executive 
officer of each department at the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council’s regular meetings. 

Public TV Series on Labor 
Endorsed by Delegates 

New York — The AFL-CIO convention 
endorsed a proposed public television series 
— Made in U.S.A. — that would tell the 
story of America’s workers and their un- 
ions. 

More than 30 unions have provided 
seed money and others have pledged pro- 
duction support, the convention noted. 
Contributions also have been obtained 
from the National Endowment for the 
Humanities, Corporation for Public Broad- 
casting, foundations and other sources. 


Amendments to Artiele XX 
Refine Disputes Procedures 


AFt^ClO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Page Three 


Convention Links Labor’s Past, Future 



MURRAY-GREEN-MEANY AWARD for outstanding community service is 
presented at the convention to Danny Thomas by AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland and Vice President Peter Bommarito, chairman of the Executive Coun- 
cil’s Community Services Committee. Thomas was honored for his founding and 
fund-raising support of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. 

Award Cites Danny Thomas 
For Aid to Stricken Children 


(Continued from Page 1) 

structure to the needs and demands of 
their times.” 

AND AS THE AFL-CIO crosses into 
its second century, Kirkland said, “soli- 
darity remains the indispensable key to 
the future.” 

The convention responded by charting 
a course based on 87 policy resolutions 
and the approval of an eight-cent increase 
in per capita payments to finance expand- 
ed programs and new activities. 

The ^delegates re-elected Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue by accla- 
mation and chose a 33-member Executive 
Council that includes five new vice presi- 
dents. 

The convention welcomed and supported 
the decision of the Executive Council to 
rejoin the International Confederation of 
Free Trade Unions, and it saluted Poland’s 
Solidarity union as an inspiration to work- 
ers everywhere. 

ON DOMESTIC matters, a recurring 
theme was the devastation being wrought 
by the Reagan Administration’s policies 
on the nation’s programs for social prog- 
ress, the living standards and job protec- 
tions of workers and the subsistence of the 
poor. 

Of President Reagan himself, Kirkland 
observed: “He has shown a cold heart and 
a hard fist, but where, indeed, is the rest of 
him?” 

Kirkland particularly denounced Rea- 
gan’s harsh treatment of the striking Air 
Traffic Controllers in ordering their dis- 
missal and seeking to break their small 
union, and a convention resolution called 
on the President to end his “demeaning 
vendetta” against PATCO. 

From the political sphere, sharp and 
universal condemnation of the Adminis- 
tration’s conservative economic and social 
policies came in addresses to the delegates 
by former Vice President Walter Mondale, 
Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
and Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), House 
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., and New 
York Gov. Hugh Carey. 

THE CONVENTION’S economic poli- 
cy resolution spelled out, alternatives to 
the Reagan Administration’s “trickle- 
down” philosophy and called for its imple- 
mentation on an emergency basis to halt 
the snowballing recession and lay a solid 
foundation for economic growth and full 
employment. 

To spur trade union growth, the conven- 
tion reaffirmed the AFL-CIO’s commit- 
ment to organizing the unorganized, em- 
ploying innovative as well as proven tech- 
niques and strategies, with particular em- 
phasis on cooperative drives such as the 
project recently launched in Houston. 

The central convention resolution on 
foreign affairs addressed problerns in the 
major trouble spots of the world and called 
on the U.S. government to key its rela- 
tions with other nations to their human 
rights policies. 

THE DELEGATES also pledged contin- 
uing support for Histadrut, Israel’s trade 
union federation, and urged support of a 
new fund set up by the Executive Council 
to assist black unions in South Africa. 

Detailed stories on the resolutions 
adopted by the convention appear through- 
out this issue of the AFL-CIO News. 

The per capita tax increase approved 
by the convention will raise, the monthly 

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Convention Policies 
Set by 836 Delegates 

The 14th AFL-CIO convention drew 
836 delegates representing 91 national 
and international unions, eight consti- 
tutional departments, 43 state bodies, 
178 local central bodies, and seven di- 
rectly affiliated local unions. 

The Credentials Committee also re- 
ported that some 800 representatives 
of newspapers, magazines, radio and 
television, including a large contingent 
from the labor press, covered the con- 
vention as it acted on 209 resolutions. 

In addition, 95 foreign trade unionists 
were visitors at the four-day convention. 
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payment of affiliates, now 19 cents per 
member, to 24 cents with the payment for 
next January and to 27 cents a year later. 
It is designed to meet nearly $11 million 
in added costs associated with the new 
Institute for Public Affairs, reaffiliation 
with the ICFTU, full funding of COPE 
operations from general revenue, construc- 
tion of the Meany Memorial Library and 
Archives, and expanded organizing efforts. 

THE NEW council members include 
four union .presidents — Frank Drozak 
of the Seafarers, James E. Hatfield of the 
Glass Bottle Blowers, Richard I. Kilroy of 
the Railway & Airline Clerks, and Vincent 
R. Sombrotto of the Letter Carriers. The 
fifth is Barbara Hutchinson, women’s af- 
fairs director of the Government Employ- 
ees. 

Women and minorities were strongly 
represented among speakers at the con- 
vention as the delegates heard pledges of 
continuing solidarity from Eleanor Smeal, 
president of the National Organization for 
Women; Henry L. Lacayo, national chair- 
man of the Labor Council for Latin Amer- 
ican Advancement, and Benjamin Hooks, 
executive director of the NAACP. 

Among the nearly 100 foreign trade 
unionists visiting the convention, major 
addresses were given by the fraternal dele- 
gates from the Canadian Labor Congress, 
Dennis McDermott, and the British Trades 
Union Congress, Tom Jackson, along with 
ICFTU Gen. Sec. Otto Kersten. 

Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president of 
the University of Notre Dame and head of 
the Select Commission on Immigration & 
Refugee Policy, also addressed the dele- 
gates. 

THE CONVENTION witnessed the 
presentation of the AFL-CIO’s highest 
honor for public service — the Murray- 
Green-Meany award — to entertainer 
Danny Thomas in recognition of his work 
in founding and supporting St. Jude’s Chil- 
dren’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. 

Another award, the first George Meany 
International Human Rights Award, was 
to have been accepted by Lech Walesa, 
leader of the Polish Solidarity union, but 
Walesa was forced to postpone his visit to 
the United States because of the situation 
in his country. A film on the formation of 
Poland’s free labor movement prepared to 
accompany the presentation, was shown 
to the delegates. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tion, we have been compelled to grapple 
with the consequences of vast technologi- 
cal, social and economic changes.” 

He acknowledged and rejected criticism 
of the labor movement for not confining 
its role to “the most narrow interests of the 
dues-paying members.” The AFL-CIO 
won’t abdicate its “leadership in the strug- 
gle for human freedoffi and human pro- 
gress,” Kirkland reiterated. 

KIRKLAND PUT special emphasis on 
the two-way flow of communication be- 
tween labor’s leadership and the union 
membership. 

At the federation level, he noted the 
success of the regional conferences which 
brought the officers and department heads 
of the AFL-CIO into “face-to-face discus- 
sions” with state and local union leaders 
covering “any and all issues, no holds 
barred.” 

From these sessions, Kirkland said, 
“emerged the concept of Solidarity Day,” 
which evolved into “the greatest protest 
demonstration in our history.” The AFL- 
CIO leadership came to the conclusion that 
the spirit required to make the Solidarity 
Day concept a success was there, “waiting 
for an opportunity of expression.” 

THE MEETINGS were so valuable that 
the AFL-CIO intends to “repeat them next 
year and in the future,” Kirkland said, 
adding: “I strongly commend such a prac- 
tice to every constituent organization.” 

The concept of solidarity applies to the 


New York — Entertainer Danny Thomas 
was presented with the AFL-CIO’s Mur- 
ray-Green-Meany Award at the conven- 
tion for his efforts to enlist public support 
for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hos- 
pital, the non-profit medical center he 
helped found. 

The award, named after the late federa- 
tion leaders Philip Murray, William Green 
and George Meany, is presented annually 
to recognize individual contributions to the 
health and well-being of the nation and its 
workers. The prize includes a $5,000 grant. 

AFL-CIO VICE PRESIDENT Peter 
Bommarito, chairman of the federation’s 
Community Services Committee, said in 
presenting the award that Thomas had 
been chosen for it as “a man of immense 
spirituality, a man who loves mankind and 


trade union federation, Kirkland said. He 
welcomed the presence of the Auto Work- 
ers at the convention, and the “force and 
vigor” its reaffiliation brings to the AFL- 
CIO’s “fight for social and economic 
justice.” 

Kirkland voiced the hope that all of the 
nation’s unions will be “brought within the 
fold, to work and move together in soli- 
darity.” 

HE TOLD the convention that for the 
trade union movement, “there is no matter 
of more constant urgency than to organize 
the unorganized.” 

He cited important breakthroughs made 
by affiliates in recent years, spoke of the 
AFL-CIO’s. initiation of a multi-union co- 
operative organizing program in Houston 
and stressed that “we intend to see it 
through.” Labor’s organizing growth, he 
suggested, has been partly masked by the 
effects of recession, the decay in the na- 
tion’s industrial base and the changing 
nature of the remaining workforce. 

“In the face of these trends,” he sug- 
gested, labor’s ability to grow at all “is a 
remarkable achievement.” 

THE NEXT big battle in labor’s cam- 
paign, Kirkland stressed, is the 1982 con- 
gressional elections. The Reagan Adminis- 
tration is not labor’s first experience with 
adversity, he noted, and “it shall endure 
and survive all these afflictions, as we have 
so many others.” 

“And now to work,” Kirkland con- 
cluded, as the hall erupted into applause. 


has great faith in the goodness of people.” 

Thomas founded the hospital, Bomma- 
rito said, as a shrine to the patron saint 
of hopeless causes in thanks for his own 
success in show business. His efforts to 
raise funds to build the center began in 
1946 and the hospital opened in Memphis, 
Tenn., in 1962. * 

In accepting the award, Thomas pointed 
out that the earliest support for the idea 
of the hospital came from the labor move- 
ment, including the Hotel & Restaurant 
Employees who gave some $250,000 to- 
ward the establishment of the center. 

ANOTHER EARLY supporter was 
Bommarito’s Rubber Workers, Thomas 
said, praising the labor movement for its 
generosity. His early attempts to obtain 
contributions from corporations and phi- 
lanthropists were frequently turned down, 
he noted, because they “did not give to 
dreamers” or to “an ideal.” 

Bommarito pointed out that St. Jude’s 
was the first institution established for the 
sole purpose of conducting basic clinical 
research in catastrophic childhood ill- 
nesses. It is non-sectarian, interracial and 
completely free^ to patients admitted by a 
physician for diagnosis. 

When the hospital opened, Bommarito 
said, the survival rate from acute lympho- 
blastic leukemia was less than 4 per- 
cent, but treatment procedures developed 
at St. Jude’s have helped raise the survival 
percentage to 50 percent. 

THE HOSPITAL treats children with 
leukemia and solid tumor forms of cancer, 
as well as severe muscular diseases and 
blood disorders. 

It conducts extensive research in bio- 
chemistry, cell biology, virology, immu- 
nology, pharmacology, hematology, pathol- 
ogy, bacteriology, nutrition and metabo- 
lism. 

Urging the delegates to encourage con- 
tributions to the work of the hospital, 
Thomas stressed that its philosophy will 
remain that no one pays for its services. 
Every penny of contributions, he pledged, 
“will go to research and clinical care.” 

His plan, he told the convention, is to 
raise sufficient money for a trust fund to 
endow the hospital in perpetuity. 

“Let’s save the children,” he urged, “not 
my kids, not your kids, they’re every- 
body’s kids. Everyone of them is a child 
of us all, and one child dying before his 
time is a loss to all of mankind.” 


The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued 
weekly except for the last week of the year at 
815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. 
$2 a year. Second class postage paid at Wash- 
ington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid 
advertising in any of its official publications. No 
one is authorized to solicit advertising for any 
publications in the name of the AFL-CIO. 


Kirkland Dissects Policies 
Of Reagan Administration 



Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, i).C./ NOVEMBER 28, 19SI 


RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE of the AFL-CIO conven- 
tion, chaired by AFL-CIO Vice President John Lyons, 
standing, considered and made recommendations on 209 


resolutions submitted to the convention, dividing them 
among subcommittees and special committees for examina- 
tion and discussion before reporting to the delegates. 


Emergency Anti-Recession Plan 
Begins with Jobs for Unemployed 


New York — America’s trade union 
movement proposed an emergency pro- 
gram to halt a snowballing recession and 
lay a foundation for economic growth and 
full employment. 

The AFL-CIO convention’s key eco- 
nomic policy resolution spelled out labor’s 
alternatives to Reagan Administration pol- 
icies that have pushed workers out of jobs, 
made housing virtually unobtainable and 
sapped the nation’s industrial strength. 

AS A FIRST step, requiring a minimum 
of legislation, the convention called for 
full funding of job-creating programs that 
can put the unemployed to work quickly. 
It urged Congress to: 

• Revive the emergency local public 
works program that has helped the United 
States out of past recessions. 

• Provide funds for new low-income 
and middle-income housing. 

• Restore the public service jobs pro- 
gram. 

• Reinstate nationwide extended un- 
employment compensation benefits for the 
long-term jobless. 

In matters requiring hew legislation, the 
convention urged: 

• Creation of a government agency 
with power to target loans, loan guaran- 
tees, interest rate subsidies and tax bene- 
fits to stimulate economic growth, “with 
special consideration for high unemploy- 
ment areas.” 

• Temporary restrictions on job-cost- 
ing imports. 

• Use of credit control authority to 
offset tight money policy and high interest 


rates, while channeling funds into produc- 
tive, job-stimulating uses. 

TO PROVIDE revenue for these pro- 
grams, and to make the tax structure more 
equitable, the resolution called for: 

• Limiting the individual tax cuts for 
1 982 to a maximum of $700 per taxpayer, 
approximately the amount scheduled for 
persons with incomes of $40,000. 

• Trimming back the 10-percent in- 
vestment tax credit to the original 7-per- 
cent level. 

• Revoking the windfall tax exemption 
newly awarded to wealthy oil royalty hold- 
ers. 

The economic policy statement adopted 
by the convention protested that the Rea- 
gan economic program “requires more 
sacrifice from those who have little, to 
give to those who already have much.” 

IT INSISTED that economic progress 
and social justice go together, and termed 
full employment “a moral, social, political 
and economic imperative.” 

It urged targeted anti-inflation policies, 
public employment and training programs, 
curtailment of concentration of economic 
power in the hands of a few corporations, 
and international trade policies formulated 
with concern for the impact on American 
industry and jobs. 

A companion resolution on monetary 
policy challenged the high interest, tight 
money approach of the Federal Reserve 
Board as aggravating instead of curtailing 
inflation. 

The Fed’s policies are “devastating the 
housing and auto industries,” the conven- 
tion said. 


The resolution urged Congress to ex- 
pand the membership of the Federal Re- 
serve Board “to include representation of 
all sectors of the economy, including labor 
and agriculture.” 

More than a dozen convention delegates 
took part in the discussion of the economic 
resolutions. These were among the com- 
ments: 

Steelworkers President Lloyd McBride 
complained that the United States has be- 
come “an island of free trade” in a world 
in which other countries use an assortment 
of restrictions to protect their own indus- 
tries and national interests. He urged a 
more “realistic” U.S. trade policy. 

CARPENTERS President William 
Konyha told the convention that the last 
two recessions had been preceded by “de- 
pressions in housing,” caused largely by 
excessive interest rates. Unlike similar pe- 
riods of sharp downturns in homebuilding, 
Konyha said, there are no emergency pro- 
grams to provide below-market mortgage 
funds. 

Service Employees President John J. 
Sweeney stressed the “huge loss of revenue 
because of the Reagan tax giveaways to 
big business and the rich.” The funds are 
needed for public works, public housing 
and public jobs, he said. 

Auto Workers President Douglas A. 
Fraser spoke of. the impact of “high inter- 
est rates and all of the economic problems 
that flow from that” on the auto industry 
and UAW members. 

The United States is producing 4.5 mil- 
lion fewer cars and trucks than in 1978, 
he reported. Some 200,000 auto workers 
are now unemployed and this is “the 28th 
consecutive month that we’ve had more 
than 150,000 unemployed.” 

PLUMBERS & Pipefitters President 
Martin J. Ward spoke of the lag in public 
facilities needed to enable the economy to 
grow. Private industry requires efficient 
public facilities to function, and today 
workers who could be building them are 
unemployed, he said. 

Iron Workers President John H. Lyons 
compared the Reagan economic program 
with the disastrous economic policies of 
the Thatcher government in Great Britain, 
which it closely resembles. 

On the monetary policy resolution. Op- 
erating Engineers President J. C. Turner 
told the convention that the Federal Re- 
serve Board “is throttling us and throttling 
our economy. It is the cause, not the 
cure of inflation.” 

National Holiday Urged 
On Dr. King’s Birthday 

New York — Martin Luther King’s birth- 
day should be a national holiday, and the 
AFL-CIO will support federal legislation 
to set aside Jan. 15 as a day to honor the 
memory of the slain civil rights leader. 

A convention resolution calling for the 
establishment of the holiday praised Dr. 
King, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as “the 
symbol of non-violent resistance” and of 
the civil rights movement in America. 



Tax Law Tilt 
Points Nation 
To Disaster 

New York — ^Tax changes imposed by 
the Reagan Administration threaten “irrep- 
arable damage” to the nation’s economy, 
the AFL-CIO warned. 

A convention resolution stressed labor’s 
concern at the loss of revenue for needed 
public programs, as well as the basic in- 
justice of a tax cut that was rigged against 
workers and “overloaded with tax avoid- 
ance opportunities for corporations and 
the wealthy.” 

It cited vast sums needed to create jobs, 
revitalize cities, provide services and deal 
with the effects of poverty that are being 
“siphoned off by the rich and the corpora- 
tions.” 

The resolution urged early action by 
Congress to head off the disaster that the 
Reagan tax program threatens. It proposed 
as the key ingredients of such an alterna- 
tive: 

• Restructuring the individual income 
tax cuts scheduled for 1983 and 1984, and 
the future indexing of the tax brackets in 
a manner that reduces the revenue loss. 
Tax reductions should be limited to the 
moderate and middle-income households 
that were shortchanged by the bill Con- 
gress enacted. 

• Repeal of the 10-percent investment 
tax credit and enactment of a business 
depreciation system that would use an 
accurate accounting of business costs. 

• Enactment of a reindustrialization 
program which would authorize a tripartite 
board representing business, labor and gov- 
ernment to use a combination of tax in- 
centives, grants and loans to target avail- 
able funds “to revitalize the nation’s dis- 
tressed areas and industrial base.” 

For the long run, the convention reaf- 
firmed labor’s support of a program keyed 
to closing loopholes and assuring that 
revenues are adequate to meet the nation’s 
domestic and defense needs. 

It called for changes that would: 

• End the “double standard which 
taxes workers’ wages and salaries at far 
higher rates than ‘unearned income’ on 
savings, investments and estates of the 
wealthy.” 

• Reinstate the corporate income tax 
as a major source of revenue and. elimi- 
nate tax “incentives” that encourage corpo- 
rate takeovers, plant closings and overseas 
investments. 

• Key the tax structure to “fully re- 
flect the principle of ability to pay.” 

Congress, States 
Pressed to Meet 
Needs of Cities 

New York — Labor pressed Congress 
and the states not to allow Reagan Ad- 
ministration program cuts to push the na- 
tion’s cities into a new, and perhaps ir- 
reversible, era of decline. 

An AFL-CIO convention resolution 
urged: 

• Funding of economic and commu- 
nity development programs by Congress 
“to maintain at least the levels of services 
that existed before 1981.” It said the pro- 
grams should “not be allowed to disappear 
or lose their national interest purpose 
through further block grant consolida- 
tions.” 

• Enactment of legislation to deal with 
dislocations and hardships of plant closing. 

• Restoration of funds for mass transit 
construction and operation. 

• Increased state commitment to urban 
areas, coupled with reforms to make state 
and local taxation more equitable. 

“The cities of America need help and 
there’s no place to turn,” Wisconsin State 
AFL-CIO President John W. Schmitt said 
in discussion of the resolution. He noted 
that cuts in federal grants to states leave 
cities doubly worse off. Their own direct 
federal grants have been cut, and the states 
have less federal funds to pass on to cities. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Page Five 


‘Vendetta* Condemned 

Reagan Urged to Return 
Air Controllers to Jobs 



AID FOR PATCO STRIKERS and their families in checks for $20,000 is pre- 
sented to Air Traffic Controllers President Robert Poli by Motofumi Makieda, 
center, president of Japan’s General Council of Trade Unions (SOHYO) and 
Takehiro Ebitani, SOHYO international affairs director. One check for $10,000 
came from the Japanese air traffic controllers’ union, the other from funds col- 
lected in shops and at plant gates by members of SOHYO-affiliated unions. 
Other contributions will be made to the PATCO fund, Makieda said. 


Limit on Health Plan Benefits 
Called Backward Approach 


New York — ^The AFL-CIO called on 
President Reagan to end his “demeaning 
vendetta” against the Air Traffic Control- 
lers and return them ter their jobs. 

“Mass firings, fines and union decertifi- 
cation will not assure safe and reliable air 
travel for the American people,” a con- 
vention resolution declared. “Nor will 
they save the taxpayers the high cost of 
training thousands of new controllers.” 

IN NOTING that the Administration 
shows no sign of relenting from its brutal 
treatment of PATCO members, the con- 
vention urged federation affiliates to con- 
tinue assisting the embattled trade union- 
ists. It said they still need help in manning 
picket lines, meeting family responsibilities 
and finding jobs. 

The convention pledged that continuing 
aid will be provided by the federation’s 
PATCO Family Assistance Fund, which 
already has rendered more than $625,000 
to PATCO members beset by financial 
hardships. 

On the opening day of the convention, 
President Motofumi Makieda of the Gen- 
eral Council of Trade Unions of Japan 
(SOHYO) presented PATCO a $20,000 
contribution. Half of the money was raised 
by SOHYO affiliates through voluntary 
contributions in shops and at plant gates; 
the remainder came from the Japanese 
air traffic controllers union, an affiliate of 
SOHYO. 

PATCO WENT on strike Aug. 3 after 
the membership overwhelmingly rejected 
the final management offer for a new con- 
tract with the Federal Aviation Adminis- 
tration. Reagan later ordered the FAA to 
discharge the 12,000 strikers, and the 
federal government subsequently decerti- 
fied the union. 

PATCO President Robert Poli told dele- 
gates in comments from the convention 
floor that his membership is determined 


New York — The AFL-CIO will fight all 
attempts to slash social security protec- 
tions, whether by the Reagan Adminis- 
tration or any other source. 

That was the thrust of a convention 
resolution insisting that Congress keep its 
commitment to America’s workers and re- 
tirees. 

THE REAGAN proposals “would have 
a devastating impact on the program and 
those protected by it,” the resolution said, 
and it cautioned that the threat isn’t ended 
by the President’s decision not to push for 
his entire package at this time. 

Whatever the sponsorship, the AFL-CIO 
will oppose changes that would: 

• Deny social security beneficiaries 
their full cost-of-living increases. 

• Raise the retirement age or tamper 
with the early retirement provisions of the 
law. 

• Lower the present formula for deter- 
mining the benefits workers receive when 
they retire. 

• Further reduce disability benefits. 

• Reduce total family benefits. 

• Increase Medicare premiums and de- 
ductibles. 

SUCH CUTS aren’t needed to deal with 
the funding problems of the social security 
system, the convention stressed. It said 
short-term problems can be met by inter- 
fund exchanges and a back-up system of 
general revenues. 

The resolution affirmed opposition to 
taxation of social security benefits and 
urged restoration of the minimum benefit 
for both present and future retirees. 

The AFL-CIO reiterated its call for the 
rejection of some general tax revenue fi- 
nancing to avoid scheduled increases in 


to continue its struggle despite government 
harassment and intimidation. 

He noted that 70 PATCO members 
have been charged with committing a 
felony for striking and face sentencing to 
a year in federal prison if convicted. Some 
have had their autos impounded for picket 
line activity, and others face home mort- 
gage foreclosure because of punitive ac- 
tion by the Dept, of Housing & Urban 
development. 

POLI ALSO charged that PATCO strik- 
ers have been blacklisted — rejected by 
employers when seeking another job, or 
in the case of some, when attempting to 
return to the military service. 

Noting that numerous other unions en- 
countered similar struggles in the 1920s 
and ’30s, Poli said: “Brothers and sisters, 
the 1920s and the 1930s are here now for 
PATCO.” 

John F. Henning, executive secretary- 
treasurer of the California AFL-CIO, call- 
ing for a strong reaffirmation of support 
for the controllers, said that “we can never 
surrender the PATCO strikers to our 
enemies in the White House.” 

HENNING POINTED out that during 
Reagan’s campaign for the presidency, he 
pledged to resolve the intolerable condi- 
tions air traffic controllers encounter on 
their jobs. But after President Reagan was 
elected, “he betrayed the union,” Henning 
charged. 

Federation President Lane Kirkland 
read from Reagan’s letter to PATCO in 
which he pledged: “I will take whatever 
steps are necessary to provide our air 
traffic controllers with the most modern 
equipment available and to adjust staff 
levels and workdays so that they are com- 
mensurate with achieving a maximum 
level of public safety.” 

Kirkland’s response: “Well, you all 

know how he adjusted those staff levels.” 


the payroll tax and to strengthen the sys- 
tem. It urged that social security trust 
funds be removed from the federal budget 
so that policy will not be set on the basis 
of transient budget considerations. 

IT ALSO reaffirmed opposition to uni- 
versal social security coverage for all pub- 
lic employees unless there are strong as- 
surances that the workers involved will not 
be harmed by the move. But it said em- 
ployees of hospitals and other non-profit 
institutions should have existing social 
security coverage protected by being made 
mandatory. 

Finally, while the present battle is to 
resist cuts in the program, “the AFL-CIO 
will not lose sight of the continuing need 
to improve the law,” the convention de- 
clared. 

In discussing the resolution. Ladies’ Gar- 
ment Workers President Sol C. Chaikin 
stressed that it is not just the elderly who 
are threatened by the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s proposals to cut benefits. 

Early retirement is an option especially 
needed by older workers who are left job- 
less, Chaikin noted. But the Administra- 
tion plan would slash benefits for those 
entering the social security rolls at age 62. 

Retention of SEC Rules 
On Corporate Data Urged 

New York — Information that compa- 
nies are required to furnish to the Se- 
curities & Exchange Commission as a 
matter of public record is needed to pro- 
tect investors against fraud and abuses of 
corporate power, an AFL-CIO convention 
resolution noted. 

It expressed opposition to “any changes 
in the regulations which would result in 
fewer companies reporting basic informa- 
tion to the SEC.” 


New York — The AFL-CIO convention 
took a strong stand against proposals to 
hold down health care costs by giving low- 
benefit plans a competitive tax advantage 
over high-benefit insurance coverage. 

Instead, the federation urged “a more 
rational way to control health care costs,” 
involving area negotiations over hospital 
charges and physician fees. 

THE REAGAN Administration has 
backed the concept of putting a ceiling on 
tax-exempt employer payments for health 
insurance covering workers and their fam- 
ilies. Payments above the specified limits 
would be taxable as income to workers. 
The argument is that this would make 
people more “cost conscious” and promote 
“competition” in the medical care market- 
place, the resolution noted. 

Any “savings” to employers would be 
at the expense of workers who would have 
to pay more out of their own pockets, the 
resolution stressed. The alternative would 
be to let health needs go unattended, risk- 
ing more serious illness later on. 

It urged, instead, that AFL-CIO affili- 


New York — The “punitive welfare legis- 
lation” enacted by Congress at the prod- 
ding of the Reagan Administration is forc- 
ing America’s poor “even deeper into pov- 
erty” and will make it harder for them to 
get out, the AFL-CIO charged. 

A convention resolution protested the 
abandonment of welfare reform goals and 
the further shifting of the burden of pub- 
lic assistance to the states. 

IT URGED Congress to resist Admin- 
istration pressure for still further cutbacks 
and called for reconsideration of harsh 
measures already enacted. 

Needy families with children have al- 
ready been forced to reduce their living 
standards, and any further cuts would be 
“unconscionable,” the convention said. 

The resolution called for repeal of 
changes that “discourage work by slashing 
payments to those whose jobs pay so little 
they must resort to welfare as a supple- 
ment to inadequate wages.” 

It questioned the move to require par- 
ents receiving public assistance to pay for 
their allowances in no-wage jobs. 

And it criticized denial of public as- 
sistance to a needy family headed by a 
striker. 

“Need should be the sole criterion for 
welfare eligibility,” the convention said. 


ates “promote local area coalitions of 
purchasers of health care, including em- 
ployers, unions and health and welfare 
trusts. Such coalitions could use their pur- 
chasing power to negotiate physician fees 
and hospital charges,” the resolution sug- 
gested, “while at the same time protecting 
the wages and working conditions of hos- 
pital employees.” 

SERVICE EMPLOYEES Vice Presi- 
dent Walter J. Butler, speaking in favor of 
the resolution, said the “competitive” plan 
would “go backward, instead of forward.” 

The answer to the problem of excessive 
health care costs isn’t to “put more bur- 
dens on the workers,” he stressed. “The 
real answer is national health insurance.” 

A separate resolution expressed concern 
at the trend toward abandonment of pub- 
lic hospitals, “the only place where every- 
one is guaranteed care regardless of their 
ability to pay.” 

It reaffirmed the AFL-CIO’s “support 
for the survival of public general hospitals” 
and for “health care financing reforms” 
that would enable them to stay open. 


“Workers and their families are taxed to 
pay the cost of welfare. When in need, they 
should have the same rights as all other 
citizens to obtain welfare assistance.” 

ANOTHER RESOLUTION urged res- 
toration of social services funds to the 
states provided under Title XX of the So- 
cial Security Act. 

The convention called on Congress “to 
re-examine these actions which will throw 
tens of thousands of poor children out of 
day care, deprive the homeless of needed 
foster care, cut off services to the elderly 
and generally make the lives of the poor 
more miserable.” 

Convention Backs Quest 
For Peace in Ireland 

New York — ^The United States should 
lend its support to the goal of peace and 
justice in Ireland, the convention urged in 
a resolution reaffirming AFL-CIO support 
for the “aspirations of the Irish people for 
a united nation.” 

The resolution urged the convening of a 
special assembly “to draft a charter of 
human rights in all civil and religious mat- 
ters which could become part of a basic 
solution that will recognize the democratic 
principle that Ireland belongs to the Irish.” 


Fight Pledged to Preserve 
Social Security Benefits 


Congress Urged to Reverse 
‘Punitive’ Welfare Cutbacks 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 



INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE of viewpoints on issues nations attending the convention as guests. At the micro- 
confronting workers is chaired by AFL-CIO President Lane phone is Heinz Oskar Vetter, president of the German Trade 
Kirkland with Sec.-Treas. Thomas D. Donahue. Taking part Union Federation (DGB), and standing is Erwin Kristoffer- 
were representatives of free labor movements from other sen, DGB international affairs director. 

^ .. '-|-T 11 iiiiiiiiiniiiiiMiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiimiiiiit 

Human mghts L-oncerns Held 
Basic to U.S. Foreign Policy 


Labor Vows 
Fight to Keep 
Pay Standard 

New York — Prevailing wage laws are a 
still-needed safeguard for community labor 
standards, the AFL-CIO insisted. 

The convention strongly reiterated la- 
bor’s opposition to weakening either the 
Davis-Bacon Act, which has governed 
federally-funded construction for a half- 
century, or the comparable Service Con- 
tract Act. 

“BUSINESSES should not be permitted 
to successfully compete for government 
contracts by exploiting workers,” the reso- 
lution declared. 

The convention made clear that it was 
opposed both to legislative and regulatory 
weakening of the awo prevailing wage 
laws. The Labor Dept, has proposed regu- 
latory changes in both laws that the AFL- 
CIO and the unions whose members are 
directly affected have strongly opposed. 

The convention resolution urged Con- 
gress “to closely monitor” proposed 
changes “to insure that these revisions are 
not a back-door approach to changing the 
true intent of laws enacted by Congress.” 

ON THE SERVICE Contract Act, the 
AFL-CIO said a Labor Dept, proposal to 
change coverage of the law from contracts 
“substantially for services” to “principally 
for services” would cut in half the number 
of workers protected. 

Changes the Administration is consider- 
ing in Davis-Bacon Act regulations would 
affect the method of computing the pre- 
vailing wage and handicap enforcement. 

A Service Employees delegate, Eugene 
P. Moats, told the convention that the 
changes the Labor Dept, proposed in Ser- 
vice Contract Act regulations “would be 
singling out the lowest paid workers in our 
society.” 

BUILDING TRADES delegates spoke 
of the deterioration of construction stan- 
dards that would result from weakening 
Davis-Bacon protections. And President 
Robert A. Georgine of the AFL-CIO 
Building & Construction Trades Dept, took 
the floor to thank the many unions that 
lobbied to keep Davis-Bacon coverage in 
a multi-billion dollar military construction 
bill. The Senate voted 55-42 for labor’s 
position. 

‘Fraternal Solidarity’ 

Pledged with Histadrut 

New York — The AFL-CIO reaffirmed 
its “fraternal solidarity” with Histadrut, the 
trade union federation of Israel. 

A convention resolution also expressed 
continued support for the American Trade 
Union Council for Histadrut. 


New York — Human rights, based on 
the freedom of association essential to a 
free trade union movement, should be “the 
cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy,” the 
AFL-CIO urged. 

The human rights theme ran through a 
broad-ranging convention policy statement 
on Labor and the World. 

IT LINKED the AFL-CIO’s support for 
the free trade union movement in Poland, 
its backing for the developing black union 
movement in Africa and the El Salvador 
peasants’ organization struggling to make 
land reform a reality. 

The convention resolution attacked the 
denial of human rights by the leftist totali- 
tarian regime in Nicaragua, where demo- 
cratic unions have been branded as “coun- 
ter-revolutionary.” 

And it attacked the rightist military 
dictatorship in Chile that has abolished 
trade union rights in its efforts “to crush 
legitimate worker organizations.” 

THE RESOLUTION made clear, as 
AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland ex- 
pressed it in his keynote speech to the con- 
vention, that the AFL-CIO does not make 
a distinction “between lice who are totali- 
tarian and lice who are authoritarian” and 
insists on “freedom of association every- 
where.” 

On the rocky path toward peace in the 
Middle East, the AFL-CIO reaffirmed its 
“unswerving commitment” to Israel’s secu- 
rity and termed negotiations between Egypt 


and Israel, with U.S. support, “the best 
chance for peace.” 

It opposed participation of the Pales- 
tine Liberation Organization in Middle East 
negotiations until the PLO “recognizes 
Israel’s existence, forswears terrorism and 
commits itself to negotiate in good faith.” 

If the United States is to assist in Saudi 
Arabia’s security, the convention said, “let 
that country stop its holy war against Is- 
rael and its financing of terrorist activities 
of the PLO.” 

THE CONVENTION welcomed and en- 
dorsed the decision of the AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council to reaffiliate with the Inter- 
national Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions, and welcomed signs of improve- 
ments in the conduct of the international 
Labor Organization’s meetings. It urged 
AFL-CIO unions to cooperate in assuring 
effective representation of U.S. workers at 
ILO meetings. 

The resolution expressed concern at at- 
tempts to have the United Nations Educa- 
tional, Scientific & Cultural Organization 
(UNESCO) “embrace an authoritarian doc- 
trine of news control.” It backed an AFL- 
CIO Executive Council position that the 
United States should withdraw from 
UNESCO if that body embraces restric- 
tions on press freedom. 

The convention urged affiliates to con- 
tribute to relief organizations assisting ref- 
ugees and called on the government to con- 
tinue to work closely with other nations to 
assure that the world’s refugees will find 
a home. The United States, as “the tradi- 
tional refuge for the persecuted,” must 
continue to make “the major effort,” the 
convention said. 

IT NOTED and welcomed the new papal 
encyclical on work in which Pope John 
Paul II terms unions “indispensable” to 
modern society as “advocates for social 
justice” and the rights of workers. 

It reiterated the AFL-CIO’s “steadfast 
support” for a strong national defense as 
necessary “for the survival of democratic 
institutions, including free trade unions.” 

But the resolution stressed also that “a 
strong national defense requires a strong 
economy,” and it is the government’s con- 
stitutional responsibility to “promote the 
general welfare” as well as “provide for 
the common defense.” 

A VAST INCREASE in military spend- 
ing will not strengthen the nation unless it 
is linked to a carefully conceived defense 
strategy, the resolution contended. It cau- 
tioned that “defense problems cannot be 
solved by blindly throwing money at them.” 


Support Pledged for 
Great American Flag 

New York — The AFL-CIO conven- 
tion urged union members to join in a 
fund-raising effort for the display of the 
Great American Flag, which is sched- 
uled to fly from New York’s Verrazano 
bridge next Fourth of July. 

The huge, 21 -story-high national ban- 
ner weighing seven tons has become 
known as a union-made gift to the 
American people. Since its dedication on 
Flag Day in 1980, the flag has been dis- 
played at various patriotic functions. 
Union volunteers led by the Iron Work- 
ers, spread the flag at Andrews Air 
Force Base near Washington to greet 
the American hostages returning from 
Iran. 

Iron Workers President John H. Ly- 
ons showed the convention a film, “Sa- 
lute to the Great American Flag,” and 
urged delegates not to let the radical 
right identify their views with patriot- 
ism. “The flag is part and parcel of the 
free trade union movement in the United 
States,” he stressed. 

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Fund Launched 
For Black Unions 
In South Africa 

New York — ^The AFL-CIO launched a 
special fund to assist black unions in South 
Africa, and the convention urged affiliates 
to contribute to the project. 

One aspect of the program is already 
under way, through a special unit set up 
within the AFL-CIO’s African American 
Labor Center. The unit has compiled a list 
of AFL-CIO affiliates having collective 
bargaining agreements with companies 
that have subsidiaries in South Africa. 

THE INFORMATION compiled has al- 
ready been used “to provide black unions 
with information needed in their negotia- 
tions with these subsidiaries,” the conven- 
tion noted. 

At its mid-winter meeting, the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council endorsed the concept of 
assistance to black unions in South Africa, 
and the pre-convention council meeting 
launched the fund with a $25,000 AFL- 
CIO contribution. 

The convention statement noted that ele- 
ments of the program have been discussed 
with interested groups within and outside 
South Africa, and development of the proj- 
ect will be undertaken in close coordina- 
tion with the International Confederation 
of Free Trade Unions. 


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^Slaughter of Innocents ’ 
Condemned in El Salvador 

New York — The “frightful slaughter of innocents” must be ended in El Sal- 
vader, the AFL-CIO declared in a convention resolution strongly supporting 
effective land reform and terror-free elections. 

“A victory of the totalitarian left or of the privileged few of the right would 
be a disaster,” the resolution warned. 

It condemned both “the flow of Soviet weapons to the guerrillas in El Salva- 
dor” and “use of U.S. weapons by right-wing forces as instruments of domestic 
repression.” * 

Military aid to El Salvador’s government should he ended, the AFL-CIO said, 
“unless there is substantial progress toward land reform, free elections, human 
rights guarantees and control of the death squads.” 

Two AFL-CIO advisers assisting the peasants’ union to achieve land reform 
that was opposed by both right-wing landholders and the Communist-dominated 
guerrilla movement were gunned dovra in a San Salvador hotel last January, the 
resolution noted. 


It urged the U.S. government to “demand that the Salvador armed forces put 
a stop to the activities of the right wing and its death squads.” And it asked that 
land reform be expanded, not curtailed. 

“If the opposition parties of the left agree to parliamentary elections, they 
should be offered a role in the arrangements for these elections, conditional also 
on a cease-fire to match the armed forces ending of th^ death squads’ activity,” 
the resolution concluded. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Curb Sought on Excesses of Waterfront Commission 


New York — It’s time for the legislatures 
of New York and New Jersey to take a 
fresh look at the functions of Waterfront 
Commission of New York Harbor, an 
AFL-CIO convention resolution suggested. 

The resolution noted that the Water- 


front Commission was set up 28 years ago 
as a temporary agency to correct abuses 
with respect to the hiring of longshore- 
men — a process now handled through a 
computerized union-employer referral sys- 
tem “in strict accordance with seniority.” 


Page Seven 


AFL-cio NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Convention Welcomes Action 

Reaffiliatioii with ICFTU 
Ends 12-Year Absence 



A UNION SERVICE is provided to the AFL-CIO convention in a working 
post office set up by the U.S. Postal Service and staffed by Postal Workers mem- 
bers. APWU President Moe Biller, left, discusses the special convention can- 
cellation used on all out-going mail. The cancellation was designed by AFL-CIO 
Reproduction & Mailings Director Edwin Schmidt. Copies of the souvenir 
cachet with the pictorial cancellation are available from Schmidt. 


Federal Workers Backed 
On Comparable Pay Issue 


By John R. Oravec 

New York — The AFL-CIO will rejoin 
the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions next Jan. 1 after an ab- 
sence of 1 2 years. 

The federation’s reaffiliation with the 
ICFTU will be “useful and productive,” 
the convention said as it welcomed and 
supported the action of the Executive 
Council. 

In its report to the convention, the 
council noted that although the AFL-CIO 
withdrew from the confederation in 1969, 
“we have nevertheless continued to work 
with the ICFTU in certain areas,” includ- 
ing the International Labor Organization. 

THE COUNCIL decision for reaffilia- 
tion came a few days before the conven- 
tion opened, the culmination of meetings 
conducted by a council committee headed 
by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
an ICFTU delegation. 

In an address to the convention, ICFTU 
Gen. Sec. Otto Kersten said the ideals 
which brought about the confederation in 
1949 “still hold us together: freedom, 
peace and social justice.” 

Kersten stressed “that to achieve and 
protect these ideals, we must stand to- 
gether not only within one union, one 
trade, one country, but also within one 
world. That keeps the ICFTU together — 
despite all divergencies, be they of a politi- 
cal, an economic or a social nature.” 

KERSTEN POINTED out that workers 
and their unions throughout the world are 
facing common problems. 

“The prevailing economic crisis with un- 
employment, inflation, stagnating or back- 
ward development, unscrupulous multi- 
nationals, is being used by some govern- 
ments to try to scrape away at the strength 
of organized labor and to undermine its 
achievements,” he declared. “They try, at 
the sole costs of the working people, to 
put their economies in order.” 



OTTO KERSTEN 


New York — Delegates to the AFL-CIO 
convention made clear labor’s determina- 
tion to prevent a federal anti-racketeering 
law from being distorted by Congress into 
a bludgeon against workers striking for 
lawful goals. 

They passed, with a loud shout of ap- 
proval, a resolution attacking the attempt 
to amend the Hobbs Act so that a picket 
line scuffle — or even “threatening” words 
spoken in anger to a strikebreaker — could 
subject a union member to federal crimi- 
nal penalties as high as 20 years in prison 
and a $250,000 fine. 

THE AMENDMENTS are being pushed 
by the National Right to Work Committee, 
which has put together a fund-raising film 
about union “violence.” 

Delegates repeatedly applauded a speech 
from the convention floor by AFL-CIO 
Vice President J. C. Turner, which urged 
every union and union member to “get 
active because we’ve got to win this fight.” 

Earlier, delegates had interrupted Sen. 


Governments must realize that they need 
strong trade union movements that can 
participate responsibly in reshaping their 
economies, Kersten told the delegates. 

ECONOMIC AND social progress in 
developing countries must be pursued in 
those parts of the world where the day-to- 
day existence of 800 million people is pre- 
carious, he stressed. 

Kersten said the ICFTU has continu- 
ally led the fight against a wide range of 
abuses: colonialism, racial discrimination, 
fascist regimes, military dictatorships, as 
well as “the repeated violations of human 
and trade union rights under Communist 
regimes.” 

Violations of human and trade rights, 
are both widespread in both the Eastern 
and Western Hemispheres, he noted. 

“WE ARE confronted,” Kersten said, 
“with an increasing number of attacks on 
the most fundamental fights: the denial of 
freedom of association, sometimes marked 
by assassinations, persecution of trade un- 
ionists or abusive internment in psychiatric 
hospitals — as practiced in the Soviet Un- 
ion — intervention in trade union affairs, 
restriction of worker rights to form or 
join trade unions, to bargain, to strike.” 

He also cited the plight of American air 
traffic controllers fired by President Rea- 
gan for taking strike action. The ICFTU, 
in cooperation with the AFL-CIO, sub- 
mitted a complaint to the ILO against the 
U.S. government for its denial of trade 
union rights to PATCO. 

Kersten observed that trade unionists 
around the world can take heart with the 
achievements of the Solidarity movement 
in Poland. 

“FOR THE first time workers have suc- 
cessfully formed a free trade union orga- 
nization under a Communist regime,” he 
noted. 

Citing the close ties that Solidarity has 
established with the AFL-CIO and the 
ICFTU, Kersten said “our Polish friends 
can count on the solidarity of the inter- 
national free trade union movement.” 

The ICFTU comprises labor federations 
from more than 60 nations with a global 
membership in excess of 58 million. 

NOW HEADQUARTERED in Brus- 
sels, the confederation was founded in 
1949 in opposition to the Communist- 
dominated Wjprld Federation of Trade 
Unions. Before the 1955 merger, both the 
AFL and the CIO were charter members 
of the ICFTU. 

When the AFL-CIO pulled out of the 
ICFTU in 1969, it expressed dissatisfac- 
tion with the confederation’s declining role 
in providing aid to developing countries 
and its expanding contacts with govern-- 
ment-controlled affiliates of Communist 
bloc countries. 


Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) with a 
standing ovation midway in his address to 
the convention. They rose to their feet 
applauding when Kennedy declared: “The 
criminal code should be used to fight 
crime; it should never be misused as a 
tool for union-busting.” 

THE CONVENTION resolution noted 
that the Hobbs Act’s criminal sanctions are 
aimed at clearly defined racketeering and 
that the Supreme Court in 1973 ruled that 
it was not aimed at misconduct that takes 
place in the course of a lawful labor dis- 
pute. 

Offenses committed in the course of 
a strike are subject to prosecution under 
state and local laws, and Congress didn’t 
intend to put the federal government in the 
business of policing strikes, the court held. 

Turner, who is president of the Operat- 
ing Engineers, said the National Right to 
Work Committee is trying to capitalize on 
“the present anti-worker climate in Wash- 
ington” to, push through the Hobbs Act 


New York — Federal workers are enti- 
tled to full pay comparability with the 
private sector, the AFL-CIO convention 
declared. 

Since 1977, the resolution noted, federal 
government employees have been held to 
artificially low salary and wage increases — 
despite laws that were intended to assure 
pay comparability. 

THE COMPARABILITY issue is espe- 
cially important because federal workers 
can’t negotiate pay and most fringe bene- 
fits, the resolution noted. It pledged the 
AFL-CIO’s support to federal employee 
unions fighting the Reagan Administra- 
tion’s attempt to hold down their pay and 
benefits. 

Another convention resolution reaf- 
firmed the AFL-CIO’s position on the con- 
tracting out of public services to private 
concerns. 

It reiterated “the principle that public 
work which has traditionally been per- 
formed by public employees should con- 
tinue to be performed by public employ- 
ees, and that public work which has tradi- 
tionally been performed by private em- 
ployees should continue to be performed 
by private employees.” 

COMMENTING ON the resolution, 
Government Employees Vice President 
Daniel J. Kearney cited the case of a Vet- 
erans Administration hospital he said 
wants to use a private contractor who 
would hire employees presently doing the 
work for “about $2 an hour less” than 
they are now earning. 

In another area, the convention renewed 
its support for legislation that would re- 


changes being sponsored by Sen Strom 
Thurmond (R-S.C.). 

Its tactics include a made-for-television 
film about strike “violence” and a direct 
mail campaign aimed at Congress. 

“THE ISSUE of picket-line conduct and 
the policing of any altercations or property 
damage has always been within the juris- 
diction of state and local law enforcement 
authorities,” Turner stressed, and the local 
laws are “diligently” enforced, “particu- 
larly on behalf of the employer.” 

Under the proposed Hobbs Act amend- 
ment, he noted, employers charged with 
violence against strikers would remain sub- 
ject to local or state law, while workers 
under comparable circumstances would 
face federal felony charges. 

Turner urged affiliates to use the mate- 
rials prepared by the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Legislation to alert their members to “the 
dangers of this vicious legislation” and 
make each member of Congress “aware of 
our opposition.” 


duce the workweek of fire fighters em- 
ployed by the federal government from 72 
to 56 hours. 

Such a bill was passed in the 95th Con- 
gress but vetoed by President Carter. The 
resolution noted that fire fighters not em- 
ployed by the federal government work an 
average of 54 hours a week. It said federal 
fire fighters earn less than their municipal 
counterparts despite working longer hours. 

THE CONVENTION also adopted a 
resolution urging amnesty for more than 
100 postal workers who were fired in 1978 
for participation in a work stoppage. It 
protested that the penalty imposed “ex- 
ceeds the alleged infraction” and said re- 
instatement of the workers would show 
“that human rights and workers’ rights are 
as important in this country as anywhere 
else in the world.” 

6-Point Program 
Proposed to End 
Housing Shortage 

New York — A six-point program to 
overcome the nation's shortage of afford- 
able housing was adopted by the AFL-CIO 
convention. It calls for: 

• An increase in federally assisted 
housing. 

• Greater use of “tandem plans” that 
provide below-market mortgage rates for 
low- and middle-income buyers and rental 
projects. 

• Credit controls that would assure an 
adequate supply of mortgage funds at 
reasonable interest rates. 

• Encouragement- of union pension 
fund investments “in long-term, fixed- 
payment mortgages guaranteed by the gov- 
ernment.” 

• Restrictions on conversion- of rental 
housing to condominiums “in tight hous- 
ing markets.” 

• Curbs on exports of logs that create 
shortages and push up domestic costs. 

Charles H. Pillard, chairman of the 
AFL-CIO Housing Committee and presi- 
dent of the International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers, told the delegates that 
housing construction has slumped to “de- 
pression levels,” interest rates make it im- 
possible for most Americans to buy a 
home, and “rental vacancies are at a rec- 
ord low.” 

A byproduct, he said, is that while the 
national unemployment rate is 8 percent, 
1 8 percent of the 'nation’s construction 
workers are. without jobs. 

Workers involved in producing and 
transporting building materials have also 
been victims of the housing slump, Pillard 
noted. 


Union-Busting Bid Seen in Anti-Picket Bill 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Aging Parley 
Undermined 
By Politics 



UNION-MADE STYLE is spotlighted in a fashion show staged for convention 
delegates and guests by the Ladies’ Garment Workers. The show featured cloth- 
ing manufactured by ILG members, all bearing the well-known ILG union label. 


Mondale Ties Recession 
To Failed Reagan Policies 


New York — The AFL-CIO convention 
accused the Reagan Administration of po- 
litical scheming in attempting to manipu- 
late, confuse and intimidate delegates to 
the coming White House Conference on 
Aging. 

Expressing concern that the machina- 
tions may have undermined any chance 
for an effective conference, the conven- 
tion called on the President and Health & 
Human Services Sec. Richard S. Schweiker 
to take steps to restore confidence and in- 
tegrity in the sessions by insuring that the 
democratic process will prevail. 

THE CONFERENCE is scheduled to 
be held in Washington Nov. 30-Dec. 3 
with 2,200 delegates expected to attend. 

The convention resolution noted that 
one of the first actions that Schweiker 
took after taking the HHS post was to pack 
the conference’s advisory committee with 
Reagan supporters, who now outnumber 
representatives of senior citizens groups by 
better than a 2-to-l margin. 

Other actions designed to undermine 
the conference have included: 

• Release of the delegate list by 
Schweiker to the Republican National 
Committee, which conducted a “survey” 
in an apparent effort to swing support to 
Administration positions on key issues. 

• Replacement of the seasoned confer- 
ence director just weeks before the start 
of the sessions with a political appointee 
inexperienced in the field of aging. 

• Extraordinary delay in the release of 
papers to delegates, including reports and 
recommendations developed months ago. 

• Limiting discussion by not separating 
large committees — consisting of several 
hundred delegates and observers — into 
subcommittees. 

“THE AFL-CIO deplores these political 
machinations obviously designed to control 
conference decisions,” the resolution de- 
clared. “This effort to manipulate the con- 
ference to advance the political goals of 
the Reagan Administration has so shaken 
the confidence of the public and delegates 
that an effective conference may now be 
all but impossible.” 


New York — The AFL-CIO will contest 
any attempt the Reagan Administration 
makes to repeal the Occupational Safety & 
Health Act by administrative action, the 
convention pledged. 

“The labor movement brought OSHA 
into being, fought for effective implemen- 
tation and protected it from attacks from 
without and within,” the job safety resolu- 
tion said. It pledged to “continue to chal- 
lenge administrative actions in the courts 
and to stimulate assistance from members 
of Congress.” 

IT CALLED on members of all federa- 
tion affiliates to watch closely for “any 
valid evidence of failure by OSHA compli- 
ance personnel to perform an adequate 
enforcement job.” 

The resolution charged that the Labor 
Dept, is attempting to repeal OSHA ad- 
ministratively “by crippling the compli- 
ance program, subverting the rights of 
workers under the Act, substituting labor- 
management voluntarism and consultation 
for vigorous enforcement,” as well as fail- 
ing to provide needed funds for worker 
training programs. 

It also called on unions to expand efforts 
to negotiate health and safety provisions 
in contracts, step up safety and health 
training for members and help locals on 
cases handled by the Occupational Safety 
& Health Review Commission. 

THE RESOLUTION stressed the need 
for comprehensive federal and state label- 
ing regulations to alert workers who han- 


New York — The Reagan Administration 
is dividing America with its “radical eco- 
nomic program,” former Vice President 
Walter F. Mondale told the AFL-CIO 
convention. 

Rather than working with and cooper- 
ating with organized labor as past Repub- 
lican Administrations have done the Rea- 
gan White House has declared war on 
labor’s rights. Mondale charged. He cited 
as an example the Administration’s attacks 
on the Davis-Bacon and Service Contract 
Acts that provide prevailing wage protec- 
tions for workers. 

Mondale said organized labor has had 
a positive role in the growth of America 
over the past 100 years, with the skills of 
workers and the efforts of their democratic 
unions contributing greatly to the nation’s 
wealth. 

Mondale charged that mounting unem- 
ployment and the deepening recession are 
the direct result of President Reagan’s 
monetary and fiscal policies that pushed 
long-term interest rates to a record high 
in October. He cited particularly the im- 


dle dangerous substances and to keep in- 
tact the full force of OSHA’s standard of 
worker access to employer medical and 
exposure records. 

In calling for adoption of the resolution. 
Vice President Joseph Odorcich of the 
Steelworkers said OSHA is as essential to 
the protection of American workers as the 
Secret Service is to President Reagan. 

Noting that many millions of dollars are 
spent on the Secret Service for the Presi- 
dent’s personal safety, Odorcich said, ’’all 
we ask of this government is to make sure 
that the workers have this same kind of 
safety.” 

In related resolutions, the convention 
pressed for: 

• Legislated OSHA protections for all 
public employees — federal, postal, and 
state and local government — now excluded 
from coverage. 

• Re-establishing a maritime operating 
division in the Labor Dept, to reverse de- 
teriorating safety protections in the ship- 
building industry. 

• Stepped-up government activity and 
development of strong standards for grain 
elevators and mills against the hazards of/ 
grain dust explosions, which have killed 
95 workers and seriously injured 240 oth- 
ers since 1977. 

• Continuing studies into the potential 
health hazards facing operators of video 
display terminals and strong safety provi- 
sions in collective bargaining agreements. 


pact of the rates on the plunging housing 
and auto markets. 

MONDALE POINTED out that the 
8.5 million unemployed in the United 
States last month was the highest number 
of jobless workers since the depression year 
of 1939. He noted that some economists 
are expecting the jobless rate to climb to 
10 percent, and that even the President’s 
own chief economic adviser has admitted 
the rate could hit 9 percent. 

“We reject the notion that the answer 
to our problems is to throw millions of 
people out of work” as an approach to 
cutting waste, Mondale said. 

“THE GREATEST waste occurring in 
America today is to be found in the lost 
product of 8.5 million decent Americans 
who want to work and who cannot find it,” 
he said. 

Mondale observed that the Administra- 
tion has not yet learned that a President 
needs the help of all sectors. “Instead of 
aiming for a consensus, they are dividing 
the American people,” he charged. “I have 
never seen worse relations between labor 
and its leaders and a President.” A 
President doesn’t have to agree with every- 
thing the union §ays, but whoever wants 
to lead this nation “must rgspect and in- 
volve and listen to the workers of America 
as expressed through their leadership.” 

HE SAID the strength of American 
democracy is reinforced by the values of 
trade unions. And he cited the founding Of 
the Solidarity movement in Poland as 
evidence of the need and desire for free 
unions among the workers of all nations. 

Mondale suggested, however, “that it is 
hypocrisy for national leaders to praise 
the free union movement in Poland and 
then turn around and ignore it and try to 
undermine it in the United States.” 

He charged that the Administration is 
working actively to undermine the basic 
worker protections and essential social pro- 
grams that the American trade union 
jnovement has struggled to establish. 

“While creating a safety net for the rich, 
they’re opening a trapdoor for America’s 
poor,” he said, citing the Administration’s 
strategies for cutting taxes for the wealthy 
while slashing the budgets of programs for 
the less fortunate. 

AND AS THE federal deficit threatens 
to top $100 billion a year, “none of us 
takes any joy in this economic disaster” 
because people are hurting. Mondale ob- 
served. He notei that even the architect 
of the Reagan program, David Stockman, 
director of the Office of Management & 
Budget, has now admitted his lack of faith 
in that program. 

“The only way to get America going is 
to let the average person have a job, good 
pay, a safe job, and a decent home and 
then 'America will move,” Mondale de- 
clared. 


Convention Pledges Defense 
Of Job Safety Enforcement 


Indexing Plan 
Endorsed for 
Wage Floor 

New York — The federal minimum wage 
should be raised and permanently indexed 
to private sector earnings, the AFL-CIO 
proposed. 

Past attempts to keep the Fair Labor 
Standards Act up to date through periodic 
step-ups in the minimum wage haven’t 
worked, the resolution noted. Thus, “the 
real value” of the current $3.35 an hour 
minimum is “substantially less than the 
$1.40 minimum wage was worth in Feb- 
ruary 1967,” when it was enacted. 

THE CONVENTION credited Con- 
gress with an earnest effort to provide for 
several years in the future when it adopted 
1977 amendments to the FLSA. But the 
increases were eroded by the double-digit 
inflation which “Congress could not and 
did not foresee.” 

The AFL-CIO proposed that the wage 
floor be adjusted each year at 60 percent 
Qf the average hourly earnings in the pri- 
vate sector. 

Such a system, the convention said, 
would allow employers to anticipate their 
wage costs instead of facing “sporadic 
and unpredictable” increases in the mini- 
mum. 

IN A RELATED area, the convention 
strongly criticized the decision of the Sec- 
retary of Labor to lift a 40-year-old pro- 
hibition against industrial homework in 
the knitted outerwear industry. 

The ban against industrial homework in 
specified industries was imposed because 
it was impossible to enforce federal wage- 
hour standards otherwise, the resolution 
noted. 

The convention welcomed a legal chal- 
lenge to the exemption brought by the 
Ladies’ Garment Workers and urged the 
Labor Dept, to increase its staff assigned 
to enforcement of the Fair Labor Stan- 
dards Act. 

Speaking on the resolution, ILGWU 
Vice President Evelyn Dubrow charged 
that the Secretary of Labor’s actions would 
encourage and legalize “kitchen sweat- 
shops” and a return to child labor. 

UNSCRUPULOUS employers, taking 
advantage of immigrant labor, prefer to 
have work done at home, she said. “They 
don’t have to pay taxes, they don’t have to 
pay for light or utilities. They don’t have 
to worry about an inspector coming by to 
see whether health and safety laws are 
being followed.” 

Another convention resolution called 
for “strict enforcement of our nation’s 
labor laws” and urged full funding needed 
“for the effective protection of American 
. workers.” 

Convention Gtes Role 
Of Public Hospitals 

New York — Public hospitals assure that 
no one is turned away from needed medi- 
cal care because of inability to pay, and 
a wave of closings or private industry take- 
overs endangers this principle, the AFL- 
CIO warned. 

A convention resolution reaffirmed sup- 
port for public hospitals and urged health 
care financing reforms that would preserve 
their “vital role.” 



WALTER F. MONDALE 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Inspiration to W orkers Everywhere 

Cheering Delegates Hail 
Polish Solidarity Union 


Pa|:e Nine 



CENTENNIAL SALUTE to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the AFL- 
CIO included dramatic readings from labor history, showing of the AFL-CIO 
film, “A Time of Challenge,” and labor songs by “The Centennial Six” musical 
group, assembled especially for the AFL-CIO show. Principal singers shown 
from left are, Joe Uehlein, Joe Glazer and Bobbie McGee. 

Kennedy Scores Democrats 
Who Vote Like Republicans 


By Susan Dunlop 

New York — Cheers and prolonged ap- 
plause rang through the AFL-CIO con- 
vention hall as delegates rose to their 
feet to assert the American labor move- 
ment’s support of Solidarity, the Polish 
-free trade union movement. 

The AFL-CIO had planned to present 
Solidarity with the first George Meany 
International Human Rights Award. The 
Polish union’s leader, Lech Walesa, had 
been scheduled to accept the award on be- 
half of Solidarity and to address the con- 
vention, but AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland read the delegates a cable from 
Walesa regretting that he had to cancel 
his visit because of the situation in Poland. 

WALESA SAID he hopes to come to 
the United States at a later date and the 
Meany award will be formally presented to 
him then. 

The convention resolution applauded 
Solidarity as an inspiration to workers 
everywhere. 

“For the first time in a country ruled by 
a- Communist Party,” it noted, “workers 
have won the right to a union independent 
of the government, a historic victory with 
far-reaching implications.” 

A film shown to the convention traced 
the growth of Solidarity, created in 1980 
when workers at the Gdansk shipyard 
struck to protest low wages, poor working 
conditions and Poland’s general economic 
chaos. Twenty-one demands presented by 
the workers to the Polish government in- 
cluded the right to establish a union free 
of government domination. 

The short color film explained the birth 
and growth of Solidarity and traced 
Walesa’s emergence as its leader. 

THE GDANSK agreement ignited Pol- 
ish opinion and support for the union 
which has become a vehicle for workers’ 


New York — Government, business and 
labor should work together “to ensure that 
all elements of the nation’s transportaiton 
system remain viable,” the AFL-CIO 
urged. 

A section of the omnibus transportation 
resolution dealing with airline issues pro- 
tested the failure to enforce, through reg- 
ulations, provisions of the airline deregu- 
lation law that were intended to protect 
workers adversely affected. 

ANOTHER BYPRODUCT of deregu- 
lation, the resolution noted, has been the 
threat to workers and unions from “run- 
away tactics of ‘alter ego’ airlines set up 
by established carriers in an attempt to 
avoid union contract obligations.” 

Specifically, it pointed to New York Air, 
“set up by Texas International through a 
holding company in order to employ non- 
union workers” at substandard wages. 

The convention also protested a pro- 
posal to reduce the minimum number of 
flight attendants below levels now consid- 
ered safe. 

THE MARITIME section of the reso- 
lution termed it vital to restore “this cru- 
cial industry” to economic health, with 
U.S.-built ships flying the American flag 
and carrying a fair share of U.S. cargoes. 

It urged legislation requiring that a 
share of U.S. coal exports be carried in 
American vessels and calling for bilateral 
negotiations with America’s trading part- 
ners. It stressed the need for a modern 
merchant fleet as' a naval auxiliary and 
urged repeal of a law that allows owners 
of vessels built abroad to receive operating 
subsidies. 

The resolution affirmed support for the 
Jones Act, which limits U.S. coastal trade 
to American vessels, and laws that require 
that one-half of cargoes generated by the 
U.S. government be carried in U.S. ships. 


demands for more democratic rights 
throughout Polish society. 

The film, prepared as part of the Meany 
award presentation, pointed out that Kirk- 
land had been invited by Walesa to attend 
Solidarity’s historic first national congress 
in Gdansk in September. 

Kirkland was refused a visa by Poland’s 
Communist government, but his speech 
was distributed at the congress by Msgr. 
George G. Higgins of Catholic University, 
who attended as a fraternal delegate. 

The AFL-CIO president’s speech was 
read aloud at the Polish union congress and 
was greeted with cheers from the delegates, 
Msgr. Higgins reported. 

THE RESOLUTION emphasized that 
Solidarity faces a number of difficulties 
including the failure of the Polish govern- 
ment to keep all promises made in the 
Gdansk agreements and its attempts to 
blame the union “for the failures of the 
economic system imposed on Poland by 
the Soviet Union.” 

The people of Poland face a winter of 
shortages of food and medical supplies, 
the resolution observed, warning that there 
is a continuing “Soviet campaign of intimi- 
dation and threats” against the union. 

The AFL-CIO’s Polish Workers Aid 
Fund has already raised some $250,000 
to buy office equipment and other supplies 
for Solidarity, the convention noted. It 
said the AFL-CIO will work with other 
organizations to help get food and medical 
supplies to the Polish people and “urge 
the U.S. government to provide generous 
assistance to stave off the prospect of 
hunger this winter.” 

THE FEDERATION praised Solidarity 
as “an affirmation of the universal need of 
workers, in all social and economic sys- 
tems, for their own unions.” 

“All humanity has a stake in its suc- 
cess,” the resolution concluded. 


The intercity bus section opposed Ad- 
ministration-backed proposals for deregu- 
lation, which it said would result in “a 
substantial curtailment of service to the 
public.” 

It warned that “less profitable routes 
serving smaller communities would be 
abandoned while bus companies would 
saturate the more profitable routes.” 

On railroads, the resolution scored the 
failure of private management to upgrade 
track and equipment and stressed the need 
for federal action. 

It urged restoration of budget cuts*for 
the Amtrak passenger service, said Con- 
rail workers should be compensated for 
job losses from curtailment of service, and 
backed a proposal to develop 20 high- 
speed rail corridors linking major cities. 

A SEPARATE resolution protested the 
Reagan Administration’s “total reversal” 
of the federal government’s past support 
of assistance to urban mass transportation. 

It sought: 

• Full funding of the Urban Mass 
Transportation Act and expanded oper- 
ating assistance. 

• Assurance that federal mass transit 
assistance will not interfere with collective 
bargaining procedures. 

• Continued Labor Dept, administra- 
tion of the labor protection provisions of 
the Mass Transit Act, and prevailing wage 
protection for workers in the construction 
or operation of transit facilities. 

• No-fare transit to encourage rider- 
ship and thereby reduce energy consump- 
tion. 

• A tripling of transit vehicle manu- 
facturing capability so as “to respond to 
the expanded needs of urban travel as the 
energy crisis builds up.” 


New York — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 
aligned himself with labor’s legislative 
goals, assailed “the most anti-union” Ad- 
ministration of modern times, and warned 
his own party that Democrats can’t prosper 
by acting like Republicans. 

“The last thing America needs in the 
1980s is two Republican parties,” Kennedy 
told the AFL-CIO convention. 

THE MASSACHUSETTS senator, 
greeted with an ovation and repeatedly 
interrupted with applause, accused the 
Reagan Administration of summoning 
America “to selfishness” and replacing “a 
tradition of compassion with a standard of 
greed.” 

The recession, brought on “in record 
time,” must not be allowed to feed on itself 
until it wrecks the economy, Kennedy in- 
sisted. 

He urged, as has the AFL-CIO, that 
Congress revise the tax cut it enacted and 
“at the very least” repeal the $33 billion in 
new tax breaks the Administration handed 
to the major oil and gas producers. They 
do not need the money, but America needs 
the revenue,” he said. 

KENNEDY CITED his co-sponsorship 
of the Senate amendment that successfully 
restored Davis-Bacon Act coverage to the 
military construction bill, attacked “the 
plan to take jobs from those who already 
have them by providing a subminimum 
wage for those who are young.” 

He brought delegates to their feet with 
a strong attack on the current right-wing 
drive to amend the Hobbs Act, which 
punishes crimes such as extortion, to make 
picket line scuffles in the course of a legiti- 
mate strike subject to federal criminal 
penalties. 

“The criminal code should be used to 
fight crime,” Kennedy insisted. “It should 
never be misused as a tool for union-bust- 
ing.” 

Kennedy cited the “hundreds of thou- 
sands who marched on Solidarity Day” as 
refutation of “those who say that labor 
does not speak for its members.” 


He challenged labor’s critics to “go to 



SEN. EDWARD M. KENNEDY 


union halls across the nation. They will 
hear the message that the rank-and-file 
reject the reactionary program of social 
security cuts for the elderly, Davis-Bacon 
cuts for construction workers, endless 
welfare for the rich — and a recession for 
the rest of America.” 

He spoke of the labor movement’s heri- 
tage, the ideals that continue to make it, 
“at the dawn of its second century, the 
surest guardian of progress, and the most 
powerful force for change in America.” 

Kennedy brought chuckles from the 
delegates and many guests at the conven- 
tion with a quip about the repeated pairing 
of his name and that of former Vice Presi- 
dent Walter F. Mondale as “front-runners 
for the Democratic presidential nomination 
in 1984.” Mondale had addressed the con- 
vention earlier, and Kennedy’s comment 
was that “neither Fritz nor 1 likes to hear 
that kind of talk about being front- 
runners. I don’t like to hear it about him, 
and he doesn’t like to hear it about me.” 

HE CLOSED his address to the conven- 
tion by invoking the memory of one of 
the last speeches President John F. Ken- 
nedy made before his assassination in 
1963, to the AFL-CIO convention the last 
time it was held in New York City. 

The President spoke then of his hopes 
for the 1980s, a decade that seemed far 
off. “Now the 1980s have come,” Sen. 
Kennedy said, “and you and I are the 
keepers of that dream . . . the vision of a 
better future for our children and a better, 
stronger, greater America.” 

Congress Urged 
To Ban Further 
Food Stamp Cuts 

New York — “The nation’s principal de- 
fense against hunger,” the food stamp pro- 
gram, has been gravely weakened by cut- 
backs already made and is threatened by 
new budget attacks, the AFL-CIO warned. 

A convention resolution urged Congress 
“to resist efforts to cause even more suf- 
fering” and reconsider early decisions to 
eliminate or reduce benefits for 2 million 
persons, prohibit aid to families of strikers 
regardless of need, and force a delay be- 
fore workers who lose their jobs can 
qualify for food stamps. It also protested 
delay in the cost-of-living adjustment in 
benefits. 1^ 

ARNOLD MAYER, legislative director 
of the Food & Commercial Workers, told 
the delegates that the Reagan Administra- 
tion “is bringing hunger back to the 
United States” through its cuts in food 
stamps and child nutrition programs. 

The cuts, he stressed, are coming at the 
same time that more people are in need 
because of Administration slashes in other 
social programs and higher unemployment. 

“Families of murderers and rapists can 
get food stamps,” Mayer noted. “But the 
families of strikers cannot.” 


All Transportation Elements 
Called Essential to Nation 


Page Ten 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Challenge of the Timeis 

W E ARE HERE in strength and vigor because those who went 
before us and built this great instrument of progress did 
indeed adapt its role and structure to the needs and demands of 
their times. 

The makeup of this body bears little resemblance to the Horse 
Collar Workers, the Architectural Cornice Makers, the Box 
Sawyers and Nailers and the Umbrella and Walking Stick Makers 
who gathered into the federation a hundred years ago. This body 
will bear as little resemblance to those who assemble under our 
banner a hundred years hence. 

Throughout its history, labor has reflected all the trends and 
events — sometimes harmful, sometimes enriching — of its times, 
at home and abroad. Like our nation, we have been enriched by 
refugees from strife and tyranny in other lands. Like our nation, 
we have been compelled to grapple with the consequences of vast 
technological, social and economic changes that have taxed our 
wits and capacities. 

LET ME NOTE some of the ways in which we have sought 
to address the challenge of the times in keeping with our historic 
mandate. 

We have a permanent mandate to seek and preserve unity within 
the family of labor, and we rejoice in the re-affiliation of a great 
union, the United Automobile Workers. Our mission will not be 
completed until all of labor’s flock is brought within the fold, to 
work and move together in solidarity. 

We have an enduring mandate to bring all working people the 
message of trade unionism. There is no matter of more constant 
urgency than to organize the unorganized. We have initiated an 
ambitious campaign in the Southwest, with the Houston Coopera- 
tive Organizing Program, and we intend to see it through to a 
solid result. 


We have an age-old mandate to educate and agitate and we 
have over these past months sought to do it justice. 

WE CAN SURVIVE adverse public opinion. But we cannot 
long survive the erosion of support for programs and policies on 
the part of the membership. 

Last spring, through a series of regional conferences extending 
over several weeks, the officers and department heads of the 
federation met with state and local trade union leaders for face-to- 
face discussions on any and all issues, no holds barred. 

Some of the steps we have since taken, as well as some that 
will be proposed to this convention, are the product of those 
meetings. We found them of such value that we shall repeat them 
next year and in the future. I strongly commend such a practice 
to every constituent organization. From those sessions emerged the 
concept of Solidarity Day and the conviction that the spirit required 
for its success was there, waiting for an opportunity of expression. 


ON THAT DAY, there gathered in Washington the greatest 
protest demonstration in our history. Over 400,000 members of 
the mainstream of the trade union movement and their allies 
spoke with one great voice against the course of their government 
and for the human values we represent. 

As we go forth into our second century, solidarity remains the 
indispensable key to the future. 

— From AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland*s convention key- 
note address. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 
Executive Council 

Thomas W. Gleason Frederick O’Neal 
S. Frank Raftery Martin J. Ward 
Albert Shanker Glenn E. Watts 
Edward T. Hanley Angelo Fosco 
J. C. Turner Lloyd McBride 

David J. Fitzmaurice Kenneth T. Blaylock Alvin E. Heaps 
Wm.W.Winpisinger William H. Wynn John J. O’Donnell 
Wayne E. Glenn 
Joyce D. Miller 
Frank Drozak 
Richard I. Kilroy 


John H. Lyons 
Jerry Wurf 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 


John DeConcini 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 
Barbara Hutchinson 


Robert F. Goss 
John J. Sweeney 
James E. Hatfield 
Vincent R. Sombrotto 


E Director of Information: Saul Miller e 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry s 

E ^ Assistant Editors: E 

s Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec i 

E David L. Perlman James M. Shevis i 

1 AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. S 

E Washington. D.C. 20006 1 

I Telephone: (.202) 637-5032 | 

I Vol. XXVI Saturday, November 28, 1981 No. 48 | 

E The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
E for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
E ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
= Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
— to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
E AFL-CIO. _ 

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Extremes of Poverty, Luxury 


Inequality of Income Growing 
In Reversal of a Long Trend 


By Gus Tyler 

W HAT REP. HENRY S. Reuss has been say- 
ing about the way income is maldistributed 
in our country deserves much more attention than 
it is presently getting. 

First, because Reuss, a Wisconsin Democrat, is 
chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of the 
House and Senate. Second, because he is pointing 
to a growing economic inequality in the United 
States that is a threat both to our material well- 
being and to our political ideals. 

WE ARE BECOMING less and less of a na- 
tion moving toward prosperity for all and more 
and more of a country moving toward riches at 
the top at the expense of all. Reuss says that from 
1929 to 1967, we were getting away from the 
extremes of poverty and luxury in America. He 
gives a few figures: 

If you divide the families in America up into 
five categories — ^from the bottom fifth to the top 
fifth — the middle classes living in the second, 
third, and fourth fifths all held a larger portion 
of the national income in 1967 than in 1929. 

The upward move was not dramatic, but it was 
adequate — at least, it poinfed in the right direc- 
tion. For instance, the second fifth moved up from 
getting 12.5 percent of the total income to 14.2 
percent; the third and fourth fifths also eased 
upward. The top fifth came down a bit from get- 
ting 54.4 percent to 43.4 percent. 

‘‘THEN ALONG about 1967,” Reuss told Con- 
gress, “something happened. The distribution of 
income went into reverse from its egalitarian 
trend of almost forty years, and headed back 
toward greater inequality.” 

The top began to pick up a greater portion; the 
bottom fifth — that used to get a measly 5 percent 
of the pie in 1947 — got a measlier 3.8 percent 
in 1978. 

Actually, the move toward the extremes is even 
worse than these figures reveal because the forces 
at work in the years 1967 to 1978 have accel- 
erated in more recent years, although they are 
not yet reported in official statistics that run only 
up to 1978. 

Reuss points out that in the years since 1978, 
while prices rose by 26 percent, weekly earnings 


rose by only 15 percent (putting such families 
deeper into a hole) while income from dividends 
rose 26 percent and from interest 48 percent 
(putting such families higher on the heap). 

Sadly, this polarization of our people is not 
the trend in the rest of the industrial world. Of 
the seven leading democracies, the United States 
stands next to the bottom in the degree of income 
distribution, behind Japan (the most equal), the 
United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, West Ger- 
many. Only France suffers from greater mal- 
distribution of income, a fact that is likely to be 
changed radically under the new Mitterand Ad- 
ministration. 

THE GROWING maldistribution of income in 
the United States is more than a rejection of the 
nation’s historic ideal; maldistribution is an eco- 
nomic and political menace. A top-heavy econ- 
omy, lacking a broad income base in the lower 
four-fifths of the nation, has toppled disastrously 
in the past and will do it again. 

The emergence of economic extremes has al- 
ways been accompanied by the emergence of po- 
litical extremists — with all the discontent and dis- 
orders inherent in such social confrontations. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Seeds of Organizing 
Ready To Be Sowed 

The seeds of organization abound throughout 
this country. The desire to organize into labor 
unions exists today. 

We have the intelligence, we have the desire, 
and we have the people to do the job that is 
necessary to bring organization to workers 
throughout this country. 

We can overcome the loopholes of the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board procedures. We 
can overcome the anti-union employers. 

If we do that, we will achieve for the workers 
who are now a part of our organizations and for 
the workers who will become a part of our or- 
ganizations a much better life. 

— AFL-CIO Vice President William H. Wynn 
during convention discussion of a resolution 
on organizing, Nov. 16, 1981. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Page Eleven 


In Convention Resolution 

Reagan Economic Program Hit 
As ‘Class War’ Against Poor 


The following is from the convention resolu- 
tion on economic policy: 

HTHE HOLLOW PROMISES of the Reagan 
economic program are a smokescreen to con- 
ceal a massive transfer of wealth and income 
away from workers, away from low- and 
middle-income Americans, to the pK>ckets of the 
wealthy and the profits of big corporations. 

T^e blatant policies of the Reagan Adminis- 
tration are threatening the jobs and the living 
standards of America’s working men and women 
and endangering the sense of fair play and social 
justice that binds and unifies America. 

These Reagan Administration policies add up 
to class warfare against the disadvantaged, the 
poor and the working people of America. They 
will put more people out of work and aggravate 
inflation. They will add to inequity, unfairness 
and divisiveness. 

These policies must be exposed, the damage 
minimized and the course reversed. 

THE BASIC PRINCIPLED behind the eco- 
nomic policies supported by the AFL-CIO are 
simple: 

We believe that economic progress and social 
justice go together. 

We believe full employment is a moral, politi- 
cal and economic imj>erative. 

We believe the attack against inflation must 
focus on the true causes of inflation, on the 
specific sectors of energy, food, health care, 
housing and high interest rates. 

We believe the nation’s economic growth and 
productivity must be raised by a comprehensive 
reindustrialization program including effective 
employment and training programs. 

We believe that this nation’s international trade 
and investment policies must give much more 
weight to U.S. interests. 

LIKE A SNOWBALL rolling downhill, the 
economic recession is gaining momentum. Un- 
employment has increased by one million in the 
past three months and each day thousands more 
are being laid off. 

But the Reagan Administration response to 
rising unemployment is to resurrect Herbert 
Hoover’s economic policies of 50 years ago with 
additional budget cuts that will further weaken 
demand, reduce output, and- destroy more jobs. 

The resulting weakened economy would be 


even more costly and damaging to the nation in 
terms of lost production, lost jobs, lost skills, and 
lost income to producers and workers. 

The tragedy of unemployment and the steadily 
worsening economic situation must be reversed. 

THE AFL-CIO calls upon the Congress to pass 
the following anti-recession, job-creating pro- 
grams: 

A. Programs already on the books must be 
given sufficient funding to provide jobs rapidly 
and help lift the economy, specifically: 

— Revive the emergency local public works 
program; 

— Provide new low- and middle-income hous- 
ing units; 

— Restore public service jobs for workers not 
able to find jobs; 

— Restore nationwide extended unemployment 
compensation benefits to protect the long-term 
unemployed. 

B. Stimulate the economy with new legislation, 
specifically: 

— Establish a Reconstruction Finance Corpo- 
ration to revitalize the economy with loans, loan 
guarantees, interest rate subsidies and targeted 
tax benefits for retooling and growth of basic 
industries with special consideration for high 
unemployment areas; 

— Place temporary restrictions on harmful im- 
ports to prevent added penetration of U.S. mar- 
kets by foreign producers and further weakening 
of the nation’s industrial base. 

C. Use credit control authority to offset tight 
money policy and excessive interest rates and to 
channel funds into productive uses, including 
housing, and to stop unproductive credit flows 
that aggravate the economic situation with specu- 
lative excesses and merger activities. 

D. Raise revenue for these programs and re- 
store, equity by: 

— Limiting the individual income tax cuts for 
1982 to $700 per taxpayer, roughly the amount 
scheduled for those with incomes of $40,000; 

— Cutting the 10 percent investment tax credit 
back to its original 7 percent level to preclude 
subsidizing the same firms and investments as 
does the huge newly enacted depreciation system; 

— Withdrawing oil windfall profits tax give- 
aways to wealthy oil royalty owners in the 1981 
Reagan Tax Act. 


Prison for Punches 

Intimidating Workers, Unions 
Goal of Hobbs Act Amendment 


B ackers of legislation to subject 

strikers to federal prosecution and heavy 
criminal penalties are more interested in intimi- 
dating workers and their unions than improved 
law enforcement, Howard Marlowe, associate leg- 
islative director for the AFL-CIO, declared in a 
network radio interview. 

Workers who commit violent or unlawful acts 
on the picket line “should be prosecuted,” and 
they are, Marlowe stressed. He said state and 
local law enforcement officials “are carrying out 
their responsibilities” — ^perhaps, even too vigor- 
ously at times — and “there is absolutely no rea- 
son to impose an extra layer of law enforcement” 
on them. 

Questioned by reporters on the AFL-CIO pub- 
lic affairs program. Labor News Conference, 
Marlowe said most state and local officials are 
firmly opposed to “federal intervention” in picket 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


line disputes. He said the National Right to Work 
Committee and other anti-union groups have ex- 
aggerated and distorted the facts, painting a pic- 
ture of widespread picket line violence. 

In reality, strike-related violence occurs so 
seldom that “the FBI does not even publish sta- 
tistics in that category,” Marlowe pointed out. 

He said the proposal now before Congress, 
sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), 
would wipe out the 1973 Supreme Court ruling 
that incidents related to legitimate strike objec- 
tives do not fall within the purview of the federal 
extortion law — ^the Hobbs Act. Supporters of the 
Thurmond measure to amend the law to include 
workers “want to bust unions, and they see this 
as a stifling measure,” Marlowe declared. 

“WORKERS WHO know that they will be 
subjected, conceivably, to 20-year prison terms 
and $250,000 fines for not only assault, but for 
the threat of assault, would be very reluctant to 
exercise their right under the collective bargain- 
ing laws of this country to go out on strike,” he 
said. 

Reporters questioning Marlowe on Labor News 
Conference were Michael Posner of Reuters and 
Drew Von Bergen of United Press International. 
The interview is aired weekly over the Mutual . 
Broadcasting System. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

T here are many millions of people — the unemployed, the 
poor, the elderly, schoolchildren — who will suffer some depri- 
vation and perhaps misery this winter and on into next year. 

Their benefits are being cut and they have been told it is 
necessary to control “runaway” government spending. 

Since it is unlikely they will read the lengthy Atlantic Monthly 
article on David Stockman, President Reagan’s budget chief, they 
may not realize how they’ve been victimized. 

The article, based on 1 8 interviews with Stockman going back 
to last January, is a devastating indictment of the Reagan Admin- 
istration. It shows the President invested enormous power in an 
inexperienced 34-year-old man with changeable and immature 
notions about “how the world works.” 

Stockman was an early believer in supply-side economics, 
explaining: “The whole thing is premised on faith. On a belief 
about how the world works.” He predicted that Reagan’s program 
of a three-year tax cut and tight money would bring a boom “in 
’81, after April, of historic proportions.” 

WHEN THE COMPUTER showed the Reagan pro^am would 
produce huge deficits, Stockman put in more optimistic data and 
got the results he wanted. 

When the boom failed to arrive, Stockman shifted his produc- 
tion to later in the year, as did the President. 

Stockman, who was described as contemptuous of government, 
went after social programs in search of $40 billion in budget cuts 
so Reagan could balance the budget, a goal now abandoned. 

Stockman said he listed 20 social programs he wanted to 
abolish, like Job Corps, Head Start, women and children’s feeding 
programs and manpower training. “And then huge bites that 
would have to be taken out of social security,” he said. “I mean 
really fierce, blood-and-guts stuff — widows’ benefits and orphans’ 
benefits, things like that.” 

The turning point came in May, the article said, when Stockman 
went after social security. He got Reagan to propose drastic cuts 
in benefits for those retiring at age 62. Stockman thought this was 
a privilege for the elderly which they could be forced to give up. 
But he is so ignorant of the real world that he doesn’t realize that 
when 64 percent of those eligible retire early, it says something — 
probably that people are plain worn out after working in factories 
and mills all their lives. 

THE SENATE voted 96-0 in rejecting any action to cut benefits 
for early retirees. Stockman persisted. Hungry for social security 
cuts to help his budget, he said action to “save” social security 
would enable politicians to look like they were doing something 
for beneficiaries when actually they were doing something to them. 

The storm of protest in Congress and across the nation caused 
a major problem for the President. Finally, in September, Reagan 
went on national TV and disowned the Stockman reform plan. 

Nevertheless, Stockman is quoted in the magazine as saying: 
“The President was very interested (in the reform package) and 
he believed it was the right thing to do.” 

So that is one question that remains: Does the President want to 
cut back social security, as Stockman says, or does he supp>ort 
social security, as he tells the public? 

The problem with the Reagan Administration is now one of 
credibility. Besides social security, there is economic policy. Now 
Stockman reveals that “the supply-side formula was the only way 
to get a tax policy that was really “trickle-down.” 

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely, runs the 
old dictum. It appears David Stockman was given too much power 
and Reagan must be held responsible. 



INTIMIDATING WORKERS from striking, not better law en- 
forcement, is the aim of the National Right to Work Com- 
mittee and other backers of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s bill to sub- 
ject strikers to the federal extortion law, Howard Marlowe, 
center, associate director of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Legislation, 
declared on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by 
Drew Von Bergen, left, of United Press International and 
Michael Posner of Reuters. The AFL-CIO produced public 
affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 




Page Twelve 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Firm Commitment Pledged to Wipe Out Job Bias 


New York — The AFL-CIO remains 
firmly committed to vigorous, positive 
measures to end discrimination in the 
workplace. 

A convention resolution called for con- 
tinued labor involvement in affirmative 
action plans to eliminate race and sex 
inequities on the job as well as strong 
enforcement of federal anti-discrimination 
orders. 

The AFL-CIO opposes dismantling of 
non-discriminatory seniority systems that 
protect all union members and is deeply 
concerned over budget cuts that have 
slashed the Comprehensive Employment & 
Training Act and other training and jobs 
programs, particularly those directed to- 
ward youth, the convention said. 

THE RESOLUTION called on affiliates 
to redouble efforts toward ratification of 
the Equal Rights Amendment. 

Another resolution called on the Senate 
to adopt — and the President to sign — the 
Voting Rights Act extension bill passed 
by the House in October. 

Despite enactment of the Civil Rights 

Expanded Efforts 
Urged to Fill Gap 
In Social Services 

New York — The labor movement’s local 
community services activities and fund- 
raising must expand to meet the impact of 
tlie Reagan budget cuts on social services, 
the AFL-CIO declared. 

A convention resolution called on affili- 
ates to urge local unions to organize com- 
munity services committees. The network 
of community services liaison professionals 
should be used to train members of the 
committees, the AFL-CIO said. 

THE FEDERATION’S Dept, of Cotn- 
munity Services and CSA representatives 
of unions can provide guidance in the 
development of the programs, the resolu- 
tion noted. 

Union members, the AFL-CIO pointed 
out, should keep in mind the effect of the 
budget cuts when asking for contributions 
to local fund-raising drives. The federation 
urged affiliates to step up support “to 
agencies which respect the rights of em- 
ployees to join unions, and which respect 
the provision of union-produced goods and 
services.” 

In its report to the convention the AFL- 
CIO Executive Council noted that the fed- 
eration has letters of understanding with 
agencies such as United Way and the 
American Red Cross that call for such co- 
operation. The report said the terms of the 
agreement have not always been followed 
by some of the national agencies’ local 
affiliates, and it encouraged full adherence 
to the principles set forth in the letters. 

IN ITS resolution, the convention em- 
phasized that labor’s community services 
programs “evolve from labor’s concern for 
the quality of life outside the plant gate or 
shop or office door.” This is the basis for 
labor’s interest in housing, education, 
health care, human rights and social ser- 
vices, the AFL-CIO said. 

The council’s report pointed out that 
the Reagan budget cuts will have a “nega- 
tive impact” on local voluntary agencies 
that will be unlikely to make up losses in 
federal supports funds from private con- 
tributions. 

Delegates Commend Work 
Of Amnesty International 

New York — The AFL-CIO commended 
the work of Amnesty Internaitonal and 
other organizations that “seek an end to 
human rights violations against trade 
unionists and others.” 

Amnesty International’s work to protect 
unionists and others from imprisonment, 
torture and execution has won the group 
the Nobel Prize for Peace and the United 
Nations human rights award, a convention 
resolution noted. 


Act of 1964, the convention pointed out, 
minorities and women continue to experi- 
ence discrimination in hiring and initial 
placement, job upgrading and promotion. 

The federation urged affiliates to in- 
crease support of programs for full em- 
ployment and expansion of the economy 
to create the “atmosphere” in which af- 
firmative action has its greatest impact. 

POSITIVE STEPS can be taken through 
labor’s involvement in and support of 
affirmative action programs, particularly 
through the collective bargaining process, 
the convention said. 

Non-discriminatory seniority systems 
that protect all members should be main- 
tained, it continued, and these should be 
as broad as possible “so that all members 
will receive the full value and protection 
of their length of service with an em- 
ployer.” 

The resolution called on the federal 
government for vigorous enforcement of 
the Executive Order banning discrimina- 
tion by federal contractors. It said the 
Labor Dept.’s Office of Federal Contract 



BENJAMIN HOOKS 


Balanced Policy 
Asked on Growth, 
Pollution Curbs 

New York— The AFL-CIO pledged to 
fight any attempts by the Reagan Admin- 
istration and conservatives in Congress to 
gut environmental safeguards in the name 
of economic progress. 

Reaffirming the federation’s long-held 
support for programs to maintain a bal- 
ance between pollution abatement and eco- 
nomic growth, the convention stressed that 
“the Administration has no mandate to 
turn back the clock and give industry free 
rein to pollute and despoil” the environ- 
ment. 

THE CONVENTION warned that at- 
tacks on the Clean Air Act would greatly 
weaken its public health protections. The 
1977 amendments to the law are now be- 
fore Congress for renewal or amendment. 

The resolution insisted that damage 
caused by acid rain be dealt with by regu- 
lation or amendment to the Clean Air Act. 

In emphasizing the need for a balanced 
environmental policy, delegates condemned 
the two-year phaseout under the Reagan 
budget of the Environmental Protection 
Agency’s water treatment grants. 

IN OTHER AREAS relating to envi- 
ronmental concerns, the convention called 
for: 

• Expanding resource recovery pro- 
grams as an alternative to restricting use 
of non-returnable beverage containers. 

• Strong enforcement and adequate 
staffing for administration of the Surface 
Mining & Reclamation Act. 

• Effective worker protections and pro- 
visions against environmental blackmail by 
employers. 

• National land-use policies that con- 
sider the impact on jobs and economic 
growth. 


Compliance should recognize “the neces- 
sity for union input” throughout the in- 
vestigation of alleged violations, especial- 
ly where changes in collective bargaining 
agreements are proposed. 

LABOR’S CONCERN over cuts in 
CETA and other employment and train- 
ing programs grows out of its concern for 
equal employment opportunity, the con- 
vention noted, and it cited the need, too, 
for employment programs for the handi- 
capped. 

The federation strongly opposes at- 
tempts to weaken the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission, either by re- 
duced funding or restrictions that would 
slow down enforcement, the resolution 
stressed. 

The AFL-CIO reaffirmed its support of 
the ERA, and of continued efforts to end 
race or sex discrimination in wages, fringe 
benefits, and access to jobs. It called for 
adoption of the concept of equal pay for 
work of comparable value in organizing 
and bargaining and for protection against 
sexual harassment. 


New York — Adversity, in the shape of 
the Reagan Administration, has cemented 
the alliance of the trade union and civil 
rights movements, NAACP Executive Di- 
rector Benjamin L. Hooks declared. 

The NAACP brought thousands of civil 
rights activists to Washington to march 
with labor on Solidarity Day, and soli- 
darity was the eloquent message Hooks 
brought to the AFL-CIO convention. 

“WE STAND ready to help you. We 
stand ready to march with you,” he told 
the delegates. 

“We stand ready to demonstrate with 
you, to strike with you. We stand ready to 
vote with you.” 

Hooks told the convention that “the la- 
bor movement is now in the forefront of 
leadership in America. The torch has been 
thrown to you,” he said. 

With leadership, he urged, labor has “an 
obligation to forthrightly perform ... in 
civil rights, human rights, rights for women 
in the workplace.” 

LABOR IS America, Hooks said. “If 
you fail, to whom shall we go?” 

For the first time since Franklin D. 
Roosevelt came to office. Hooks said, 
“there’s a growing feeling across this na- 
tion that the black community neither has 
a President, a Congress nor a Supreme 
Court concerned about what we are trying 
to do.” 


The nation’s consumer price index, 
which reflects price movements at the re- 
tail level, rose another four-tenths of 1 
percent in October, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported. 

The increase, which followed a rise of 
1.2 percent in September, was the least 
for any month since the summer of 1980, 
BLS said. The lower rate of price escala- 
tion occurred as housing costs flattened 
out after 15 months of rising steadily, and 
mortgage interest rates began to slide. 

THE CPI NOW has risen at an annual 
rate of 9.6 percent for the first 10 months 
of this year. 

The October increase was the best show- 
ing since the rise of one-tenth of 1 percent 
in July 1980 during last year’s recession. 

Housing costs overall, which had risen 
by more than 1 percent a month for the 
past five months, showed no change at all 
for October. The average price of a house 
fell seven-tenths of 1 percent last month. 


The convention pledged that the AFL- 
CIO will strengthen its coalition with 
civil rights organizations and maintain its 
support for the activities of the A. Philip 
Randolph Institute, the Labor Council for 
Latin American Advancement, the Coali- 
tion of Labor Union Women, Frontlash 
and the National Council of Senior Citi- 
zens. 

IT UNDERSCORED the AFL-CIO’s 
opposition to the growth of “the violence- 
prone, anti-democratic KKK, the Ameri- 
can Nazi Party and other front groups.” 

In addition, the resolution called on 
affiliates to encourage full participation in 
union activities by women trade unionists, 
as well as participation with CLUW in its 
efforts to increase the involvement of 
women in unions and political action. 

The convention termed the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965 “one of the most 
meaningful, far-reaching and successful 
actions in the long history of the struggle 
for racial equality and justice in America.” 

It commended the House for passing 
legislation to extend the act and strength- 
en its enforcement provisions. 


He urged the delegates to “join hands 
and hearts” and with its coalition allies 
“march to the polls” and elect a Congress 
“responsive to the needs of the people.” 

If labor and the civil rights movement, 
the women’s movement and the Hispanic 
movement got together. Hooks suggested, 
“we would discover we are the majority.” 

THERE HAS been “a breakdown* of 
leadership” in the national government. 
Hooks said. When members of Congress' 
passed a tax cut skewed to reward the rich 
and the big corporations, they were “vot- 
ing for something that they knew nothing 
about. . . . They just voted for it under 
the magic name of Reagan.” 

It’s time to shed complacency. Hooks 
said. “The Reagan-Stockman Follies . . . 
will be with us a long time. We better get 
on our fighting shoes, our marching shoes,” 
he urged. 

The economics of the Coolidge, Harding 
and Hoover era “didn’t work then and 
won’t work now,” Hooks said. “It’s time to 
stand up to President Reagan and tell him, 
‘We ain’t going to let nobody turn us 
around,’ ” he declared. 

“WE’VE GOT to keep this nation mov- 
ing forward.” 

And then, he promised, as the labor 
movement passes its centennial, “we can 
join together and make this nation what it 
never has been, and yet must be, that land 
where every man and woman is free.” 


a sharp turnaround from previous months. 
Financing costs fell one-tenth of 1 percent. 

Meanwhile, the downward trend in the 
prime lending rate spread among major 
banks, with Chase Manhattan, the nation’s 
third largest bank, lowering its rate to 
15.75 from 16.5 percent. 

THE LOWEST equivalent prime rate 
was in mid-November 1980 when the 
prime varied from 15.5 to 16.25. This 
year’s high for the prime was 20.5 per- 
cent, a level that prevailed throughout 
July, August, and early September. 

Food and beverage prices also moder- 
ated last month, rising only two-tenths of 
1 percent, the lowest rate of increase 
since June. Clothing costs increased just 
two-tenths of 1 percent also. 

On the other hand, transportation costs 
rose 1.2 percent, helped by an identical 
increase in gasoline prices. Used car prices 
shot up 3.1 percent, the fifth straight month 
of substantial increases in this category. 


Consumer Prices Moderate 
As Housing Costs Flatten Out 


Adversity Seen Reinforcing 
Labor, Civil Rights Alliance 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 Page Thirteen 


Administration Retreat Scored 

Congress Asked to Meet 
Commitment to Schools* 



UNION PRESIDENTS, both linked to the newspaper business by trade, confer 
during the AFL-CIO convention in New York. At left is Ed Asner, recently 
elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, shown with Charles A. Perlik, Jr., 
president of the Newspaper Guild. In his television role of “Lou Grant,” Asner 
plays the city editor of a major metropolitan daily. 

Solidarity Day Rally Cited 
As Clear Signal to Reagan 


-■ New . York — The AFL-CIO underlined 
the labor movement’s long-standing com- 
mitment to public schools and denounced 
the Administration for “retreating” from 
the government’s partnership role in edu- 
cation programs that help all citizens. 

A convention resolution called on Con- 
gress to provide full funding for education 
programs for public schools, vocational 
and higher education and particularly for 
assistance to disadvantaged students and 
those with special needs, such as bilingual 
instruction. 

THESE PROGRAMS, the AFL-CIO 
said, should be categorical and fully fund- 
ed, not diluted into block grants to states 
and cities. Equal access to education pro- 
grams is critical to the goal of maintaining 
a: productive workforce and eliminating 
inequities, the resolution stressed. 

The AFL-CIO repeated its objections to 
tuition tax credit proposals and education 
vouchers, branding them “detrimental to 
the advancement of the public schools.” 

Affiliates , were asked to encourage 
schools to teach about the labor movement 
by providing films, speakers and other aids 
to help teachers introduce labor studies 
into school curricula. 

THE PROBLEMS of youth unemploy- 
ment underscore the need for vocational 
education that is realistically funded, in- 
cluding a federal partnership, the resolution 
stressed. It urged targeted programs for 
the inner cities, adequate teacher training 
and resources, money for new equipment 
to keep up with technological changes, and 
an examination of the question of sex 
equity for both men and women. 

The Executive Council’s report to the 


New York — The United States must 
take all feasible roads to energy independ- 
ence, the AFL-CIO urged, including both 
conservation and the development of al- 
ternative energy sources. 

A convention resolution said coal and 
nuclear power must be part of the nation’s 
energy mix, with awareness of environ- 
mental concerns. 

IT EXPRESSED concern at the Rea- 
gan Administration’s curtailment of gov- 
ernment research and development pro- 
grams and at the failure to implement the 
synthetic fuels program set up by Con- 
gress last year. 

The resolution noted that the United 
States and its chief allies remain “danger- 
ously dependent” on oil imports, even 
though conservation programs have helped 
reduce the level of imports. 

It reaffirmed the AFL-CIO position that 
the U.S. government should become “the 
sole importer of oil” so as to hold down 
prices and in a period of import disrup- 
tions “make sure that oil reached consum- 
ers rather than being stored "while prices 
soar.” 

THE CONVENTION expressed con- 
cern at budget cuts that have reduced 
federally-aided conservation measures. 

It urged more support for mass transit, 
federal temperature and lighting standards, 
conversion of boilers to coal,, and expand- 
ed low-interest loans for solar energy 
equipment, among other programs. 

The convention urged a commitment to 
“advancing solar, gasohol and geothermal 
technology.” 

INCREASED coal use should be ac- 
companied by greater use of scrubbers and 
other measures to reduce pollution, the 
resolution urged. It asked that develop- 
ment of nuclear power “be accompanied 
by expanded research into technology to 
further reduce safety hazards, so that nu- 
clear power will enjoy the public support 
it must have.” 


convention pointed out that federal voca- 
tional education programs that provide es- 
sential job skills to some three million 
students have already been cut by about 
$49 million, and the Administration is ask- 
ing for another 30-percent reduction in 
that budget. 

On higher education, the convention 
resolution stressed that tuition should not 
be so high that workers and their families 
are shut out. The AFL-CIO called on 
Congress to fully fund student aid pro- 
grams and reject Administration propos- 
als for even more cuts in basic opportunity 
grants along with excessive restrictions 
and limitations on guaranteed student 
loans. 

THE FEDERATION, said it supports 
and encourages the development of worker- 
oriented liberal arts degree programs by 
community colleges and universities. It 
urged union members to begin or continue 
their own higher education in programs 
developed by union faculties. 

Affiliates were urged to step up efforts 
to provide education programs for their 
members. Programs for workers’ education 
should receive public support consistent 
with the funding for programs staged for 
farmers and business, the resolution said. 

Tuition assistance plans and other edu- 
cational benefits for workers have been 
negotiated in a number of collective bar- 
gaining agreements, the convention point- 
ed out. In addition, through the establish- 
ment of joint trust funds, affiliates have 
developed a variety of education services 
for members and their families. Among 
these are remedial, outreach and pre-retire- 
ment training, occupational training and 
higher education scholarships. 


The resolution also advocated “develop- 
ment of technology which turns nuclear 
waste into reusable fuel.” 

The convention took a strong stand 
against decontrol of natural gas prices, 
which under present law would not be 
fully decontrolled until 1985. 

IT SAID current prices “-are more than 
adequate to stimulate exploration for new 
gas,” and “conservation policy should not 
be based on making energy so expensive 
that low- and moderate-income families 
cannot adequately heat their homes.” 

The convention also expressed concern 
that the oil companies have accelerated 
their acquisition of other energy compa- 
nies and non-energy concerns. Congress 
should “break up the oil monopolies,” 
delegates stressed. 

IN A SEPARATE resolution, the con- 
vention expressed concern at the lack of 
enforcement of legislation to assure that 
U.S. standards aren’t hurt by the use of 
foreign workers on offshore oil drilling in 
the development of the outer continental 
shelf. 



REP. THOMAS P. O’NEILL, JR. 


New York — House Speaker Thomas P. 
O’Neill, Jr., told the AFL-CIO convention 
that labor’s massive Solidarity Day turnout 
marked a “turning point” in public reac- 
tion to the Reagan Administration. 

Doubts about Reaganomics are spread- 
ing across the nation, O’Neill said, and the 
clearest signal was the massive turnout of 
workers protesting the President’s pro- 
gram “of encouraging the wealthy at the 
expense of the wage earners, the elderly 
and the poor.” 

O’NEILL’S RECITAL of the litany of 
backward steps taken by the Administra- 
tion was punctuated by applause from the 
delegates. 

He assailed the Administration for 
weakening occupational safety and health 
protections and dismantling labor-sup- 
ported programs through regulatory 
changes. 

He cited the President’s harsh and 
“wrong” treatment of the air traffic con- 
trollers, his attacks on social security pro- 
tections, the unjust tax program and re- 
cession-breeding economics. 

O’NEILL TOLD the delegates that 
Democrats in Congress welcome the AFL- 
CIO’s help in shaping alternatives to the 
Reagan program and in “keeping the 
House Democratic in 1982 and regaining 
Democratic control of the Senate.” 

In response, at the conclusion of the 
speech, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land praised O’Neill’s “valiant efforts” for 
progressive programs. 

Kirkland then asked O’Neill, as the 
leader of House Democrats, to remind his 
colleagues “that they ought to stand and 
fight for the interests and concerns of the 
plain working people of this country.” 

THE DEMOCRATIC Party, he said 
“has never and will never prosper” if it 
abandons America’s workers. 

New York state’s two most prominent 
Democratic office holders — Sen. Daniel 
Patrick Moynihan and Gov. Hugh Carey 
— spoke at the convention’s opening ses- 
sion. 


Moynihan’s theme was the labor move- 



GOV. HUGH CAREY 


ment’s century-old “compact” with Amer- 
ican society to “work within the rules” to 
improve conditions for the workers they 
represent. 

CAREY WARNED that the damage to 
the nation caused by President Reagan’s 
first round of budget slashes would be 
compounded if Congress were to grant 
his request for still further cutbacks. 

“If we are to have a real program of 
economic renewal,” he urged, “it must 
face the reality of those forgotten millions 
who exist outside the economic main- 
stream without education, job experience 
or hope.” 

Health Risk Seen 
From Weakening 
Of Additive Law 

New York — The AFL-CIO voiced strong 
oppostion to so-called “food safety 
amendments” before both chambers of 
Congress that would allow processors to 
put unsafe additives in foodstuffs. 

Under existing law, the use of any food 
additive intended for human consumption 
that has been found to cause cancer in 
animals is prohibited. 

The proposed amendments would not 
only lift that ban, the convention resolu- 
tion warned, but also would hamstring 
federal regulatory agencies for several 
years while they build evidence against the 
hazardous additive to get it off the market. 

IF ADOPTED, the Food & Drug Ad- 
ministration and the Dept, of Agriculture 
could no longer ban a substance simply 
because it causes cancer, the convention 
noted. The agencies would instead have to 
determine if the substance posed a “sig- 
nificant risk” and then weigh the costs of 
the ban against health benefits. 

Beyond the serious health risks, the 
amendments would undermine consumer 
confidence in the food industry, which 
could affect the jobs of more than a mil- 
lion workers. 



SEN. DANIEL P. MOYNIHAN 


Energy Independence Goal 
Focus of AFL-CIO’s Policy 




AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL is shown at session cussed for submission to the convention. The council also 
before the opening of the convention at which proposed con- held a post-convention meeting with the five newly-elected 
stitutional changes and a number of resolutions were dis- vice presidents taking part. 


Houston Campaign Hailed as Model 
For Coordinated Organizing Effort 


New York — Cooperative organizing 
campaigns involving AFL-CIO affiliates, 
local central bodies and the federation’s 
own field staff received a strong and en- 
thusiastic endorsement from delegates to 
the AFL-CIO convention. 

A resolution adopted on the conven- 
tion’s opening day urged AFL-CIO unions 
to give “total support and cooperation” in 
the recently launched coordinating organiz- 
ing effort in Houston. 

While noting that the federation’s orga- 
nizing efforts have increased the numbers 
of new union members in recent years, the 
convention observed that “unfair and 
illegal tactics of labor-management con- 
sultants and employers hinder employees 
in their pursuit of collective bargaining 
through organizing.” 


New York — Hispanic workers are look- 
ing to the labor movement “with hope for 
a better tomorrow,” and labor has a stake 
in sharing “common ground” with His- 
panics, Henry L. Lacayo told the AFL- 
CIO convention. 

Lacayo, chairman of the Labor Council 
for Latin American Advancement, warned 
the delegates that “labor’s enemies, the 
‘trickle down’ gang who would stop all 
"progress dead in its tracks, are the very 
ones who are trying to entice and lure 
Hispanics into their ranks.” The labor 
movement cannot stand by and allow that 
to happen, he declared. 

HISPANICS HAVE a high regard for 
the labor movement, Lacayo pointed out, 
and have a higher percentage rate of un- 
ion membership than that of the total 
workforce. Because Hispanics have a 
strong inclination to join unions, the or- 
ganizing potential is enormous, he asserted. 

Lacayo, who directs the Auto Workers’ 
Community Action Program, said that 
while Hispanic-Americans come from a 
variety of national backgrounds, they 
share a common devotion to their country 
and a common set of problems. 

Hispanic voters normally support labor’s 
candidates by wide margins, he noted, but 
fewer than half the nine million Hispanic 
citizens eligible to vote are registered. 

A HIGH unemployment rate, along 
with other serious social problems have 
made many Hispanics feel they are “sec- 
ond class citizens” without political effec- 

Jewish Daily Forward 
Hailed in 85th Year 

New York — The Jewish Daily Forward 
is nearing its 85th anniversary, and the 
AFL-CIO convention wished it “many 
more years” of service to its readers and 
the labor movement. 

A convention resolution noted that over 
the years the newspaper has been “a true 
friend” to America’s unions. 


The convention directed the federation’s 
Dept, of Organization & Field Services to 
intensify its development of training proj- 
ects and teaching materials for organizers. 
It also urged wider use of the George 
Meany Center for Labor Studies to de- 
vise and jointly administer programs for 
multi-union participation. 

The department and the nationaL orga- 
nizing committee were encouraged in their 
efforts to develop creative methods to com- 
bat union-busters. 

“We call on the committee and the de- 
partment to continue their critical work on 
special projects such as the development of 
manuals on communications, post-election 
activity, targeting, and positive labor rela- 
tions,” the resolution said. 

A separate resolution spotlghted the 


tiveness, and led to restlessness and despair, 
despair. 

He told the delegates that the success 
of organizing programs such as the one 
the AFL-CIO is staging in Houston is 
linked to accenting “the positive” and to 
developing “a program that those of us 
who are in the trenches can utilize when 
we come in contact with the Hispanic- 
American community.” 

Lacayo urged unions seeking to attract 
Hispanic workers to pay attention to their 
cultural and language traditions and pre- 
sent “a visible and credible Hispanic 
presence” in leadership and staff organiz- 
ing drives. 

. MEDIA AND public relations cam- 
paigns, he said, should be conducted so 
that “they can be properly understood by 
the Hispanic constituents” labor wants to 
reach. 

The LCLAA, founded in 1973 with 
AFL-CIO support, is “labor’s bridge to the 
Hispanic community in America,” Lacayo 
asserted, pointing to the many thousands 
of Hispanic workers who joined in the 
Solidarity Day demonstration at LCLAA’s 
urging. 

The main role of LCLAA, he said, is to 
motivate Hispanic union members to be- 
come more active in the labor movement 
and in the American political process. 

THE COMMON desire of the labor 
movement and the Hispanic communities 
for a decent life explains why Hispanic 
workers “look to labor and reject the 
Administration’s policies that call for roll- 
ing back on affirmative action, the Voting 
Rights Act and those programs that give 
assistance to women, the young and the 
aged,” Lacayo asserted. 

He told the delegates Hispanics reject 
an Administration that proposes to bring 
50,000 guest workers a year from Mexico 
into the U.S. to work for low wages to 
compete with Hispanic Americans who 
already have a 15.5-percent jobless rate. 


union-busting role of labor relations “con- 
sultants” hired to keep unions out or get 
rid of an existing union. 

It urged the AFL-CIO to expand its pro- 
gram of exposing the union-busters and 
prodded the Labor Dept, to enforce Lan- 
drum-Griffin Act reporting requirements 
for such consultants. 

In its report to the convention, the Exec- 
utive Council described the Houston proj- 
ect as the most ambitious organizing effort 
ever launched by labor. Thirty interna- 
tional unions are cooperating in the effort, 
which is directed at 700,000 organizable 
workers in the Houston area. 

VICE PRESIDENT Lloyd McBride, 
chairman of the council’s organizing com- 
mittee, called for the entire labor move- 
ment to rally behind the Houston project. 

Vice Presidents Albert Shanker and 
William Wynn and others who spoke on 
the resolution urged that the Houston 
project be used as a stepping stone for a 
national campaign to overcome anti-union 
employers. 

Continued support was also expressed 
for “Project Counter Attack” to address 
the problems of union decertification. 

DECERTIFICATION campaigns were 
rare until a few years ago, it observed. But 
today they represent “a menacing new 
direction taken by American industry — a 
threat not only to many individual unions, 
but to the basic role of free trade unionism 
in our democratic system.” 

The convention called for vigorous 
efforts by all affiliates to block blatant 
attempts to destroy existing collective bar- 
gaining relationships and urged responsi- 
ble corporate leaders to weigh the ultimate 
effect these anti-union efforts will have on 
industry and free society. 

Delegates urged continued development 
of labor’s corporate research techniques to 
exert added pressure on targeted employ- 
ers. A key element of the strategy is the 
direct involvement of unions in corporate 
affairs as stockholders and use of pension 
fund investments in influencing corporate 
labor relations activities. 



HENRY L. LACAYO 


Emasculation 

Of Protective 
Rules Scored 

New York— -The Reagan Administration 
has abused both its appointive authority 
and the regulatory process “to emasculate 
regulations that protect workers, consum- 
ers and the environment,” the AFL-CIO 
charged. 

A convention resolution questioned the 
presidential Executive Order at the start 
of the Reagan Administration that resulted 
in postponement, abandonment and weak- 
ening of government protections. 

COSTS HAVE been cited as justification 
for scuttling regulations without any off- 
setting consideration of benefits, the con- 
vention noted. 

The effectiveness of regulatory agencies 
has also been further weakened by the 
appointment of officials with little interest 
in the mission of their agencies. 

Among the regulatory programs hurt by 
the Reagan Administration’s hostility, the 
resolution noted, are the Occupational 
Safety & Health Act, the Mine Safety & 
Health Act, Urban Mass Transportation 
Act, Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract 
Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, affirmative 
action programs, energy price controls, 
consumer protection laws and environ- 
mental standards. 

THE RESOLUTION affirmed the AFL- 
CIO’s intent “to fight to maintain essential 
worker, consumer and environmental pro- 
tections” and to monitor the Administra- 
tion’s regulatory enforcement carefully. 

It declared that the federation “will 
bring appropriate legal action” if necessary 
to prevent laws from being distorted 
through the regulatory process.” 

Two More Firms , 
Added by Council 
To Boycott List 

New York — Procter & Gamble soaps 
and New Galax mirrors were added to the 
AFL-CIO boycott list by the Executive 
Council at its pre-convention meeting here. 

The boycott against Procter & Gamble 
was requested by the Steel Workers which 
has been trying to negotiate an agreement 
at the company’s Kansas City, Kan., plant 
since the union was certified as bargaining 
agent in November 1980. 

PRODUCTS SUBJECT to the boy- 
cott include Tide, Cheer, Oxydol and 
Bold laundry detergents. Zest, Camay and 
Ivory bar soaps, and Joy, Ivory and Dawn 
dishwashing detergents. 

The New Galax mirror boycott grows 
out of a strike by the Furniture Workers, 
which won an election at the Galax, Va., 
factory in March 1981. The 65 workers 
were forced to strike Sept. 2 after the com- 
pany refused to bargain and began a cam- 
paign of firings and harassment, the coun- 
cil statement said. 

Most workers at the southwestern Vir- 
ginia plant are paid less than $4 an hour, 
the council said, adding that they are also 
assessed up to 25 percent of their earnings 
for health insurance. 

ON THE Procter & Gamble boycott, 
the council pointed out that the company’s 
“delaying tactics” are intended “to wear 
down the workers and their union.” The 
independent union previously in the plant 
had endorsed the Steelworkers’ organizing 
campaign. 

Although the company denies it is tak- 
ing punitive action against the Kansas City 
workers, the council pointed out that em- 
ployees at the plant lag behind those at 
other P&G plants. They have not had a 
raise since November 1979, have been re- 
quired to pay their own medical insurance 
premiums since February 1980, and have 
been denied bonuses previously paid. In 
addition, the council said, the company 
has transferred or laid off many workers 
and shut down some departments. 


Hispanic Workers Looking 
To Labor to Aid Progress 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Page Fifteen 


New Leadership for ILPA 

Labor Press Sessions 
Focus on ‘82 Election 



LABOR EDITORS were reminded of their critical role as a communications link 
for unions, their leaders and members. That was a major theme of the keynote 
address by AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue at the International Labor 
Press Association’s biennial convention. With Donahue is ILPA President James 
Cesnik, editor of the Guild Reporter, published by the Newspaper Guild. 

Fair Foreign Trade Policy 
Linked to Job Concerns 


New York — The International Labor 
Press Association elected Diane Curry to a 
two-year, term as president of the organi- 
zation, made up of AFL-CIO and Cana- 
dian Labor Congress publications. 

Curry is director of publications for the 
Railway & Airline Clerks. She has been 
an ILPA vice president for six years and 
is also editor of the Coalition of Labor 
Union Women’s newsletter. 

SHE WILL succeed James Cesnik, edi- 
tor of the Newspaper Guild Reporter, next 
Jan. 1. The ILPA constitution prohibits 
presidents from serving successive terms. 

Susan Dunlop, an assistant editor of 
the AFL-CIO News, was elected to her 
first full term as ILPA secretary-treasurer. 
She had held the post since last January 
when she was elected by the organization’s 
executive council after the resignation of 
Allen Y. Zack. 

Some 200 delegates took part in the 
ILPA convention where programs and 
workshops focused on coverage of the 
major issues facing labor in 1982, the role 
of the labor press in the elections, the 
emerging use of electronic media, and im- 
proving technical skills. 

IN HIS KEYNOTE address, AFL-CIO 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue praised 
the labor press for its contributions to the 
work of the labor movement. 

“The labor movement stands almost 
alone,” Donahue told the delegates, “as 
the best organized and most coherent force 
that is still fighting to defend the rights 
of and upgrade the quality of life for all 
the American people.” 

Although union members are in the mi- 
nority in the workforce, Donahue said, “it 
is our unity that makes the difference, and 
one of our strongest assets in building that 
unity is the effective communication instru- 
ment that we have created in the labor 
press.” 

The ILPA’s central concern during 1981 
was the danger posed to the labor press by 
the Reagan Administration’s attempt to 
strip the federal budget of funds that per- 
mit non-profit publications a lower, phased 
postage rate schedule, Dunlop told the 
convention in her report. 

The labor press, as well as allies among 
other non-profit groups, mounted a strong 
lobbying effort to retain the subsidy in the 
budget, Dunlop said. She noted that, had 


those efforts failed, postal rates for most 
labor publications would have doubled on 
Oct. 1. 

ILPA WAS ABLE to persuade Congress 
to retain much of the non-profit sub- 
sidy, and while labor publications still face 
the prospect of a postage rate increase, it 
would be much lower than the Administra- 
tion first proposed. 

Dunlop noted that the ILPA’s successful 
intervention in cases before the Postal Rate 
Commission in 1980 had won special pre- 
sort discounts for the labor press. That 
decision, combined with a recent favor- 
able ruling by the Postal Service Board of 
Governors, would hold the effective in- 
crease for 75 percent of ILPA’s member 
publications to about two-tenths of a cent 
per copy. 

In other elections, 10 incumbent vice 
presidents were re-elected to the ILPA 
executive council and five will join the 
council for the first time in January. 

RE-ELECTED were Joseph Hanafin, 
Canadian Machinist; Ken Germanson, Al- 
lied Industrial Worker; Rochelle Hart, 
Chicago Teachers Union Newsletter; Jean 
Hughes Wright, San Francisco Actor; 
Carolyn Jacobson, Bakery, Confectionery 
& Tobacco Workers News; Robert Ka- 
laski. Machinist; Glenn Martin, , California 
AFL-CIO News; Gordon Spielman, the 
Union Advocate, St. Paul, Minn.; and 
Marl Young, Overture, Los Angeles 
Musicians Local 47. 

New vice presidents will be Jay Bloom, 
Voice of Local One, Food & Commer- 
cial Workers, Utica, N.Y.; Richard Calis- 
tri. Labor Newspaper, Washington; Greg- 
ory Croy, UFCW Action; Kim Fellner, 
the Screen Actor; John Harvey, Bay State 
Employee, State, County & Municipal Em- 
ployees Council 93, Boston; and Gary 
Hubbard, Steelabor. 

ILPA Vice Presidents Russell Gibbons, 
Steelabor, and Jerry Archuleta, Oil, Chem- 
ical & Atomic Workers News, were hon- 
ored for their six years of service on the 
executive council. The ILPA convention 
limits vice presidents to three two-year 
terms. 

The ILPA’s 10th A. J. Liebling Lecture, 
named in memory of the late press critic 
for the New Yorker, was given by Jack 
Rosenthal, deputy editorial page editor for 
the New York Times, who at one time 
was on the staff of the Oregon Labor Press. 


New York — America needs a fair for- 
eign trade policy to maintain a diversified 
industrial base that will create full employ- 
ment and raise standards of living here 
and in other countries, the AFL-CIO de- 
clared. 

In shaping that policy, the convention 
said, there must be greater emphasis on 
promoting U.S. interests through national 
actions and international cooperation. It 
stressed that “the United States must re- 
main a major maritime, agricultural and 
manufacturing nation.” 

THE RESOLUTION on international 
trade and investment called for import re- 
lief for key industries, a federal role in 
the purchase and distribution of oil im- 
ports, targeted government promotion of 
exports, closing of tax loopholes that en- 
courage multinational companies to move 
operations abroad, and upgrading of grain 
export practices. 

“Immediate import relief should be ac- 
corded some key industries faced with 
serious erosion, such as the auto and steel 
industries,” the convention said. 

It urged Congress to strengthen U.S. 
trade laws to provide speedier relief to 
industries and workers threatened by im- 
ports, including amendments to safeguard 
producers of essential components. 


ments that would assure wide use of U.S.- 
flag vessels, particularly for grain and coal 
shipments. 

THE CONVENTION SAID that export 
promotion with carefully targeted goals 
should be a government priority, but that it 
“must not take priority over domestic 
budget needs, nor be used as an excuse 
for undermining U.S. antitrust or banking 
laws.” 

Limits also should be placed on the 
transfer of capital, technology, and price- 
sensitive commodities, the convention said 
in citing the need to assure the country’s 
security and technological advances. 

In a related resolution, the convention 
reiterated the federation’s strong opposi- 
tion to the creation of foreign trade zones 
in the United States “because they result 
in job losses to the United States and have 
been used to undercut U.S. trade and tax 
laws.” 

Broadcasting Act 
Fairness Policy 
Pledged Support 


Consumer Interests Backed 
In Battling Budget Slashes 


New York — The AFL-CIO will fight to 
preserve gains made in protecting the 
American consumer, a convention resolu- 
tion pledged. 

Reagan Administration policies and bud- 
get cuts threaten the nation’s consumer 
protection agencies, including a near-phase 
out of the Consumer Product Safety Com- 
mission and curtailment of anti-trust ac- 
tivities by the Federal Trade Commission, 
the convention noted. 

IT SAID the AFL-CIO will resist cuts 
in budgets and diminished authority for 
those agencies and others, including the 
Food & Drug Administration. It will also 
press for continuation of the National 
Consumer Cooperative Bank so it can con- 
tinue to give loans and assistance to con- , 
sumer cooperatives instead of being shelved 
in 1982. 

Full federal operations should be main- 
tained in the inspection of meat and poul- 
try, the federation insisted. 

The resolution called on the government 
to “keep its commitment to guard the 
public against unsafe and defective prod- 
ucts and to promote honest and fair deal- 
ings with consumers.” 

THE CONSUMER has a right to full 
and accurate information about products 


in the marketplace along with protection 
against “unfair monopoly pricing,” the 
resolution asserted. 

Manipulation of consumer credit and 
“credit gouging” should be restrained, and 
the consumer should have the right to be 
heard in the regulatory decision-making 
and legislative process, the convention said. 

The AFL-CIO had opposed efforts to 
undercut timely and needed rulemaking 
by regulatory agencies “at the behest of 
business interests,” the resolution pointed 
out. It stressed that the government has a 
“crucial and necessary” job to do in main- 
taining orderly consumer markets and “re- 
dressing imbalances” against consumers in 
our economic system. 

THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL report 
on consumer protection had pointed out 
that the Administration’s drive to “get 
government off our backs” translates into 
proposals to “reform” regulatory agencies 
so that their ability to protect consumers, 
workers and the public is inhibited. 

Protective rulemaking could be “stran- 
gled” by devices such as “cost-benefit 
analysis” and extensive administrative re- 
view procedures along with the giving of 
veto power over rules to other agencies or 
Congress, the report warned. 


THE CONVENTION also called for the 
restoration of funds for Trade Adjust- 
ment Assistance, which has been slashed 
by the Reagan Administration’s budget 
cuts. 

“Workers who lose their jobs because 
of imports should receive the 70 percent 
of lost pay for up to one year and the 
training and relocation aid that they were 
promised in the Trade Acts of 1974 and 
1979,” the convention said. 

Noting that tens of thousands of work- 
ers “are unemployed because their jobs 
have been shipped overseas,” the resolu- 
tion stressed the need to close tax loop- 
holes and eliminate incentives for multi- 
national firms to transfer operations out 
of the United States. 

IT CALLED FOR an end to tax defer- 
rals that benefit multinationals and for 
repeal of foreign tax credits and the Do- 
mestic International Sales Corp. tax gim- 
mick. 

Other key recommendations urge: 

• Creation of a federal agency to han- 
dle the purchase and distribution of oil 
imports to assure that the nation has an 
adequate supply of oil at a fair price. 

• A federal role in grain agreements to 
assure that food products made from grain 
are included in exports, as well as estab- 
lishing a government board that would 
handle negotiations on grain trading. 

• Greater use of the U.S. merchant 
fleet by the Navy for auxiliary functions 
and negotiation of bilateral shipping agree- 


New York — Attempts to wipe out safe- 
guards against broadcasting abuses must 
be repelled, the convention said. 

It called for the AFL-CIO to work with 
other concerned groups to prevent repeal 
of the Fairness Doctrine and the equal 
time provisions of the 1934 Communica- 
tions Act, as proposed by Reagan Admin- 
istration appointees on the Federal Com- 
munications Commission. 

If the Fairness Doctrine were elimi- 
nated, the convention warned, “broadcast- 
ers could proselytize on issues of public 
importance to serve their personal of col- 
lective interests without affording any op- 
portunity for response.” 

REPEAL OF the equal time provisions 
could “dangerously distort our political 
processes” by allowing broadcasters to give 
favored treatment to some candidates 
while denying broadcast time to their op- 
ponents, the resolution said. 

In another resolution, the convention 
warned that the Reagan Administration 
and its allies in Congress are attempting 
to weaken the effectiveness of the Freedom 
of Information Act through amendments. 

NOTING THAT the 1967 law was en- 
acted to give the public a greater access to 
information, the resolution said, “these 
amendments seek to undo the progress 
which the act has achieved in providing a 
more open and responsive government.” 

It also charged that the proposed 
changes are designed “to protect the selfish 
interests of the business community.” 



Page Sixteen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Federal Law 
Asked to Curb 
Plant Closings 

New York — Effective federal legislation 
is needed to protect American workers 
and their communities against the destruc- 
tive impact of plant closings and run- 
away shops, the convention declared. 

Citing the resultant waste in lost hu- 
man skills and erosion of community sta- 
bility, the convention called for elimina- 
tion of tax incentives that foster shut- 
downs. 

CORPORATIONS should be required 
to share the financial burden that work- 
ers and communities encounter when 
plants are closed for relocation to other 
parts of the country or abroad, the reso- 
lution stressed. 

Other protections the legislation should 
include, the convention said, are: 

• Mandatory advance notice of plant 
closings. 

• Programs to attract new industries to 
areas hurt by layoffs and job losses. 

• For dislocated workers, increased 
levels of income support for longer pe- 
riods, as well as continuation of health 
insurance and meaningful training pro- 
grams. 

• Rights of union successorship when 
an operation is shut down and is reopened 
by “new” management. 

While the surge in plant closings can 
be traced largely to the growing “dein- 
dustrialization” of the economy, the reso- 
lution pointed out that loop holes in tax 
laws and the flood of imports add to the 
problem. 

“FEDERAL TAX writeoffs are freely 
available to companies that close plants 
in an established location to open new 
plants overseas or in another part of the 
country — typically where climates are 
sunnier and unions are weaker,” the con- 
vention observed. 

Fair international trade laws should also 
be adopted and fully enforced to help 
bring the problem of plant closings under 
control, the convention said. 

“Whether through reindustrialization, 
tax reform or trade policy, we cannot 
afford to design programs to cushion the 
blows of plant closings while we perpetu- 
ate policies that weaken our industrial 
base and cause many plant closings in the 
first place.” 


New York — Increasing the decision- 
making role of unions in the management 
and investment practices of pension funds 
is essential to the interests of union- mem- 
bers and their families, the convention 
said. 

A key objective is to build on the prog- 
ress unions had made over the past two 
years in training local officials and pension 
fund trustees by carrying out recommen- 
dations of an Executive Council commit- 
tee on pension fund investments. 

IN PURSUING this line of action, the 
convention observed, unions can better 
contribute to the creation of jobs while 
insuring that pension funds are invested 
in ways that are helpful, not detrimental 
to union members. 

A first step in expanding the voice of 
unions in collective bargaining over the 
use of funds now unilaterally controlled 
by employers is to obtain information 
about the financial performance, manage- 
ment practices and investment policies of 
the funds, the resolution noted. 

It also urged wider participation in pro- 
grams such as the AFL-CIO Mortgage In- 
vestment Trust that channel funds into 
union-built construction projects and re- 
lated enterprises. 

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE unions should be 
assisted in getting pension funds of state 
and local governments to establish ac- 



DENNis McDermott 


New York — The insistence of govern- 
ments on sticking to disastrous economic 
policies is uniting the world’s free trade 
union movements, fraternal delegates to 
the AFL-CIO convention observed. 

“Economic chaos of the worst kind and 
political impotence of the worst kind is the 
scenario in Canada,” Canadian Labor 
Congress President McDermott told the 
convention. 

UNEMPLOYMENT has gone from 7.5 
percent to 8.3 percent from the same pe- 
riod last year, interest rates are at 16.5 
percent, although down from some 22 
percent, and the average mortgage rate in 
October 1981 was between 20 and 25 per- 
cent, McDermott said. 

“The crippling, devastating effect on 
working people in the entire fabric of 
sqciety because of this economic idiocy is 
beyond description,” the former Auto 
Workers’ vice president declared. 

He said election promises of restraint 
on interest rates, control of the domestic 
energy crisis, intelligent use of natural re- 
sources, an industrial strategy and the cre- 
ation of secondary industries have not 
been fulfilled. The Canadian people were 
“overwhelmed,” he said, when a recently 
announced new national economic policy 
contained “nothing about economic re- 
form, nothing about economic stimula- 


counts for low-income home mortgages, 
investments in other construction and 
funding of job-creating programs, the con- 
vention said. 

It stressed that unions also should make 
increased use of shareholder rights in ne- 
gotiated pension plans to advance workers’ 
interests in collective bargaining, job safe- 
ty, plant closings and equal employment 
opportunity. 

It called for continuing labor training 
programs on pension activities and promo- 
tion of investment opportunities that spur 
the country’s reindustrialization. 

Vice President John H. Lyons, in urging 
adoption of the resolution, stressed that 
the thrust of the council committee’s pen- 
sion investment strategy is to protect work- 
ers’ jobs while they are working and safe- 
guard their pension income in retirement. 

IN A RELATED resolution, the con- 
vention called for additional amendments 
to the federal pension protection law. It 
cited the need to place the administration 
of ERISA in a single government agency 
and for providing public employees the 
same range of protections that now cover 
workers in private industry. 

The resolution also urged speedy imple- 
mentation of the new multiemployer pen- 
sion plan termination insurance amend- 
ment with appropriate consultation with 
unions. 



TOM JACKSON 


tion, no help for the homeowner, nothing 
about planned industrial strategy, nothing 
about unemployment.” 

THE CLC IS committed to “work for 
solutions” through “political mobilization,” 
McDermott stressed. He said the Canadian 
federation will work to build worker sup- 
port for the New Democratic Party and 
form coalitions with “like-minded organi- 
zations on energy, interest rates, ethno-cul- 
tural matters, and all other things we can 
join with men and women of good will in 
the rest of society.” 

Tom Jackson, representing the British 
Trades Union Congress, told the delegates 
they need no “crystal ball to see what is 
going to happen to you with your govern- 
ment. All you have to do is come to Brit- 
ain and see what is being done to us. 

“It is almost as though your President 
and our Prime Minister (Margaret Thatch- 
er) had the same speech writer,” he ob- 
served. 

FULL EMPLOYMENT in Britain was 
once regarded as about 1.5 percent unem- 
ployed, Jackson noted. Today the jobless 
rate stands at 12.3 percent “and is still 
rising.” 

Economic policies that “benefit the rich 
and hit the poor” are commonplace, said 
Jackson, who is general secretary of the 
Union of Communication Workers. 

Attacks on the labor movement by gov- 
ernment are “a daily ritual” and legisla- 
tion is continually being pressed to weak- 
en British unions, he pointed out. 

LABOR UNIONS in Britain, Jackson 
observed, “have become the whipping boys 
for the failure of the conservative, mone- 
tarist policies of our government.” 

But “we have won out before in de- 
pressing economic circumstances, and so 
we shall do again,” he declared. 

He pointed to the achievements of the 
Polish free trade union. Solidarity, estab- 
lished “in the face of difficulties and dan- 
ers which make our problems look small.” 

THE TRADE union movements of both 
Britain and the United States have sur- 
vived “oppression and antipathy” for more 
than a century and will still be strong, 
Jackson said, “when Reagan and Thatcher 
are no more than footnotes in history.” 

The labor movement, he concluded, will 
survive because “we draw our strength 
from the people, and the people will not 
be defeated.” 

Codes, Training Pressed 
To Avoid Hotel Fires 

New York — ^The AFL-CIO convention 
called on local governments to enact and 
enforce effective fire codes to help prevent 
hotels and motel fires, which pose a seri- 
ous threat to workers, guests and fire 
fighters. 

The convention also voiced support for 
fire prevention and survival training pro- 
grams for hotel and motel employees, not- 
ing that some 12,000 hotel and motel fires 
occur annually in the United States, killing 
hundreds and destroying vast amounts of 
property. 


Job Training 
CaUed Vital 
To Economy 

New York — Employment and training 
services for the disadvantaged and chroni- 
cally jobless, such as those pro’sTided by the 
AFL-CIO’s Human Resources Develop- 
ment Institute, are critical to an economy 
with steadily worsening unemployment, the 
AFL-CIO declared. 

A convention resolution pointed out that 
HRDI has been an effective arm of orga- 
nized labor ’since 1968, providing services 
for minorities, youth, veterans, the handi- 
capped and women and helping labor or- 
ganizations participate in national training 
and employment programs. 

THE EXECUTIVE Council’s report to 
the convention stressed that HRDI had 
stepped up its activities during 1980, espe- 
cially its assistance to organizations using 
programs under the Comprehensive Em- 
ployment & Training Act. HRDI was also 
expanding its own skill training, appren- 
ticeship outreach, placement and related 
services. 

But sharp reduction in the federal 
budget for national employment and 
training programs gutted CETA in 1981 
and forced a 37-percent cut in HRDI’s 
own contract with the Labor Dept., the 
council noted. The institute was forced to 
reorganize its structure and cut back its 
field and national office staff in order to 
keep as many programs as possible func- 
tioning. 

The convention stressed that training, 
job creation and placement services are a 
major element of the national effort to 
achieve full employment, and it called on 
the Labor Dept, to maintain adequate 
funding of national employment and train-: 
ing programs. 

THE RESOLUTION called on HRDI 
to maintain its cooperative efforts with 
state and local labor organizations to de- 
velop jobs, place the jobless and continue 
its wide range of programs to meet the 
needs of people with special employment 
problems. 

HRDI should continue to provide tech- 
nical assistance and services to AFL-CIO 
affiliates and their locals, the resolution 
said. This aid should take into account the 
private sector emphasis of federal pro- 
grams so labor can participate fully in na- 
tional employment and training programs 
and protect its rights. 

THE CONVENTION called on HRDI 
to continue its special, targeted programs 
for disadvantaged people and maintain its 
national program structure. 

The resolution said the expertise of the 
HRDI staff should continue to be avail- 
able throughout the AFL-CIO to help 
affiliates meet their employment and train- . 
ing needs, including upgrading, retraining 
or other services needed by union mem- 
bers. 

19 Resolutions 
Sent to Council 
For Disposition 

New York— The 14th AFL-CIO con- 
vention referred 19 of the 209 resolutions 
submitted for its consideration to the new 
Executive Council for disposition after 
further research and study. 

The convention adopted 87 resolutions, 
accepting amendments to several of them, 
and deemed 95 others to be covered by its 
actions. The delegates voted non-concur- 
"" rence with three resolutions and found 
that no action was necessary on five, since 
they reflected long-standing policy. 

The 19 referred resolutions deal with a 
broad range of problems and issues facing 
AFL-CIO members as workers, trade un- 
ionists and citizens. They embrace such 
topics as the role of the mass media in 
America, strikes, radiation hazards, and 
social security inequities. 

The referred resolutions will be consid- 
ered by a committee of the Executive 
Council. 


Greater Union Voice Sought 
In Pension Fund Investments 


Fraternal Delegates Cite 
Common Economic Woes 


Page Seventeen 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Professional Employees Report: 

Technology, Job Change 
Reshaping Workforce 



PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES delegates meet to discuss the growing interest 
of white collar workers in unions and the effects of an explosion of technological 
change in business and industry. Albert Shanker, president of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, for Professional Employees, chairs the department’s convention, which 
included a half-day conference on new technology. Seated are, from left, DPE- 
Treas. Rodney A. Bower; Vice President Victor W. Fuentealba; and Director 
Jack Golodner. 

Illegal Immigrants Termed 
Victims of Double Standard 


New York — Expanded trade union co- 
operation is essential to fully address the 
impact of technological change on pro- 
fessional and white-collar workers, the 
Dept, for Professional Employees declared 
as it pointed out that sweeping innova- 
tions are redefining jobs and shifting the 
role of workers in all industries. 

Delegates to the department’s third con- 
vention also voiced an interest in the per 
capita payment increase and re-elected top 
officers. 

TO FACE THE challenge of the new 
worldwide industrial revolution, the con- 
vention called on affiliates to negotiate 
effective contract protections for members. 
It also urged continued studies by the 
DPE’s Labor Institute for Human Enrich- 
ment on specific problems, stronger ties 
with labor organizations of other countries, 
and expansion of the AFL-CIO’s capabili- 
ties in the area of technological develop- 
ments. 

“The speed with which new equipment 
is being introduced, and the enormous 
changes in work organization, management 
control, job design and employment levels 
. . ; present organized labor with one of its 
greatest challenges ever,” the convention 
warned. 

Delegates took part in two days of work- 
shops to explore the international scope of 
technological change and various avenues 
to combat its adverse effect. 

IN HIS OPENING remarks to the con- 
vention, Department President Albert 
Shanker said the economic course of the 
1980s and beyond will have a direct bear- 
ing on the department’s widening scope. 

This should follow, Shanker suggested, 
from the increasing talk of reindustrializa- 
tion. When plants are redesigned, there is 
a tremendous shift from the traditional 
makeup of the workforce to white-collar, 
professional and technical jobs, he noted. 

With the coming of these changes, it is 
especially essential that government sup- 
port of social programs be increased, not 
slashed as the Reagan Administration has 
done, Shanker noted. 

* INVESTMENTS must go beyond plant 
and equipment, he said, stressing the need 
to restore funding for health, humanities 
and education programs. 

DPE Director Jack Golodner noted in 
his report to the delegates that more than 
50 percent of the U.S. workforce is already 
employed in technical and professional 
jobs. This is reflected in the department’s 
membership growth and expansion to 27 
affiliates. 

In an address to the delegates, AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland commended the 
DPE’s research studies on the problems of 
white-collar, technical and women workers 


New York — A fair U.S. immigration 
policy must take into account the interests 
of American citizens, deal humanely with 
illegal workers already part of the com- 
munity and provide for enforcement of 
immigration laws, the AFL-CIO declared. 

The federation firmly rejects the Ad- 
ministration’s proposed guest-worker pro- 
gram with Mexico or any other temporary 
worker arrangements, a convention reso- 
lution stressed. 

STIFF PENALTIES against employers 
who hire illegal immigrants should be 
made law, the AFL-CIO urged, pointing 
out that enforcement of such laws would 
depend on the establishment of a counter- 
feit-proof identification document. 

The resolution said an effective immi- 
gration policy requires increased resources 
for border control and internal enforce- 
ment and more staff and funding for the 
Immigration & Naturalization Service. 

Illegal immigrants who have developed 
ties to American communities should 
. have their status legalized, provided fur- 
ther illegal immigration is curbed the 
AFL-CIO said. The resolution called the 


as a vital contribution to the pursuits of all 
federation affiliates in organizing collective 
bargaining and legislative activities. 

KIRKLAND SAID the department’s 
pioneering efforts in human enrichment 
programs “have opened many doors to 
higher education and to deeper understand- 
ing and appreciation of the arts” by union 
members and their families. 

These contributions are particularly 
valuable in the face of the Administration’s 
regressive social philosophy, he observed. 

The convention re-elected DPE officers 
to new two-year terms. Besides Shanker, 
who is president of the Teachers, they in- 
clude Vice President Victor Fuentealba, 
president of the Musicians, and Treas. 
Rodney Bower, who heads the Professional 
& Technical Engineers. The department’s 
27 vice presidents on the executive board 
are chosen by the affiliates they represent. 
The DPE director is appointed. 

IN RESTRUCTURING the per capita 
tax paid by affiliates, the convention ap- 
proved increased monthly payments to 10 
cents per worker from the current 5 cents 
on the first 1 0,000 rnembers, effective Dec. 
1. Affiliates will continue to pay 5 cents 
per member up to 150,000 members, and 
\V4 cents in excess of 150,000.^ 

The more than 30 resolutions adopted 
by the convention included measures call- 
ing for the restoration of funds for the 
arts and humanities slashed by the Reagan 
budget, opposition to Administration block 
grants for education that would threaten 
services for millions of children, rejection 
of . new attempts in the Senate to pass tui- 
tion tax credits, enactment of federal legis- 
lation to block the concentration of power 
in the news publishing and broadcast 
media, and rebuffing efforts to scuttle the 
^ Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time provi- 
sions of the Communications Act. 

Panelists in the workshops on techno- 
logical change underlined the need to de- 
velop systems incorporating a special re- 
sponsibility through contract negotiations, 
legislation and employer cooperation. 

SPEAKERS CITED examples of “tech- 
nological scabbing” and intimidation of 
workers through the use of sophisticated 
computer systems at a variety of levels — 
between plants, between companies within 
a country and even on an international 
basis where employers play workers of one 
country against those of another. 

Workshop panelists included Harley 
Shaiken of Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology; David Lea, assistant general secre- 
tary of the British Trades Union Congress; 
Fritz Hauser, labor counselor of the West 
German embassy, and Robert Cole, di- 
rector of Japanese Studies at Michigan 
State University. 


Administration’s proposals for legal status 
“so harsh that they are a mockery of the 
concept of amnesty.” 

ADMINISTRATION plans would sharp- 
ly limit the number of illegal immigrants 
allowed to apply for naturalization, sub- 
ject them to a 15-year waiting period, 
deny them reunification with their families 
and demand payment of taxes without the 
right to benefits granted other taxpayers, 
such as unemployment compensation. Pro- 
ficiency in English also would be de- 
manded. 

The resolution stressed that any expan- 
sion of legal immigration must depend on 
solving other problems first, including un- 
employment. Time should be allowed for 
the absorption of the millions of illegal 
workers already in the system as well as 
the many refugees who have arrived in the 
last ten years, the convention said. 

Refugees from political persecution 
should continue to find a haven in the 
United States, the AFL-CIO said. It 
stressed, however, that the United States 
cannot by itself accept the 15 million 
refugees worldwide, and other nations 


New York — America has no place for a 
“double standard” applied to illegal work- 
ers, and their status should be corrected 
as soon as possible. Rev. Theodore Hes- 
burgh told convention delegates. 

A significant step in that direction, the 
president of Notre Dame University said, 
came in the unanimous recommendation 
of a national commission he headed which 
called for the legalization of illegal aliens 
who have been working in the country 
since Jan. 1, 1980, and are in good stand- 
ing with the law. 

IN TAKING that action, “we wanted to 
free these many people who live in the 
shadows and who are not really a part of 
this land,” he said. 

Undocumented workers are often vic- 
timized by unscrupulous employers, Hes- 
burgh pointed out. He noted that they are 
subject to long hours at less than the mini- 
mum wage and no overtime pay, cannot 
join a union and are constantly threatened 
with deportation. 

THE PRICE OF legislation, Hesburgh 
stressed, is to cut the flow of illegal immi- 
gration. Most illegal workers come to 
America, understandably, to find a better 
life, but America today “simply cannot 
accept everyone who wants to come here.” 

Railway & Airline Clerks Vice President 
J .F. Otero served with Hesburgh on the 
Select Commission on Immigration & Re- 
fugee Policy. Hesburgh also is co-chairman 


must take more responsibility for refugees. 

THE RESOLUTION deplored the harsh 
treatment of some refugees trying to enter 
the United States, treatment that in some 
cases has resulted in deaths. The resolution 
termed the transfer of Haitian refugees to 
detention in a camp in one of the coldest 
regions in upper New York State “an act 
of vindictiveness.” 

A guest worker program would worsen 
the nation’s serious unemployment prob- 
lems, the AFL-CIO said, pointing out that 
women and minority workers would be 
hardest hit. 

Railway & Airline Clerks Vice President 
Jack Otero, praising the resolution, 
stressed that the United States needs an 
immigration policy “of compassion, a pol- 
icy of fairness and equality.” He branded 
the current policy “obsolete, unenforce- 
able and incapable of dealing” with the 
sub-culture of six million illegal workers 
already in the United States. 

Richard Chavez of the Farm Workers 
declared that a guest-worker program at a 
time of such high unemployment would be 
“a form of union-busting.” 


with AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland 
of a public committee working for reform 
of immigration policy. 

In his address, Hesburgh pointed out 
that the exploitation of illegal aliens harms 
all workers. 

“Their condition depresses wages and 
working conditions generally across our 
land,” he said. “America has no place for 
this depressing double standard for work- 
ers and should regularize it as soon as pos- 
sible by legalization.” 

HESBURGH SAID two key elements 
should be included in immigration policy 
reform: 

• Sanctions to penalize employers who 
exploit undocumented workers. 

• Development of documents — such as 
an upgraded social security card — that 
can’t be counterfeited for job-seekers to 
use when applying for work. 

Although the Reagan Administration 
has a plan for legalization of undocu- 
mented workers, it would impose “such 
harsh conditions stretching out over 15 
years that no one in his right mind would 
apply,” he said. 

He suggested that more flexibility keyed 
to economic conditions should be written 
into the nation’s immigration and refugee 
laws. 

“IN TIMES of economic prosperity, we 
can afford to be more generous with im- 
migrants and refugees to do our share in 
helping with this enormous problem which 
affects 16 million people in the world to- 
day,” Hesburgh observed. 

But in times of high unemployment as 
the nation is now experiencing, he said 
“our first obligation is to find work for 
Americans, especially minority Ameri- 
cans,” who are bearing the heaviest bur- 
den. 



REV. THEODORE HESBURGH 


Fair, Humane Immigration Policy Pressed 


Page Eighteen 


AFL-CiO NEWs/ WASHINGTONrD.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 



LABEL AND SHOP CARD use and promotion were cen- use and promotion of the union label and shop card and 
tral topics at the Union Label & Service Trades Dept.’s 60th focusing on the problem of jobs lost to unfair competition 
convention. Delegates adopted resolutions urging the wider from the imports of low-wage countries. 


Union Label Convention Approves 
Per Capita Rise to Fuel Expansion 


New York — ^The 60th convention of the 
AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades 
Dept, approved a per capita tax increase 
to cover expansion of the department’s 
union label and shop card promotion pro- 
grams and its boycott activities. 

Monthly per capita payments will go 
from three cents per member each month 
to four cents on Jan. 1, 1982. The consti- 
tutional change also authorizes the execu- 
tive board to raise the per capita payment 
by another cent after Jan. 1, 1 983, if that is 
deemed necessary. Affiliates would be given 
three months’ notice of the increase. 

THE TAX PAID by local union label 
and service trades councils will go from 
$12 to $25 per year, and the initiation fee 
for newly chartered councils will rise to 
$25 from $15. 

Sec.-Treas. Earl D. McDavid, reporting 
on activities since its 1979 meeting, 
stressed that the department is “a servant 
of the entire AFL-CIO” under its chartered 
responsibility “to be of substantial assis- 
tance to the entire labor movement.” 

McDavid announced that he will resign 
as secretary-treasurer on Feb. 28, 1982, 
but will remain on the staff as a representa- 
tive based in Seattle to help improve the 
delivery of the department’s services to 
the Far West" and to organize local coun- 


cils in the area. Dept. President John E. 
Mara, who is also a vice president of the 
Food & Commercial Workers, continues 
in his four-year term. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland 
told the convention that the department’s 
growth and its record of success with its 
programs have helped undermine the 
credibility “of some of the heavy thinkers, 
academics and journalists who specialize 
in predicting the decline and fall of the 
American labor movement.” 

The department has chartered 187 new 
local union label and service trades coun- 
cils since the last convention, Kirkland 
pointed out, and he praised its efforts to 
successfully resolve boycotts against J. P. 
Stevens & Co. and Winn-Dixie Stores, 
“the leading anti-union forces in their 
respective industries.” 

More and more consumers, Kirkland 
said, are learning to look for the union 
label in the marketplace as a result of the 
department’s programs. 

“IF THESE ARE signs of decline,” 
Kirkland quipped, “we surely need more 
of it.” 

He told the convention the AFL-CIO is 
reappraising the labor movement’s public 
relations and communications programs. 


States Called 
On Workers’ 

New York — The AFL-CIO called on its 
affiliates to resist attempts to cut back 
workers’ compensation and to seek to 
strengthen state programs, especially in 
coverage of occupational disease. 

A convention resolution reaffirmed the 
AFL-CIO’s support for establishment of 
federal minimum standards for state work- 
compensation benefits. But because “it 
is apparent that there will be no federal 
standards legislation in the immediate fu- 
ture,” the current battleground is the states, 
the resolution said. 

IT NOTED attempts to weaken existing 
protections, some of which have been suc- 
cessful. In Florida, compensation for per- 
manent partial disability will be allowed 
only when there is a direct wage loss ex- 
cept in extreme cases such as amputations 
or at least 80 percent loss of vision. 

The resolution commended the Ohio 
AFL-CIO and the state’s voters for having 
decisively beaten a proposal on the ballot 
that would have undermined Ohio’s exclu- 
sive state workers’ compensation fund, 
which returns 95 cents of every premium 
dollar in benefit payments. 


Battleground 

Compensation 

Speaking on the resolution, Ohio State 
AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Warren J. Smith 
noted that employers in nearby states were 
paying higher premiums than firms in 
Ohio, while workers were receiving lower 
benefits. 

“THE MESSAGE is a simple one,” he 
said. “Get the hands of the private insurers 
out of the pockets of our employers and 
out of the pockets of the insured work- 
ers and there will be more than enough 
funds to adequately fund workers’ com- 
pensation.” 

Smith noted that Ohio’s program was 
based on legislation sponsored by William 
Green, later to become president of the 
American Federation of Labor, when he 
was a state senator. 

A SEPARATE convention resolution 
strongly opposed efforts in Congress to 
reduce benefits to injured federal and post- 
al workers. 

The way to save on benefit costs, the 
resolution stressed, is to “provide safe 
working conditions” and not to weaken 
protection of the Federal Employee Com- 
pensation Act. 


and one of the first results has been the 
setting of new standards and streamlining 
of procedures for handling boycotts. 

One of the aims of the AFL-CIO’s ex- 
ploration of new electronic communfca- 
tions with members and the public is to 
help “increase the scope and impact of 
work of this department, which is a vital 
part of the AFL-CIO,” Kirkland said. 

IN HIS SUMMARY of department 
programs, McDavid pointed out that since 
1978, when' the department began an in-* 
tensive regional effort to organize locaL 
label councils within state and local bodies, 
268 new councils have been chartered, 
giving the department a total of 373 coun- 
cils. 

In 1980, he said, the department pub- 
lished its 223-page consumer directory of 
union-made products and services and has 
maintained its policy of providing label 
and service trades information on request 
to organizations and individuals along with 
its programs promoting the purchase of 
union-made goods. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council guide- 
lines for boycotts put primary responsi- 
bility for the action on the union involved, 
McDavid pointed out, stressing that the 
department is prepared to support the boy- 
cott “to whatever extent that AFL-CIO 
union wants support, whether it be money 
or manpower, or whatever is needed.” 

AMONG THE 72 resolutions acted on 
by the delegates were measures covering: 

• Encouragement of the use of union 
label products and services by public and 
voluntary agencies. 

• Use of union-made clothing and tools 
on the job. 

• Continuation and expansion of the 
department’s boycott programs on behalf 
of affiliates. 

• Endorsement of the AFL-CIO fair 
trade policy and fair regulation of imports. 

• Development of an awards program 
to recognize achievement by workers and 
their employers in the production of union 
goods and use of union services and skills. 


EfEective Care Urged 
For Mental Patients 

New York — The AFL-CIO reaffirmed 
its opposition to “dumping” mentally ill 
and severely retarded patients on the com- 
munity in order to cut down on institu- 
tional costs. 

The convention adopted a resolution 
urging effective protection of the interests 
of the patients and “equitable arrange- 
ments,” including retraining and alternate 
employment, for institutional workers 
whose jobs are eliminated. 


State Bodies 
Applauded on 
R-T-W Battle 

New York— The AFL-CIO will con- 
tinue to give high priority to the battle 
against state “right-to-work” laws and to 
an array of other anti-labor measures being 
pressed in state legislatures. 

An attempt to outlaw the union shop 
through “right-to-work” laws in any state 
“is a threat to the entire labor movement,” 
“the convention warned. 

THE RESOLUTION applauded the 
work of state central bodies that have been 
instrumental in turning back attacks on the 
union shop, and urged the AFL-CIO Ex- 
ecutive Council “to continue with its pro- - 
grams of seeking special assistance to state 
bodies confronted with threats of right-to- 
work laws.” 

It urged “a special effort to increase the 
number of affiliates in all state and local 
central bodies,” especially those “bearing ^ 
the brunt of the attack on free collective , 
bargaining.” 

Leaders of state labor federations in 
Colorado, Connecticut and New Mexico 
spoke during floor discussion on the reso- 
lution of the repeated battles over labor’s 
collective bargaining rights in states that 
have been targeted by the National Right 
to Work Committee. 

The AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization &, 
Field Services was lauded for effective as- : - 
sistance to the state federations. 

IN NEARLY every state, the convention 
noted in a separate resolution, labor’s legis- 
lative achievements of past years are under 
heavy attack. It urged: 

• Continued assistance to central bodies 
from the AFL-CIO field staff. 

• Expanded research and training ser- 
vices to state bodies on legislative issues. 

• Interchange of information among 

state bodies. , ’ 

• Wide coverage in the labor press of 
the threat of punitive legislation in the 
legislature. 

• Encouragement by international 
unions of affiliations by their locals with ^ 
state central bodies. 


Jobless Benefits "" 
Cutback Assailed 


As Safety Net Rip 


New York — Federal and state action to 
repair deliberately inflicted rips in the un- 
employment compensation safety net was 
called for by the AFL-CIO. 




A convention resolution cited the cut- 
backs in the extended benefits program, , 
begun under the Carter Administration 
and intensified under the Reagan Adminis- . 
tration. It noted taxation of jobless benefits 
for the first time and a severe tightening of 
eligibility for compensation. 


THE CONVENTION pressed for re- 
peal of the regressive measures, which are . ^ 
especially oppressive during the present 
period of recession with rising unemploy- 
ment. The current 8 percent jobless rate, 
the resolution noted, is the fruit of the 
Reagan Administration’s “deliberate pol- 
icy” of high unemployment as a check of 
inflation. 

Budget pressures have been used as an 
excuse to cut back unemployment entitle- 
ments, the resolution noted. But “there is 
no reason why the state expenditures for 
unemployment compensation should be 
part of the federal budget,” and they 
should not be so included, the resolution / 
stated. 

The ^convention reiterated labor’s sup- 
port for the establishment of federal mini- ^ 
mum benefit standards, as urged by the 
National Commission on Unemployment 
Compensation. But “until that goal is 
achieved,” the resolution urged, states 
should take the initiative in easing harsh, 
eligibility and disqualification provisions 
“and to increase weekly benefit amounts 
and benefit duration periods.” ' 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 


Page Nineteen 


Seek Share of Cargo 

Maritime Unions Look 
To Coal Export Stimulus 



RECOGNITION of his long service to the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Dept, 
comes to former MTD Vice President Jack McDonald, center, in a special 
award. Department President Frank Drozak, left and Vice President Stephen J. 
Leslie presented the plaque during the department’s 1981 convention. McDonald, 
a former Operating Engineers’ vice president, helped found the MTD in 1946 
and served as its vice president until his retirement in 1979. He was succeeded 
by Leslie, also an Operating Engineers’ vice president. 

‘Appropriate Action’ Pledged 
To Achieve Equality in Pay 


New York — Unions in the AFL-CIO 
Maritime Trades Dept, are looking to coal 
exports for an energy-hungry world as a 
lever to revive U.S. shipping and shipbuild- 
ing industries that have been allowed to 
sink to dangerously low levels. 

A key resolution adopted at the depart- 
ment’s biennial convention called for “re- 
building the U.S. dry-bulk fleet by means 
of legislation calling for the carriage of a 
portion of our coal exports in U.S.-flag 
vessels.” 

THE RESOLUTION noted that the 
United States — “the world’s leading trad- 
ing nation” — carries less than 4 percent of 
the cargoes it generates in American-flag 
vessels. The nation’s merchant fleet in- 
cludes “a mere 1 5 dry-bulk vessels, mostly 
very old,” the convention noted. 

Legislation to reserve a share of dry- 
bulk cargo for U.S. vessels through bi- 
lateral agreements with America’s trading 
partners has been approved, by the House 
Merchant Marine Committee as part of a 
port development bill, and is now before 
the House Public Works Committee, which 
shares jurisdiction. 

The convention delegates, representing 
unions with 8.5 million members, included 
in the maritime policy resolution a call for 
utilization of the merchant fleet as a naval 
auxiliary. They urged “targeted tax relief” 
to strengthen the competitive position of 
U.S. shipping companies. 

A report to the convention by President 
Frank Drozak, Vice President Stephen J. 
Leslie and Executive Sec.-Treas. Jean F. 
Ingrao stressed labor’s continued strong 
opposition to any export or exchange of oil 
from Alaska’s North Slope. 

On the periodic proposals that have been 
made to. allow the sale of Alaskan oil to 
Japan, a convention resolution warned of 
lost jobs “in every maritime-related in- 
dustry” and in pipeline and refinery de- 
velopment, along with a “dangerous” in- 

Federal Ban Sought 
On ‘Lie Detectors’ 

New York — The AFL-CIO urged Con- 
gress to enact effective safeguards against 
“lie detector” tests that employers are us- 
ing to intimidate workers while violating 
their right to privacy. 

Although scientific studies have dis- 
proved the notion that these tests can ac- 
curately measure honesty, a convention 
resolution noted, 500,000 workers were 
subjected to polygraph tests last year. 

The resolution cited the findings of a 
congressional commission which in 1974 
determined that the use of polygraph de- 
vices are an “unreasonable invasion of 
privacy” and called for legislation banning 
their use, manufacture and sale. 

State licensing provisions, the conven- 
tion said, offer little protection for work- 
ers and instead legitimize the use of the 
devices. 


crease in the nation’s dependence on for- 
eign oil. 

The department also took a strong stand 
against any weakening of the Jones Act, 
which reserves cargo and passenger service 
between U.S. ports for American-built, 
American-crewed vessels. It urged trade 
with the Virgin Islands be brought back 
under the Jones Act. 

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT Lane Kirkland 
pledged the federation’s continued support 
for the restoration of the nation’s sea 
power, which he linked to national security 
goals. 

“No matter how high the defense budget 
goes,” Kirkland told the delegates, “Amer- 
ica’s safety cannot be assured until we 
have the sealift capacity and the maritime 
skills to transport our military forces and 
sustain our allies anywhere in the world.” 

House Merchant Marine Committee 
Chairman Walter Jones (D-N.C.) said his 
committee intends to make it “crystal 
clear” that cargo preference laws requiring 
transport of government-originated cargo 
in U.S. vessels must be “strictly and faith- 
fully carried out.” 

REP. MARIO Biaggi (D-N.Y.), chair- 
man of the Merchant Marine subcommit- 
tee dealing with the department’s legislative 
priorities, and House Public Works Com- 
mittee Chairman James Howard (D-N.J.) 
stressed the importance of port develop- 
ment to achieve the full potential of coal 
exports. 

The convention also heard from two 
Senate supporters of the department’s goals 
— Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), sponsor 
of port development legislation, and 
Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-Md.). 

U.S. Maritime Administrator Harold 
Shear, who came to his post as a Navy 
admiral, told the delegates he shared their 
belief in “the importance of a Strong U.S.- 
flag preseilce on the world’s trade routes” 
and the need for a strong merchant marine 
in time of war. He promised to do “what- 
ever is humanly possible to reverse the 
declining trend in our shipping industry.” 

THE TWO-DAY convention dealt with 
115 resolutions, covering the broad range 
of the labor movement’s concerns as well 
as the issues of special interest to maritime- 
related unions. 

The department expressed concern at 
attempts in Congress to weaken the Long- 
shoremen’s & Harbor workers’ Compensa- 
tion Act, protested the move to enlarge 
the Hobbs Act so that picket-line incidents 
would be prosecuted as federal crimes, and 
sounded an alert against management 
consultants hired to thwart the collective 
bargaining process. 

It urged the importance of the Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve “to insure immediate 
availability of oil supplies in the event of 
a supply cutoff.” And it warned against 
allowing the skills and capacities of the 
U.S. shipbuilding industry to be wiped out 
through abandonment to foreign shipyards. 


New York — The AFL-CIO will take “all 
appropriate action” to bring about equal 
pay for “work of comparable value” and 
to remove all barriers to equal opportunity 
for women. 

A convention resolution stressed that 
working women continue to suffer from 
widespread discrimination in the work- 
place and urged the federation’s affiliates 
to adopt the concept of comparable worth 
in bargaining and to use the bargaining 
process to correct pay inequities just as it 
is used to remedy other types of unfair- 
ness. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY would be en- 
hanced, another resolution declared, with 
the establishment by Congress of a com- 
prehensive national system of quality, 24- 
hour a day child care to aid working par- 
ents. 

Working women at full-time jobs, the 
AFL-CIO said, earn .only 59 cents for ev- 
ery dollar earned by men working full 
time. The federation cited a 1981 study 
done by the National Academy of Science 
for the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission which tied the differential 
squarely to discrimination. 

THE EQUAL PAY resolution urged 
AFL-CIO affiliates to use contract negoti- 
ations to “upgrade undervalued job classi- 
fications regardless of whether they are 
typically considered ‘male’ or ‘female’ 
jobs.” 

Another action urged by the AFL-CIO 
is joint union-employer pay equity studies 
to “identify and correct internal inequities” 


between predominantly female and pre- 
dominantly male job classifications. 

AFL-CIO Vice President Joyce Miller, 
speaking in support of the resolution, 
called the comparable worth issue “criti- 
cal” to all workers, a trade union issue 
that will improve the economic condition 
of men as well as women. 

With women workers available at cheap- 
er wages than men, “trade unionists know 
what that means . . . men will be fired and 
women hired,” Service Employees Dele- 
gate Rosemary Trump said. 

WOMEN WORKERS are entering the 
workforce in record numbers, the conven- 
tion pointed out. It noted that many are 
the sole support of their families or work 
because their paychecks offer “the only 
hope their families have of keeping up 
with uncontrolled inflation.” 

The resolution on day care observed 
that many women are forced to leave chil- 
dren with “relatives, friends, strangers, 
even alone and unattended, just to earn 
money to put food on the table.” 

The choice between properly caring for 
children and properly providing for them 
should not be forced on women living and 
working in the United States, the AFL- 
CIO said. 

“EVERY AMERICAN woman is enti- 
tled to the right to work in support of her 
family free from the worry that her chil- 
dren are not being properly looked after,” 
the convention declared, adding that chil- 
dren are entitled to experienced profes- 
sional care while their parents are at work. 


Women ’s Groups Aligned with Unions on Rights 


New York — Women’s groups marched 
with the trade union movement on Soli- 
darity Day and will be aligned with labor 
in the election battle ahead. President 
Eleanor Smeal .of the National Organiza- 
tion of Women told the convention. 

, ‘.‘We stand in solidarity with the trade 
unionists,” she said, “determined to protect 
the last 50 years of victories for workers’ 
rights, minority rights, women’s rights, 
and determined not to go backwards.” 

SMEAL TOLD the delegates she has 
found “growing discontent” with the poli- 
cies and budget actions of the Reagan 
Administration. In fact, she suggested, 
her own organization and “for solidarity 
among groups committed to social prog- 
ress.” 

The Administration has been “a con- 
sciousness raiser for all those who thought 


we couldn’t go backwards,” she said. “The 
Reagan Administration is proving that the 
workers of this country need a vigorous 
trade union movement, women need a vig- 
orous women’s rights movement, and mi- 
norities and blacks need a vigorous civil 
rights movement.” 

Smeal described the fight for ratification 
of the Equal Rights Amendment as “a 
bread-and-butter issue” involving the use 
of women as a source of “cheap labor.” 

IT’S NOT coincidence, she suggested, 
that legislators who vote against ERA have 
the highest ratings from employer groups 
and the poorest labor voting records. 

“We have common allies, common goals 
and common opponents,” Smeal stressed. 

Smeal said the people who are saying 
that the women’s movement is dead, “that 


we’ve had our decade,” are the same who 
say that the civil rights movement was 
over after the decade of the sixties, and 
who think that trade unionism stopped 
after the era of the sweatshops. 

THE COALITION of Labor Union 
Women and today’s labor leaders generally 
have been quick to recognize “the new 
political potential of women,” Smeal said. 
“We will march in solidarity again and 
again.” 

Smeal received a standing ovation from 
the delegates as she closed with a hope for 
“a better tomorrow” in which all people 
can live up to their full potential, with 
“decency and dignity” in the workplace, 
in a society “in which men and women, 
blacks and whites, don’t have to make 
intolerable choices,” and where “we in- 
deed can control our own destiny.” 



ELEANOR SMEAL 



Page Twenty 


Senate Panel 
Bars Reagan 

NLRB Choice 

The Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee has rejected President Reagan’s 
nominee to chair the National Labor Re- 
lations Board, John R. Van de Water. 

The AFL-CIO has strongly opposed Van 
de Water’s nomination because of his ac- 
tive and partisan role on the side of man- 
agement in employer-union disputes over 
much of his career. 

NEWS OF THE Senate panel’s vote 
brought cheers from the delegates attend- 
ing the AFL-CIO’s convention in New 
York. Federation President Lane Kirkland 
urged Reagan to nominate “a fair-minded 
neutral who believes in the right to orga- 
nize and collectively bargain as set forth 
in the law.” 

In testimony before the Senate Labor 
Committee this fall, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue charged that Van de 
Water’s management consultant activities 
over the years showed him to be “an ac- 
tive anti-union partisan, opposed to the 
exercise by employees of their right to 
choose union representation, and opposed 
to people’s efforts to gain access to col- 
lective bargaining. 

“We do not believe that union orga- 
nizers or management opposers of orga- 
nization should serve on the NLRB,” 
Donahue said. 

THE VAN DE WATER nomination 
was rejected after Republican Sen. Lowell 
Weicker of Connecticut joined the seven 
Democrats on the Labor & Human Re- 
sources Committee to produce two 8-8 
tie votes on reporting the nomination out 
to the full Senate favorably. Motions die 
on tie votes. 

Weicker said that because Van de Water 
during his years as a consultant “decided 
to cast his lot clearly with business, with 
management,” he would not be perceived 
as an objective board member. 

The seven Democratic Senators on the 
committee are Edward M. Kennedy 
(Mass.), Jennings Randolph (W.Va.), Har- 
rison Williams Jr. (N.J.), Claiborne Pell 
(R.I.), Thomas F. Eagleton (Mo.), Donald 
W. Riegle (Mich.), and Howard M. Met- 
zenbaum (Ohio). 

Van de Water, 64, has served as NLRB 
chairman since August under a recess ap- 
pointment by the President. He could con- 
tinue as chairman until next year without 
Senate confirmation. 

HE HEADED his own California con- 
sulting firm. Van de Water Associates, 
from 1949 until his appointment. He also 
served as a management representative for 
both the Ford Motor Co. and North 
American Aviation, Inc. 

During his Senate testimony, Donahue 
submitted materials compiled by the AFL- 
CIO’s Los Angeles-Orange County Orga- 
nizing Committee for 1964-72 revealing 
that Van de Water’s firm served in at least 
18 campaigns to defeat efforts of workers 
to organize unions. 

Donahue urged the committee to look 
into this case and others in which Van de 
Water had been involved to determine 
whether the nominee had engaged in “per- 
suader activities.” Advising employers dur- 
ing a campaign would be a persuader ac- 
tivity, and would have to be reported un- 
der the Landrum-Griffin Act. 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 28, 1981 



ROLL CALL of leaders of the AFL, the CIO and today’s ond president who was succeeded by Gompers again; Wil- 
merged federation forms part of the display at the convention liam Green, third AFL president; John L. Lewis, first CIO 
highlighting the 100th anniversary of the federation’s found- president; CIO Presidents Philip Murray and Walter Reu- 
ing in November 1881. The portraits show, from left, ther; George Meany, first president of the merged federa- 
Samuel Gompers, first AFL president; John McBride, sec- tion, and current AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. 


1982 Elections Designated 
For Next Solidarity Protest 


New York — Solidarity Day 1982 will 
be Election Day, Nov. 2, the AFL-CIO 
declared in a convention resolution that 
urged union members and their allies to 
“mobilize” and “march to the polls in 
unprecedented numbers” to elect a Con- 
gress that will “reverse the disastrous pol- 
icies of the Reagan Administration and re- 
store humane government to the American 
people.” 

The resolution applauded the success of 
Solidarity Day 1981, Sept. 19, which drew 
more than 400,000 union members and 
supporters of human rights, religious, con- 
sumer, environmental and other allied 
groups to Washington for the largest pro- 
test march staged in the nation’s capital. 

Besides the huge number of protesters, 
the success of Solidarity Day also lay in 
the relationships developed and strength- 
ened between the labor movement and its 
allies at the national and community lev- 
els. These relationships must be carried 
forward to keep the “spirit of Solidarity 
Day” fresh, the convention said. 

That spirit has since made its mark on 
the local level in the successful campaign 
against a tuition tax credit initiative on the 
District of Columbia ballot, the resolution 
noted. The issue was defeated by a margin 
of 89 percent. 

Nationally, the resolution said. Solidar- 
ity Day “has encouraged increasing resis- 
tance in the Congress to the President’s 
domestic policies and proposals.” 

The massive turnout for Solidarity Day 
is only a beginning, the resolution stressed. 
It said labor must accelerate its legislative 
and political efforts locally and nationally 
“to ensure that the hundreds of thousands 
who came to Washington on Sept. 19 con- 
tinue to be heard loud and clear.” 

The convention pledged to renew and 
strengthen the Budget Coalition put to- 
gether in 1981 to fight the Administration’s 
cuts in federal funds for human services. 
The coalition’s job will be to “fight again 
to meet vital social needs, to end the 
recession and offset the damage it has 
already done,” the resolution pledged. 

One of the successes of Solidarity Day, 
the convention observed, was that it re- 
newed working relations among interna- 
tional unions and state and local central 
bodies. The resolution said the AFL-CIO 
will work to “sustain the spirit of Solidarity 
Day” in local communities and strengthen 
newly formed bonds with “friends who 
share our goals” as part of the Election 
Day effort. 

AFL-CIO Vice President William Wynn, 
president of the Food & Commercial 
Workers, observed in floor discussion of 
the resolution that the next Solidarity Day 


will “return to the Congress of this coun- 
try, to our state and local offices, the kind 
of representatives who will have compas- 
sion and understanding for all of the peo- 
ple and not just the privileged.” 

Solidarity Day was a message “to our 
government, to our employers and to all 
of corporate America to call off their anti- 
union dogs” and end their “divide and 
conquer” tactics, AFL-CIO Vice President 
William Winpisinger, head of the Ma- 
chinists, declared. 

Before taking up the resolution, dele- 
gates showed an AFL-CIO film highlight- 
ing the events of the Solidarity Day demon- 
stration. 


New York — LFnions can help narrow 
the wide advantage in political funding 
■ that corporate and conservative groups 
hold over labor by promoting voluntary 
checkoff contributions from their mem- 
bers, the convention said. 

The 1980 elections demonstrated the 
fast-growing funding gap between unions 
and opposing political action committees, 
the convention pointed out. It noted that 
campaign contributions by right-wing and 
business PACs were five times greater than 
that of labor. In the 1978 elections, the 
edge was IVi to 1. 

“THE AFL-CIO h^s long urged public 
financing for all federal elections to avoid 
turning them into auctions,” the resolu- 
tion observed. But it warned that until a 
public financing measure is adopted, “it is 
vital that labor’s capacity to help fund its 
endorsed candidates be dramatically in- 
creased. 

“Checkoff is the only means through 
which the AFL-CIO can provide enough 
funding to endorsed candidates to offset 
the tremendous amounts their opponents 
receive from corporate, trade association 
and right-wing PACs,” the resolution 
stressed. 

Looking to next year’s elections, the 
convention called for an outpouring of 
union members to polling places with the 
same spirit that brought hundreds of thou- 
sands of persons to Solidarity Day demon- 
stration in Washington. 

TO MAINTAIN the “momentum” of 
Solidarity Day the convention urged that 
the next general election, Nov. 2, 1982, 
be designated as Solidarity Day II. 

It called for continued cooperation by 


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Convention Spurs 
Union Label Use 

New York — Union Label Week will 
be observed Sept 6-11, 1982, and Sept 
5-10, 1983, the AFL-CIO directed in a 
convention resolution. 

The weeks are set aside to promote 
the use of the union label and shop card 
and to encourage consumers to buy 
union made products and services. 

The convention also urged AFL-CIO 
affiliates to participate in the 1982 and 
1983 Union-Industries Shows, produced 
and managed by the Union Label & Ser- 
vice Trades Dept, and to support the 
department’s work by providing infor- 
mation on the use of labels and shop 
cards and on labor’s boycotts in their 
publications. 

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the federation and its affiliates with the 
more than 200 allied organizations that 
contributed to the huge Solidarity Day 
turnout, channeling that spirit into sup- 
port of “candidates concerned about jobs, 
social justice and equitable taxation.” 

In its report to the convention, the Ex- 
ecutive Council noted that although labor’s 
overall outlook for the 1982 election im- 
proved, prospects for gains by progressives 
in Congress are still clouded. 

IN THE SENATE, there will be 20 
Democratic seats and only 12 Republican 
seats contested. Only a handful of GOP 
seats appear vulnerable, and some of these 
are held by moderates. 

In the House, the real impact of re- 
districting is still unknown, although the 
shift of 17 seats from the Northeast and 
Midwest to the Sunbelt could enhance op- 
portunities for conservative candidates, the 
report observed. 

Labor to Join in Marking 
LaGuardia Centennial 

New York — ^The AFL-CIO will join in 
the Dec. 1 2, 1 982 celebration of the 1 00th 
anniversary of the birth of Fiorello H. 
LaGuardia, late mayor of New York who 
was a staunch friend of labor during his 
1934-1945 tenure in office and throughout 
his public service. 

A convention resolution on the LaGuar- 
dia centennial pointed out that he had 
begun his career as a union lawyer before 
World War I. As a congressman, he was 
co-author of the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 
1932 that limited the use of injunctions 
against unions and outlawed the yellow 
dog contract. 


Checkoff Pressed to Offset 
Corporate Political Funds 




Economic 


Index Shows Recession 


Worsening 



By James M. Shevis 

The government’s index of leading eco- 
nomic indicators showed that the nation’s 
economy suffered another sharp setback 
in October with prospects of further deep- 
ening of the current recession. 

The measure, which is intended to fore- 
cast trends in the economy, fell 1.8 percent 
over the month, following a 2.2-percent 
drop in September and a decline of six- 
tenths of 1 percent in August. It was the 
first three-month string of declines in the 
index since the March-through-May series 
last year, which set the stage for the reces- 
sion. 

THE INDEX is made up of 12 com- 
ponents but only 10 are available at the 
time of the first report for each month. 
Six of the 10 declined in October, two 
fewer than in the previous month. The in- 


crease in the manufacturing layoff rate 
accounted for about 40 percent of the de- 
cline. The unemployment rate rose to 8 
percent in October, and is expected to 
continue rising. 

A drop in building permits, reflecting 


the continued slump in the housing indus- 
try, and a drop in new orders for con- 
sumer goods accounted for most of the 
rest of the index’s decline. Also down were 
the pace of deliveries, changes in liquid 
assets, and orders adjusted for inflation. 


Increasing for the month were the average 
workweek, crude materials prices, stock 
prices, and the money supply adjusted for 
inflation. 

Robert Ortner, chief economist for the 
Commerce Dept., which issued the report, 
said the October decline “strongly reflects 
the current business condition and what is 
likely to be developing over the next few 
months.” He predicted that real gross 
national product — the value of the nation’s 
total output of goods and services — would 
drop at an annual rate of nearly 5 percent 
in the current quarter, and at a slower rate 
in the first three months of 1 982. 

SUPPORTING his prediction was a re- 
port from the auto industry that Novem- 
ber production declined 25 percent to 
414,046 units from the year-earlier out- 

(Continued on Page 3) 



100th ANNIVERSARY of the American labor movement is marked with a pre- 
sentation by the American Arbitration Association to the AFL-CIO, commend- 
ing the federation’s efforts in advancing the arbitration process. From left are 
Jacob Sheinkman, secretary-treasurer of the Clothing & Textile Workers; Robert 
Coulson, president of the AAA; Federation President Lane Kirkland and Sec.- 
Treas. Thomas R. Donahue, and Wilbur Daniels, executive vice president of the 
Ladies’ Garment Workers. Kirkland, Donahue, Sheinkman and Daniels are 
members of the AAA board of directors. 

Conference on Aging Told 

Social Security ‘Crisis’ 
Fabricated to Fit Budget 


Council Welcon les 
Talks with Reagan 
Despite Deep Split 


By David L. Perlman 


By Susan Dunlop 

AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert 
Seidman accused opponents of social se- 
curity of manufacturing a crisis over the 
system’s financial state to persuade Amer- 
icans to accept deep cuts in benefits. 

Seidman told the White House Confer- 
ence on Aging that the system is sound 
and its future financial health can be as- 
sured by calm congressional action. 

IN A KEYNOTE address to the con- 
ference’s Committee on Economic Well- 
Being, which is preparing recommenda- 
tions on social security, Seidman pointed 
out that attacks on the system are not new, 
but the program today “is under its most 
intensive assault in its 40-year history.” 
The voices critical of social security “are 
more strident, and, what is worse, they are 
the voices of those in high places in our 
government,” he said. 

He charged that the Administration is 
seeking “to perpetuate the myth that so- 
cial security teeters on the brink of bank- 
ruptcy” and can only be rescued by mak- 
ing sweeping changes in current and future 
benefits. 

Social security, he said, has become a 
“target of opportunity” for the Adminis- 
tration, “a means by which to balance the 
federal budget at the expense of social se- 
curity recipients.” 

NOT ONLY is the system not facing 
bankruptcy, Seidman asserted, but its 
short-term financial problems can be readi- 
ly eased by beefing up the inflation- 
plagued Old Age & Survivors Insurance 
fund through reallocation of taxes, inter- 


fund borrowing and permitting borrowing 
from general revenues. 

Solving that short-range crunch will 
give Congress time “away from the crisis 
atmosphere calmly to debate needed long- 
range changes, he told the committee. 
Current predictions issued by the Adminis- 

(Continued on Page 2) 


By John R. Oravec 

The rate of job-connected injuries, ill- 
ness and fatalities among private sector 
workers declined last year for the first time 
in five years, the Bureau of Labor re- 
ported. 

BLS said that its survey of records 
that employers maintain under provisions 
of the federal job safety law showed that 
about one worker in every 12 experienced 
an injury or illness during 1 980, compared 
with a ratio of 1 in 1 1 in each of the four 
previous years. 

WHILE JOB-RELATED injuries 
dropped to 5.6 million in 1980 from 6.1 
million in 1979, BLS said that nearly 20 
percent of the half-million decline can be 
attributed to a decrease in total hours 
worked from 1979 to 1980. 

The annual BLS report noted that the 
all-industry incidence rate fell from 9.5 
injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time 
workers in 1979 to 8.7 in 1980, with.about 
10 percent of that decline attributed to the 
drop in working hours worked. 


AFL-CIO leaders told President Reagan 
that the trade union movement has “deep, 
principled differences” with his economic 
policies but welcomes a promise that la- 
bor’s voice will henceforth be heard during 
the shaping of Administration policies. 

A Dec. 2 White House meeting, initi- 
ated by the President, inaugurated an 
exchange of views that Reagan said he 
hopes will be continued on a regular basis. 

THE AFL-CIO Executive Council was 
represented by President Lane Kirkland, 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue and 26 
federation vice presidents. Joining Reagan 
around the Cabinet table were Vice Presi- 
dent George Bush, Labor Sec. Raymond J. 
Donovan and top-level White House and 
department officials. Bush and Donovan 
were designated by Reagan to set up pro- 
cedures for continuing consultations. 

Kirkland made clear in a statement 
issued after meeting that the AFL-CIO 
delegation expressed serious concern over 
“excessive and mounting unemployment” 
and the damage done by the deepening 
recession. (Text, Page 2.) 

THE COUNCIL members noted their 
disagreement with Administration budget 
and tax policies and their concern that 
these policies will “aggravate the human 
problems of working people in a time of 
severe recession,” Kirkland said. 

“Labor’s approach to national, social 
and economic issues is at deep variance 
with that of the Administration,” Kirk- 
land observed. He said the council’s rec- 
ommendation to the President was based 


Job-related deaths in workplaces with 
1 1 or more workers also declined from 
4,950 in 1979 to 4,400 in 1980 as the 
fatality rate for this category eased from 
8.6 per 100,000 workers in 1979 to 7.7 
last year, the BLS said. 

THE NUMBER of reported occupa- 
tional illnesses was down over the year 
to 130,200 from 148,900 in 1979, the 
report noted. 

BLS pointed out, however, that the re- 
cording and reporting of occupational ill- 
ness continues to present measurement 
problems since employers and physicians 
often don’t recognize a worker’s illness 
to be job-connected. As a result, it said, 
the survey understates the occurrence of 
work-connected disease and illness. 

AFL-CIO Occupational Safety Director 
George H. R. Taylor traced the overall 
improvement in the statistics to the efforts 
of former Assistant Labor Sec. Eula Bing- 
ham in developing effective OSHA stan- 
dards and strengthening enforcement. 

Taylor warned that the Reagan Admin- 


on the “strong anti-recession program” 
adopted at the AFL-CIO’s recent conven- 
tion. 

That program, in sharp contrast to Ad- 
ministration budget-cutting, calls for fund- 
ing local public works projects to provide 
immediate jobs. It would expand housing 
programs, restore the public service em- 
ployment program and move toward 
shoring up the nation’s basic industries 
through targeted government loans, inter- 
est subsidies and tax benefits. 

KIRKLAND SAID the council mem- 
bers also “urged the President to give 
humane consideration to the problems of 
the air traffic controllers and their fami- 
lies.” 

They called on the President to put the 
controllers back on the job “so as to re- 
store normal air traffic service as soon as 
possible, spare the public further incon- 
venience, and permit the thousands of 
other furloughed air industry employees to 
return to work.” 

At a^ White House news briefing later 
that day. White House aides said “the 
entire matter” of the air traffic controllers 
is being discussed within the Administra- 
tion but that no decision has been made. 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL members 
who took part in the White House meet- 
ing, in addition to Kirkland and Donahue, 
were Vice Presidents John H. Lyons, 
Thomas W. Gleason, Frederick O’Neal, 
Martin J. Ward, Murray H. Finley, Albert 
Shanker, Sol C. Chaikin, Edward T. Han- 
ley, Angelo Fosco, Charles H. Pillard, 

(Continued on Page 2) 


istration’s campaign to reverse the pro- 
grams instituted by Bingham could seri- 
ously jeopardize the health and safety 
of workers and reverse the positive trend 
in reducing job injuries and illnesses. 

The BLS report for 1980 showed that 
the overall occupational injury rate — ex- 
cluding illnesses — declined from 9.2 per 
100 full-time workers in 1979 to 8.5 in 
1980. Seven of the eight major industry 
divisions showed improvements over the 
year, and only the agriculture, forestry 
and fishing division had a slight increase. 

Construction remained the most hazard- 
ous occupation with an injury rate of 15.7 
per 100 workers, followed by manufactur- 
ing, 12.2; agriculture, forestry and fish- 
ing, 1 1 .9, and mining, 1 1 .4. 

OCCUPATIONAL injuries resulting in 
lost workdays declined to 2.5 million from 
2.7 ntillion in 1979, BLS reported. About 
40.9 million workdays were lost last year 
because of injuries, compared with 42.6 

(Continued on Page 3) 


’80 Job In jury f Death Rate Down 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASmNGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimmiiiimiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 

Text of Kirkland Statement 
On Meeting with President 

The following is the text of AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland* s statement on 
the Executive Council* s meeting with President Reagan. 


Rebukes Reagan Administration 

ILO Protests Discharge 
Of U.S. Air Controllers 


We welcome this opportunity for an exchange of views with the President. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council expressed deep concern over the nation’s 
excessive and mounting unemployment and the waste of resources and opportuni- 
ties resulting from the d^pening recession. We noted our deep, principled dif- 
ferences with the Administration’s budget and tax policies and our concern that 
they will serve only to aggravate the human problems of working people in a 
time of severe recession. 

We acknowledged that labor’s approach to national, social and economic 
issues is at deep variance with that of the Administration, but urged the Presi- 
dent to adopt a strong anti-recession program as contained in our recent conven- 
tion resolution, adopted unanimously by the delegates from all our affiliated 
unions. 

Among other issues discussed, we urged the President to give humane con- 
sideration to the problems of the air traffic controllers and their families. We 
urged returning these workers to their jobs so as to restore normal air traffic 
service as soon as possible, spare the public further inconvenience, and permit 
the thousands of other furloughed air industry employees to return to work. 

We welcome the President’s assurances that labor will have timely opportuni- 
ties to express its views on issues of mutual concern, as the Administration’s 
position on these ksues is being formulated. The AFL-CIO is prepared to coop- 
erate in any arrangements established to carry out this new policy. 

iiiiiiiiiiininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 

5 Union Leaders Bring Suit 
For Rehiring of ControUers 


Five union leaders have filed suit to 
require the federal government to rehire 
the 11,500 members of the Professional 
Air Traffic Controllers Organization fired 
in August for striking. 

In an action filed in U.S. District Court 
for the District of Columbia, the union 
leaders charged that by refusing to rehire 
the controllers the Administration is vio- 
lating the 1958 Air Transportation Act, 
which requires the government to provide 
“efficient, comprehensive and timely pas- 
senger and cargo air transportation under 
conditions of maximum safety.” 

THE PLAINTIFFS are Presidents 
Glenn Watts of the Communications 
Workers, Douglas Fraser of the Auto 
Workers, Kenneth Blaylock of the Gov- 
ernment Employees, William H. Wynn of 
the Food & Commercial Workers, and 
Executive Director Terry Herndon of the 
unaffiliated National Education Associa- 
tion. 

The suit charges that curtailment of air 
traffic caused by reduced staffing levels at 
control towers and regional centers has 
been “detrimental and injurious” to union 
officials who are required to travel by air 
to meet their members’ needs. It also 
maintains that air safety has deteriorated 
and that the national defense has been 
weakened by shifting military air traffic 
controllers to civilian service. 


under the Federal Bankruptcy Act. It seeks 
a court order that would free it from the 
threat of creditors’ lawsuits, halting all liti- 
gation involving fines and financial mat- 
ters, until it can develop a plan to put 
its finances in order. 

Once the union was denied its right to 
represent controllers, the FAA stopped 
collecting dues from the 2,000 PATCO 
members who kept working during the 
strike. About $350,000 in dues already 
collected remains in an FAA escrow fund 
because of various legal claims. 

• Complaints that test scores of air 
traffic control trainees had been manipu- 
lated to keep them from failing reached 
the House Civil Service Committee. The 
panel, chaired by Rep. William D. Ford 
(D-Mich.) called for an investigation, say- 
ing that the nation could not afford even 
the “slightest suspicion” that air safety 
was being endangered. 

• Hawaii’s State Labor Dept, autho- 
rized payment of unemployment benefits 
to most of the 135 PATCO members who 
walked off their jobs there in August, Sev- 
eral court cases involving payments of 
similar unemployment benefits are pend- 
ing in other states. 


Geneva — ^The International Labor Or- 
ganization has called on the Reagan Ad- 
ministration to lift its sanctions against 
the striking air traffic controllers and to 
resume collective bargaining with their 
union. 

The call was sounded by the ILO’s Gov- 
rening Body of 56 worker, government 
and employer delegates as it adopted a re- 
port by its Freedom of Association Com- 
mittee on the Reagan Administration’s 
handling of the walkout by the Profession- 
al Air Traffic Controllers Organization. 

WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING that the 
White House had observed the letter of 
the law in its dealings with PATCO, the 
committee sharply rebuked the U.S. gov- 
ernment by underscoring the “severe na- 
ture” of its actions against the union and 
its members. 

“The application of excessively severe 
sanctions against public servants on ac- 
count of their participation in a strike can- 
not be conducive to the development of 
harmonious industrial relations,” the re- 
port said. 

This finding was in line with the views 
expressed by President Lane Kirkland in 
a letter to ILO Director Gen. Francis 
Blanchard strongly endorsing a complaint 
filed against the U.S. government by the 
International Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions. 

THE BRUSSELS-BASED ICFTU had 
charged the Reagan Administration with 
“infringement of basic trade union rights” 
— as embodied in the ILO conventions 
guaranteeing workers the right to strike 
and bargain collectively — by its heavy- 
handed moves against PATCO. 

In its conclusions, the Freedom of As- 
sociation Committee called on the Admin- 
istration to consider rehiring the dismissed 
controllers, to waive, or at least reduce, 
the imposed fines and to deprive none of 
the strikers of the benefits of the govern- 
ment mortgage protection plan simply be- 
cause of the strike action. 

By adopting without a vote the report 
of its 10-member watchdog group, the 
Governing Body of the 146-nation ILO 
also made clear its condemnation of the 
Administration’s move to decertify PATCO 
as the controllers’ bargaining agent. 

THE COMMITTEE expressed no opin- 
ion on the legality of the Administration’s 
action because the issue was still before 
the courts. However, it stressed the im- 
portance it attached to having govern- 
ments and other public administrations 
“recognize for collective bargaining pur- 


poses the organizations representative of 
their employees.” 

For this reason, the committee expressed 
the hope that the Administration would 
move toward “reopening a dialogue with 
PATCO.” 

The committee, composed of three mem- 
bers of each of the Governing Body’s 
three groups of worker, employer and 
government representatives with an inde- 
pendent legal expert as chairman, also 
showed its concern over the use of mili- 
tary air controllers as substitutes for the 
striking PATCO members. 

Responding to the calls that the Admin- 
istration seek a settlement with PATCO, 
U.S. Deputy Under Sec. of Labor Robert 
W. Searby assured the Governing Body 
that he would communicate “accurately” 
to Washington the committee’s conclusions 
and recommendations and keep the ILO 
informed of developments. 

Labor Welcomes 
Reagan’s Pledge 
To Hear Views 

(Continued from Page 1) 

J. C. Turner, Lloyd McBride, David J. 
Fitzmaurice, Kenneth T. Blaylock, Alvin 
E. Heaps, William H. Wynn, John J. 
O’Donnell, Wayne E. Glenn, Robert F. 
Goss, Joyce D. Miller, John J. Sweeney, 
Douglas A. Fraser, Frank Drozak, Barbara 
Hutchinson, Richard I. Kilroy and Vincent 
R. Sombrotto. 

Seven vice presidents did not attend for 
reasons ranging from illness and previous 
commitments to opposition to the meeting. 

The invitation on behalf of the Presi- 
dent had been extended to Kirkland and 
the Executive Council on the eve of the 
AFL-CIO convention. Council members 
were told that “the President wants very 
much to receive the counsel and input of 
the representatives of organized labor on 
a continuing basis.” 

AFTER THE White House meeting, 
Kirkland said the federation welcomes 
“the President’s assurances that labor will 
have timely opportunities to express its 
views on issues of mutual concern, as the 
Administration’s position on these issues 
is being formulated.” 

He said the AFL-CIO will “cooperate 
in any arrangements established to carry 
out this new policy.” 


Seidman Hits Social Security Scare Tactic 


At a news conference, the plaintiffs em- 
phasized that the suit takes no position 
on the correctness of the Administration’s 
initial reaction to the strike or to the Fed- 
eral Labor Relations Authority’s subse- 
quent decision to decertify PATCO. 

REFUSAL TO rehire the controllers 
“is arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of 
discretion within the meaning of the Ad- 
ministrative Procedure Act,” the suit adds. 
The reason for the defendants’ refusal is 
“extraneous to carrying out their statu- 
tory duties,” it concludes. Defendants in 
the action are Federal Aviation Adminis- 
trator Lynn Helms, Transportation Sec. 
Drew Lewis, and Director Donald De- 
vine of the Office of Personnel Manage- 
ment. 

In related areas: 

• The union applied for reorganization 

Recount Affirms GOP Victory 
In Jersey Governor’s Race 

Trenton, N.J. — Republican Thomas H. 
Kean emerged as the winner of the closest 
gubernatorial election in New Jersey’s his- 
tory, maintaining a lead of about 1,700 
votes out of 2.3 million cast through a 
nearly complete recount. 

Rep. James J. Florio (D-N.J.), who had 
COPE support, conceded the outcome and 
Kean will take office on Jan. 19, 1982. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tration that the system will not be able 
to meet its long-range obligations are “ex- 
ceedingly questionable” because they are 
based on weak assumptions, Seidman said. 

The White House conference, the third 
of its kind, opened in Washington amid 
charges by many organizations represent- 
ing the elderly that the Administration 
had stacked the delegate roster with sup- 
porters of its own policies and had made 
rules for voting on conference recom- 
mendations that would stifle criticism of 
the Reagan Administration’s actual and 
proposed budget cuts in programs that aid 
the elderly. 

JACOB CLAYMAN, president of the 
National Council of Senior Citizens, voiced 
the NCSC’s objections during a meeting 
with Health & Human Services Sec. Rich- 
ard S. Schweiker. dayman and other lead- 
ers had asked the secretary to change a 
rule that forces delegates to vote only to 
accept or reject the entire package of pro- 
posals coming out of the committee, but 
Schweiker rejected their appeal. 

Seidman was chairman of the technical 
committee on retirement income that re- 
ported to the full panel on economic well- 
being. 

He charged that the Administration was 
“perpetuating myths” that social security 


would be better replaced by a private in- 
surance system, that it had reduced per- 
sonal savings, .incentives, that it can only 
be saved by acquiescing in massive cuts 
in benefits. 

THE ADMINISTRATION created a 
“crisis atmosphere” in which it could insist 
the only way to “save” social security was 
to make it a “smaller, less adequate pro- 
gram,” Seidman said. That plan, he 
pointed out, called for cutting 40 percent 
from the benefits of early retirees, raising 
the retirement age to 68, changing the 
formula for determining benefits, sharply 
reducing the cost-of-living adjustment and 
creating harsh new eligibility rules for dis- 
ability benefits. 

These proposals “touched off a firestorm 
of protest” Seidman noted, and the Ad- 
ministration quickly asked Congress not 
to act until a “bipartisan commission” 
could study the system and report on it 
“once the dangerous shoals of the 1982 
congressional elections had been navi- 
gated.” 

“The Administration has backed off on 
its plan to mutilate social security,” Seid- 
man said, “but it hasn’t backed down.” 

HE SCORED Congress for allowing the 
Administration to cut back social security 
benefits in the overall budget process 


through elimination of the minimum 
monthly benefit and certain lump sum 
death benefits and phasing out or reducing 
survivors’ benefits. 

Congress is acting to restore the mini- 
mum benefit, Seidman noted, and he urged 
that “once that error in judgment” is cor- 
rected, it should deal in orderly fashion 
with the system’s current needs. 

When the short-term problems are re- 
solved, Seidman said. Congress should 
consider such long-term actions as re- 
moval of social security from the unified 
budget and restoring the “autonomy” it 
had prior to fiscal 1969, establishment of 
an independent board to run the system, 
and the infusion of funds from general 
revenues. 

THE PROBLEMS of aging call for an 
examination of ways to make the program 
work even better, Seidman stressed, par- 
ticularly for women, blacks, Hispanics, 
Native Americans and others who “have 
been ill-treated in the labor market.” 

He cited polls showing that social se- 
curity is one of the most popular govern- 
ment programs and observed that this 
“tells us there is no gulf between the gen- 
erations” in support for the program “de- 
spite the Administration’s attempts to 
drive a wedge between contributors and 
beneficiaries.” 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


Pai^ Thrc« 



10-DAY CONFERENCE at the International Labor Organization in Geneva 
explored avenues of upgrading working conditions for teachers and the rights of 
teachers on collective bargaining. Discussing the issues are Eugenia Kemble 
of the American Federation of Teachers, and Oscar De Vries, ILO office di- 
rector of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. 

ILO Session on Teachers 
Backs Bargaining Rights 


Fire Fighters 
Cite Excessive 
Job Hazards 

Hollywood, Fla. — The rate of deaths 
and injuries among fire fighters across the 
nation continues at “unacceptably high 
levels, and we must work to bring it 
down,” Fire Fighters President John A. 
Gannon warned at a symposium on occu- 
pational health and hazards here. 

Gannon reported that the union’s 1980 
death and injury survey revealed that 63 
fire fighters died last year in the line of 
duty and another 98 died as a result of 
occupational illnesses. 

“TRANSLATING those figures into 
statistics, we find 61 line-of-duty deaths 
per 100,000, the highest of any occupa- 
tion in the country,” Gannon said. 

Gannon spoke at a symposium con- 
ducted by the John P. Redmond Founda- 
tion, which was created by the lAFF and 
named for a former president of the union. 
It brings together doctors, scientists, man- 
ufacturers of fire service clothing and 
equipment, public officials, union leaders, 
and members of the fire fighting commu- 
nity to discuss ways to reduce fire fighting 
hazards. 

Other findings of the lAFF death and 
injury survey included: 

• 36 percent of all fire fighter deaths 
due to occupational diseases last year were 
related to cancer, 56 percent to heart 
disease. 

• There were 46,260 reported injuries, 
34,562 occurring at the emergency scene. 

• 480 forced retirments were due to 
occupational illnesses, and 338 to line-of- 
duty injuries. 

• Fire fighters averaged 44.8 injuries 
per 100 workers. 

• Fire fighters suffered 181 heart at- 
tacks at the emergency scene. 

The entire survey is published in the 
November issue of the union’s publication, 
the International Fire Fighter. 


Detroit — The Auto Workers accused 
General Motors of trying to “spoonfeed” 
management views on the need for worker 
sacrifice to a captive audience of em- 
ployees, and advised local UAW leaders 
not to participate in the company’s “uni- 
lateral” program. 

UAW President Douglas A. Fraser and 
Vice President Owen Bieber, director of 
the union’s General Motors Dept., said 
in a statement that the firm’s “Road to 
Survival” campaign is a propaganda at- 
tempt to persuade workers they must make 
wage and benefit concessions in 1982. The 
automaker employs some 440,000 union- 
ized workers. 

THE STATEMENT, issued after top 
UAW leaders voiced their objections to 
GM officials at a meeting here, charged 
that GM seeks to have its employees ac- 
cept its views on the scope of next year’s 
collective bargaining while attempting to 
generate distrust of the UAW leadership. 

“Efforts by the General Motors spokes- 
men in this area are nothing new — it hap- 
pens prior to each round of negotiations,” 
Fraser and Bieber said. “What is new 
here is that the corporation is attempting 
to shift a major portion of its efforts into 
the workplace and to spoonfeed it to a 
captive audience.” 

GM calls its program “a special com- 
munications effort,” and envisions a series 
of in-plant meetings conducted on com- 
pany time by local managers and involv- 
ing nearly all of its workers over the next 
six months. Negotiations on a new con- 
tract are scheduled to begin next July. 
The current contract expires next Septem- 
ber. 

A DOCUMENT distributed by GM 
titled “The Road to Survival” calls for 
four hour-long meetings of small groups 
of employees who would be shown films 


Geneva — Teacher union representatives 
from around the world have gained sig- 
nificant recognition from governments on 
the need to upgrade their working condi- 
tions and on the rights of teachers to 
bargain over them. 

For the first time under International 
Labor Organization auspices, a joint gov- 
ernment-teacher union meeting came to 
some historic conclusions on teacher work- 
ing conditions as well as on the means by 
which they should be determined. 

AFTER A 10-DAY session, 1 8 teacher- 
worker representatives and 15 government 
officials reached agreement on a statement 
asserting that “competent authorities 
should recognize independent and legiti- 


and drawn into discussions on manage- 
ment’s publicly stated needs for cutting 
labor costs. 

“In this endeavor,” Fraser and Bieber 
observed, “it seeks to involve the in-plant 
joint union-management ‘quality of work- 
life’ committees” — panels established over 
the past several years at different locations 
to lessen labor-management tensions and 
promote cooperation on local working con- 
ditions. 

“This was strenuously objected to by 
the union as a perversion of the contract,” 
Fraser and Bieber said. The quality of 
worklife committee was never intended as 
“a vehicle to propagandize or parrot the 
current views of the chairman of the 
board of GM as to how to save General 
Motors through worker sacrifice,” they 
said. 

“THE CORPORATION obviously has 
the right to communicate with its em- 
ployees, but that process must occur on 
a purely voluntary basis on the part of 
each individual and cannot be made com- 
pulsory,” they stressed. 

Meanwhile, in Toronto, UAW members 
at Chrysler Canada voted to withdraw 
from the union’s international Chrysler 
agreement next year and negotiate a sep- 
arate national pact. It marked the third 
time that Chrysler workers in Canada have 
voted on the question of bargaining inter- 
nationally with their U.S. counterparts. 

In 1967, the Canadian workers voted 
for establishment of the international 
agreement and again in 1973 to remain 
within the bargaining structure. However, 
local union leaders in Canada who called 
for the referendum felt the Chrysler inter- 
national bargaining process had become 
complicated because of involvement by 
the U.S. government and the U.S. Loan 
Guarantee Board. 


mate teachers’ organizations as represen- 
tatives of their members, entitled to full 
information and consultation and to bar- 
gain collectively on all the matters covered 
by these conclusions.” 

The statement’s conclusions covered a 
broad range of issues, such as the num- 
bers of qualified teachers employed, teach- 
er recruitment and retention, teaching 
hours, class size and pupil-teacher ratios, 
teacher health and safety, teacher stress, 
and the problems of teachers in rural and 
isolated areas. 

They urged the Governing Body of the 
ILO to “establish a permanent Joint Com- 
mittee on Teachers” and to hold an early 
follow-up meeting. They also asked for 
ILO support for regional seminars “for 
teachers’ organizations on problems of 
particular concern to them.” 

AMONG THE topics suggested for fu- 
ture study and discussion were trade union 
rights, training and the quality of teach- 
ing, conditions of employment, and the 
social situation of teachers in developing 
countries. 

Eugenia Kemble, special assistant to 
President Albert Shanker of the American 
Federation of Teachers, chaired the teach- 
ers’ side of the drafting committee which 
negotiated the final conclusions with the 
governments. 

“The teachers did very well,” Kemble 
said, “ we have a clear recognition on the 
part of governments that teacher unions 
represent teachers, that it is appropriate 
and necessary to negotiate with them and 
that the range of what can be negotiated 
is very broad.” 

SOME GOVERNMENTS took excep- 
tion to portions of the conclusions, par- 
ticularly those concerned with negotiations 
and collective bargaining. Japan, the Phil- 
ippines, Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil 
were among governments that noted dis- 
sents. 

While the ILO had previously studied 
teacher issues through committees of ex- 
perts and in joint projects with UNESCX3, 
this was the first time teacher union rep- 
resentatives and governments met on them 
in the ILO. Erich Frister, president of the 
International Federation of Free Teachers 
Unions and outgoing president of the As- 
sociation of Teachers & Educators of Ger- 
many, led the teacher group as its chair- 
man. 

American Jewish Committee 
Presents Award to Georgine 

New York — President Robert A. Geor- 
gine of the AFL-CIO Building & Construc- 
tion Trades Dept, received the American 
Jewish Committee’s 1981 Democratic 
Heritage Award at a testimonial dinner. 

Georgine was honored for his accom- 
plishments in the labor field, and for his 
“pursuit of excellence” on behalf of all 
Americans. 


Auto Workers Denounce GM 
On Captive Audience Tactics 


Signs Point 
To Deepening 
Of Recession 

(Continued from Page 1) 

put. As sales lagged, automakers resorted 
to temporary plant closings to hold in- 
ventories in line. 

Meanwhile, the Commerce Dept, re- 
ported that October construction spending 
fell 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 
$230.8 billion annual rate, the lowest since 
a $228.9 billion annual rate in October 
1980. Outlays on construction have been 
lackluster for months because of high in- 
terest rates on mortgages and construction 
loans. The department reported that the 
number of new housing starts in October 
was down 6.8 percent over the month and 
44 percent over the year to a seasonally 
adjusted annual rate of 857,000 units, the 
lowest in 1 5 years. 

Two large banks. Continental Illinois in 
Chicago and Crocker National in Califor- 
nia, announced cuts in their prime lending 
rates to 15.5 from 16 percent, and several 
others dropped the key rate to 15.75 per- 
cent, including Citibank and Chase Man- 
hattan. 

AN UNEXPECTED jump in the na- 
tion’s money supply, reported after the 
banks lowered their primes, may well pre- 
clude any further downturn in the rate in 
the near future, however. The prime, 
around which rates on many other loans 
are set, is the interest rate banks charge 
their best corporate borrowers. The rate 
has dropped sharply since September, 
when it stood at 20.5 percent. 

In other economic reports, the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics said that workers’ pur- 
chasing power increased three-tenths of 
1 percent in October, but was down 3.6 
percent over the year-earlier level. The 
monthly increase followed a 1.7-percent 
decline in September. 

Elsewhere, the Commerce Dept, report- 
ed that the nation’s merchandise trade defi- 
cit widened to a seasonally adjusted $5.27 
billion in October as imports soared and 
exports weakened. In the first 10 months 
of this year, imports have exceeded ex- 
ports by $33.99 billion. The year-earlier 
deficit was $31.29 billion. Commerce Sec. 
Malcolm Baldrige said that it “appears al- 
most certain” now that the deficit for all 
of 1981 will be “several billion dollars 
higher” than the $36.36 billion 1980 
deficit. 

Most of the October increase in imports 
involved non-oil products. The value of 
imports of petroleum and related products 
over the month rose 1 percent to an ad- 
justed $6.55 billion from $6.49 billion the 
month before. 

Job Safety Tally 
Shows Decline in 
Deaths, Injuries 

(Continued from Page 1 ) 

million in 1979. The number of lost work- 
days per 100 workers fell from 66.2 in 
1979 to 63.7 in 1980, but the average 
number of lost workdays per lost-time in- 
jury remained at 16 days. 

BLS said the only industry with an in- 
crease in the lost workday rate was min- 
ing — 162.8 days per 100 workers — and it 
continued to lead that category. 

As a result of the BLS findings, OSHA 
has lowered the cutoff point it uses when 
reviewing an employer’s injury rate to 
determine whether to inspect a manufac- 
turing plant. The average lost workday 
injury rate in manufacturing declined from 
5.7 per 100 workers in 1979 to 5.2 in 
1980. 

In a related report, the National Insti- 
tute for Occupational Safety & Health and 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission 
predicted that U.S. workers will suffer 
about 3.3 million occupational injuries in 
1981 that will require hospital treatment. 
The projection is based on a three-month 
survey of 66 hospitals around the country 
conducted earlier this year by the two 
agencies. 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


Mandate for Compasision 

T his nation’s economy is in a shambles — and growing 
worse with each passing day. 

The lines of the jobless grow longer as unemployment heads 
inexorably toward a postwar record. 

The output of our factories diminishes and business bank- 
ruptcies are reaching dangerous new highs. 

Interest rates are still usurious, prices are still out of control, 
the purchasing power of all Americans is eroded by inflation, and 
so are the hard-earned savings of the people who somehow man- 
aged to put a few dollars aside for a rainy day. Now the deluge 
is upon them, and those dollars can barely buy an umbrella. 

THE ECONOMIC POLICIES which the Administration has 
already put into place have cut deep into the social fabric of the 
nation without having achieved any of their promised goals — and 
further cruel and painful cuts are threatened with little hope that 
they, either, will turn the economy around. 

The rosy predictions of the spring have given way to the gloomy 
forecasts of the oncoming winter. 

Yet through it all there are voices in high places that seek to 
reassure us. The downturn will be “shallow,” they say. The upturn 
is sure to follow. It will be here, they say, in the first quarter of 
1982 — ^well, maybe not the first quarter, but certainly in the second. 
Or will there be further slippage into the third, or even fourth 
quarter? 

About all that’s missing is for someone in the White House to 
proclaim, with pompous piety, that “prosperity is just around the 
comer.” 

If that happens, we will have come full circle to where this 
country stood a half-cenury ago, when we were mired in the Great 
Depression and the men of little vision who were in charge did 
little more than try to whistle their way past the graveyard of 
America’s hopes and dreams. 

WE WORKED OUR WAY out of that difficult period 50 years 
ago because the American people chose to follow the path of 
imagination and compassion — ^because the American people took 
seriously the constitutional mandate that government’s role was 
to “promote the general welfare” — ^because laws were enacted to 
put a floor under misery and to assure that the people of this 
country shared, just a little more fully, in the great wealth that 
their hands and hearts and minds had helped to produce. 

Nowhere was this compassion and concern more in evidence 
than in the Social Security Act. That landmark legislation made 
it clear that the later years in the lives of our citizens — ^when 
people were too old to work but too young to die — should be 
cushioned by at least a minimum retirement income. 

— From an address by AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert 
Seidman to the White House Conference on Aging, Nov, 30, 1981. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary -Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Jerry Wurf 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John DeConcini 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 
Barbara Hutchinson 


Executive Council 
Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
Wayne E. Glenn 
Joyce D. Miller 
Frank Drozak 
Richard I. Kilroy 


Frederick O’Neal 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
John J. Sweeney 
James E. Hatfield 
Vincent R. Sombrotto 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 

Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

Assistant Editors: 

John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20006 
Telephone: (202) 637-5032 


I VoL XXVI Saturday, December 5, 1981 No. 48 = 

1 The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except ~ 

S for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.IV., Wash- 
H ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S W ashington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
S Using in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
S to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. = 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



‘Well, Back to the Old Crystal Ball!’ 



As Nation Burns 

Top White House Economist 
Flouts Full Employment Law 


By Gus Tyler 

A S CHAIRMAN of the Council of Economic 
" Advisers, Murray L. Weidenbaum is in vio- 
lation of federal law. 

The law is the Full Employment Act of 1946 
that calls upon the council to advise the President 
of the United States on how to maintain “full 
employment, production, and purchasing power.” 
It was that Act that created the council now 
headed by Weidenbaum and it is his sworn re- 
sponsibility to do what that piece of historic leg- 
islation instructs him to do. 

Instead, he has been issuing statements telling 
the country that things are going from bad to 
worse. Next year, he says, the jobless rate will 
rise to 9 percent, just about the highest since the 
Great Depression. He forecasts that the total 
economy will grow by a measly 1 percent for the 
year. He does not make a single recommendation 
on what to do about it. 

When Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.) proposes 
a further tax cut to spur buying, Weidenbaum says 
that he doesn’t “feel comfortable with that kind 
of fine tuning.” Nor does Weidenbaum have any 
other plans for any kind of tuning — ^fine or gross, 
whether about taxes or interest rates or govern- 
ment spending. 

WEIDENBAUM ACTS like a fireman who, 
upon arrival at the site of the conflagration, sprays 
no water, mounts no ladders, rescues no victims, 
but calls a press conference to announce that, 
according to his lights, the fire will get worse, but 
that — if we are all patient — the fire will eventually 
burn itself out, provided it doesn’t spread to some 
neighboring buildings, in which case he will re- 
appear at the site to issue another press release. 

What Weidenbaum does not seem to appreciate 
is that in his job as chairman of the Council of 
Economic Advisers, for which he is paid by the 
taxpayers, it is his responsibility to put out eco- 
nomic fires known as recessions and depressions. 
That’s why the law was passed and why his post 
was created and why he was appointed. If he 
doesn’t know how, he ought to resign. 

But he won’t, because for at least a dozen years 
it has been the policy of Administrations to start 


the fires, to act as economic arsonists. Not only 
have Presidents and their advisers failed to honor 
the injunctions of the Full Employment Act, they 
have actually gone out of their way to see to it 
that the economy does not live up to its “poten- 
tial.” 

IF YOU WANT TO know when this policy 
started, take a look at the President’s Economic 
Report of 1970 when Nixon announced that he 
intended to keep “real output” below “potential 
output from 1970 to 1972 because some gap be- 
tween actual and potential output is necessafy to 
slow down inflation.” 

To make the “gap,” Nixon had to manufacture 
unemployment, which he did successfully. But 
prices did not come down. So, he did more of the 
same, and by 1974 we saw the jobless rate go to 
the highest since the Great Depression and prices 
soar to double-digit levels. 

For those who like visual aids, Nixon actually 
provided a diagram (Chart 8 on page 85) show- 
ing exactly how much he would depress the 
economy. 

So, whatever Weidenbaum’s crime in failing to 
pursue his sworn purpose in enforcing the law, he 
is not likely to go to jail. Since every Administra- 
tion since 1970 has actively violated the law by 
engineering recessions, by artificially promoting 
unemployment, to enforce the law now would be 
impractical because there are probably not enough 
cells in our federal penitentiaries to house all the 
members of all the Administrations who have 
openlv flouted the Full Employment Act of 1946 
that has not been either repealed or remembered. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 


Full Measure ef Quality ! 



UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT.. APL-CIC 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


Page Five 


Administration Tampering Scored 

Proposed Cutbacks Jeopardize 
Commitment on Social Security 


The following is from the resolution on social 
security adopted by the AFL-CIO convention, 

Yj^ITH ENACTMENT of the social security 
^law in 1935, the nation made a commitment 
to the elderly and to each succeeding generation 
of older people to provide a continuing share of 
the nation’s abundance to workers after they be- 
come too old to work. Now that commitment is in 
jeopardy because of proposals by the Reagan Ad- 
ministration and conservative forces in the Con- 
gress to gut the social security program. 

Since social security touches the life of practi- 
cally every American, responsible public, debate 
concerning its provisions and financing is appro- 
priate. Only in this way can the program be 
adapted to meet th^ new and changing needs of 
the American people. Unfortunately, many recent 
criticisms are clearly designed to discredit the 
program and exaggerate its financial difficulties 
with the purpose of making major program cuts. 

/ Administration proposals to slash or eliminate 
a number of essential social security protections 
would cut the overall program by 21-23 percent. 
Disability insurance would be reduced by about 
one-third and early retirement benefits by 43 per- 
cent. These cuts would have a devastating impact 
on the program and on those protected by it. 

THE PRESIDENT’S recent decision not to 
push for these cuts pending the report of a pro- 
posed study commission is a political maneuver 
aimed at achieving these cuts by another method. 
The AFL-CIO will continue to oppose cuts in 
social security protections whether proposed by 
the Administration or by any other quarter. We 
will continue to fight proposals which would: 

• Deny social security beneficiaries their full 
cost-of-living increases. 

• Raise the age of retirement or tamper with 
the early retirement provisions of the law. This is 
tantamount to an across-the-board benefit reduc- 
tion for millions of workers and would bear hard- 
est on workers forced into early retirement for 
reasons of health and inability to find a job. 

• Lower the present formula for determining 
the benefits workers receive at retirement. 

• Restrict eligibility or reduce benefits under 
the social security disability program. The present 
program is already too stringent. 

• Reduce or eliminate the “family” compo- 
nent in the system. Numerous proposals are pend- 
ing that would eliminate children’s benefits for 
early retirees and place a ceiling on survivors and 
retirement benefits. 

• Increase Medicare premiums, deductibles 
and coinsurance. The elderly now pay much high- 

Revival of Exploitation 


er out-of-pocket payments for health care than 
before Medicare. 

SUCH CUTS are not necessary to restore fi- 
nancial balance to the social security system. The 
immediate problem of a likely funding shortfall 
during the next five to 10 years in the Old Age 
& Survivors’ Trust Fund (OASI) can be met by 
borrowing from the Disability and Medicare 
Trust Funds which are running surpluses and for 
a back-up provision allowing for the use of gen- 
eral revenue to protect against any potential cash- 
flow problems. After that, the OASI trust fund 
situation will improve and remain favorable well 
into the next century. In addition, the Congress 
should remove the social security trust funds 
from the consolidated federal budget so that social 
security policy can be determined by program and 
not general budgetary considerations. 

We continue to oppose the taxation of social 
security benefits. 

The AFL-CIO urges the introduction of some 
general revenue financing to provide relief for 
workers from the scheduled increases in the pay- 
roll tax and to strengthen the financing of the 
system. Partial general revenue financing was 
anticipated by the founders of the system and is to 
be found in practically all industrialized countries. 

The AFL-CIO urges the Congress to restore 
the minimum benefit for all present and future 
retirees. 

We urge the Congress not to be unduly influ- 
enced by transitory economic and political events 
and adopt proposals that will do irreparable harm 
to the social security rights of American workers. 

EVERY CONGRESS in the past has made 
clear beyond question its pledge to the American 
people that the social security commitment will 
be honored. The present Administration proposes 
to violate that commitment. We will do everything 
possible to make sure that the Congress does not. 

While we must direct our energies now to re- 
sisting disastrous cutbacks in long-standing social 
security protections, the AFL-CIO will not lose 
sight of the continuing need to improve the law. 

When the social security program was enacted, 
the typical American family consisted of a work- 
ing husband and a wife who was an unpaid home- 
maker. Since that time major changes have oc- 
curred in patterns of work and family relation- 
ships. Labor force participation of married women 
and their divorce and remarriage rates have great- 
ly increased. Though the social security law 
treats equally men and women with the same work 
and earnings record, modifications should be 
made in the law to better relate to these changing 
work and family patterns. 


Guest Worker Scheme Scored 
As Throwback to Bracero Era 


T he ADMINISTRATION’S guest worker plan 
was branded a “camouflaged revival” of the 
discredited bracero program by Jack Otero, ex- 
ecutive vice chairman of the Labor Council for 
Latin American Advancement. 

“We don’t need to import workers at a time 
when 10 million Americans are out of work, look- 
ing for jobs,” Otero declared. He pointed out that 
the bracero program, after which the Administra- 
tion’s guest worker scheme is patterned, put “se- 
vere strains on the relations between Mexico and 
the United States” as it let “unscrupulous employ- 
ers fatten their purses” through the exploitation 
of imported Mexican workers, who were often 
treated “like slaves.” 

THE NATION’S first priority should be jobs 
for U.S. citizens and legal alien residents, Otero 
stressed on Labor News Conference. 

Otero, a vice president of the Railway & Air- 
line Qerks, agreed that both the substance and 
the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws should 
be upgraded. But he emphasized that those 
changes must be “humane, fair and consistent 
with the interests of American workers,” as well 
as those who come here “looking for the oppor- 


tunity to improve themselves economically and 
sociaJly.” 

He said the “best way to end illegal immigra- 
tion is to demagnetize the magnet, which is the 
job source.” He noted that the AFL-CIO concurs 
wholeheartedly with the recommendation of the 
Select Committee on Immigration & Refugee 
Policy, created by Congress to study the current 
statutes and policies, that U.S. employers who 
hire illegal immigrants be subject to civil penal- 
ties, with criminal penalties for repeated willful 
violations of the law. 

Such employer sanctions, he said, must be cou- 
pled with an effective system for employers to de- 
termine the status of job applicants, such as “non- 
forgeable social security cards” which would be 
available to every person looking for a job. He 
said that technology now makes it possible to 
make those cards counterfeit-proof, as is now 
done with security identification at the White 
House, the Pentagon and military installations. 

Reporters questioning Otero on the AFL-CIO 
produced public affairs program were Doug Har- 
brecht of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers, and 
Susan Zachem of Press Associates, Inc. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

W OMEN ARE IN the workforce to stay, as the trend of recent 
decades shows. 

According to the most recent government figures, 58 percent of 
mothers with children under 18 — some 18.4 million mothers — are 
in the labor force. Viewed another way, more than half the children 
under 18 — about 38 million — have mothers who work outside 
the home. 

When wives and mothers work, what happens to family life? 

That question was examined in an article in the Labor Dept, 
publication Monthly Labor Review by Sar A. Levitan, director 
of the Center for Social Policy Studies, George Washington Uni- 
versity, and Richard S. Belous, executive director. National Coun- 
cil on Employment Policy. 

THE AUTHORS recognize that because women work doesn’t 
mean they have rejected marriage. Marriage may be postponed 
until after a career is started, but marriage rates remain high. In 
fact, they write, “data show that economic downturns tend to post- 
pone marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a 
family or are concerned about rainy days ahead.” 

They also suggest the earning ability of women can make them 
more attractive as marriage partners, especially in view of the 
rising cost of buying a house and other economic realities. 

Another fallacy about working women attacked by the authors 
is that there necessarily exists a cause-and-effect relationship be- 
tween rising divorce rates and the number of working women. 

While a working wife in an unhappy marriage may be more 
likely to divorce because of the ability to support herself, it also 
may be true that career interests for wives may act as a “safety 
valve” for feelings of being “caged” or “shackled to the house,” 
which are reasons for divorce for some couples. Wives’ earnings 
also may alleviate financial strains in a marriage. 

“WORK AND MARRIAGE can go together to create a strong- 
er and more stable union,” depending on the attitudes of both 
husband and wife, the authors conclude. 

A point very clearly made is that although women work for a 
variety of reasons, such as career fulfillment, the overwhelming 
reason is economic in nature. Even in two-earner households, 
inflationary pressures and sluggish gains in workers’ real earnings 
can make wives’ earnings the difference between financial stability 
and instability. 

At the start of the 1970s, nearly one in ten families was headed 
by a woman. As of March 1981, one of every six families was 
maintained by a woman who was either divorced, separated, 
widowed or never married. 

The most pressing problem in female-headed families is that 
they are five times more likely to have incomes below the poverty 
level than married couple families, the data show. However, there 
also is some indication that the status of women as single parents 
is temporary. Studies over a ten-year period found that during 
the first five years as many as 16 percent of all adult women 
sampled were heading a household. However, only 9 percent were 
household heads for the entire period. 

AS THE AUTHORS and other observers agree, most Amer- 
icans live in families and probably will continue to do so. 

However, the family form is changing from the American 
“ideal” of a working husband with a wife staying at home with 
the children, and this seems to be where controversy arises. 

Studies brought to light during the 1980 White House Confer- 
ence on Families indicated the American family form probably 
rarely throughout the nation’s history conformed to the ideal. 
Rather, the family form fluctuated over different periods of 
economic and social change. 



THE GUEST WORKER scheme pushed by the Reagan Admin- 
istration is merely a version of the discredited and harmful 
bracero program that was abandoned in the early Sixties, Jack 
Otero, center, executive vice chairman of the Labor Council for 
Latin American Advancement, charged. He was questioned on 
Labor News Conference by Susan Zachem of Press Associates, 
Inc., and Doug Harbrecht of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 
The program is aired over Mutual radio. 


Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 



House Rollcalls on Funding Resolution 


The House on Nov. 22 sought to provide for the funding of govern- 
ment programs through a resolution that President Reagan subse- 
quently vetoed. 

Column I shows the 213-183 vote to include in the resolution an 
additional pay raise for non-striking air traffic controllers, as urged 
by the Administration. This bypassed scheduled committee hearings 
that would have allowed exploration of all issues involved in the 
PATCO dispute. The pay bonus, ironically, was nullified by Reagan's 
veto. Voting right (R) were 181 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Voting 
wrong (W) were 41 Democrats and 172 Republicans. 

Column II shows the 215-184 rejection of a Republican motion to 
send the budget stopgap legislation back to committee in order to slash 
billions more from the emergency appropriations bill. Labor's position 
was supported by 215 Democrats, opposed by 175 Republicans and 
9 Democrats. 

Numerals show congressional districts. A — absent; PR — paired 
right; PW — paired wrong; P — present but not voting or paired. 



I 

n 

ALABAMA 

1. Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

2. Dickinson (R) 

W 

W 

3. Nichols (D) 

w 

R 

4. Bevill (D) 

R 

R 

5. Flippo (D) 

R 

R 

6. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

1. Shelby (D) 

W 

W 

ALASKA 

AL Young (R) 

A 

W 

ARIZONA 

1. Rhodes (R) 

W 

W 

2. Udall (D) 

R 

R 

3. Stump (D) 

W 

W 

4. Rudd (R) 

W 

W 

ARKANSAS 

1. Alexander (D) 

R 

R 

2. Bethune (R) 

W 

W 

3. Hammerschmidt(R) 

W 

W 

4. Anthony (D) 

R 

R 

CALIFORNIA 

1. Chappie (R) 

W 

W 

2. Clausen (R) 

W 

W 

3. Malsui (D) 

R 

R 

4. Fazio (D) 

R 

R 

5. Burton, John (D) 

R 

R 

6. Burton, Phillip (D) 

A 

A 

7. Miller (D) 

R 


8. Dellums (D) 

R 

R 

9. Stark (D) 

R 

R 

10. Edwards (D) 

R 

R 

11. LantoS (D) 

A 

A 

12. McCloskey (R) 

A 

A 

13. Mineta (D) 

R 

R 

14. Shumway (R) 

W 

W 

15. Coelho (D) 

R 

R 

16. Panetta (D) 

R 

R 

17. Pashayan (R) 

W 

W 

18. Thomas (R) 

W 

W 

19. Lagomarsino (R) 

W 

W 

20. Goldwater (R) 

A 

A 

21. Fiedler (R) 

W 

W 

22. Moorhead (R) 

W 

W 

23. Beilenson (D) 

R 

R 

24. Waxman (D) 

R 

R 

25. Roybal (D) 

R 

R 

26. Rousselbt (R) 

W 

W 

27. Dornan (R) 

A 

A 

28. Dixon (D) 

R 

R 

29. Hawkins (D) 

R 

R 

30. Danielson (D) 

R 

R 

31. Dymally(D) 

R 

R 

32. Anderson (D) 

W 

R 

33. Grisham (R) 

W 

W 

34. Lungren (R) 

W 

W 

35. Dreier(R) 

W 

W 

36. Brown (D) . 

R 

R 

37. Lewis (R) 

W 

W 

38. Patterson (D) 

R 

R 

39. Dannemeyer (R) 

W 

W 

40. Badham (R) 

W 

W 

41. Lowery (R) 

W 

W 

42. Hunter (R) 

W 

W 

43. Buigener (R) 

W 

W 

COLORADO 

1. Schroeder (D) 

R 

R 

2. Wirth (D) 

R 

R 

3. Kogovsek (D) 

R 

R 

4. Brown (R) 

W 

W 

5. Kramer (R) 

A 

W 

CONNECTICUT 


1. Vacancy 

2. Gejdenson (D) 

R 

R 

3. DeNardis (R) 

W 

W 

4. McKinney (R) 

W 

W 

5. Ratchford (D) 

R 

R 

6. Moffett (D) 

R 

R 

DELAWARE 

AL Evans (R) 

W 

W 

FLORIDA 

1. Hutto (D) 

R 

R 

2. Fuqua (D) 

A 

A 

3. Bennett (D) 

W 

R 

4. Chappell (D) 

R 

R 

5. McCollum (R) 

W 

W 



I 

II 

6. Young (R) 

W 

W 

7. Gibbons (D) 

W 

R 

8. Ireland (D) 

w 

W 

9. Nel.son (D) 

w 

R 

10. Bafalis (R) 

w 

W 

11. Mica (D) 

w 

R 

12. Shaw (R) 

w 

W 

13. Lehman (D) 

R 

R 

14. Pepper (D) 

R 

R 

15. Fascell (D) 

R 

R 

GEORGIA 



1. Ginn (D) 

R 

R 

2. Hatcher (D) 

R 

R 

3. Brinkley (D) 

W 

R 

4. Levitas (D) 

W 

R 

5. Fowler (D) 

R 

R 

6. Gingrich (R) 

W 

W 

7. McDonald (D) 

W 

W 

8. Evans (D) 

R 

R 

9. Jenkins (D) 

R 

R 

10. Barnard (D) 

W 

R 

HAWAH 



1. Heftel (D) 

R 

R 

2. Akaka (D) 

R 

R 

IDAHO 



1. Craig (R) 

W 

W 

2. Hansen (R) 

A 

A 

ILLINOIS 



1. Washington (D) 

R 

R 

2. Savage (D) 

R 

R 

3. Russo (D) 

R 

R 

4. Derwinski (R) 

W 

W 

5. Fary (D) 

R 

R 

6. Hyde (R) 

W 

W 

7. Collins (D) 

R 

R 

8. Rostenkowski (D) 

R 

R 

9. Yates (D) 

R 

R 

10. Porter (R) 

W 

W 

1 1 . Annunzio (D) 

R 

R 

12. Crane, Philip (R) 

W 

W 

13. McCloiy (R) 

W 

W 

14. Erlenborn (R) 

W 

W 

15. Corcoran (R) 

W 

W 

16. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

17. O’Brien (R) 

W 

W 

18. Michel (R) 

W 

W 

19. Railsback (R) 

W 

W 

20. Findley (R) 

W 

W 

21. Madigan (R) 

A 

PW 

22. Crane, Dan (R) 

A 

A 

23. Price (D) 

R 

R 

24. Simon (D) 

A 

A 

INDIANA 



1. Benjamin (D) 

R 

R 

2. Fithian (D) 

R 

R 

3. Hiler(R) 

W 

W 

4. Coats (R) 

W 

W 

5. Hillis (R) 

A 

A 

6. Evans (D) 

R 

R 

7. Myers (R) 

A 

PW 

8. Deckard (R) 

W 

W 

9. Hamilton (D) 

W 

R 

10. Sharp (D) 

A 

R 

11. Jacobs (D) 

R 

R 

IOWA 



1. Leach (R) 

W 

W 

2. Tauke (R) 

A 

A 

3. Evans (R) 

W 

W 

4. Smith (D) 

R 

R 

5. Harkin (D) 

R 

R 

6. Bedell (D) 

R 

R 

KANSAS 



1 . Roberts (R) 

W 

W 

2. Jeffries (R) 

W 

W 

3. Winn (R) 

A- 

PW 

4. Glickman (D) 

W 

R 

5. Whittaker (R) 

W 

W 

KENTUCKY 



1. Hubbard (D) 

R 

R 

2. Natcher (D) 

R 

R 

3. Mazzoli (D) 

W 

R 

4. Snyder (R) 

W 

W 

5. Rogers (R) 

W 

W 

6. Hopkins (R) 

W 

W 

7. Perkins (D) 

R 

R 



I 

n 

LOUISIANA 



1. Livingston (R) 

W 

W 

2. Boggs (D) 

R 

R 

3. Tauzin (D) 

W 

R 

4. Roemer (D) 

W 

W 

5. Huckaby (D) 

R 

R 

6. Moore (R) 

W 

W 

7. Breaux (D) 

W 

R 

8. Long (D) 

R 

R 

MAINE 



1. Emery (R) 

W 

W 

2. Snowe (R) 

W 

W 

MARYLAND 



1. Dyson (D) 

R 

R 

2. Long (D) 

R 

R 

3. Mikulski (D) 

R 

R 

4. Holt (R) 

W 

W 

5. Hoyer (D) 

R 

R 

6. Byron (D) 

W 

R 

7. Mitchell (D) 

R 

R 

8. Barnes (D) 

R 

R 

MASSACHUSETTS 


1. Conte (R) 

W 

W 

2. Boland (D) 

W 

R 

3. Early (D) 

R 

R 

4. Frank (D) 

R 

R 

5. Shannon (D) 

R 

R 

6. Mavroules (D) 

R 

R 

7. Markey (D) 

R 

R 

8. O’Neill (D) 

Speaker 

9. Moakley (D) 

R 

R 

10. Heckler (R) 

W 

W 

11. Donnelly (D) 

R 

R 

12. Studds (D) 

R 

R 

MICHIGAN 



1. Conyers (D) 

R 

R 

2. Pursell (R) 

R 

W 

3. Wolpe (D) 

R 

R 

4. Siljander (R) 

W 

W 

5. Sawyer (R) 

W 

W 

6. Dunn (R) 

W 

W 

7. Kildee (D) 

R 

R 

8. Traxler (D) 

R 

R 

9. Vander Jagt (R) 

W 

PW 

10. Albosta (D) 

R 

R 

11. Davis (R) 

W 

W 

12. Bonior (D) 

R 

R 

13. Crockett (D) 

R 

R 

14. Hertel(D) 

R 

R 

15. Ford (D) 

R 

R 

16. Dingell (D) 

R 

R 

17. Brodhead (D) 

R 

R 

18. Blanchard (D) 

R 

R 

19. Broomfield (R) 

W 

W 

MINNESOTA 



1. Erdahl (R) 

W 

W 

2. Hagcdorn (R) 

A 

A 

3. Frenzel (R) 

W 

W 

4. Vento (D) 

R 

R 

5. Sabo (D) 

R 

R 

6. Weber (R) 

W 

W 

7. Stangeland (R) 

W 

W 

8. Oberstar (D) 

R 

R 

MISSISSIPPI 



1. Whitten (D) 

R 

R 

2. Bowen (D) 

W 

R 

3. Montgomery (D) 

W 

R 

4. Dowdy (D) 

R 

R 

5. Lott (R) 

W 

W 

MISSOURI 



1. Clay (D) 

R 

R 

2. Young (D) 

R 

R 

3. Gephardt (D) 

R 

R 

4. Skelton (D) 

R 

R 

5. Bolling (D) 

A 

A 

6. Coleman (R) 

W 

W 

7. Taylor (R) 

W 

W 

8. Bailey (R) 

W 

W 

9. Volkmer (D) 

R 

R 

10. Emerson (R) 

W 

W 

MONTANA 



1. Williams (D) 

R 

R 

2. Marlenee (R) 

W 

W 

NEBRASKA 



1. Bereuter (R) 

W 

W 

2. Daub(R) 

W 

W 

3. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

NEVADA 



AL Santini (D) 

A 

A 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 


1. D’ Amours (D) 

R 

R 

2. Gregg (R) 

W 

W 

NEW JERSEY 



1. Florio (D) 

R 

R 

2. Hughes (D) 

A 

A 

3. Howard (D) 

R 

R 

4. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

5. Fenwick (R) 

W 

W 

6. Forsythe (R) 

W 

W 

7. Roukema (R) 

W 

W 

8. Roe (D) 

R 

R 

9. Hollenbeck (R) 

R 

W 

10. Rodino (D) 

R 

R 

11. Minish (D) 

R 

R 

12. Rinaldo (R) 

W 

W 



I 

n 

13. Courier (R) 

W 

W 

14. Guarini (D) 

R 

R 

15. Dwyer (D) 

R 

R 

NEW MEXICO 

1. Lujan (R) 

W 

W 

2. Skeen (R) 

W 

w 

NEW YORK 

1. Carney (R) 

W 

W 

2. Downey (D) 

R 

R 

3. Carman (R) 

W 

W 

4. Lent (R) 

W 

W 

5. McGrath (R) 

W 

W 

6. LeBoutillier (R) 

W 

W 

7. Addabbo (D) 

R 

R 

8. Rosenthal (D) 

R 

R 

9. Ferraro (D) 

R 

R 

10. Biaggi (D) 

A 

PR 

1 1 . Scheuer (D) 

R 

R 

12. Chisholm (D) 

A 

PR 

13. Solarz (D) 

R 

R 

14. Richmond (D) 

R 

R 

15. Zeferetti (D) 

R 

R 

16. Schumer(D) 

R 

R 

17. Molinari (R) 

W 

W 

18. Green (R) 

W 

W 

19. Rangel (D) 

R 

R 

20. Weiss (D) 

R 

R 

21. Garcia (D) 

R 

R 

22. Bingham (D) 

R 

R 

23. Peyser (D) 

R 

R 

24. Ottinger (D) 

R 

R 

25. Fish (R) 

W 

W 

26. Gilman (R) 

W 

W 

27. McHugh (D) 

R 

R 

28. Stratton (D) 

W 

R 

29. Solomon (R) 

W 

W 

30. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

31. Mitchell (R) 

W 

W 

32. Wortley (R) 

W 

W 

33. Lee (R) 

W 

W 

34. Horton (R) 

W 

W 

35. Conable (R) 

W 

W 

36. LaFalce (D) 

R 

R 

37. Nowak (D) 

R 

R 

38. Kemp (R) 

W 

W 

39. Lundine (D) 

R 

R 

NORTH Carolina 


1. Jones (D) 

A 

A 

2. Fountain (D) 

W 

R 

3. Whitley (D) 

R 

R 

4. Andrews (D) 

W 

R 

5. Neal (D) 

R 

R 

6. Johnston (R) 

W 

W 

7. Rose (D) 

A 

A 

8. Hefner (D) 

R 

R 

9. Martin (R) 

W 

W 

10. Broyhill (R) 

W 

W 

11. Hendon (R) 

W 

W 

NORTH DAKOTA 


AL Dorgan (D) 

R 

R 

OHIO 

1. Gradison (R) 

W 

W 

2. Luken (D) 

W 

W 

3. Hall (D) 

R 

R 

4. Oxley (R) 

P 

R 

5* Latta (R) 

W 

W 

6. McEwen (R) 

W 

W 

7. Brown (R) 

W 

W 

8. Kindness (R) 

W 

W 

9. Weber (R) 

W 

W 

10. Miller (R) 

W 

W 

11. Stanton (R) 

W 

W 

1 2. Shamansky (D) 

W 

R 

13. Pease (D) 

R 

R 

14. Seiberling (D) 

R 

R 

15. Wylie (R) 

W 

W 

16. Regula (R) 

W 

W 

17. Ashbrook (R) 

W 

W 

18. Applegate (D) 

W 

R 

19. Williams (R) 

A 

A 

20. Oakar (D) 

R 

R 

21. Stokes (D) 

R 

R 

22. Eckart(D) 

R 

R 

23. Mottl (D) 

W 

W 

OKLAHOMA 

1. Jones (D) 

A 

A 

2. Synar (D) 

R 

R 

3. Watkins (D) 

R 

R 

4. McCurdy (D) 

W 

R 

5. Edwards (R) 

W 

W 

6. English (D) 

W 

R 

OREGON 

1. AuCoin (D) 

A 

PR 

2. Smith (R) 

W 

W 

3. Wyden(D) 

R 

R 

4. Weaver (D) 

R 

R 

PENNSYLVANIA 


1 . Foglietta (D) 

R 

R 

2. Gray (D) 

R 

R 

3. Smith (D) 

R 

R 

4. Dougherty (R) 

W 

W 

5. Schulze (R) 

W 

W 

6. Yatron (D) 

R 

R 

7. Edgar (D) 

R 

R 

8. Coyne, James (R) 

W 

W 



I 

n 

9. Shuster (R) 

W 

W 

10. McDade (R) 

W 

W 

11. Nelligan(R) 

w 

W 

12. Murtha (D) 

R 

R 

13. Coughlin (R) 

W 

W 

14. Coyne, William (D) 

R 

R 

15. Ritter (R) 

W 

W 

16. Walker (R) 

W 

W 

17. Ertel (D) 

R 

R 

18. Walgren (D) 

R 

R 

19. Goodling (R) 

w 

W 

20. Gaydos (D) 

R 

R 

21. Bailey (D) 

R 

R 

22. Murphy (D) 

R 

R 

23. Clinger (R) 

W 

W 

24. Marks (R) 

W 

W 

25. Atkinson (R) 

W 

W 

RHODE ISLAND 


1. St Germain (D) 

R 

R 

2. Schneider (R) 

w 

W 

SOUTH CAROLINA 


1. Hartnett (R) 

W 

W 

2. Spence (R) 

W 

W 

3. Derrick (D) 

R 

R 

4. Campbell (R) 

W 

W 

5. Holland (D) 

R 

R 

6. Napier (R) 

W 

W 

SOUTH DAKOTA , 


1. Daschle (D) 

R 

R 

2. Roberts (R) 

w: 

w 

, TENNESSEE 



1. Quillen (R) 

w 

;> w 

2. Duncan (R) ' '■ 

^A 

A 

3. Bouquard (D) 

R 

R 

4. Gore (D) 

R 

R 

5. Boner (D) 

R 

R 

6. Beard (R) . 

W 

W 

7. Jones (D) 

R 

R 

8. Ford (D) 

R 

R 

TEXAS 



1. Hall, Sam (D) 

R 

R 

2. Wilson (D) 

W 

R 

3. Collins (R) 

W 

W 

4. Hall, Ralph (D) 

W 

W 

5. Mattox (D) 

A 

PR 

6. Gramm (D) 

W 

W 

7. Archer (R) 

W 

W 

8. Fields (R) 

W 

W 

9. Brooks (D) 

R 

R 

10. Pickle (D) 

R 

W 

1 1 . Leath (D) 

W 

R 

12. Wright (D) ‘ 

R 

R 

13. Hightower (D) ;i 

■ 

.R 

14. Patman (D) 

w 

R 

15. de la Garza (D) 

R 

R 

16.- White (D) 

W 

R 

17. Stenholm (D) 

W 

R 

18. Leland (D) 

R 

R 

19. Hance (D) 

R 

R 

20. Gonzalez (D) 

R 

R 

21. I.oeffler (R) 

W 

W 

22. Paul (R) 

A 

A 

23. Kazen (D) 

R 

R 

24. Frost (D) 

R 

R 

UTAH 



1 . Hansen (R) 

W 

W 

2. Marriott (R) 

W 

■' W 

VERMONT 



AL Jeffords (R) 

W 

w 

VIRGINIA 



1. Trible (R) 

W 

w 

2. Whitehurst (R) 

W 

w 

3. Bliley (R) 

W 

w 

4. Daniel, Robert (R) 

W 

w 

5. Daniel, Dan (D) 

W 

R 

6. Butler (R) 

W 

W 

7. Robinson (R) _ 

W 

W 

8. Parris (R) 

W 

W 

9. Wampler (R) 

A 

PW 

10. Wolf(R) 

W 

W 

WASHINGTON 


1. Pritchard (R) 

W 

w 

2. Swift (D) 

R 

R 

3. Bonker (D) 

R 

R 

4. Morrison (R) 

W 

W 

5. Foley (D ) 

R 

R 

6. Dicks (D) 

R 

R 

7. Lowry (D) 

R 

R 

WEST VIRGINIA 


1. Mollohan (D) 

A 

PR 

2. Benedict (R) 

W 

W 

3. Staton (R) 

W 

W 

4. Rahall (D) 

R 

R 

WISCONSIN 



1. Aspin (D) 

A 

A 

2. Kastenmeier (D) 

W 

R 

3. Gunderson (R) 

W 

W 

4. Zablocki (D) 

R 

R 

5. Reuss (D) 

A 

A 

6. Petri (R) 

W 

W 

7. Obey (Dy 

R 

R 

8. Roth (R) 

A 

A 

9. Sensenbrenner (R) 

W 

W 

WYOMING 



AL Cheney (R) 

W 

W 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


Page Seren 


ILPA Competition 

Awards Cite Progress 
In Union Use of Media 



FIRST AWARD for achievement in films for public education in the Interna- 
tional Labor Press Association’s first electronic media communications contest 
is presented by ILPA President James Cesnik, left, to Ohio AFL-CIO Public 
Relations Director John Thomas. The state federation was honored for its labor 
history film, “Strength Through Struggle,” in ceremonies held during the ILPA’s 
convention in New York. 

Television Networks Accused 
Of Distorting Labor’s Image 


New York — Winners in the Interna- 
tional Labor Press Association’s newly in- 
augurated film and broadcast communica- 
tions competition were announced in a 
special ceremony at ILPA’s biennial con- 
vention here. Awards also were formally 
presented to winners, announced earlier 
this year, of ILPA’s journalistic awards 
competition for union publications. 

Judges selected a total of 27 award 
winners from 106 entries in ILPA’s first 
electronic communications contest. The 
competition was established by ILPA’s 
executive council to reward achievement 
in film, radio and television communica- 
, tions; enlarge the labor movement’s knowl- 
edge of resources available in these media, 
and encourage their greater use by labor 
organizations. 

THE COUNCIL termed the first com- 
petition “a clear success” and will con- 
sider running it again during 1983. 

In the annual competition for union 
journals, 106 winners were named from 
1,095 entries. 

C. V. Glines, editor of the Air Line 
Pilot, was given the Max Steinbock Award. 
The prize, named for the late president of 
ILPA, honors “the best journalistic effort 
which exemplifies a humanistic spirit.” 
Glines won the award for his story, “A 
Matter of Heart and Conscience,” which 
describes efforts by ALPA members to 
aid a number of aged and disabled pilots 
facing severe economic hardship. 

JUDGES OF the electronic communi- 
cations contest included: Jackie Kienzle, 
assistant director of the AFL-CIO Dept, 
of Education; Mark Harrad, director of 
public information, Public Broadcasting 
Service; Carmella LaSpada, board chair- 
person of No Greater Love; Harry Mat- 
thews, director of the Labor Institute for 
Human Enrichment, AFL-CIO Dept, for 
Professional Employees; Sid Brechner, 
broadcast engineer for the AFL-CIO; 
Walter Davis, director of public relations 
for the Food & Commercial Workers; Har- 
ry Conn, president of Press Relations 
Wire; John Stagg, education director of 
the Graphic Arts International Union, and 
Ronia Garnicki, staff assistant of the Bak- 
ery, Confectionery & Tobacco Workers. 

The publication awards were judged by 
Cheryl Arvidson, reporter for the Cox 
Newspapers; William Eaton, reporter for 
the Los Angeles Times; Frank Swoboda, 
reporter for the Washington Post. The 
judges’ committee was chaired by A1 Her- 
ling, former editor of the Bakery,. Confec- 
tionery & Tobacco Workers News and a 
past ILPA president. 

TOP WINNERS in the film and broad- 
cast competition were: Film Strips & 
Slide Shows, “The Energy Factory,” State, 


President Richard I. Kilroy of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks called on President 
Reagan for help in “rectifying” sharp cuts 
in the pension checks received by some 
400,000 retired railroad workers. 

■ Because of the congressional budget 
impasse, Kilroy said, the recipients of both 
railroad retirement and social security pay- 
ments were faced with elimination of the 
social security portion of their payment 
in the Dec. 1 checks, as well as continuing 
cuts averaging between $20 and $30 a 
month on a permanent basis. 

ELIMINATING the payment, Kilroy 
said, even “if only for a short period of 
time and three weeks before Christmas, is 
inhumane and violates the spirit and intent 
of the Railroad Retirement Act.” 

In a letter to Reagan voicing the union’s 
concern about the pension situation, Kil- 
roy cited elimination of the social security 
payment from the rail retirees’ Dec. 1 
check and a cut of 21 percent in the total 
of social security payments, effective last 


County & Municipal Employees District 
Council 37, New York; Radio Documen- 
taries, “Voice of Labor,” Kansas City 
Labor Beacon, Greater Kansas City Cen- 
tral Labor Council; Informative Radio 
Commercials, “Kids” and “Just a Teach- 
er,” Chicago Teachers Union, and “Union 
Label Series,” Ladies’ Garment Work- 
ers; Issue-Oriented Radio Commercials, 
“Working Men & Women for a Change 
in Leadership,” Ohio AFL-CIO; Informa- 
tive Television Commercials, “Building 
America’s Future,” Carpenters; Films and 
Television Programs, independently pro- 
duced, “Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu,” David 
Loeb Weiss, producer. Typographical Un- 
ion Local 6, New York, sponsor; Films for 
Internal Education, “Moving Mountains,” 
Steelworkers; Films for External Educa- 
tion, “Strength Through Struggle,” Ohio 
AFL-CIO. 

Special commendations were awarded 
by the ILPA executive council at the 
recommendation of the judges to “Stew- 
ards Training Program” of the Communi- 
cations Workers for overall quality and 
excellence, and the ILGWU’s “Look for 
the Union Label” television and radio spots 
for outstanding achievement in labor’s 
public communications. 

In the publications competition, top 
winners in the overall excellence categories 
were: 

International and national unions — 

newspapers of 100,000 or more circula- 
tion: lUE News, International Union of 
Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers; 
magazines of 100,000 or more circulation: 
American Educator, AFT; newspapers of 
less than 100,000 circulation: The Guild 
Reporter, Newspaper Guild; magazines of 
less than 100,000 circulation: lUD View- 
point, AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept.; 
newsletters: SEIU Leadership News UP- 
DATE, Service Employees. 

State and local central body — 17 or 

more issues a year, California AFL-CIO 
News; fewer than 17 issues per year: On- 
tario Labor. 

Local unions — 15,000 or more circula- 
tion: Union Leader, Local 400, Food & 
Commercial Workers, Landover, Md.; 
7,500 to 15,000 circulation: Local 285 
Reporter, SEIU Local 285, Boston; 2,500 
to 7,500 circulation: The Washington 
Teacher, AFT Local 6, Washington, D.C.; 
less than 2,500 circulation: Fanfare, Mu- 
sicians Local 99, Portland, Ore.; machine- 
duplicated publications. The Guardian, 
AFSCME Local 2830, Washington, D.C. 

Regional publications — Over 20,000 
circulation: Bay State Employee, AFS- 
CME District Council 93, Boston; less 
than 20,000 circulation: MFT - Action, 
Minnesota Federation of Teachers, St. 
Paul. 


October, for retirees entitled to dual bene- 
fits, as clear evidence that some 400,000 
retirees “have bceome victims of the bud- 
get process.” 

The group — which represents about 40 
percent of those receiving railroad retire- 
ment benefits — comprises persons who also 
have worked outside the railroad industry 
and thus are eligible for social security. 

Since 1975 the two payments have been 
linked in one monthly pension check, with 
the social security factor representing an 
average of about $100 a month in the 
combined benefit. 

DESPITE THE government’s commit- 
ment to these 400,000 people in 1974, the 
Office of Management & Budget and Con- 
gress have shared responsibility for appro- 
priating less money than necessary to meet 
this obligation. With the beginning of fiscal 
1982, these dual benefit payments were 
cut by an average of $20 to $30 a month. 
Now OMB has directed still further cuts 
of 12 percent in the pension checks. 


A study conducted by three AFL-CIO 
affiliates accuses the nation’s major televi- 
sion networks of neglecting the interests 
of union members and portraying them 
and their unions in a negative way. 

The one exception is CBS’s “Lou Grant 
Show,” which casts unions “in a realistic 
light, and does an outstanding job in help- 
ing to educate viewers to the often com- 
plex world of collective bargaining.” Actor 
Ed Asner, who plays the show’s title role, 
was elected president of the Screen Actors 
Guild last month. 

Conducted by members of the Machin- 

Political Action 
Fund Set Up by 
Nebraska Labor 

Omaha — Delegates to the Nebraska 
AFL-CIO’s 24th convention voted to es- 
tablish a special political action fund 
through a 5-cent increase in per capita 
payments to the state federation. 

State AFL-CIO President Gordon L. 
McDonald said the fund will be used to 
promote legislative issues and labor-en- 
dorsed candidates. The per capita increase 
went into effect Oct. 1, raising monthly 
payments to 35 cents per member. 

IN DRAFTING labor’s agenda for the 
next session of the state legislature, the 
250 convention delegates called for enact- 
ment of a measure providing for union 
dues checkoff rights with all private sector 
employers, improvements in workers’ com- 
pensation and unemployment benefits, and 
the upgrading of public employee collec- 
tive bargaining provisions. 

The convention also affirmed support of 
striking Air Traffic Controllers and mem- 
bers of Steelworkers Local 7377 of Fre- 
mont, Neb., who have been on strike 
against Stormer, Inc. since mid-February. 

In other action, delegates endorsed rati- 
fication of the Equal Rights Amendment 
and development of a state energy con- 
servation program and called on local 
labor organizations to establish commu- 
nity service committees. 

McDonald, who has headed the state 
labor federation since 1979, was elected 
to his first full four-year term. Delegates 
also re-elected Sec.-Treas. Victor G. Mey- 
ers and the 12 incumbent executive board 
members, and elected Gerald Carpenter 
of the Transport Workers after expanding 
the board to 1 3 members. 

Convention speakers included President 
William W. Winpisinger of the Machin- 
ists, Nebraska Gov. Charles Thone (R) 
and John H. Fanning of the National 
Labor Relations Board. 


ists. Operating Engineers, and the Bakery, 
Confectionery & Tobacco Workers, the 
study found that even the newscasts 
deemed fairest — NBC’s Evening News — 
favored corporate or big business positions 
on major issues over workers* views by a 
3-to-l margin. 

THE STUDY rates network news pro- 
grams on the nature and* extent of cover- 
age given to five major issues: inflation, 
medical care, job losses, tax reform, and 
energy. The networks varied on individual 
issues, but on an overall basis the study 
showed NBC favored a corporate view by 
a ratio of 31to-l, ABC 5-to-l, and CBS 
6-to-l. 

The Union Media Monitoring Project, 
as it is called, was the result of monitoring 
during April and May by 2,000 volunteers 
from the three unions in 36 states. Results 
of the project were announced by the three 
union presidents, William W. Winpisinger 
of the lAM, J. C. Turner of the lUOE, 
and John DeConcini of BC&T. 

Turner said that TV “continues to ig- 
nore labor’s contributions to the commun- 
ity and the nation. TV — the most powerful 
persuader and educator in the country — is 
guilty of presenting negative messages 
about workers and their unions, under- 
mining our efforts to reverse America’s 
growing concentration of wealth and 
power in the hands of a few.” 

‘Guest Worker’ 
Plan Assailed as 
Retreat on Gains 

The foreign “guest worker” program 
advocated by the Reagan Administration 
would set back gains agricultural workers 
in the United States have made since the 
end of the infamous bracero program in 
1964, the Farm Workers testified. 

UFWA Legislative Rep. Stephanie 
Bower told the Senate Subcommittee on 
Immigration that only after the importa- 
tion of Mexican nationals under the 
bracero program was abolished were farm 
workers “able to organize their own union 
and sign contracts.” 

Now that unionization on the farms is 
more widespread, she said, growers are 
looking for a guest worker program to find 
“a docile, controllable workforce.” 

Importation of temporary workers 
would add to unemployment, she testified, 
and especially curtail the job opportunities 
for minority youth in rural areas. “These 
teenagers should be able to work in their 
own surroundings at a decent wage,” she 
urged, “and not have to migrate to the 
cities where there are already too many 
unemployed workers.” 


Social Security Slash Hits 
400,000 Railroad Retirees 



Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASraNGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 5, 1981 


Court Rules in 2 Cases 

Confidential Employees 
Proteeted by Labor Law 



STUDENT CONFERENCE exploring developments of trade union activities in 
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as world attention is focused on Poland 
was keynoted by Teachers President Albert Shanker. The New York con- 
ference was cosponsored by the Labor Desk of the U.S. Youth Council and 
Georgetown University’s International Labor Program. Conferring with Shanker 
are, from left, Joe Ryan of Georgetown University and a member of the Young 
Social Democrats; Kim Pambro of Abdala, a Cuban youth liberation group, and 
at right, Ca*rl Toth of Ladies’ Garment Workers Local 23-25. 

Domestic Content Law Urged 
To Save Auto-Related Jobs 


The Supreme Court agreed with labor’s 
position in two important cases involving 
the rights of “confidential” employees 
under the National Labor Relations Act. 

By a 5-4 margin, the high court ruled 
that a personal secretary whose work does 
not involve matters dealing with labor- 
management relations has the same pro- 
tection of federal labor law as other work- 
ers. 

IN A RELATED case, all nine justices 
joined in rejecting an appellate court’s 
ruling that employees do not have the 
right of union representation if their work 
gives them access to business information 
their employer considers confidential. 

Both cases had been decided by the 
7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a 
way that would have led to the exclusion 
of thousands of workers the National La- 
bor Relations Board has long held to be 
protected by federal labor law. 

Because of their importance, the AFL- 
CIO filed a brief with the Supreme Court 
last June, and the points it made were 
largely adopted in the majority opinion, 
written by Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. 

THE SPLIT decision came in a case in- 
volving a rural electric cooperative in 
Hendricks County, Ind. The general man- 
ager fired his secretary after she had joined 
other employees in signing a petition ask- 
ing reinstatement of a worker who lost 
an arm in an on-the-job accident and was 
denied re-employment after he was able 
to resume work. 

The NLRB found that the secretary was 
not involved in labor relations matters 
and therefore was protected against retali- 
ation when she joined with other employ- 
ees in a lawful “concerted activity.” 

Chester Migden Leaving 
Screen Actors’ Post 

Los Angeles — Chester L. Migden, na- 
tional executive secretary of the Screen 
Actors Guild since 1973, announced that 
he will leave SAG at the end of the year 
when his current contract expires. Migden 
has been with the Guild for 30 years, 
joining the SAG staff as assistant execu- 
tive secretary in 1952 and becoming asso- 
ciate executive secretary in 1962. 

SAG’s board of directors named Ken- 
dall Orsatti to serve as acting national 
executive secretary until a replacement is'^ 
appointed. Orsatti has headed the Guild’s 
Hollywood office since 1973 and is an 
assistant national executive secretary. 


The Reagan Administration is trying to 
revive the President’s nomination of John 
Van de Water for chairman of the Na- 
tional Labor Relations Board by bypassing 
the Senate committee with jurisdiction 
over the appointment. 

Van de Water failed to win a majority 
on the Senate Labor & Human Resources 
Committee after hearings spotlighted his 
role as a management consultant in union- 
busting campaigns. 



In denying enforcement of the NLRB’s 
reinstatement -and back pay order, the 
appellate court relied on language in a 
1974 Supreme Court decision involving 
the status of managerial employees of the 
Bell Aerospace Co. 

BUT THE AFL-CIO argued, and the 
five justices in the majority agreed, that 
the footnote cited by the appellate court 
was not essential to the Bell Aerospace 
case, making it a non-binding “dictum,” 
and was based on an erroneous assumption 
of the intent of Congress. 

Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., who was 
the author of the Bell Aerospace decision, 
vigorously dissented, joined by Chief 
Justice Warren E. Burger, Justice William 
H. Rehnquist and the newest member of 
the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day 
O’Connor. 

With Brennan in the majority opinion 
were Justices Byron R. White, Thurgood 
Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun and John 
Paul Stevens. 

THE SUPREME COURT majority con- 
cluded that the NLRB’s policy of exclud- 
ing from bargaining units only confiden- 
tial employees in jobs touching on labor 
relations “does indeed have a reasonable 
basis in law” and stems from the labor 
board’s “understanding of the nature of 
the collective bargaining process.” 

The dissenters protested that the ma- 
jority decision “tends to obliterate the 
line between management and labor.” 

The other case that was before the Su- 
preme Court involved employees of the 
Malleable Iron Range Co. in Beaver Dam, 
Wis., who had voted for representation by 
Local 39 of the Office & Professional 
Employees. 

THE COMPANY refused to bargain, 
claiming that 18 of' the 64 employees in 
the unit should have been excluded be- 
cause they had access to “confidential” 
business information. Those the company 
wanted excluded included a $3.50 an hour 
shipping clerk and a $6,400-a-year clerk 
who handled correspondence dealing with 
defective merchandise. 

All nine Supreme Court justices agreed 
that the appellate court was wrong in 
accepting the company’s claim that access 
to confidential business information de- 
prives workers of labor law protection. 
Because the appellate court had not ruled 
on arguments the company had made that 
some of the employees should be excluded 
because they held “managerial” jobs, the 
case was sent back for consideration of 
those objections. 


IN A LETTER to senators, the AFL- 
CIO charged that Van de Water’s efforts 
to keep workers from organizing and to 
decertify unions already established “went 
to the very edge of the law and sometimes 
beyond.” 

Van de Water is serving as NLRB chair- 
man under a presidential recess appoint- 
ment, but an 8-8 tie vote in the Senate 
committee last month, defeating a mo- 
tion to send the nomination to the Senate 
floor, had apparently killed his chances 
of confirmation. 

The first attempt to revive the nomina- 
tion was made by Senate Majority Leader 
Howard Baker (Tenn.), who introduced a 
resolution discharging the committee from 
further consideration of the nomination — 
a step that would bring the nomination 
directly to the Senate floor. 

BAKER ASKED “for its immediate 
consideration,” but Senate Democratic 
Leader Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) objected 
“on behalf of senators on my side of the 
aisle.” 

Opponents of the nomination quickly let 
it be known that they are prepared to 
filibuster if necessary to keep the appoint- 
ment from being revived. 

A letter from committee members to 
their Senate colleagues noted that the Sen- 
ate has never before discharged a com- 


Voluntary restrictions on Japanese auto 
imports haven’t worked, and action by 
Congress to prevent a permanent wipeout 
of U.S. jobs and production is “long over- 
due,” the AFL-CIO testified at Senate 
hearings. 

Legislative Rep. Stephen Koplan said 
conditions in the auto industry and its 
supplier companies have worsened since 
last March, when the Subcommittee on 
Trade last held hearings on the issue. 

AT THE TIME, he reminded the panel, 
the AFL-CIO and the Auto Workers had 
urged that Japanese auto imports be lim- 
ited to 1.2 million cars in a 12-month 
period and that a phased-in domestic-con- 
tent law be enacted so that automobiles 
assembled in the United States won’t be 
primarily foreign-made. Labor also pro- 
posed a comparable quota on imports of 
auto parts. 

Instead, Koplan noted, the Administra- 
tion relied on a voluntary commitment by 
the Japanese to limit exports to 1.68 mil- 
lion passenger cars between April 1981 
and April 1982, with adjustments there- 
after. 

The legislation that labor urged then is 
still urgently needed, Koplan testified. 
“The auto recession has worsened,” he 
noted. Sales of U.S. cars are the lowest 
in 20 years, and the mid-November sales 
of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler 
were nearly 30 percent below a year ago. 


mittee for acting unfavorably on a nom- 
ination. The committee, which has a Re- 
publican majority, met its responsibility to 
conscientiously consider the nomination, 
they declared, and the effort to bypass it is 
unjustified. 

AT A WHITE HOUSE news briefing. 
Deputy White House Press Sec. Larry 
Speakes said the Van de Water nomina- 
tion had been “discussed” at the meeting 
President Reagan had with the AFL-CIO 
Executive Council. But he said the Presi- 
dent considers Van de Water an “excel- 
lent” nominee and the White House is 
standing by the appointment. 

After Baker’s move to bypass the Labor 
& Human Resources Committee, AFL- 
CIO Legislative Director Ray Denison 
wrote senators urging them “not to sup- 
port the effort to discharge the commit- 
tee” and “not to support cloture” on the 
nomination. It requires the votes of 60 of 
the 100 senators to limit debate on a mo- 
tion. 

Because Van de Water “for many years 
made his living planning and leading anti- 
union campaigns,” Denison wrote, he 
lacks the impartiality “required to serve 
as the head of the agency whose primary 
responsibility is to set the rules that gov- 
ern employers and unions during represen- 
tation campaigns.” 


The loss of jobs affects steelworkers, 
rubber workers, glass workers and scores 
of other occupations linked to the health 
of the automobile industry, Koplan 
stressed. 

At the same time, he reminded the sen- 
ators, the trade adjustment program that 
was supposed to cushion the job losses 
resulting from imports has been virtually 
wiped out by the wave of federal budget 
slashes. 

Koplan cited the example of other na- 
tions that have imposed and enforced 
quotas on automobile imports and require 
that vehicles exempt from quotas be large- 
ly built as well as assembled in their 
countries. 

BECAUSE THE United States imposes 
no such requirement, he noted, Japanese 
firms have established production facilities 
in other nations and often export the out- 
put from these plants to the United States. 

“Imports, recession, tight money and 
lack of effective purchasing power con- 
tinue to compound U.S. industry prob- 
lems,” Koplan stressed. Communities 
across the nation have been hurt by the 
loss of jobs and income. “Import monitor- 
ing and regulation are urgent necessities 
until the U.S. auto industry is on its feet,” 
he insisted. 

UAW Research Director Sheldon Fried- 
man told the Senate subcommittee that 
American auto workers have “benefited 
relatively little” from the Japanese com- 
mitment to hold down , imports. 

SINCE 1978, he said, the hourly-paid 
workforce is down 19 percent at General 
Motors, 25 percent at Ford and 44 percent 
at Chrysler. An estimated 600,000 manu- 
facturing jobs have disappeared from the 
“auto-related” sector, Friedman testified. 
And the number of workers on layoff “has 
been rising again.” 

Friedman told the panel that a local 
content law for motor vehicles sold in 
the United States would be the most effec- 
tive single step to prevent “further dis- 
astrous loss of jobs . . . not only in motor 
vehicle assembly but in the many firms 
and industries which supply the auto in-- 
dustry.” 

Mediation Board Reports 
New High in Airline Cases 

The National Mediation Board closed 
out a record 95 airline representation and 
mediation cases in fiscal year 1980, the 
agency said in its latest annual report. 

The number was the largest since the 
airlines came under the agency’s jurisdic- 
tion in 1936. The board also handles rep- 
resentation and collective bargaining dis- 
putes in the railroad industry. 

Unions won 35 of the airline represen- 
tation elections last year to gain or retain 
bargaining rights for 11,147 airline em- 
ployees. 


Reagan Seeks to Salvage NLRB Choice 









lie.- 


Jobless Surge Tied to Reagan Policies 


8.4 Percent 
Rate Highest 
In Six Years 


By James M. Shevis 

The sharp rise in unemployment in No- 
vember, to a six-year high of 8.4 percent, 
is further evidence that President Reagan’s 
program “is not solving but aggravating 
the nation’s economic and human crisis,” 
the AFL-CIO charged. 

“The Administration’s promise of even- 
tual iong-run’ recovery is hardly reassur- 
ing to the nine million Americans now 
jobless,” Federation President Lane Kirk- 
land said. “As the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council told the President earlier, it is 
time to adopt a new, anti-recession pro- 
gram that will ease hardship now and 
build toward a healthy economy.” 

IN THE LAST two months alone, un- 
employment has risen by more than one 
million persons, and the government’s lat- 
est set of economic indicators points to a 
worsening of the recession, Kirkland ob- 
served. 

Deputy White House Press Secretary 
Larry Speakes called rising joblessness “the 
price you have to pay for bringing down 
inflation,” a statement which House 
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. (D-Mass.), 
termed “outrageous.” 

O’Neill charged that the President’s 
January promise of an economic recovery 
program producing 13 million new jobs 
was “a cruel hoax.” 

The November increase of four-tenths 
of 1 percent in the nation’s unemployment 
rate was the fourth consecutive monthly 
rise. The number of jobless workers 
jumped by 484,000 to a seasonally ad- 
justed total of 9,004,000 in a labor force 
of 107 million. 

THE NOVEMBER unemployment rate 
is the highest since May 1975, when at 
the height of the severe 1973-75 recession 
the jobless rate soared to 9 percent. At 
more than nine million, the number of 
unemployed workers is the highest since 
1939, when almost 9.5-million people were 
out of work. Administration economists 
have said the unemployment rate could 
rise to 9 percent or higher before a hoped- 
for recovery begins in mid-1982. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which 
released the newest jobless figures, said 
unemployment last month affected most 
worker groups but was particularly pro- 
nounced among men. The rate for adult 
men rose from 6.7 to 7.2 percent over the 
month, just below the post-World War II 
high of 7.3 percent reached in May 1975. 

The jobless rate for adult women went 
up from 7 to 7.3 percent while that for 
teenagers increased from 20.6 to 21.8 per- 
cent. The rate for white workers rose 
from 6.9 to 7.4 percent, while joblessness 
among blacks was unchanged at the record 
high of 15.5 percent reached in October. 

(Continued on Page 3) 




Vol. XXVI 


Saturday, December 12, 1981 


No. 49 


Sm 


Hobbs Act Amendment 
Screens Anti-Union Bid 

Labor Hits 
Proposals 
As Unfair 






JOB CREATING PROGRAMS are needed to halt the deepening recession and 
rising unemployment caused by the Administration’s economic policies, AFL- 
CIO Vice President John Lyons testifies before the Joint Economic Committee 
of Congress. He was accompanied by Rudy Oswald, director of the AFL-CIO 
Dept, of Economic Research. (Story, Page 3.) 


Administration Pressure Hit 


Revision of Price Index 
Draws Strong Protest 


The AFL-CIO renewed its criticism of 
Administration pressures on the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics to revise its measurement 
of consumer prices. And it urged Congress 
to restore budget cuts so that BLS can 
continue to compile economic data impor- 
tant to collective bargaining. 

Reliable labor statistics take on special 
importance as the nation slips deeper into 
recession, AFL-CIO Research Director 
Rudy Oswald stressed at House hearings. 


Latest Deficit Projections 
Explode Supply-Side Myth 


Massive federal budget deficits now pro- 
jected by the Reagan Administration over 
the next few years demonstrate “the myth 
of supply-side economics,” AFL-CIO Re- 
search Director Rudy Oswald declared. 

The ballooning of the Office of Manage- 
ment & Budget’s deficit projections to 
more than $160 billion by 1984 stung the 
Administration, which had promised a bal- 
anced federal budget by that year if its 
economic policies were adopted. 

“JUST SIX MONTHS after selling the 
country an economic package of hocus- 
pocus, the architects of that program admit 
that it has no hope of producing the results 
that they promised,” Oswald said. 

Those results included creation of jobs, 
substantial economic growth and a bal- 


anced federal budget by 1984, Oswald 
noted. He scored the Administration for 
clinging to its policies in the face of the 
evidence and seeking to “inflict more of 
the same budget cuts that have been part 
and parcel of their bankrupt policy.” 

He said the current unemployment of 
nine million workers “already gives testi- 
mony to the suffering inflicted by Rea- 
ganomics.” 

The announcement of the revised deficit 
projections revealed some disarray within 
the inner circles of the Administration as 
the White House quickly denied statements 
by members of the President’s Council of 
Economic Advisers suggesting that federal 
budget deficits are not the root of all infla- 

(Continued on Page 2) 


The Reagan Administration’s tamper- 
ing with the consumer price index and 
its “budgetary starvation” of BLS data- 
collecting programs is weakening the na- 
tion’s ability to understand and deal with 
inflation, he warned. 

Oswald and other union witnesses testi- 
fied before two House subcommittees to 
labor’s strong disagreement with the BLS 
decision to eliminate home ownership costs 
from the consumer price index calcula- 
tions. 

The BLS has announced that it will 
substitute a “rental equivalence” measure- 
ment of housing costs. The change would 
be made in January 1983 for the broadest 
of the consumer price indexes and in 1985 
for the key CPI-W. The latter is the index 
generally used to calculate wage and bene- 
fit increases due under cost-of-living pro- 
visions of union contracts and government 
entitlement programs, including social 
security. 

ONE UNION, the Steelworkers, esti- 
mates that if the CPI change had been in 
effect in recent years, its members would 
have been shortchanged about 75 cents an 
hour in cost-of-living adjustments. 

Oswald told a House Budget Committee 
task force and a Labor-Management Re- 
lafions subcommittee that it “strains cre- 
dulity” to swallow the claim that the 
change wasn’t motivated in large part by 
the Administration’s desire to hold down 
federal spending on entitlement programs 
and show a lower inflation rate. 

(Continued on Page 6) 


By David L. Perlman 

A bill that would make picket line mis- 
conduct a federal crime and send an of- 
fending striker to prison for up to 20 years 
is both unnecessary and unfair and would 
make the government an ally of employ- 
ers in every labor dispute, the AFL-CIO 
testified. 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman 
Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) is sponsoring 
the anti-union amendment to the Hobbs 
Act, but the big push for his bill has come 
from the National Right to Work Com- 
mittee through a television and advertis- 
ing campaign linking unions with “vio- 
lence.” 

AFL-CIO SPECIAL Counsel Laurence 
Gold told a Senate subcommittee that the 
attempt to tie unions to strike violence is 
as flawed as the Thurmond bill itself. 

His testimony included documented re- 
futations of “case histories” exploited by 
the Right to Work Committee. Rare and 
isolated instances of serious wrongdoing 
by strikers were in fact punished under 
local and state law. Gold stressed. 

“Neither the AFL-CIO nor any of its 
affiliates condones picket line misconduct. 
Our unions do all in their power to pre- 
vent it,” Gold testified. And “almost with- 
out exception,” state and local authorities 
effectively deal with wrongdoing. 

HE TERMED THE Right to Work 
Committee “an employer-financed front 
organization which supports neither rights 
nor workers.” 

Its support for the Thurmond bill, he 
(Continued on Page 6) 

Reagan’s PATCO 
Decision Called 
‘Disappointment’ 

The AFL-CIO expressed “disappoint- 
ment” at President Reagan’s decision to 
permit federal agencies to hire striking 
Air Traffic Controllers he fired in August 
— but not at their old jobs. 

Federal Aviation Administrator Drew 
Lewis announced that Regan is lifting the 
ban on hiring PATCO strikers with the 
stipulation that they will not be allowed to 
return to the air traffic control positions. 

“This is not a holiday gift,” Lewis said, 
adding that any former controller applying 
for a federal job will be investigated to 
determine his or her role in the strike 
which began Aug. 3. 

In expressing the federation’s disap- 
(Continued on Page 3) 




Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 



TOP WINNERS were determined in the Carpenters annual apprenticeship com- 
petition finals held in Denver, which drew 80 finalists from among some 60,000 
UDC apprentices in the United States and Canada. Daniel Halsey of Local 1235 
in Turlock, Calif, (top photo), is congratulated by UBC Secretary John Rogers, 
left. Board Member M. B. Bryant and First Vice President Patrick Campbell. 
Working on their projects are (left photo) millwright division winner Floyd A. 
Collier of Local 2834, Denver, and mill-cabinet division winner Edward Fisher 
of Local 1328, Vancouver, B.C. 

Supreme Court Lets Stand 
Liability Ruling on Asbestos 

The Supreme Court steered away from 
a dispute over which insurance companies 
should pay damage claims to workers for 
asbestos-related illness. 

Without comment, the justices declined 
to review decisions of two appellate courts 
that upheld a so-called “exposure” theory 
on financial liability for the claims. 

THE 5TH AND 6TH U S. Circuit 
Courts of Appeals ruled that all insurance 
firms that had provided coverage to a 
company when its workers were exposed 
to the cancer-causing substance were liable 
in proportion to the period of time their 
policies were in force. 

Several major insurance carriers affected 
by the appellate court rulings had asked 
the justices to decide in favor of the “man- 
ifestation” theory — suggesting that insur- 
ance liability begins only when the disease 
is first detected. 

Exposure to asbestos on the job can 
lead to several serious diseases, including 
lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, 
a cancer of the chest cavity. These diseases 
may not be detected for as long as 20 
years after initial exposure to asbestos. 

A NUMBER of federal courts have 
adopted rulings that conflict with the de- 
cisions of the 5th and 6th Circuits. These 
cases may come before the Supreme Court 
later. 

The issue is particularly significant to 
the insurance industry which may eventu- 
ally have to pay billions of dollars in dam- 
age claims to workers and consumers over 
asbestos-related diseases in more than 
20,000 pending lawsuits. 

The appeals that the justices . denied 
were filed by the Insurance Co. of North 
America and Liberty Mutual, which had 
been held jointly liable for coverage of 
workers of an Illinois manufacturer of 
asbestos-containing products, and Aetna 
Casualty & Surety, which had to pay a 
share of a $155,000 verdict awarded to 


the family of a worker who died from 
asbestosis. 

THE HIGH COURT also refused to 
review a 9th Circuit court decision holding 
that the religious accommodation provision 
of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act 
exempts members of certain faiths from 
the obligation to pay union dues or a 
service fee. 

The case stemmed from a union security 
clause in a 1976 contract between Steel- 
workers Local 8141 and Martin-Marietta 
Corp. in The Dalles, Ore., which involved 
three Seventh Day Adventists. 

Because of their religious tenets, the 
three church members offered to pay an 
amount equal to union dues to a charity 
acceptable to the union in order to retain 
their jobs in the plant. 

In rejecting the petition for review, the 
justices declined to hear the USWA local’s 
argument that Congress intended that the 
matter of religious objections to union 
dues come under the National Labor Re- 
lations Act rather than the Civil Rights 
Act. The union also contended that the 
Title VII provision violates the First 
Amendment by singling out a certain 
group of citizens for special economic 
benefit on religious grounds. 

IN OTHER ACTION, the Supreme 
Court agreed to review the liability of a 
union to pay a Postal Service employee 
from Lynchburg, Va., who claimed he 
wasn’t properly represented by the Postal 
Workers in his grievance. 

The worker was discharged in 1976 
following a scuffle with a fellow employee. 
Although the APWU pursued the case 
through the grievance process, it was aban- 
doned when the contractual time limit 
for arbitration expired. A federal district 
court ruled that the -union should pay a 
portion of the lost wages. The 4th Circuit 
court later held that only the Postal Ser- 
vice should be liable for the lost wages. 


Social Security Cuts Opposed 

Conference on Aging 
Shapes Positive Goals 


Administration efforts to manipulate the 
1981 White House Conference on Aging 
backfired as delegates fought back to sup- 
port social security and other key social 
programs for older Americans and their 
families. 

An emotionally charged showdown in 
the most controversial of the 14 confer- 
ence committees led to a compromise res- 
olution maintaining social security protec- 
tion. AFL-CIO Social Security Director 
Bert Seidman joined Chairman Claude 
Pepper of the House Committee on the 
Aging in negotiations leading to the accom- 
modation. 

MEMBERS OF at least five other com- 
mittees took time from assigned missions 
to rally around social security when they 
perceived it to be endangered by “mystery 
delegates” assigned to the conference only 
five or six weeks before it opened. 

The final product of the conference was 
a summary of more than 600 resolutions 
calling for continued or greater federal 
response to the needs and talents of this 
nation’s elderly population. 

“To sum it up,” Seidman said, “the 
conference came out on the whole with 
constructive recommendations which if 
followed will work to the benefit of older 
persons and the rest of society. Despite 
the extraordinary efforts of the Reagan 
Administration, conferees over and over 
again repudiated its policies.” 

A statement by the Leadership Council 
of Aging Organizations (LCAO) reached a 
similar conclusion. It found “remarkably 
positive tone and content in the majority 
of resolutions adopted in all but a few of 
the committees.” 

THE LCAO ALSO noted that the bulk 
of resolutions were either drawn from or 
are in harmony with the “8 for ’80s” 
statement adopted by the AFL-CIO and 24 
other members of the LCAO. This state- 
ment set forth eight broad goals, including 
continuing commitment to social security 
and endorsement of a national health 
plan serving all age groups. 

Delegates assigned to the conference’s 
health committee endorsed a resolution 
calling for a continuing search for a na- 
tional health care plan. They also urged 
expansion of Medicare to cover out-patient 
prescription drugs, eye examinations, foot 
care, routine dental care, dental prosthetics 
and hearing aids. A change in Medicare- 
Medicaid policy to encourage greater use 
of non-institutional care was approved, to- 
gether with another calling for expansion 
of mental health services for older adults. 

Key resolutions presented by commit- 
tees to the 2,200 delegates also included 
calls for: 

• Interfund borrowing among the so- 
cial security trust funds to meet short-term 
financing needs. 

• Restoration of the social security 
minimum benefit for present and future 
beneficiaries. 

• An increase in supplementary security 
income payments to at least the official 
poverty level. 


• Earlier vesting and greater portability 
of individual pension rights. 

• Prospective reimbursement under 
Medicare and Medicaid to institutions and 
practitioners as one means of promoting 
better cost accountability and better ser- 
vices. 

• A national social policy for long-term 
care, based on a comprehensive data base 
with actuarial information and financial 
underwriting, together with a comprehen- 
sive national health plan which would 
include a long-term care community-based 
health system. 

• At least 200,000 units of housing for 
the elderly to be provided “within all levels 
of the government and the private sector.” 

SOCIAL SECURITY took center stage 
soon after the conference’s committee 
work began. 

The first committee resolution — offered 
by a delegate later identified as an Orange 
County, Calif., official and former Reagan 
aide — opposed any use of general revenue 
funds to finance social security. 

This maneuver confirmed misgivings ex- 
pressed at a rally held by LCAO on the 
eve of the conference. At another rally, 
mid-way in the conference, dozens of 
speakers denounced the conduct of the 
conference and the negative resolution on 
general revenues. 

PEPPER AGREED to lead a delega- 
tion to protest the controversial resolution. 
Before the protest could be conveyed, 
however. Conference Director Betty Brake 
asked Pepper and later other LCAO lead- 
ers including Seidman and National Coun- 
cil of Senior Citizens President Jacob day- 
man, to join in negotiating what became 
a compromise resolution opposing any 
reduction in benefits being paid current 
social security recipients. 

The resolution recommended “that Con- 
gress and the Administration make every 
possible and fiscally reasonable effort with 
regard to the security of the social security 
system to maintain no less than the real 
protection that is currently provided to all 
participants.” 

Seidman and dayman later joined in 
criticizing another resolution praising the 
Reagan Administration for its “defense” 
of social security, terming it a “double- 
cross” which undermined the earlier prog- 
ress of the day. 

THE APPARENT stacking of key com- 
mittees, caused concern even as the con- 
ference ended. Last-minute revelations 
centered on a letter from the Texas Gov- 
ernor’s office to the Republican National 
Committee naming four delegates “who 
would put loyalty to the President ahead 
of their commitment to the elderly and 
who would not take offense at the involve- 
ment of the Republican Party.” Press re- 
ports of similar letters in other states ap- 
peared the day after the conference. 

Other documents indicated that a Re- 
publican “whip” system had been estab- 
lished for critical committees. 


Deficit Forecasts Sting White House 


(Continued from Page 1) 

tion after all, and that budget balancing 
could be postponed without damage to the 
economy. 

THE FUROR was touched off when 
CEA Chairman Murray Weidenbaum said 
in a speech that the economy could absorb 
larger federal deficits without a new surge 
in interest rates and without depriving 
business of sources for funding expansion, 
a position sharply at odds with the Admin- 
istration’s past economic preaching. 

William Niskanen, also a member of the 
economic advisory council, said “it is now 
recognized that some of the expected 
effects of the Reagan Administration eco- 
nomic program are inconsistent and some- 
thing has to give.” He said the Adminis- 
tration has already abandoned its goal of 


trying to balance the federal budget by 
1984. 

White House Deputy Press Sec. Larry 
Speakes quickly issued a disclaimer, insist- 
ing that Niskanen’s statement “did not re- 
flect the President’s opinion or Administra- 
tion policy.” 

The new estimates by the Administra- 
tion foresee federal budget deficits of 
$109.1 billion in fiscal 1982 and $152.3 
billion and $162 billion for the following 
two years. In July, the OMB predicted the 
deficits would be only $42.5 billion in 
1982, $52.7 billion in 1983 and $44.2 
billion in 1984. As recently as November, 
the Administration had substantially in- 
creased those figures, and less than a 
month later upped projections to the high- 
er estimates. The deficit in fiscal 1981, 
which ended Sept. 30, was $57.9 billion. 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 


Page Three 



COLLECTION OF TRIBUTES and remembrances highlighting the contribu- 
tions of A1 Barkan to the labor movement over the past four decades was 
presented to the retiring national COPE director at a testimonial dinner in 
Washington which drew more than 1,000 well-wishers. Making the presentation 
are Jacob dayman, left, president of the National Council of Senior Citizens 
and a long-time friend of Barkan’s; AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland and 
Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue. Barkan has headed COPE since 1963. 

South Africa Pressed to Free 
Jailed Black Trade Unionists 


Walesa Sends 
Thanks For 

AFL-CIO Aid 

Lech Walesa, unable to attend last 
month’s AFL-CIO convention because of 
ongoing tensions between Polish authori- 
ties and the Solidarity labor federation, 
sent his thanks to the American labor 
movement for its support. 

In a taped message to Federation Presi- 
dent Lane Kirkland, Walesa conveyed his 
regrets that he could not appear personally 
at the convention to accept the AFL-CIO’s 
first George Meany International Human 
Rights Award on behalf of Solidarity, but 
noted that “the situation in Poland has 
unfolded in such a way that I have been 
forced to stay here.” Walesa added: 

“I HAD WANTED to personally thank 
you for the great assistance which you 
have extended to us, to personally express 
my gratitude at your convention. . . . 

“I hope that you understand that the 
problems of this country are monumental. 
Still, that does not mean that I do not 
wish to acknowledge the significance of 
what you are trying to do for us. 

“Working people have always had to 
fight for their gains. I expect that you too 
are facing many problems, that you have 
to settle many things at your convention 
so that your members’ lives will be better. 

^ I am certain that the convention will map 
out directions which will benefit your 
members. 

“I thank you once again for your aid, 
and I hope that I will have an opportunity 
of doing this personally. Also, I would 
like to become acquainted with your work- 
ing conditions and your activities because 
we can learn much from you. . . . Many 
of your solutions are worthy of emulation 
and not just in Poland.” 

WALESA CONCLUDED his remarks 
to Kirkland saying that “if fate has it that 
I can meet with you ... I will look for- 
ward to that opportunity.” The Executive 
Council hopes to present Walesa the 
Meany award at some future meeting. 

Walesa’s message was taped between 
meetings in Warsaw of Solidarity’s national 
leadership as it mapped strategy for talks 
with the Polish communist authorities. 
Leah Belli, president of the California 
Democratic Council, who interviewed 
Walesa, translated his remarks and de- 
livered the message to Kirkland. 


The AFL-CIO called on Congress to 
reverse the disastrous direction of the 
Administration’s economic policies and 
deal with the tragic and wasteful high 
unemployment situation that had over 9 
million Americans out of work last month. 

John H. Lyons, a vice president of the 
federation and chairman of its Economic 
Policy Committee, outlined the anti-reces- 
sion, job-creating programs adopted by 
the AFL-CIO’s 14th convention in an ap- 
pearance before the congressional Joint 
Economic Committee. 

LYONS, WHO IS president of the Iron 
Workers, called for sufficient funding of 
programs already on the, books to provide 
jobs rapidly and help lift the economy. In 
addition, he said, the AFL-CIO proposes 
new legislation establishing a Reconstruc- 
tion Finance Corp.-type organization to 
make loans and subsidies for the retooling 
and growth of basic industries, credit 
allocation to channel funds into productive 
uses and halt speculative excesses and 
merger activities, limiting tax cuts and 
credits for both businesses and individuals, 
and withdrawing tax giveaways to wealthy 
oil royalty owners. 

“Unemployment is already at crisis lev- 
els,” Lyons observed. “The number of men 
and women without jobs, more than 9 
million, is the largest number of jobless 
since the Depression of the 1930s.” 

In addition to the 9 million, there 


The AFL-CIO protested the recent ar- 
rest and detention of 14 black trade union 
leaders in South Africa and called for 
their immediate release. 

“These and previous arrests are serious 
violations of trade union rights, and will 
help to fuel the fires of violence and un- 
rest, the consequences of which no one 
can foretell,” AFL-CIO President Lane 
Kirkland declared in a cable to South 
African Prime Minister P. W. Botha in 
Pretoria. 

THE BLACK LABOR leaders were ar- 
rested Nov. 27 in. coordinated predawn 
raids in several South African cities by 
security police under a law that allows 
detention without charge. 

Also arrested were students, researchers, 
and political activists in what appeared to 
be part of a continuing drive to uncover 
links between organizations operating le- 
gally in South Africa and the banned 
African National Congress, the main 
movement of resistance to white minority 
rule. 


are another million “hidden unemployed” 
workers — those too discouraged to look 
for employment — and 5 million employed 
only part-time because full-time work is 
not available, Lyons noted. 

“If you add up all these numbers,” he 
said, “you have 15 million Americans to- 
day who are suffering serious job loss and 
income loss. Over the next year, more 
than one-fourth of the labor force will 
suffer some unemployment, and nearly 
half of all workers will suffer the direct 
impact of the recession through either 
joblessness or reduction in hours and 
earnings.” 

Unemployment is a personal tragedy, a 
human tragedy, to . those affected by it, 
Lyons said, and unemployment compensa- 
tion or welfare brings only temporary or 
partial relief. He cited a Johns Hopkins 
University study showing that recession 
and joblessness produce more heart ail- 
ments, suicide, crime, murders, mental 
and physical disease. 

MOREOVER, HE SAID, the economic 
waste of productive workers without jobs 
is a tremendous loss to the nation. 

Every 1 percent of unemployment, every 
one million workers without jobs, costs the 
federal treasury $30 billion — $25 billion 
in lost taxes and $5 billion in additional 
unemployment benefits, Lyons noted. This 
costs the nation about $100 billion in lost 
output of goods and services, he added. 


The trade union leaders included Sam 
Kikane, general secretary of the South 
African Allied Workers Union; Emma 
Mashinini, general secretary of the Com- 
mercial, Catering & Allied Workers Un- 
ion, and Samson Ndou, president of the 
General & Allied Workers Union. 

IT WAS ALSO reported that T. Gqwe- 
ta, president of the South African Allied 
Workers Union, and a vice president of 
the union were arrested and held on Dec. 
8. Those arrested are held under a law 
permitting detention without charge for 
14 days. Frequently, when the 14 days 
are up, the authorities simply extend the 
period of detention, which they are per- 
mitted to do indefinitely under the Terror- 
ism Act. 

At its preconvention meeting last month, 
the AFL-CIO Executive Council launched 
a special fund to assist black unions in 
South Africa and urged affiliates to con- 
tribute to it. The council voted an initial 
$25,000 contribution. 

The arbitrary arrest and detention of 
trade union leaders, not only in South 
Africa but in other African countries such 
as Zambia, Zaire, Namibia, and others, 
recently drew strong denunciation from 
the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions. 

Meeting in Monrovia, Liberia, the 
ICFTU executive board condemned gov- 
ernment interference in trade union affairs 
and “the unfortunate trend whereby gov- 
ernments facing social and economic prob- 
lems are using trade unions as scapegoats.” 



HENRY NICHOLAS is the new 
president of the Hospital & Health 
Care Employees division of the Re- 
tail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union. 
He was elected at the division’s con- 
vention in Philadelphia to succeed 
Leon J. Davis, who did not seek re- 
election but will continue to head its 
District 1199. Nicholas has been sec- 
retary-treasurer of the division for the 
past eight years. 


8.4fo Jobless 
Rate Highest 
In Six Years 

(Continued from Page 1) 

As in the previous two months, un- 
employment increases in November were 
especially large for blue-collar workers, 
whose rate rose from 11 to 11.8 percent 
after a similar jump in October. The job- 
less rate for construction workers rose 
from 18 to 18.2 percent, following an 
increase of 1.7 percent the month before. 

As the nation’s eighth post-war reces- 
sion deepens, unemployment also has be- 
gun to take its toll of white-collar workers, 
a labor category generally less affected by 
downturns in the business cycle. In No- 
vember, white-collar unemployment hit its 
highest level — 4.2 percent, or 2.7 million 
persons — since the record of 5.3 percent 
set during the 1973-75 recession. 

BLS Commissioner Janet L. Norwood 
told the Joint Economic Committee of 
Congress that the deterioration which set 
in last summer has accelerated over the 
past two months. After rising half a per- 
centage point over the summer, the na- 
tion’s jobless rate jumped nearly a full 
point from September through November. 

“THE NUMBER of payroll jobs grew 
very slowly between July and ^ptember 
but declined by nearly half a million over 
the last two months,” she observed. Since 
July, employment has dropped by 940,000. 

Although the November drop of 235,000 
in nonfarm payroll jobs occurred through- 
out the economy, two-thirds of the de- 
cline was in durable goods industries, with 
especially large reductions in transporta- 
tion equipment, fabricated metals, and 
electrical equipment, Norwood said. 

The number of people holding jobs fell 
by 190,000 in November to 98 million, 
with the overall employment-population 
ratio dipping to 57.9 percent, its lowest 
level in about four years, BLS reported. 
The civilian labor force, meanwhile, grew 
by 293,000 over the month. Since Janu- 
ary, the labor force has grown by 1.6 mil- 
lion, with adult women accounting for 
most of the increase. 

Reagan’s PATCO 
Decision Called 
‘Disappointment’ 

(Continued from Page 1) 
pointment, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirk- 
land said the Administration action was 
“clearly not what the Executive Coun- 
cil had in mind when we asked the Presi- 
dent to show compassion. We don’t see 
how this fits the needs of either the 
PATCO families or the nation’s air trav- 
elers.” 

“We continue to believe the air con- 
trollers should be restored to their jobs,” 
Kirkland said, reiterating his statement of 
a week earlier after visiting the White 
House: “We urged the President to give 
humane consideration to the problems of 
the air traffic controllers and their fam- 
ilies. We urged returning those workers 
to their jobs so as to restore normal air 
traffic service as soon as possible, spare 
the public further inconvenience and per- 
mit the thousands of other furloughed air 
industry employees to return to work.” 

KIRKLAND also observed that “there 
can be no comfort in being told you are 
eligible for a federal job” in an adminis- 
tration which prides itself in reductions in 
force among federal employees and “is 
committed to more and more cutbacks in 
federal budgets.” 

PATCO President Robert E. Poli char- 
acterized the Reagan action as a “cruel 
hoax” at a time there are no federal jobs. 

Lewis gave as an excuse for the con- 
tinued lockout of the controllers “safety- 
threatening friction” he said would result 
between returning strikers and controllers 
who crossed picket lines. 

Fired controllers would be permitted to 
work as military air traffic controllers, if 
they are qualified, Lewis said. 


Reversal of Policy Sought 
To Combat Jobless Rise 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 


Full Circle ou Trade ' ‘Whatever You Do, Don’t Show Fear!’ 


T rade affects jobs, technology and the nation’s future. 

The nation is now in a serious recession. Already 9 million 
Americans are jobless. Plant shutdowns are not a sign of Christ- 
mas holidays, but rather of a national tragedy. 

Compounding and worsening that tragedy is the adverse trade 
relationship. During the first 9 months of this year, the nation’s 
trade balance has run $26.2 billion in the red. 

Instead of the current preoccupation with the nation’s budget 
deficit — ^money we owe ourselves — there should be more concern 
about the trade deficit — obligations this nation must meet to 
producers abroad. It is time to recognize that imports are aggra- 
vating the effects of the recession, particularly in basic industries. 

The recession needs many national actions to turn it around 
and put the nation on a solid expansion path. One of those actions 
must deal with the additional impact of imports upon industries 
reeling from the blows of recession. Imports — now over 30 percent 
of the production of all goods in the U.S. — must be regulated until 
U.S. industry can get back on its feet. Otherwise, the plant closing 
will be permanent and the United States will emerge from the 
recession with even less of an industrial base. 

THE PUBLIC explanations for trade policy have come full 
circle since World War II. Then, as U.S. seamen watched the 
shipping industry go down and their jobs exported to foreign flags, 
they were told that the United States is a manufacturing nation — 
not a service nation. 

Exports of manufactures are job creators, the story went. But 
in the three decades since that war, the deficits have grown in 
basic industries: steel, autos, textiles, electronics, shoes, some types 
of machinery. Each time the newer technology industries were 
considered to be an answer. But they no longer are an answer as 
even aircraft and computers are now using imported parts. 

Now the story has turned in 1981 as the international trade 
balance shifted from surplus in the 1960s to deficits in the 1970s 
and 1980s. Now the emphasis is on service industries in trade 
policy, because the United States is a service economy. 

However, the AFL-CIO believes the United States must be a 
diversified manufacturing, agricultural and service economy. We 
need high technology industries and many other industries for full 
employment. Trade is part of that goal. 

THE COUNCIL of Economic Advisers still portrays all people 
who are concerned about import damage as “special interests.” 
The AFL-CIO believes this is a false view of the special interests 
in trade policy. 

Importers, foreign investors or foreign governments are all spe- 
cial interests. On the other hand, the jobs and production that 
imports cost across the nation are a general problem that should 
be considered the national interest. The people who pay the costs 
of imports now number in the millions. Surely, it is time to recog- 
nize the costs as well as the benefits involved. 

The AFL--CIO believes in fair trade. Instead, the government 
abdicates responsibility except to try to talk other countries into 
greater markets for U.S. exports. That is a valid and important 
goal, but it is only part of the picture and part of the goal. The 
continued encouragement of products from nations which don’t 
give America a fair deal is a bankrupt policy. 

— From AFL-CIO testimony before the House Ways & Means 
Subcommittee on Trade, Dec. 10, 1981. 


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Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretary-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Jerry Wurf 
Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John DeConcini 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 
Barbara Hutchinson 


Executive Council 
Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
Wayne E. Glenn 
Joyce D. Miller 
Frank Drozak 
Richard I. Kilroy 


Frederick O’Neal 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
John J. Sweeney 
James E. Hatfield 
Vincent R. Sombrotto 


E Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

E Managing Editor: John M. Barry s 

= Assistant Editors: S 

1 Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec s 

E David L. Perlman James M. Shevis = 

S AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. s 

1 Washington. D.C. 20006 E 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

I VoL XXVI Saturday, December 12, 1981 No. 49 | 

E The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
E for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
s= ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
S AFL-CIO. = 




Letting the 'Market' Decide 

When U.S. Steel Turns to OU 
‘Industrial Backbone’ Suffers 


By Gus TylCT 

T he tale of two chairmen at U.S. Steel 
reads like a morality play, entitled, “What’s 
Going Wrong With the American Economy.” 

There was one chairman, Edgar Speer, who be- 
lieved that the job of U.S. Steel was to make steel. 
He went to work on a plan to build a $3. 5-billion 
facility that would be up-to-date and that could 
compete against all comers around the world. 

THEN, THERE IS Speer’s successor, David 
M. Broderick, who Took the reins of U.S. Steel in 
1979. He dumped the plans to build the new 
modern mill; he closed 14 plants that were not 
money makers; he began to accumulate a cash 
reserve. 

Broderick did not have his eye on steel; he had 
it on money. His biggest move to date is to reach 
out for Marathon Oil with an offer of $6.3 billion 
from his cash reserve. 

Now, which chairman is doing the right thing? 
They both are, depending on what you consider 
right. 

MOST FINANCIAL analysts believe that, in 
the short run, Broderick is right — at least, he is 
right for the shareholders in U.S. Steel. He is .very 
likely to get a faster return by putting bucks into 
oil than into steel. Making the metal is a business 
that has beejn yielding only about 4 percent on 
equity; making a merger is fairly certain to yield 
much more. 

Speer’s strategy, on the other hand, was much 
riskier and promised.lesser immediate returns to 
the shareholders. New plants do not yield instan- 
taneous results: they require much capital; the 
returns are slow until momentum is picked up 
against overseas rivals. 

But, from the point of view of the United States 
as a country, Speer is right. America needs steel; 
it is the backbone of an industrial society. If we 
lose our capacity to turn out steel, we lose much 
of our industrial strength and military might. 

BUT WHETHER Broderick is right or Speer 
is right, should such a decision that so profoundly 
affects the lives of people, their communities 
(closing 14 plants), and the country be left entire- 
ly to Mr. S. or Mr. B., according to his prefer- 
ence? The general answer is to “leave it to the 
market to decide.” 


Well, the “market” has decided. It says that 
Americans prefer to buy steel from overseas so 
long as steel made in this country is needlessly 
costly because of the obsolete way in which it is 
made. The right response to the “market” would 
be to build mills that are better than those in 
Germany or Japan — a deed which can, indeed, 
be done. 

BUT U.S. STEEL is not responding to that 
“market,” a market that speaks for the needs and 
the preferences of the American people. The new 
chairman is responding to the needs of share- 
holders whose interests do not coincide with the 
interests of America and its people. 

Shouldn’t the people have a voice in deciding 
which way this country goes — especially if those 
multi-billion dollar reserves that U.S. Steel has 
accumulated were made possible by generous tax 
treatments from Uncle Sam? 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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Human Suffering 
Behind a Statistic 

The 8.4 percent unemployment rate an- 
nounced by the government means that over 
9 million Americans are now out of work, and 
a million more have given up their search for 
a job. 

Mayors are particularly distressed by this 
high rate of unemployment because the unem- 
ployed — youth and adults — are concentrated in 
such large numbers in our cities. 

The unemployment rate is a statistic that re? 
flects human suffering among Americans. 

Our federal government has a responsibility 
for the millions of citizens who are victimized 
by current economic policies and conditions. 

The time has come for a moratorium on 
further federal budget cuts and for a re-exami- 
nation of the cuts that have already been made. 

— Mayor Helen Boosalis of Lincoln, Neb., 
president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 
commenting on the November unemployment 
report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 


Page Five 


'Old-Fashioned Economics' 


Reviving a ‘Bankrupt’ Policy 


“This is the price you have to pay for bringing 
down inflation.’’ — Deputy White House Press Sec- 
retary Larry Speakes, Dec, 4, 1981, on report that 
unemployment in the United States had jumped to 
8.4 percent in November, the highest rate in six 
years. 

^ 

“I don’t believe the alternative to inflation is 
recession. I think that’s old-fashioned economics. 
I don’t think that you have to trade unemploy- 
ment — and incidentally, President Carter as a 
candidate said that he would never fight inflation 
by using unemployment. President Carter in his 
present economic message has said that as a part 
of his fight against inflation, unemployment is 
going to be allowed to go up one to one-and-one- 
half or two percentage points. 

“Now, this is self-destructive, because for every 
single percentage point that you add to the un- 
employment rolls, you add 25 to 29 billion dollars 
to the federal deficit, both in the loss of revenue 


from those no longer working and in the benefits 
that go out to them.” — Candidate Ronald Reagan, 
League of Women Voters debate, Houston, Apr. 
23, 1980. 

* * * 

“Unemployment is not the answer tb^nflation. 
Unemployment means only lost jobs, and blacks, 
who are all too often the last hired, are usually 
fired first.” — Candidate Ronald Reagan, speech 
to the National Urban League, New York, Aug. 
5, 1980. 

* * 

“The Democratic Congress and the Carter Ad- 
ministration are espousing programs that candi- 
date Carter in 1976 said were inhumane: using 
recession, unemployment, high interest rates, and 
high taxes to fight inflation. The Democrats are 
now trying to stop inflation vrith a recession, a 
bankrupt policy which is throwing millions of 
Americans out of work.” — 1980 Republican Party 
Platform, adopted July 15, 1980, Detroit. 


New Biography 

Meany a Man for His Times 


George Meany and His Times— A 
Biography, hy Archie Robinson^ 445 
pages. Simon & Schuster ^ $18.75. 

A dvance copies of this major new biogra- 
- phy of George Meany announced for publi- 
cation in January 1982 by Simon & Schuster, 
were released during the centennial convention of 
the AFL-CIO in New York. 

Titled “George Meany and His Times,” the 
445-page book by Archie Robinson covers the 
career of the AFL-CIO president that spanned 
six decades and made him in the words of the 
publisher, “not only the architect of the AFL- 
CIO, its leader, its most articulate spokesman and 
its enduring symbol for 24 years, (but) also one 
of America’s most influential lobbyists for pro- 
gressive legislation and one of the world’s most 
controversial, outspoken and incorruptible public 
figures.” 

ROBINSON, WHO covered labor’s activities 
for nearly 40 years, first for the Detroit News and 
then for U.S. News & World Report, says the 
book is drawn as George Meany’s own story, told 
largely in his own words excerpted from taped 
interviews that began in late 1975 and ended in 
1979, only six months before his death. 

The book is based not only on the hundreds of 
hours the author spent with Meany himself, but 
on scores of additional interviews with the late 


federation president’s associates, with family mem- 
bers and with many who worked closely with him 
over the years. 

In addition, Robinson had access to unpub- 
lished documents, AFL-CIQ Executive Council 
minutes and the archives of the federation. 

The book is organized into 19 chapters, with 
all of the material in chronological order — ^be- 
cause that is the way Meany, with his phenome- 
nal, photographic memory, had it stored in his 
mind, Robinson says. 

IT EXPLORES his relations with eight U.S. 
Presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, 
reveals behind-the-scene maneuvers involving im- 
portant political and labor events, and tells why 
he took the actions and made the statements that 
made him unique among the leaders of his time. 

The book contains an extensive collection of 
photographs documenting the life of George 
Meany in public and private over the entire span 
of his 85 years. 


Copies of the book are available to union 
members and friends of labor at a reduced price 
of $12.50 each, which includes postage and han- 
dling, a 33-percent savings off the bookstore price. 
Orders must be accompanied by checks payable 
to “AFL-CIO Books” and should be sent to: 
AFL-CIO Books, P.O. Box 37437, Washington, 
D.C. 20013. Cash and COD orders will not be 
accepted. 


Job Loss Mounts 

Setting a Course for Disaster 


TF THE ADMINISTRATION continues on its 

present course, more than 25 million workers 
will suffer temporary or permanent job losses 
during 1982, AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy 
Oswald warned on Labor News Conference. 

At least 15 million Americans are now out of 
work or working only part-time because they 
can’t find full-time jobs, Oswald stressed. He said 
that the sharp jump in unemployment that has 
added 1.5 million men and women to the jobless 
rolls since July signals an even deeper impact in 
the months ahead, and that “nearly 50 million 
Americans will experience the effects — lost in- 
come and lost work opportunities.” 

Not only has the Administration’s economic 
game plan failed to produce the promised turn- 
around, but conditions “are actually getting 
worse” month after month, he asserted. 




-UNION LABEL AND SERVICE TRADES DEPT., AFL-CIO 


Oswald renewed the AFL-CIO’s call for fed- 
eral reinvolvement in job-creation and job-de- 
velopment efforts. He rejected the Administra- 
tion’s contention that those efforts had failed in 
the past. The fact is, he said, “public service em- 
ployment provided more than 250,000 jobs for 
people who could not find work in the private 
sector.” He said that the “public works programs 
that were incorporated very quickly in the 1975 
recession” were a major factor in shaping the 
recovery, and provided badly needed community 
facilities as well as jobs. 

THE PRIVATE SECTOR just hasn’t respond- 
ed to “take up the slack” created by the budget 
cuts that wiped out those jobs programs, Oswald 
said. He pointed out that there has been a sharp 
fall-off of private sector jobs over the last two 
months — more than 100,000 jobs lost in the auto 
industry, 40,000 in steel, and at least 20,000 each 
in lumber, textile and apparel. 

“Instead of a revitalization, we’ve had a great 
number of layoffs,” he declared, and “there is no 
single, bigger waste in our economy than unem- 
ployed workers sitting on the shelf, doing nothing.” 

Reporters questioning Oswald were Warren 
Brown of the Washington Post and Michael Pos- 
ner of Reuters news agency. Labor News Confer- 
ence, produced by the AFL-CIO as a public ser- 
vice, is broadcast weekly on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 


F rom the beginnings of commercial broadcasting in this 
country, the law has recognized that those who reap profits 
from their government-granted monopoly of television and radio 
frequencies have a certain responsibility to serve the public interest. 

But the principle that use of the public airwaves is also a public 
trust has been under siege by the Reagan Administration and even 
in the Congress. 

Under the banner of “deregulation” and “private enterprise” 
and even “free speech,” the Federal Communications Commission, 
now dominated by Reagan appointees, and Congress, heavily lob- 
bied by the broadcast industry, have been whittling away at rules 
providing for public accountability by broadcasters. 

Some recent examples: 

• Congress last summer eliminated the need for a potential 
owner of a radio or TV station to prove itself more deserving of 
a license than other applicants because it would better serve the 
community interest. Instead, initial licenses will be granted by 
lottery — a throw of the dice. 

• The FCC has severely weakened the incentive for radio and 
television stations to be accountable by extending broadcast 
licenses from three years to seven years. 

# The FCC has impaired its ability to determine whether radio 
stations are meeting public service standards by ending the re- 
quirement that they maintain a daily log of programming. 

UNFORTUNATELY, the worst may be yet to come. The FCC 
has asked Congress to repeal the Fairness Doctrine and the “equal 
time” provision of the Communications Act, the law that has 
governed broadcasting in this country since 1934. 

The Fairness Doctrine, which has been called a bill of rights for 
the viewing and listening public, requires broadcasters to provide 
time on the air for balanced presentation of controversial issues. 

Equal time means that if a station gives air time to a candidate 
for public office, aside from news coverage and paid ads, it must 
give the same amount of time to all other legally qualified candi- 
dates for that office. 

In addition, the FCC has proposed eliminating the requirement 
that individuals be allowed to reply to personal attacks on the air, 
a change which could open the door to character assassination and 
other abuses. 

TELEVISION AND radio can be unfair and superficial enough 
even with a Fairness Doctrine in its treatment of labor, of women, 
of minorities, and in its coverage, or lack of coverage, of vital 
issues. But without this protection for the public, and with their 
new seven-year licenses, station owners would be accountable to 
no one. 

The attack on the Fairness Doctrine is coming at a time when 
television and radio networks are beginning to broadcast so-called 
advocacy advertising. With the cost of both production and tele- 
vision air time zooming, such issue-targeted advertising practices 
will allow the wealthy groups and individuals to broadcast their 
views on the most influential of all media — ^television. 

Without the Fairness Doctrine, less well-endowed opponents of 
the messages carried through advocacy advertising would be left 
with no opportunity to voice their opposition on radio or television. 

BROADCAST INDUSTRY executives claim a First Admend- 
ment free speech privilege to use their monopoly of the limited 
number of broadcasting frequencies as they please — without re- 
gard to the Fairness Doctrine. 

But while the industry has never substantiated any real burden 
on its freedom of speech, repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and other 
proteptions would give all the freedom to the broadcasters and 
leave the public without recourse. 

Congress has a special responsibility to maintain the public’s 
access to the airwaves and to promote free and open debate. 



THE ECONOMIC COURSE set by the Administration will 
lead to temporary or permanent unemployment for more than 
25 million American workers in 1982, AFL-CIO Research 
Director Rudy Oswald, center, warned on Labor News Confer- 
ence. He was questioned by Warren Brown, left, of the Wash- 
ington Post and Michael Posner of Reuters. The AFL-CIO pro- 
duced public affairs program is aired weekly on Mutual radio. 



Page Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 


Hobbs Act Proposals Called Bid to Stifle Unions 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

suggested, is based on a belief “that the 
legislation will chill the exercise of the 
right to form and join unions, will intimi- 
date workers and will embolden anti-union 
employers in their efforts to crush orga- 
nizing efforts and strikes.” 

The radical right is using its campaign 
for the Hobbs Act amendments to raise 
funds to be used “to undermine collective 
bargaining,” Gold charged. 

Passage of the legislation, he warned, 
would mark “a serious departure from the 
principle of national labor policy that the 
federal government should not side with 
either management or labor during legiti- 
mate labor- disputes.” 

THE THURMOND bill would create 
new categories' of federal crime, including 
property destruction, that could be used 
against strikers. 

It would also nullify a 1973 Supreme 
Court decision that the Hobbs Act, which 
deals with such crimes as “extortion,” was 
not intended by Congress to apply to 
offenses committed in the course of a law- 
ful strike. 

The Justice Dept, told the subcommittee 
it strongly opposes the portion of the bill 
that would create new categories of federal 
crimes. It does favor overturning the 
Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law 
in the Enmons decision, thus applying the 
crime of extortion to acts of violence or 


property damage that take place during a 
labor dispute. 

But the witness. Assistant Attorney Gen. 
Jonathan C. Rose, acknowledged that the 
Justice Dept, did not know of any . crimes 
that have gone unprosecuted because of 
lack of Hobbs Act jurisdiction and has 
found no “reluctance” by state and local 
authorities to prosecute violence in labor 
disputes. 

GOLD TOLD the subcommittee, in re- 
sponse to a question, that the only purpose 
of the legislation is to “get the government 
on the employer’s side” in a labor dispute, 
“and we just resent the hell out of it.” 

A union seeking a pay raise is not trying 
to “extort” money from an employer. 
Gold stressed. But comparable attacks by 
employers or their agents against strikers 
wouldn’t be covered because they couldn’t 
be linked to the crime of extortion. 

IT’S UP TO the advocates to demon- 
strate a need for the legislation and that 
test hasn’t been met. Gold insisted. “States 
and localities are meeting their peacekeep- 
ing responsibilities.” 

Further, he stressed, “at a time when 
serious crimes are increasing and the fed- 
eral budget decreasing,” involving federal 
criminal law enforcement in labor-man- 
agement disputes makes no sense. A seri- 
ous enforcement effort would require crea- 
tion of a national police force, he told the 
Senate panel. 


Gold pointed out that misuse of the 
strike weapon for wrongful purposes is 
already a federal crime under the Hobbs 
Act, and that a number of other serious 
offenses such as the use of explosives dur- 
ing a strike are also punishable under 
other federal law. 

THE PROPOSED Hobbs Act amend- 
ment “will not close any enforcement 
gaps left open by either state, local or fed- 
eral laws,” Gold said. But some offenses 
normally treated as misdemeansors under 
local laws would be transformed into fed- 
eral felonies requiring long prison terms. 

Under the Thurmond bill, Gold told the 
subcommittee, the Hobbs Act would be 
enlarged to embrace “minor misconduct, 
picket line affrays in the heat of the 
moment and any other misuse of force 
motivated by fear or animus by union 
members during a strike.” 

Such an expansion of the Hobbs Act, 
he said, “loses all touch with the reason 
for providing federal jurisdiction over ex- 
tortion in the first place — ^to check racke- 
teering activity.” 

Gold reminded the Senate panel that 
picketing is a form of free speech, that 
“the men and women of the American 
labor movement are law-abiding citizens,” 
and that all available evidence refutes the 
assertion ‘“endlessly repeated by the bill’s 
supporters that ‘union violence’ is a per- 
vasive national problem.” 


Rose, the assistant attorney general 
who testified for the Justice Dept., told 
the subcommittee that portions of the de- 
partment’s prepared testimony had been 
modified in light of “concerns leaders of 
organized labor raised” at the recent White 
House meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive 
Council with President Reagan and his top 
aides. 

ROSE WAS repeatedly pressed as to 
why the Justice Dept, wanted to overturn 
the 1973 Supreme Court decision if it had 
found no need for a broader law, and why 
it sought additional jurisdiction when Ad- 
ministration budget cuts and policy deci- 
sions were drastically reducing its ability 
to deal with such clearly federal areas of 
concern as interstate organized crime and 
drug rings. 

Rose responded that the Justice Dept, 
considered the Supreme Court decision 
erroneous in its interpretation of the Hobbs 
Act, but was not “taking the initiative” in 
seeking a change. 

Reed Larson, president of the National 
Right to Work Committee, and officials of 
two construction contractor associations 
argued for the entire Thurmond bill. , 

It is needed, Larson insisted, to deal 
with the “growing problem of union cor- 
ruption and violence.” The Supreme Court 
decision, he claimed, has “emboldened un- 
ion officials” to commit “murder” and 
“manslaughter.” 



LABOR CENTENNIAL WEEK was marked by the city of Corpus Christi, 
Tex., to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the AFL-CIO. Participating in 
the proclamation ceremony are, front row from left. Mayor Luther Jones; 
Penny Dudley, Government Employees; Becky Moeller, vice president, Coastal 
Bend Central Labor Council; and Linda Bridges, Teachers. Back row from left: 
Manual Narvaez, Steelworkers; Larry Vandeventer, Communications Workers; 
Henry Villarreal, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Walter 
Nobles, Jr., CWA; and Joe Quesada, Carpenters. 

Drop in Food Prices Slows 
Climb of Wholesale Index 


Unions Denounce Tampering 
With Consumer Price Index 


Wholesale prices moderated in Novem- 
ber, rising five-tenths of 1 percent over 
the month, as lower food prices offset 
higher energy costs, the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported. 

If the November rate held for 12 straight 
months, the increase would be 6.3 per- 
cent, BLS said. Officials compute the an- 
nual rate by compounding a monthly 
figure that is more precise than the 
rounded-off five-tenths of 1 percent that 
is published. 

AS IT IS, the November increase in 
the government’s measure of wholesale 

New Contract Ratified 
At Frontier Airlines 

Chicago — Some 2,700 members of the 
Air Line Employees overwhelmingly rati- 
fied a new agreement with Frontier Air- 
lines that will provide a 36-percent salary 
increase over a 30-month period. 

ALEA President Victor J. Herbert said 
that the pact will raise the base salary of 
10-year station agents from $21,300 to 
$29,580 a year over the life of the agree- 
ment. 

The contract is retroactive to Jan. 1, 
when the old agreement expired, and repre- 
sents productivity increases and adjust- 
ments to keep up with living costs. 


prices for finished goods — ^the producer 
price index — lifted the index 7.1 percent 
above the year-earlier level. 

Food prices dropped five-tenths of 1 
percent over the month, the result of 
ample crops and high levels of pork and 
beef production. Energy costs rose nine- 
tenths of 1 percent, the sharpest increase 
since April. The November increase was 
mostly the result of the recent decision of 
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting 
Countries to set a unified price for crude 
oil. 

Energy prices had fallen four-tenths of 
1 percent in October. The increase in 
November was due to rises in prices of 
gasoline and natural gas, BLS said. Home 
heating oil costs, however, continued to 
drop. 

Among changes in food prices, eggs 
fell after rising in October while milled 
rice prices were off more than 9 percent 
for the second straight month. Prices were 
up more than 18 percent for fresh fruit, 
while the cost of soft drinks, roasted cof- 
fee and refined sugar also advanced con- 
siderably. 

PRICES FOR goods other than food 
and energy climbed eight-tenths of 1 per- 
cent after a 1 percent rise in October. 
Those increases were attributed to higher 
new car prices, which advanced nine-tenths 
of 1 percent in November, following a 
sharp 4.2 percent rise in October. 


(Continued from Page 1) 

The BLS completely bypassed the La- 
bor Research Advisory Council when it 
decided to scrap homeowner costs as a 
component of the price indexes, Oswald 
noted. The union advisory body antici- 
pated only a BLS study of the feasibility 
of such a change. “It now appears that 
feasibility has been determined in advance 
of the study,” Oswald protested. 

HE AND OTHER union witnesses 
spelled out in detail labor’s technical ob- 
jections to substituting a rental equivalence 
statistical measure for actual home owner- 
ship costs. 

Oswald noted also that changing the 
calculation won’t necessarily bring down 
the CPI level. If the change had been in 
effect in October, he pointed out, the price 
index for all urban consumers would have 
risen by seven-tenths of 1 percent over 
the month. The actual increase was four- 
tenths of 1 percent because it happened 
to be a month when “home prices fell, 
mortgage rates stabilized, and rents con- 
tinued upward.” 

The United States “is the largest na- 
tion of homeowners in the world,” Oswald 
noted. But under the planned changes, the 
consumer price index “is going to say 
that all these houses are rented.” 

ALSO PROTESTING the BLS change 
in the price measurements were repre- 
sentatives of the Food & Commercial 
Workers, Auto Workers, Machinists and 
Steelworkers. 

Arnold Mayer, vice president and gov- 
ernment affairs director of the Food & 
Commercial Workers, stressed that “sta- 
tistical sleight-of-hand” won’t cure infla- 
tion. But it can “make it even more diffi- 
cult for workers and retirees to cope.” 

Changing the cost-of-living calculation, 
Mayer suggested, enables “a politically 
sensitive move such as cutting social secu- 
rity benefits” to be achieved “by executive 
fiat,” without the need for legislation. 

UAW ECONOMIST Lydia Fischer said 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics injected 
the home ownership component into the 
price indexes to reflect the reality that 
nearly two-thirds of households are home- 
owners rather than renters. Before World 
War II, most families rented their dwell- 
ings. 

The BLS should keep its market basket 
mix in line with present-day conditions, 
Fischer urged, rather than switch over 


to a hypothetical “equivalency” figure. 

Machinists Economist William E. Bittle 
noted that COLA provisions in union con- 
tracts “did not come freely or easily,” 
and most were “paid for one way or 
another” through bargaining table trade- 
offs of other improvements. 

“WHEN BLS economists start to tam- 
per with it,” he stressed, they’re tampeu- 
ing with an index that determines how 
much cash people will have “to put gro- 
ceries on the table.” . , 

Substituting a rental equivalent for 
home ownership, Bittle testified, “leaves 
little doubt as to who is being ‘trickled on’ 
under the Administration’s trickle-down 
economic theories.” 

James Smith, assistant to the president 
of the Steelworkers, noted that the Bureau 
of Tabor Statistics “has made a ^ signifi- 
cant contribution to stable relations 
between management and labor . . . be- 
cause workers were convinced of the in- 
tegrity of the BLS.” Thus, they and their 
unions have been willing to accept collec- 
tive bargaining decisions based on the CPI 
and other measurements. 

“This confidence has been widely jolted 
by the Reagan Administration’s decision 
to change the CPI methodology,” Smith 
said. “It can be further undermined,” he 
warned, “if the BLS is forced to abandon 
other services of value to workers as part 
of the current orgy of budget slashing.” 

OSWALD’S TESTIMONY notdd that 
budget cuts over the past two years “have 
fallen particularly hard” on the BLS Office 
of Wages & Industrial Relations. Data 
compiled by this office are accepted by 
both parties in bargaining as “reliable and 
credible,” he stressed. And while manage- 
ment can usually get wage data through its 
industry associations, comparable non- 
government information isn’t available to 
unions. 

BLS wage surveys by area and industry 
are also used in connection with prevail- 
ing wage laws^ Oswald noted. A series on 
union wage rates in the building trades 
dates from 1910, and provides “both 
inter-area and inter-union comparisons.” 

Oswald urged restoration of $4 million 
to the BLS ' budget to continue its wage 
data collection and asked Congress to put 
back $400,000 to allow continuation of 
the “family budget” series, which since 
1945 has shown in dollars and cents the 
total living costs of worker families in 
various parts of the country at three dif- 
ferent standards of living. 


Pmge Seven 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 



IRVING BROWN, the AFL-CIO’s European representative, is toasted by 
Federation President Lane Kirkland and President Heinz Oskar Vetter of the 
German Confederation of Trade Unions following his decoration with the 
German Federal Republic’s Order of Merit. Brown was cited for his contributions 
to the development of German-American ties, particularly trade union relations. 

German Government Honors 
Irving Brown’s Contribution 


Reagan’s Tax 
Plan Termed 
Costly Drain 

Exclusions and special benefits written 
into the federal tax code have distorted the 
concept of taxation based on ability to 
pay, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray 
Denison told the House Rules Committee. 

Denison said labor would welcome a 
stronger spotlight on the impact of so- 
called tax expenditures on the federal 
budget. Not all tax expenditures are un- 
justified loopholes, Denison said. But 
“most of the costly and inequitable pro- 
visions in the tax code” fall into the defi- 
nition of tax expenditures. 

TAX FORGIVENESS features have in- 
creased dramatically, starving the govern- 
ment of needed revenue and severely 
limiting “the nation’s ability to solve its 
growing economic and social problems,” 
Denison stressed. 

He said the Administration tax bill, 
which Congress enacted last summer, con- 
tributed significantly to the “rapidly 
spreading economic mess.” 

Denison expressed reservations, how- 
ever, about a bill being considered by the 
committee which would require Congress 
to write a binding ceiling on “tax expendi- 
tures” into the budget resolutions it adopts 
each year. The resultant changes to com- 
ply with such a ceiling would not neces- 
sarily be in the direction of tax reform, 
he suggested, and could spawn even greater 
inequities. 

The AFL-CIO does endorse “efforts to 
give the tax expenditure budget more visi- 
bility,” Denison testified., “We feel that 
better and more timely information on 
beneficiaries of particular tax expenditures 
and their needs would improve tax policy.” 

. . HE URGED ALSO frequent analysis 
on whether tax expenditures that were 
enacted as “incentives” to encourage a 
particular activity have actually achieved 
their purpose. 

Such studies, he suggested, could “pro- 
vide some insights as to the effects of the 
new depreciation system on investment, 
productivity and job creation; the impact 
of the interest income exclusions on the 
level of savings, as well as the costs and 
effects of the various tax provisions that 
subsidize the global activities of U.S. mul- 
tinational corporations.” 


Rio de Janeiro — The Flight Engineers’ 
33rd annual convention denounced the 
report of a special presidential panel 
earlier this year that found the McDon- 
nell Douglas Super 80 safe for flight with 
only a two-member cockpit crew. 

The task force also concluded that other 
new generation aircraft soon to be mar- 
keted with cockpits designed for only two 
crew members appeared to be “poten- 
tially” safe, a position that the 7,000- 
member FEIA also takes issue with. 

“SINCE THE task force report, the 
operations and engineering departments of 
the airlines have been looking at how to 
operate the 767 with two-man crews,” 
FEIA President William A. Gill, Jr., said 
in his report to the delegates. “All is not 
well with many in these departments. 
Problems are beginning to creep up. 

“Does it really make sense safety-wise 

Brownie H. Searle Dies, 
Eklited Chattanooga Paper 

Dallas — Brownie H. Searle, former edi- 
tor of the Labor World published by the 
Chattanooga AFL-CIO, died recently here. 

Mrs. Searle edited the central labor 
council paper from 1950 to 1959, and in 
that period served for six years as a vice 
president of the International Labor Press 
Association. She had assisted her first 
husband, Tom Cuthbert, in publishing the 
paper since 1935. 


New York — Irving Brown, the AFL- 
CIO’s representative in Europe, was hon- 
ored here by the Federal Republic of Ger- 
many for his contributions over the years 
to the development of relations between 
the German and American people, particu- 
larly in the area of union relations. 

Brown was awarded the FRG’s Order 
of Merit by the German Consul General 
in New York, Hartmut Schulze-Boysen, 
on behalf of President Karl Carstens. 

IN HIS REMARKS, Schulze-Boysen 
welcomed Brown “as someone whose very 
name stands for the good and solid rela- 
tionship between organized labor in our 
two countries.” Knowing that a demo- 
cratic revival of Germany after World War 
II would not be possible without an effec- 
tive labor union movement. Brown paved 
the way for German unions to return to 
the international labor community, Schulze- 
Boysen observed. 

“By drawing the DGB (German Con- 
federation of Trade Unions) closer to- 
gether, you have contributed to the last- 
ing alliance between Germany and Amer- 
ica,” he said. 


and economy-wise to fly the 767 with only 
a two-pilot crew, they are now asking 
themselves? Time will tell.” 

In its presentation to the panel, the 
union pointed out that the heavier work- 
load in the computerized cockpits of the 
new aircraft, requires a third crew member 
for an “extra margin of safety.” FEIA also 
pointed out that no technical testing was 
conducted before the panel’s decision was 
made. Gill told delegates that the union 
will monitor airline operations using the 
two-member crews. 

“IF FEIA WAS right when we testified 
that three was safer than two, then the 
true-life tests will prove it,” he said. 

Other resolutions adopted at the three- 
day convention opposed airline deregula- 
tion and supported striking members of 
the Professional Air Traffic Controllers 
Organization. 

A unique worldwide union with chap- 
ters in 20 countries, the FEIA also voted 
to raise the per capita tax $1 to $11.50 
per member per month. 

GILL WAS unanimously re-elected to 
his ninth two-year term. Also re-elected 
by acclamation were First Vice President 
Roger C. Bricknell of Britain and Donald 
F. Thielke, vice president for air safety and 
engineering, Karl F. Anderson has another 
year remaining in his two-year term as 
executive vice president and secretary- 
treasurer. 


Accepting the award for himself and 
the American labor movement. Brown 
said cooperation between the AFL-CIO 
and the DGB will be further strengthened 
with the federation’s reaffiliation with the 
International Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions in January. 

AT A DINNER following the decora- 
tion ceremony, DGB President Heinz Os- 
kar Vetter recalled post-war attempts by 
some Western leaders to dismantle Ger- 
man industry, a plan rejected by the Amer- 
ican labor movement which supported a 
democratic Germany with free and inde- 
pendent trade unions. Brown was instru- 
mental in reviving the German labor move- 
ment and forging close links between Ger- 
man unions and the AFL in the aftermath 
of World War II, Vetter noted. 

“The DGB is certainly a very self-con- 
scious organization, standing on its own 
feet,” Vetter said, “but without the assis- 
tance of our American colleagues, to stand 
up again would have been much harder.” 

VETTER added that he looked forward 
to the return of the AFL-CIO to the 
ICFTU, which it helped found in 1949, 
because “economic and social problems 
which today in particular face the working 
class in Western industrialized nations 
need common solutions.” 

In a congratulatory message. Sec. of 
State Alexander M. Haig, Jr., described 
Brown as “an eminent emissary of Ameri- 
can values, of the American labor move- 
ment, and of universal democratic prin- 
ciples. His advocacy of the cause of free 
trade unionism has made him a distin- 
guished servant of the international labor 
movement.” 


Congress didn’t intend to make federal 
courts the judge of whether union and 
management negotiators arrived at a “rea- 
sonable” agreement at the bargaining table, 
the AFL-CIO insisted in a brief filed with 
the Supreme Court. 

The case involves the United Mine 
Workers, an unaffiliated union, but the 
AFL-CIO submitted a legal argument to 
the court because the outcome could affect 
the basic principles of free collective bar- 
gaining. 

A 2-1 DECISION by the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia, 
which the AFL-CIO asked the Supreme 
Court to overturn, nullified a section of a 
national contract between the Mine Work- 
ers and the bituminous coal operators deal- 
ing with eligibility for survivors health 
benefits. 

The appellate court had concluded that 
the contract made an “arbitrary” distinc- 
tion between survivors of retired miners 


Bishops Back 
Union Rights 
At Hospitals 

Catholic health care facilities have the 
moral obligation to recognize the rights 
of their workers to organize and to bargain 
collectively, a pastoral letter by the Amer- 
ican Catholic Bishops declared. 

These employers have an indispensible 
responsibility to deal justly with their 
workers on wages, fringe benefits and 
other matters that affect their lives and 
futures, the bishops said. 

‘THIS CALLS for full recognition of 
the rights of employees to organize and 
bargain collectively with the institution 
through whatever association or organiza- 
tion they choose,” the pastoral letter 
stated. It suggested that workers have the 
right to select the bargaining representa- 
tive without “unjust pressures” from their 
employers or existing labor organizations. 

The pastoral letter, which took the 
bishops several years to formulate, is the 
first to spell out their comprehensive posi- 
tion on health care. It is directed at all 
American Catholics. 

The section of the letter addressing the 
rights and responsibilities of employers 
and employees of Catholic health care in- 
stitutions quoted extensively from Pope 
John Paul IPs recent encyclical, Laborem 
Exercens. 

In addressing the role of organized la- 
bor, the Pope noted that “it is clear that 
even if it is because of their work that 
people unite to secure their rights, their 
union remains a constructive factor of 
social order and solidarity, and it is im- 
possible to ignore.” 

THE PASTORAL letter also outlined 
responsibilities of workers “who care for 
the sick in a Christian facility.” Under- 
lining the Catholic church’s commitment 
to human dignity and basic human rights, 
the bishops stressed that “workers must 
take no action that endangers the very 
life of the patients in the health care fa- 
cility where they may be employed.” 

On this point, the letter quoted the 
Pope’s encyclical that said in part: “Work- 
ers should be assured the right to strike, 
without being subjected to personal penal 
sanctions for taking part in a strike. While 
admitting that it is a legitimate means, we 
must at the same time emphasize that a 
strike remains, in a sense, an extreme 
means. It must not be abused.” 

The bishops also addressed the role of 
government in developing national policy 
to provide adequate health care for all. 

“PRIVATE AGENCIES and institu- 
tions alone are unable to develop a com- 
prehensive national health policy or to 
insure that all Americans have adequate 
health insurance, or to command the vast 
resources necessary to implement an ef- 
fective national health policy,” they said. 


and survivors of miners who died while 
employed that resulted in inequities. It 
held that the contract provision violated 
the fiduciary responsibility obligation im- 
posed by the Taft-Hartley Act for em- 
ployee benefit trusts. 

In its brief, the AFL-CIO stressed that 
the Taft-Hartley provisions are intended 
to assure that trust funds are used to bene- 
fit workers on whose behalf contributions 
have been made and not diverted for pri- 
vate gain or unlawful purposes. 

CONGRESS DID NOT intend to im- 
pose the court’s judgment of what is “best” 
for workers in place of the decisions made 
in the give-and-take of the bargaining pro- 
cess, the AFL-CIO said. 

The “fundamental policy” of federal la- 
bor law, the AFL-CIO brief contended, “is 
that of free collective bargaining, in which 
the government prescribes the procedure — 
but not the substantive result — of collec- 
tive bargaining.” 


Flight Engineers Denounce 
Two-Person Cockpit Crew 


Court’s Voiding of Contract 
Called Threat to Bargaining 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 12, 1981 


To Ease Recession 

Import Tide Raises Call 
For Curbs, Worker Aid 


The AFL-CIO pressed Congress to stem 
the flood of job-destroying imports and 
patch up a badly battered program of 
trade adjustment assistance for workers 
who have already lost their jobs. 

Emergency curbs on imports can help 
bring the United States out of serious re- 
cession and put Americans back to work, 
AFL-CIO Research Director Rudy Oswald 
said. 

HE REMINDED members of a House 
Ways & Means subcommittee that plant 
shutdowns taking place across the coun- 
try “are not a sign of Christmas holidays, 
but rather of a national tragedy.” 

Earlier, at hearings by a Senate Finance 
subcommittee, AFL-CIO Legislative Rep. 
Stephen Koplan and other union witnesses 
testified on the abandonment of the trade 
adjustment assistance program that a pre- 
vious Congress had erected for workers 
made jobless by increased imports. 

Congress earlier this year used budget 
shortcuts to enact Administration pro- 
posals that virtually eliminated the special 
unemployment benefits the law had pro- 
vided, severely tightened eligibility re- 
quirements and slashed funding to about 
one-fifth of last year’s level. 

EVEN WITH the drastically reduced 
funding levels, the union representatives 
noted, Congress has thus far failed to ap- 
propriate $ 1 1 2 million budgeted for train- 
ing, job search and relocation. 

A bill introduced by Subcommittee 
Chairman John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) 
would rectify one of the damaging changes 
made by Congress. It would restore the 
eligibility language of the previous law, 
allowing adjustment assistance when im- 
ports have “contributed importantly” to a 
worker’s unemployment. 

Koplan and the other union witnesses 
urged the subcommittee to support a 
broader bill introduced by Sen. Daniel 
Patrick Moynihan fD-N.Y.). 

THE MOYNIHAN bill incorporates 
the Danforth measure and goes on to 
make training benefits an entitlement, 
rather than subject to availability of funds. 

Foreign Steel 


It extends coverage to employees of parts 
and services industries who also have been 
put out of work. It also remedies some 
inequities in previous work requirements 
and assures that workers won’t be cut off 
from assistance if they turn down an un- 
suitable job at the minimum wage. 

Steelworkers Legislative Rep. John Pow- 
derly told the Senate panel that even under 
the old law, the Labor Dept, has been 
rejecting a big majority of petitions for 
adjustment assistance. The changes made 
by Congress would leave little left of the 
program, he said. 

Evelyn Dubrow, vice president and leg- 
islative director of the Ladies’ Garment 
Workers, said many garment industry 
workers are denied eligibility because their 
work history has been interrupted by in- 
dustry patterns of periodic shutdowns or 
seasonal layoffs. 

LEONARD PAGE, assistant general 
counsel of the Auto Workers, said the 
Reagan Administration’s welfare “safety 
net” simply isn’t big enough to hold the 
many thousands of families left destitute 
by the curtailment of trade adjustment 
benefits. 

At the House hearings, Oswald stressed 
the AFL-CIO’s strong belief that the 
United States must retain its industrial 
base and have a “diversified manufactur- 
ing, agricultural and service economy.” 

He protested the Administration’s at- 
tempt to portray groups concerned with 
the damage caused by imports as “special 
interests.” 

IN TODAY’S world, Oswald noted, 
“free trade does not exist. Other nations 
in the world do not apologize for pursu- 
ing their national interest.” But the United 
States is assailed “when suggestions are 
made to move in U.S. national interests.” 

He urged Congress to provide “realistic 
adjustment assistance.” Because of gen- 
erous trade policies, Oswald testified, “mil- 
lions of Americans have lost their jobs 
through no fault of their own . . . Deva- 
stated communities and eroded tax bases 
dot the U.S. landscape.” ' 

Subsidies Sap 



Soviets Assailed on Conduct 
Leading to Sakharov Fast 


The “vindictive, mean-spirited behavior” 
of the Soviet government in its initial re- 
fusal to allow the bride of Andrei Sak- 
harov’s stepson to leave the USSR and 
join her husband in the United States “de- 
serves universal condemnation,” the AFL- 
CIO declared. 

“Although we are happy and relieved by 
the news that Dr. Sakharov and his wife, 
Yelena G. Bonner, have ended their suc- 
cessful hunger strike, we are outraged that 
they were forced to this extreme action,” 
. Federation President Lane Kirkland said. 

“THE FREE MOVEMENT of people 
and ideas is a right proclaimed in the Hel- 
sinki accords, which the Soviet Union 
signed, and should not require for its im- 
plementation the ordeal through which Dr. 
Sakharov and his wife have passed.” 

U.S. Jobs 


Yelizaveta Aleksey eva, who is married 
by proxy to Alexey Semyonov, Bonner’s 
son by a former marriage, had sought to 
join her husband in Newton, Mass. When 
the Soviet authorities refused to permit 
her exit, Sakharov and his wife began 
their hunger strike in protest on Nov. 22. 

Sakharov, who was awarded the Nobel 
Prize for his defense of human rights in 
the Soviet Union, charged that the 26- 
year-old woman was being punished for 
his dissident activities. 

SOVIET AUTHORITIES relented and 
told Alekseyeva on Dec. 9 that she could 
leave the USSR to join her husband, now 
a graduate student at Brandeis University. 
Wire services quoted her saying that Sak- 
harov and Bonner had ended their fast in 
Gorki, after being told that she would be 
allowed to emigrate. The physicist was 
banished to Gorki, an industrial city on 
the Volga River, in early 1980 because of 
his outcries over Soviet human rights vio- 
lations. 


The Steelworkers and a steel industry 
trade association called on President Rea- 
gan to take action against a new surge 
of foreign government-subsidized specialty 
steel imports from seven countries. 

In a petition filed with U.S. Trade Rep. 
William Brock, the USWA and the Spe- 
cialty Steel Industry charged that import 
pentration by government-owned and sub- 
sidized steel operations in the seven coun- 
tries is causing severe injury to American 
producers and their workers. 

THE SEVEN countries named in the 
petition are Belgium, France, Italy, Britain, 
Austria, Brazil and Sweden — all signers of 



a subsidies code under the General Agree- 
ment on Tariffs & Trade (GATT). 

The charges were brought under Section 
301 of the U.S. Trade Act which forbids 
unfair trade practices stich as export sub- 
sidies. 

USWA President Lloyd McBride noted 
at a press conference announcing the filing 
of the petition that well over 20 percent 
of the workers in the domestic specialty 
steel industry are unemployed — more than 
double the national jobless rate. 

“THIS TRAGIC loss of jobs and dis- 
placement of our people did not come 
about because our steelworkers are less 
efficient or less productive than foreign 
workers,” McBride said. 

“But our workers cannot compete, any 
more than American industries can com- 
pete, against the massive subsidization of 
foreign steel mills by their governments,” 
he stressed. “This is not competition at all. 
It is the penalization of our people for 
being the most productive, the most effi- 
cient, the hardest working.” 

Eugene Mach, chairman of the trade 
association’s committee on tool and stain- 
less steel, said the U.S. specialty steel in- 
dustry is recognized as the technological 
leader by other countries. 

“BUT NO MATTER how efficient we 
are,” Mach said, “foreign companies can 
always undercut us on price because al- 
most all of them are either owned out- 
right or are heavily subsidized by their 
governments.” 

As examples, he noted that Britain’s 
steel industry is 79 percent government- 
owned; Italy’s 57 percent, and Sweden’s 
59 percent. 


Specialty steel imports climbed sharply 
in 1981, rising from 29,000 net tons in 
the first quarter to 5 1 ,000 tons in the third 
quarter. 

American producers have charged that 
foreign companies were able to capture an 
increasing share of the U.S. by under- 
cutting the prices of domestic producers 
by as much as 54 percent. 

THE PETITIONERS warned that the 
domestic specialty steel industry appears to 
be headed back to the conditions it faced 
in 1975 when nearly half of its workforce 
was laid off because of import penetration. 

Conditions improved after, the United 
States imposed a three-year limitation in 
1976 on imports of tool steel and certain 
stainless steel products. In mid- 1979 a 
phase-out began, and all import restric- 
tions were lifted in February 1980. 

The petition to Brock is one of several 
avenues of relief available to the specialty 
steel industry. If Brock accepts the peti- 
tion, he is required to begin consultation 
with the seven foreign governments in an 
effort to work out a remedy. * 

SHOULD THERE be no remedy re- 
sulting from the talks, the President has 
the authority under U.S. trade law to im- 
pose duties and other restrictions or sus- 
pend concessions under multilateral trade 
agreements. 

Warning that foreign countries are 
dumping their unemployment on the 
United States with their subsidiized prod- 
ucts, McBride said “it is time for the Pres- 
ident to insist that other countries abide 
by the same rules that our workers and 
industries must abide by.” 


The Sakharovs were in the 13th day of 
their hunger strike when Izvestia, the gov- 
ernment newspaper, announced that they 
had been taken to a hospital for medical 
help to avoid complications in their health. 

The hunger strike caused an interna- 
tional furor, with governments and human 
rights groups around the world calling for 
the Soviets to meet Sakharov’s demands. 

IN WASHINGTON, Sen. Daniel P. 
Moynihan (D-N.Y.), chief sponsor of a 
unanimous Senate resolution asking the 
Soviets to release Alekseyeva, said her re- 
lease “is a result of the Sakharov’s cour- 
age and the worldwide demand for de- 
cency.” 

Sen. Paul Tson^as (D-Mass.) and other 
congressional leaders sent a letter to So- 
viet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin urg- 
ing “a prompt and humane resolution of 
this wrenching affair,” and Rep. Timothy 
Wirth (D-Colo.) introduced a resolution in 
the House accusing Soviet authorities of 
“maliciously persecuting” Sakharov “for 
his tireless advocacy of human rights.” 

Flight Attendants Voting 
On Texas Airlines Pact 

The Flight Attendants reached tentative 
agreement with Texas International Air- 
lines on a new 37-month contract provid- 
ing for wage increases and fringe-benefit 
improvements. 

Details of the pact were withheld until 
members vote on acceptance of the agree- 
ment. The mail ballot is expected to be 
completed by Dec. 18. 

The airline and the union had been in 
negotiations since July 15, 1980, and in 
mediation since July 29 of this year. 





American Labor Vows Support 


For Poland’s 



Workers 


' v'<-- ^ i ; f ' s s 

'I, '• lif ",'SS^iXiO^rl^ 



CONTINUED, DETERMINED SUPPORT for Poland’s headquarters. Donahue and other speakers denounced the 

Solidarity trade union federation was assured by AFL-CIO imposition of martial rule in Poland, suspension of Solidar- 

Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue at a rally at federation ity’s activities, and the jailing of thousands of union leaders. 



Vol. XXVI Saturday, December 19, 1981 No. 50 


Benefit Floor Restored 
For Current Retirees 


By David L. Perlman 

Congress remedied part of the damage 
inflicted on the social security system by 
the Administration-dictated budget cuts it 
enacted earlier this year and adjourned 
until Jan. 25, when the second session 
convenes. 

It adopted a compromise bill which re- 
tains the $122-a-month minimum social 
security benefit for some 3 million persons 
who were about to have their payments 
slashed, but which also takes some back- 
ward steps. 

AFL-CIO SOCIAL SECURITY Direc- 
tor Bert Seidman especially deplored the 
decision by a House-Senate conference 
committee to eliminate the minimum bene- 
fit for persons who become eligible for 
retirement or survivorship payments after 
Dec. 31. 

Many low-paid workers will be penal- 
ized by that action, Seidman protested. 

“Also unfortunate,” he said, was the 
decision to make the first six months of 
sick pay subject to the social security pay- 
roll tax, “thus placing an added financial 
burden on workers at a time of reduced 
income and high medical expenses.” 

ON THE PLUS side, Seidman noted, 
the final version of the legislation main- 
tains the family benefit entitlements of 
present law. 

The Senate version would have penal- 
ized both large families and low-wage 
earners. It would have set a ceiling on 
total family benefits of 150 percent of the 
worker’s primary insurance amount or 85 
percent of average indexed lifetime month- 
ly earnings, whichever was lower. 

In a letter to House-Senate conferees, 
the AFL-CIO had protested that the effect 
would be to reduce benefits “among those 
who need them the most.” Large families 
could have received no more than a retired 
couple under the Senate plan. 

Included in the bill cleared for the 
President’s signature is authority for bor- 


rowing among the various social security 
trust funds to deal with temporary fluctua- 
tions when one fund shows a surplus and 
another is underfinanced. But the author- 
ity extends only through the 1982 calendar 
year. 

Additional action to bolster social secu- 
rity funding should be taken by Congress 
next year before the borrowing authority 
expires, Seidman urged. 

A bipartisan 15-member task force has 
been named by President Reagan and con- 
gressional leaders to make recommenda- 
tions for dealing with the funding problem. 

As a practical matter, the minimum 
benefit was in the process of a gradual 
phaseout. Congress in 1977 froze the 
minimum at $122 a month so that its 

(Continued on Page 8) 


At President Reagan’s insistence. Con- 
gress adopted a second round of budg- 
get cuts that will compel further retrench- 
ment in nearly all of the government’s 
non-military programs. 

The latest slash was embodied in a reso- 
lution providing stopgap funding for gov- 
ernment agencies whose appropriations 
have not yet cleared Congress. 

IT WOULD compel an additional $4 
billion in new spending cuts for the fiscal 
year that started last Oct. 1 , based on a 4- 
percent across-the-board reduction for all 
but a few exempted functions. On some 
programs labor considers important, the 
cuts were substantially greater. 

Republicans described the measure as a 
compromise since the spending reduction 
was less than Reagan had proposed last 
September. But its impact will be far more 
than the indicated 4 percent because the 
cuts will have to be absorbed during the 
balance of the fiscal year. 


Labor Urges 
Tightening 
Election Law 

The AFL-CIO urged Congress to tighten 
rather than loosen limits on contributions 
to congressional candidates and to main- 
tain an independent Federal Election Com- 
mission to enforce campaign laws. 

A statement submitted to the Senate 
Rules Committee stressed the AFL-CIO’s 
concern that large contributions have be- 
come increasingly significant in the politi- 
cal process despite efforts by Congress to 
curb abuses. 

THE NUMBER of business-related 
political action committees (PACs) has in- 
creased tenfold since 1974, the AFL-CIO 
noted, and accounted for $35 million in 
contributions to candidates for the House 
and Senate in the 1980 elections. 

“These PACs are merely the alter ego 
of small groups of business executives and 
professional people who also make large 
contributions of their own,” the AFL-CIO 
said. “The result is that the already dispro- 
portionate influence which these wealthy 
individuals have on the political process is 
further augmented.” 

The statement reiterated the AFL-CIO’s 
preference for public financing of congres- 
sional elections and said it would “have 
the same positive result” that public financ- 

(Continued on Page 7) 


The continuing funding resolution had 
to be enacted before Congress could ad- 
journ, and the House Democratic leader- 
ship tried to compel Reagan to accept a 
smaller reduction. Reagan had vetoed an 
earlier version because it didn’t meet his 
specifications. 

ON THE KEY vote, however, 36 “boll 
weevil” Democrats voted against their 
party’s position and only three “gypsy 
moth” Republican moderates crossed the 
other way. The Republican substitute was 
then adopted and passed by the Senate 
intact. 

In the Republican-controlled Senate, 
every attempt to modify the new round of 
Reagan budget cuts was handily beaten 
back. 

Typical were two rollcalls appearing in 
this issue of the AFL-CIO News on 
Page 6. 

On one. Senators Edward M. Kennedy 
(D-Mass.) and Donald W. Riegle, Jr., 


Crackdown 
On Unions 
Condemned 

By James M. Shevis 

The AFL-CIO issued a swift condem- 
nation of the Polish Communist Party 
crackdown on Solidarnosc (Solidarity), and 
pledged its “continued, determined sup- 
port” of the 16-month-old, independent 
trade union federation. 

“By imposing martial law, banning the 
activities of Solidarity and its affiliated 
unions, and jailing many of their leaders, 
the Polish government is seeking to de- 
prive the Polish people of their strongest 
instrument for democratic progress and to 
stamp out the spark of freedom,” the 
federation charged. 

“AMID THIS new assault on Polish 
liberty, American workers reach out to 
their brothers and sisters in Poland. We 
renew our pledge to assist Solidarity and 
its members by all the moral, financial, and 
physical means at our disposal.” 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said 
that in its support of the Polish workers 
the federation will cooperate fully with 
the International Confederation of Free 
Trade Unions and all other associations 
and members of the international free 
trade union movement in taking every 
possible legal action in support of Solidar- 
ity. The ICFTU immediately filed a formal 
complaint against the Polish government 
with the International Labor Organization, 
a specialized agency of the United Na- 
tions, for stifling the fledgling Polish labor 
federation. 

The AFL-CIO’s European representa- 
tive, Irving Brown, attended an extraordi- 
nary meeting of free world trade union lead- 
ers called by the ICFTU at its Brussels 
headquarters “to examine the situation in 
Poland, and to decide the initiatives to be 
taken with the aim of re-establishing in 
Poland trade union rights and freedoms.” 
(Story, Page 3.) 

As a signatory of ILO conventions No. 
87 and 98, the Polish government is com- 
mitted to respecting union rights of free- 
dom of association, organizing, and col- 
lective bargaining. 

FROM LONDON, where he stopped 
to confer with British Trades Union Con- 
gress leaders after a meeting of the Trade 
Union Advisory Committee of the Orga- 
nization for Economic Cooperation & De- 
velopment in Paris, Kirkland called on the 
Polish government to cease its repression 
of Solidarity and its leaders as a signal to 

(Continued on Page 3) 


(D-Mich.) sought to restore a staggering 
12 percent slash in funds for states to 
administer their unemployment compen- 
sation programs. 

Another amendment that failed was an 
attempt by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), 
the minority leader, to prevent a cut in 
funds for mine safety enforcement after a 
week in which a series of mine disasters 
had taken 27 lives. 

THE FUNDING resolution included a 
pay raise for top government executives 
who had missed out on recent annual sal- 
ary increases because of a $50,112 pay 
ceiling. The ceiling was raised to $57,500, 
effective Jan. 1. 

However, the Administration was un- 
able to get approval of the extra pay raise 
it sought for air traffic controllers who 
stayed on the job during the PATCO 
strike and who replaced strikers. The pro- 
vision was stricken from the House bill by 
a point of order. 





Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


Anti-Picket 
Amendment 
Hit as Unfair 


The AFL-CIO presented the case against 
anti-union amendments to the Hobbs Act 
to a House Judiciary subcommittee that is 
considering an overhaul of the U.S. crimi- 
nal code. 

Legislation being pushed by the Nation- 
al Right to Work Committee would treat 
minor and isolated picket-line misconduct 
as serious federal crimes, punishable by up 
to 20 years in prison. 

A BILL introduced by Rep. J. Kenneth 
Robinson (R-Va.) is almost identical to the 
measure sponsored by Sen. Strom Thur- 
mond (R-S.C.), which was the subject of 
Senate hearings the previous week. 

AFL-CIO Special Counsel Laurence 
Gold, who testified at both hearings, 
charged that the proposed amendments 
would put the federal government on the 
employer’s side in labor disputes. 

There is no demonstrated need for new 
federal legislation. Gold insisted, and en- 
forcement of such a bill would compel 
creation of a national police force. 

Gold stressed that neither the AFL-CIO 
nor any of its affiliates condones picket 
line misconduct. 

LOCAL AND STATE laws are fully 
adequate to deal with offenses by strikers 
or employers, he stressed, and are already 
backed up by federal laws dealing with 
specific areas of interstate crime. 

With federal law enforcement capabili- 
ties being cut back. Gold testified, “it does 
not make sense to require the FBI and 
federal prosecutors to keep their eyes on 
the factories and workers of America and 
to pursue individuals already subject to 
arrest by local police under local laws 
dealing with assaults and vandalism, while 
drug pushers and narcotics importers, 
arson-for-profit businessmen and stock 
swindlers breathe easy.” 



ATTEMPT TO PUSH THROUGH a Hobbs Act amendment making picket 
line disturbances a federal crime is really an anti-union campaign by the 
National Right to Work Committee, AFL-CIO Special Counsel Laurence Gold 
testified before a Senate subcommittee. He was accompanied by Federation 
Legislative Director Ray Denison, left, and Howard Marlowe, associate director. 

Coalition Presses Exports 
Of Processed Farm Goods 


A new union-industry coalition is pro- 
moting the expansion of processed farm 
products for export as a means of spurring 
jobs creation and stimulating economic 
growth. 

The educational and legislative cam- 
paign of the Export Processing Industry 
Coalition (EPIC) hopes to offset the cur- 
rent emphasis in U.S. agricultural export 
policy toward the shipment of raw com- 
modities, such as wheat, feed grains, soy- 
beans and cotton. 

WHILE AGRICULTURAL exports 
have increased from $6.7 billion in 1970 
to $40.5 billion in 1980, EPIC noted that 
the proportion of processed farm products 
has dropped sharply over the decade. 

As an example, it pointed out that 11.8 
percent of U.S. wheat exports were in the 


Jerry Wurf Dies at 62, 
Led AFSCME 17 Years 


Jerry Wurf, who led the State, County 
& Municipal Employees during a 17-year 
period of dramatic growth in membership 
and influence, died at the age of 62. 

Tributes to AFSCME’s president came 
from government and union leaders, and 
from workers whose lives he had touched 
during a life dedicated to the union cause. 

“THE LABOR MOVEMENT is richer 
because he passed our way,” AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland and Sec.-Treas. 
Thomas R. Donahue said in a joint state- 
ment. “All American workers and espe- 
cially public employees will continue to 
benefit from the paths he pioneered.” 

Wurf was an AFL-CIO vice president 
and served on the federation’s Executive 
Council since 1969. 

He died of cardiac arrest at George 
Washington University Hospital six weeks 
after surgery for a gastric ulcer. 

AT A DEC. 16 memorial service at the 
Washington Hebrew Congregation, 1,800 
friends and admirers took part. 

From his own union, AFSCME Sec.- 
Treas. William Lucy and the Rev. Albert 
Blatz, an AFSCME vice president, spoke 
in tribute. The president of the Public 
Services International, Heinz Kluncker, 
and the president of the Canadian Union 
of Public Employees, Grace Hartman, 
were among the speakers. 

House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., 
Msgr. George G. Higgins, University of 
Colorado President Arnold Weber and 
Columnist Charles Bartlett were others 
who spoke at the memorial. 

DURING HIS 17 years as president of 
the AFSCME, the union’s membership 
rose from 240,000 to nearly 1 million. 

Wurf’s trade union career spanned four 
decades. In 1940, after graduating from 
New York University, he went to work in 
a cafeteria and promptly helped organize 


the workers as a local of the Hotel & 
Restaurant Employees. He later served as 
an organizer and welfare fund adminis- 
trator of the union’s Local 448. 

He joined the AFSCME staff in 1947 
as an organizer and was instrumental in 
winning a number of key representation 
struggles during the next 11 years. In 1959, 
Wurf became executive director of the 
union’s District Council 37 in New York, 
the post he held until his election as pres- 
ident of AFSCME in 1964. 

Wurf served on the executive boards of 
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 
Americans for Democratic Action and the 
Jewish Labor Committee. He also had 
been a vice president of the AFL-CIO 
Industrial Union Dept., served on the ex- 
ecutive board of the federation’s Maritime 
Trades Dept., and was a member of the 
Democratic National Committee. 


Survivors include 
and three children. 



form of processed flour in 1970, compared 
with only 3.2 percent in 1980. 

If just 10 percent of current wheat ex- 
ports were processed before leaving U.S. 
ports, the difference would mean a $5.6- 
billion increase in business activity and 
the addition of 122,400 jobs, EPIC con- 
cluded from a study done for the U.S. 
Dept, of Agriculture. 

It said a similar growth pattern could 
be realized if the U.S. corn milling and 
soybean processing industries gained a 
10-percent share of the exports. 

The principal organizations of EPIC are 
the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Dept., the 
Corn Refiners Association, Millers’ Na- 
tional Federation and the National Soy- 
bean Processors Association. 

ELEVEN AFL-CIO affiliates are also 
participating in the coalition. They are the 
Allied Industrial Workers, Grain Millers, 
the Bakery, Confectionery & Tobacco 
Workers, Molders, Operating Engineers, 
Woodworkers, the Oil, Chemical & Atomic 
Workers, Carpenters, the Cement, Lime 
& Gypsum Workers, Food & Commercial 
Workers and the Steelworkers. 

Nolan Hancock, EPIC labor coordi- 
nator and OCAW legislative director, said 
numerous plant shutdowns have resulted 
from the declining U.S. role in the pro- 
cessing of farm products for export. 

“We are not only losing jobs,” he ob- 
served, “we are losing the added value to 
our entire economy that flows from do- 
mestic processing.” 


8 Rail Unions 
Ratify Accord 
For 240,000 

Eight unions with members employed by 
the nation’s major railroads have ratified 
new contracts drawn up last month, while 
five others are in various stages of negotia- 
tions with the industry. 

Approval of the pacts by the eight 
unions was overwhelming. The Railway & 
Airline Clerks, which represents about 
100,000 workers, voted by a 9 to 1 margin 
in favor of the 39-month wage and benefits 
package and the Machinists by a 2 to 1 
margin. 

Also ratifying the agreement were the 
Maintenance of Way Employees, the Car- 
men, the Boilermakers & Blacksmiths, the 
Sheet Metal Workers, the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and 
the Signalmen. The eight unions together 
represent about 240,000 workers. 

Retroactive to Apr. 1, the new contracts 
provide a maximum average hourly in- 
crease of $3.33 over the life of the agree- 
ments. Improvements in fringe benefits, 
such as personal leave days, an additional 
holiday, improved vacations, and added 
health, welfare and dental benefits, are also 
included in the pacts. 

The five unions still negotiating with the 
National Railway Labor Conference, the 
industry’s bargaining arm, are the Loco- 
motive Engineers, Firemen & Oilers, 
Yardmasters, United Transportation Un- 
ion, and the Train Dispatchers. They rep- 
resent a total of about 200,000 workers. 

RLEA Picks Hardin 
As New Chairman 

Fred A. Hardin, president of the United 
Transportation Union, was elected chair- 
man of the Railway Labor Executives’ 
Association at the RLEA’s fall meeting. 

Hardin fills the vacancy created by the 
death of Fred J. Kroll, president of the 
Railway & Airline Clerks. 

Ole M. Berge, president of the Mainte- 
nance of Way Employes, was elected vice 
chairman, succeeding Carmen’s President 
O. W. Jacobson, who did not run for the 
office. 

BRAC Legislative Director James Ken- 
nedy was elected executive secretary-trea- 
surer, suceeding C. M. McIntosh. Mc- 
Intosh was named to the newly created 
position of administrator. 

The new officers assume their duties on 
Jan. 1. Their terms are for three years. 

Hardin paid special tribute to Jacobson, 
who served as interim chairman of RLEA 
following Kroll’s death on July 30. 


State-County Board Elects 
McEntee as New President 


his wife, Mildred, 


JERRY WURF 


The executive board of the State, Coun- 
ty & Municipal Employees elected Gerald 
W. McEntee of Pennsylvania as the un- 
ion’s new president to fill the vacancy left 
by the death of Jerry Wurf. 

McEntee, 46, was elected by a vote of 
483,080 to 449,911 for William Lucy, 
AFSCME secretary-treasurer, at the Dec. 
16 board meeting. 

McENTEE WILL serve out the remain- 
ing IV 2 years of Wurf’s term, until the 
summer of 1984. The election, in which 
24 members of the AFSCME board voted 
the membership strength in their districts, 
was supervised by the American Arbitra- 
tion Association. 

At a press conference following his 
swearing-in, McEntee pledged to continue 
the union’s “well-earned reputation for ef- 
fective bargaining and aggressive organiz- 
ing,” starting “next year when we will 
negotiate contracts for half a million pub- 
lic employees.” 

McEntee was executive director of the 
union’s 75,000-member Council 13, a post 
he has held since 1973. He has a degree 
in economics from LaSalle and began 
work in 1958 for AFSCME. His father, 
William McEntee, headed AFSCME Coun- 


cil 33, which represents Philadelphia city 
employees. 

McEntee told reporters that his election 
came after a “spirited campaign which re- 
flected credit on the organization” and 
thanked Lucy for “one of the finest 
speeches of aggressive unionism I have 
ever heard” to the board following the 
vote. 

AS ACTING president after Wurf’s 
death, Lucy administered the oath of office 
to McEntee and introduced him to the 
press conference. Both said they concur 
in goals, and McEntee said Wurf had 
charted “an aggressive and postive course” 
that he would continue to follow. 

McEntee said he wouldn’t attempt more 
than broad outlines of AFSCME goals, but 
“certain things should be obvious, how- 
ever. The current occupant of the White 
House has put this nation on a course that 
may very well end in economic chaos. 
This we will continue to resist.” 

In response to reporters’ questions about 
hopes within AFSCME that Lucy would 
be the first black to head a U.S. union of 
that size, McEntee said “Bill Lucy didn’t 
get that vote because he is black, but be- 
cause he is an effective trade union leader.” 



AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


Page Three 



BANNER OF THE BELEAGUERED Polish trade union federation Solidarnosc 
(Solidarity) is displayed by speakers at the AFL-CIO’s Washington rally in sup- 
port of the Polish workers. The flag, brought back from Poland in September by 
Msgr. George G. Higgins, left, as a gift to the AFL-CIO from Solidarity, will be 
displayed as a symbol of the American labor movement’s continuing support. 
Federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas R. Donahue said. Shown above also are Tadeusz 



Walendowski, executive director of the Poland Watch Center; AFL-CIO Vice 
President Martin J. Ward, and Walendowski’s son, Elias. In photo at right, 
AFL-CIO Regional Director Michael Mann and other unionists protest the 
repression of Polish workers’ rights in a demonstration outside the Polish consulate 
in New York. Similar demonstrations were mounted by labor and Polish-American 
groups throughout the nation as the crisis in Poland deepened. 


American Labor Rallies Support for Solidarity 


(Continued from Page 1) 
the world that it intends to honor its com- 
mitments under the ILO conventions. 

Kirkland called upon the governments 
and people of the free world to raise their 
voices in protest against the destruction of 
human rights in Poland, and to take what- 
ever diplomatic and economic measures 
are necessary to dissuade the Polish gov- 
ernment from its “brutal and reckless” 
course. 

ILO Director-Gen. Francis Blanchard 
in Geneva cabled the Polish government 
in Warsaw his “deep concern” over the 
restrictions on the trade union rights of 
Polish workers, and called for the release 
of imprisoned Solidarity leaders. A simi- 
lar plea came from Poland’s Roman Cath- 
olic Church, perhaps the most powerful 
voice in the country. Archbishop Josef 
Glemp and a council of Polish bishops 
issued a strongly worded statement calling 
for the release of all interned trade union- 
ists and the “revival pf the labor union 
Solidarity.” 

The chief of the Polish government, 
Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, ordered the im- 
position of martial law as of midnight, 
Dec. 12, declaring a “state of war,” the 
equivalent of a state of emergency in other 
countries. 

HE FOLLOWED up the announcement 
with the appointment of a 21 -member 
military council of “national salvation” as 
the top authority in Poland. Made up pri- 
marily of the nation’s highest-ranking gen- 
erals, the council issued a proclamation 
saying that it would rule the country “un- 
til the situation becomes normalized.” It 
said the emergency rule was needed be- 
cause Poland was “threatened by mortal 
danger,” and charged that “forces hostile 
to socialism” were preparing for a “reac- 
tionary coup.” 


The creation of military rule came after 
two weeks of rapidly rising tension be- 
tween Solidarity and the Polish govern- 
ment, and followed a meeting of the 
union’s leadership in Gdansk where a na- 
tionwide referendum was proposed on 
setting up a non-communist government 
and defining the country’s military rela- 
tionship with the Soviet Union. Poland and 
other East European Soviet satellite na- 
tions belong to the USSR-dominated War- 
saw military pact. The referendum would 
have been held by Solidarity among non- 
union Poles as well as the federation’s 10- 
million members if Jaruzelski did not 
agree to a series of key union demands by 
the end of the year. 

IN COORDINATED predawn raids, 
Polish police and security forces, along 
with several thousand army troops, en- 
tered Solidarity offices across the country, 
taking many union leaders prisoner and 
confiscating files. A 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. cur- 
few was put. into effect. All trade union 
activity, strikes and public gatherings ex- 
cept for religious services were banned. 
Airports were closed, borders sealed to 
prevent Poles from leaving the country, 
and all normal lines of communication 
cut off. 

Within hours of the announcement of 
martial law in Poland, Kirkland and the 
AFL-CIO were in touch with the Adminis- 
tration, the State Dept., the ILO, ICFTU, 
and other agencies, making the strongest 
representations in behalf of the Polish 
workers. 

AT A RALLY at AFL-CIO head- 
quarters, Federation Sec.-Treas. Thomas 
R. Donahue vowed: “We’re going to con- 
tinue to expend our energies to mount a 
support campaign in the western world to 
let the world remember and know of the 


struggle of the Polish workers and their 
current plight.” 

In addition to the Washington rally, the 
AFL-CIO quickly organized demonstra- 
tions in major cities across the ’United 
States. The largest outpouring occurred in 
Chicago, where an estimated 600,000 
Polish-Americans reside in the largest 
ethnic Polish community outside of War- 
saw. Held jointly with the Polish-American 
Congress, the rally drew over 1 0,000 dem- 
onstrators to Daley Center Plaza in down- 
town Chicago. 

About 600 protestors, waving Polish 
flags and chanting “Freedom for Poland,” 
rallied outside the Polish consulate in New 
York, and hundreds more demonstrated in 
the Dorchester section of Boston. Labor 
rallies in support of the Polish workers 
also took place in Milwaukee, San Fran- 
cisco, and Cleveland, and candlelight vigils 
were held near the Polish embassy in 
Washington. 

IN NEW BRITAIN, Conn., a rally fol- 
lowed by a Mass for Peace was scheduled 
for Dec. 20. Sponsors were the Connecti- 
cut State AFL-CIO, the New Britain Cen- 
tral Labor Council, and the city’s Polish 
community and clergy. 

At the AFL-CIO Washington rally, 
some 400 Solidarity supporters stood and 
cheered as Polish refugee Tadeusz Walen- 
dowski warned that the Polish government, 
“by making Solidarity illegal ... is trying 
to make illegal the Polish nation. Such an 
action should be, and will be, opposed by 
virtually all Poles, no matter if they are 
in Poland or abroad.” 

Walendowski, executive director of the 
Poland Watch Center, which plays an ad 
hoc role in coordinating the activities of 
Polish-American organizations in the 
United States, read a statement of the 
Committee in Support of Solidarity, signed 
by leading Polish and Polish-American in- 
tellectuals, appealing to “every democratic 
government, and to all those who believe 
in the Polish people’s right to basic free- 
doms immediately to halt all transactions, 
economic and other, with Poland until 
every member of Solidarity is freed.” 

MSGR. GEORGE G. Higgins of Catho- 
lic University, who delivered Kirkland’s 
message to Solidarity’s first national con- 
gress in September after the AFL-CIO 
president was denied a visa to enter 
Poland, said he came away from that 
meeting convinced that “the one, great 
notable virtue of the people in Soli- 
darity, and of the Polish people in general, 
is their courage,” and he admonished 
those who are ready to count out the 
Polish labor federation to think again. 

Solidarity “is not finished, and it will 
not be finished,” Higgins said. “It speaks 
for most of the people of Poland. The 
government does not. Solidarity includes 
at least a million members of the Com- 
munist Party out of three or four million.” 

Federation Vice President Martin J. 
Ward, chairman of the federation’s Com- 


mittee on International Affairs, said the 
creation of Solidarity — the first trade un- 
ion movement anywhere in the Soviet 
empire — was a profound embarrassment 
to the ruling communists in Poland. 

“The fact that the workers of Poland 
felt themselves compelled to create a new 
trade union movement to defend their in- 
terests is a vindication of the longstanding 
AFL-CIO position that the official unions 
in communist countries do not represent 
workers but are the instruments of the 
totalitarian state,” Ward charged. 

In closing remarks, Donahue noted that 
all the gains Solidarity has amassed since 
the historic workers’ revolt in August 1980 
are threatened by the imposition of martial 
law. Today, all of the union’s glowing 
future “hangs in the balance,” as the 
Polish government’s resort to repression 
deepens, he warned. 

Donahue also lashed out at media com- 
mentators who have pictured Solidarity as 
the culprit in the current confrontation 
with the Polish authorities. 

“THAT IS SHEER nonsense,” he said. 
“Solidarity has demonstrated a degree of 
great sophistication about its bargaining 
tactics and a patience and a willingness to 
compromise that few in the western 
democracies or in the East European dic- 
tatorships expected. . . . 

“The government’s provocations, on the 
other hand, have surely not shown the 
same degree of flexibility. The threat to 
pass a law banning strikes and further 
regulating trade union activity were indeed 
the final straws — not the other way 
around.” 

Information on the immediate response 
of Polish workers to the crackdown re- 
mained sketchy throughout the first few 
days of the new military regime because 
of the communications blackout. Solidarity 
Chairman Lech Walesa, who was to have 
addressed the AFL-CIO’s convention last 
month but stayed in Poland due to the 
tense situation there, was detained by the 
government near Warsaw. Solidarity 
sources told reporters that the Polish labor 
leader, who had become a symbol of the 
campaign for democratic renewal in the 
Soviet Union’s most populous ally, re- 
mained defiant. 

DIPLOMATIC reports and wire service 
stories reaching the West, however, indi- 
cated that strikes and opposition to the 
military takover were spreading. Thou- 
sands of Solidarity officials across the 
country were detained under the new mili- 
tary rule. 

Despite the communications blackout, 
a Solidarity strike committee formed in 
the city of Szczecin near the Baltic Sea 
coast was able to get a message out of the 
country on a boat bound for Sweden. It 
appealed to the West to support the Polish 
workers with protests over the detention of 
the Solidarity officials. 

“Be with us in our hour of darkness,” 
it pleaded. 


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Worldwide Protest Spurred 
Among Free Trade Unions 

Brassels — ^Iii the wake af the military crackdown on Solidarity, the Interna- 
tional Confederation of Free Trade Unions called on its 130 affiliated organiza- 
tions throughout the free world to ‘‘undertake immediate and continuous protest 
actions” in support of the Polish workers’ struggle for human and trade-union 
rights. 

At a special meeting at ICFTU headquarters here, representatives of western 
national trade-union centers, including the AFL-CIO’s European representative, 
Irving Brown, adopted a series of initiatives aimed at restoring freedoms in the 
Soviet satellite nation. 

Among these was a call to member organizations to exert strong pressure on 
their respective governments to press Polish authorities to observe fully the inter- 
national conventions on freedom of association, which Poland ratified in 1957. 

ICFTU affiliates, representing a worldwide total of about 70 million workers, 
also were urged to make representations to the Polish ambassadors in their coun- 
tries with a view toward establishing democratic procedures to ensure that ma- 
terial assistance given to Poland does, in fact, reach those parts of the population 
that are most in need of it. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 


Page Four 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


^Their Battle Is Ours’ 

T he AFL-CIO strongly condemns the action of the Polish gov- 
ernment in seeking to suppress and crush the free trade union 
created by Polish workers — Solidarnosc. 

We have been in direct contact with our o\yn government and 
the International Labor Organization urging every effort to secure 
the immediate release of the detained Polish labor leaders and the 
restoration of trade union rights. 

The actions of the Polish government are in direct violation of 
the ILO’s Convention 87, guaranteeing freedom of association — a 
convention to which Poland is a signatory. We call upon the ILO 
to make strong representation to the Polish government to honor 
Convention 87. 

The AFL-CIO insists that the Polish government cease its pres- 
ent course of action and release the Solidarnosc leaders as a signal 
to the world that it intends to honor its commitments. 

THE PROBLEMS within Poland have not been caused by the 
Polish workers or their union. They have been caused by govern- 
ments that have consistently dealt in bad faith with the Polish 
people. 

These problems must be solved by the Poles themselves, free of 
all outside interference. Solutions can be found when the Polish 
government halts its efforts to stifle dissent and begins to negotiate 
in a forthright manner with Solidarnosc. 

The AFL-CIO pledges its full support to ouf Polish brothers 
and sisters. We do not presume to recommend what Solidarnosc 
should or should not do. These are decisions that only the Polish 
workers can make for themselves. Whatever the decisions of these 
courageous people, we shall do what we can to assist them. 

IN THIS EFFORT, the AFL-CIO will cooperate fully with 
the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and its 
affiliates. We are in close contact with the ICFTU, working with it 
to coordinate and rally support for Polish workers. 

Poland’s working men and women are struggling against tre- 
mendous odds to build and maintain an effective free trade union. 
Their battle is ours. We shall not let them down. 


We call upon the governments and people of the free world 
to raise their voices in protest against the ongoing destruction of 
human rights in Poland. 

— AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, Dec, 14, 1981. 

Not Even a Triekle 

O bviously, hot meals for the low-income, homebound elder- 
ly are not high on the Reagan Administration’s budget priori- 
ties. 

A New York Times article describes a neighborhood Meals 
on Wheels program that has had to cut back its assistance from 
two meals a day for 350 people in 1977 to one meal for five days 
a week to 250 recipients, whose average age is 83. On weekends, 
they do without. 

The Administration position is that private charity — “voluntar- 
ism” — is best suited for such purposes. But alas, when the Meals 
on Wheels center solicited 85 food corporations to help fill Christ- 
mas baskets for the homebound, it came away with nothing — not 
even a trickle. 


piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiMiiiii^ 





Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 
Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretarv-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Jerry Wurf* 

Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John DeConcini 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser' 
Barbara Hutchinson 

♦Deceased 


Executive Council 
Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
Wayne E. Glenn 
Joyce D. Miller 
Frank Drozak 
Richard I. Kilroy 


Frederick O’Neal 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
John J. Sweeney 
James E. Hatfield 
Vincent R. Sombrotto 


= Director of Information: Saul Miller = 

= Managing Editor: John M. Barry 1 

= Assistant Editors: 5 

= Susan Dunlop John R. Oravec E 

= David L. Perlman James M. Shevis 1 

E AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. E 

E Washington. D.C. 20006 E 

I Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

I Vol. XXVI Saturday, December 19, 1981 No. 50 | 

S The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 001-1185) is issued weekly except 
5 for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., S.W., Wash- 
S ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
S Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
= Using in 'any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
= to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
= AFL-CIO. 

liiiiiuiiniiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiimiiiitiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiinmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimii^ 




Short-Range Vision 

High Profits, Poor Management 
Blamed for U.S. Auto Decline 


By Gus Tyler 

T he experience of Sony in its San Diego, 
Calif., plant murders many myths about the 
indolence and the irresponsibility of the Ameri- 
can worker ever since his alleged fall from the 
Protestant work ethic that, according to some 
sources, is now the very special preserve of the 
very non-Protestant Japanese. 

The Sony plant, built in 1972, “now holds 
Sony’s worldwide record for quality of 200 days 
of production without a major defect,” according 
to testimony submitted to the Joint Economic 
Committee of the U.S. Congress by H. William 
Tanaka, a lawyer who, because of his expertise in 
international trade, was asked to prepare a study 
for the congressional committee. 

TANAKA ADDS that “studies of defects and 
their causes have shown that over 80 percent are 
correctible only by management — design changes, 
for example — and not by workers.” 

American workers broke the record for quality 
because they were operating under “management 
methods that the Japanese have been perfecting 
for many years.” At a time when American auto 
manufacturers, for instance, were planning poor 
quality as part of their policy of planned obso- 
lescence, Japan decided to concentrate on quality, 
using “concepts of quality control that came from 
the United States.” 

American car makers were not interested. They 
preferred to turn out vehicles that would break 
down on schedule so that the company could sell 
new parts and new cars. 

DETROIT ALSO opted for big cars. That was 
their passion because, says Tanaka, “large cars 
are far more profitable to build than small cars.” 
As to labor costs, adds Tanaka, “contrary to 
popular myth, the U.S. automotive industry’s fail- 
ure to compete with imports has little to do with 
the hourly wages paid American workers.” 

But our failure has a lot to do with the once 
high profits of the auto makers. “General Motors’ 
profit on each vehicle it produces is about three 
times that of its foreign competitors.” Foreign 
manufacturers “accept smaller profits than Amer- 
ican corporations.” 

The contrasting policies of Japanese and 
American auto makers are a striking example 
of the difference between short-range and long- 
range policies. 


American makers were smart — in the short 
run: high profits for the company from “planned 
obsolescence” and from the mania for big cars. 

Japanese makers were smart — in the long run: 
working at quality control, selling at low profits, 
and focusing on the small car. 

THERE IS another, perhaps more basic differ- 
ence. “The Japanese emphasis on quality,” notes 
Tanaka, “has been an integral part of Japan’s 
national strategy to build an export economy, 
not just a company-by-company decision.” 

In other words, the Japanese have had a plan 
to be Number One auto maker while we leave it 
to the “market forces” — forces that are motivated 
by the short-run profits of a company rather than 
the long-range strength of the country. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

A Ploy to Undermine 
Collective Bargaining 

The bill to amend the Hobbs Act represents 
a serious departure from the principle that the 
federal government should not side with either 
management or labor during legitimate labor 
disputes. 

In practical terms, it would require a na- 
tional police force to supervise the orderly con- 
duct of strikes. 

There is no factual case for its enactment. 

The major backing comes from the National 
Right to Work Committee, an employer-fi- 
nanced front organization which supports 
neither rights nor workers. 

This employer front supports the bill in the 
belief that the legislation will chill the exercise 
of the right to form and join unions, will intimi- 
date workers and will embolden anti-union em- 
j^oyers to crush organizing efforts and strikes. 

Using the bill as a vehicle, the ‘‘right-to- 
work” front is churning the direct mail fac- 
tories of the radical right to raise funds for its 
anti-worker war chest. The ultimate goal is to 
undermine collective bargaining. 

— From AFL-CIO testimony at House and 
Senate hearings. 


AFL-CIO's Pledge 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


Page Five 


Support for Poland’s Workers 


From speech by Martin J. Ward, chairman of 
the AFL-CIO Committee on International Affairs, 
to rally at AFL-CIO headquarters in support of 
Polish workers: 

T he creation of solidarity, the first trade 
union movement anywhere in the Soviet em- 
pire, inspired workers everywhere. It was a pro- 
found embarrassment to communists and their 
apologists. It undermined the legitimacy of their 
claim that the communist state itself is an instru- 
ment of workers and exists to promote their 
welfare. 

The fact that the workers of Poland felt them- 
selves compelled to create a new trade union 
movement to defend their interests is a vindica- 
tion of the longstanding AFL-CIO position that 
the official unions in communist countries do not 
represent workers but are the instruments of the 
totalitarian state. 

IN RESPONSE to appeals from Solidarity, the 
AFL-CIO established a Polish Workers Aid Fund 
to raise money to buy office supplies and equip- 
ment which Solidarity asked for. They needed 
everything — desks, Xerox machines, typewriters, 
offset printing presses, and even paper to print on, 
which was not available in Poland except through 
government agencies. I am proud to say that the 
American workers and their unions gave more 
than $250,000 for that purpose. We bought the 
materials that Solidarity asked for and sent them 
on with the help of European trade union centers 
and the help of the ICFTU. 


We also did more than that. We urged the 
government of the United States to provide eco- 
nomic assistance to the government of Poland, 
on condition that the Polish government honor 
the agreement that it reached with Solidarity and 
that it signed in August of 1980. 

These actions were endorsed and re-asserted by 
the delegates at the AFL-CIO convention last 
month, who added in a policy statement that 
American workers stand ready to give further 
assistance, including food and medicine. 

IN ALL OF our actions in support of Soli- 
darity, we have made it clear that we have no 
wish whatever to intervene in Solidarity’s policies 
or give any political or economic advice. Soli- 
darity has not asked for our advice in such mat- 
ters, and we have not offered any. 

The workers of Poland alone can decide what 
they need and want to do. Our job is to provide 
fraternal support and encouragement and to pro- 
vide the materials they need. 

We have been watching with great admiration 
over the last few months while Solidarity and its 
officers walked a tightrope in their relations with 
the Polish communist government. We are out- 
raged by the action taken over the weekend to 
impose martial law and military dictatorship. 

We believe that Polish workers are tough 
enough to stand fast and help get their country 
back on the track. We will continue to give them 
all the support we can through every avenue open 
to us. 


Solidarity's Role 

Authentic Voice of the People 


From remarks by Msgr. George G. Higgins at 
the AFL-CIO headquarters rally: 

S OLIDARITY IS the authentic spokesman of 
the people of Poland. Their movement will 
not be put down. Against impossible odds, they 
succeeded in forcing the government to recognize 
their rights to establish autonomous unions inde- 
pendent of the government and their right to 
strike. 

I had the privilege of addressing the Solidarity 
convention in Gdansk. I said at that time, and I 
meant it, that I had not come to Poland to inter- 
fere directly or indirectly in the internal affairs 
of that nation. And I would not presume to do 
that today. Solidarity needs no advice from me, 
nor does the Polish government. 

WHILE AMERICANS have no right to inter- 
fere in the affairs of another nation, they do have 
a right and a duty to stand up in complete soli- 
darity with the basic human rights of this move- 
ment which the government is now in vain trying 
to suppress. 

The one, great notable virtue of the people in 
Solidarity, and of the Polish people in general, is 
their courage. The Nazis did their best to destroy 
the country. The Soviet Union “liberated” them 
only to try to oppress them again. Other nations 
in the past few hundred years have tried by every 
means at their disposal to suppress this brave 
people, and they have failed. And they will fail 
this time. 


They are not afraid of this government. They 
are not afraid of the Soviet Union. The present 
military government may hobble them, constrain 
them, put them under limitations, but they will 
not kill this movement. Nothing will. 

IT WILL rise again and become. I’m sure, 
what it was destined to be, a beacon to the entire 
world that there is life at the end of the tunnel of 
oppression, not only in Poland but in many other 
countries throughout the world, including many 
which can only be described as right-wing dic- 
tatorships. 

On the way back from Poland, I stopped at a 
meeting in Geneva of 40 or 50 people from the 
Third World — from Asia, Latin America, and 
Africa^ — and it was clear to me that Solidarity 
was for them the greatest single beacon of hope 
that they had seen in their lifetime. Many of them 
are living under right-wing dictatorships with no 
freedom to organize, no freedom to strike, but 
taking new hope from the fact that in the most 
unlikely place in the world — in Poland, with a 
communist government — these brave workers suc- 
ceeded in doing the impossible and establishing 
the Solidarity movement. 

Let us pray that the government meant it when 
it said in its official announcement that it did not 
have any intention of turning the clock back. It 
did not intend to go back beyond August of 1980. 
It did not intend to abrogate the agreement which 
it was compelled to make with Solidarity in 
Gdansk in August 1980. We shall see. 


If Reagan Policies Continue 

No Relief in Sight for Housing 


T he severe depression gripping the na- 
tion’s homebuilding and related industries will 
deepen in the months ahead if the Administra- 
tion persists in its tight-money, high-interest poli- 
cies and housing program cutbacks, AFL-CIO 
economist Henry Schechter warned. 

Schechter said that with the “turnaround point” 
not even on the horizon, the staggering 18.2- 
percent construction unemployment rate for No- 
vember will jump even higher in 1982. He said 
the recent slight drop of mortgage interest rates 
has done little to stimulate new home sales which, 
in October, fell to an all-time low rate. 

Very few families, he said, can afford to buy 
homes under such conditions “and have enough 
left over to meet their requirements for food, 
clothing, health care and other essentials.”. 


Schechter, who is director of the AFL-CIO Office 
of Housing & Monetary Policy, appeared on the 
network radio interview Labor News Conference. 

HE POINTED OUT that the construction and 
building supplies industries have been hit hard by 
the deep cuts in federally assisted housing pro- 
grams which were part of the Administration’s 
budget-cutting spree. He noted that the latest 
Administration proposals for fiscal year 1983 
“call for cutting new federal construction to zero.” 

Schechter declared that “the tight-money pol- 
icy pursued in the name of fighting inflation is 
actually contributing to inflation in the housing 
sector,” and even after the industry recovers, 
home prices will stay at very high levels. He said 
that when “housing begins to pick up, the start-up 
costs will be higher.” 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

ALTHOUGH IT HAS been more than 100 years since Abraham 
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing 
slavery in the United States, overt and subtle forms of slavery and 
peonage are still being practiced today. 

The documentation of debt slavery and farm labor peonage 
demonstrates that it is widespread, victimizing thousands of un- 
documented Hispanics, black and white U.S. citizens and Haitian 
refugees. 

These appalling conditions of depressed servitude were de- 
scribed at a recent New York press conference called by the 
Workers Defense League, a non-profit organization dedicated to 
the defense of the rights of labor. The WDL, which has been 
involved in exposing and campaigning against peonage and forced 
labor since the early 1940s, cited these cases: 

• In Florida, Jose Corona, an orange picker, worked 13 hours 
a day, seven days a week for four weeks to pay a $200 transpor- 
tation fee Ips employer had given a labor smuggler. Other undocu- 
mented workers in this grove worked under the supervision of the 
gun-carrying grower and were threatened with death if they tried 
to leave. 

• In Louisiana, a chicken farmer kept two of his workers 
chained in a chicken coop to prevent them from running away. 

• In Arkansas, farmers bought aliens for $400 each and with- 
held their wages until the $400 was paid off with their labor. The 
workers would then be sold to other farmers for $400 and the 
practice would be repeated. In this way, according to Hugh 
Williams, a U.S. Border Patrol chief, “the aliens never saw any 
cash. In effect, each farmer was getting free labor. We found 
Mexicans who were at their third or fourth farm job and hadn’t 
made a penny the whole time they were in the U.S. — ^peonage, 
that’s really what it was.” 

• In Washington, labor peonage was practiced by a Uruguayan 
diplomat who held his household servant captive in his house. The 
woman, a foreigner, was not allowed to use the telephone, or to 
leave the house unaccompanied, and for her duties she received 
little pay. Her conditions were discovered by Sister Barbara Ham 
of the Washington Spanish Service Center, who helped the woman 
escape and found another position for her. 

THESE ARE NOT isolated cases, but part of a pattern of ille- 
gal and cruel exploitation wherever there are undocumented work- 
ers. The threat of violence or exposure prevents most of them from 
seeking help. 

More than 160 leaders in the civil rights, labor and religious 
movements have joined the WDL in an open letter to President 
Reagan, asking him to direct the Dept, of Justice to enforce civil 
rights and labor laws already on the books prohibiting slavery 
and peonage. 

Three signers of the WDL letter to the President urged a clear 
government policy on the problem. 

Murray H. Finley, president of the Clothing & Textile Workers, 
warned that “the freedom of the country is in danger when we 
permit the undermining of labor standards and stop enforcing even 
the basic human rights that protect workers from extortion.” 

Harry Fleischman, executive committee chairman of the WDL, 
underlined the need for the President to bolster the federal agen- 
cies in order “to bring an end to the latter-day slave trade prac- 
ticed by illegal contractors.” 

Benjamin F. McLaurin, long-time civil rights activist, pointed 
out that today’s peonage represents a continuation of practices in 
the Old South. From his civil rights campaigns with A. Philip 
Randolph, McLaurin observed that isolation and intimidation, 
along with endless chains of inflated debts had long served as a 
means of forcing blacks in rural areas to perform unpaid labor. 



DEPRESSION GRIP on the nation’s homebuilding and related 
industries will tighten in coming months if the Administration 
continues its tight-money policies and housing program cut- 
backs, AFL-CIO Economist Henry Schechter, center, warned 
on Labor News Conference. He was questioned by Jerome 
Cahill, left, of the New York Daily News and Andre Shashaty 
of Housing & Development Reporter, a publication of the Bu- 
reau of National Affairs. The AFL-CIO produced public affairs 
interview is aired weekly on the Mutual radio network. 



^age Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 



ORIGINAL SCULPTURE saluting the AFL-CIO on its centennial is presented 
to Federation President Lane Kirkland by Alvin F. Friedman, senior vice presi- 
dent of the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago. The work, titled the Second Cen- 
tury, was done by sculptor Richard Hunt under a commission from the bank. 


Social Security Task Force 
Lists Kirkland, Pepper, Ball 


AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland will 
serve on a bipartisan 1 5-member task force 
set up to explore solutions to the social 
security system’s funding problems. 

President Reagan named five of the 
panel members, including Chairman Alan 
Greenspan, who served as head of the 
Council of Economic Advisers in the Ford 
Administration. The other presidential ap- 
pointees were Alexander B. Trowbridge, 
president of the National Association of 
Manufacturers; Robert A. Beck, president 
of the Prudential Insurance Co.; Mary 
Falvey Fuller, vice president of the Shaklee 
Corp. of San Francisco, and Joe D. Wag- 
goner, Jr., a former Democratic congress- 
man from Louisiana. 

THE OTHER 1 0 appointees were 
chosen by House and Senate leaders. In 
addition to Kirkland, they are Senators 
William L. Armstrong (R-Colo.), Robert 
J. Dole (R-Kan.), John Heinz (R-Pa.) and 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.); Rep- 


resentatives Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), Bar- 
ber B. Conable, Jr. (R-N.Y.) and Bill Arch- 
er (R-Tex.), former Rep. Martha Keys 
(D-Kan.), and Robert M. Ball, who headed 
the Social Security Administration from 
1962 to 1973. 

Reagan announced that he would set up 
the bipartisan task force after the Admin- 
istration withdrew most of its proposals for 
cutbacks in social security programs fol- 
lowing a storm of public protest. 

AT THE TIME, Reagan said he expects 
the task force to “come up with a plan that 
assures the fiscal integrity of social secur- 
ity and that social security recipients will 
continue to receive their full benefits.” 

In announcing his appointees to the 
panel, Reagan told reporters at the White 
House that “for too long, too many people 
dependent on social security have been 
cruelly frightened by individuals seeking 
political gain through demagoguery and 
outright falsehood.” 


California Law Would Curb 


Abuses by Athletes’ Agents 


Sacramento, Calif. — California became 
the first state in the nation to adopt legis- 
lation regulating athletes’ agents. 

The measure had the strong backing of 
the California AFL-CIO and the Federa- 
tion of Professional Athletes. It was among 
13 major bills backed by the state labor 
federation that were enacted by the legis- 
lature this year. 

IN SIGNING the athlete agency law, 
Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr., noted that 
“for every superstar in professional sports, 

Ken Kramer Dies at 68, 
Served Labor, Red Cross 

Fairfax, Va. — ^Kenneth L. Kramer, 
former director of the Red Cross labor 
participation department, died Dec. 10 at 
Fairfax Hospital after a heart attack. He 
was 68. 

Before joining the Red Cross in 1956 
as a labor consultant, Kramer was an or- 
ganizer with the Textile Workers. He had 
earlier served on the staffs of the Ladies’ 
Garment Workers and the Marine & Ship- 
building Workers. He retired from the 
Red Cross in 1976. 

Survivors include his wife Blossom, a 
daughter and three sons. A memorial ser- 
vice was held at AFL-CIO haedquarters 
Dec. 15. 


there are dozens of athletes who must 
struggle to make a living.” 

He said the measure would prevent “the 
infrequent, but nevertheless severe abuses 
that have afflicted professional athletes in 
the past.” 

The law requires athlete agencies and 
their representatives to register with the 
state labor commissioner, post surety 
bonds of at least $10,000, obtain approval 
of all form contracts, and submit disputes 
between athletes and their agents to the 
labor commissioner for adjustment. 

The new law gives professional athletes 
protections similar to those governing 
talent agencies, performers and musicians. 

A key provision of the law states: “No 
athlete agency shall knowingly secure em- 
ployment for a person in any place where 
a strike, lockout, or other labor trouble 
exists, without notifying the person of such 
conditions.” 

PRESIDENT Edward R. Garvey of the 
Professional Athletes said the passage of 
the law is a welcome development for the 
union’s members in professional football 
and soccer. 

On hand for the governor’s signing cere- 
mony were President Gene Upshaw of the 
National Football League Players Associa- 
tion; David Meggyesy, assistant to Garvey, 
and Assemblyman Bill Lockyer, chief 
sponsor of the bill. 




For Needed Programs 

Senate Rollcall Votes 
On New Budget Cuts 

The Senate defeated labor-supported attempts to protect vital government pro- 
grams from a new round of budget cuts that are required by a resolution continuing 
the funding of government programs through next March. 

Vote No. 1, on December 10, is the 65-30 defeat of an amendment to prevent, ■ 
a 12 percent cutback in funds for state administration of unemployment insurance ■ ^ 
programs — roughly three times the cutback imposed on other programs despite 
the sharp rise in unemployment that has pushed up the unemployment insurance 
workload. 

Vote No. 2, on Dec. 11, is the 54-38 defeat of an amendment to exempt the 
Mine Safety <Sc Health Administration from an additional 4 percent cut in funds. 

The vote came within a week of underground coal mine disasters in three states 
that claimed the lives of 24 miners and the deaths of an additional three workers 
in surface mining accidents. 

On the rollcalls, R indicates ''right” votes for labor* s position, W shows "wrong** 
votes. PR — paired right; PW — paired wrong. v 'k 


ALABAMA 

Denton (R) W W 

Heflin (D) W R 

ALASKA 

Murkowski (R) W W 

Stevens (R) W W 

ARIZONA 

Goldwater (R) A A 

DeConcini (D) W R 

ARKANSAS 
Bumpers (D) R R 

Pryor (D) R R 

CALIFORNIA 
Cranston (D) R R 

Hayakawa (R) W W 

COLORADO 
Hart (D) R R 

Armstrong (R) W W 

CONNECTICUT 
Weicker (R) W W 

Dodd (D) R R 

DELAWARE 
Roth (R) W W 

Biden(D) R R 

FLORIDA 

Chiles (D) W R 

Hawkins (R) W W 

GEORGIA 

Nunn (D) W R 

Mattingly (R) W W 

HAWAII 

Inouye (D) R R 

Matsunaga (D) R A 

IDAHO 

McClure (R) W W 

Symms (R) W W 

ILLINOIS 

Percy (R) W W 

Dixon (D) W R 

INDIANA 

Lugar (R) W W 

Quayle (R) W W 

IOWA 

Jepsen (R) W W 

^Grassley (R) W W 

KANSAS 

Dole (R) W W 

Kassebaum (R) W W 

KENTUCKY 
Huddleston (D) R R 

Ford(D) W R 


LOUISIANA 

Long (D) W W 

Johnston (D) W PW 

MAINE 

Cohen (R) W W 

Mitchell (D) R R 

MARYLAND 
Mathias (R) A A 

Sarbanes (D) R R 

MASSACHUSETTS 
Kennedy (D) R A 

Tsongas (D) R R 

MICHIGAN 
Riegle (D) R R 

Levin (D) R R 

MINNESOTA 
Durenberger (R) W W 

Boschwitz (R) W W 

MISSISSIPPI 
Stennis (D) W R 

Cochran (R) W W 

MISSOURI 

Eagleton (D) R R 

Danforth (R) W W 

MONTANA 

Melcher (D) R R 

Baucus (D) R R 

NEBRASKA 

Zorinsky (D) W W 

Exon (D) W R 

NEVADA 

Cannon (D) R A 

Laxalt (R) W W 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 
Humphrey (R) W W 

Rudman (R) W W 

NEW JERSEY 
Williams (D) R R 

Bradley (D) R R 

NEW MEXICO 
Domenici (R) W W 

Schmitt (R) W W 

NEW YORK 
' Moynihan (D) R R 

D’Amato (R) W W 

NORTH CAROLINA 
Helms (R) W W 

East (R) W W 

NORTH DAKOTA 
Burdick (D) R R 

Andrews (R) W W 


OHIO 

Glenn (D) W R ; 

Metzenbaum (D) R A 

OKLAHOMA 

Boren (D) W R . 

Nickles (R) ...W W 

OREGON S 

Hatfield (R) W W 

Packwood(R) W W ^ 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Heinz (R) A R r 

Specter (R) W R ^ 

RHODE ISLAND 

Pell (D) . R R 

Chafee (R) W W 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Thurmond (R) W W 

Hollings (D) R R 

SOUTH DAKOTA 

Pressler (R) W W 

Abdnor (R) W W 

TENNESSEE 
Baker (R) W W 

Sasser (D) A PR 

TEXAS 

Tower (R) A W 

Bentsen (D) W W 

UTAH 

Garn (R) W W 

Hatch (R) W W 

VERMONT 

Stafford (R) W W 

Leahy (D) R R 

VIRGINIA 

Byrd (D) W W 

Warner (R) W W 

WASHINGTON 

Jackson (D) R R 

Gorton (R) W W 

WEST VIRGINIA 

Randolph (D) R R 

Byrd(D) -R R 

WISCONSIN 

Proxmire (D) W W 

Kasten(R) W W 

WYOMING 

Wallop (R) W W 

Simpson (R) . . W W 




Du Pout’s Election Tactics 
Denounced by Steelworkers 




Pittsburgh — Loss of representation elec- 
tions at 14 Du Pont Co. plants “stands 
as testament to the anti-union sentiment 
abroad in this nation,” Steelworkers Presi- 
dent Lloyd McBride said. 

Du Pont, the nation’s largest chemical 
manufacturing firm, spent millions of dol- 
lars — “far more than it would have on 
labor agreements — in its frantic efforts to 
deny and discourage their workers from 
gaining any meaningful say in their work 
lives,” McBride said, adding: 

“THE STEELWORKERS is a strong 
union, a proud union, and a union that 
fully intends to continue its vigorous ef- 
forts to bring the benefits of trade union- 
ism to unorganized workers, both in the 
chemical industry and elsewhere.” 


The hardfought organizing campaign 
ended with six plants voting to retain their 
small independent locals while the others 
chose to remain non-union. About 12,000 
of Du Pont’s 100,000 domestic employees 
were involved in the week-long voting 
supervised by the National Labor Rela- 
tions Board. 

The huge chemical company operates 
about 100 U.S. plants. About 5 percent 
of the 66,000 eligible Du Pont employees 
belong to national unions, while 34 per- 
cent are represented by fragmented inde- 
pendent workers’ associations. 

During the long drive to organize the 
firm, the company tried to discredit the 
Steelworkers with films for its workers 
warning of possible long strikes and other 
tactics. 


UAW Okays 
Early Talks 
With Industry 

Detroit — ^The Auto Workers’ executive 
board announced that the union would 
allow its bargaining councils to decide 
whether to conduct early negotiations with 
individual auto firms. 

“Each situation is different, and we 
reached a conclusion that because of the 
deterioration of the economy it was no 
longer satisfactory to have one rigid pol- 
icy,” UAW President Douglas A. Fraser 
said at a news conference at Solidarity 
House, the union’s headquarters here. 

IN DISCUSSING the board’s position, 
Fraser emphasized that. “I don’t think any- 
body can say with certainty that negotia- 
tions will be opened.” He said the decision 
would be up to the union’s General Motors 
and Ford councils, and that no meetings 
of these groups were scheduled. 

The union later announced that results 
of surveys of GM and Ford locals to de- 
termine whether worker council meetings 
to consider the early talks should be 
called were due to be made known Dec. 21 . 
A meeting of the American Motors Corp. 
council was set for Dec. 17. No meeting 
of the International Harvester council had 
been scheduled. 

With the economy in recession again, 
automakers have entered a new round of 
retrenchments and layoffs. Since last 
spring, thousands of UAW members have 
lost their jobs, and industry losses for 
the first nine months of this year have 
exceeded an estimated $1 billion. 

THE UAW’S contracts with Ford and 
GM expire next September. The Harvester 
pact expires in October, and the AMC 
agreement in 1983. All four companies 
have asked for pay concessions because of 
the auto slump. 

“Times have changed,” said Fraser. 
“The situation in our industry is distress- 
ful, and has changed since we last dis- 
cussed this issue.” 

Wyoming Boosts 
Per Capita Tax to 
Expand Program 

Casper, Wyo. — Delegates to the Wy- 
oming AFL-CIO convention endorsed the 
expansion of the state labor federation’s 
political education, research and activities 
programs with a 10-cent increase in the 
per capita tax, raising monthly payments 
to 70 cents. 

The convention unanimously accepted 
the recommendation of the executive 
board for an early endorsement of Rodger 
McDaniel for the 1982 U.S. Senate elec- 
tion. McDaniel, who has served in the 
state legislature for 10 years, is one of two 
announced Democratic candidates for the 
seat now held by Republican Sen. Mal- 
colm Wallop. 

EXECUTIVE SEC. Keith Henning said 
McDaniel built a solid, pro-labor record 
during his career in the legislature and 
shapes up as a formidable opponent to 
Wallop, who has only a 12-percent “right” 
COPE voting record in the Senate. 

The 200 delegates also urged Gov. Ed 
Herschler and Supt. of Public Instruction 
Lynn Simons to seek re-election. 

In other action, the convention renewed 
its call for the repeal of Wyoming’s open 
shop law as the state labor federation’s top 
legislative priority. 

DELEGATES elected Bill Newman of 
the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers as 
vice president to succeed Glenn Sweem, 
who did not seek re-election after 14 years 
in the office. Re-elected to new terms were 
State AFL-CIO President Tom Lee and 
three of the four executive board mem- 
bers. John Faunce of the Utility Workers 
was elected to the board to succeed New- 
man. The board reappointed Henning to a 
new term as executive secretary. 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


Page Seven 


MICHIGAN SOLIDARITY DAY 

drew 10,000 working people from 
around the state to Lansing for a rally 
and march to the state capital to pro- 
test sharp cuts in workers’ compensa- 
tion and unemployment compensation 
statutes. But legislators turned a deaf 
ear as both the House and Senate 
passed the employer-backed bill pro- 
posed by Gov. William Milliken that 
will slash workers’ compensation ben- 
efit levels and duration of payments 
and set harsh eligibility rules for the 
disabled. In a state suffering close 
to 12 percent joblessness, cuts pro- 
posed for the unemployment compen- 
sation system would include tight 
qualifications that could leave more 
than half the state’s 110,000 con- 
struction workers ineligible because 
of seasonal work patterns. The three- 
hour protest, organized by the Michi- 
gan AFL-CIO and the UAW, includ- 
ed an overflow rally at the civic 
center and a march through the city 
to the capitol building where many 
demonstrators met with representa- 
tives and senators. The action to 
slash benefits in the name of attract- 
ing business to the state makes work- 
ers scapegoats for the state’s econom- 
ic woes, the demonstrators charged. 
The workers’ compensation cuts dem- 
onstrate “mass insensitivity” to the 
needs of working people’, the Michi- 
gan AFL-CIO and the UAW said. 
The marchers and their supporters 
also protested a proposal to lift the 
ceiling on state interest rates. 


Coalitions Mobilize to Fight 
Natural Gas Price Decontrol 


The Citizen/ Labor Energy Coalition 
(CLEC) and Energy Action announced the 
two groups will merge to wage a more 
effective battle in Congress against moves 
to hasten the decontrol of natural gas 
prices. 

At a press conference. Machinists Pres- 
ident William W. Winpisinger, head of 
CLEC, said the merger will create a 
“stronger and tougher” organization. 

HE CALLED accelerated decontrol of 
natural gas the “big swindle” and pledged 
that the merged coalition will work to 
“sensitize” Congress to consumers’ wishes. 
“Congress is going to have to choose be- 
tween their constituents and the oil com- 
panies,” he said. 

Actor Paul Newman, a founder of 
Energy Action six years ago, predicted 

Council on Handicapped 
Honors AFL-CIO’s Smedley 

Lawrence T. Smedley, associate director 
of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Social Security, 
was cited as the outstanding labor repre- 
sentative of the Industry-Labor Council on 
Employment of the Handicapped. 

Smedley was honored at an awards din- 
ner held in conjunction with the council’s 
national conference in Washington. 


that the gas decontrol issue will be “the 
next big battle in Congress.” Newman 
warned that the oil companies may try to 
trade off accelerated decontrol for taxes 
on the resulting windfall profits. 

This is a “trickle-up economic phil- 
osophy” Newman said, where consumers’ 
gas bills double and then the oil companies 
and the government split the profits. 

Winpisinger said the argument by the 
oil companies that the United States has 
been paying too little for energy because 
of price controls is false. 

“Why should natural gas that belongs 
to all Americans be priced according to 
levels set by foreign cartels?” he asked. 

THE COALITION has estimated that 
accelerated decontrol would cost some 
$260 billion, would double gas bills, and 
would add 2 to 3 percent to the nation’s 
inflation rate. It also estimated that a mil- 
lion jobs would be lost each year by 1988. 

Both Winpisinger and Newman said the 
merger would increase the effectiveness of 
the fight against gas decontrol through the 
combination of CLEC’s organization and 
Energy Action’s educational and research 
facilities. CLEC represents over 300 
unions, citizen organizations and senior 
citizen groups with a combined member- 
ship of more than 13 million. 


Tight Lid Asked 
On Donations 
To Candidates 

(Continued from Page 1) 
ing has had on presidential campaigns. 

BUT WITH acknowledgement that 
“there is little chance” that Congress will 
enact such a program in the near future, 
the AFL-CIO urged that “at the very least, 
a dollar limit on the total amount of PAC 
contributions a candidate for Congress 
may accept should be adopted.” 

The AFL-CIO endorsed some simplifi- 
cations and clarifications in federal elec- 
tion law being considered by the Rules 
Committee but opposed raising the limit 
on individual contributions. “Too much” 
of campaign financing comes from large 
corporations, the federation stressed. 

THE AFL-CIO also opposed a proposal 
to require detailed and complex reporting 
by unions on expenditures for lawful voter 
registration and get-out-the-vote campaign 
and for administering and soliciting funds 
for union political action committees. It 
said the reporting burden, especially on 
local unions, would discourage participa- 
tion in the election process. 

It noted that reporting on internal com- 
munications “primarily devoted to advo- 
cating the election or defeat of federal 
candidates is already required” by law. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 19, 1981 


Social Security Minimum 

Benefit Floor Revived 
For Current Retirees 



SOUP LINE PROTEST against Reagan Administration economic policies ral- 
lied 3,000 demonstrators outside a Cincinnati hotel as a symbolic contrast to a 
posh Republican Party fund-raiser going on inside with Reagan as the attraction. 
Sponsors of the rally included the Cincinnati AFL-CIO and the NAACP. 



NLRB Judge Backs Union 
On Right to Chemical Data 


(Continued from Page 1 ) 

value in real terms would continue to 
drop and the number of new beneficiaries 
helped by it would steadily decline. 

BUT THE budget reconciliation bill that 
the Administration pushed through Con- 
gress last summer would have ended the 
minimum benefit next March for persons 
already getting it and denied the minimum 
to new recipients after last October. 

In the face of a public outcry, the 
House last July 31 voted 404-20 to restore 
the minimum benefit for both present and 
future beneficiaries. 

The. Republican-controlled Senate used 
that bill as a vehicle for other changes in 
the law. It voted to deny the minimum to 
future retirees and survivors, but to allow 
most persons previously receiving it to 
continue to do so. However, persons re- 
ceiving a government pension of more 
than $300 a month would not be entitled 
to the full $122. The Senate bill also 
included the sick pay tax, a version of 
interfund borrowing and the ceiling on 
family benefits that was dropped in con- 
ference. 

THE OFFSET for government pensions 
also was among the labor-opposed fea- 
tures of the Senate bill that was dropped 
in the final version. The legislation en- 

Reagan Names 
Moffett to Head 
Mediation Agency 

Kenneth E. Moffett has been nominated 
by President Reagan to be the director of 
the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Ser- 
vice, a position that has been vacant for 
almost a year. The nomination is subject 
to Senate confirmation. 

Moffett, who has been with FMCS since 
1961, has served as its acting director since 
Jan. 1, when Wayne L. Horvitz resigned 
from the post. Before joining the agency, 
Moffett served as an international repre- 
sentative with District 50 of the Mine 
Workers for five years. 

EARLIER THIS month, the FMCS en- 
tered into a stipulation agreeing not to 
implement personnel cuts until a perman- 
ent director is named, an agreement that 
settled ,a lawsuit by six employees of the 
agency who were to be terminated. Moffett 
told reporters that the stipulation probably 
led the Administration finally to fill the 
long vacant post. 

A number of major collective bargain- 
ing contracts are due to expire in 1982, 
and the director often becomes involved 
in the talks. Moffett said the FMCS is 
monitoring petroleum and trucking nego- 
tiations, which are now under way. 

During his career with the FMCS, Mof- 
fett served as deputy director from 1977 
through, last January. Previously, he 
served as its director of mediation services 
for five years. In 1969, he was special as- 
sistant to former director J. Curtis Counts. 
He started with the agency as^ mediator, 
serving in Washington and in Cleveland. 



acted also restored retroactively the mini- 
mum benefit for persons qualifying for it 
in November and December of this year, 
ending the benefit floor on Jan. 1, 1982^ 
for those not covered before that date.. 
The only exception is for nuns and mem- 
bers of religious orders requiring a vow 
of poverty. 

The taxation of sick pay will bring into 
the social security funds almost as much 
as the cost of retaining the minimum bene- 
fit, and House conferees defended the 
compromise measure as the best that could 
be worked out with the Senate. 

In other developments in the final days 
of the first session of the 97th Congress: 

• Congress approved a bill supported 
by both the Mine Workers and the coal 
industry doubling the special tax on the 
sale of coal which is used to finance black 
lung benefits for miners. The trust fund 
for that purpose has had to borrow from 
the Treasury to continue to pay benefits. 
The measure raises the tax rate tempo- 
rarily from 50 cents to $ 1 a ton on under- 
ground coal and from 25 cents to 50 cents 
on surface-mined coal. 

• The House voted 244-136 approval 
of a standby emergency petroleum alloca- 
tion bill that gives the President temporary 
authority to impose oil price ceilings and 
allocate petroleum supplies in the event of 
a severe shortage. Gasoline rationing would 
be prohibited and either the House or 
Senate could block controls by a resolu- 
tion of disapproval. 

The AFL-CIO had urged stronger stand- 
by legislation but supported pas'sage of the 
House bill because the previous standby 
authority had expired at the end of Sep- 
tember. The Senate has passed its own 
version and a House-Senate conference 
committee will try to reach agreement in 
the second session of Congress. 

• Congress approved before adjourn- 
ment a massive $200 billion defense ap- 
propriations bill, foreign assistance funding, 
and a compromise farm bill that cleared 
the House by a scant 205-203 margin. 


The United States is continuing to lose 
jobs and production by sticking to un- 
realistic trade policies, union and industry 
officials testified at House hearings. 

Representatives of two labor-manage- 
ment coalitions and the Ladies’ Garment 
Workers were among the witnesses heard 
by a Ways & Means subcommittee that is 
reviewing foreign trade issues. 

THE LABOR-INDUSTRY Coalition for 
International Trade (LICIT) told the panel 
that non-tariff barriers to U.S. products 
have tilted the balance against the United 
States in the world competition for mar- 
kets. 

Industrial Union Dept. President How- 
ard D. Samuel was joined by Lawrence C. 
McQuade, senior vice president of W. R. 
Grace & Co., in presenting LICIT’s pro- 
posals for trade policies reflecting “today’s 
realities.” 

Samuel said the United States has been 
relatively successful in negotiating with 
other countries for a mutual reduction of 
tariffs, but still has “a long way to go” in 
securing the removal of non-tariff barriers. 

HE AND McQUADE urged a legisla- 
tive package to assure greater relief from 
unfair trade practices by other countries 
and “enhance the negotiating leverage of 
the United States” in dealings with its 
trading partners. 

Another union-employer coalition, the 
Textile/ Apparel Import Steering Group, 
said imports from low-wage nations threat- 
en to wipe out hundreds of thousands of 
U.S. jobs — on top of the heavy losses 
already imposed. 


A tire company has been ordered to 
comply with a union’s request under the 
National Labor Relations Act for precise 
information on hazardous substances that 
its members encounter on the job. 

Ruling in favor of Rubber Workers Lo- 
cal 26 in an unfair labor practice case, 
NLRB Administrative Law Judge Thomas 
E. Bracken held that the information was 
essential to the union’s responsibilities in 
representing 1,700 workers at the Kelly- 
Springfield Tire Co. plant in Cumberland, 
Md. 

BRACKEN DIRECTED the company, 
a subsidiary of Goodyear, to furnish the 
URW local with a list of all chemicals by 
generic name, as well as handling precau- 
tions, that its employees come in contact 
with. 

Bracken noted that three other NLRB 


Shelley Appleton, secretary-treasurer of 
the Ladies’ Garment Workers, testified for 
the 20 trade associations and unions mak- 
ing up the steering group. 

Imports of textiles and apparels are up 
17 percent over the previous year. Apple- 
ton noted. 

THE UNITED STATES is currently 
renegotiating the multifiber arrangement 
regulating textile and apparel trade among 
50 signatory nations. Appleton said the 
agreement should be strengthened as well 
as renewed. 

If it would allow imports to grow at the 
expense of U.S. industry, it would be bet- 
ter to authorize U.S. quotas, he told the 
panel. 

ILGWU Legislative Director Evelyn 
Dubrow testified separately on one of the 
trade issues of speical importance to her 
union — a loophole in the tariff code known 
as Item 807. 

Under this provision, American com- 
panies can export parts for assembly 
abroad and reimport the finished product, 
paying duty only on foreign value added, 
which is largely the labor cost. 

SINCE THE REASON for assembly 
abroad is to get cheap labor, the duty im- 
posed is minimal, she noted. 

Dubrow said garment workers have been 
displaced by the practice of manufacturers 
who sent cut garments to Mexico and 
other nearby low-wage nations to be sewn 
and returned to the United States. 

The dollar value of garments brought 
into the United States under the Item 807 
loophole rose from $1.7 million in 1965 
to $524 million last year, she testified. 


law judges reached the same conclusions 
earlier on the need for full identification 
of toxic and carcinogenic materials in the 
workplace. Although the rulings came 
more than two years ago, the full NLRB 
has yet to make a final decision on any of 
the cases against Minnesota Mining & 
Manufacturing Co., Colgate-Palmolive Co., 
Borden Chemical and Goodyear Tire & 
Rubber. 

Kelly-Springfield had offered to provide 
the union with precaution sheets, but 
would only identify the chemicals by code 
name. Insisting on the union’s need for 
generic names. Bracken asserted that “the. 
code name is as meaningless to the union 
as if it were in Sanskrit.” 

THE UNION ^ requested the precise 
identifications in January 1979 after the 
company disclosed that one of the com- 
pounds used in the plant caused cancer 
in laboratory animals. 

“The specter of cancer,” Bracken said, 
“has few equals in casting fear into the 
minds of American workers, and certainly 
the union had not only the right, but the 
duty to seek out all chemicals that would 
be potentially dangerous to the health and 
well-being of its members.” 

A toxic, labeling standard was promul- 
gated by the Occupational Safety & Health 
Administration last January before the 
Carter Administration left office. But it and 
62 other proposed regulations were pulled 
back under an Executive Order of Presi- 
dent Reagan in March over the strong pro- 
tests of the AFL-CIO. 

THE PROPOSED toxic labeling regu- 
lation would have required employers to 
provide precise chemical identification and 
warnings on hazardous substances found 
in some 328,000 manufacturing facilities 
that employ more than 20 million workers. 

Medical studies have found that nearly 
60 percent of the recorded occupational 
illnesses can be traced to chemical expo- 
sure in manufacturing. 

In endorsing the URW local’s conten- 
tion on the need for information. Bracken 
observed that “by learning what potential 
risks and hazards the employees face in 
the plant, the union would then be in a 
position to bargain intelligently for pro- 
tective measures to eliminate or reduce 
such hazards.” 

HE SAID the union could also bargain 
“for better medical facilities in the plant 
that would be geared to meet these haz- 
ards, for greater medical and surgical 
benefits, and for more relaxed eligibility 
rules for securing disability pensions.” 

Kelly-Springfield contended that the un- 
ion’s request for the information was de- 
signed to procure evidence for personal in- 
jury lawsuits against the company. Twenty- 
six Kelly-Springfield workers have filed 
federal suits for personal injury. 


Union, Industry Groups Assail 
‘Unrealistic’ Trade Policies 



First Session of Congress Posts Dismal Record 



By David L. Perlman 

The first session of the 97th Congress 
was a near disaster in terms of labor’s 
assessment of the nation’s needs. Neither 
rising unemployment nor worsening reces- 
sion budged Congress from the ideological 
path laid out by the Reagan Administra- 
tion. 

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Ray Den- 
ison sees the first session record as “a vir- 
tual abdication of the independent role of 
Congress.” 

At the Administration’s bidding, he 
noted, “Congress bypassed its own com- 
mittee structure and resorted to budget- 
setting shortcuts to rewrite laws and cur- 
tail benefits.” 

CONGRESS WORKED hand-in-glove 
with the Administration to wipe out the 
public service jobs program, scuttle trade 
adjustment assistance for workers dis- 


placed by imports and demolish most job 
training and placement programs. 

It slashed family assistance for the 
neediest and savaged programs designed 
to help the working poor and the near- 
poor. More than a million persons were 
cut off from food stamps; fewer children 
will get reduced-price school lunches. 


Medicaid payments to the states have 
been reduced, and Medicare cutbacks com- 
pel the elderly to pay a bigger share of 
their health costs out of pocket. 

The “victories’’ for labor during the 
first session of the 97th Congress were 
largely in staving off further catastrophes. 

Almost every economic step taken by 


the 97th Congress has been in the wrong 
direction, Denison observed. 

Housing programs were reduced sub- 
stantially below current levels at a time 
when homebiiilding was almost at a stand- 
still because of high mortgage interest 
rates. 

Through underfunding of both direct 
federal grants and consolidated “block 
grants,” Congress and the Administration 
squeezed states and cities so hard that 
Republican governors and mayors protest- 
ed as loudly as Democrats. 

THERE WILL BE less aid to the arts 
and to public broadcasting. But Congress 
refused to block President Reagan’s costly 
decontrol of domestic crude oil prices. 

Especially outrageous, Denison stressed, 
was the tax cut bill that Congress enacted 
as it embraced the trickle-down philosophy 

(Continued on Page 8) 


Protests Mount on Polish Crisis 


Labor Rallies U.S. Support 
For Embattled Solidarity 



NEW YORK CITY rally organized by labor unions called on the Reagan Admin- 
istration to support the demand of the Polish trade union federation, Solidarity, 
for an end to martial law in Poland. More than 2,500 took part in the demon- 
stration outside the Polish consulate. Teachers President Albert Shanker is 
shown during a TV interview. (Additional photos Page 2.) 

Industrial Output Drops 
As Recession Worsens 


Industrial production declined 2.1 per- 
cent in November and the economy con- 
tinued to contract as the nation’s eighth 
recession since the end of World War II 
deepened and forced hundreds of thou- 
sands of additional workers onto the un- 
employment rolls. 

The slide in output of U.S. factories, 
mines, and utilities was the fourth con- 
secutive monthly drop and the largest since 
the 3-percent decline in May 1980 at the 
depth of the last previous recession. The 
drop in industrial production reflected a 
continuing decline in orders from busi- 
nesses as they responded to shrinking de- 
mand and rising inventories. 

THE NOVEMBER decrease in output, 
which resulted primarily from sharp re- 
ductions in the production of automobiles, 
home appliances and business equipment, 
was larger than expected. In reporting the 
lower production levels, the Federal Re- 
serve Board said the declines were broad, 
with only defense and space industries re- 
flecting modest growth. 


Production of home goods, which in- 
cludes appliances and furniture, fell 5.3 
percent over the month. The automotive 
sector declined 7.2 percent, and auto as- 
semblies dropped nearly 13 percent. 

Separately, the Commerce Dept, said 
housing activity in November picked up 
only slightly from the 15-year low record- 
ed in October. Starts of new houses were 
recorded at a seasonally adjusted annual 
rate of 871,000 units. 

MEANWHILE, the Commerce Dept.’s 
preliminary assessment of the current quar- 
ter’s performance showed the economy 
contracting at a 5.4-percent annual rate. 
In releasing the figure, the government also 
raised its estimate of third-quarter growth 
to a seasonally adjusted 1 .4 percejit annual 
rate from six-tenths of 1 percent. 

Much of the revision reflected stronger 
inventory buildup than previously esti- 
mated. The economy contracted at an ad- 
justed annual rate of 1.6 percent in the 
second quarter, after expanding at an 8.6- 
percent rate in the first quarter. 


By James M. Shevis 

American workers and their unions 
stepped up their protest over the Polish 
government’s attack on the Solidarity labor 
federation and demanded the release of 
thousands of union members and officers 
“detained” since the communists reim- 
posed military rule in Poland two weeks 
ago. 

In major cities across the United 
States, the AFL-CIO joined Polish-Amer- 
ican, civic, religious, civil rights, and other 
groups in expressing outrage over Gen. 
Wojciech Jaruzelski’s crackdown on the 
-free trade union organization that held out 
the promise of “odnawa,” or democratic 
renewal, of Polish society. Poland has been 
under Soviet-imposed communist rule since 
the Red Army occupied it at the end of 
World War II. 

AS ONE expression of support for the 
Polish workers, Longshoremen’s President 
Thomas W. Gleason announced that ILA 
members would not handle any cargo go- 
ing to or from Poland on any vessel until 
martial law, the detention of trade union 
leaders, and the denial of the civil rights 
of the Polish people have ended. 

“Armed might seeks to extinguish the 
torch of liberty in Poland,” Gleason told 
a New York City news conference, ‘it is 
for American workers to hold it high as a 
beacon of hope and support. In conscience 
we can do no less.’^ 

GLEASON SAID he hoped to see the 
action spread to transport unions through- 
out the free world, and that he had urged 
the International Transport workers’ Fed- 
eration, a trade union secretariat headquar- 
tered near London, to issue a call for its 
member unions around the world to join 
in the refusal to handle cargo moving to 
or from Poland. 

Gleason, a vice president of both the 
ITF and the AFL-CIO, said the only ex- 
ceptions to the ILA boycott would be 
emergency medical or food supplies de- 
livered for a recognized charity. The State 
Dept, earlier announced that the United 
States would permit the continued supply 
of food aid being distributed to the Poles 
by private American organizations such as 
CARE and Catholic Relief Services. 

But the U.S. government has put in 
abeyance a Polish government request for 
more than $730 million in credits for next 


year to purchase feed grains and other 
agricultural products. 

AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, on 
returning from London and Paris where 
he conferred with European trade union 
leaders, met with President Reagan at the 
White House to discuss the Polish situa- 
tion. Reagan told reporters before the 
meeting that the Administration “wants a 
return to the negotiation stage, an end to 
martial law, and the release from confine- 
ment of those people who have been un- 
justly arrested, and an end to violence.” 

FROM COAST TO coast, American 
workers demonstrated against the Draco- 
nian measures promulgated by the Polish 
Army after it dropped a curtain of dark- 
ness on the Polish people the night of 
Dec. 12-13. Except in churches, the Poles 

(Continued on Page 3) 

Job Security Key 
To Pattern Pacts 
In Meat Industry 

The Food & Commercial Workers ap- 
proved new contracts with two of the 
country’s major meatpacking firms provid- 
ing major job and union security protec- 
tions through August 1985. 

In return for a wage freeze. Armour & 
Co. and Wilson Food Corp. agreed not to 
close any of their plants for the next 18 
months and to give notice of any plant 
closings for the 12 months thereafter. 

ARMOUR AND WILSON also agreed 
to recognize the union whenever a major- 
ity of workers at a new plant sign authori- 
zation cards, and to provide the union with 
information about its spending plans. The 
pacts, which the UFCW says will set a 
pattern for about 40,000 workers in the 
industry, also provide for medical benefit 
improvements. 

UFCW President William Wynn said 
employees at Hormel are voting on a simi- 
lar contract and that the union is consid- 
ering contract terms with Swift and John 
Morrell & Co. The Armour and Swift 
agreements became effective on Dec. 17, 

(Continued on Page 7) 



Page Two 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 




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across the country to express 
their support of Polish work- 
ers and their Solidarity move- 
ment — ^fhe target of a crack- 
down by Poland’s communist 
government. Similar protests 
were conducted in major cities 
around the world. In the 
United States, marches, pro- 
tests and candlelight vigils 
were coordinated by the AFL- 
CIO. At a White House meet- 
ing, Federation President Lane 
Kirkland briefed President Rea- 
gan on International Confeder- 
ation of Free Trade Unions ac- 
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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 


Pai^e Three 


Labor Rallies Spread 

World Outrage Grows 
On Polish Crackdown 


‘Hold On, Kid!’ 





OSHA Denies Union Petition 
To Curb Pestieide Exposure 


(Continued from Page 1) 
are not allowed to assemble. Penalties for 
seemingly minor infractions range from 
two. years to death. Normal communica- 
tions have been cut off with the outside 
world, and borders sealed to keep Poles 
from leaving the country. 

Thousands of Polish-Americans in Chi- 
cago, the home of more ethnic Poles than 
any other city outside Warsaw, joined with 
organized labor to protest the communist 
regime’s crackdown on free trade union- 
ism. Speakers included AFL-CIO Regional 
Director James Freeman, Illinois AFL- 
CIO President Robert G. Gibson, and Ser- 
vice Employees Vice President Eugene P. 
Moats. 

Also at the rally, which drew more than 

10.000 people, were Mr. and Mrs. Robert 
Walesa. Walesa, the cousin of Solidarity 
Chairman Lech Walesa, is an elevator 
maintenance engineer in Park Ridge, 111. 
He later wired President Reagan “to do 
whatever in your power it takes for the 
release of my cousin.” The Solidarity lead- 
er was detained by authorities at the start 
of the new military rule. 

At a “Solidarity with Solidarity” rally in 
San Francisco, California State AFL-CIO 
Executive Sec.-Treas. John F. Henning 
noted that martial law “is the first thing 
imposed by a government that is afraid of 
the people it rules.” Henning drew loud 
cheers from trade unionists, human rights 
activists, and Polish-Americans when he 
urged “the puppet government in Warsaw” 
to free Solidarity’s leaders, restore trade 
union rights, and lift restrictions on indi- 
vidual freedoms. 

SOME 2,500 demonstrators proclaimed 
support for the independent Polish labor 
federation at a rally outside the Polish 
consulate in New York City. Organized 
by the State AFL-CIO and the Social 
Democrats USA, the rally drew members 
of more than 20 unions. Speakers urged 
the United States to impose sanctions 
against the Polish government, and called 
on Poland’s military regime to free Walesa, 
who has not been seen in public since the 
crackdown. 

AFL-CIO Regional Director Michael 
Mann said that “Poland is afire, and we 
want action now from the U.S. govern- 
ment” to press the Soviet bloc to restore 
the rights of Polish citizens. Mayor Ed- 
ward Koch blamed the Soviet Union for 
the crackdown, and compared the situation 
in Poland to the days before World War II 
when Nazi troops moved into Czechoslo- 
vakia. “We were silent then, but let us 
never be silent again,” he said. 

OTHERS WHO spoke during the emo- 
tional demonstration in chilling tempera- 
tures included Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan 
(D-N.Y.), President Harry Van Arsdale, 
Jr., of the New York City Central Labor 
Council, Sec.-Treas. E. Howard Molisani 
of the New York State AFL-CIO, and 
Carl Gershman, counselor to U.S. Am- 
bassador to the United Nations Jeane J. 
Kirkpatrick. Chairman Bayard Rustin of 
the A. Philip Randolph Institute led the 
crowd in singing a modified chorus of the 
labor anthem, “Solidarity Forever.” 

In New Britain, Conn., a crowd of 

4.000 cheered labor and public officials 
who urged the U.S. government not to ex- 
tend loans and credit guarantees to Poland 
until martial law is lifted and Solidarity 
leaders are freed. Rally speakers included 
State AFL-CIO President John J. Driscoll 
and Lt. Gov. Joseph J. Fauliso. 

Other trade union activities around the 
country in support of Solidarity involved 
participation in candlelight vigils near the 
Polish embassy in Washington, D.C., and 
rallies in Houston, Albany, N.Y., Detroit, 
and in Buffalo. 

AFL-CIO SEC.-TREAS. Thomas R. 
Donahue spoke at a breakfast in the na- 
tion’s capital launching a Christmas Week 
vigil in support of the Polish workers and 
their unions. Expressions of support also 
poured forth from leaders of various AFL- 
CIO affiliated unions. 

President Richard I. Kilroy of the Rail- 
way & Airline Clerks said the union “joins 
with the AFL-CIO, the International 


Transport Workers Federation, and the 
International Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions in condemning the Polish govern- 
ment’s attack on the basic human rights 
of its citizens, an action which flouts the 
treaty obligations undertaken by Poland 
at the Helsinki conference.” 

PRESIDENT William Konyha of the 
Carpenters, noting that the union has 
many Polish-Americans among its mem- 
bers, stressed “the right of workers every- 
where to join freely in trade unions that 
will represent their just aspirations for 
economic progress and social well-being.” 

Sec.-Treas. Ray Majerus of the Auto 
Workers said, “The massive arrests and 
detention of the leadership of Solidarity 
and the banning of that union of workers 
are unjustified and unrealistic. . . . The 
dialogue of peaceful negotiations can be 
the only road to true social justice in 
Poland.” 

STEELWORKERS President Lloyd Mc- 
Bride said the union’s members throughout 
the United States and Canada “offer their 
prayers for the people of Poland” and 
urged the U.S. government to use “all eco- 
nomic and diplomatic sanctions possible to 
impress upon the communist regimes in 
Moscow and Warsaw the great outrage 
members feel at the military reoccupation 
of Poland.” 

The Screen Actors-Television & Radio 
Artists joint board termed the imposition 
of martial law, curfew, raids by police 
upon Solidarity chapters across Poland, 
and the detention of union leaders a re- 
pudiation of agreements between the in- 
dependent trade union federation and the 
Polish government. 

The protest against the Polish military 
crackdown'^ took on worldwide scope as 
workers in Tokyo, Paris, and other for- 
eign cities stood up to be counted in sup- 
port of Solidarity. 

THE INTERNATIONAL Labor Orga- 
nization, a specialized agency of the 
United Nations, sought to send a mission 
to Poland to survey the situation after re- 
ceiving the protests of the ICFTU and sev- 
eral international trade union secretariats. 

The International Metalworkers’ Fed- 
eration, headquartered in Geneva, called 
on its 170 affiliated unions throughout the 
world to support protests to Polish em- 
bassies in their countries, “and to make 
clear that relationships between the West 
and the Soviet bloc countries will be im- 
periled unless the leaders of Solidarity are 
released, trade union rights restored, and 
a dialogue between Polish workers and the 
authorities begins again.” 


The Occupational Safety & Health Ad- 
ministration has proposed rolling back en- 
gineering control requirements for eight of 
47 industries subject to a 1978 lead expo- 
sure standard. 

In a long-delayed statement to the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the District of Co- 
lumbia, OSHA asked for the return of the 
court record for further study to determine 
if the controls were “feasible” for the eight 
industries. 

FOR THE 39 industries where OSHA 
agreed the standard was indeed feasible, it 
extended the timetable for compliance 
from one year to two and one-half years. 

OSHA said it would also allow the use 
of respirators instead of engineering con- 
trols in plants where workers are exposed 
to lead in excess of the exposure limit, 
which is 50 micrograms per cubic meter 
of air. 

Excessive exposure to lead can cause 
damage to the kidneys and nervous sys- 
tem, serious blood disorders, sterility and 
death. About 835,000 workers are ex- 
posed to lead on the job, according to 
federal estimates. 


Administrator Thorne G. Auchter of the 
Occupational Safety & Health Administra- 
tion has rejected a union petition calling 
for an immediate reduction in worker ex- 
posure to a highly toxic agricultural fumi- 
gant that is suspected of causing cancer 
and sterility. 

Rather than issuing an emergency tem- 
porary standard for ethylene dibromide 
(EDB), Auchter said OSHA would follow 
routine rulemaking procedures in develop- 
ing a standard to lower permissible expo- 
sure levels. He acknowledged, however, 
that new medical evidence strongly sug- 
gests that the existing OSHA regulation 
for EDB doesn’t adequately protect work- 
ers against serious health risks. 

EDB IS USED on grains, fruits and 
vegetables after harvest to kill Mediterra- 
nean fruit flies and other insects. The ex- 
isting federal regulation limits worker ex- 
posure to 20 parts EDB per million parts 
air (20 ppm). 

The union petition — filed jointly by the 
AFL-CIO, the Food & Beverage Trades 
Dept., the unaffiliated Teamsters and other 
unions — seeks to immediately lower the 
exposure level to at least 0.13 ppm and 


Major provisions of OSHA’s lead stan- 
dard have been in effect since March 1979 
for all major lead-using industries. Engi- 
neering control provisions went into effect 
in June of this year for 10 industries after 
the Supreme Court refused the Adminis- 
tration’s request for review of the appeals 
court decision upholding the standard. 

Those 10 industries are primary lead 
smelting, secondary lead smelting, bat- 
tery manufacturing, electronics, gray iron 
foundries, ink manufacturing, paint and 
coatings manufacturing, wall paper manu- 
facturing, can making and printing. 

AMONG THE 39 manufacturing indus- 
tries where OSHA proposed to relax engi- 
neering control requirements are auto, 
sheet metal, leather, glass, textiles, plastics, 
pottery and rubber. 

One of the causes for the delay of the 
OSHA court statement was that it had to 
be cleared by the Administration’s Office 
of Management & Budget. In submitting 
the statement, Auchter contended that the 
rollback on engineering controls would 
save employers more than $50 million 
“without reducing worker protection.” 


ideally to a ppm level of 0.015. 

Because of the concerns over the EDB 
health risks, AFL-CIO Occupational Safe- 
ty Director George H. R. Taylor noted in 
a letter to Auchter that California lowered 
worker exposure to the chemical to the 
0.13 level in August under an emergency 
temporary standard (ETS). 

THE CALIFORNIA ETS has withstood 
challenges by growers in state and federal 
courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals. 

In the meantime, OSHA has proposed 
a series of guidelines for minimizing work- 
er exposure to the suspected carcinogen, 
which labor safety and health specialists 
branded as meaningless. 

“Never before in its entire 11 -year his- 
tory has OSHA issued such an unprofes- 
sional and technically deficient document 
and so utterly failed to respond to a seri- 
ous and immediate health threat posed to 
workers,” Taylor charged. 

An estimated 108,000 workers are ex- 
posed to EDB while handling, processing 
and transporting agricultural products, ac- 
cording to the National Institute of Occu- 
pational Safety & Health. In 1977, NIOSH 
called for reducing EDB exposure limits 
to the lowest feasible levels and reiterated 
its recommendation last month. 

TAYLOR NOTED that scientific studies 
show that laboratory animals have devel- 
oped tumors when exposed to EDB at one- 
half the existing OSHA exposure limit. 

The AFL-CIO warned that growers, 
after being rebuffed by the courts on the 
California EDB standard, are now attempt- 
ing to wipe out the state regulation by 
appealing to OSHA that it “unduly bur- 
dens interstate commerce.” 

Building Trades Offer Guide 
On Fighting Union-Busters 

A new pamphlet to help workers fight 
back against union-busting consultants and 
anti-union employers is available from the 
AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades 
Dept. 

The booklet, “Fighting the Union- 
Busters, A Workers’ Guide to Using the 
Law,” includes model complaint forms 
and information on obtaining copies of 
reports consultants and employers are re- 
quired to file with the Labor Dept, about 
their activities. 

The pamphlet was prepared by the de- 
partment’s Center to Protect Workers’ 
Rights. Up to 10 copies are available free 
from the center, 815 16th St. N.W., Room 
603, Washington, D.C. 20006. 


Retreat on Lead Standards 
Proposed by Administration 


Page Fenr 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 


Solidarnosc . . . Forever 

P OLAND’S AMBASSADOR to the United States, breaking 
openly with the government that he could no longer in con- 
science represent, spoke to Americans of “the cruel night of 
darkness and silence” that had descended on his beloved country. 

“I cannot be silent,” Romuald Spasowski said. His decision 
ivas reached when he learned “that Lech Walesa, the most beloved 
leader of Solidarity, is arrested and kept by force.” 

The ambassador spoke of the “war against the Polish people” 
and the “reign of terror” unleashed by military rulers doing the 
bidding of their Soviet masters. 

“Factories have been stormed where workers defended them- 
selves,” he reported. “Solidarity members have been arrested in 
:heir oflBces and at night. All communications lines have been cut 
3ff to isolate the country and to confuse the world.” 

Ambassador Spasowski insisted that “this carefully orchestrated 
and directed crackdown is not an internal Polish issue.” And, in- 
deed, it is not. 

OTHER VOICES, from the leaders of the nations that profess 
democracy and respect for human rights, must be raised — and not 
just in the cautious phrases of diplomacy. 

Can anyone now doubt that it is the trade union movement. 
Solidarity, that speaks with the authentic voice of the people of 
Poland? 

Does anyone question that the censorship and communications 
blackout imposed on Poland was intended to keep Solidarity’s 
voice from being heard? 

Does anyone truly believe that the free trade union movement 
:hat caused such tremors in Moscow and its satellites has been 
extinguished? 

THERE MAY STILL BE an opportunity for a restoration of 
freedoms if the military regime accepts the fact that it cannot es- 
:ablish a viable economy with a bayonet at the throat of its work- 
ers. But it will be actions, not rhetoric, that impel such a develop- 
nent. 

The rulers of Poland must be put on notice that there will 
3e no business-as-usual with a government that crushes with force 
ts own people. Such notice must come from all free nations, not 
ust from the United States. 

Through their unions, the workers of the world have proclaimed 
:heir support — their solidarity — with Poland’s Solidarnosc. 


Second Century 

A MERIC AN LABOR’S second century opens on a note of 
^ urgency and concern. 

It’s safe to predict that the third century will be equally beset 
)y problems. And that there will be a trade union movement 
iround to deal with them. 







Official Weekly Publication 
of the 

American Federation of Labor and 
Congress of Industrial Organizations 

Lane Kirkland, President 
Thomas R. Donahue, Secretarx-Treasurer 


John H. Lyons 
Jerry Wurf* 

Murray H. Finley 
Sol C. Chaikin 
Charles H. Pillard 
David J. Fitzmaurice 
Wm. W. Winpisinger 
John DeConcini 
William Konyha 
Douglas A. Fraser 
Barbara Hutchinson 

♦Deceased 


Executive Council 

Thomas W. Gleason 
S. Frank Raftery 
Albert Shanker 
Edward T. Hanley 
J. C. Turner 
Kenneth T. Blaylock 
William H. Wynn 
Wayne E. Glenn 
Joyce D. Miller 
Frank Drozak 
Richard I. Kilroy 


Frederick O’Neal 
Martin J. Ward 
Glenn E. Watts 
Angelo Fosco 
Lloyd McBride 
Alvin E. Heaps 
John J. O’Donnell 
Robert F. Goss 
John J. Sweeney 
James E. Hatfield 
Vincent R. Sombrotto 


Director of Information: Saul Miller 
Managing Editor: John M. Barry 

Assistant Editors: 


Susan Dunlop 
David L. Perlman 


John R. Oravec 
James M. Shevis 


AFL-CIO Headquarters: 815 Sixteenth St., N.W. 1 

Washington. D.C. 20006 s 

Telephone: (202) 637-5032 | 

Vol. XXVI Saturday, December 26, 1981 No. 51 1 

The AFL-CIO News (ISSN 002-1185) is issued weekly except 
for the last week of the year at 815 Sixteenth St., N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20006. $2 a year. Second class postage paid at 
Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO does not accept paid adver- 
tising in any of its official publications. No one is authorized 
to solicit advertising for any publications in the name of the 
AFL-CIO. = 




Consumer Spending Sluggish 


Business Council Economists 
Find Reagan Scheme Failing 




By Gus Tyler 

T he IDEA BEHIND the tax cut was to stimu- 
late the economy: the savings would put peo- 
ple to work in new and expanded plants. 

But it’s not working out that way, say the top 
economists of the Business Council, spokesman 
for America’s largest corporations. The econo- 
mists say that the tax cuts are failing to “stimulate 
the final demand that might help to spur a 
larger increase in business investment.” 

THE KEY WORD here is “demand,” the spark 
plug of economic action. If there is weak demand, 
no prudent investor will invest. You don’t produce 
products for non-existent customers. This per- 
fectly obvious idea was restated in more elegant 
and formal words by Lawrence Chimerine of 
Chase Econometrics: 

“Despite the current emphasis on savings and 
investment, it is essential that some of the in- 
creases in real income that will result from 
lowered inflation and reduced taxes be reflected 
in higher consumer spending. Continued sluggish 
consumer spending would directly suppress eco- 
nomic activity and, by holding down profits and 
operating revenues, would also depress capital 
formation.” 

THE BUSINESS COUNCIL has been a strong 
backer of Reaganomics. But facts are facts, and 
the simple facts are that the Reagan tax cut put 
great gobs of money in the hands of the investing 
class but did just about nothing for the consuming 
classes, the great 85 percent of the nation that 
lives on wages and salaries. The result is “sluggish 
consumer spending,” a weak market, and hence 
weak prospects of investment in production. 

That “demand” is the key to economic vitality ' 
is not a new idea, I was reminded on the same 
day that the Business Council made its surprise 
statement. That noon, I attended a luncheon of 
Public Affairs Pamphlets, an^ organization that 
in 1936 embarked on a program of popular book- 
lets to educate the American people on certain 
truths that often get buried in forgotten tomes. 

The first tract, written in 1936 by Maxwell 
Stewart, was a popular summary of several vol- 
umes by the Brookings Institution on the Ameri- 
can economy. One part of that study dealt with 
savings and what it could and could not do. 
Here’s an excerpt from the booklet. Income and 
Economic Progress: 

“Money savings will be used to build new plant 


and equipment only if it pays to do so. The - 
question is: Will business men run the risk of 
expanding productive capacity at a time when, as ' . 
a result of increased savings, consumer demand 
is declining, and the amount of unutilized pro- " , 
ductive capacity is increasing? In boom periods, . 
when people are buying increased amounts of 
goods, manufacturers will hasten to build new fac- ' 
tories and to install labor-saving machinery; but " ' 
in a depression when consumption is low, they, ' ^ 

as a rule, avoid all unnecessary expenditures. f ' ■ 

“IF THIS IS true, then it does not follow that . 
all money set aside as savings will be immediately ^ - 
used for new plant and equipment. For if the pro- ^ 
portion of a nation’s income which is saved 
should suddenly increase, the resulting decline in ^ 
the purchase of consumers’ goods would serve to . 
prevent the use of money savings in building new 
plant and equipment. The demand for capital " . ^ 
goods is derived not from savings but from the ^ 
consumers’ expenditures.” , 

That was written 45 years ago. Too bad it was 
not read by Reagan’s economic advisers before ^ 
they wrote the recent law to enrich the rich. 

Copyright 1981, Gus Tyler Columns 

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A Parting Word ' - 

From the Editor 

T 

This issue of the AFL-CIO News marks the . 
end of my role as editor of the federation’s 
weekly newspaper. I have been privileged to v 
direct and edit the News for the past 26 years 
with broad editorial freedom. 

-* » 

The News has had a simple objective: to > 
publish a weekly paper for the trade union ' ^ 
movement based on editorial integrity and ^ 
credibility. That objective, in the main, has ^ ^ V 
been achieved, we have been assured by frie/ ds 
and critics. ^ 

The News has set a standard also for the ^ 
labor press. It has helped develop the crisp ^ . 
professionalism, attractiveness, credibility and ^ 
commitment in trade union publications today. ^ 

On retirement I give thanks for the opportu- 
nity to have served, to have worked with the ♦ 
fine editors and writers whose names have " ^ 
graced these pages. 

— Saul Miller - 

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AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 


Page Five 


Worldwide Protest Pressed 

ICFTU Statement on Poland 
Demands Return of Freedoms 


The following statement was issued by the 
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions 
following a special meeting at the organization's 
headquarters in Brussels: 

O N DEC. 16, 1981, a special trade union 
meeting was convened in Brussels by the 
ICFTU to discuss the serious situation in Poland. 

Representatives of ICFTU affiliated organiza- 
tions and of the International Trade Secretariats 
expressed the international free trade union move- 
ment’s condemnation of the arrests of leading 
members of Solid arnosc and the imposition of 
military rule in Poland. 

THE MEETING emphasized that these mea- 
sures were taken in the absence of any provoca- 
tion on the part of the Polish free and indepen- 
dent trade union movement, which on the con- 
trary has repeatedly stated, and is still stating, 
that it is ready to negotiate. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ 

Terrible Tragedy 
For Human Rights' 

A terrible tragedy for trade union rights and 
individual human rights is unfolding in Poland, 
with reports of the jailing of trade unionists 
and trade union leaders, with pictures of tanks 
and troops controlling every street and byway, 
with the imposition of martial law and the use 
of force by a military government. 

Free citizens all across Europe and the 
United States are giving voice to their shock at 
these events, and giving expression to their 
support for the Polish workers and the Polish 
people. 

We are proud to be part of that protest. 

The hand-wringing of some commentators to 
the effect that Solidarity has caused this con- 
frontation is sheer nonsense. The Solidarity 
union movement has demonstrated sophistica- 
tion about bargaining tactics, patience and a 
willingness to compromise. 

Theirs has been the course of pressure with 
moderation. 

We will continue to press for restoration of 
trade union rights, for full freedom of associa- 
tion and freedom of expression. 

Long live Solidarity! Long live a free Poland! 

— AFL-CIO Sec-Treas. Thomas R. Dona- 
hue at the Dec., 14 Solidarity support rally in 
Washington, D.C. 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiii^ 


The international free trade union movement 
condemns the Polish authorities’ shameful at- 
tempts to stifle, by means of these measures, the 
hope of resurgence and freedom that the Polish 
free and independent trade union movement has 
succeeded in creating in Poland and elsewhere. 

The international free trade union movement 
once again pledges its wholehearted support to 
the Polish workers and their Solidarnosc trade 
union organizations in their determination to en- 
sure that the Polish authorities fully respect the 
Gdansk agreement. 

THE INTERNATIONAL free trade union 
movement reaffirms its deep conviction that the 
problems of the working class cannot be solved 
without freedom and full observance of the Uni- 
versal Declaration of Human Rights and the inter- 
national conventions on freedom of assication, 
and therefore calls upon its member organizations 
to: 

A. Undertake immediate and continuous pro- 
test actions in support of the Polish workers fight 
for the respect of human and trade union rights. 

B. Exert stronger pressure on their respective 
governments. 

C. Make representation to the Polish ambassa- 
dors in their countries with a view to ensuring 
that: 

1. All the arrested trade unionists are imme- 
diately released. 

2. Martial law is immediately abolished. 

3. Negotiations are resumed immediately be- 
tween the Polish authorities and Solidar- 
nosc on measures to solve social and eco- 
nomic problems that the country is facing, 
on the basis of the agreements already 
reached before the declaration of martial 
law. 

4. Democratic procedures are established to 
ensure that material assistance given to 
Poland does in fact reach those parts of the 
population that are in real need of it. 

5. Any assistance to Poland by governments 
or credit institutions is strictly linked to the 
comprehensive fulfillment by the Polish au- 
thorities of the above mentioned trade union 
demands. 

The ICFTU together with the International 
Trade Secretariats will follow developments close- 
ly and will make every effort to ensure effective 
coordination and maximum cohesion of the inter- 
national solidarity action in support of the Polish 
workers. 


Administration Tactics Hit 

Conference on Aging Assails 


Attempt to Gut 

jPkELEGATES TO the 1981 White House Con- 
'Ll ference on Aging overwhelmingly rejected 
the Administration’s call for cuts in social security 
and other protections for America’s elderly, de- 
spite the attempt of the White House to rig the 
meeting to get endorsement of the President’s 
policies. 

That report was made in a network radio inter- 
view by AFL-CIO Social Security Director Bert 
Seidman and President Jacob dayman of the 
National Council of Senior Citizens, who charged 
that the Administratior. stacked key committees 
with pro-Reagan delegates identified in a tele- 
phone poll conducted by the Republican National 
Committee. The ploy backfierd, they said, and the 
“unloaded committees did what the loaded com- 
mittees could not do.” They pointed out that the 
entire conference went on to adopt a series of 
recommendations that “preserve, at least in spirit, 
the whole gamut of programs” vital to the na- 
tion’s elderly. 

dayman and Seidman, both of whom were 
delegates to earlier Aging Conferences, which are 
held at 10-year intervals to assess the needs of 
older Americans, said that such “political ma- 
nipulation” was unprecedented, regardless of the 
party occupying the White House. “This Adminis- 


Social Security 

tration apparently was enormously fearful” of a 
free and open expression of opinion and “figured 
that the only way they could manage the picture 
was to stack the deck,” dayman asserted. 

QUESTIONED BY reporters on Labor News 
Conference, dayman and Seidman noted that 
most of the delegates left the conference with 
“feelings of disillusionment, disappointment and 
resentment” over the “extraordinary efforts of the 
Reagan Administration to manipulate this con- 
ference.” But, Seidman added, “the spirit of the 
elderly” was not dampened, and they made it 
clear that they, like the majority of Americans, 
“want social security maintained and the pro- 
grams of benefit to the elderly mJintained.” 

Seidman warned that the Administration may 
still try to slant the conference report in its favor. 
“After what I saw in the way of manipulation, I 
don’t put anything past these people,” he declared. 
He said that the labor movement and senior 
citizen organizations will monitor the prepara- 
tion of the conference report to try to assure that 
it accurately states the views and votes of the 
delegates. 

Labor News Conference is broadcast weekly 
on Mutual radio. 



By Press Associates, Inc. 

O NE OF THE MOST mischievous pieces of anti-union legis- 
lation ever introduced in Congress got a good airing recently 
before a Senate criminal justice subcommittee. 

Sponsored by South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee, and 1 1 other conservative Senate 
Republicans, the legislation would place certain labor-manage- 
ment disputes under the federal anti-extortion law known as the 
Hobbs Act. 

In practice, the Hobbs Act amendments would make a striking 
worker who, say, became involved in a scuffle on the picket line, 
subject to federal prosecution. If convicted, he or she could be 
sentenced to up to 20 years in jail or fined $10,000, or both. 

BUT THE EMPLOYER or his hired agents probably wouldn’t 
have to worry about prosecution under an amended Hobbs Act 
because the crime of extortion would apply in legal terms only to 
the employee, the party attempting to gain something through 
strike action. 

Spearheading the campaign for the Hobbs amendment has been 
the National Right to Work Committee, whose mass mailing to 
2 million potential contributors alleged rising “union terrorism” 
in the nation. The committee also has been circulating a sensa- 
tionalistic, 30-minute film dubbed “Scepter of Violence.” 

Testifying before a Senate criminal law subcommittee. Right to 
Work Committee President Reed Larson painted a colorful picture 
of growing “union-inspired violence” orchestrated by “an interna- 
tional network” of union officials. 

TO “DOCUMENT” his case, Larson reeled off his organiza- 
tion’s litany of horror stories regarding alleged violence by union 
members. 

Unfortunately for Larson, union opponents of the Hobbs 
amendments had done some homework. An AFL-CIO attorney 
offered these refutations of what he called distortions and mis- 
representations spread by the Right to Work Committee: 

• Allegation: “The U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco & Firearms, reports that labor-related violence has re- 
placed political terrorism as the number one cause of property 
damage by explosives in this country.” 

Fact: This is not true. The 1980 report of the BATF shows that 
“labor-related” incidents accounted for only 4.3 percent of all 
reported bombing incidents, putting this category a distant fifth 
on the list. And this includes incidents which “could have been 
perpetrated by members of labor or management,” reported the 
bureau. 

• Allegation: “A violent campaign against nonstriking employ- 
ees at a Fremont, Neb., grain bin factory took an ugly turn with 
recent reports that two thugs pinned down a terrified worker while 
a third assailant repeatedly and expertly slashed the man with a 
razor.” 

Fact: According to the local police chief, city administrator, 
city prosecutor and county prosecutor, and the regional office 
of the National Labor Relations Board, no such incident ever 
occurred. But local officials reported that a union steward “got 
beat up pretty bad” and his assailant was arrested. 

IN FACT, the National Association of Attorneys General has 
told Congress that local and state laws are fully adequate to deal 
with offenses by strikers or employers. And these laws already 
are backed up by federal laws dealing with such areas of interstate 
crime as bombings, arson and extortion. 

The Hobbs Act amendments, if enacted, would have a chilling 
effect on workers wanting to exercise their right to strike and 
picket.-'And that, it seems, is the main reason it has been proposed. 



OVERWHELMING REJECTION of the Administrations’ 
drive to cut social security and other programs for older Ameri- 
cans was voted by delegates to the 1981 White House Confer- 
ence on Aging despite attempts to rig the conference, AFL-CIO 
Social Security Director Bert Seidman, second from right, and 
President Jacob dayman of the National Council of Senior 
Citizens, second from left, said. They were questioned on Labor 
News Conference by Judith Randal of the New York Daily News 
and Dale McFeatters of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers. 


Pa^e Six 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 



WORKING MEMBERS of Machinists Local 1746 at East Hartford, Conn., 
filled this six-foot stocking with dollar bills in fund drive for their union brothers 
and sisters laid off by Pratt & Whitney Division of United Technologies. Local 
President Bill Rudis, left, and I AM District 91 Rep. Fred Drosehn report fund 
passed $6,200 mark in 48 hours. 


Contract Covering 12,000 
Ratified at Groton Shipyard 


Groton. Conn. — ^Workers at General 
Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division here 
overwhelmingly approved a new contract 
providing for substantial wage increases 
and fringe-benefit improvements. 

The pact, ratified by a vote of 6,832 to 
1,025, was reached more than six months 
before the old agreement was to expire, 
the first early settlement at the shipyard 
in 26 years. 

NEGOTIATED BY the Metal Trades 
Council comprising nine AFL-CIO unions 
and the unaffiliated Teamsters, the new 
three-year contract covers 12,000 work- 
ers, about 60 percent of the facility’s 
workforce. 

Settlement of nearly 3,000 grievances 
broke the ice after a month ''of negotia- 
tions, according to Council President 
Thomas Kiddy. The council agreed to drop 
the backlogged cases in exchange for one- 
time $100 payments to each worker cov- 
ered by the settlement. The grievances in- 
volved assignment of workers outside their 
craft. 

Under the agreement, all workers will 
receive a 25-cent hourly raise on Jan. 1 
as a bonus for early settlement. General 
raises will be given at three different inter- 
vals ovei^ the life of the contract. 

FIRST-CLASS mechanics under the 
pact will receive $2.25 more an hour, 
including the early settlement bonus, gen- 


eral pay increases and two 10-cent cost-of- 
living adjustments. This category makes 
up about 70 percent of the workforce. 

The first general wage increase of 75 
cents an hour will be made in July 1982. 
A 55-cent hourly increase will be paid 
in July 1983, and the final increment in 
July 1984. Current salaries of workers 
represented by the council range from 
$5.61 an hour for first-step, second-class 
workers to $8.97 for first-class workers. 

The council also negotiated significant 
improvements in employee benefit plans. 
General Dynamics agreed to increase the 
amount a worker can have deducted from 
each paycheck under the firm’s Shipyard 
Savings Investment Program from 4 to 7 
percent in the first year, 8 percent in the 
second, and 10 percent in the final year. 
The company matches 50 percent of each 
worker’s investment. 

PENSION PLAN improvements include 
addition of a “magic 85” clause allowing 
a worker to retire with full benefits when 
his or her years of service and age total 
85. Pension benefits were raised from $12 
to $14 a month per year of service. 

AFL-CIO unions represented by the 
council are the Plumbers & Pipe Fitters, 
Machinists, International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers, Molders, Laborers, 
Carpenters, Boilermakers, and the Office & 
Professional Employees. 


Medicaid Restoration Asked 


For Low-Income Mothers 


A new bill that would restore Medicaid 
eligibility to low-income working mothers 
has been introduced in the House with a 
strong endorsement from the Health Secur- 
ity Action Council. 

Its goal is to help working mothers who 
are being cut off from Aid to Families 
with Dependent Children benefits because 
of budget cutbacks and who as a result also 
face the loss of family Medicaid benefits. 

REP. HENRY A. Waxman (D-Calif.) 
and other co-sponsors of the bill warned 
that loss of Medicaid benefits could tilt the 
balance and force many working mothers 
to give up their low-paying jobs and turn 
to welfare payments. 

Auto Workers President Douglas A. 
Fraser, who heads the Health Security Ac- 
tion Council, said a strong effort will be 
made to get passage of the legislation in 
the second session of Congress. AFL-CIO 
President Lane Kirkland is secretary of 


the coalition group, that was formed in the 
campaign for national health insurance. 

By cutting out health benefits as well as 
wage supplements, Fraser charged. Con- 
gress “is driving these people back into 
welfare” and discouraging others from 
taikng jobs that would make them self- 
supporting. 

THE PROPOSED legislation would al- 
low states to continue Medicaid coverage 
for low-income working mothers. 

Waxman is chairman of the House 
Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on 
Health, which has jurisdiction over Medi- 
caid. Other key co-sponsors include Rep. 
Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), who is chairman 
of the Ways & Means Subcommittee on 
Public Assistance, which deals with AFDC 
legislation, and Rep. Charles B. Rangel 
(D-N.Y.), who heads the Ways & Means 
subcommittee dealing with legislative over- 
sight. 


At Annual Meeting 

Screen Actors Press 
Inter-Union Solidarity 


Hollywood, Calif. — The insecurities of 
their industry, coupled with economic con- 
ditions, make strong unions necessary for 
performers. Screen Actors Guild President 
Ed Asner told the union’s annual member- 
ship meeting here. 

The 800 SAG members at the meeting 
discussed ways to strengthen solidarity 
with other performing arts unions, includ- 
ing merger discussions with the Radio & 
Television Artists and a proposed merger 
with the Screen Extras Guild. 

THE UNION will also review its tradi- 
tional policy of neutrality in political ac- 
tion and consider playing a more active 
role in the election process. 

Asner denied rumors that a strike by 
SAG and AFTRA members who make 
commercials is in the offing. He urged 
members to “pass the word along” to stop 
the “misinformation.” 

Negotiations have begun, he said, “to 
achieve what we feel is necessary for the 
welfare of our brothers and sisters in the 
commercial field — without disrupting our 
industry.” 

Asner, who plays the lead in the weekly 
television series “Lou Grant,” was elected 
president of the 50,000-member union in 
November. 

SAG’S 14-MEMBER national board of 
directors reported on actions it took in its 
three-day meeting preceding the conven- 
tion, including approval of Kendall Or- 
satti as the new executive secretary. 

Orsatti, who joined the SAG staff in 
1961, had headed the union’s Hollywood 
office and served as assistant national exec- 
utive secretary. He succeeds Chester L. 
Migden who resigned in November. 

The board voted to give Migden the un- 
ion’s first Ralph Morgan Award in recog- 
nition of his 30 years of service. 

A PROPOSED dues and initiation fee 
increase, a^pproved by the board, will be 
submitted to the membership in a referen- 
dum vote. The proposal, the first in six 
years, would retain the union’s sliding 
scale dues structure while raising mini- 


mum dues by $25 to a total of $75 per 
year and dues for members earning more 
than $100,000 to $1,150 per year. 

Orsatti said the increase is needed to 
meet a projected $1.6 million deficit in the 
1982 budget caused by higher costs for 
current programs and the need to increase 
many services. He added that the “anti- 
labor climate” in the nation was also a 
factor driving up costs. 

“Five arbitrations used to be a busy 
year,” Orsatti said. “Now we have more 
than 1 00 arbitrations a year in Hollywood 
alone.” 

THE BOARD approved a memoran- 
dum of understanding covering merger 
with the Screen Extras. If approved by the 
SEG board, it will be sent to members of 
both unions for a referendum vote. A 
membership meeting to discuss the merger 
proposal has been scheduled for late Janu- 
ary preceding the mailing of the ballots. 

Both the SAG and AFTRA boards have 
already acted on the first stages of their 
merger plans, and SAG Merger Commit- 
tee Chairman Philip Sterling told the mem- 
bership that final proposals could be ready 
for a vote by the end of 1982. 

The SAG board broke with the union’s 
traditional non-political stance and ap- 
proved a resolution denouncing attempts 
to destroy or weaken gains won by labor 
in such areas as wages and working con- 
ditions, safety and health, job training and 
placement, civil rights legislation and other 
social legislation. 

THE RESOLUTION called for SAG to 
“join with others in the labor movement 
to expand resistance to anti-union tactics 
and the gains of decades” and to “exercise 
its rights to affirm and defend itself and its 
members” by “vigilant participation” in 
lobbying and politics. 

The union’s legislative and government 
review committees will give the board rec- 
ommendations by Mar. 15, 1982, on the 
nature of the union’s involvement in the 
political process as it relates to both can- 
didates and issues. 


Federal, Postal Unions Fight 
Cuts in Job Injury Benefits 


The AFL-CIO Public Employee Dept, 
urged Congress to keep faith with federal 
and postal workers by rejecting an Admin- 
istration effort to cut back workers’ com- 
pensation for job-related injuries and ill- 
ness. 

PED President Kenneth T. Blaylock told 
a House Subcommittee on Labor Standards 
that the Administration bill is motivated by 
budget-slashing, not the obligation of fair 
compensation for incapacitated workers. 

IT WOULD eliminate the present pro- 
vision for a 45-day period of pay continua- 
tion while a disability claim is being pro- 
cessed, lengthen the waiting period for 
benefits from three to seven days, reduce 
the existing cost-of-living formula for ad- 
justing benefit payments, and shift disabled 
workers to lower-paying civil service re- 
tirement status at age 65. Other proposed 
changes would add to the problems of ad- 
ministering the law, Blaylock protested. 

Blaylock, who is also president of the 
Government Employees, was joined by 
President Moe Biller of the Postal Work- 
ers and President Vincent R. Sombrotto 
of the Letter Carriers in criticizing the bill 
introduced by Rep. John N. Erlenborn (R- 
111.). The Erlenborn bill is based on Ad- 
ministration proposals made last March in 
President Reagan’s budget message. 

ADMINISTRATION of the program 
could and should be improved, Blaylock 
told the House panel. More effective safety 
programs would reduce job injuries, he 
suggested, and an improved rehabilitation 
program would make it possible for more 
disabled employees to return to work. 

But the Administration budget axe, he 


charged, is aimed at destroying, not re- 
forming the program. 

In a related area, the Public Employee 
Dept, urged approval of bills before the 
subcommittee that would extend for fed- 
eral police and fire fighter employees the 
$50,000 special death benefit awarded to 
families of local and state law enforcement 
and fire fighting personnel killed in the line 
of duty. Sec.-Treas. Robert D. Gordon of 
the International Union of Police Associa- 
tions also testified on that issue. 



NEW PRESIDENT of the State, County 
& Municipal Employees is Gerald W. 
McEntee, 46, from Pennsylvania. He 
was elected by AFSCME’s executive 
board after the death of Jerry Wurf, 
who had headed the union for 17 years. 











51- 




AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 


Pace Seven 


Meatpacking 
Pattern Tied 


To Security 

(Continued from Page 1) 

replacing ones that were to have expired 
next August. 

Wynn and UFCW Vice President Lewie 
Anderson, who heads the union’s packing- 
house division, said in a statement that the 
meatpacking industry “as a whole is in 
sound financial condition,” but that the 
major firms “were rapidly becoming vul- 
nerable to severe competitive pressures 
from lower wage operators.” 

THE NEW PATTERN settlement “can- 
not correct, nor is it intended to correct, 
the developing monopoly trend in the 
meatpacking industry, the lack of capital 
investment, and mismanagement,” Wynn 
and Anderson observed. But, they said, the 
settlement will put the major firms “more 
in line with competitors in the industry 
and afford the union time to deal with the 
threat from low-wage operators.” 

One of the tinion’s main goals in the ne- 
gotiations was to protect wage increases 
already won by members rather than allow 
a rollback. With the exception of one 
Armour plant, there will be no reduction 
in current wages or benefits under the new 
pact. 

The new contracts retain the cost-of- 
living provisions under the old agreements 
but suspend payments for the duration of 
the agreements. The firms agreed to a 
lump-sum payment in December 1983 of 
COL increases that were due in January 
and July 1982 under the old pacts, how- 
ever. 

The new contracts also include these 
major changes: 

• Employees will be paid $1 an hour 
less than the current base rate during their 
first 60 days of employment, and 50 cents 
less than the hourly base rate for the next 
30 days. The base rate is $10.69 an hour. 
The lower starting rate is “on an experi- 
mental basis and only for the term of the 
new agreement.” 

• Effective September 1985, the basic 
pension benefit rate will be increased from 
$15 a month per year of service to $17. 

• A provision allowing wage reopener 
talks in September 1984, with the right to 
strike. 

• Additional coverage in basic health 
insurance. 

• Management will provide the union 
with detailed reports of capital expendi- 
tures for each of its plants at the end of 
every year of the contract. 



ON LOCATION in a busy plant, television crews film one of three spots pro- 
duced by the Auto Workers for airing on local and network programs. UAW 
members are shown with the products they help make, including the NASA 
space shuttle, talking about their concern for product quality, job security and 
the economy. The TV spots are being aired in December and January. 


Auto Workers’ TV Campaign 
Focuses on Quality Security 


Detroit — Three television spots pro- 
duced by the Auto Workers will air on 
network and local stations in December 
and January. 

The 30-second and 60-second messages 
featuring UAW members will stress the 
concerns of the union and its members 
for product quality, job security and a 
revitalized economy, the union said. 

THE ADS BEGAN to air on local sta- 
tions in mid-December and the first nation- 
wide broadcast is scheduled for Jan. 11, 
1982, during ABC’s World News Tonight 
program. Local placements will be con- 
centrated in regions with large UAW 
membership. 

The advertising program is in response 
to a resolution adopted at the UAW’s 
1980 convention calling for increased ef- 
forts in organizing, education and com- 
munications. 

Interest and dividend income from the 
union’s strike fund is paying for produc- 
tion of the ads and air time. 

UAW President Douglas Fraser said 
the advertising program will help improve 


the public image of workers “by taking 
our message to millions of viewers.” 

One of the new ads was filmed on a 
factory floor and features UAW members 
explaining the union’s role in defense pro- 
duction during World War II and its 
continuing commitment to building qual- 
ity peace-time vehicles. 

Another, filmed at Edwards Air Force 
Base, Calif., describes the vital role of 
UAW members in building the space shut- 
tle, again stressing the concern for quality. 

The third spot, produced on a farm, 
features a UAW member explaining that 
Auto Workers built the tractors shown in 
the background — “the finest in the world.” 

EACH OF THE spots ends with the 
message, “The UAW wants to help make 
America work again.” 

Copy for the ads was -developed from 
research by the UAW’s Public Relations 
& Publications Dept, to determine public 
perceptions about unions and the concerns 
local union leaders and members wanted 
to stress to a nationwide audience. 


Fuel, Clothing 
Help Restrain 
Price Surge 

Consumer prices rose another five- 
tenths of 1 percent in November, slightly 
higher than October’s increase of four- 
tenths of 1 percent but less than half of 
September’s 1.2 percent, the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics reported. . 

The higher retail prices lifted the gov- 
ernment’s consumer price index to a level 
that was 9.4 percent higher than a year 
earlier. Real spendable earnings, or take- 
home pay stripped of the impact of infla- 
tion, rose a slight three-tenths of 1 per- 
cent over the month but still were down 
3 percent from November 1980. 

LESS EXPENSIVE fuel and clothing, 
combined with small increases in food 
prices, held the CPI rise to a moderate 
rate. Clothing costs remained unchanged 
and transportation costs slowed to about 
three-quarters of the October rate, in- 
creasing nine-tenths of 1 percent. 

The housing component of the CPI was 
up four-tenths of 1 percent. Homeowner- 
ship costs rose one-tenth of 1 percent, as 
increases in home financing costs, prop- 
erty insurance, and property taxes offset 
a 1 percent decline in house prices. 

Medical care kept its reputation as the 
most consistent inflation builder, going up 
another 1 percent for the month, about 
the same as in October. Medical costs have 
climbed by about 1 percent each month 
since August. 

Food costs increased three-tenths of 1 
percent, the same as in October. Grocery 
store food prices rose two-tenths of 1 per- 
cent as moderate increases in most food 
items offset declines in beef, pork, poul- 
try, and dairy products. 

Veteran Editor 
Ken Fiester Dies, 
An ILPA Pioneer 

Lanham, Md. — Kenneth Fiester, veteran 
labor editor and union publicist, died Dec. 
20 at Doctors' Hospital. He had been hos- 
pitalized since suffering a severe stroke in 
early December. 

Fiester, who was 70, had been a found- 
ing vice president of the International La- 
bor Press Association and served as secre- 
tary-treasurer from 1960 to 1969 when he 
was elected to a two-year term as presi- 
dent of the ILPA. 


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Studies Center Schedule Set for January 


Three one-week labor studies institutes and a one-day 
workshop on stress highlight activities at the George Meany 
Center, Silver Spring, Md., in January. The programs are 
open to full-time union officers and representatives. 

In addition, five AFL-CIO affiliates will use facilities at 
the 47-acre campus for their own leadership development 
programs, as will the Committee on Political Education 
(COPE) and the American Institute for Free Labor Devel- 
opment (AIFLD). 

Nearly 120 unionists working for Bachelor of Arts degrees 
in labor studies will come to the campus for their semi- 
annual week of classroom work. The program is run in 
collaboration with Antioch University, which awards the 
degrees. 

Three additional labor studies programs sponsored by the 
center will be offered during the month at other locations. 

The schedule: 

Psychology For Union Leaders, Jan. 4-8 — An institute 
covering the fundamentals of psychology, group dynamics, 
leadership skills and public speaking. 

Educational Techniques, Jan. 10-15 — A program on 
adult education co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO Dept, of 
Education focusing on discussion methods, role playing, 
using films effectively, preparing written materials, design- 
ing conferences and locating resources and teaching outlines. 

Advanced Organizing Techniques, Jan. 17-29 — ^A two- 
week workshop for experienced union organizers co-spon- 


sored by the AFL-CIO Dept, of Organization & Field Ser- 
vices. 

Stress Workshop, Jan. 28 — A one-day program to study 
stress: how to diagnose its causes, how to handle stress at 
work, and protection for workers that can be negotiated. 

The off-campus programs during January include Pension 
Investment, San Francisco, Jan. 6-8; Secretary-Treasurers’ 
Conference, Williamsburg, Va., Jan. 10-13; and Arbitra- 
tion: Preparation & Presentation, University of Oregon, 
Eugene, Jan. 17-22. 

Affiliates using the campus for their own leadership train- 
ing are: American Federation of Teachers, Jan. 4-8; Railway 
& Airline Clerks, Jan. 10-15; Communications Workers, 
Jan. 10-29 and Jan. 24-27; State, County & Municipal 
Employees, Jan. 24-29; Building & Construction Trades 
Dept., Jan. 31 -Feb. 5. 

COPE will open this election year with a staff conference 
Jan. 17-22. AIFLD will bring to the campus 40 Spanish- 
speaking trade union leaders from Latin America for six 
weeks of study on trade union techniques. 

At the month’s end, the campus will start a week’s class- 
room work for trade unionists working for college degrees. 
Nearly 120 are enrolled in the program. 

Information on these and other labor studies programs 
can be obtained from Fred K. Hoehler, Jr., executive direc- 
tor, George Meany Center for Labor Studies, 10000 New 
Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 20903. Telephone 
301/431-6400. 


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A NATIVE of Orange, N.J., Fiester 
went to work in a research laboratory in 
the early 1930s after earning a degree 
from Newark College of Engineering. In 
1936, he joined the Newark Sunday. Call 
as a reporter and became active in the 
Newspaper Guild, serving as local presi- 
dent for six years. 

In 1946 Fiester joined the staff of the 
Textile Workers Union of America as 
publications editor and public relations 
director. 

He became publications director for the 
Auto Workers in 1957 and was the first 
editor of UAW’s Solidarity which at the 
time was a weekly tabloid with seven re- 
gional editions. 

He left the UAW in 1959 to join the 
staff of the AFL-CIO Dept, of Public Re- 
lations and ten years later went to the In- 
dustrial Union Dept, as public relations 
director and editor of a monthly newsletter. 

HE LEFT the lUD the following year 
and had since been working as a free- 
lance writer and editor, producing a num- 
ber of union publications, including the 
Insurance Worker, the United Shoe Work- 
er, and the Metaletter of the Metal Trades 
Dept. 

Survivors include his wife Marion, two 
sons, a daughter and five grandchildren. 
A memorial service was held Dec. 23 at 
the AFL-CIO headquarters. 

The family suggested that expressions of 
sympathy be in the form of contributions 
to the Reporters Committee for Freedom 
of the Press, 1125 15th St. N.W., Wash- 
ington, D.C. 20005. 


Page Eight 


AFL-CIO NEWS, WASHINGTON, D.C., DECEMBER 26, 1981 


Few Labor “Victories’ 


Dismal Record Posted 
By Congress Session 


(Continued from Page 1) 
of discredited supply-side Reaganomics. 

The tax measure hugely rewards the 
rich, shifts still more of the tax burden 
from corporations to taxes paid by work- 
ers, and starves the federal government of 
revenue for years into the future. 

The reviews of the first session of Con- 
gress, which ended Dec. 17, were under- 
standably mixed. 

THE WHITE HOUSE reported the 
President “pleased” with the session. His 
string of legislative victories included win- 
ning Senate approval of the sale of mili- 
tarily sophisticated AW ACS planes to 
Saudi Arabia as well as budget issues. 

The evaluation by Senate Republican 
iLeader Howard H. Baker was cautious 
and ambiguous. “Men and women will 
disagree on the policies adopted,” he noted, 
“but almost no one will dispute that this 
Congress has made more fundamental 
changes in the public policy of this nation 
than any Congress in decades.” 

Democratic congressional leaders didn’t 
mince words. Senate Minority Leader Rob- 
ert C. Byrd termed the first session record 
“dismal” and agreed with House Speaker 
Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., that its actions 
helped the* rich at the expense of both the 
poor and middle-income Americans. 

THE REAGAN Administration stum- 
bled badly only once during its first-session 
arm-twisting of Congress. That was when 
its proposals to reduce social security 
benefits and severely penalize those who 
retire at 62 stirred nationwide outrage. 
But while abandoning its more extreme 
proposals, the Administration did get Con- 
gress to end the modest $122-a-month 
minimum benefit for future retirees and to 
subject sick pay to the payroll tax. 

Congress did refuse to go along with an 
Administration proposal that would have 
required persons receiving unemployment 
compensation to take minimum-wage jobs 
after 13 weeks of benefits. Cutbacks in 
education programs were not as severe 
as the Administration had sought. And 
the most directly anti-union attacks were 
turned back. 

Even in the Republican-held Senate, an 
attempt to eliminate Davis-Bacon Act pre- 
vailing wage protection from military con- 
struction projects was beaten by a deci- 
sive 55-42 vote. Hearings found little sup- 
port for a subminimum youth wage — al- 


though it still remains a threat whenever 
the minimum wage is next raised. And 
despite a massive campaign by the free- 
spending National Right to Work Com- 
mittee, critics outnumbered supporters of 
a move to transform the Hobbs Act from 
a weapon against crime and racketeering 
to a threat against union members during 
lawful strikes. 

On a strongly-felt issue not affecting the 
federal budget, the civil rights coalition 
won an impressive victory in the House 
with the passage of a bill that both ex- 
tended and strengthened the Voting Rights 
Act. Even more remarkable was the co- 
sponsorship of the identical bill by a bi- 
partisan group of 60 senators — despite the 
public misgivings that President Reagan 
expressed on a key section of the House 
bill. 

A TIE VOTE in the Senate Labor & 
Human Services Committee blocked con- 
firmation of labor-opposed John R. Van 
de Water, a management consultant in 
union-busting campaigns, as chairman of 
the National Labor Relations Board. But 
a second-session battle still is likely over 
Administration efforts to bypass the com- 
mittee and get the appointment ratified. 

At the start of the 97th Congress, the 
Democratic-controlled House of Repre- 
sentatives was seen as the check-and-bal- 
ance to the Reagan White House and the 
Republican Senate. 

But on the key budget showdowns of 
the first session. Republican ranks held 
virtually solid — after a few token conces- 
sions to northern Republican “gypsy 
moths.” The Republican minority in the 
House prevailed with the votes of con- 
servative Democratic “boll weevils” who 
broke ranks to support the President. 

TOWARD THE end of the session, 
however, there were signs that the GOP 
unity was fraying as Republican moder- 
ates got a first-hand look at what the bud- 
get slashes they had supported were doing 
to their constituents. The President actu- 
ally lost a budget round when Congress 
balked at the second round of cuts he had 
demanded and passed a continuing appro- 
priations veto significantly less damaging. 

Reagan’s veto of that bill forced a com- 
promise that saved face for the White 
House — and further damaged the econ- 
omy. But the confrontation revealed a 
restiveness in Republican ranks that could 
signal some shifting coalitions in the sec- 
ond session. 



MARCH OF DIMES poster child Richard Wagner is introduced to AFL-CIO 
Community Services Director Walter G. Davis by Charles L. Massey, right, 
president of the foundation. The meeting took place at a New York reception 
announcing the formation of a labor advisory council to the foundation. The 
five-year-old poster child will be the centerpiece of the promotion for the 
foundation’s 1982 campaign to help combat birth defects. 

Effective Voting Rights Bill 
Sponsored by 61 Senators 


Sixty-one senators have joined in spon- 
soring a Voting Rights Act extension bill 
identical to the labor-supported measure 
the House passed last October and strong- 
er than the version President Reagan has 
advocated. 

Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) 
and Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R-Md.) 
put together the bipartisan group of 40 
Democrats and 21 Republicans, with a 
strong assist from the lobbying efforts of 
the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. 

THE GOAL OF the civil rights coali- 
tion was to get at least 60 sponsors — the 
number needed to cut off a filibuster and 
assure a vote on the measure. 

The Voting Rights Act, dating from 
1965, has often been termed the most ef- 
fective single civil rights law. It was in- 
strumental in extending the franchise to 
southern blacks who had been kept from 
voting by legal subterfuges, harassment 
and intimidation. 

In 1975, the law was extended and 
broadened to include a requirement for 
bilingual election material in localities 
where there are substantial numbers of 


Social Security Tax to Edge Up in 1982 


Both the social security tax rate and 
the maximum earnings subject to the tax 
will go up on Jan. 1. 

Most workers will be’ affected only by 
the change in the tax rate, which will rise 
for both workers and their employers from 
6.65 percent of covered earnings to 6.7 
percent. A worker earning $20,000 a year 
will pay only $10 a year more as a result 
of the rise in the tax rate — a total of 
$1,340 instead of $1,330 under the 1981 
rate. 


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Only persons who earn more than 
$29,700 — which was the 1981 ceiling on 
wages subject to the social security pay- 
roll tax — will be affected by the rise in 
the taxable wage base to $32,400. 

PERSONS EARNING $32,400 a year 
or more will pay a total of $2,170.80 in 
1982 — up from the $1,975.05 maximum 
this year. About IQ percent of employees 
are in this group. In return for paying 
more into the fund, they will become en- 
titled to higher future retirement benefits 
and greater family protection in the event 
of disability or death. 

These other changes also will take effect 
on Jan. 1: 

• The maximum amount that benefi- 
ciaries may earn annually and still receive 
full social security payments will increase 
from $5,500 for those over 65 and under 
age 72, and from $4,080 to $4,440 for 
those under 65. Benefits are reduced $1 
for every $2 of earnings exceeding these 
amounts. As at present, persons 72 and 
over may earn any amount without any 
reduction of benefits. The age at which 
earnings are unrestricted is scheduled to 
drop to 70 in 1983. 

• The amount of earnings required for 
a quarter of coverage under the social 
security system will increase, from $310 
to $340. 


Persons covered by the Railroad Retire- 
ment System will be affected by compara- 
ble increases in the payroll tax and wage 
base. As under social security, the tax rate 
will rise on Jan. 1 to 6.7 percent and the 
wage base will go up. However, the impact 
of the higher wage base may not be 
identical since the railroad retirement 
base is computed on monthly earnings, 
which fluctuate with overtime pay and 
other variables. 

For 1982, the maximum pay subject to 
the retirement tax will rise from $2,475 
to $2,700 a month. 

IN ADDITION to matching the retire- 
ment tax paid by workers, employers un- 
der the Railroad Retirement Act are re- 
quired to make a “second-tier” payment 
which during 1981 was 9.5 percent of up 
to $1,850 a month. The 1982 rate rises 
to 11.75 percent of $2,025 a month. 

Railroad employers also pay a tax of 
8 percent on the first $400 of earnings 
each month to finance the combined un- 
employment and sickness benefit program. 

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The next issue of the AFL-CIO News 
wUl be published on Jan. 9, 1982, be- 
cause of holiday schedules. 

The staff of the AFL-CIO News 
wishes all readers a Happy New Year. 

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Spanish-speaking citizens or other lan- 
guage minorities. 

WITHOUT congressional action, key 
portions of the law will expire in August, 
including the requirement that states and 
localities whose past voting patterns 
strongly indicated discrimination must, 
have “pre-clearance” from the Justice 
Dept, before redrawing election districts 
or otherwise changing election laws.' 

The House-passed bill and the biparti- 
san Senate measure continue these require- 
ments. But starting in 1984, the bill pro- 
vides a so-called “bailout” procedure that 
would allow jurisdictions to escape the 
pre-clearance requirement. They would 
have to convince a three-judge federal 
panel in the District of Columbia that 
they had not discriminated for the past 
10 years and had made “constructive ef- 
forts” to bring minorities into the election 
process. 

THE BILL also would extend the bi- 
lingual requirements until 1992 and make 
an important clarification in language to 
offset a 1980 Supreme Court decision. 

Civil rights groups have been concerned 
that the court ruling requiring evidence of 
“intent” to discriminate would make it 
greatly more difficult to nullify voting 
changes that in practice do discriminate 
against minorities. 

To remedy this, the coalition-supported 
bill would specify that the law had been 
violated if it were shown that an action 
had been taken “in a manner which re- 
sults” in voting discrimination. 

At his Dec. 18 news conference. Presi- 
dent Reagan reiterated the Administra- 
tion’s opposition to substituting a- result 
test of. discrimination for a requirement 
that “intent” to discriminate be proved. 
He said dropping the requirement to prove 
intent in charges of discrimination could 
lead to racial quotas. 

AT A NEWS conference announcing 
introduction of the Senate bill, Kennedy 
said the impressive rise in voter registra- 
tion following the passage of the Voting 
Rights Act is threatened in some states by 
“highly questionable” re-registration tech- 
niques. “Their ostensible purpose is to 
purge old records,” Kennedy said, “but 
their timing and methods are clearly dis- 
criminatory.” 

Mathias said supporters of a strong bill 
will not try to bypass the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, which is expected to open 
hearings soon after the second session of 
Congress opens on Jan. 25. Despite the 
opposition of Judiciary Committee Chair- 
man Strom Thurmond. (R-S.C.), the legis- 
lation will be enacted because “our cause 
is right,” Mathias predicted.